Sam Turner and the "Heathen" Tribe

[Pergamum]

Have you heard the story of Sam Turner?

Like so many anthropology students, Sam had been indoctrinated by His college professors to believe that Christian missionaries were a problem because they influence tribal peoples to abandon the customs of their ancestors.

After graduation, Sam made up his mind to travel to a faraway place already ruined by missionary influence so he could document for all to see the many ways the tribal culture had been corrupted. Maybe then something would be done to stop the Christian missionaries’ corruption of culture.

He decided on the Nduga tribe of (what was then) Irian Jaya. Like many tribes on this largely unexplored island, the Nduga tribe still lived in grass huts, hunted with spears, and feared evil spirits.

Sam flew halfway around the world, strapped on his backpack and hiked into a jungle filled with leeches, crocodiles, and deadly mosquitoes all to prove how corruptive missionary influence truly is.

As he hiked over mountain and valley, he began to feel ill. His head pounded, his muscles ached, he kept throwing up, and his body burned with fever. He knew it was malaria and he knew he would die if he did not keep moving.

Amazingly, Sam made it to the Nduga village, passing out as soon as he arrived. What was even more amazing was that the Ndugas did not kill him, assuming him to be an enemy. Murder is how they used to treat strangers before the influence of the missionaries. Instead, they took Sam to the one man who could nurse him back to health -Aser, the Nduga man trained by the missionaries to be a medic. Aser, his family, and many others in the village fed, housed, and nursed Sam back to health.

When Sam finally recovered, he stayed with the Nduga people not only learning about their culture, but also learning about the many ways their culture had been transformed for the good by the power of the Gospel.

His professors were wrong. Sam has been lied to.

The first thing Sam did after he left his Nduga friends in the Mbuwa Valley was find some English-speaking Christian missionaries in the coastal town of Jayapura. He told them of his experiences and asked question after question about the Bible and the good news of Jesus.

Sam Turner returned home a changed man.


In this life, there is no such thing as a perfect culture.

Every culture needs the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations...” -- Matthew 28:19



(shared by a friend)

 

[JennyGeddes]

Wonderful story—thank you for sharing!

 

[arapahoepark]

Have you heard the story of Sam Turner?

Like so many anthropology students, Sam had been indoctrinated by His college professors to believe that Christian missionaries were a problem because they influence tribal peoples to abandon the customs of their ancestors.

After graduation, Sam made up his mind to travel to a faraway place already ruined by missionary influence so he could document for all to see the many ways the tribal culture had been corrupted. Maybe then something would be done to stop the Christian missionaries’ corruption of culture.

He decided on the Nduga tribe of (what was then) Irian Jaya. Like many tribes on this largely unexplored island, the Nduga tribe still lived in grass huts, hunted with spears, and feared evil spirits.

Sam flew halfway around the world, strapped on his backpack and hiked into a jungle filled with leeches, crocodiles, and deadly mosquitoes all to prove how corruptive missionary influence truly is.

As he hiked over mountain and valley, he began to feel ill. His head pounded, his muscles ached, he kept throwing up, and his body burned with fever. He knew it was malaria and he knew he would die if he did not keep moving.

Amazingly, Sam made it to the Nduga village, passing out as soon as he arrived. What was even more amazing was that the Ndugas did not kill him, assuming him to be an enemy. Murder is how they used to treat strangers before the influence of the missionaries. Instead, they took Sam to the one man who could nurse him back to health -Aser, the Nduga man trained by the missionaries to be a medic. Aser, his family, and many others in the village fed, housed, and nursed Sam back to health.

When Sam finally recovered, he stayed with the Nduga people not only learning about their culture, but also learning about the many ways their culture had been transformed for the good by the power of the Gospel.

His professors were wrong. Sam has been lied to.

The first thing Sam did after he left his Nduga friends in the Mbuwa Valley was find some English-speaking Christian missionaries in the coastal town of Jayapura. He told them of his experiences and asked question after question about the Bible and the good news of Jesus.

Sam Turner returned home a changed man.


In this life, there is no such thing as a perfect culture.

Every culture needs the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations...” -- Matthew 28:19



(shared by a friend)

Also definitely useful for arguing against critical theory by showing culture (and in conjunction with ethnicity) are not immutable. They ebb and flow constantly as they relate to others.

 

[Pergamum]

Also definitely useful for arguing against critical theory by showing culture (and in conjunction with ethnicity) are not immutable. They ebb and flow constantly as they relate to others.

Precisely,

Here is something I wrote about the tribe where I serve:

"Cultures are not static. The Korowai culture is not static. Cultures are constantly in a state of flux. Despite some criticism from tourist blogs lamenting the changing culture of the Korowai, I feel no need for the Korowai to remain frozen in cultural time. Our job is not to keep them in a particular era or in a sort of human zoo, preserved in the same state as they lived in the past so that European backpackers may still observe the “primitive man.”

Anthropologists of Oceania, Swain and Trompf severely criticize anthropological studies for neglecting the process by which cultures change.

They state:

"One recurring failure in the studies of religion in Oceania (although, thankfully, the exceptions are increasing) has been the neglect of history. The savage, the primitive, the native—those preconceptions that have accompanied the observations of people in the south-west Pacific all have overtones of immutability and timelessness. The reality, however, is that our investigations have been carried on well behind a staunch, sometimes bloody, colonial frontier. Research has tried to rediscover or reconstruct what Oceanian societies were like before colonization, and publications so often ignore the fact that the people being investigated no longer practise the traditions described. What does this silence about present realities say? Simply that we will not acknowledge cultures in transition; that if ‘primitive’ societies become dynamic societies we will ignore their longings, their aspirations and their hopes for the future. Clearly such a start of scholarship should not be allowed to continue."

The Korowai do not remain static; they are changing. Many want to change. They invited in the Dani evangelists and also myself, and even gave us a portion of land because they desired outside assistance. We have built a church, school, health clinic, and dorm/orphanage on this land. Multiple villages requested our presence and these other villages were disappointed when we finally chose Danowage. “Come and help us!” they requested. The Korowai have embraced and even initiated many changes. I live among the Korowai at their request precisely because they wanted change, though they did not always understand quite what those changes entailed."



[1] Swain and Trompf, The Religions of Oceania, 13-14.