Knowledge In Reverse

Knowledge in reverse

Throughout the years and generations humanity has changed its way of life, modernized themselves, trespass the cultural barriers and merge diverse cultures. As a result of this, we make ourselves feel superior to the past generations. We may be better than these past generations in terms of technological advances, but the truth is that morally and socially we have gottenshoddier than we were before. We can observe this circumstances in the appreciation of the movie “Dances with Wolves”, where we can compare the Native American Sioux tribe with the American culture, and at the same time compare it to ours in the present day. Throughout the scenes offered in this movie we notice that the Native American Sioux tribe without having what we consider “modern” or“advanced” technology cherished their traditions, values and life style in more significant ways than we do in the present day, consequently leading them to the development of a better sense of empathy towards others.
As the fire extends itself towards the starry night sky, figures shift around the fire; source of light and warmth. Letting the beatings of the drum go in unison with their hearts, theylet themselves go with the flow of palpating hearts, their bodies creating strange figures over the earth as a sign of harmony and freedom. Claiming calls emerge from within these figures and echoes throughout the breathing space creating a ring of brotherhood that unite the figures with each other. This is a description of a Native American ceremony, with the purpose of making the buffalohunting enhanced. This scene was presented in the movie as part of the culture of the Sioux tribe when the tribe was in the need of hunting buffalos. Apart from this the Sioux tribe has many ceremonies in which they can be related to ours; for example this tribe practiced the marriage ceremony, which consisted of uniting two people as husband and wife, and as well as our tradition the wife uses atraditional wedding dress specified for the occasion, as shown in the movie.
In many ways the Native American tribes are related to us, but one of the most important things that difference both cultures is that all of the things they do are based in the principle of harmony around one of the most important things to them, nature or mother earth, the source of life. They appreciate theirsurroundings, are grateful of it, therefore giving them a better understanding of how important nature is in their daily life.
Another important aspect in the culture of the Sioux is delegated to their hunting because they only get what they need and nothing more. One of the most important animals of not only the Sioux culture but most of the Native American tribes as well, is the buffalo. When they huntthe buffalo they use all of the parts possible for use. They use the meat for food, the skins for clothes and shelter, and the bones for weapons. These animals are considered sacred to these people. To them the buffalo is their friend; the one who gives himself to provide them with food, shelter and clothes. For this reason, in the scene of the movie where they see all of the dead buffaloesacross the valley the tribe cries and feels sudden grief, not only for themselves but for the buffaloes that were mistreated in the most horrible way possible. These animals where killed for their furs and left to root in the dirt as if they had no value. Here we can see signs of empathy from the Indians towards the buffaloes.
In the movie as well, we are presented with the scene of how the Siouxtribe hunts the buffalos; surrounding them so they can attack them more easily with spears and arrows, crying calls of amusement and satisfaction every time they hit their target, they hunted a reasonable quantity to feed the whole village, never exceeding of what they really needed. Here we can observe more examples of empathy towards the buffalo since the tribe understands that there’s no...