Archive for August, 2009
The Many Faces of the Culture of Death
by Evan on Aug.06, 2009, under Uncategorized
 If there is one thing I am realizing as I seek a global perspective on this issue , it is that the diverse and unique cultural dynamics around the world have a significant impact on people’s understanding of the value of life. This is vividly illustrated in a website I recently discovered. From the Hakani website: “There are topics that no one likes to speak about. When an indigenous woman from the Arawa tribe, in the Amazon, leaves to give birth no one will go with her. This is a moment that is uniquely hers. She leaves on
her own, even if she is very young and is having her first baby. She looks for a tree or bush that she can lean on; she crouches and then faces the pain. It is then, at the time of childbirth, that this young mother has the great responsibility of deciding the future of the child. She can only keep the baby, if he/she is perfect. “If for any reason, she returns home without the baby in her arms, “Infanticide is taboo. Just as the subject is avoided in indigenous
Hakani didn’t develop like the other children when she was small. Even at two years old, she did not walk or talk. As a result, her tribe put pressure on her parents to kill her. Rather than take the life of their daughter, her parents took their own lives, leaving behind Hakani and four other orphaned children. Her oldest brother, now held responsible by the tribe to kill Hakani, buried her alive. She was rescued, but due to the demands of tradition, was abandoned to live for the next three years on rain water, bark, leaves, and insects, and occasionally, scraps of food one of her brothers smuggled to her. During those years, she endured unimaginable abuse and neglect. Eventually her brother, Bibi, rescued her, carrying her to the home of a YWAM missionary couple who had been working for 20 years with the Suruwaha Indians in the Amazon Basin. At five and a half years of age; she weighed 15 pounds and was 27 inches long. Today Hakani is twelve years old and lives with a bright, laughing smile. She dances, sings and loves art. Her voice today is a voice for life. |
