Mar 24, 2021 08:21 PM
(This post was last modified: Mar 25, 2021 12:40 AM by C C.)
Ancient Maya houses show wealth inequality is tied to despotic governance
https://phys.org/news/2021-03-ancient-ma...ality.html
2,500-Year-Old Maya Mural Depicts Salt Trade
https://www.archaeology.org/news/9549-21...alt-vendor
Please stop using the term 'Spirit Animal'
https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-...rit-animal
EXCERPTS: It’s difficult to pinpoint how old the concept of a spirit animal is — at least in those words — but the notion is nearly ubiquitous in some corners of the internet and social media. [...] the associated images online often stereotype Indigenous people or appropriate and misconceive real religious beliefs.
“What I hate about those memes, and what a lot of other people hate about them, is that they almost always go along with stereotypes about Indians,” says Pinny Lavalier [...] She describes Facebook quizzes accompanied with images of bears wearing a feathered headdress, or “an Indian woman in her underwear hugging a wolf.” She says that “dehumanizing” image “makes us seem like animals or mystic savages who talk to animals all day.”
For Lavalier and many others, the origin of the term spirit animal is unclear. It may have come from some sort of New Age spirituality, but the problem comes when the concept is misused in a way that trivializes generations of deep Indigenous belief from a host of different cultures.
[...] Gokey says teachers and parents commonly ask her about spirit animals. She tries to focus more on educating and providing resources online or in books like Do All Indians Live in Tipis? about the cultural context behind terms like this.
[...] In her Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, for example, clans represent ancestral relations to specific animals that have been in place for a long time. After an infant is born, an elder who speaks the language will give a name to the baby reflecting a different animal clan, though it can sometimes happen later in life as well... “These things aren’t taken lightly. In our Shawnee tribe, there’s a particular ceremony,” Gokey says. “They’re these old ancestral relationships that have been in place for a long time.”
[...] The particular meaning of different animals to Indigenous people varies greatly based on which culture you’re talking about ... Laura Redish, director and co-founder of Native Languages of the Americas, says the English phrase may never have been considered an appropriation of Indigenous culture if it wasn’t for New Age spirituality marketing it as something “learned from Native American wisdom.” Indigenous people who have had bad experiences with New Age practitioners may have strong feelings about the term, while others won’t care as the term likely has little connection with real beliefs.
“The pop culture concept of ‘I am so lazy, my spirit animal is a cat,’ or ‘Justin Bieber is my spirit animal,’ actually has no relation to Native American culture at all,” she says. “But because of the excessive commercialization of New Age books presenting spirit animals with Native American pictures and trappings, everyone thinks [it does].”
In other words, the idea of having an animal to relate to, or that inspires you, isn’t offensive. [...] “Spirits aren’t just a generic way of saying somebody likes an animal,” Gokey says.
Lavalier says this connection with animals isn’t limited to American Indigenous beliefs [...] so it’s unfortunate that many modern uses of the term try to relate spirit animals vaguely to a monolithic understanding of Native American culture... (MORE - details)
https://phys.org/news/2021-03-ancient-ma...ality.html
2,500-Year-Old Maya Mural Depicts Salt Trade
https://www.archaeology.org/news/9549-21...alt-vendor
Please stop using the term 'Spirit Animal'
https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-...rit-animal
EXCERPTS: It’s difficult to pinpoint how old the concept of a spirit animal is — at least in those words — but the notion is nearly ubiquitous in some corners of the internet and social media. [...] the associated images online often stereotype Indigenous people or appropriate and misconceive real religious beliefs.
“What I hate about those memes, and what a lot of other people hate about them, is that they almost always go along with stereotypes about Indians,” says Pinny Lavalier [...] She describes Facebook quizzes accompanied with images of bears wearing a feathered headdress, or “an Indian woman in her underwear hugging a wolf.” She says that “dehumanizing” image “makes us seem like animals or mystic savages who talk to animals all day.”
For Lavalier and many others, the origin of the term spirit animal is unclear. It may have come from some sort of New Age spirituality, but the problem comes when the concept is misused in a way that trivializes generations of deep Indigenous belief from a host of different cultures.
[...] Gokey says teachers and parents commonly ask her about spirit animals. She tries to focus more on educating and providing resources online or in books like Do All Indians Live in Tipis? about the cultural context behind terms like this.
[...] In her Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, for example, clans represent ancestral relations to specific animals that have been in place for a long time. After an infant is born, an elder who speaks the language will give a name to the baby reflecting a different animal clan, though it can sometimes happen later in life as well... “These things aren’t taken lightly. In our Shawnee tribe, there’s a particular ceremony,” Gokey says. “They’re these old ancestral relationships that have been in place for a long time.”
[...] The particular meaning of different animals to Indigenous people varies greatly based on which culture you’re talking about ... Laura Redish, director and co-founder of Native Languages of the Americas, says the English phrase may never have been considered an appropriation of Indigenous culture if it wasn’t for New Age spirituality marketing it as something “learned from Native American wisdom.” Indigenous people who have had bad experiences with New Age practitioners may have strong feelings about the term, while others won’t care as the term likely has little connection with real beliefs.
“The pop culture concept of ‘I am so lazy, my spirit animal is a cat,’ or ‘Justin Bieber is my spirit animal,’ actually has no relation to Native American culture at all,” she says. “But because of the excessive commercialization of New Age books presenting spirit animals with Native American pictures and trappings, everyone thinks [it does].”
In other words, the idea of having an animal to relate to, or that inspires you, isn’t offensive. [...] “Spirits aren’t just a generic way of saying somebody likes an animal,” Gokey says.
Lavalier says this connection with animals isn’t limited to American Indigenous beliefs [...] so it’s unfortunate that many modern uses of the term try to relate spirit animals vaguely to a monolithic understanding of Native American culture... (MORE - details)
