Animals in Regards to Love and Power

Humanities Core Website Project By: Naol Tulu

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Spring Blog #1

I came into Humanities Core expecting a regular English class with a bit of flare. However, as the year passed by and I read and analyzed the texts/ images, I found a perspective on art that I had heard about before but had previously disregarded: the portrayal of human suffering through story telling. Reading Marie De. France’s fables on their own, while interesting, are barely memorable. But once properly analyzed, their importance to not just her but her society at large is incredible. The nuanced methods in which authors attach meaning that connects to the real world or how much artists’ subtleties reveal about their and their societies ideologies. This new outlook lead me to re-examine my favorite story re-examine the subtext that I had missed the first time when I watched/read it.

Jennifer Broun Conner

Let me introduce you to the world of “One Piece”, a manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. Having an over 20 year long run with over 970 chapters and 95 volumes out, this story has been building its complex world since it first started and is still going. The complex society that has been masterfully woven together over the course of these 20 years has created an almost real world with its own politics, history and lore. 

The story follows the main cast who are a pirate crew that are traversing the dangerous sea while enjoying their adventure. However, unlike many. other long running stories, this world does not revolve around the main cast. Sure they affect the world greatly, but when they are having their smaller adventures, the world still keeps on moving. Earlier I said that I was fascinated by the portrayal of human suffering through art. Well this world, just like ours, is brim full with suffering. The world of One Piece is filled with small details and major events that explore the human condition. The first time I read this manga, I glanced over them all. Now that I have an analytic mindset, I am thrilled to discover the subtleties in this work that will enhance my experience and give me a better insight onto the true world that was built by Oda.

Work Cited

Eiichiro Oda, story and illustration. One Piece. Viz Media, 1997

Inspiration by Tekking101

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A Modern Pandemic

The first documented case of leprosy in Hawaii occurred in 1848. Its rapid spread and lack of cure caused mass anxiety over the disease that led the European Colonizers of Hawaii to resort to extreme measures.

Those measures were the Kalaupapa Leprosy Colony as shown above. People who had contracted Hansen’s Disease( the proper name for Leprosy) were isolated from their own families and sent to live here under inhumane conditions. 

Leprosy for Europeans invoked emotions of anxiety, fear, revulsion, sin and foulness. However, to the Hawaiians the true fear lay not with the disease but with the social isolation it brought with it. Which is why the local name for Leprosy is Mai hookaawale, which means separation sickness. And. the location where they were isolated became known as Lahui I hoehaeha, meaning nation of agony.

“Leprosy victims, arriving by ship, were sometimes told to jump overboard and swim for their lives. Occasionally a strong rope was run from the anchored ship to the shore, and they pulled themselves painfully through the high, salty waves, with legs and feet dangling below like bait on a fishing line.The ship’s crew would then throw into the water whatever supplies had been sent, relying on currents to carry them ashore or the exiles swimming to retrieve them.”

  -http://visitmolokai.com/wp/kalaupapa-peninsula/

“The measure of a civilization is how it treats its weakest members.” - Gandhi

The Hawaiian colony deeply mistreated those who we would call the weakest and most vulnerable of the society. When children are being removed from parents and the mere act of human contact becomes something rare what else remains for a person to stay sane. Being unable to even touch ones child and never seeing your own kin must be the most excruciating punishment one could  have been given for simply contracting a disease.

This here is an image of the visitors place for the colony. Since human touch was forbidden this was the closest the victims ever got to seeing their loved ones again. That is assuming they were able to get to this isolated location in the first place and assuming they were not shunned by their families for contracting the disease.

Arterra Picture Library/Alamy

This is one of the few pictures remaining before the colony was closed down. Over its near decade long operation the colony had over 8000 exiled victims on it. It likely is one of history’s most horrific medical sequesters and a definite low-point in human history.

WORK CITED

https://withoutapath.com/empty-venice-italy-tourism-photography/

http://visitmolokai.com/wp/kalaupapa-peninsula/

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Annotating Witchcraft

For activity 5 of the Website project, a passage from “Sex and Sin, Witchcraft and the Devil in Late-Colonial Mexico.” by Ruth Behar will be annotated to serve as an example on how to read a scholarly work in history. 

The Basics:

The first step in annotating any paper is to simply read it a few times and note down descriptions of the text as well as your own reactions to the text. This helps to locate key information and quotations, and to recall your thought processes more easily and quickly. It is also very important that you mark any words that are unfamiliar to you and write down their definitions somewhere. Having a key is usually really important to distinguish what each marking means. Additionally, highlighting or underlining claims raised in the passage will make understanding the passage a lot simpler at the end.

For a Scholarly Work in History:

For this type of passage, the thing to focus on apart from the claims is the evidence used by the authors and its relevance. For instance: is the evidence a primary or secondary source, what is the significance of the type of evidence, why was that specific evidence used instead of another, does the author agree with the conclusions in the evidence if any were drawn. Then also consider the authors intent in writing this, by examining the context in which the passage was written. 

If you do this combined with the basics, you will have properly annotated a scholarly work in history.

The Sample:

Key:

Pink: claims

Red= comments on the claims

Green: evidence

Lighter green= comments on evidence

Purple: key words

Black: personal opinions

- Excerpt from “Sex and Sin, Witchcraft and the Devil in Late-Colonial Mexico.”, page 35 and 36

My response to this passage:

In this passage, Behar is arguing that unlike in European culture, witches in the Spanish colonies were less persecuted. In fact, she claims that women often used witchcraft accusations to their advantage. She builds her argument slowly not clearly stating anything drastic at first. She starts off by making an obvious claim that “women of social levels lost their legal autonomy”( Behar). She then proceeds to expand on this claim and makes newer and bolder claims all the while supporting each of the claims with primary and secondary sources as evidence. She continually cites other authors who agree with her individual claims so when all of them come together at the end, she has a very solid basis upon to make the claim that women self reported to being witches to escape marriages they were unsatisfied with and to escape other legal prosecution. While on its own this claim would be very “out there”, with how she slowly built it up over the course of the passage, it becomes a very understandable outlook on what happened. Since she presents her thought process so clearly, it also makes it very easy open up the whole argument for an academic debate. 

I found the whole passage extremely engaging and interesting to read. While I know she expands on this on the following pages of the article, I would like to see more detailed examples of people actually taking advantage of the witch system in the Spanish Colonies. While such an account would be extremely unlikely to be found, as the whole idea is a conclusion based on different pieces of information, it would be an extremely interesting read and would of course prove Behar right without a doubt.

Citation

Behar, Ruth. “Sex and Sin, Witchcraft and the Devil in Late-Colonial Mexico.” American Ethnologist, vol. 14, no. 1, 1987, pp. 34–54. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/645632. Accessed 20 Feb. 2020.

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Secrets of Reciprocation

In the second lecture of the quarter, Professor Herbert talked about the ambiguity created by the representations of humans as specimen logic. His main claim was that, for example, the “Tapuyan man” by Albert Eckhout was both represented as a leader similar to that of Luis XIV but at the same time this man was beneath the common European man.

It is clear to see the similarities of their posture, their weapons and even the way the background is painted similarly. However, the difference between these two could also not be any clearer. One in luxurious clothes, and the other completely nude. The Tapuyan man was clearly painted to be associated with beasts and wild animals. As can be seen by the small creatures besides whom he stands. Nonetheless, there is a sense of reciprocity between the two images.

All these were questions and statements made by Professor Herbert. These two men might not have been portrayed as equals, but by comparing the Tapuyan man to the European leadership, they were acknowledging the aspects of the Tapuyan civilization that they do respect. By analyzing the properties of the non-Europeans that seem to reflect the European norms, what becomes apparent is the values that the Europeans of the time had.

Introducing the “Mameluca Woman” and the “Mulato Man”

These two are the only other ones from the whole collection to be portrayed on a semi-equal footing with the Europeans. From their backgrounds which seem very tame and controlled, to the fact that they are fully clothed apart from shoes. Not wearing shoes shows that they are still connected to nature thus maintaining their non-humane nature. However, by the fact that they are part European, they are drawn closer than any other pair in the collection to Europeans portraits.

The Mameluca Woman:

The Mameluca woman is a clear allusion to the European ideal of a maiden. The biggest indication of that being her white robe resembling that of the ancient Greek maidens of eternal virginity. Furthermore, the fruits and the guinea pigs ( who were associated with rabbits and fertility) are all indications of her being a healthy and mateable specimen of the Mameluca. All things the Europeans who had a scarcity of women in the America’s would find extremely valuable.

The Mulato Man:

Unlike all the other paintings, he seems to be wearing some European clothes. While still not wearing shoes, making him beneath the European man, by virtue of him being half European, he is ascended to a higher authority than the rest of the Afro-Brazilians and natives.

He is also the only one who has ships in his background. Nothing says freedom more than ships sailing across the vast ocean. By this man being half European. The very small ships in his background indicate a possibility of actually being able to maybe go to Europe and perhaps go on an exploration for himself. This specimen of a man is likely the closest to being considered on an equal footing to the Europeans than any other group. Thus they grant him the possibility of exploration. Especially at the time this was painted, exploration was one of the most important things in European society and this painting conveys that importance in a very subtle method.

Work Cited

Rigaud, Hyacinthe. “Museo Del Prado.” Museo Del Prado, 1701, https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/louis-xiv-of-france/eb9b8bf3-4e26-4539-aff5-e368222c3f98.

Eckhout, Albert. Mameluca Woman, Mulatto Man, Tapuya Man. 1641, The National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen

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Part of the Whole

For the third unit in Humanities Core, my class read the Books “Conference of the Birds” by Attar and “Kalila wa Dimna” and were asked to respond to it in any way we desired. Of the two readings, an idea that really intrigued me was the ideology of emptying oneself to find true peace in the world, from Conference of the Birds. I had never thought about looking at being empty as a possible good thing and had associated it with sadness and depression. Thanks to my professor, I was able to make the connection of this idea to the Buddist ideas. Then I came upon this image, which perfectly encapsulated the whole idea that was expressed in the Conference of the Birds.

In the words of Paula Arai this painting by Iwasaki Tsuneo is supposed to utilize the Heart Sutra to show how to perceive the “ultimate and conventional reality simultaneously.“ The heart Sutra is a popular sutra in Mahāyāna Buddhism.  This sutra reveals the fundamental reality of ourselves and the world as shunyata, or emptiness. The teachings of the Heart Sutra are reflected in the Conference of the Birds. While reading the book, a very prominent theme in the journey that the birds take is the theme of becoming one with Simorg and emptying oneself in order to be able to do that. This idea is perfectly represented by the painting above. The birds are flying in a way that they all together make one bigger bird. This is identical to the metaphor of becoming a droplet in the ocean that the Hoopoe uses. The idea of the whole and the individual being blurred is perfectly represented by this image.

Painting by: Iwasaki Tsuneo

Image from: https://tricycle.org/magazine/iwasaki-tsuneo/

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A Midsummer Night's Dream

In unit two of Humanities core, we read Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. We were asked to create a playbill that reflected a theme in the play that we found most interesting. The theme that interested me the most was the interplay between love and control.

In Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” the ideas of control and free will are explored with the Fairies often acting as a symbolic higher power that exhibits control over the lover world. 

Poster created on Canva.com

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The Mighty Hydrus

For the first unit of Humanities core, we read the old Bestiaries and discussed their significance over time. We were then asked to respond to one of the animals in the Bestiary by creating a collage. This collage does not have any pictures of the beast I chose, but rather the message that was presented by the beast. The Beast I chose was the Hydrus.

“The Hydrus is an animal that lives in the Nile River. It is the enemy of the crocodile. When it sees a crocodile sleeping with its mouth open, the Hydrus first rolls in mud to make itself slippery, then enters the crocodile's mouth and is swallowed. It then eats its way out of the crocodile's belly, killing it.” (http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast272.htm)

The Hydrus being swallowed by the crocodile and tearing itself out is representative of Christ descending into hell and defeating death by resurrecting. I wanted this collage to have a theme of death and immortality. The candle is Christ. Alone in the darkness. The only light. While the man and cross-burning show his immunity against death and the fires of hell as he came back unharmed. Since crows are a symbol of death, I chose dead crows to show how Christ defeated death itself. And finally, Doom Eternal is a video game whose main protagonist is a christ figure who descends into hell to defeat the evil presence there.

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Bibliography:

Dead crow left:https://www.shutterstock.com/search/dead+crow

Dead crow right:https://www.margosupplies.com/usa/dead-crow-decoy

Scythe: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKrdjhjbTmAhUZIjQIHa-MALwQjB16BAgBEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cgtrader.com%2F3d-models%2Fmilitary%2Fmelee%2Fzombie-scythe&psig=AOvVaw1jbD60MtI-XuZTz2LJeCuN&ust=1576377449089482

Candle: https://michaeltoddfink.com/kindmind/2018/4/17/light-in-the-dark

Man on fire:https://genius.com/albums/Thutmose/Man-on-fire

Burning cross: https://www.fotosearch.com/CSP834/k8347878/

Game: https://bethesda.net/en/game/doom