By Any Other Name

"A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet"

-William Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet

G. Whittaker  10-2012

Shakespeare was an amazing playwright, but unfortunately this well known line of his doesn't apply very well to life.  Although he is right that the name of something, or someone doesn't change their character, names are very important.  Perhaps that is indeed why he wrote this line.  Even in the play where it is spoken, names indeed play a huge role, and in a sense, help to determine the outcome of events.  But the intent of this post is not to delve into Romeo and Juliet.  Instead it is to discuss the names by which we call things.

Most people with children (and quite a few pet owners) are familiar with the quandary of choosing a name for their baby.  This naming also extends very much so to authors.  The names that we choose to call things can tell a lot about them, and sometimes even more about us.  Author's don't choose names by accident, just like people don't typically just pull a name out of a hat to name their child.  Some cultures have elaborate naming ceremonies, and in some a person will even progress through a series of names within a lifetime.  In reading , it is important to consider what the purpose of a character's name is, and if it might really tell us more about that character.

But what really prompted me to write this post was thinking about the names that we assign to groups of people.  This can be a very difficult area.  I try to always use the most correct name possible when speaking about a cultural or ethnic group, but this can be very tricky.  One of the most complicated parts is that when people self-identify.  I have been reading a lot of work by Sherman Alexie recently.  He is an author who comes from the Spokane tribe.  He clearly identifies himself as a Spokane, but both in interviews and through the characters in his novels he also identifies as an Indian.  Growing up, I as always taught to refer to these people as Native American.  When I write about a group, or a person I like to be as accurate and respectful as possible, so this naming bit complicates things a lot.  Through my life I have had personal friends who have belonged to various tribes, and they all had different thoughts on this naming.  One friend of mine is Navajo, and I'm pretty sure she is not a fan of the term Indian because of the blanket way that people use it and the stereotypes that come along with it.  This brings up a different issue in what to call another group, because sometimes they can call themselves something that is completely unacceptable for an outsider to use.  Especially for native peoples of this country it can be very complicated.  Let's continue with the example of the Navajo.  We typically refer to them as Navajo, and this seems to be a pretty accepted term.  But they have always been the Dine.  (There's an accent on the e, but I can't figure out how to type it :( )  So are they Indians, Native Americans, Navajo, or Dine?  I usually use the term Navajo because that's what the individuals who are of that group that I know personally use to identify themselves, but occasionally I use Dine.  It is clearly used in a book I'm working on a blog post about that is about some of their history and was written specifically to be used in reservation schools.

With this tricky subject I suggest we simply do the best that we can to be respectful and accurate in the way that we name and describe a group of people.  I recommend we try to make our roses smell as sweet as possible by not calling them by any other name.  When writing about a group I will always try to do so!

Oral Tradition

You thought since winter break started I was MIA, didn't you?  You're not so lucky!  It's just been crazy and busy and I've been catching up on life!  But I've had some time for reading and reflecting on past reading as well, so there will be some posting going on!

One of the fascinating things about written word, is that it can continue without modification for such a long time.  This isn't to say that texts aren't constantly reedited or changed, but just that it is possible to pull out a book that was published 100 years ago, and hear the authentic voice of a long since passed author.  This manifestation is a huge departure from the long held human method of oral transmission of information.  The oral tradition has it's strengths as well though.  A story that is told in that format is more personal.  The story teller can relate to the reader in a way that an author can't simply because they are removed from their audience. They can modify the story to suit their audience better as well, similar to how there are full editions and junior editions of the classics.  This change and modification means that the stories that are retold are alive.  They change over time based on the designs of the storyteller, the makeup of the audience, and based on cultural pressures and current events as well.

The story that got me thinking about this recently was a porque tale.  I had read it with my daughter to help understand the porque form for a Girl Scout project.  Then I found the same porque embedded in a text I was assigned to read for school.  But it wasn't the same at all.  Both explained the same thing, and both are from the same part of the world, but they are incredibly different.  If you are not familiar with porque, it is the name for stories that explain why something is, or how it came to be.  These types of stories are extremely varied, from ones probably familiar to most of my readers such as the Biblical tale of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, to less familiar ones like the one I am going to discuss today.

Photo of this African breed of tortoise and further information about it's natural history here.

The two versions of the story appear in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and in a collection titled African Folktales retold by A. Ceni.  Both are African stories of "How the Cracks in Tortoise's Back Came to Be," but they explain his shell in different ways.  There are many reasons why this could be so, but let's take a look at the two different written stories first.

In Things Fall Apart we are presented with one of the characters telling the story of tortoise   There was a famine in the land and tortoise heard of all the birds being invited to a great feast in the sky.  Tortoise convinced the birds to take him with them so that he too could partake in the feast.  But he tricked them and then ate most of the feast himself in his gluttony.  He was now too heavy to fly back to earth on the wings he had built, so he asked the birds to tell his wife to bring all the soft things out of his house for him to jump down from the sky onto.  The birds were angry with tortoise and instead told her to bring out all the hard things.  From up in the sky tortoise could see she was bringing things out, but couldn't make out what the things were.  When she seemed done, he jumped down.  Landing on all the hard things broke his shell into pieces.  A local medicine man was able to glue his shell back together and save his life, but the cracks remain to this day.

In the African Folktales collection the story of tortoise is a little bit different.  Tortoise and his wife were very good friends with Vulture.  Vulture often came to visit them at their home.  One day Tortoise asked his wife why they never visited Vulture at his home.  Vulture lived a great distance away, way up in the mountains.  So tortoise devised a plan.  He had his wife wrap him up in a parcel that she told Vulture was tobacco that they would like him to trade at the market for them.  Vulture was a good friend, so he agreed to take the package.  While he was flying, tortoise called out to him, saying, "Look it is I Tortoise and I have come all the way up here to visit you at last."  Vulture was so startled that he dropped the parcel with tortoise in it.  When tortoise hit the ground his shell cracked, and it never fully healed.  And that was the end of the visits between tortoise and vulture.

There are some obvious differences between the two tales, but some clear similarities as well.  Both explain the same thing of course, but go about it in different ways.  In both cases we see tortoise interacting with birds and falling from the sky to break his shell.  In both cases the fall is the result of some trickery on the part of tortoise.  In the first case he is quite the trickster, convincing the birds to take him with them, and then managing to steal almost all of the feat that would have generously fed them all.  In the other case tortoise resorts to trickery to try and do a much nicer thing.  Both stories not only explain why tortoise appears as he does, but also serve as a warning to listeners/ readers to be honest.

Many things play into the differences in the tales.  As we've discussed, they are markedly similar, so why are they so different?  Regional variations surely play a role.  But the dynamic of the oral tradition is part of what molds that as well.  It is anthropologically probable that both stories have developed out of a common story. Perhaps one of these tales is more similar to the original.  Perhaps a visitor to one area long ago heard the story while trading and took the story home, but couldn't remember it quite correctly, so it became something similar but different.  The children's game of telephone demonstrates quite easily how mishearing something can result in a completely different story eventually.  The role of the story teller is an important one.  For the longest time they were the only keeps of the past.  Still today they play a very prominent and important role in some communities.  Accurately memorizing stories of their people by heart is an immense honor.

Gilgamesh, an Epic

I recently had the pleasure of rediscovering The Epic of Gilgamesh.  The Babylonian tale is still incomplete due to the damages of time.  It was originally carved into stone tablets in cuneiform.  To get yourself feeling like an ancient Babolonian you might want to get your monogram in cuneiform here, from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.  (mine is included above).

To get a great insight into the myth, I would recommend this video, that covers some of the themes of the epic, how they have affected people in modern times, and some of the works that have been produced from inspiration drawn from the tale of Gilgamesh.

Although this animation doesn't follow the translation I read exactly, it provides a general coverage of the story in a compact, easy to understand format:

Quick Interlude:
I had started writing this post when I had just read Gilgamesh for a course I was taking.  The instructor included so many wonderful resources with every reading assignment to help us gain a greater understanding of the culture and time in which the work was set that I wanted to try and incorporate as much of that as possible in my blog.  Being as I was in the middle of a semester of school including two very heavy reading English classes, I just didn't get around to all the reading blogs I wanted to do at the time.  Now that it's semester break, it's time to catch up!  I don't have access to my professors amazing resources, but hopefully I can share some similar things along with my thoughts on the works.  Looking back is kind of nice as well because it really tells me what aspects of the texts stuck with me.

Gilgamesh is a story about facing our mortality.  Enkidu is created as an equal for Gilgamesh, to teach him how to be not only a strong ruler, but also a wise ruler.  As the story tells us they become like brothers.  When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh is beside himself.  It is as if he has lost a piece of himself.  He has never really had to confront death before and initially refuses to believe that his friend is gone.  This is very reflective of one of the human ways of dealing with death.  Many people fear death and try to avoid, and deny it.  Gilgamesh is overcome by fear of death after his loss and decides that he must seek another way.  Through his quest for immortality he learns that it is not only unattainable, but that we should be appreciative of what time we have.  He ultimately returns home with a different outlook on life.  He has embraced the inevitability of his death and pledges himself to living and ruling his people as wisely as possible in the mean time.

Why is this story so intriguing to people?  Clearly the age of the tale is something that draws people in.  But it is a story outside of time.  Death is something that we all must face eventually.  It is inevitable in life.  Reading the story and knowing that this is something that has been on men's minds for so very long is a way to help people cope with it themselves.  They can relate to Gilgamesh when he loses his friend in in his search for a way to escape a similar fate.  The tale teaches that to let go is necessary, and to live, is to die.  From death comes new life.  The maggots that feed on Enkidu's body flourish where there is death.  Gilgamesh only sees the death at first.  It is very easy to adopt this perspective.  But as he grows and realizes that though death is inescapable, life is also inevitable, and the reader comes to this realization as well.

The epic has inspired many to create their own works of art through the ages.  Perhaps through the adventures of the half-god people are simply inspired by his humanity.  Despite his half godliness Gilgamesh is imperfect.  He resists the conventions of adulthood, struggles with mortality, and makes mistakes along the way.  If a demi-god has these problems it makes them more acceptable to those who know the story.  It becomes okay to be fearful, and to make mistakes in life.  People are comforted by the story because of how they can relate to Gilgamesh.  His challenges are immense, and his battles larger than life, but he is accessible to the reader.  We feel the heartache when he loses his best friend, and the joy in finding his purpose after this.  The tale has endured because of human nature and the need to understand ourselves and our purpose.  Though the epic doesn't give answers to these hard questions, it helps readers to address them, and provides some greater understanding of how one ought to live their life.

Semester Final Project

For our final project in my English 102 class we were asked to prepare a presentation on something that we learned this semester.  Here is my presentation on Biographical and Historical Criticism:

Biographical and Historical Criticism from R2Whistler

I used the book The White Tiger as an example in my presentation because I just read it for my other English class and felt the colorful imagery would make a memorable addition to the information. :)

World Literature Reflective Postcard

This drawing is my reflective postcard for this semester in my World Literature class.  I wanted to create something that would represent all of the literature and films that we took in during the semester.

The goddess Kali is from The White Tiger, the final book that we read.  A magnet depicting her is kept on the dashboard of the car by the narrator Balram.  She is typically depicted with either 4 or 10 arms.  Here she has 10 and holds items that come from, or represent all of the others.  Over her head she holds a basketball to represent Sherman Alexie's collection of short stories The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.  Presented on her next hand to the right is the head of Humbaba the monster from The Epic of Gilgamesh.  Below that she holds a samurai sword to represent the film "The Twilight Samurai."  Following this is a take out bag from the fast food chain Cowboy Chicken, featured in the story "After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town" in Ha Jin's collection The Bridegroom.  The next hand holds a liquor bottle which is included as a unifying image for several of the works, but the design of the bottle was inspired specifically from The White Tiger.  Kali is often depicted with her foot on the head of the dead Vishnu, who in this work, has been replaced with a face to represent Okwonkwo of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.  The next hand brandishes a wooden spoon representative of Tita in Laura Esquivel's novel Like Water for Chocolate.  Above this a hand holds a stick for the blind to represent Mohammad in the Iranian film "The Color of Paradise."  The hand above that holds a ring to represent "Beuowolf."  The last hand has a parrot perched upon it to represent the novel Wide Sargasso Sea.

Although each of the items is included with a particular work initially in mind, there is much more that I meant to represent with them.  Although Mohammad is the only physically blind character in the works that we read/watched this semester, many of the other characters fumble like the blind in their search for things.  This searching is something I would say is a unifying theme throughout the works.  A liquor bottle is used by Balram as the weapon to commit a murder, but alcohol plays a major role in Alexie's work as well.  It also appears prolifically in Wide Sargasso Sea as Antoinette's mental state declines.  There was so much I thought about as far as the meaning of the items and their placement in the work,  perhaps you are familiar with one or more of the works and can make your own connections.

The only work that we viewed this semester that doesn't have it's own individual item is the film "Waltz with Bashir."  Of all of the characters searching for things, this search is possibly the most obvious, but I had trouble coming up with something representative that I felt worked.

I really enjoyed the armchair travels we went on in this class throughout the semester.  Although I like to get out and see and experience places a lot as well, I think that arm chair travelling is a fantastic thing to do, and is far more practical and less expensive that traditional travel.  Also when we actually travel, there is a propensity to insulate ourselves from the people we are visiting by travelling with tour groups that are designed specifically for American tourists.  There's quite a bit more that we can learn from people and places if we have the time to stop and really take in their point of view.  I didn't enjoy, or like all of the works that we used in this class.  But I don't find that necessary either.  A lot of times being challenged by a work that you wouldn't not normally expose yourself to is a very positive thing.  Sometimes those are the ones from which we learn the most.  If you're interested in mote of my thoughts on some of the works included in this reflective post card collage, check my blog archive as I have blogged in depth about several of them through the semester.  Though not all of them managed to make it onto the blog yet, many did, and others are draft posts still awaiting completion. :)

Pearl Harbor Day

From Boston.com

Today is Pearl Harbor day, a day when we remember the December 7th, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  I have visited Pearl and the memorial twice myself and it was such an emotional experience.  My semester is almost over and I was having trouble deciding which book to read first during the semester break.  Today I was inspired. Today I started reading a new book.

Early Sunday Morning is a diary written by a fictitious girl about her experiences on Pearl Harbor Day.  It is part of the "Dear America" series of books which are all written in the same style for different eras and events in American history.  They are designed to be a way for young girls to be engages by American history and to feel like they can relate to girls who lived through these times.  Though I have not read one of these before myself, my 2nd grader has a collection of them.  I just found the Pearl Harbor one for her last Saturday, and inspired by today, I'm reading it before she's had a chance to get to it.

I just wanted to make a post on this day to share about this book.  I will have to post about it again after reading it of course!

If you are interested in reading about this year's 71st remembrance of the attack, here is a link to a short AP article about this year's gathering at Pearl.

Course Reflection

This semester has gone by so quickly!  Every semester is full of new ideas and information, and this one was no different.  I tend to look at the learning experience as a whole, so sometimes picking out specific things that I have learned in a particular class can be challenging.  This semester I took two English classes.  Maybe I'm a masochist. But each taught me some fantastic things.  The class for which I created this blog was English 102.  Somehow I had missed taking this before, but I'm thankful for being able to take it with an instructor who was both helpful to her students and good at challenging them to think and grow.  I have been so very lucky to have similar professors for most of my classes!  But this assignment and post are meant to focus on what I have learned form this course in particular...

The very first thing I learned in this class was about book blogging!  If you go back and look at my posts you will notice that I have done some of these on my own as well.  I have blogged some personal reading, and some of the assigned readings from my other English class.  What a great experience.  Though I haven;t had the time to really delve into the world of book blogging and start reading other people's book blogs, (outside of my class,) I look forward to doing so.  I also plan on continuing my own book blog!

Two of the reading that I blogged about from the class come to mind right away when I think about things that affected me during this course.  Both "Bartleby the Scrivener" and "A Modest Proposal" were challenging to read and analyze.  It's always nice to be assigned reading that has depth to it.  I like having the chance to read these short pieces as well as our assigned novel Winter's Bone because they were things that I would not otherwise have read.  I think that this really helps to broaden my experience and understanding of other people. :)

Headed on out of the semester! (R. Whittaker 10-2012)

Cultural Misrepresentation

This is my little girl (well one of them).  And this post really has nothing to do with reading or books per se...but it has to do with a lot more than her too.  The past couple of years Ohio University has sponsored a campaign to educate people about racism through poster images relating to wearing culturally insensitive Halloween costumes.  I'm interested in posting about this on this blog because I'd like to know what other people think about this campaign.  I'm really interested in a respectful and honest conversation about people's feelings about the campaign, and about wearing cultural costumes that aren't of your own background.

Here is a sample of one of the 2012 campaign posters.

http://www.ohio.edu/orgs/stars/Home.html

Here is my own

"This is not who I am, and this is not okay."

Now, I completely support the fight against racism.  I truly believe that all people are created equally, and that no one race or culture stands above any other.  I firmly believe that if we made cultural education a more integrated part of our worldwide curriculum it would foster much greater understanding of other people and would minimize international tensions.

But I think I approach this in a way that is different from other people sometimes.  First, I don't think we should separate out the history of any one particular cultural group within our history when teaching it to young students.  I don't feel there is a need for a black history month, and a women's history month.  We should just have history, and integrate all of those things into one curriculum.  But separating these groups out for special attention we are bringing attention to difference.  We're telling children, "Look, this person and their history and achievements are special because they are..."  We should be focusing on the achievements, not those differences. 

Second, as a cultural anthropology student, I believe that one of the best ways to understand and learn about a people is through participant observation.  This is one of the most important tools that cultural anthropologists have!  I have always enjoyed becoming part of my research.  When I was younger I did this for reports and presentations in school, and now I integrate it into the home schooling I do with my kids, as well as for myself as a hobby of sorts.  I use this to teach my children about their own heritage, but to learn about history and other cultures as well.

Learning about our own heritage.

Learning about history.

Learning about other culture.

I think the key thing is how we approach this.  When I do these activities, I try and make them as authentic as possible.  When I did a report on the Mohave Indians in 5th grade I hand tied grass skirts for my entire group for our project presentation   I try to be as authentic as possible in all of the things that we do so that we honor those whose customs they are and so that we really are learning about and appreciating them.  This year we made a dia de los Muertos ofrenda and learned about all of the things that should go into it.  We made it for a deceased relative of ours, and did it with respect.  We looked up information to make it as authentic as we could and baked our own Pan de Muerto.  My daughter also did a project for United Nations day at school for which she had to to a cultural project on Ghana.  We did traditional braiding of her hair and did our best to reflect traditional dress.  She was to wear this for school, but insisted on wearing it while having her hair braided and while making a traditional Ghanan dish fufu, so that she could have the most authentic experience possible.  I was so proud of her.

I am glad that the Ohio University is doing their program, because I feel like there are a lot of culturally insensitive costumes.  Some are completely inexcusable to me. 

This poster form the STARS 2011 campaign illustrates one of the ones I find most problematic.

This is not funny

And this is not cute.

But I'm not without a sense of humor on the matter either.  And neither is the Internet community.

This was a poster in the 2011 campaign, and a spoof poster  designed from it.

Now there are plenty of spoof returns on an image search for "Ohio University costume campaign."

This is one of my favorites:

It is cute, and good for people to be able to poke some fun at themselves from time to time.  But the truth is that the campaign is necessary.  Not only are Halloween costumes reflective of cultural biases, but over the past year and a half mainstream fashion has gone severely in this direction as well with the so-called Neo-Navajo fashion trend.  

Culminating recently in this embarrassing fashion show put on by Victoria's Secret

These are the kinds of things that demand that we be proactive about this.  These are the types of costumes toward which the campaign is geared.  It is one thing to learn about and honor a group, but it is something completely different to use symbols of which you don't understand the meaning, and items of immense cultural significance out of context to the detriment of the cultural group for your own amusement or financial gain.  and stereotyped costumes like the middle eastern bomber are so far beyond poor taste it's criminal.

But I welcome your thoughts on this!  Maybe you don't agree with me.  maybe you do.  I didn't write this blog post just to complain about the situation, but to educate and to get people talking.  I'd like to know what you think about the use of cultural costumes for Halloween, and for fashion.  Has your culture been misrepresented in this way?  How do you feel about it?  Do you think cultural costumes are ever okay?  Where do you draw the line?  I'd like to know.  So please, be respectful, but comment and share your point of view!

Technology

This semester we'e been challenged by a lot of technology as we have been asked to work on projects (including this blog) for our class.  Thankfully I have been taking online classes for awhile now, so navigating a lot of the online system was familiar to me.  This was the first time, however, that I had been asked to create a blog for a class.  I really enjoyed the book blogging experience!  I am hoping that after this class I manage to continue with my cook blogging!

Another thing that was new to me in this class was the online tutor.  I blogged about the online tutor in my post about revision.  I had no idea that this was something that was available for online students, and although I didn't have the greatest experience this time with it, it's something I would certainly consider using in the future.

There are lots of reasons for taking online classes... here are 4 of mine. :)

G. Whittaker 12-2012 and G. Whittaker 10-1012