The Maasai- post #4

When I started my research, I knew I wanted to focus on the culture and traditions of tribes in Africa, but I had no idea where to go from there. After doing a little research, I decided to focus my paper on the Maasai people of southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. I chose this tribe because they are still around today and they still hold on to the same cultural and religious practices as they did hundreds of years ago.  The Maasai have so many interesting and unique qualities that there is more than enough information to focus my paper solely on them.

There are a lot of qualities the Maasai have that I found to be very unique. Cows are a very important aspect of their tribes. They use cows as currency and worship them. Cows never die of natural causes, they either sell them to someone outside of the Maasai or they slaughter them. Some cows are considered holy based on how they act. If a cow is not scared of humans or predators, they are considered holy and a special ceremony is held for them. They also hunt lions. A boy is considered a man and a warrior once he has killed a lion single handedly. I am going to focus my paper on the unique culture and how it has remained untouched through an ever changing world.

After WWII

My research paper my topic is the Japanese religion Shinto before and after World War II. In my previous blog posts I have discussed the religion of Shinto and what is was. In another blog post I covered the aspects of Shinto. Within this blog post I will try and fill you all in on Shinto after WWII. Truthfully, this aspect has been challenging to find information on.

During WWII Confucius advocated educating all people regardless of wealth or social class. Prior to 1868, thousands of temple schools existed in Japan. Students would learn subjects such as reading, writing, math and calligraphy. The Meiji government changed the school system when it instituted education reform in 1872. The government created a public school system and required all children to attend. By the turn of the century 90 percent of school-aged children were enrolled in elementary school. The Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890 stated rules for behavior clear. The document specified how people should behave. By the late nineteenth century the government was centralizing, education and the military were modernizing and the economy was industrializing. A strong sense of nationalism arose from the expansion of the empire.

In 1941 Japan decided to attack the United States. Much of the ideology or beliefs behind Japan’s extreme nationalism can be tied to the history of State Shinto. The education system and mandatory military service promoted the idea that the first loyalty of Japanese citizens was to the state. Japan's defeat in the war signified the collapse of state Shinto.
On July 26, 1945 the United States, Great Britain and China announced the Potsdam Declaration. This called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese. Japan did not comply so the United States dropped an atomic bomb over Hiroshima on August 6th and Nagasaki on August 9th. After being urged by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, Emperor Hirohito professed his humanity. These statements directly contradicted the philosophy of the Meiji Constitution. By renouncing that he was divine the emperor weaken the state Shinto.
I still need to find more information on the change of Shinto after WWII. Once I find the information, I think my research paper will have great information.

Celtic Spiritual Mysteries

This research paper has taught me a lot about researching in general. The Celts were such mysterious people in the sense that, up until the mid 1900's, there wasn't a lot of information about them. Finding reliable sources has been a challenge and I think that it's a good thing that I came upon this problem. There are legends and then there are facts. When first researching the Celts I found it incredibly difficult to distinguish between the two. Luckily the first book I found was a history book that allowed me to get a basic understanding of the Celtic people and their every day lives. However, that wasn't what I wanted to do my paper on. I was much more interested in their spirituality and why they lived the way they did. This is where my problem began. My second novel was very much based on the speculation of the professor who wrote it. Much of it included facts that I found in my first novel, but it expanded upon them and spoke of legends. It took extra research to realize that some of the key components, such as some of the Gods talked about, were just from tales that the Celts told their own children. Researching has helped me form a more specific topic as now understand how the Celts structured their stories and their history.

In having to do extensive research, I was able to determine the Celtic spirituality that I will be writing about. There is not a lot of solid facts about the spirituality of the Celts before Roman Catholicism, but there is enough to create a strong comparison between pre-Catholicism influence, and post-Catholicism influence on the Celtic religion and culture. I will be comparing the two and explaining how the traditional Celtic practices blended with Catholicism and its beliefs. I hope that by the end of my paper I'll have pieced together answers to my own questions. How could such a strong culture be wiped from all of Europe, but not from Great Britain? Why were the Celts so mysterious before Roman Catholicism? There are many more questions that have popped up during my research process, but these were just a few that I found significant. I'd like my paper to help the reader understand the true impact that religion can have on a society and how one can change another. I'm excited for people to read mine if they so choose!

Analyzing the Greek Stars #4

As a person who has always been interested in astronomy, it was very hard at first to find basic information about my topic, since I has already known so much about it. Although, using my second book resource, I was given more information relating astronomy to the Greek myths, rather than just about the stars, zodiacs, constellations, etc. In middle school and early high school, I was given some background information on Greek gods and their tales, what they accomplished, and how life was back then. But, this did not help me now, for I had already forgotten what each god was meant for. After further going into my research, I now know the gods that are associated with each zodiac, and the stories of how each constellation was made. I am now analyzing each myth and detail of the roles and associations each Greek god with their myths. I believe that this research will lead me to my final setting to write my paper, and figure out just how I am going to write it. Although, this further research has brought me to questions I am having a hard time finding the answers for. What Greek gods are allowed, or not allowed, to send a being among the stars? How come the Greeks did not have a myth associated with Libra, they took a Roman version instead? How come they did not make it a creature like the other eleven zodiacs? What made them stop at twelve constellations? These questions I hope to find answers for when further analyzing my research.

The most interesting things about my topic are the reasons behind the zodiacs, and how they came to be among the stars. I hope any reader of my research paper will get out information about their own zodiac, and find new ways to interpret how they are and who they are. I do not necessarily believe in the Greek myths, nor do I agree with how the Greeks believe things were made, but it does question my mind how, for example, everything about my zodiac is all very true about me, and it seems to be this way for many others as well. I cannot wait to write my paper and further analyze my research into this topic.

My Inca Research

Having read many sources surrounding the Inca and their culture, I think I am able to prove that the Inca should be considered one of the most powerful and successful cultures this world has seen. By making such a bold statement, I know I will need a lot of evidence to back it up. To prove my thesis, I will discuss the agriculture, technologies, and the warfare of the Incas. I think discussing these topics will show the power, intuition, and intellect of the Inca. The information I plan on using for the agriculture is information on their terraced mountainsides. For technology, I will discuss their suspension bridges. Lastly, as I am narrowing my thesis, it is evident that I need to find more information on Incan warfare in order to provide a solid argument.

New questions I have surrounding my topic include:

• What style of warfare did they use?
• How were the Inca able to grow enough crops to support an empire of 11 million people?
• How were the Inca able to deliver information and goods from one end of the empire to the other?
• How did the Inca keep records?
• I would like to learn a little a little bit more about Incan architecture, to see if I can use some of that information to prove their technological dominance.
• And Lastly, I would like to explore other agricultural, technological, and warfare feats that set the Inca above other tribes.

I think the most interesting aspect of my topic is just the exploration of such a unique culture. Although my paper doesn't rely on knowing the cultural backgrounds of the Inca, I think the way the Inca modeled their culture is one reason why they are so unique. In addition, the Inca are fascinating to study because that had such an insightful way of thinking. Having been occupying what is know modern day Peru, the Inca had many challenges. How the Inca go about the adversity they faced is spectacular. I often think that had I been in the position of the Incas, I wouldn't have been able to come up with the solutions they did. For example, the Inca learned when to grow certain plants at certain altitudes in order to get the best crop yield. Also, they were able to create roads complete with suspension bridges in order to travel across rocky terrain. 

Lastly, I hope readers will read my paper and be just as impressed with the Incas as I am. Their accomplishments are far beyond their days, so I hope readers will see the extent of their accomplishments. Also, I hope that the readers will learn something new about the Incas. In addition, I want my classmates to be able to understand how the Incas connect to what we've discussed in class. Lastly, I just want readers to enjoy what they are reading.

smoking kills

    I found this image when I went to The MET in New York City. This piece of artwork spoke to me the most because of the message and story it is telling. Unfortunately when I toke this picture, I forgot to get take a picture of the artist and the name of the artwork. I tried to find it, but failed many times.
This piece was one of my favorite artworks because it tells a story.

   The artwork is a painting of what seems to be a person laying down, smoking a cigarette and losing a lot of blood. The person has no hair and a light bulb over him, maybe from treatments and surgeries. It shows the person bleeding and possibly dying from lung cancer. Over the person is a clock, maybe symbolizing that time is running out and he's dying, but still continues to smoke. There is a window in the back that shows that its dark outside, showing nothing but black paint. I don't really know what the purpose of the window, maybe symbolizes darkness and nothingness and explains why they continue to smoke even though it kills them, because they are depressed.

   I think the artwork tells a story and shows a message. I think that the artwork shows that addiction kills. The artwork gives reasoning on why people have deadly addictions. The face the person makes while they are smoking lacks emotion, as if that the addiction that is causing their death doesn't phase them. Almost as if the person wants smoking to kill them, as if the didn't care about their life. The artwork shows sadness and death, and accepting death. The artwork to me is an ideal work of art because it evokes emotion. This artwork is meaningful to me because my brother has been an addict for four years. His addiction has almost killed him twice, yet he continues to relapse, and he suffers severe depression. Every time my brother relapses, I visit him and he lights a cigarette afterward and I think of this piece of artwork.



 
   

The Odyssey, #4

My research for my paper has lead me to narrow down the path my paper will take. I will begin my paper with background information on Greek literature as a whole and the development of such. Then, I will talk a little it about Greek literature itself having been of such great influence to other cultures and time period's literature movements. After all, Greek literature still influences us today, in ways we forget to acknowledge. 

The main argument I will be making throughout my research paper will be that Homeric epics, such as The Odyssey, paved the way for the entire movement of Western Literature. The Odyssey's lasting influence on Western Literature has also lead the movement in educating young children all over the world; in hundreds of different cultures, too. The hero in this novel encounters many confrontations and conflicting problems that he faces with courage, strength, and rationality. I will discuss these confrontations through the lens of it's great influence on modern literature. Western Literature begins with the Homeric Epics, however it seems as if it will never have an end now.