Project Trailer...Take 2
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Right. So. This version? Much better than the last. Less time, less heartache and grief, and a better result.
Bring it, Derek.
One of the major helpers in getting this finished was Indigenous People of South America. There are other geographical areas of interest. Might help out some others.
Project Trailer
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Whew. I did not expect the number of hours I spent working on this to be so high. Could just be my complete lack of experience and difficulty finding information and sources
(I spent at HOURS browsing music after music, video, photos, data, etc...), but I think it mostly had to do with the medium. Video.
I'm an essay writer. It's what I've been doing since my first encounter with the public school system 15 years ago. Essays don't require creativity, just a logical plan of thought laid out before me. Not usually a problem when I know what I'm writing about, no matter how much information I need to condense.
With video however, it's not just a story to read or hear, it's also a story to see. Putting things together in a way that makes sense in this manner took me days.
I'd been thinking about where I wanted to go with this, how I wanted the story to start, which story I wanted to tell since last week. This week, on Wednesday, I started working. Late nights turned into early mornings with little sleep, Thursday's class making me paranoid about the quality of my product. This isn't something I can just piece together in a logical formation, but I need to make a kind of "quilt" from multiple sources, making them all say what I want them to say.
It's evident to me from my product that I'm still having trouble with the idea of patch working, but the more I get used to it, the better I should get.
...I say that now.
I know in class, when we watch the trailers, I'm going to constantly be comparing my work to the work of everyone else.
The probable stiffest competition? Derek. Kid's a genius with video.
Today, I spent a solid, continuous 10 hours working on this. The weird part? I never got bored or distracted.
Time to turn it in.
Deep breaths.
South America. WHAT.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
So far, it looks like the vision for South America is to explore South American contact, its affects on the cultural and religious practices, and South America's eventual integration into the world system, now becoming popular with shamanic tourism. A potential issue is that South America is a pretty big place. We have not yet zeroed in on a specific area. Whether this will become a problem or whether we can effectively cover a few key areas has yet to be seen.
Have to admit, I'm pretty excited.
The article I summarized in my last blog post will be one of the major players in European affects on South American culture and religion. It's SO specific to the subject and displays change perfectly.
However, since the assignment is to summarize 2 sources, I'll include two more.
Joseph Bastien's Mountain of the Condor: Metaphor and Ritual in the Andean Ayllu also displays the integral, unique cultural and religious practices of South America.
The beliefs of Indians in the Andean ayllu is based on this metaphor of the body. They see the geographical layout of the land as a literal body and it permeates their beliefs in marriage practices - they must marry from a different level of the mountain in order to keep trade relations amicable because no one horizontal area is self sufficient.
Their belief in life cycles - the puna (top of the mountain ~ 14,000 m +) is seen as the head, or origin of the person. As life goes on, the person travels down the mountain in rivers. When you die, an underground river takes you back to the top of the mountain to be born again from the head or origin.
Their belief in sickness and witchcraft practices - the head is the origin, so if someone has access to your hair they are able to affect the rest of the body and it must be healed by an ayllu affected by water - the medium of the river of life.
Basically every aspect of life in the Andean ayllu is affected by this body metaphor of their mountainous environment.
The area Bastien writes about - the Kataan - is a relatively isolated area of Bolivia, difficult to get to in the dry season, but treacherous in the wet season. Therefore, not many visitors are received and their cultural practices remain healthy, but still have some outside threats. The Kataan healers and diviners have a kind of "power" modern science can't explain. Yet, missionaries try to shut down their practices and if they are seen be outsiders, insults like "dirty Indian with the medicine bag" are hurled at them.
Laura Fishman's Claude d'Abbeville and the Tupinamba: Problems and Goals of French Missionary Work in Early Seventeenth-Century Brazil is a resource displaying rituals and European contact with South America
Essentially, Claude d'Abbeville is a Capuchin (a reformed order of Franciscans) father and he goes to South America working under Portugal, Spain, and France, arriving in Maranhao in Brazil in 1612. D'Abbeville reported that the Tupi Indians received the French well, and went so far as to classify them as "great prophets of God," so d'Abbeville was convinced that the time had "come for God to be adored and recognized" there. His positive letters back to France served as propaganda in order to recruit more Capuchin missionaries in the area, but, in fact, the more time d'Abbeville spent with the Indians, the less he believed they were receptive to his cause and the more frustrated he became. Although the Tupi believed in spirits running and affecting their lives, the missionaries didn't believe that was really a viable religion. Missionaries spent time trying to educate the people in a specific area, but these people are nomads constantly looking for their utopia, making the radiation of education difficult. D'Abbeville, although disgusted by some of the Tupi practices like cannibalism, found a kind of peace within the Tupi. He writes that Indians offer “a good lesson for a Catholic family, who, even though they have received the light of faith and the sacrament of marriage, cannot live together in peace for a single day without quarrel, discord, and division." D'Abbeville laments that the French Catholics have strayed so far from the true essence of Christianity, while the Tupi, who are a "primitive" people live so well in the image of God. For this reason, he was not a proponent of baptism in the New World where the indigenous peoples would have to renounce their beliefs in order to be Christian. Still, d'Abbeville believed that Christianity was the only correct way to live, and wrote in letters back to France that contact with more civilized Christians than were already present in the New World (slavers and land owners) would aid in the conversion of the Indians. All in all, d'Abbeville renounced the ways of the Catholic Reformation mentality of the time, but still managed to show no respect for the native culture he had immersed himself in.
Have to admit, I'm pretty excited.
The article I summarized in my last blog post will be one of the major players in European affects on South American culture and religion. It's SO specific to the subject and displays change perfectly.
However, since the assignment is to summarize 2 sources, I'll include two more.
Joseph Bastien's Mountain of the Condor: Metaphor and Ritual in the Andean Ayllu also displays the integral, unique cultural and religious practices of South America.
The beliefs of Indians in the Andean ayllu is based on this metaphor of the body. They see the geographical layout of the land as a literal body and it permeates their beliefs in marriage practices - they must marry from a different level of the mountain in order to keep trade relations amicable because no one horizontal area is self sufficient.
Their belief in life cycles - the puna (top of the mountain ~ 14,000 m +) is seen as the head, or origin of the person. As life goes on, the person travels down the mountain in rivers. When you die, an underground river takes you back to the top of the mountain to be born again from the head or origin.
Their belief in sickness and witchcraft practices - the head is the origin, so if someone has access to your hair they are able to affect the rest of the body and it must be healed by an ayllu affected by water - the medium of the river of life.
Basically every aspect of life in the Andean ayllu is affected by this body metaphor of their mountainous environment.
The area Bastien writes about - the Kataan - is a relatively isolated area of Bolivia, difficult to get to in the dry season, but treacherous in the wet season. Therefore, not many visitors are received and their cultural practices remain healthy, but still have some outside threats. The Kataan healers and diviners have a kind of "power" modern science can't explain. Yet, missionaries try to shut down their practices and if they are seen be outsiders, insults like "dirty Indian with the medicine bag" are hurled at them.
Laura Fishman's Claude d'Abbeville and the Tupinamba: Problems and Goals of French Missionary Work in Early Seventeenth-Century Brazil is a resource displaying rituals and European contact with South America
Essentially, Claude d'Abbeville is a Capuchin (a reformed order of Franciscans) father and he goes to South America working under Portugal, Spain, and France, arriving in Maranhao in Brazil in 1612. D'Abbeville reported that the Tupi Indians received the French well, and went so far as to classify them as "great prophets of God," so d'Abbeville was convinced that the time had "come for God to be adored and recognized" there. His positive letters back to France served as propaganda in order to recruit more Capuchin missionaries in the area, but, in fact, the more time d'Abbeville spent with the Indians, the less he believed they were receptive to his cause and the more frustrated he became. Although the Tupi believed in spirits running and affecting their lives, the missionaries didn't believe that was really a viable religion. Missionaries spent time trying to educate the people in a specific area, but these people are nomads constantly looking for their utopia, making the radiation of education difficult. D'Abbeville, although disgusted by some of the Tupi practices like cannibalism, found a kind of peace within the Tupi. He writes that Indians offer “a good lesson for a Catholic family, who, even though they have received the light of faith and the sacrament of marriage, cannot live together in peace for a single day without quarrel, discord, and division." D'Abbeville laments that the French Catholics have strayed so far from the true essence of Christianity, while the Tupi, who are a "primitive" people live so well in the image of God. For this reason, he was not a proponent of baptism in the New World where the indigenous peoples would have to renounce their beliefs in order to be Christian. Still, d'Abbeville believed that Christianity was the only correct way to live, and wrote in letters back to France that contact with more civilized Christians than were already present in the New World (slavers and land owners) would aid in the conversion of the Indians. All in all, d'Abbeville renounced the ways of the Catholic Reformation mentality of the time, but still managed to show no respect for the native culture he had immersed himself in.
Early South American Mediation
Saturday, February 12, 2011
I just erased everything I had written about this article for the last half an hour.
It sounded - and it looked - like an essay.
Then I realized, "Shit, this is a blog. All this is far too formal. I should curse in my revision."
So it was thought, SO. IT. SHALL. BE.
I'm not sure if I'm supposed to write as if you, the reader, haven't read the article or you have. To be on the safe side, Imma just do a recap of the billion pages of interesting (anthropologists have this knack of saying the same thing a hundred different ways making their papers SO much longer than they need to be) so I can get to the meaty stuff about media influence:
So this dude, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, is a South American Indian in the 1500's (after Spanish conquest). He's the son of a high-ranking, crown-backing Peruvian and an Inca princess. His half brother went off to the Franciscan order at 12, came back to the village to be a model Catholic citizen, and educated Guaman Poma. Guaman Poma goes through his whole life seeing Indian military rebellion fail against the Spaniards time and time again. Since writing is important in Spanish culture, Guaman Poma decides to write to King Philip III of Spain giving a kind of "no taxation without representation"-esque protest. He doesn't want the Spanish to go away, he just wants the Andes to be treated as a sovereign nation instead of a colony. Guaman Poma writes a 1200 page book about the history of Peru and includes 398 illustrations to go along with it, as was popular in European culture at the time. The weird thing about it? He skews the history of his country so it more closely resembles that of European nations and Christianity. He recognizes his sneakiness for what it is and even goes so far as to call himself original. Guaman Poma is one sly dog. Unfortunately, it's believed that his History didn't make it all the way to the King and was intercepted by a Dane and put into a private collection to collect dust until it was found in 1908.
On to the meaty stuff.
Guaman Poma's ability to process Spanish culture and use it to his advantage as a persuasive tool displays an extreme ability for abstract thought. This guy's an effing genius (I warned you about the cursing). In his History, while shaking the Spanish hand, he's pulling out a knife with the other.
Some pictures display raping of Indian women, Indian exploitation, murder, and abuse. Others, to Spaniards, would project a feeling that Andean culture was accepting Spanish culture. However, Guaman Poma was hinting that Spanish culture was actually taking in Andean culture, a concept the Spanish would not have appreciated. The creation of the pictures is the influence of Spanish culture, but to fully understand them, a knowledge of Andean cosmology is needed. Andean culture favors the view of the illustration as opposed to the view of the onlooker, so much of what is drawn should be flipped about the y-axis in order to have a "Western" view of things.
Guaman Poma, in his plea to the King, proposes that the Inca is no one but "His Catholic Majesty." However, what he's really saying is that "His Catholic Majesty" is the new Inca.
See what I mean about that "sly" thing?
Has the Inca culture been fused with Spanish in order to create a new culture comparable to neither, but taking inspiration from both, or has the Andean culture remained mostly the same, resisting outward influences?
It sounded - and it looked - like an essay.
Then I realized, "Shit, this is a blog. All this is far too formal. I should curse in my revision."
So it was thought, SO. IT. SHALL. BE.
I'm not sure if I'm supposed to write as if you, the reader, haven't read the article or you have. To be on the safe side, Imma just do a recap of the billion pages of interesting (anthropologists have this knack of saying the same thing a hundred different ways making their papers SO much longer than they need to be) so I can get to the meaty stuff about media influence:
So this dude, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, is a South American Indian in the 1500's (after Spanish conquest). He's the son of a high-ranking, crown-backing Peruvian and an Inca princess. His half brother went off to the Franciscan order at 12, came back to the village to be a model Catholic citizen, and educated Guaman Poma. Guaman Poma goes through his whole life seeing Indian military rebellion fail against the Spaniards time and time again. Since writing is important in Spanish culture, Guaman Poma decides to write to King Philip III of Spain giving a kind of "no taxation without representation"-esque protest. He doesn't want the Spanish to go away, he just wants the Andes to be treated as a sovereign nation instead of a colony. Guaman Poma writes a 1200 page book about the history of Peru and includes 398 illustrations to go along with it, as was popular in European culture at the time. The weird thing about it? He skews the history of his country so it more closely resembles that of European nations and Christianity. He recognizes his sneakiness for what it is and even goes so far as to call himself original. Guaman Poma is one sly dog. Unfortunately, it's believed that his History didn't make it all the way to the King and was intercepted by a Dane and put into a private collection to collect dust until it was found in 1908.
On to the meaty stuff.
Guaman Poma's ability to process Spanish culture and use it to his advantage as a persuasive tool displays an extreme ability for abstract thought. This guy's an effing genius (I warned you about the cursing). In his History, while shaking the Spanish hand, he's pulling out a knife with the other.
Some pictures display raping of Indian women, Indian exploitation, murder, and abuse. Others, to Spaniards, would project a feeling that Andean culture was accepting Spanish culture. However, Guaman Poma was hinting that Spanish culture was actually taking in Andean culture, a concept the Spanish would not have appreciated. The creation of the pictures is the influence of Spanish culture, but to fully understand them, a knowledge of Andean cosmology is needed. Andean culture favors the view of the illustration as opposed to the view of the onlooker, so much of what is drawn should be flipped about the y-axis in order to have a "Western" view of things.
Guaman Poma, in his plea to the King, proposes that the Inca is no one but "His Catholic Majesty." However, what he's really saying is that "His Catholic Majesty" is the new Inca.
See what I mean about that "sly" thing?
Has the Inca culture been fused with Spanish in order to create a new culture comparable to neither, but taking inspiration from both, or has the Andean culture remained mostly the same, resisting outward influences?
Revolution in Egypt: A 4-Minute Introduction
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Revolution in Egypt: A 4-Minute Introduction: "
"
 | Leave your questions for Question Tuesday in comments! In which John discusses the Egyptian protests, which may become a burgeoning revolution in Egypt or may just descend into rioting and looting. Included in the discussion are Egypt's dictator and/or president Hosni Mubarak, the Tunisian protests, the fight for representative democracy, the presence of the Egyptian army, and so on. All images can be found at wikimedia commons: commons.wikimedia.org | Views: 151076  0 ratings |
| Time: 03:59 | More in News & Politics |
So this is how you vlog?
Friday, February 4, 2011
Basically, putting something on the internet is like George Michael filming himself reenacting his favorite scene from Star Wars. It never goes away.
And it actually relates to class? Weird.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Modern Library has a list of the 100 best novels compiled into two sections: The Board's List and The Reader's List.
From The Board's List, I've read 7 novels:
Ulysses
The Great Gatsby
Brave New World
1984
Lord of the Flies
The Catcher in the Rye
Heart of Darkness
From The Reader's List, I've read 14 novels:
To Kill a Mockingbird
1984
Anthem
Ulysses
The Great Gatsby
Brave New World
Catcher in the Rye
Lord of the Flies
Beloved
Heart of Darkness
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Ender's Game
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Fahrenheit 451
Twice as many novels from The Reader's List as from The Board's List. In terms of Mediated Cultures and anthropology, this leads me to a few thoughts.
There is a slight gap between the "experts" and the readers. Overlap is obvious, not that I was expecting there to be none, but the rankings of the books are completely different when they do overlap. What are the "experts" basing their opinions on to rank these books? Have experts lost touch with what's important in a book in favor of technicalities? "Hey, John Steinbeck is a boring hack, but he's a master at foreshadowing. That turtle? Brilliant. We'll put Grapes of Wrath at number 10."
Are the readers simply reading for enjoyment ("the story"), or are they reading to deepen their understanding about social norms? Are readers understanding and garnering the proposed "deeper meaning"? I'm a fan of the deeper meaning in books. Distopian societies, conspiracy, and satire are what it's about.
I know since this I'm fairly new to this, that there's no one following me, but I'll ask the question anyway:
Why do YOU read?
Like John Green, I don't care how you read, I just care that you do.
From The Board's List, I've read 7 novels:
Ulysses
The Great Gatsby
Brave New World
1984
Lord of the Flies
The Catcher in the Rye
Heart of Darkness
From The Reader's List, I've read 14 novels:
To Kill a Mockingbird
1984
Anthem
Ulysses
The Great Gatsby
Brave New World
Catcher in the Rye
Lord of the Flies
Beloved
Heart of Darkness
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Ender's Game
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Fahrenheit 451
Twice as many novels from The Reader's List as from The Board's List. In terms of Mediated Cultures and anthropology, this leads me to a few thoughts.
There is a slight gap between the "experts" and the readers. Overlap is obvious, not that I was expecting there to be none, but the rankings of the books are completely different when they do overlap. What are the "experts" basing their opinions on to rank these books? Have experts lost touch with what's important in a book in favor of technicalities? "Hey, John Steinbeck is a boring hack, but he's a master at foreshadowing. That turtle? Brilliant. We'll put Grapes of Wrath at number 10."
Are the readers simply reading for enjoyment ("the story"), or are they reading to deepen their understanding about social norms? Are readers understanding and garnering the proposed "deeper meaning"? I'm a fan of the deeper meaning in books. Distopian societies, conspiracy, and satire are what it's about.
I know since this I'm fairly new to this, that there's no one following me, but I'll ask the question anyway:
Why do YOU read?
Like John Green, I don't care how you read, I just care that you do.
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Whew. I did not expect the number of hours I spent working on this to be so high. Could just be my complete lack of experience and difficu...
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Modern Library has a list of the 100 best novels compiled into two sections: The Board's List and The Reader's List. From The B...
