John Pacak
The Evolution of Tradition
Is change more necessary than carrying on tradition? This semester, in anthropology we
talked about the study of humans, and how we all evolved into what we are today. Evolution is
change where the best traits are passed down for a species survival. I mention this because
throughout the semester we talked about how there has been change amongst us. This paper will
consist of how tradition should evolve just as humans do. This will be done by analyzing
everything we have learned this semester such as the movie Whale Rider, the two books we read
Meathooked and The Girl Who Sang to The Buffalo, and finally a video called Transcendent
Man. Whale Rider will be used because of the relationship the main character Pai has with her
grandfather which influences change. Meathooked will be used because it discusses how our
diets in regard to eating meat have evolved. The Girl Who Sang To The Buffalo will be used
because it talks about Native Americans and the evolution behind them today. Finally the
Transcendent Man is being used because of how one man's view of humans and artificial
intelligence combining together which will lead to a not so clear picture of man and machine. By
the end of this paper you too will believe that change is necessary in order to survive.
Whale Rider was a movie we watched in class about the struggles that the country of
New Zealand actually encountered. In the movie every character had a specific struggle that they
were faced with in the movie. This is important because during this movie everyone was looking
for answers from Koro because he was the chief at the time, but he was getting old. He had to
train a new chief to lead his people. This became an obsession with Koro because he had to make
the ancestors happy in order to be successful. In order for Koro to do that he had to find a new
chief, and in New Zealand at this time only males could have the path of chiefdom. Koro
struggled with this because he worked very hard to turn his first born son Porourangi into the
new chief. However his son wanted nothing to do with being chief and left New Zealand as soon
as he could. Koro than looked to his oldest son's first born child to be the chief. Sadly the boy
had died along with the mother leaving the daughter whose name was Paikea after their ancestor
who road in on the whale. Koro was hurt by this, and was starting to lose hope. He then decided
to open a school for all the local boys to teach them the old ways, and maybe find a new chief.
His granddaughter Pai was very interested in being a part of this tradition. She would always
interfere with the other boys learning to try and make her grandfather proud. However the
tradition of the Maori tribe had no female leaders. Pai would never stop trying to change how her
grandfather felt about this she kept trying to make change in the Maori tradition. Pai eventually
called to Paikea the ancestor that road in on the whales for help hoping...
