It takes diff'rent strokes

I just watched an unbelievable video on National Geographic's YouTube channel.

In short, the video shows a West African village ushering a boy into manhood, and it involves brutally killing and eating a dog.

It's part of a long-running tradition and respected rite of passage; they believe that eating a dog will imbue the boy with qualities like courage and loyalty. The dog was raised solely to serve this ultimate purpose, and when its time comes, it's bludgeoned to death, its blood is smeared on the ground, and it's roasted over an open flame.

Okay... if living abroad for eight months has reinforced anything, it's that a lot of things are culturally relative. What's totally weird in one place could be perfectly normal in another. Kinda like how some Southerners think it's okay to eat pickled pig parts (from Food Lion, no less...), or how Midwesterners think Vera Bradley is fashionable.

Naturally, my initial reaction to this video was disgust: How more messed could you get? It's almost up there with the Chinese fur trade!

Well, one of the old dudes in the video says something to the effect of, "We're doing this because our ancestors did it." Yeah, you can argue that tradition doesn't make it right, but it's still an integral part of the coming-of-age process in Benin. I'm sure there are loads of American customs that non-Americans may find inhumane, or appalling. How is raising a dog to be killed for a ceremony any different from raising a cow to be slaughtered as livestock? Isn't it equally barbaric? Who's to say what's "barbaric," anyway?

It's weird, because a year ago, my cri de coeur would have been to stop such animal cruelty, but now I find myself torn. I think the dogs should be saved, but it's culturally imperialistic to judge the people of Benin, or to try to "correct" them. The more options, benefits, and detriments you consider, the more ambiguous and inconclusive your opinion can become.

Closed-minded people have it easy.