Friday, September 30, 2011

Chicken or the egg question all over again..

Adding to the discussion my fellow bloggers and I had just after class yesterday, I would like to comment on some brief ideas we covered. 

"The Way" of the Origin

Moving along in our class discussion we touched on the topic of epic poetry and drama in our journey through oral knowledge. While we discussed many great topics, what caught my attention was the importance that drama held to civilizations without print.
Navajo Creation Myth from Darkroselia
Although in class we focused on Anglo-Saxon dramas and that area of the world I'd like to draw your attention to the "drama" of the Navajo, in the Southwest corner of the North American continent, a world then unknown.

Not a drama with capes and costumes, but a form of storytelling that brought families and  entire communities together to hear a narrator, tell a story familiar to them all, but that could still inspire the listener.


Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Akkadian Stories


    Creation of Man:
    "Mix the heart of the clay that is over the abyss,
     The good and princely fashioners will thicken the clay,
     You, [Nammu] do you bring the limbs into existence;
     Ninmah [earth-mother or birth goddess] will work above you,
     The goddesses [of birth] .  . . will stand by you at your fashioning;
     O my mother, decree its [the newborn's] fate,
     Ninmah will bind upon it the image (?) of the gods,
     It is man . . . ."    (Kramer, History Begins 109)

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Myths of Origin

Continuing our class discussion of Story and Song and working towards this group's group post I've decided to put up some thoughts on origin myths, something I hope our whole group will relate to in each of the civilizations they research for this unit.
Valley of the Gods from Nature's Images'
Warning: This isn't a complete post, just a short description of some of the origin myths I've discovered while researching, and some of the thought's I've had while  reading them. I plan to look for some primary, or more primary, sources on this topic to make a more complete post that will help relate these origin myths and other folk lore from the Navajo to our general discussion on these topics.

If you'd like to help me develop these thoughts, read and comment below!

Stories of Samaria

The city of Samaria,prior to 884 BC, was a wine and oil manufacturing area. In 884 BC, this city, situated on the summit of a rocky hill, was chosen as Israel's capital.

The Samaritans were descended from both the house of Israel and Assyrians after the beginning of the Assyrian captivity of Israel. At the end of the Babylonian captivity in 538 BC, the Jews returned to Israel and tension between the two groups mounted. What possibly began was a quarrel between the sons of Israel led to two peoples who completely rejected one another. Jews considered Samaritans to be half-breeds and traitors to the covenant of Moses. Both Jewish and Samaritan leaders taught that it was wrong to have contact with the other group, including speaking to each other or entering each others' territories. Understanding this antagonism is important in understanding the stories of Christ that take place in or near Samaria.


Monday, September 26, 2011

The "start" of it all..


The Roman Republic was during the period of ancient civilization where the areas surrounding and in much of Europe functioned as a republic. This video explains the expansion of the Roman Republic since around 508 BC. The first 1:37 minutes are the most relative, and it helps to read the footnotes.



Friday, September 23, 2011

Navajo War Language

A war, the Navajo, and the language that saved America.

I'm the proud great-granddaughter, and niece of U.S. Marines. All my life I've taken an interest in the men and women that have fought and died in defense of their country, my country. In the fifth grade I first learned about the men of the 382nd Platoon, United States Marine Corps, from then on I've had a fascination with the men know as the Navajo code talkers.

Below is a music video about the Navajo Code Talkers, I'd skip to about the 30 sec mark, then pay attention!

As we begin our short journey into the world of oral knowledge I want to start with a look at the oral knowledge of the Navajo, and especially their alphabet-less language.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

First look at the Akkadian Civilization

This is a very rough idea of the Akkadian empire. I have only just received the topic and I wanted to give a brief overview before I go more in depth. When I first saw the word "Akkadian" I immediately though of the Scorpion King. Pretty sure he was an Akkadian. Sad that my knowledge comes from a movie...
Is this what they all looked like?

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Prim and Proper

I am sure that most have had the experience where you're sitting at the dinner table and all of a sudden you hear "Don't speak with your mouth full!" Or something relating to how you are holding your fork or playing with your food.
Etiquette is something that we learn from our parents, grandparents and sometimes even your peers. We know it's not polite to use your hands to serve yourself and only children have food fights.

Hook

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

All I really need to know I learned at recess


Today while contemplating the different ways and means we as human beings learn, I began thinking about elementary school. Not necessarily what is learned in the classroom, but what is learned outside, during recess. What do little children today learn from other little children? It may be strange to think about the ignorant instructing the unknowledgeable, but that in itself may be a type of learning—the student and teacher exploring unknown areas of thought together. There are no written texts or even necessarily previous experience. The children just go and do and explore and discover. This is the flavor of folk knowledge that colors playgrounds and schoolyards.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

For Feet's Sake!!



High heels, and especially pointed heels, are a part of many women’s daily routine. I too fall victim to the callings of a cute pair of heels, but how far would I really go? Some women love their shoes so much that they get their feet surgically altered to fit into the slimmest shoes and latest trends.


FYI: Evernote

In a comment responding to this post. Dr. B asked if I would share about sharing Evernote folders. First, I need to answer the question running through your mind right now, "What, in the name of Sam Houston, is Evernote?"
Screenshot of the Evernote site.

Evernote a great website that lets you take and store notes in the cloud so you can access them anywhere, anytime. (Provided you have access to the internet, or they are on you computer)

I especially enjoy it for this class because of the variety of actions I can use to manipulate the notes I take.




Friday, September 16, 2011

Where do the French come into this?


This week I was taught to do my own French Manicure by Alyssa Cardon, another girl in my civilizations class at BYU. The first time I had ever had a French manicure was at age eleven, when I begged to be an adult. My mother agreed and that was that. After this manicure
I began to neglect my nails. Ever once in a while I'd get my nails done or maybe file them but not until now have I known how to do my own French manicure.

Whereas a normal manicure for women is dated to around 5,000 years ago, a French Manicure's original design is a little unclear. Some claim that the French manicure was invented by Max Factor in the 1930s for French fashionistas but some attribute the look to the 1800s and others presume that because the first home French manicure kit was created by Jeff Pink that he was the creator. But how does this really relate to the French? Like stated earlier, Factor, presumedly, created the look for French women, but many believe that the that when the word 'French' is applied any product, that it can make it sound sophisticated.

In place of henna women in India would use henna. The people of southern Babylonia 4,000 years ago used gold tools to achieve gorgeous nails. In 3,000 BC, nail polish
was developed in China and used to show a person’s social rank. Similarly the Dowager Empress of China always kept her fingernails extremely long and during the Ming dynasty, the shades of nail polish among the upper class were red and black. Nail polish as a way of esablishing rank in society can also be seen in ancient Egypt. Cleopatra and Queen Nefertiti were also followers of red nail style. All of these origins of the manicure have morphed into what we have today. A little more information on the history can be found here.


Speaking of the color of nails being a status symbol sounds so silly. I can see the connection people make between pretty nails, to clean nails, to clean hands, and being clean and taken care of in general but it still seems very superficial. Don't get me wrong, I like a nice pedicure and foot rub but how often do we associate good looks with status?

Teaching: Voices of Angels

My apartment is a very musical one. We all randomly break out into song. Some of us can hit the notes and some... Well I'm surprised our light bulbs haven't blown. In an attempt to increase the quality of singing, I decided to give my roommates a lesson. This was going to be fun :) 

BYU0199

Hands On Learning: Part Two


Pretty Awesome for just learning!
For the second part of the assignment I started in this blogpost . I decided to teach french braiding to a my 12 yo cousin. After this experience I'm pretty pleased with my self as a teacher especially for something I've never taught before! I'm also pretty pleased with my students! They did very well for only a 1/2 hr of instruction (that's all the time I could get them out of their chores for). So here's how it went!

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

Like Erin, I taught the art of braiding. I taught my best friend, who happens to be male, since braiding is a valuable skill for all members of both genders. You know, in case you get stranded on a desert island and have to make a rope out of plant fibers, or if a damsel in distress with 60 foot hair needs her hair styled.

Parenting: The Most Domestic of all

*Disclaimer: I don't actually know anything about parenting. I'm not a parent, I'm not married, I'm not planning on changing any of that in the next year. All I know is what I've observed from the receiving end of parenting, that is, childing.*

Our Thursday discussion left me thinking about the past eighteen years of my life (yes that's all the years I have), and all of everything I've learned from the people I've observed living their life as a member of my faith. Of all those people I can think of 4 that stand out the most, and those are the ones that have taken on the role, among others, of parent for me.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

It started out on accident. My friend somewhat invited herself to come along with me to the harp practice rooms in the HFAC, which is an art building on the BYU campus. We were lucky to find the big practice room, which always has two harps in it, open. So as I practiced, she sat and did homework, but soon enough, we got around to goofing off and she wanted to play. So I thought I’d teach her the easiest thing I knew; Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She plucked one finger and hand at a time, a little like the video below.


Cars: The Movie is the Only Good Thing About Them



I hate driving. I hate it. I hate how there's other people on the road who get mad at me. I hate the feeling of the pedals under my foot and the steering wheel in my hand. I hate having to pay attention. I just hate having to deal with cars. So, I decided to learn how to change a tire.

Learning with Both Eyes Open

The day my brother got a bbgun was the day he became a man! (at least in his eyes) My family lives in the mountains so he would just walk out the back door and go shoot some squirrels. He has actually gotten very good at hitting what he aims for. This being so, I decided to ask the expert (Ethan) to teach me how to shoot his bb rifle. Eager to show off his knowledge, he agreed.



"Men sang out their feelings long before they were able to speak their thoughts... These utterances were, at first, like the singing of birds and the roaring of many animals and the crooning of babies, exclamative, not communicative--that is, they came forth from an inner craving of the individual without any thought of any fellow-creatures." Otto Jespersen
Singing has been my passion for the past seven years. It has been a way of pushing out emotions from moving to another country and life in general. There is something about music that stirs the soul and connects us to each other. Perhaps that is why mankind has passed the art of singing down from generation to generation.

Naisrín Elsafty - Máire Ní Eidhin



Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Hands On Learning Part 1

We all admit to having our moments on the road, but hopefully nothing like this...I'd skip to minutes 2:50-4:00 and 6:00-7:00
Because I wanted to put more sub-par drivers on the road...I decided to learn how to drive a manual car. 

My Achy Breaky Heart



Valentine's Day kills. No, really.
Valentine's Day has a blood-stained history. The tradition of the day itself originated from martyrdoms and pagan traditions, including the whipping of women with blood-soaked hides to improve their fertility. Not so much like the Care Bears and Muppets cards that second graders painstakingly distribute, is it? Well, it gets worse.


Sunday, September 11, 2011

Ooooo, Scary..


The entire nature of superstitions is that no one really knows where they originated. While some people have theories about the origins of or general areas of the world that a superstition may have come from, superstitions have a very ambiguous history. Superstitions have such an unidentifiable background because many of them have been passed down orally.


Some have an easily identifiable origin, like the saying “Red sky at night, sailors' delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning”. This prediction may actually have some truth to it. Clouds enhance the color of sunsets and sunrises. The red morning sky foretells a day of possible bad weather. Evening clouds may pass away during the night to have a clear next day. Although the meaning of the superstition may be clear, where and when it originated is unknown.
Other superstitions, such as spilling salt as bad luck and throwing a pinch over one’s shoulder as good luck, seemingly have no link to the luck caused by the action. Salt was thought to have caused bad luck because, in the past, salt was a valuable commodity, and if someone spilled it, they were being careless and wasteful. Counteracting the spill was throwing a pinch of salt over one’s left shoulder. This pinch would be thrown into the eyes of the devil in order to distract him.
Some superstitions, like carrying a rabbit’s left foot, are so old and far spread that one cannot even point to a general area on a map of the world where the superstition may have originated.
As suggested by Sanguinarius in the Origins of Popular Superstitions, this practice "was originally considered a Southern (United States) tradition to carry a rabbit's foot; particularly among African Americans. The tradition made its way to the States with African slaves, and it is thought to be among the oldest traditions in the world, dating from around 600 BC." In an article by Kathleen Davis titled “the Origins of 13 Common Superstitions”, she adds that “the Chinese consider it [a rabbit’s foot] a sign of prosperity”.

Superstitions have been passes down, from generation to generation, orally, leaving the source of origin unidentifiable.

Friday, September 9, 2011

FYI: Sharing Your Posts

For all of the learning and thinking going in this group, how important is it if it never leaves this group? 


Knowledge is all about sharing. In this new age of exciting organisations such as Facebook and Twitter, sharing comes at speeds faster than ever. The key is to get your knowledge out there so people can see it! 

Dinner Via the WWW

Hungry?? Why not turn to the internet???


Say huh? She's nuts! I think her time in Digital Civilization has melted her brain! 


No! Really, I'm alright! I just found a really cool site to help me to combine two of my new favorite activites: social networking and cooking! 
From ilovemypit


NOW your interested...

Thursday, September 8, 2011

The Pursuit of Happiness - Fencing

Playing with swords seems to be a part of human nature. Almost everyone can recall a camping trip with little boys dueled against each other with sticks while mother's worried about their children's safety. As a child, I loved to watch the Disney movie Aladdin. One day Aladdin disappeared from my house never to be seen again. Years later, my mom informed me that she had found me playing swords (kitchen knives) with my one-year-old little sister. Fighting  with swords was always more than just a way to kill someone, it has been used in entertainment, sports events, and ceremonial processions. 

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

FYI: Jump Break

For those of you that are wondering how to insert a jump break, otherwise known as that thingy that breaks up your post!

FYI: Commenting

For those that are having trouble figuring out how to post as a person instead of an "unknown" :



















First: Sign in to your google account. (Upper right corner of every blogger page)

Second: Write your intelligent and witty comment.

Third: Go just below the box you write in to where it says "comment as" and select your google profile.

Fourth: Publish your intelligent and witty comment and bask in your awesomeness!

Knowledge for all?



I have moved around 8 times in my life. Four of those times were within my homeland (England), then my family took the big jump across the pond to America. In these modern times, with the internet and many other technologies connecting the world, I thought that the culture shock would not be that bad. Believe me, Utah and England could be from different planets.
Folk knowledge differs in both places. In Utah (as far as I have been able to observe) crafts and music are highly valued types of knowledge that can be passed down from mother to daughter, father to son. I had never thought of scrap booking as a skill, but it is and it's one that I definitely did not learn while in England. In England, or at least where I grew up, we learned from an early age the "sarcastic" type of humor (as my roommates call it) and the slang you need to get by.
As I was thinking of this, I wondered if big groups of people had this kind of problem. Maybe if a people were forced to move into another group's territory there would be a clash of cultures
where the type of knowledge grown up with in one culture would not be accepted in the other. As it turns out, it has happened. One example can be seen in the time when the Romans invaded England and enslaved the Celts. Roman folk knowledge included frequent bathing, their own set of rituals to honor their gods, women learned the knowledge of the house and men the art of war and politics. The Celtic people had different ideas and beliefs. They held nature as sacred, druids were physicians and holy leaders (they could be men or women).


To the Romans, Celts were barbaric. Their rituals were alien. And so the Celts were invaded and much of their culture and knowledge was replaced by that of the Romans.
I wonder if, when we come across a different culture that holds differing knowledge as true, we try to embrace or obliterate their wisdom. Should we just hold fast to what we know? Or should we take from the learning of others and create a knowledge system?


Monday, September 5, 2011

Questioning what's been passed to you..

In a commencement address, Ursula K. Le Guin stated that “all the great scientists and social thinkers wrote it [the language]. It is the language of thought that seeks objectivity.” This implies that these thinkers don’t just seek answers for the sake of having them as only something to hold for the sake of holding, but they seek the truth. This reminds me of my own life when I sought answers to questions of the Gospel. When I was investigation the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I thought I was just there to argue, but the more I took the lessons, the more I loved the Plan of Salvation and understood how much other Churches were missing from their gospel.
Something that caught my attention was the idea of Spirit Prison. I loved that Heavenly Father created a plan for everyone. His nature is not to deny someone salvation because they weren’t born in the right time or place. The answer that many non-denominational Christians (which is what I would have classified myself as) would give to a question like where people in the middle of Asia go after they die would be that they go straight to Heaven. But even that answer is unbiblical. Not only would that lessen the value on Heaven by allowing anyone in who may not have a relationship with God, but agency would be taken away at that point. Not only does the Spirit testify of it, but it also makes sense.
I did not just stick with an answer that was insufficient. When I slowed down from my argumentative questioning of the Church, the missionaries picked up and made me seek truth.
Ursula K. Le Guin's full commencement address can be read on the following link.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_cult/leguin/


Thursday, September 1, 2011

Let There be Light!

Just to let folks know a little bit more about this blog!

Once upon a time on the beautiful campus of Brigham Young University the dreamy professors Burton and Peterson  dreamed of a class that would help students look at knowledge through history and everything, or nearly everything, that contributes to the way we look at knowledge today. The blog Reinventing Knowledge will follow the class discussions. Find out more about the class there.

On this blog Emily, Maddie, Emily, Kimberly, and Erin will share their thoughts on readings, ideas, and discussions that come up in class and mostly likely those that don't! Stay tuned for a double-take of knowledge and ignorance alike!