Two-Way Thinking by Hannah Rachel Bell - Book Report/Review Example

Two-Way Thinking Name Course Instructor Institution Date Two-Way Thinking Introduction In the book two-way thinking, Hannah Rachel Bell presents two ways of thinking which are characteristic of the aboriginal people of the Australia and the westernized white people of Australia. The two ways of thinking are the pattern thinking and the triangle thinking. The pattern thinking, characteristic of the aboriginal is a philosophical view that sees everything interconnected and related to all other things (Bell1998, p. 127). This way of thinking holds a holistic view of the world where nothing exists independently but as an integral part of the universe. Pattern thinking draws a relationship in the existence of everything in the universe where human beings are related to the animals and the trees and should therefore coexist peacefully and with mutual respect for each other. Pattern thinking draws a connection between and among everything that exist. This form of thinking advocates for mutual existence among all creations in the world and respect for all things in the universe (Bell 1998, p.130). On the other hand, the triangle thinking is a kind of thinking that views everything in singularity. Triangle thinking views everything in the universe as an independent entity which has no connection to other things in the universe but only exist together. This way of thinking holds the reductionist view which says that says that everything in the world can be reduced to its simplest independent forms or particles. Triangle thinking advocates for male dominance and existence of power in an ascending manner (Bell 1998, p.125). According to Bell’s views, Triangle thinking advocates for concentration of power where power rests with one individual and the rest become subjective to the one individual. The individual holding power gets the right and authority to own and control all other things (p.125-126). Triangle thinking has greatly influenced the way the western world view the aboriginals’ social and economic organization. About social organization, the western idea of the social organization of the aboriginal people is that of unorganized type that has no traditional cohesion. According to triangle thinking, for social organization to be present in any society requires the society to have a form of leadership where there is hierarchy of power. The society should have a form of government in order to be called an organized society. There should be laws and regulations that govern the people and that there should be uniformity or homogeneity in the way a society exists and carries out its activities. The western views the aboriginals as a crumbling people headed for extinction (Carter 1999, p.120). Writing about the aboriginal society in 1988, Paul Hasluck, former Minister of Territories, says that the aboriginal society did not exhibit anything that could be seen as an integrated and homogenous society (Attwood 2005, p.105). He says that the aboriginal society comprised of crumbling groups scattered all over and living under a diminishing discipline. He calls describes the aboriginals as a people who lost the solidity of tradition and are only kept together by dilapidated values of kinships and by the virtue of living together in isolation on the periphery of the Australian society. Hasluck is of the view the aboriginals live together only because of the feeling of a sense of belonging they have towards one another, having been isolated from the rest of the Australian people. He argues that none of the aboriginal groups exhibit any characteristic of a society. This makes conclude that the aboriginal community should be assimilated in the rest of the Australian society. Such views as the ones held by Hasluck are as a result of the influence of triangle thinking which view the society as one that is supposed to have some hierarchy of power. The western world view the economic organization of the aboriginals as poor in the sense that the aboriginals underutilize there resources, especially land. The aboriginals are mainly hunters and gatherers. They do not till land. The aboriginals view land as sacred. They believe that they belong to and coexist with land. To them, land provides food for their survival and therefore they have an obligation towards land to conserve and take care of it. Their view of land as another being that they coexist together with makes them to view cultivation of land as a defilation and exploitation of a sacred thing. On the other hand, the triangle thinking that is characteristic of the westerners view land as belonging to people (Attwood 2005, p.234). This makes the western people to view land as something that should be exploited maximally for the good of human beings. It is this view of land that makes the western people to view the aboriginal society as the most uneconomical in terms of utilizing resources. The triangle thinking has also had an influence on the way the western world view gender relations among the aboriginals. The triangle thinking advocates for male dominion with women being submissive to their male counterparts. On the contrary, the pattern thinking that is prevalent among the aboriginals’ advocates for mutual existence between men and women with both sharing tasks. It is in this view of triangle thinking that makes most of the westerners to have the idea that the aboriginal women were enslaved by their men, and were serving as beasts of labor for their men. However, this is not true as there was a clear division of roles among the aboriginal communities. Many works written by European explorers like George Grey, Edward John Eyre and T.L Mitchell, and missionaries like Reverend George Taplin portray the aboriginal women as been dominated by men (Edwards 2004, p.67). They describe the women as miserable slaves who were physically weakened because of doing a lot of work and brutally beaten by their men for committing minor offences. The western world view the aboriginal women as playing no role in the in the spiritual wellbeing of the society and have no power to contribute in decision making. There role, as seen by the explorers and missionaries, was child bearing. They portray the women as properties of men. However, these findings were later challenged by other objective researchers who discovered totally different way of life and gender relationships among the aboriginals. Anthropologists such Phyllis Kaberry, Dianne Bell and Catherine Berndt came up with totally different results on the gender issue among the aboriginal that was contrary to the earlier findings. These statements show the European’s own view about women, where women are viewed as second grade human beings who should be submissive to the men. Women are viewed as objects of sex to be used by men. In her study, Diane Bell found from old women who existed before the arrival of white people in the aboriginal society that women in the society exercised a high level of choice and they were not sold to men as stated by earlier scholars (Havecker & Malykke 1987, p.175). Marriage was a contract between families and was not seen as a way in which men are acquiring women for sexual satisfaction. Quoting from Gillen’s diary in which he kept on his journeys in the aboriginal communities, bell writes about an incident recorded in the diary by Gillen where the aboriginal young men accompanying him on his journeys insisted on decorating themselves in order to attract women in the places they were going. This shows the autonomy women in the aboriginal had when it came to choosing their marital partners. Other researchers wrote of the dances they observed in the aboriginal communities where women danced in seductive manner in order to attract men. Eyre, in his research, talked about dances in aboriginal communities where women danced in manner that was meant to arouse the passions of men. These dances were a gesture by women of inviting men to join them. Such instances do not show any subjection of the women to men but shows a harmonious existence between the two genders (Selin 2003, p.189). The view of Europeans about women as sex objects who live an idle life, whose work is to provide their husbands with heirs and keeping order in the home made the earlier explorers to view the hard work done by the aboriginal women as cruel treatment their men (Havecker & Malykke 1987, p.175). On the contrary, the aboriginal’s view of mutual existence and respect made both men and women to work in equal measure. The scars observed on the women bodies were taken as the brutal treatment meted on the women by their men. However, other researchers and anthropologists found that the aboriginal communities have a habit of making cuts on their bodies as a way of decoration. In other instances, women inflicted wounds on their bodies as a way of mourning their dead. This shows that women in aboriginal society had as much freedom and autonomy as men. To non-indigenous people in Australia land is something that can be owned and exploited for economic value. The westerners view land just like any other resource and something that one can use for purposes of making profit. They also view land as asset that can enable one make a home. To westerners, land is owned by man to be exploited by him for his own benefit. However, the aboriginals have a different view of land (Carter 1999, p.145). The aboriginals view land as a sacred being that should be respected. The aboriginals claim to have a mutual relationship with their land. There is a spiritual and not a material connection between the people and land. This makes the aboriginal people to depend only on what land produces. They do not cultivate the land as this to them is disrespecting it. The aboriginal people are of the view that they are owned by land, contrary to the common view of people that it is people who own land. The aboriginals believe that nature is the superior of everything and those being part of that nature are subject to that nature. They have a developed system of knowledge about their ecology which talks of the symbiotic relationship they share with land. They have vast knowledge in climate of their land, biodiversity, culture and people. Land among the aboriginals is communal (Selin 2003, 28). Nobody owns it. It is the respect and awe with land among the aboriginal is held that makes them to strive to conserve it. They always struggle to sustain the resources found in the land and protect it. This has made the western world to view the aboriginals as primitive. The western view of land relationship of the aboriginal culture is that of a people who do not know how to utilize their resources. It is on these grounds that the Australian government to dispossess the aboriginal people of their land. Their view of land is also influenced by the triangle thinking which views man as superior to all other things. The aboriginal culture is one of the longest surviving cultures, dating back more than 50,000 years ago. The aboriginals have propagated their culture through rock painting and storytelling. Their culture is handed down to younger generations through songs, dances, and stories. Their lack of a formal written language is compensated with the rock art where history is told and retold through the paintings done on the rocks (Edwards 2004, p.167). The paintings show the chronological evolution of the aboriginal people, their cultures and beliefs. The aboriginals believe in the interconnectedness of everything in the universe. They believe that everything in the universe is related to other creations and there should always be a harmonious existence of everything in the world. This is the reason why the aboriginals respect everything in their locality including the animals. The aboriginals hold land in high esteem. They respect and value land. Contrary to other cultures where land is owned by individuals, the aboriginals claim to be owned by land. Land is regarded to be the mother of the aboriginal people (Selin 2003, p.98). Land boundaries in the aboriginal community existed. Contrary to other communities where land was fenced, the aboriginals did not fence off their land but land boundaries existed between lands occupied by the different communities. The boundaries were demarcated by features such as rivers, mountains and other land forms. The boundaries existed in the memories of the elders. They also believe in duality where everything in form of two parts. They believe in everything existing as male and female. For instance, the sun is regarded is female while the moon as male. Everything that is responsible for giving life is regarded as female. There is high specialization of work in the aboriginal community where the tasks to be performed by men and women are highly defined and divided. Contrary to common belief, women in the aboriginal community are highly regarded and they are also included in decision making on issues concerning the community. The aboriginals do not have any form of government. This is due to their belief in the pattern thinking school of thought where everything has to coexist with others. The aboriginals do not believe in the superiority of one particular individual over the others but in the harmonious and mutual existence of all people and creations in the land. This explains the lack of any form of governance in the community (Edwards 2004, p.126). The aboriginals are peaceful people with minimal instances of violence having been witnessed in the community. Their belief of mutual existence and respect for all creations is believed to the source of that peaceful existence. The view of being owned by land is also another source of the peaceful existence witnessed in the community. This is because of the absence of land disputes witnessed in other communities. Though most of the aboriginal culture is still intact, some of it has been eroded by the influence of the invasion of the white people in the aboriginal territory. The invasion by the white people led to changes in their culture because of the influence of the white culture. The white people also condemned the aboriginals’ culture and this led to the people to have low self esteem. The introduction of education is also another thing that has adversely affected the aboriginal culture (Havecker & Malykke 1987, p.68). This is because the kind of education system that was introduced to the community was not supportive of the culture of the aboriginal people. The curriculum of the education did not include the cultural practices of the people. This can be attributed to the fact that it has hard to interpret the aboriginal language to English or other language. The negative attitude the colonialist had against the aboriginal culture is also another factor that affected the culture. When Europeans conquered the aboriginal people, they started fighting against their culture. They strived to kill the culture by telling the people about how primitive their culture is. This discouraged the people and they started viewing themselves as low quality human beings. Some of them went into self-denial and they started viewing their culture with contempt. The attempt by the Australian government to assimilate the aboriginal people in the mainstream is another factor that has negatively impacted on the culture of the aboriginals. The government felt that the aboriginal culture was barbaric and had no basis (Attwood 2005, p.167). Early explorers talked of a people who had no traditional cohesion, law and order but only tatters of a culture that was incomprehensible. This was one of the reasons that prompted scholars like Hannah Bell to carry out a comprehensive study of the aborigine speaking people with the help of the some natives. This resulted in the book Two-way thinking. In the book two-way thinking, Hannah Bell tries to bring to the fore the beautiful culture possessed by the aboriginal people. She portrays the way the aboriginal view life and land and how they have preserved their culture and history through rock art. She contrasts the two way of thinking between the aboriginals and the westernized Australian people (Selin 2003, p.87).She calls the two ways of thinking pattern thinking which is characteristic of the aboriginal people and triangle thinking which is characteristic of the mainstream Australian people and the Europeans (Bell 1998, p.129). At the end she recommends that instead of trying to abolish the aboriginal culture it would be nice if the two ways of thinking are fused together so that each culture is incorporated in the way of life of the people. Bell feels that there are a lot of good things that can be learned from the aboriginal culture. The triangle thinking has had a lot of influence on the way the western world views the aboriginals. This form of thinking that views the society as consisting of hierarchy of power made some earlier researchers to claim that the aboriginal society had no cohesion, culture and social organization. However, other researchers like Bell later discovered that the aboriginals have a very rich cultural heritage and that they should be respected. Bibliography Bell, H. R. (1998). Men's business, women's business: the spiritual role of gender in the world's oldest culture. Rochester, Vt, Inner Traditions. Attwood, B. (2005). Telling the truth about Aboriginal history. Crows Nest, Allen & Unwin. Havecker, C., & Malykke, Y. (1987). Understanding Aboriginal culture. Sydney, NSW, Australia, Cosmos. Edwards, W. H. (2004). An introduction to Aboriginal societies. Tuggerah, N.S.W., Social Science Press. Selin, H. (2003). Nature across cultures: views of nature and the environment in non-Western cultures. Dordrecht, Kluwer Acad. Publ. Carter, S. (1999). Aboriginal people and colonizers of Western Canada to 1900 XD-US. Toronto, Univ. of Toronto Press. Read More