Response to Caro's Post

This is a response to Caro Leach’s post titled ‘Ethiopia’. The pictures of women with crosses tattooed on their foreheads do not necessarily indicate the level of their devotion to Christianity and I also disagree with the statement ‘In our culture, religion is a completely separate part of life than any thing else but in Ethiopia religion becomes part of everything these women do’.

Firstly, the photographs of women with tattooed crosses could be more due to the culture and traditions rather than their degree of their devotion towards Christianity. While I do not dispute that they were indeed very devoted Christians, the tattooed crosses could be a consequences of their evolving culture, or as Richard Dawkins would describe it, social ‘memes’. I believe that ‘memes’, much like language, physical appearances and nationalism, rival Religion as a form of identity. The crosses on their foreheads, although successfully displaying their identity as Christians, might be a cultural norm for all Christians in that region, rather than a sign of devotion towards their Religion.

Secondly, I don’t necessarily believe that Religion and culture are completely separate facets of life in USA. I agree with Thomas Beneke’s response because a display of faith in one’s Religion is a part of people’s life. Cultural influences have separated the various ways in which people’s devotions towards their Religion is expressed. Many Christians everywhere wear crosses on their necks everyday, several Jews wear a yarmulke or kippa (Jewish hat) and curl their payots (side burns), and many Muslims can be seen as having long beards. Such things can be seen as a sign of people’s faith in their different Religions. Although none are similar to having a cross tattooed on one’s forehead, the difference could simply arise because of cultural differences without any separation of Religion from other aspects of everyday life. Other simple happenings such as saying grace before eating and ‘God bless you’ after sneezing, or thanking God for one’s good fortune is so deeply ingrained in our everyday life that we do these things unconsciously and don’t recognize it.