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Readings (due October 2)

This version was saved 16 years, 5 months ago View current version     Page history
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on October 9, 2007 at 7:43:15 pm
 

To comment on the following readings, please first indicate your name, e-mail address, and the date of your post. Then, add your comments.

 

Example: [E. Kintz, kintz@geneseo.edu, 8/25]

 

IN THE FUTURE COMMENTS - LET'S BEGIN TO THINK LIKE CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS AND USE THE SCHEMATA THAT SCHOLARS APPLY TO THE STUDY OF OTHER CULTURES. PLEASE IDENTIFY YOUR FOCUS FOR YOUR WIKI POST AS:

 

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Sandstrom, Traditional Paper Making and Paper Cult Figures of Mexico (at reserve desk)

 

Type your comments here . . .

 

(1)

 

[Dave Roberts, dlr4@geneseo.edu, 10-2]

 

1.) It is interesting that Sanstrom did not use the real names of the Nahua he studied so as to protect them from the dangers of the outside world.When did he study these people? Do these dangers still exist today? Or have these people already been modernized, industrialized, and Westernized?

 

2.) Be it Europe, Asia, neolithic South America, or present day United States, it seems that the peasant-elite hierarchy has maintained the same basic relationship, with peasants laboring while the elite control them by buying their resources and cheap labor.

 

3.) I would like to look more into the conflict between the Tlakacans and the Aztec. Why didn't the Aztec share their cotton resources? Was hording the cotton worth a blood feud? Were Tlaxacans unable to harvest cotton within their region? I would like to feel maquay sometime... I'm sure it can't be too comfortable.

 

End

 

 

[Adam Saunders, ars11@geneseo.edu, 10-9]

 

1) The idea of the spirit weighs heavily in their ideology. Spirits during such events as the Nahua-Otomi Crop Fertility Ritual are represented by paper cut outs which directed by the Otomi master are cut out for each of the spirits that will be represented. Spirits represented are cut out in both female and male forms on a variety of different papers.

 

2) Cleanliness is also a highly depicted process of the ritual. The cleansing of various adornments especially alters is believed to be washing away any harmful spirits that may be present is necessary for harmful spirits will be attracted to the festivities due to the music and offerings that are present.

 

3) Harmful spirits come in many varieties one being the ejecatl. On the Nahua pantheon the ejecatl are responsible for disease, misfortune, drought, barrenness and death. These harmful form of spirit lurk about in anyplace that people my frequently visit. The ejecatl tend to prey on the weak, children, the aged or anyone else that is weakened is attacked most often.

 

END

 

 

 

[Steph Aquilina, sma8@geneseo.edu, 10/9]

 

Alan R. Sandstrom & Pamela Effrein Sandstrom – Traditional Papermaking and Paper Cult Figures of Mexico

 

1. IDEOLOGY/SYMBOLISM: Paper figures are used to portray spirits during rituals; the power they gain is why during the ceremonies, only shamans can handle them. Altars are constructed to appeal to the spirits and contain several offerings such as food or the blood of sacrificed animals that are “fed” to the spirits by pouring them onto the paper figures or putting them into the figures’ mouths. Chants are addressed to the paper figures as the medium of communication with the selected spirits.

2. IDEOLOGY/SYMBOLISM: Paper was closely tied with the religious system, allowing for the printing of ritual instructions and theology, adorning statues and priests dressed as gods, being burned as a sacrifice and used in medical practices to fight disease and protect travelers.

3. SOCIAL CHANGE: When Cortes and his soldiers battled the Mexicans, the conquerors connected paper with other aspects of the native religion, believing it (along with temples, statues, altars and priests) must be destroyed. They felt that these sacred books were linked with the devil and must be eliminated; consequently, papers for sacrifice or adornment purposes no longer exist, and very few sheets (comparatively) have survived. END

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