LAST BLOG!! June 8, 2009

Hola! Well this is my last blog! I’ve been very slack in writing these each week but quite enjoyed doing them. It makes you go out and look for rituals instead of just going to tutorials and lectures. Good idea Mary, you should try and do them for the next Anth 213 class!

I found this course really interesting! A whole paper on ritual! This has got to be the most specific paper I have done so far! It’s also nice to do some anth compared with my international relations papers, which can get a little ‘heady’ at times! HEHE!

Oh, before I go, check out http://www.ocfoundation.org/what-is-ocd.html. I thought this was interesting. It’s about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder!…I know that sounds like something you would study in Psyc but, if you think about it, OCD means that individuals perform their own little rituals, which have meanings/purposes for themselves!

So farewell everyone, its been nice having our little class group, good luck for your exams and next trimester if your continuing to study 🙂

The Ritual of Handshaking! June 7, 2009

I think handshaking is an interesting ritual. All over the world, cultures have a way of greeting others but, handshaking seems to have become the main way. I thought to myself…why do we shake hands?? I do it, but I had no idea why or how it began! So I turned to the oracle that is Wikipedia to find out! 😀

Handshaking is seen to be orginally a Western idea, and it is said that it dates back as far as 2nd Century BC. The handshake is thought to have started as a gesture of peace, showing that the hand was not holding a weapon. Now however, the handshake is used for a number of reasons: upon meeting, greeting, parting, offering congratulations, expressing gratitude, or completing an agreement. In sports or other competitive activities a handshake is also used as a sign of good sportsmanship. It is a way of conveying trust, balance, and equality.

The actual handshake has also evolved!…Secret societies and fraternities and sororities often use secret handshakes to identify themselves as initiated brothers or sisters to outside members. Some involved with scouting use their left hand. This was instituted by Lord Baden-Powell while he was in West Africa. Two warring chiefs confronted each other, wanting peace. He dropped both his weapon and his shield. Not only was his right hand empty of a weapon he could attack with, but his left was empty of a shield of which to defend against the weapons of others with. I found this quite a nice symbolic idea! Not only does it show the other party that you are not going to attack them but, it also shows that you don’t see them as a threat.

However, my favourite handshake has got to be the “Soul Brother Handshake” which started in the US. This is the kinda “gansta” (haha!) handshake you see people doing. It has variations now including an exchange of facing palm slaps, as in “Gimme Five,” or fist bumping, “ham and cheese slides”, tops-to-bottoms, “the face slap”, or knuckles-to-knuckles. I found this amazing handshake on YouTube a while ago, so funny to watch! Pretty amazing too! I have tried to recreate some of it with friends…tried but failed! HAHA! I will leave it to them! Here it is though (watch it!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_LRA-1YepU 

Oh and here’s the Wiki page if you want to read more about handshakes! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handshake

Ok, peace! 😀

Egyptians and their Mummies!

One culture I have always found fasinating is the Egyptians, I think most people do though!

I find the idea mummyfing bodies rather interesting. The reason bodies were mummified is because the Egyptians believed that one day the world would end and when it did, they would continue to an afterlife. In order to move on to this afterlife, they would need their earthy bodies. If however, their body rotted then they would not be able to make the journey. The long elaborate process included removing all organs (but keeping them in jars with the body) and then embalming the body. I think this is an interesting ritual. In no other culture that I know of, do they do this. Most cultures don’t put as much importance on the body itself.

Another interesting point is the burial of Pharaohs. Not only were their bodies and organs kept, but with them many other things. Precious artifacts, their pets (to keep the dead Pharaoh company!) and…their servants! In later times, models of the  servants were made to be buried with the Pharaoh but, the first kings had their servants killed so that he could ‘take them with them’ to the afterlife! This I found rather shocking! Knowing how many servants a Pharaoh would have…all of them having to be killed! Scary! Luckily this doesn’t happen any more!

In modern times mummifing and this elaborate for of burial doesn’t happen. This is largely because most Egyptians are now Christians and Muslims. They no longer believe that they need their ‘earthly’ body for an afterlife.

Anyways, that’s me for now! Last couple of posts to come!!

‘The Vegetarian Anthropologist’ by David E. Sutton June 6, 2009

I was going over my old course book for Anth102 and came along the reading ‘The Vegetarian Anthropologist’ by David E. Sutton. I found this article reading interesting as it is an different perspective on doing anthropology fieldwork. Doing anthropology, we learn that it is best to try and keep your own beliefs and viewpoints aside when researching another culture. However, it is interesting if the culture you are studying doesn’t do the same for you.

When David Sutton decided to do fieldwork on the Greek Island of Kalymnos, he wasn’t sure how the Kalymnians would react to his dietary preferences. This was especially because in the US he was still not fully accepted as a vegetarian male. The Kalymnians didn’t critise David for being a vegetarian but, he was not seen to be a real man. In the Cretan mountain village described by Herzfeld, meat is the focus of the meal and for anyone who claims to be a real man. Nevertheless, vegetarianism also had positive religious connotations for the Kalymnians. I found this fasinating,  how meat plays such a role in a culture. Another place we can see the importance of meat is in ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ when Toula tells her aunty that Ian is a vegetarian and doesn’t eat meat. The aunty’s reaction and the way her family said it all! Even though I knew that food plays an important part in ritual, I didn’t really think about the actually types of food and the meanings behind them. This article was especially interesting for me as most of my close family members are vegetarians!

Frederik & Mary of Denmark’s Wedding June 5, 2009

Hello everyone! Hope you didn’t find the test too bad and managed to write lots of goodies! haha!

On the topic of royal weddings, I was looking up weddings on YouTube and found a clip of Frederik and Mary of Denmark’s wedding (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep4J6WcJgPo). I remember hearing about this wedding a while ago but, only actually saw a clip of it now. (there are also some other clips from the wedding on YouTube). I found this rather interesting to watch!  Especially if you compare it with both Camilla and Charles’ wedding and, Diana and Charles’ wedding.

Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark met Mary Donaldson, his future wife, in Australia during the 2000 summer Olympics. Mary was raised in Tasmania, Australia and attended the University of Tasmania, studying marketing. Mary later moved to Sydney. The reason that I found this wedding interesting (and media all over the world actually!), was because Mary didn’t have any royal blood and worked a normal job. To start with there was much talk about how she shouldn’t be able to marry the prince as she wasn’t actually Danish, but eventually the country grew to accept her. Queen Margrethe gave the couple consent to marry.

The wedding ceremony itself was much more casual than either of the weddings we studied for our test. The structure was also more casual. It was interesting to see the way the Queen acted when she entered the church. Instead of displaying symbolic violence, much like Queen Elizabeth II did in Camilla and Charles’ wedding, Queen Margrethe was smiling and seemed to be content with the proceedings. This I found was the same for all of the family members and the couple themselves. I also noticed how the crowds reacted. There was more cheering and less formality surrounding the occasion. On the scale of some royal, even celebrity weddings, the wedding of Frederik and Mary was quite low-key.

Check out the clip! Worth a little look see! 🙂

‘The Future of Ritual’ June 3, 2009

Last week I read ‘The Future of Ritua’ by Richard Schechner. (which is in our course reader)

Schechner first starts the chapter by discussing how these days ritual means too much therefore, it means so little. I agree with this in a sense. Ritual is a very large and broad idea, so finding a exact definition is almost impossible! Though, this makes ritual interesting to study!

As outlined in the reading rituals have been considered:

1) Part of the evolutionary development of animals;

2) Structures with formal qualities and definable relationships;

3) Symbolic systems of meaning;

4) As performative actions or processes;

5) As experiences.

This, I found, was quite a good break-down of ritual. Then when I read on I came across something I found rather interesting!…

When thinking about ritual I normally think of things to do with worship or general rituals that we have read about in Anth101/102. However, reading this article I found it fasinating how Schechner mentioned the  ritual of animals. I have never thought about this! Or anything to do with the behaviours of animals come to think of it. Schechner talks about how in animals, ritual behaviour is usually set in “fixed action patterns” and usually for a purpose. These patterns are normally highlighted with highly visible body parts. A great example of this is the male peacock. He uses his bright feathers to attract females for mating purposes. Interesting! So simple, yet I never thought of this as a ritual!

Ok, that’s it for now – KEEP IT REAL!! 😀

Famous Funerals June 1, 2009

Today I was reflecting on last Tuesday’s lecture, where we saw the complicated funeral of Dutch singer, Andre Haze. When hearing about Haze’s concert and the launch of his ashes into space, I thought it was a little crazy to tell you the truth! However, I decided that I might be feeling this way because I hadn’t heard of Andre Haze before or his music. For those who were fans or for those living in Holland, his death would have definately felt more personal. Just like as kiwi’s we are more likely to have felt something when Sir Ed died, compared with overseas.

I started to think of other ‘famous deaths’ and thought of other musicians such as Elvis and Kurt Cobain. Elvis’ death was morned my thousands of fans across the world and to this day people still call him ‘the king of rock and roll’ and more strangly say ‘Elvis isn’t dead’ ! When Elvis died the then US President, Jimmy Carter even said “Elvis Presley’s death deprives our country of a part of itself. He was unique and irreplaceable. More than 20 years ago, he burst upon the scene with an impact that was unprecedented and will probably never be equaled”. This shows how Elvis’ death was more than just a family affair.

The death of Kurt Cobain was also a tragic loss for many fans. There was a public vigil  held for Cobain at Seattle Centre, where approximately 7,000 fans came to mourn. Also, after his death a non-profit organisation, ‘ the Kurt Cobain Memorial Committee’, paid to have a sign outside his hometown reading “Welcome to Aberdeen – Come As You Are” in his honor.

While the actually funerals of these two musicians where much less extravagant, their deaths still became a public affair.

Another more recent example, is that of Heath Ledger. Even though his family in Australia urged the media they desired privacy, the media nevertheless got involved. At the time I remember news of Heath Ledger’s death all over the news and the front page of the papers, shadowing most other international events and problems for a few days! As well as a private ceremony, there was also a larger memorial service with several hundred guests which received much press attention.

I’m sure you can think of many other examples, please feel free to comment some more! 😀

“Flushing out the evil” May 28, 2009

As Brigitte mentioned in class, there has been talk of the exorcism that recently took place in New Zealand. This story interested me as when we think of rituals as extreme as this, we generally think of something from a movie! 

The exorcism took place to “flush out” a demon from Janet Moses. The curse was believed to have been linked to a relative stealing a statue from a hotel. However, the ceremony/ritual went wrong, resulting in Janet drowning.

It is rare that we see instances like this happening in Western society. I don’t think as many people would have thought much of the event, if it had taken place in the middle of Africa or somewhere far away; we read about many rituals like this for anth. However, as it happened right here in New Zealand it shows that these rituals take place near and around us, not just in a rural area in far away country!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10475430

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/2452975/Claim-curse-ceremony-saved-girl

Weddings! May 26, 2009

I don’t know about everyone else, but I loved that clip we saw from ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’! I have never seen it…i want to now though! When I was watching it, it reminded me a little bit of my cousin’s wedding!…My cousin got married to an English girl, Natalie about 3 or 4 years ago. The wedding and the events leading up to it is something I will always remember! Not because it was particularly amazing, but because of the joining of the two families and the organisation that went into it!

My cousin wanted to have a nice, quiet garden wedding, with only a few family and friends but, being Sri Lankan, my family wanted my cousin to have a larger Hindu wedding. There was a lot of pressure on my cousin and his bride so…they decided to have BOTH! This way, it would satify my family as well as themselves.

My cousin and Natalie organised the garden wedding, while my aunty, his mother, organised the Hindu wedding. This became a large, family affair! All of us flew over to Perth about a week before the wedding, hoping to chill and look around…instead we ended up helping with all aspects of the wedding! …Decorations…outfit organisation…food prep…you get the picture! By the time of the wedding, everyone in our family could honestly say that they had contributed a fair bit! The thing that made me chuckle the most, was that my aunty pretty much made all the decisions on her own, I hardly remember her consulting my cousin or Natalie.

Another interesting thing I remember about the wedding(s) was that, even though the garden wedding was first, and where they offically got married, most of my family only class the date of the Hindu wedding as significant. This to me shows how the legal significance of the first wedding was not important, the ritual of the Hindu wedding was the thing that counted.

However, both families did come together during the wedding time. I remember how my relatives tried to do a bit of dancing along with Natalie’s family (VERY funny to watch! some people just aren’t blessed with a sense of rhythm!). I also remember how all of Natalie’s female friends, and family members wore sari’s to the Hindu wedding! They seemed to love the cultural aspect of it…They actually looked better than we did! We also had a booklet outlining the meaning of the rituals from the Hindu wedding, so that everyone could feel involved and know what was going on. Otherwise they definately would have got bored…as Hindu weddings are at least for a few hours!!

So yes, that’s my observations on weddings! 😀

Some random obsevations of the Sri Lankan culture! March 14, 2009

When I was thinking what to write for this weeks blog…I was left blank! I started thinking about how I do things and if anything stood out as different!…Being a Sri Lankan I realised that there were a few things that we do among ourselves without really noticing. Here a few:

• When visiting someones house, we always take off our shoes outside, or just inside the door. This is a sign of respect to the hosts. So, when there is a really big family function at someones house, there is always a huge row of shoes outside the door!! It can be quite a mission to track down your shoes! It also means there isn’t much point wearing amazing shoes that match your outfit, as now one will really see them! HAHA!
• Also when you go to someones house (not so much with close family) you generally take a gift of some kind…it usually ends up being a box of chocolates. WOW lol. So, when there’s a birthday in your household, it is likely you will end up with tons of chocolate! Though…something funny!…lots of people tend to hold onto these chocolate boxes until they need it to visit someone else! I find this hilarious! One time my aunty got a box of chocolates wrapped up (i’m not sure why! Its unlikely to be anything else but chocolate!) and when she unwrapped it (we actually eat the chocolate we’re given!)…she found a note addressed to someone completely different, not even the person who gave it to her. So, we have no idea how many times the box has been passed on!!
• When accepting a gift, or anything for that matter, you should do it with the right hand. I asked my grandma ‘why’ once, she said the left hand was seen as ‘dirty’…It’s because in SL (Sri Lanka) everyone uses their left hand for toilet related activities!
• It is seen as rude to sit with your legs outstretched or elevated (on a stool or table) in front of others. Especially when in the company of elders.
• We always call an older lady ‘aunty’  and an older man ‘uncle’. This is great as you don’t have to remember as many names…traditional Sri Lankan names aren’t always the easiest to pronounce either!
• There are some superstitions in Sri Lankan culture too…you know how often living at a number 8 house is lucky for many Chinese?…Well apparently for usit is the opposite! Most people don’t believe that stuff, but it’s funny how things are seen so differently in other cultures!

Well, that’s all i’ve got for now! I would like to say though, that most of these things don’t apply anymore and that I have chosen the funnier of the bunch! Most of the things we do have a deeper meaning to them but sadly most people have forgotten them. I might add some more to this later! Hope you had a few giggles at my expense! 😀