Things Fall Apart

          In the book things fall apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo's village is going through huge changes unlike anything they had ever seen before. As white missionaries and settlers move in they try to impose their ideas about religion and law on the local tribes, first by simply suggesting their ideas, and later by forcing it upon them. Most of the conflict in the book originated from the settlers forcing their ideas on Umofia, which influences the village people to react violently.

          In the book, the village of Umofia is ruled largely by religion and that ends up causing many of their problems. This is similar to how tribe cultures are affecting the spread of Ebola in Africa. Many of the cultures in Africa have death rituals that involve interacting with the bodies of their dead which causes the virus to spread to whoever interacts with the corpses. There is an example of this in the book when Ezeudu died. The ceremony involved leaving the body uncovered and having people walk and around it. In modern day Africa, some groups of people are not willing to give up these rituals despite the threat of Ebola. This has caused Ebola to be spread quickly by corpses in some part of Africa.
          Another important topic in the book is tradition and how it changes. One good example of tradition changing between generations in the book is when Nwoye leaves to join the missionaries and Obierika brings Okonkwo the news while he is exiled. "What moved Obierika to Okonkwo was the sudden appearance of his latter's son, Nwoye, among the missionaries in Umofia." page 107. Okonkwo is extremely against the new religion and is furious at Nwoye for joining it, which I think might be one of the reasons Nwoye left in the first place. He had never agreed with his father and joined the missionaries just to spite him.

Ethnography preconceptions

I am doing my ethnography on my friend's catholic church. I have gone to a Lutheran Church all my life and have become very familiar with their traditions. I have always wondered what was different about catholic churches but I have never had the chance to observe a service at one.

        I do have some preconceptions on what the Catholic Church will be like. One thing I think will be different from my church, is that it might be more strict than a Lutheran church. From what I know about Catholics, they pray at home much more often than anyone from my church.

        Some other things I think will be different from my church is the traditions during the church service. I know that catholic churches have some different view over some topics than Lutherans do. I also know that they have some traditions, like confession, that Lutheran Churches do not have. Another difference I expect to see while observing the church, is a less free form service. From what I have seen of catholic churches, which is not very much, the pastors have a script that they rarely vary from. In my church it is not uncommon for the pastor to start a story related to the sermon.