Wednesday, August 28, 2019

CREATING OWN CULTURE Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

CREATING OWN CULTURE - Term Paper Example The lifestyle of each individual in a certain community is usually a manifestation of their culture. Culture can manifest itself in art, language, literature, religion, moral values and other community activities. Due to different manifestation, culture has caused the diversity among people inhabiting parts of the world. In most cases, culture is shared and is continually passed on to different generations. One of the most significant cultures in the world is of the pastoral communities, specifically the Gasaile People. Their settlement is in the arid and semi-arid areas. Their culture is unique simply because of their pastoral way of life. For a long period, they have raised cattle and other domestic livestock like goats and sheep in the areas stated above. Due to this, they have been able to live side to side with many wild animals hence learning their ways of life. Law Among the Gasaile people, elders form the main ruling body whereby they decide on most matters that affect the co mmunity. The Gasaile elders have laws used for ruling of the community and in most cases settle disputes accordingly. Most of these laws are oral but have a great impact on the social lives of each Gasaile individual. Unlike in most communities where execution is a major part of the law, execution in Gasaile is unknown. Payment for breaking the law is mostly done with cattle simply because of their availability. The Gasaile culture also has a way of settling disputes that is recognized as the Amitu. It involves making peace by embarking on substantial apology. Religion Although the Gasaile people have complete respect for their elders, they have complete recognition of a supreme being called Engai. They have believed that their God is made up of a dual nature that is of a black God and red God; where The Black nature is compassionate and the red nature is revengeful. The Gasaile people have set aside a holy mountain where only a few people can speak to their God. These few people us ually have special gifts like healing, prophesying, divine calling and other unusual deeds. These deeds are communication of a chosen person by ancestors to mediate between the people and their God. However, it is important to note that the culture of the Gasaile people does not recognize these religious people in the political set. It is also essential to understand that despite technological add ups into the world setting, the Gasaile people have remained Monotheistic (Halm 49). Among the Gasaile people, the chosen person was given the title Laibon and was both the ritual and spiritual leaders of the society. He had the power to officiate and direct ceremonies, offer sacrifices, and provide advice to political elders. He was also a prophet, seer, and shaman and his authority was increased by their mystical and healing powers. The Gasaile community is quite large so leading the whole community is considered a challenge. For this reason, a few age group leaders who are usually chose n before circumcision aided them. It is believed that their God owned everything including their cattle. However, a separation divided the earth and the sky causing Engai to let all the cattle among the people. His reasons are not well known but some people believe that Engai understood that the cattle needed sustenance from grass. It is exciting to know that the elders show that these cattle came to the earth via aerial roots of the sacred trees referred to as wild fig trees. They believe that the Supreme Being commanded them to look after the cattle hence the reason as to why they became pastoralists. They believe that all other cultural activities other than being pastoralists are an insult to

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