Re: assumptions ?

You wrote that the English man (you do not give bibliographic references of
the book why ?)
>had a long conversation with him (Commoro) on the customs of his
>>>country
and
>through my two young interpreters,
Your long quote teaches us only one thing : the ideas of Sir Samuel W.
White . We learn absolutely nothing about   Commoro and Sudanese ideas
because we know nothing about the young interpreters. Do you think they
were able to understand and analyse the words and their meaning in the two
langages ?
Why Commoro choose an ox to compare with man ? What is an ox in his culture ?
For you what does mean something like  >"Do you see no difference in good
and bad actions?" Commoro.--"Yes,
>there are good and bad in men and beasts."
>
>"Do you think that a good man and a bad must share the same fate, and
>alike die, and end?"
>
>Commoro.--"Yes; what else can they do? How can they help dying? Good and
>bad all die."
>
>"Their bodies perish, but their spirits remain; the good in happiness,
>the bad in misery. If you have no belief in a future state, WHY SHOULD A
>MAN BE GOOD? Why should he not be bad, if he can prosper by wickedness?"
>
>Commoro.--"Most people are bad; if they are strong they take from the
>weak. The good people are all weak; they are good because they are not
>strong enough to be bad.""
For you it means
>  Commoro is genius" because his mouth is a  "mouth of what could be
>considered a primitive".

I ask you this question : WHAT IS A PRIMITIVE ?
PLEASE  answer in English and in "Sudanese" langage and because my mother
tongue is French add also a French version of your answer.
It is just an exercice, after  you should be able to understand the old
fashioned "knowledge" of "primitive" colonialists travelling in savage
countries in second half of the XIX° century.
And the second part of work could begin : what is a "genius statement"
written in a book by a colonialist in the 1860s and 1870s ?
For that you need to study Anthropology Š and not Psychology.
You will learn much more about yourself than last century travellersŠ And
you will stop mix CNN LIVE and an academic study when you will watch tv
because it is what you did with your unknown book.

Anne Marie JEAY
Professeur de Sociologie
Responsable de la Maîtrise
Université Nancy II
BP 33 97
23 Boulevard Albert 1°
54015 Nancy Cedex
France