Society

Recently, we have been getting very in depth into society and how it affects people, and just how it affects the world in general. One big thing that we discussed was the topic of Empathy. The definition of the word empathy, is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Empathy is a very big part of society, and plays a big role in making it the way it is today. In the speech "The Power of Outrospection" Roman Krznaric states, "Empathy can create a revolution of human relationships." This just goes to show how much influence empathy has on individuals, and how much it affects society. Also, in the speech "The Empathic Civilisation", Jeremy Rifkin says, "Humans are not soft wired for aggression, violence, self interest, or utilitarianism, but instead sociability, attachment, affection, and companionship. This basically shows how empathy is naturally programmed into all humans, and it is just a part of life.

Another aspect of society that plays a huge role in affecting people and how they act and live their lives is the idea of senses. Senses are basically the gateways that allow individuals to absorb and process information. In the speech "Changing Paradigms", Ken Robinson states that art is an aesthetic experience, and an aesthetic experience is an experience in which an individuals senses are operating at their peak, and the individual is fully "alive". He also states that anaesthetic experiences are experiences in which the senses are completely shut off. When Robinson is talking about this, he says that many of the activities people do nowadays, such as video games, mindless television shows, and using electronics such as cell phones are anaesthetic, and that these activites are in a way preventing society from moving forward in realms such as art and creativity. Another way that senses are a huge factor in society impacting people can be found in the speech "First as Tragedy, Then as Farce" when Slavoj Zizek talks about how people do not purchase things such as organic apples because they believe they taste better than normal apples, but instead because it gives them a "warm" feeling inside and makes them believe that they are helping mother earth and making the world a better place. Zizek believes that this is something that is wrong with today's society, and that all this does is satisfy people by making them believe that they are playing a big part in permanently helping a cause, but instead all they are doing is momentarily helping it. Another example of this is the shoe company Toms. For every pair of shoes that a customer purchases from this company, one pair is donated to people who are in need. Zizek believes that this is a bad thing because it makes people truly think they are helping a cause, when in reality the individual that receives the shoes is still in the same situation as they were before. Obviously, the topics of senses and empathy are two things that play a massive role in society, and how society effects not only people, but also the world as a whole.
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Culture

In class during this previous week we have studied the idea of culture in a very in depth way. Anthropologists define culture as everything that occurs in a society and all of the customs and practices handed down from generation to generation. One thing that I learned from looking deeper into culture as a whole is the fact that there are so many subdivisions and different types of culture. One example of divisions found in culture is shown in the distinct difference between different classes of culture in the middle ages, such as the difference between elite culture which consisted of things such art, literature, and classical music (elite culture was sometimes referred to as "high culture") and folk culture which consisted of things such as street carnivals, tavern drinking, and folktales. One very important factor in the difference between these two cultures is the fact that members of the elite culture could enjoy folk culture, but folk culture could not enjoy elite culture.

Another thing that I learned about culture during this past week was the fact that there are so many different types and variations of it. One type of culture that I was already fairly familiar with that we discussed was popular culture. Popular culture is defined as the culture of everyone in a society. Popular culture is basically made up of what surrounds us. Things such as attitudes, actions, buildings, entertainment, sports and religion are just a few of the factors that play into creating popular culture. Another very significant type of culture that I learned about this past week was mass culture. The term mass culture refers to the things in our popular culture that are mass-produced or shared through the mass media. Almost everything in popular culture can be represented by mass culture, simply because almost everything in popular culture is mass produced. Some examples of things in popular culture that are mass produced are sporting events, newspapers, music, video games, and other things along these lines. The only things in popular culture that are not mass produced are things that only small societies of people know about or enjoy, such as local burger joints, local musicians, or certain styles found only in a given area. It was very interesting to me to see how much there really is to culture and how much more in depth the idea of culture than what I previously thought. 

Reflection

This past week we finished reading and annotating the novel "Ceremony". We continued to focus on analyzing this book, and once again there was a very strong focus on the idea of healing in this section of the book. In this part of the book, Tayo is thinking about the ceremony that he just completed, and it said he was "testing" the feeling against the feeling he had before the ceremony. This "testing" was Tayo's way of checking whether or not the ceremony had actually affected him and successfully worked on him, and got rid of the pain in his life. Also, Tayo was worried about whether or not these affects would be permanent or if they would wear away over time. In the end of this section Tayo realizes that this ceremony could be too good to be true. He goes out with his friends and gets really drunk, which shows that his pain is not gone because he had to use alcohol to cover up this pain. Obviously, the end of this book was strongly focused on the idea of healing, and it just shows how important this idea is to Tayo, and to the native culture as a whole.

Symbolism

During this past week we have gotten very deep into the text of the novel "Ceremony", and have been focusing on deciphering the ending of this book. I have noticed that there is a very high amount of symbolism found throughout this section of the book, all of which are very important. Many of these symbols are things that have already played a huge role in this story, but I never realized what some of these things actually stood for.
One symbol that is very important throughout the whole book is the symbol of Ts'eh, but it is not until near the end of the book when she predicts what will happen to Tayo and how he can avoid being captured that it is confirmed that she is in fact a mythical creature, and in a way a symbol for the earth. Another important symbol found in this section is what the uranium mine symbolizes. Betonie told tayo that in order to cure the new illness, there had to be new ceremonies that made use of objects from the whites. Uranium is this object from the whites, and it symbolizes the relationship that the white people had with the earth , and how they felt like they could just take whatever they wanted from it. One more important symbol found in the end of this book is the symbolism that comes along with rain. Even though the rain never actually returned, it is obvious that it is going to, and this is a symbol for Tayo's troubles and problems returning even after he completed the ceremony. These are just a few of the symbols that I felt were the most important in making this story the way it was, and the ones that I felt completed this story and tied everything together.

Healing

This past week we have been focusing on analyzing the book "Ceremony" in an extremely in-depth way. The biggest topic that I felt was most important from the section that we were focusing on was the topic of healing. Specifically, the spiritual healing of Tayo. In this section of the book, Tayo is part of a ceremony that was performed as an attempt to cure him of some of the troubles in his life. After this ceremony, Tayo felt as if he had been cured, but quickly realized he might not have been correct.
Immediately after the ceremony, Tayo felt like he had been completely cured and that the ceremony worked perfectly. Even though he felt great after the ceremony, it wasn't long until he was back to drowning out the troubles in his life with things such as alcohol, instead of just dealing with them another way. Very soon after the ceremony, Tayo was pressured into going out and getting drunk with some of his friends. A big part of Tayo's problems with dealing with things in his life came from his abuse of alcohol, and more specifically how his friends are constantly pressuring him to drink, and quite frankly just don't care about Tayo and his well being. Overall, this section of the book strongly revolved around the idea of Tayo being healed, but in reality I think that Tayo is still very far from being healed.

Stress

In class this week basically what we did was focus on getting really in depth with and studying important quotes found throughout the book "Ceremony". I have noticed that many of these quotes focus on racism and how prominent it was during this time. One very significant quote found in this book that shows how much racism was really affecting Tayo's life says, "Emo had hated him since the time they had been in grade school together, and the only reason for this hate was that Tayo was part white. But Tayo was used to it by now. Since he could remember, he had known Aunite's shame for what his mother had done, and Auntie's shame for him." (Silko 57). This quote is very significant because it shows how much hate is directed toward Tayo purely because of his race, and it is actually very sad because even his own aunt is too ashamed to adopt Tayo and call him her son simply because he is part white. This is just one of the many powerful quotes that can be found in this book that portray how intense racism can be, and how severely it can affect an individual.
Another theme that was commonly found in many of the significant quotes in this book so far is related to Post Traumatic Stress and War, and how much these two things have affected Tayo's life. Throughout this book Tayo's views on war are constantly being displayed, and compared to the views of other characters in this book. One quote that perfectly displays Tayo's views is found when Tayo is talking to Emo, and the book says, "Tayo could hear it in his voice when he talked about the killing-how Emo grew from each killing. Emo fed off each man he killed, and the higher the rank of the dead man, the higher it made Emo." (Silko 61). This quote just shows the difference between Tayo and Emo, and how their views on war are basically polar opposites. Emo pretty much obsessed with war, while on the other hand it hurts Tayo to even think about it. As a result of carefully searching through this book for quotes all week, I have noticed how strongly the themes of racism and war have played into this story, and how frequently these topics are discussed, and how Tayo has received nothing but stress from the events in his life that surfaced these topics in the first place.

The Hollywood Indian

This past week we watched a film in class titled "Reel Injun". For the most part, this film focused on how media has portrayed the Native people, and how this has affected the way society looks at the individuals. It covered topics ranging from how these people dress, how they talk, what they do, and just how they live in general. It was very interesting to see some of the things that many people believe to be true about Native American's actually be nothing but myths created by the media, and it was very surprising to see how many of these things I actually believed to be true just because I was so used to the ways that the media portrayed these people.

Probably the biggest thing that this film showed me was how much the media created an Identity in a way for all Native American's through clothing. The media created this "Identity" by generalizing all Native people and tribes and creating one specific look to represent basically all tribes, regardless of how they actually dressed. One of the big identifying factors that was created for male native people was the idea that all men wore huge, feathered headdresses similar to the one pictured below. Although there were some native tribes and individuals who did wear these headdresses, the media made it seem like it was a universal trait for all native men, even though it was actually fairly uncommon. Another trait about native people that has been created by the media is the idea that all native women wear headbands similar to the one in the picture below. Hollywood used these headbands originally as a way for actresses to keep wigs from falling off of their heads, and this trait ended up sticking and becoming another one of the ways that the media generalized the native population even though it was a trait that very few native people actually possessed. Although this information may seem insignificant to some, it just goes to show how much power the media truly has on topics such as this, and how media can completely generalize a population and create an image that is completely untrue about this population but still spread this image to millions of people with ease.