A Man Called Horse is a movie whose setting is that of the 1820’s America. Its main cast is Lord John Morgan an English Aristocrat who goes hunting in America and is captured by a tribe called the Sioux. Lord John is severely mistreated by the tribe but with time and with the help of a fellow captive, learns the tribe’s language and culture. He begins to appreciate the tribe’s way of life and after winning a fight gains the respect of the people. Lord John starts to develop feelings for the chief’s sister and for him to be allowed to marry into the tribe; he has to go through a series of rituals to prove his worth. After successfully going through the tribe’s rituals, Lord John eventually gets accepted into the tribe and is given the name Horse.
Different people have different cultures; including traditions, norms, values, and beliefs. Having come from a different culture, Lord John shows a great character having to understand, accept and join a new tribe with a different culture than that he was used to. He also adapts the Sioux way of dressing including the body colorations. It's hard for people to become accustomed to other cultures other than that they were born into. In other situations, you find other people portraying ethnocentrism, where they undermine other cultures, their values and beliefs solely based on their own culture and deem these cultures inferior as compared to theirs. Acculturation is important in that it brings about diversification of culture and helps us to appreciate different cultures as they are (Fleischacker, 56). It is also important for people to respect every culture even if they fall out the norms of one’s culture.
Work cited
Fleischacker, Samuel. The Ethics of Culture. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1994. Print.
