Utilitarianism Built Upon Superstition Meets Relativism (a winning team!)
The promo from the documentary Hakani – this is some pretty disturbing stuff:
Check out its Wikipedia page and you’ll find out some straightforward background info:
Hakani is a controversial movie addressing the theme of infanticide in tribal communities in Brazil. The film takes the format of a documentary featuring a dramatic reconstruction of the true story of an attempted infanticide…The movie is part of a wider movement against infanticide amongst Brazilian Amazonian tribes. The pressure brought by the movie has brought the issue into the public eye and as far as the Brazilian Congress with a new law, Muwaji’s Law, being proposed. The law would allow an Indian child to be removed from its parents on the evidence that the child might be the target of a planned infanticide.
And then some information that is, perhaps, more disturbing than the promo. The film has its critics.
Opposition to a film effectively decrying infanticide? On what basis? Well, the most vocal of them is a purported “human rights” (uh…) organization called Survival International. Now, for SI, what legitimizes this viciously cruel, superstitiously-inspired sacrifice of an innocent life?
The organisation claims that the film is a tool for evangelical Christian groups to increase their ability to spread religious belief despite the Brazilian government’s concerns about their methods.
You know, when it comes to being buried alive or receiving theological proselytizing, I think I’ll take the proselytizing.
A symptom of ethical relativism. Really. That’s disgusting.
george
October 12th, 2008 at 4:16 pm #
Matthew Linares
October 14th, 2008 at 8:28 am #
Survival International’s stance on this matter is not a product of ethical relativism, as you suggest. Rather, it is grounded in concern for the vulnerable minority (i.e tribal peoples in Brazil) whose families stand to be torn apart thanks to (Muwaji’s Law – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakani:_A_Survivor’s_Story) the movement surrounding Hakani.
The movie is based on a story that has no independent witnesses yet is being used to spread popular belief in the undoubtedly disturbing practice of infanticide in tribal communities. This then encourages laws that would severely impact these communities through forced removal of children from their parents following accusations.
We take the position that we do because there is good reason to believe that Hakani is hysterical sensationalism, not thoughtful public policy information, and that infanticide is not at all the widespread practice the film suggests, is in fact extremely rare , and dying out anyway. However, routine removal of children from innocent parents may only be a step away.
It is important that those involved in this debate recognise the movie and its accompanying arguments for what they are rather than accepting them as cold, hard evidence.
Yours sincerely,
Matthew Linares
Survival International