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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is "saravon"?

2. What is the Eren ceremony?

3. What is a good strategy for a Sawi village that wants to take revenge against another village?

4. What brings the Sawi villagers to a sudden halt when they hear it for the first time?

5. What does Richardson like about the possibility of building on the kidari?

Short Essay Questions

1. What tools appears in Chapter 12, Patriarch of the Tumdu, which are new to Sawi culture?

2. What do the elders Kigo, Hato and Numu do with the gifts they receive from the Tuans who are on the boat?

3. Why do the Sawi people see Kani and Mahean as the epitome of manhood?

4. Why does the ecstatic Sawi communal expression of "hahap kaman" so deeply affect Richardson?

5. Who are the people that the author is going to work with?

6. Why is the sound of the diesel boat engines so frightening?

7. What does Richardson believe is unavoidable in modern life?

8. Why is Narai waiting in the elephant grass, in his small dugout? What is his purpose and job to do on this auspicious day?

9. What does the chapter title mean?

10. What kinds of weapons does Yae take on the trip?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Human beings interpret stories based on experience. The Sawi people interpret the story of Jesus based upon their own world view and practical human experience. How does their interpretation of Judas as the hero of the Jesus story come out of their cultural experience? What parallel are they using to understand the story? What experience in their own lives leads them to see Judas as the hero?

Essay Topic 2

The shift of government from the remote Dutch authorities to the more present Indonesian authorities brings tremendous change to the Sawi people. What does Richardson say about that change? How and why is that change so dramatic?

Essay Topic 3

It takes a great deal of intelligence to survive in the jungle without modern technology. Yet we often describe cultures like the Sawi tribe as "primitive." What is the difference between the kind of intelligence it takes for a Sawi family to survive in a stone age civilization and the kind of intelligence it takes to graduate from an American university? Are there different kinds of knowledge? Is a Sawi person more observant than the typical American student or less? How would a modern American student fare if set in the jungle with stone tools? How would a Sawi person do in high school or college? Write an essay contemplating Sawi intelligence.

(see the answer keys)

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