#orientalizing

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Garment Applique.

Date: 650-600 B.C. (2nd half 7th century B.C.)

Place of creation: Rhodes; Place of discovery: Camiros

Period: Orientalizing

[taxonomiesofloss]

As Reynolds-Cordileone has said, images of handicrafts and women's craft making reveal a lot about Austro-Hungarian Orientalisms, and imperialisms, "displaying Bosnia"- and Sarajevo- under Austro-Hungarian rule.

[darkeyecircless]

Female Canopic ash urn. From Castiglione del Lago, second half of 7th century BCE, impasto, H. 50 cm, Florence, Museo Archeologico

Object 10: Canopic Urns (Chiusi)

Themes:

Cremation tradition, anthropomorphization of the dead, Egyptian influence, regional variation

Visual Description

Canopic urns from the inland region of Chiusi, where cremation continued into the Orientalizing period unlike coastal Southern Etruria. The ash urn is housed inside a large ziro (terracotta storage jar), set in rock-cut pits covered by stone slabs. The urn itself evolved from a Villanovan biconic form: the globular lid progressively became more human — first roughly indicating facial features, then becoming a full head with hair, and the body of the vessel acquiring sternums, nipples, and rudimentary arms. Some urns were made in hammered bronze. Both pottery and bronze specimens were placed on miniature thrones of stone, terracotta, or bronze, sometimes accompanied by small tables.

Significance

The Canopic urn tradition in Chiusi shows how a conservative regional practice — cremation — adapted to new ideas about the individuality and dignity of the dead. By progressively humanizing the container of the ashes, the urn became a surrogate body for the deceased. The throne elevates the urn-person to an ancestral, dignified status (compare the Tomb of Five Chairs). The Egyptian reference in the name 'Canopic' is superficial; what matters is the indigenous logic of giving the dead a face and a seated position of authority. The tradition documents both regional variation within Etruria and the broader pan-Mediterranean interest in representing the deceased as an individualized presence.

Broader Themes & Connections

Regional variation in Etruscan funerary practice; the progressive anthropomorphization of the ash urn; the throne as a symbol of dignity (linking Objects 5, 8, and 20); false Egyptian parallel — the significance of local vs. borrowed forms; continuity of cremation in an inhumation era.

Key Terms

Canopic urn, Chiusi, ziro, cremation, anthropomorphization, bronze urn, miniature throne, regional variation, ancestor identity, Villanovan continui

[darkeyecircless]

View of interior of left side chamber off the dromos showing five rock-carved seats. Tomb of Five Chairs, Cerveteri

Reconstruction drawing of the side chamber with all the features needed for the cult ceremonies: tables, basket, altar, and seats. Tomb of the Five Chairs, Cerveteri, 650-600 BCE

[darkeyecircless]

Interior of Tomb of the Hut showing pebble bed in inner room. Tumulus 2, Banditaccia necropolis, Cerveteri. Early 7th century BCE

Object 6: Chamber Tomb Imitating Domestic Architecture

Themes:

Funerary architecture, house and tomb, ancestor cult, social identity

Visual Description

Rock-carved chamber tombs at Cerveteri (notably the Tomb of the Hut in Tumulus 2 of the Banditaccia necropolis) reproduce the interior of an Etruscan rectangular hut in stone. Two axially aligned inner chambers replicate a hut with a high thatched ridge roof. Low lateral benches appear in the front room; a bed of river pebbles runs around the walls of the inner chamber. The stepped dromos (entrance passage) leads to a stone slab closure, with a vaulted bridge and platform outside for ritual use. Later chamber tombs grow more complex to accommodate multiple generations of a family.

Significance

The chamber tomb literalizes the idea of the tomb as the 'house of the dead' — an idea first visible in miniature in the Villanovan hut urns, now enacted at architectural scale. The carving of domestic details in permanent stone preserves information about actual Etruscan huts (whose perishable materials leave little archaeological trace). The dromos, oriented toward the underworld (north/west), and the external platform for ritual suggest elaborate funerary rites were performed at the tomb entrance. The growing complexity of tomb plans mirrors the growing complexity of aristocratic family identity and ancestor veneration in the Orientalizing period

Broader Themes & Connections

Continuity between hut urns and chamber tombs as expressions of the same ideology; the tomb as domestic space and as ritual arena; orientation and cosmology in Etruscan burial; social hierarchy expressed through monumentality; funerary rites and public ceremony at the tomb.

Key Terms

chamber tomb, dromos, Banditaccia, Cerveteri, house of the dead, ancestor cult, Orientalizing, tufa, tumulus, funerary ritual

[filmdilwali]

Orientalizing: Zazie (France)

This is going to be a mammoth post, and one which has given me writer's block for about 2 months. I realized when I started researching Zazie's videos that although I knew a couple songs with Indian motifs, I was really going to need to look at Zazie's entire 2004 album, Rodéo. 

Zazie is my favorite French artist, and Rodéo is my third favorite album (after Totem and Zen). Though one of Zazie's early music videos, "Je, tu, ils," played on minstrelsy, I find her lyrics masterful and very perceptive. Her album Totem is especially socially conscious; in particular, the song "J'étais là" condemns armchair activism. 

I have divided the songs on the Rodéo album based on the music video that resulted. Some of the song titles are hyperlinks to the videos.

Type I: Zazie plays an Indian woman, even though the lyrics mostly provide no expectation for an Indian cultural context

"La Dolce Vita"

"Excuse-moi"

Really, neither of these songs needed to be set in India. "Excuse-moi" is lyrically about a man who has just used up Zazie's patience, and "La Dolce Vita" is a more mournful ballad about admitting that this wonderful, passionate relationship should be let go. In "Excuse-moi," Zazie is the good, ever-enduring wife, while her husband carries on with the maid. I find this paradigm uncomfortable, since it seems to suggest a gender/culture difference: that the Indian man has his ways, and the Western woman is above his mistreatment of her. It's also uncomfortable in that the servant feels Zazie's wrath for carrying on with the husband, thereby dividing the parties Zazie vs. Indians instead man vs. women. In "La Dolce Vita," Zazie alternates between narrator and lover, sometimes exchanging places with the Indian female lover. I don't quite understand the implication; is she on the inside, i.e. a part of the ill-fated couple, or not?

"La pluie et le beau-temps" 

I think this music video has the best argument for use of an Indian setting. The lyrics address an all-powerful "tu" who creates for Zazie's character a tumultuous world of extreme contrasts.

In French, as well as in Hindi-Urdu, "tu" is an informal pronoun. 

Often in Urdu poetry, the poet makes the addressee of the poem ambiguous; the "tu" may reflect either the lover (making this a 

عشق مجازی, a human love), or God (divine love being more pure, 

عشق حقیقی). By setting the music video in a temple, Zazie's lyrics echo the traditional Indian ambiguity between the beloved divine and mortal. I think this is a powerful message about the nature of faith and love.

"Doolidom" although I think the opening musical strains are Indian, and thus, the music video's setting in a Lacknavi-type dance hall of yore is appropriate.

Type II: Zazie as herself in India

"Oui" 

Made in a similar manner to "Lola Majeure," and with similar images of young Indians having fun and being carefree, here Zazie takes more of an active role in her song (she is seen singing it). The message of the song is along the lines of Carpe Diem, don't say no, etc:

         Mais oui/ but yes          Puisque c'est ta vie/so that your life          Puisque c'est ton coeur/ so that it's your heart          Qui te guidera/that will guide you

"Lola majeure"

Probably "orientalizing" is a fair critique for this video, which overlays the audio for Zazie's lullaby (Lola is her daughter's name) over images of Zazie, wearing a kameez and capris, cavorting around an Indian village. She meets the charming Indians and the adorable kids. Many video montages show the Indians doing things in their own way, and it's their unexpected, carefree approach that is supposed to charm the viewer/Zazie. However, I kind of like this video; I think it's the most authentic depiction at Zazie's experience of India that we see. Significantly, her experience of India: The Reality, is childlike.

Type III: Music video does not use images of India

"Toc Toc Toc" whose lyrics are a reflection of more Western fairy tale images, such as the wolf at the door ("le loup qui te mangera"/the wolf who's going to eat you); the dark forest; and Prince Charming ("si les princes existent encore"/if princes exist anymore). This song sets up a fantastical world, and I believe that other music videos from this album could have easily been set in the world of the Western fairy tale canon, even though I find that kind of thing ridiculously overdone. So it's interesting that instead India--and actually not a monolithic vision of India--is instead the fantastical setting.

"Ghost/Arrive"

"Rodéo" which also uses tropes of childhood fantasy, such as the cowboy, in lyrics & music video

"Slow"

No music video:

"J'aime j'aime pas"

"Sauver le monde"

  Music videos are fantasy, and it's notable that all the images of childhood fantasy are in the West (e.g. rodeo, cowboy, the wolf), whereas the images of adult fantasy are Indian. Even when Zazie engages with India as a modern reality, and as herself (e.g. "Oui" and "Lola Majeure"), she can only engage with India in a child-like state, with youthful cheer, naïveté and optimism.

[filmdilwali]

Orientalizing: MC Solaar (France)

The video that I'm going to display here is one of the worst of French rapper MC Solaar's otherwise great career. I find the lyrics of the song ridiculous and racist, and the video is just so problematic.

"Au Pays De Gandhi" ("In the Country of Gandhi"--also many of the places mentioned in the lyrics are not actually India, from Kathmandu to Sumatra, and Gandhi's doctrine of nonviolence shows up once):

The basic gist of the song is that MC Solaar loves India because of all its fascinations. The chorus tells us to 'move your body/in the country of Gandhi/move your body/as in all the countries.' Errm....

Most of these fascinations are about objectifying women. The first thing MC Solaar and all his friends see on their trip is an Indian woman, who is so beautiful and exotic that she can make the serpents skip and the elephants gallop. Nevertheless, the women in this video who are clearly meant to attract a sexual gaze (not the Indian back-up dancers) are white and certainly not attired in an Indian way.

For some lyrical excerpts:

Sache que ça sent l'encens et le bois de santal... Know that it smells of incense and sandalwood

Le style est original, la vache est leur animal,

The style is original, the cow is their animal

Tu marches sans piédestal avec ta paire de sandales...

You walk without a pedestal with your pair of sandals Faut beaucoup d'amour, d'espièglerie

There's [even, there must be] lots of love, playfulness

C'est le pays de Gandhi

It's the country of Gandhi.

Regrettably, MC Solaar even rhymes "malaria" with "a la playa."

This is just one of the most awful orientalizing songs, and I find it weird to come from an artist like MC Solaar, who really just ought to be on a different side of the post-colonial divide. (Solaar was born in Dakar but grew up in Paris & its environs; as an artist his work focuses on expressing concerns of minorities in French society.)