ANZAC assignment ideas

I’m thinking about focusing on ANZAC day as a point of identity for New Zealanders, and in particular looking at how the younger generation consider it to be, maybe in comparison to older generations. I know people say that the younger generation is continuing the traditions, but I don’t know how widely shared this is – some of my workmates know very little at all about it, and others think it’s a ‘stupid’ celebration of stupid wars.

The incorporation of Maori culture into whatever ceremony I attend may also be important in looking at it as a part of NZ identity.

I think talking to younger people both at the ceremony and some who are not might give some interesting points of view to help this.

Suicide, honour and love

The word is negative. We tend to instantly associate it with despair, mental illness and cowardice. Even looking at the way it is defined by the Oxford Dictionary gives it negative connotations instantly:

For earlier synonyms see SELF-DESTRUCTION, -HOMICIDE, -KILLING, -MURDER, -SLAUGHTER.

a. The or an act of taking one’s own life, self-murder. Phr. to commit suicide.

Of course, there are many different reasons for suicide, and they are not all considered to be negative. Think, for example, of sucide-bombers, who are commiting  “self-murder” for the honour and freedom of their nation – people making a statement, who will be rewarded for their act. We, of course, view them as terrorists, and “suicide” maintains its negative connotations with a little extra spice.

Seppuku is possibly one of the most famous forms of sucide – this is Japanese ritual disembowlment, a form of death chosen by Samuri to avoid being killed by the enemy and maintain their honour. However, it could also be obligatory rather than voluntary, a death for a disgraced samuri.

Suicide as a way to maintain honour, particularly as a way to avoid death, can be found in other places as well. Prisoners of war have done such things, chosen to commit suicide rather than face the disgrace of torture and/or helpless death at the enemies hands. The risk of giving in to torture and betraying one’s country has also led to suicide before.

The Hindu had a custom where the widow of a recently deceased man would immolate (suicide by fire) herself on her husband’s funeral pyre – either voluntarily or by force. This ritual called sati is linked to deity legends. The Vikings had their somewhat similar ancient custom. The dead were cremated on a ship and included with them were objects for the afterlife – alcohol, weapons, and perhaps slaves and women. A girl was often placed, alive, on the ship of a chieftan so that he would have someone for the afterlife. An Arab Muslim writer, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, recorded in the 10th century his observations of such a ritual.

Is this suicide though, or sacrifice? What exactly is suicide? How much can suicide involve other people?

Particularly interesting to me is the number of internet sucide pacts that we hear about online, or people who have commited suicide as the result of internet interaction. How much does this link the internet (largely chat sites and networking sites) with negative deaths?

As an English Lit (and Anth) major, I would be interested to investigate the way in which suicide features in literature (although I imagine this has been done). Lovers and Suicide is the most obvious topic – you have your Romeo and Juliet, you have the language of lovers from Medieval to Romantic poetry about the pain of love and how death and love are linked. Love itself  is quite often written as a violent thing in European/Western culture. Love and suicide – despair or self-sacrifice – can be strongly linked. I would like to go beyond the bounds of English literature as well, and see how it features in wider literature.

Would you die for love, and how would you choose to do it?

Political Sociodrama-ey

I found this week’s reading “The Sociodrama of Presidential Politics” very interesting (I use that word too often). In particular, the offensive strategy of attacking one’s opponent. Although we have that here, I don’t think we have it in the same kind of depth that it is in America. I still remember that song sung some elections ago by three Green Party members (I think… ok, maybe I don’t remember it that well) that… Ok, I’m stopping here. But you guys remember it, right? … Guys? … … Guys…???

Invoking the idea of the American Dream and targeting the “Average American” seemed to be a major part of their political campaigns. However, the article points out that in some of the methods they used for targeting and even in merely targeting certain groups they alienated others – mostly minorities.

Change seems to be a major focus in the campaigns of groups trying to get into power – it’s talked about in the article, we saw it with Obama, and we even saw it with John Key the Donkey. The candidate/party comes to be a symbol for Change, which is a good thing, contrasting with all that has not been achieved or has gone wrong from the previous government.

The Green Party’s campaign last year I thought to be quite effective (even if the results may have not shown such). It expressed the values they hold that could appeal to the majority of people. The image below, for example, ties in both the natural world, New Zealand specifically, and youth/the future. It suggests that voting for the Green party is voting for all these things – and who could turn down that sweet little face? Not voting for that sweet little face makes you somewhat heartless.

some unauthorised thoughts on Easter

It was interesting to note in this week’s articles the way in which groups (government-based) made use of existing celebrations (Christmas, the Olympics) to help reinforce their own ideologies. It reminded me a little of the way that Christians took some pagan festivals and took elements of them as a basis for their own celebrations, making their jobs of conversion far easier.

Death and resurrection themes have been celebrated by pagan people for a long time, which makes perfect sense; when your mode of existence is tied so heavily into the natural cycles of the season, here the change from winter to spring, you would be inclined to recognise them.

Eggs and rabbits have, as far as I’ve been able to figure, very little to do with Jesus. He probably liked rabbits, and eggs, quite a lot. I do. Rabbits are nice and cuddly (even if one did bite off the end of my little finger when I was small, and sometimes they smell funny) and they can also be a tasty addition to broth. Eggs also are delicious. But more than their meal appeal, what rabbits – or hares – and eggs have in common is their symbolic representation of fertility and new life. Rabbits breed like rabbits, and eggs hatch out little baby birds (or various reptiles).

Eostre is one of the names given to the sabbat on the Vernal Equinox, which seems to be derived from the lunar goddess of the Anglo-Saxons, Eostre (a very scholarly-elusive and mysterious goddess, but seeming to represent youth, beauty, purity and new life). It’s easy to see where the name “Easter” may have come from. The feast of that celebration was timed to the first full moon after the Equinox, and a similar kind of calculation was used for the Christian Easter, which gives some kind of explanation as to why it shifts about a lot.

The death and rebirth of gods is also a common theme in many different cultures. Many pagan religions had gods and goddesses that died to be reborn in the spring time, such as the Crone is an aspect of the Celtic goddess in winter that represents the decline and death before her rebirth (through the cauldron of rebirth! We’ve really got that tasty stew thing going on here) into the Maiden. Similarities between religious ideas also make it easier to accept change as its not a complete departure from a way of understanding the world and living.

I’ve heard people talk about how the egg is representative of the cave that Jesus was locked in and then emerged from reborn. The theme of rebirth here is, obviously, very important. The rabbit, however, I have yet to hear an explanation about – although I certainly am no well learned scholar on the matter. The egg and rabbit are symbols of Easter that remain and have been used alongside the Christian values. However, they don’t seem to have taken on new meaning in the way the Christmas tree did for the Germans under the Third Reich – – but it’s still interesting.

 

A couple of interesting, related links here http://atheism.about.com/od/easterholidayseason/p/PaganChristian.htm and here http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter.htm

This week’s readings and Nineteen Eighty-Four

This week’s readings made me think very much about Orwell’s Ninteeen Eighty-Four in some respects, particularly the first reading (“Christmas under the Third Reich”, Esther Gajek) . For those of you who haven’t read it, do so, immediately (you can skip the bits from The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein).  It’s based, like Animal Farm but far darker, on Stalin etc and demonstrates the way that symbols and rituals can be used to enforce ideologies and alter the way that people think and understand the world. It’s a very interesting book for anthropologists and sociologists, as well as people who enjoy reading good books, but be warned – it is not a joyous read. It is the most hopeless book I have ever read, in terms of there being absolutely no hope whatsoever at the end.

Nineteen Eighty-Four is set in a totalitarian regime. ‘Newspeak’  is perhaps one of the more famous things from this, and this is an example of how symbols (language being a symbol) can effect the way that people think. By limiting and altering the language, with the goal of having only the minimum number of words possible to express all that needs to be express, creates a sense of dependance on through a kind of devotion to a system. The ‘Big Brother’ figure was the focus of their attention, and the assemblies in the morning helped to remind them of this,  and also offered a means of getting rid of energies that perhaps carnivals offer in the hatred towards the figure of Emmanual Goldstein and ‘The Brotherhood’. The way that the Christmas festival was manipulated with a sense of responsibility towards the government/community reminded me (not surprisingly) of some of this. Having the one tree for all, and the custom of “Bringing Home the Fire” are good examples of this.

I found the pamphlets  that provided instructions on how to celebrate Christmas (and other celebrations) fascinating. It provided a very strict meaning to what the celebration meant and also a sense of unity – everyone had to celebrate it this way – and a kind of reliance on the government, who were the ones controlling the way the celebration was run. The symbolic pastries were also interesting; small things like this that intrude into people’s lives are the things that really give something meaning. The meaning and also of the Christmas celebration and ritual became surrounded by the idea of people needing to behave and think in a certain way that was decided on by the people in control; the phrase “characterisc of the race” implies that to belong to the group you have to behave in a certain kind of way, which is the right kind of behaviour. Because it was also a time of change, it may have made the extreme changes more acceptable. The way that the National Socialist festivals “were predominantly based on existing dates and traditions” made it, no doubt, easier to instigate changes and enforce their ideologies, because it wasn’t a complete change.

Wartime also seems to be an opportunity throughout history (and in Nineteen Eighty-Four, where perhaps the so-called war they are involved in is not a real war, but simply that society is being told they are in war; those bombs that fall may well be being dropped by their own government) for those who have some power to sieze more. This is due to fear. Fear is something easy to take advantage of to unite people under an idea through the offer of protection.

Like Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, this article made me consider just how easy it can be to manipulate people. Action reinforces ideas and what is percieved as truth, until it actually becomes the truth.

Creating ritual

Today in the lecture when we had to come up with a ritual for NZ, it really got me thinking about how complicated it can be. There would have been problems with all of the celebrations we came up with in terms of actually trying to integrate them. For example, there are a lot of NZers who don’t want to assosiate themselves too much with those touristy images of what we are (sheep farmers in jandles running around with pavalovas etc), and yet this is certainly a ‘fun’ part of Kiwiana. I think there would be a lot of issues with the multi-cultural and immigrant one as well, because I’ve noticed quite a bit of resistence still to immigration and cultural change; it would seem more tacky perhaps than meaningful.

Although, I guess that it might always begin that way and slowly progress, and secretly everyone knows it’s structured anyway. Think about that last reading for this week, the [thing that started with H and I wasn’t sure how to say] began simply but developed over time.

And, what the heck is Kiwiana anyway? What does it mean to different NZers as well as to people on the outside? I don’t think those images represent the “truth” as they say of what it is to live in or to be a NZer. I don’t know much about Bali really, but I know that quite a lot of their ritual is done specifically with the tourists in mind these days. I’m tempted to say that it somewhat demeans their culture, but I don’t think it does; culture is fluid. It is there to help people survive, and so must be able to adapt to different situations. If it can’t, it tends to cark it.

On a side note, the sheep treasure hunt idea is awesome. I want one. I want one now.

Class notes on public events

I was going to type up my notes, then decided I may as well post them on here.

• they can occur at different levels (neighbourhood, city, country etc)
• the focus is generally on the public event when it is taking place; other aspects of society may be put on a temporary hold
• they can be used by authorities to suit their purposes eg. Soviet Union abolished the Christian celebrations Christmas and Easter and replaced them with other celebrations that helped to reinforce their own ideologies etc (Great October Socialist Revolution Day and International Labour Day, I think)
• they are often annual, or at least repeating events
• ritual and symbolic objects are used, onto which the meaning has been projected and is understood
• they represent a social idea and ideal rather than a reality
• they can serve the purpose of reinforcing social ideals and myths, and also socialise people into different roles in society; can also resocialise; action can help reinforce
• they can help strengthen the cohesion in society, bringing people together around a shared set of ideas
• they provide an opportunity for change, or to protest and express an alternative view; protests can shatter myths the celebration reinforces

That thingie about Native Americans protesting Thanksgiving with the National Day of Mourning really interested me, so I looked up a couple of links online. There’s an interesting short news article which briefly explains it.

I quite liked this, from a plaque on Cole’s Hill, which overlooks Plymouth Harbour where the ‘Mayflower’ arrived, says (according to this) 

Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture. Participants in a National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience.

This could be interesting to consider in regards to our own country’s Waitangi Day.

 

And while I think of it, today’s Google image is of The Very Hungry Caterpillar!!!!!! Omg. I hope they do a My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes one.

The library and Palio

I changed my mind again and am now going to look at the way people behave in the different areas of the library on Level 4. Being that there are a few, I’m just going to do one side (the side with the view). It will be interesting to consider the way that space effects behaviour.

I’ve also done the readings about the Palio. The first reading confused the hummus out of me, but I found the second one gave it some more context. I also found this very basic thing about it (which also includes some pictures) which is mildly interesting and useful. I saw some videos on YouTube, but didn’t load them because I’m in the library using the net because the one at the flat is having a mild disagreement with the gods, but that could be interesting to look up.

We are in week 3, right? Uuugh. The fact I’m not sure yet is not what might be described as a good omen.

Morning rituals vs habits ~in which one ramblingly contemplates and discovers an interesting self-truth~

I’m finding it really interesting to consider the idea of the “morning ritual”, the things that we [a person] do in the morning. I, for example, tend to eat breakfast then have a shower and then brush my teeth in that order, then go back upstairs and get dressed and pack my bag, then come back down and make lunch and leave. My flatmate in the room next to me usually comes back up the stairs twice for things he has forgotten or, as it often turns out, things he has thought he has forgotten but actually has. I also have a keys-cellphone-wallet-music and run through of books or things I should be taking to Uni or work that I go through just before I leave, and also often as I’m walking out the door.

It’s not that I feel unprepared for the day if I don’t do these things, but I do like to do them in that order; I get irritated if someone jumps in the shower just before I am about to and am not entirely sure, just for one moment, what I am supposed to do. Then I get over it.

If I haven’t run through my little checklist, though, I usually get paranoid I’ve forgotten something, and check my bag as I’m walking down the street a few times.

So… pre-liminal would be the sleeping in the bed thing. I suppose the liminal stage, in the moving from comfort to torment, would begin from when my radio alarm clock screams at me in one thousand painful languages of the devil, but as for when then final stage occurs I couldn’t be entirely sure. Perhaps it is when I am walking down the street and am not concerned that I’ve forgotten something important.

That’s assuming that this can be considered a ritual, and not just a habit. Because it is a sequence, and it seems to constitute a purpose. Is it “less personally meaningful” (Rook 1985) than a ritual? I am now tempted to suggest that yes, it is. There is a beginning, a middle and an end, but they are quite flexible. But, then again, so it a defined ritual, within its boundaries.

Is reading my tarot deck, and those small things around it, a ritual? I think this gets more of an easy yes. It’s tied clearly into a purpose, and I would certainly not consider it to be a habit. However, for both a tarot reading and a morning ritual/habit, there is no audience intended; there is only me. I also don’t know whether I would consider the tarot reading a ritual or not.

So… Perhaps the difference between ritual and habit could be found in the involvement of other people, in the social aspect. I think an audience of some kind must be vital to a ritual – but does the audience have to be real humans, or can it be an “imagined” (such as a spirit, deity, demon or mermaid, and yes I am aware that imagined is not really the appropriate word to use here) audience?

Hmm, actually, that could be interesting too, observing the number of people listening to music as they walk down the street and how it effects their interaction with other people and also their behaviour… Hmmmm. HHHMMMMM. Hm. Hhhhhm.

H.

 

m.

Watching people whilst they eat.

I was thinking it might be interesting to observe people’s behaviour at the cafe I work at. The layout of the cafe means that it’s easy for a line to form, but there also isn’t much space to get past if there is a big line.

I’ve also found it interesting the way that people can be uncertain about how to order – there are tongs out, and plates, but are they meant to choose their own food and carry it around, or are they meant to order at the till and have the food delivered to them? Which of the foods have no meat; which are gluten-free? Where are the bathroom facilities, if they are even on our floor? Is the cafe actually closed yet, or are they still able to order tea or coffee, and does the vacuum cleaner signifiy that they must leave the vicinity or be swallowed up by it? Do they stack their plates, or leave them haphazardly around, and if they stack how effective and useful is their technique? How many of them leave a tip? (Not many, but I did get $1 once, which went straight to the jam jar, and some rich lady tipped one of the till girls $30. Possibly drunk on those wee bottles of wine we sell?) Where is the cutlery – do they bring it out; where are the cups and the water; where are the serviettes; can I get my baby’s milk heated up please?

What do people do as they eat? Talk; read our variety of much-aged magazines; bring their own interesting things; do work in black-bound books and diaries; stare out the window day-dreaming of a world in which they can actually afford to shop and eat at a place like this and not feel guilty about the damage they are inadvertantly causing to the the world in more ways than one (actually, that’s just me, they’re probably just thinking about that nice vase on sale for only $124.99).

Some people also have a specific table they want to sit it, and even if it hasn’t been cleared yet or is obviously ‘reserved’ for a high tea will move things and sit there. The regular customers are also interesting, tending to order the same things each day around a certain time and choosing a certain spot to sit in; also having a different kind of interaction with the till chicks than those other unknown quantaties.

Perhaps this is too big a topic to consider for this report of such a length? Do I need to ensmallify it?