Analysis Of Yoruban Culture In Death Of The King's Horsemen

Thesis: one’s personal culture and sense of tradition will always be a strong part of the self, regardless of external factors which can have a profound influence on one’s life.

Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches by Marvin Harris divulges into some difference and components of culture around the world. He answers question as to why individuals perform and act the way they do in relation to culture. He looks at sexual hierarchies among Yanomamo culture as well as the Hindu’s respect for cows in India.

The story of the Lost Boys of Sudan is one that provides the world with many examples of social interaction, some being violent and others being inspirational. Their journey from Sudan to Ethiopia and Kenya, then on to the United States for a better life for themselves and their families gives an insight into how certain cultures deal with and overcome adversity. Culture is the complex system of meaning and behavior that defines the way of life for a given group or society, in the case of the Lost Boys, the culture of the people of Sudan and the American society are analyzed. How the boys were able to continue on without their families to show them the way is almost a miracle. Over outstanding odds, the boys were able to prevail and

Culture is one of the most relevant elements that can define not only a society but also a country’s cumulative beliefs and system. Often noted as the origins of a country, culture is definitive in the sense that it harbors all the elements that can provide justification on the traditions and norms set by the society for its members. More often than not, the society members follow norms in order to create a harmonious community, and the beliefs and the traditions serve as the poles or grounding rules for each member to follow. Culture is very dynamic in the way that it can change over a variety of foreign influences but what is permanent about it is that original elements about it often lingers with the influences, therefore making it multi-faceted and broad. More importantly, culture serves as an individual and unique trait each society has, and therefore sets it apart from other countries and other societies.

In our society today, culture is not what it used to be hundreds of years ago. There is no more “pure” culture. Our culture today is enriched with many different traditions and customs that are being shared and adopted. Due to emigration and immigration, a variety of diverse customs, beliefs, and knowledge moved with every exiting and entering human being. Thus, changing and shaping the culture of many. Throughout the world, the beliefs and religious views of culture are dissimilar around the world. By taking the time to read, listen and learn about certain people’s culture, there will be knowledge and understanding that will be gained.

Tomorrow we celebrate the Day of the Dead--a ceremony where a society pays homage to those who have passed, and planted their seeds in the lives of others. Our ancestors influence us and the lessons they have passed down throughout generations; however, not all lessons were the same. All were influenced by their time period and personal sense of morality. That influence was then conveyed to their child--or whoever was willing to listen. These stories are what provided us with culture.

In A Thief of Time, Tony Hillerman's characters display perspectives of diverse cultural backgrounds. In Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn we see a shared heritage, as well as their contrasting points of view which stem from choosing different values to live by. Quite a few characters in Hillerman's book, who are not of Navajo blood, connect themselves with Navajo culture through digs, collection, and personal gain. This essay will briefly touch on the view points of three characters; Jim Chee, Joe Leaphorn, and Richard DuMont. In these three, we are able to see a variety of cultural angles and values through their interactions with a single interface, death.

One can understand how traditions are easily lost through the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another. Traditions that lose their meaning due to human forgetfulness can cause dreadful consequences to occur. Although "the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original box, they still remembered to use stones" to kill the forgetful woman.

In “Dead Man’s Path,” Chinua Achebe uses character, diction, and setting to illustrate how unwillingness to change never results in a positive outcome. The characters of Obi and Ani are very stubborn in their ways refuse to give in to each other’s beliefs. The stubbornness displayed by each character intensifies the tension between the traditional village and the contemporary school. The conflict in this story highlights a problem that is still deeply rooted in society today, resistance to

the story’s theme: that people blindly follow tradition even if it leads to their own

That is the most contrasting concept under a common society. For some degree, it is reliable that this colonial factor is catalytic merely, but leading to the final conclusion, it is an indispensable element which embodies the spirit of resisting of Yoruba through their metaphysics against the ideology control from the western. The traditional Yoruba people believe in their own collective culture and fight against the conflict western perception unswervingly. Accounted for this, Elesin’s fail becomes more unacceptable for the sake of the racial conscious, in other words, it is a kind of betraying of the public towards his fail and hesitation. This insults in his miserable condition ultimately-to be humiliated and despised by the public.

Elesin is supposed to commit spiritual suicide by means of dance and music with the assistance of the Praise Singer, the drummers and the women who sing a dirge. Elesin is going to undergo a trance in which he will quietly kill himself. The Praise Singer helps him on:

The title itself already makes reference to a Nigerian ritual in which the horseman of a king must kill himself after the death of the king (McNulty, 2011:2). The biggest event of cultural misunderstanding is evident in Act II when the British Officer, Pilkings, orders that Elesin Oba (the horseman) be arrested. Joseph (the stableboy) tells the Pilkingses how it is tradition for the king to be burried a month after his death but, before he can be burried, his dog, his steed and his horseman must die to be able to accompany him to heaven. For long this tradition is questioned and contested by the Pilkingses because how can something like that make sense to anybody? It is only once Olunde shows up in Act IV that the playwright changes the context. Olunde compares the suicide of the horseman to the mass killing of soldiers. He judges the Western customs of war in the same way the Westerners criticized his traditions and people. And when Simon manages to stop Elesin from killing himself, Olunde turns his back on his father at first, after which all the people from the market insults Elesin. His failure in the task is seen as a weak will.

Elesin begs Olunde to acknowledge him but in vain; Olunde, who has respected his tradition, disowns his father. It is noteworthy that initially Elesin disowned Olunde because of abandoning his tradition and leaving for England. The situation is reversed; ' ' Olunde now casts off his father who has failed in the central duty and meaning of his life ' ' ( Plastow, ' 'Notes ' ' 88 ). Olunde, who has realized the greatness of his culture, sticks firmly to it and decides to take his father 's place by committing the ritual suicide so as

Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka establishes a strong sense of community from the beginning of the play. Elesin, the horseman, is going to commit a ritualistic suicide in order to lead the king into the afterlife. According to Yoruban culture the entire world is interconnected and every action has an impact on everything. This is why the entire community is very attentive to the ritual that is going to happen. Elesin’s suicide is a communal act not a personal one. His actions will affect everyone, dead or alive, which demonstrates how connected the community is. In the story, we are continuously shown that the colonist see suicide as a personal experience and cannot understand the community’s ritual. This is clearly shown when Olunde tells Jane Pilkings, “you have no respect for what you do not understand” (Soyinka, Wole). Olunde is also a clear representation of a strong sense of community within the play because he has studied in England, but maintains his