In Things Fall Apart, the Igbo
culture uses a division of labor (gender segregation), polygamy, communes, and a
patriarchal hierarchy in order to sustain an agrarian economy. Survival is the key for
the Igbo. Males must work extremely hard to harvest the difficult yam crops. They must
take many wives in the hopes of producing many strong offspring. They must use
wrestling matches and titles in order to preserve the status of males. What unravels
their culture is their belief in superstition (killing of twin babies) and their
underestimating the intentions of the colonists.
The white
British Christian culture is not agrarian and, therefore, need not be so integrated.
The whites separate their religion, judicial system, government, and education into
institutions. They rely on individualism instead of communal values. They believe in
monotheism and monogamy because it is gives them a more personal sense of love and
security. Since they wield greater technology and are more mobile, they focus on a more
conceptual view of culture (which is not dependent on the basic physical need for food
and survival). Their weakness comes from their failure to understand the complexity of
the tribal culture and their heavy-handed institutional punishment of the
tribe.
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