Why make sense of the past?

When looking at the pictures in the text and reading about the cave paintings, I can't help but wonder why is this so important? I know it's interesting to know that humans were artistic during prehistoric times and that they had a creative outlet, but why should there be scientists that dedicate their time and energy investigating and researching these paintings? I see graffiti in odd places, freeways, bridges, sewers, stair cases, bathrooms, benches and I wonder if hundreds of years from now will archaeologists come across these writing or drawings and study them? After seeing the power point from lecture the other day I had a revelation! I have loved anthropology since taking my first anthropology class years ago at my community college, I fell in love with the subject. I even thought that I can claim it as my major but realized I was a little too old. The point is I understood why we need to make sense of these paintings, we as humans are curious and we feel the need to know all aspects of past, present and future. It makes perfect sense to want to dissect and understand people that lived before us. One of my favorite parts of biological anthropology was learning about Neanderthals and other different hominids and how they scavenged for food and hunted for their families. I thought about this after reading the text and I imagined the early stages of human life creating, painting, fulfilling their need to express themselves. How they survived weather conditions and traveled across the earth. I wish we would have more images of what they left behind and more information on how they would past time. It's more clear to me now that previous humans had some sort of artistic outlet weather it be making art or painting on cave walls. However, we will never truly know what they are depicting in those paintings but it is fun to try and figure it out. The possibilities are endless.

Blog 7

"Today, most scholars, whether they are art historians or archaeologists, would deny that there even is such a thing as primitive art."pg.125


 I never really paid any attention to the word primitive until this class. Honestly, it's not something i use in my day to day vocabulary and I never really heard it or know people that use the word primitive. After hearing it in class, I can honestly say I don't like the word and it's connection to negative. It gives things a title of being less then in my opinion. Coming from a very enriched cultural background, most objects I'm used to seeing as beautiful pieces of workmanship would be considered primitive. Things that people make like pottery, tools, rugs, etc for daily use are beautiful one of the kind pieces of art that can actually be used instead of collecting dust. These things are functional pieces of art as well as genuine craftsmanship.
When I was younger and Tijuana, BC was a little safer, my friends and I used to go to Tijuana all the time. I always came home with something that I bought from a street vendor. One of my favorite purses is from a vendor. Just a knitted purse with a cool design, really basic. This woman sells these purses to feed herself and her family. It's a simple purse but I have gotten more compliments on that purse then any  name brand purse I have in my closet. It's items like my purse that make me hate the word primitive. This purse describes a lifestyle, a creation, a culture. It's specific to my heritage and meaningful because it's a homemade one of a kind piece of art. Another item that I love and use a lot is a ceramic turtle painted bright blue and has bold colorful flowers painted on it. It's purpose is a jewelry box and I store my favorite ring in it. This turtle is a really awesome piece of art and craftsmanship. The whole thing is homemade by the vendor which means he sculpted the turtle out of clay and then painted it. This is not only a hobby but their livelihood depends on it. It's items like this that make me appreciate my culture and the work that goes behind making this items.

Endocannibalism

According to howstuffworks.com, "Endocannibalism is the consumption of the flesh of a person who is a member of the consumer's kin group. This membership can be based on family, society, culture, tribe -- any type of in-group. Endocannibalism is most often an expression of veneration of the dead, or the pursuit of consuming some esoteric aspect of the person, like the deceased's wisdom."

I've always been interested in different death and funeral rituals of other cultures. While taking a cultural anthropology class at my community college a few years ago my interest grew stronger when my teacher told the class of a group of indigenous people that would take their dead loved ones, place them into a huge container and let decomposition occur and then when the body was a liquid soup, the people would drink the fluids. I was amazed and disgusted at the same time. I knew cannibalism existed however to let a body decompose into something that would then be drunken was an amazing discovery for me. Since finding out about this I was curious to know what other cultures practiced endocannibalism and if it was prevalent today. With my cultural anthropology teachers help, she informed me that many tribes and societies eat their dead still however it's really frowned upon. After learning more about it, I really didn't think it was that gross anymore and I actually thought it was quite meaningful and I could see the spiritual aspects of it and I definitely consider endocannibalism a ritual experience.

I am not an Alcoholic!

When thinking about this weeks blog I had problems trying to figure out what an aesthetic experience was and how it fits into my life experiences and what I came up with is my love for labels.
I'm a huge fan of art work thats presented on labels. I'm not a big drinker but I do enjoy a glass of wine or a nice cold beer on occasion. Usual, I find myself attracted to bottles of wine or beer that have really cool looking labels. Sometimes the liquid inside is a disappointment but the bottle is always a keeper because of the design on the label. Every time I walk into a grocery store or a market I will stop by the alcohol section and peruse the labels for anything new or attention grabbing. Most of the time I buy the product just for the design and never come around to drinking the liquid inside and just end up keeping the bottle for looks in my room or kitchen. Some people might think it's waste of money but I'm really a fan of the art. I'm a huge fan of skulls and retro looking labels so most of my purchases are based on those things. One of my favorite wines is Dia De Los Blancos from Southcoast winery and the bottle has a cool image of a female skeleton and a little skeleton dog. This was the first bottle of wine I actually purchased for myself after swearing never to drink wine because I thought it was too pretentious. I know people get paid good money to make products look alluring to consumers, especially alcohol but I look beyond the product and find mysel truly impressed with the aesthetic that goes beyond the promotion and into the art.

Making Special

Was it me or did "Making Special" sound like something dirty? Maybe just me. Anyway, being new to Arcata and just moving into a new room, it was only a matter of time that I would have to make my room and house my own. My room now is nothing compared to the room back home which was a lot smaller. Even though size was an issue, I still managed to express myself with a purple ceiling and colorful sheets. My room now is huge and full of possibilities, I have a whole new canvas I can play with. In order for me to survive this experience, leaving home and being the new kid in town, I had to make my room a safe place for me to relax and be myself, a hide away. I love color and patterns so I have applied that to my room and have added things that are unique to my taste. For example I just purchased a rug that is woven wool and it's super colorful. I fell in love with this rug and knew I needed it for my room. When someone enters my room they will be stepping on this rug and probably not even notice it, but It doesn't matter if no one appreciates it, because I love it. My room is not complete, in fact, I haven't really even started decorating due to lack funds but I will continue to purchase small pieces of myself in material objects in order to make my room like myself, colorful.