I have a new resolve to blog more often. I write more on my myspace blog or at least I have in the past. But see I feel like if I post something there I have to be very eloquent. I want a place where I can just put down my thoughts and not have to worry about how it sounds. I think this is a good place for that.
I have gotten more focused with my thesis and I am very happy about that. I just have to keep working at it. And a lot. I have been making my own handmade paper for each milestone. I started with the Destroyer's Divorce piece. Tomorrow I am going to add the typograpy to it. I would like to start thinking about other pieces in this archetype so i can take them with me to project 2 on Thursday. It's funny, before I had this focus I didn't have any ideas for the Clown archetype but now that I know what medium I am using I have all kinds of fuzzy images in my head of what I would like to try.
Next week is Thanksgiving. I told my aunt last year that I couldn't make it because I had too much homework to do and now I am in a similar situation. I would like to go up and visit them because I haven't been up to see them yet and I promised I would. But, having a long weekend to get stuff done will be a great thing for me. I just have to make sure I don't sit around my apartment and do nothing. I actually have to work on stuff. I would like to at least have a plan done by the end of this week for what I am doing in each archetype. That way I can just start experimenting with the results.
I also have to find time to work on my freelance work. I have an invitation due by next week and I have to get cracking on this website I am doing. I said I could have a temporary site up by the end of this week. I have to make good on that. I would really like to have the real site done by Nov 30 because it is the day of board meeting. I don't know if I can since I am not working alone on it. But that is what I would like.
I am teaching in the morning. A concept that I didn't learn in college but it isn't that complicated. I'm only mildly worried about it. I mean I didn't spend as much time preparing for it as I did my last lesson and it is a morning class. The last one I taught was an afternoon class so I had a few hours in the morning to make sure I had all the materials that I needed and I knew exactly how I wanted the time to go. This time I am a bit less prepared for it. I know what I am going to talk about I have my lecture prepared. But there is an activity that I am having them do and I am a little worried that it might not be clear as to what they are supposed to do. I will just have to pray that it works out alright.
I would like to be more organized with my time. I mean I have all the best intentions to do work and get all my thesis stuff done but for some reason I always find myself distracted and I don't follow through with what I want to do. I need to figure out how to accomplish my goals the way I want them done.
Alright I think I will go now. I am going to pop in a movie and fall asleep to it. I know I have to get up early in the morning for class but I don't think I could sleep right now. I also want to work on getting my schedule back in sync with the rest of normal civilization. That might take longer though.
G'night.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
This is about the traditions of death.
Binding the dead
"Be silent, story, soon.
You did not take long to tell."
George Mackay Brown
Whether foretold or not, when a death occurred, amid the grief and mourning lurked the fear that the deceased's spirit might return to torment the living.
So steps had to be taken to ensure the dead person's spirit was bound to the burial place.
Binding the dead to their coffin, or grave, was a key element in Scandinavian tradition and unsurprisingly featured heavily in Orcadian folk belief.
Great pains went to ensuring the spirits of the newly dead could not return.
For one, the deceased's name stopped being used. It was feared that mentioning a corpse's name might summon the spirit back into the house. Instead, a number of aliases were used to refer to the deceased. These included terms such as "him dat wis teen" (him that was taken).
Unfortunately, few other traditions were recorded in Orkney. Many, however, were recorded in Scandinavia and it is likely that their use continued here, although perhaps secretly.
The steps taken after a death, although thinly veiled as Christian, sometimes brought the family of the deceased into direct conflict with the church.
One example case involved an 18th century Orphir farmer who was terrified that his late wife would return to torment her stepdaughter.
To prevent this he:
"took corn and put between her fingers and toes, and put some barley corn in her mouth, and laid some in the chest and threw the rest in the chest about her."
This was simply too much for the church.
The Kirk Session could not turn a blind eye, so stepped in and chastised the man for his heathen actions. The power the corn had over the spirit of the dead woman is not recorded.
Another example of binding the dead saw the corpse staked to its coffin by a pole driven through the chest. It is threfore not surprising that some of these rituals were carried out in secret.
http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/death/death2.htm
Customs & Traditions: Death
Traditionally, Greek American women are designated responsible for death-related customs. This jurisdiction over death practices is a carry over from Greece where women have historically functioned as the keepers of the home, family, birth, and death. When Greeks immigrated to the United States they retained certain traditions from the homeland, yet simultaneously they adapted and assimilated into the larger American social and cultural context. Thus, Greek American death related traditions have their roots in customs practiced in Greece, but are also the result of continuous practical adaptations to life in the United States.
Following the death of a close family member, for example, women are expected to wear black for up to one year to show respect for the deceased. This year-long mourning observance is considerably shorter than that practiced in rural Greece, however, where women customarily wear black for at least three years. On the other hand, in both countries men need only wear a black arm band for up to forty days following the death of a loved one. Upon the death of a family member, further duties of Greek American women include preparation and distribution of important death-related foods such as kollyva and paximadia, as well as the traditional dinner following a Greek American funeral. In many communities during the early period of the 20th century, Greek American women actually dressed, bathed and prepared the bodies of close relatives for burial. Furthermore, the body was displayed in the home of the deceased prior to the funeral, and female friends and relatives sang ritual mirologia or lamentations. Now, however, body preparations are left to the mortician and ritual laments are rarely sung.
Greek American funeral events take place in specific order and consist of a viewing, funeral at the church, burial, aftermeal, forty day memorial service, and annual memorial services. The entire community is invited to attend the viewing and funeral, while the other successive events primarily include those family and friends closest to the deceased. Furthermore, these events collectively represent a movement from intense mourning within a religious context to the aftermeal's more social atmosphere with lots of fond reminiscing about the deceased.
To perpetuate their communities and their family ties even in death, several Greek American communities have established either their own private cemeteries or purchase Greek sections within larger regional cemeteries. One such cemetery, the Greek Orthodox Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, contains beautiful marble statues, mini-temple like structures marking large family plots, lengthy Greek inscriptions, and elaborately incised decorative motifs. Such memorials are an obvious departure from the current American trend of flat, bronze marker filled lawn parks.
In addition to the death of a loved one, particular Greek American customs and traditions are associated with the important events of the birth of a child and marriage.
http://chnm.gmu.edu/greekam/death.html
http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu/1998/death/deathhistory.htm
http://www.familymed.ubc.ca/forum/talk_Traditions.html
http://www.deathreference.com/Gi-Ho/Gravestones-and-Other-Markers.html
http://www.mythinglinks.org/ct~ritual~death.html
http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/death/
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/muertos.html
http://www.kenyaweb.com/history/religions/death.html
http://www.khm.uio.no/utstillinger/farvel/newtrad.html
These are the initial links I found about the traditions of death. I will review them and find an aspect to design.
Binding the dead
"Be silent, story, soon.
You did not take long to tell."
George Mackay Brown
Whether foretold or not, when a death occurred, amid the grief and mourning lurked the fear that the deceased's spirit might return to torment the living.
So steps had to be taken to ensure the dead person's spirit was bound to the burial place.
Binding the dead to their coffin, or grave, was a key element in Scandinavian tradition and unsurprisingly featured heavily in Orcadian folk belief.
Great pains went to ensuring the spirits of the newly dead could not return.
For one, the deceased's name stopped being used. It was feared that mentioning a corpse's name might summon the spirit back into the house. Instead, a number of aliases were used to refer to the deceased. These included terms such as "him dat wis teen" (him that was taken).
Unfortunately, few other traditions were recorded in Orkney. Many, however, were recorded in Scandinavia and it is likely that their use continued here, although perhaps secretly.
The steps taken after a death, although thinly veiled as Christian, sometimes brought the family of the deceased into direct conflict with the church.
One example case involved an 18th century Orphir farmer who was terrified that his late wife would return to torment her stepdaughter.
To prevent this he:
"took corn and put between her fingers and toes, and put some barley corn in her mouth, and laid some in the chest and threw the rest in the chest about her."
This was simply too much for the church.
The Kirk Session could not turn a blind eye, so stepped in and chastised the man for his heathen actions. The power the corn had over the spirit of the dead woman is not recorded.
Another example of binding the dead saw the corpse staked to its coffin by a pole driven through the chest. It is threfore not surprising that some of these rituals were carried out in secret.
http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/death/death2.htm
Customs & Traditions: Death
Traditionally, Greek American women are designated responsible for death-related customs. This jurisdiction over death practices is a carry over from Greece where women have historically functioned as the keepers of the home, family, birth, and death. When Greeks immigrated to the United States they retained certain traditions from the homeland, yet simultaneously they adapted and assimilated into the larger American social and cultural context. Thus, Greek American death related traditions have their roots in customs practiced in Greece, but are also the result of continuous practical adaptations to life in the United States.
Following the death of a close family member, for example, women are expected to wear black for up to one year to show respect for the deceased. This year-long mourning observance is considerably shorter than that practiced in rural Greece, however, where women customarily wear black for at least three years. On the other hand, in both countries men need only wear a black arm band for up to forty days following the death of a loved one. Upon the death of a family member, further duties of Greek American women include preparation and distribution of important death-related foods such as kollyva and paximadia, as well as the traditional dinner following a Greek American funeral. In many communities during the early period of the 20th century, Greek American women actually dressed, bathed and prepared the bodies of close relatives for burial. Furthermore, the body was displayed in the home of the deceased prior to the funeral, and female friends and relatives sang ritual mirologia or lamentations. Now, however, body preparations are left to the mortician and ritual laments are rarely sung.
Greek American funeral events take place in specific order and consist of a viewing, funeral at the church, burial, aftermeal, forty day memorial service, and annual memorial services. The entire community is invited to attend the viewing and funeral, while the other successive events primarily include those family and friends closest to the deceased. Furthermore, these events collectively represent a movement from intense mourning within a religious context to the aftermeal's more social atmosphere with lots of fond reminiscing about the deceased.
To perpetuate their communities and their family ties even in death, several Greek American communities have established either their own private cemeteries or purchase Greek sections within larger regional cemeteries. One such cemetery, the Greek Orthodox Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, contains beautiful marble statues, mini-temple like structures marking large family plots, lengthy Greek inscriptions, and elaborately incised decorative motifs. Such memorials are an obvious departure from the current American trend of flat, bronze marker filled lawn parks.
In addition to the death of a loved one, particular Greek American customs and traditions are associated with the important events of the birth of a child and marriage.
http://chnm.gmu.edu/greekam/death.html
http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu/1998/death/deathhistory.htm
http://www.familymed.ubc.ca/forum/talk_Traditions.html
http://www.deathreference.com/Gi-Ho/Gravestones-and-Other-Markers.html
http://www.mythinglinks.org/ct~ritual~death.html
http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/death/
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/muertos.html
http://www.kenyaweb.com/history/religions/death.html
http://www.khm.uio.no/utstillinger/farvel/newtrad.html
These are the initial links I found about the traditions of death. I will review them and find an aspect to design.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)