Native American Hopi Society Seen in Utopian Fiction

Today, in my Native American Studies class, my teacher taught us about Native American governance, specifically for the Hopi tribe. As I was sitting there, listening to him describe a way of life that was completely foreign to me, I realized, one of the books I'm reading right now, called Son by Lois Lowry, has an incredibly similar social structure. Even though Lowry's book is set in the future and Hopi's have been living this way for hundreds of years, I could see the comparison. 

To set up the scene:

In The Giver series, in which Son is the final book, the world is presented as a Utopian society. Each year, exactly 50 children are born from Vessels, or Birth Mothers. These women live together in a setup similar to a dormitory. 

Once the children are a year old, they go to their first Ceremony to be named and assigned to a family. Each group of parents is assigned one male child and one female child throughout their years as parents.

The children go through phases of life together, all getting jackets with pockets at age seven so they can be responsible for their own possessions, bikes at age nine, the exact same haircuts at age ten, and finally being assigned their career paths at age 12. Once a child has been assigned, he or she stops learning a diverse set of subjects in school and begins, instead, to learn only the knowledge needed for his or her career, knowledge which no one outside of that career can know. 

In comparison, in Hopi society, children are given a name at their Naming Ceremony. Years later, they are initiated into society to learn their clan's knowledge. If adults are talking about Hopi traditions, rituals, or knowledge and a child who isn't initiated yet walks into the room, the adults stop talking because that child has yet to be given the right to that knowledge.

Hopi Initiation Ceremony

Around the age of 9, 10, or 11, Hopi children are initiated along with the other children of that age group who are ready for both the knowledge and responsibilities that being a part of their clan entails. 

They way these parts can be compared, coming from two completely different societies struck me. I began to wonder, how many writers travel or research another culture's way of life and then present their take on that society as fiction. If you had asked me prior to learning about the Hopi, I would have said that The Giver's Ceremonies sounded completely original to me. But now that I know similarities exist, it makes me wonder what others are out their in other cultures and in other stories. 

Wanting to know more, I did what any writer would do. I went to the library and checked out four books on Hopi society and artwork. As the semester goes on, I'm going to try to learn more than just the typical stereotypes we, as Americans, know about other cultures. I'm going to do research about ways of life in different countries around the world and see, does this remind me of a book I've read? And I'll take parts of societies that interest me to create a new, fictional society.