Tutsi+-+FA11

=Tutsi Culture=

**Language:**
The Tutsi people along with Hutu and Twa, both Rwandan countries, speak a universal language called Kinyarwanda. The Kinyarwanda language is made up of a series of nouns that all use prefixes. That language is more of a dialect though. At the home Tutsi people may speak Banyamulenge, Congolese, French and the East African trade language known as Swahili. Many Rwandan people have received most of their schooling in French in the colonial time period. That is due to the fact they were colonized by the European country of Belgium.Thus many people have French names, but since the claimed independence in 1994, English has become very important. Many names given could be in different languages that can come from different cultural values.

"Traditionally, the ability to express oneself well orally was highly valued. Aristocrats were expected to maintain a dignified style in speaking, and demonstrated their high status by calculated use of silence. Cattle terms were used to refer to the best and most precious aspects of social life. For example, the king of Rwanda was referred to as “the bull of the herd.” (Gall and Hobby, Gale search)

**Behavior:**
As a rite of passage, a child must go through a naming ceremony. this occurs seven days after a child has been born. Also, with marriage a compensation from the family of the groom to the family of the bride, called brideswealth, is transferred. In the Tutsi culture brideswealth is usually a cow and other gifts. In death the Tutsi will use rituals such as prayer, speeches and purification. They will also refrain from sex because they do not want to exert themselves in a time of mourning.

In the work force, the poorest are usually soil cultivators. the middle class are usually farmers who will grow cash crops such as tea and coffee. The more wealthy class besides people of government, take care of the kings prize cattle.

With work also comes play. many Tutsi embrace soccer as their main sport. Children may also play a game called igisoro. They also have American and European films in theaters in capital cities and also musical events. Plus they have some tv's.

Beliefs:
The belief system of the Tutsi people is mainly of a Christian faith. More specifically, a large percentage of them are Catholics. They recognize all the major Christian holidays, and they’re even national holidays. Although most of them are Christians, many of them converted to Islam after the 1994 genocide. This huge change has caused it to easily be the second most popular religion among the people.

The Tutsi people also have traditional thoughts that their //Imaana//, or creator, is remote, even though the king possessed all his power. To keep control over the people, the king would demonstrate this power by his agricultural rites, the royal drums, and making sacred fire. They also believed that //abazima//, or ancestral spirits, would connect the human world and God. However, people had to respect them and give them offerings to protect form the misfortune they’d bring if disrespected. With all this being said, the Tutsi people are still mainly Catholics.

Values:
Family closeness is a big value that all of the Tutsi people share. Most of them have an extended family instead of a nuclear family like most families have in the United States. Clearly knowing and understanding the ancestry of a family is a very important value to the people. Tied in with that is the house, which they also find very important. The concept of //inzu//, or house, doesn’t just stand for the physical house, but also the ancestry and family.

The Christian religion is the most common for the Tutsi people, so many of the core values they have come from their religion. One that affects how they act towards people is to respect all people. Some more of those are to be humble, honest, live a moral life, generous with time and money, and forgiving. Religion makes up a lot of values that people and have, and Tutsi people are no exception. Most of their values have to do with their religion, so that’s why the Christian values would be the same as their values.

How the factors affect cultural change:
In the case of cultural change the Tutsi women have greatly been affected in the past few years. The Tutsi people have been working towards making women a more important member in their society. Recently their behaviors have been changing so that they consider women to be more responsible and able to do things that men have done in their culture for as long as they can remember. The women are moving out of the normal housewife and nothing else procedure, and for that reason the Rwandan president even got the African Gender Award in 2007.

The Rwandan genocide has also influenced cultural change. During the genocide, the people were always scared for their life, but once it ended, it gave them a better perspective that war is not the best answer for everything. They used to fight over everything, but that event changed their culture to make war not be the best answer. The genocide was also a reason that women got respect. Women were greatly disrespected during the war, but now they realized that what they did was wrong. The refugee camp picture represents that.

Another factor that affects cultural change is their beliefs or religion. This also occurred in the wake of the genocide because after it happened, many of them converted to Islam. This affects cultural change because almost all of the Tutsis were Catholics, so they all had the Catholic morals and values. Now, many of them are started to believe in the Muslim morals and values, so that is starting cultural change within the Tutsi people. As more people become Muslim instead of Christians, the more cultural change that will take place.

**Works Cited**
1. Kamuhanda, Hamis. Interview by BBC BBC. Personal interview. 1 Jan. 1994.

This source was important because it gave us a primary source perspective that allowed us to understand how the Tutsi people really felt when they were being attacked by the Hutu, and that was what started the big culture change. This source was an excellent contributor to the cultural change section.

2. Hamann, Matthis. Rwandan Refugee Camp. 0. No museum, Rwanda. blog.matthiashamann.com. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.

This picture was important because it also represents the Tutsi people starting to change for the better with the women in their culture. It was a good source to use when discussing how the genocide really affected their culture, and the effect that it had on their country.

3. "Tutsi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2011. .

This source was important because it gave us an impartial view and just the facts that we needed about their culture. This was a site that gave us a broad overview of everything that happened with the situation that happened with the Tutsi people.

4. "Tutsi." Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life. Ed. Timothy L. Gall and Jeneen Hobby. 2nd ed. Vol. 1: Africa. Detroit: Gale, 2009. 562-568. Gale Power Search. Web. 31 Aug. 2011

This source was important because it gave us a massive amount of information that we used for everything about their culture. It gave us information about everything that had to do with the Tutsi people. This was by far the most valuable source that we had, and it was very good for finding the core concepts about their culture.