What concepts in the Sawi culture intrigued you?

         What was most intriguing about the Sawi was how an entire race of people could be so enamored with destruction. Even in the modern world, there are still plenty of wars and destruction but there is always a purpose behind those actions, usually money or resources. The closest thing to a reason that these people have to perform their whole “fattening for the slaughter” is vendetta. These people are stuck in an endless cycle of attack and retaliation to the point where they probably don’t know why they are fighting in the first place. The fact that nobody bothers to find out why they are fighting simply emphasizes just how commonplace conflict is in those areas.

         Beyond the presence of fighting is how their lifestyles are based around fighting. Children stories and legends all celebrate someone’s elaborate treachery and huge rituals surround the killing of an enemy while they are being cooked right in front of their eyes. Probably the most interesting thing is the waness bind. How could something so sick and twisted both in idea and execution become a part of a society? Many customs and such stem from some practical origin; people do not have the leisure of coming up with crazy ideas and useless practices. However, I cannot possibly imagine some sort of origin for the waness bind idea. Instead of trying to crush these customs as any normal society would do, these people use this loophole for their own nefarious deeds.

         Coming back to the idea of modern warfare vs Sawi warfare, we have technology and WMD’s and so war is defined by explosions and number of cities leveled. The Sawi, on the other hand, has no such technology and so has to resort to strategy. Not in guerilla warfare as most tribal people are thought to do but rather in psychological warfare. They would pretend to make friendships before killing their enemies to emphasize just how frightening they are. The elaborate rituals and dinner that follows such a killing serves to rub salt on the wounds of the victim’s loved ones. At least in our society, relatively civil conduct was agreed upon and is expected even during wartime. What intrigues me most about the Sawi is how they are the embodiment of the term bloodlust. What could have possibly happened in the past to make these people who they are?