What should society do for “uncivilized cultures” like the Sawi?

Within our society there are several cultures, each with their strengths and faults. However, our society has recognized some cultures to be “uncivilized”. For example, the Sawi culture seems to be uncivilized mainly due to the crude understanding of technology and their moral values. For these cultures several people only recognize and nearly mock but that is not what we should do as a society. There are two main steps that our society needs to do for “uncivilized cultures” such as the Sawi.

The First step is to understand. What we need to first do after we recognize their culture is to try to understand their culture. When understanding their culture the key concept is to keep an open mind. We cannot simply insult their culture and shut off from it even though it is uncivilized. There are several things that these cultures have to learn, but there are aspects that we can learn from them. However, in order to understand their culture completely we need to be as least biased as we can. For example, we need to understand the fact that even though the Sawi culture may seem uncivilized, there are still traditions and systems can still be found. Some traditions such as treachery and betrayal all have their specific plans. Also the “peace child” has been a tradition of stopping wars. 

When we start to understand the culture completely, we can then try to help in correcting their faults. However, our society should not help through violent measures but merely help show what they are doing wrong. For example, Don Richardson showed the Sawi culture that their value of treachery is wrong through the word from the gospel. Through this peaceful way of helping this culture, he led the Sawi people to a life and a culture surrounded by peace and harmony.

An important concept that needs to be emphasized in these two steps is the idea of peace. What our society should do is to understand and help but it should not be done through violent or negative actions. This will never lead to a “civilized” culture. We need to be peaceful and encouraging to uncivilized cultures and show them how to be peaceful, in order for cultures such as the Sawi to be “civilized”.