That was neat!

[badseed1980]

My manager and I just spent a very informative 10 minutes or so listening to our coworker talk about Tongan culture, from tattooing to the class system to food to canoes, and much more. He described all of the stuff that a guy in the warrior caste, like himself, has to learn to do: fight with club and javelin, and wrestle; design buildings in the traditional architectural style; sing hundreds of songs; dance about 50 different dances, build a traditional canoe...dang. Plus, to be his family's representative, he's had to get some amazing tattoos, done by cutting with a blade made from giant clam shell. o_O

That's hardcore.

I mean, you see people talking about stuff like this in National Geographic and stuff, but it's different when it's a coworker you see every day who knows all this stuff and has had these experiences. It makes it seem a lot more real, and a lot closer. It reminds you that this knowledge, these traditions, haven't disappeared from the world to just be remembered as history. That, my friends, is awesome. :)

Comments

[saffronrose.livejournal.com]

Awesome indeed. That's more than a medieval knight had to do to achieve knighthood.

day-um!

[drwex]

Totally hardcore, and cool!

[cos]

Reminds me of when I was doing the K-6 education certification in college, and my Junior year I got to observe one semester in a 6th grade class in Brookline - in fact, the very same teacher and classroom I'd had in 6th grade. Once a week, at Meeting, one of the kids would tell the others about where/how they grew up, and answer questions from the others. Brookline is extremely diverse, so this got pretty fascinating. Anyway, you're reminding me of the week it was the Inuit boy's turn. He told us about living in the tundra, and learning to go hunting when he was very little, and suchlike.