Project #2: The Hittites

This is my last presentation about the topic different cultures, I did it about the Hittites culture because it's a lost and powerful culture that we didn't know much about it and it is a biblical culture also; So, it's seems very interesting to know a little from that culture.

The Hittites were an Ancient Anatolian people who established an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia around 1600 BC.  

They was located en Asia minor, Now known like Turkey.

 Tarhunt-> Storm God ( their main god)
Arinna-> Sun Goddess

 They use Iron to made a lot and different weapons, also were well known for their chariots.

More about the history of them in Istanbul Archaeological Museum

Tattoos

  I wanto to tell you about something I love: tattoo. 
It is a form of body modification, made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. The word tattoo,  is a loanword from the Polynesian word tatau, meaning "correct, workmanlike".

The process of tatto involves the placement of pigment into the skin's dermis, the layer of dermal tissue underlying the epidermis. After initial injection, pigment is dispersed throughout a homogenized damaged layer down through the epidermis and upper dermis, in both of which the presence of foreign material activates the immune system's phagocytes to engulf the pigment particles. As healing proceeds, the damaged epidermis flakes away (eliminating surface pigment) while deeper in the skin granulation tissue forms, which is later converted to connective tissue by collagen growth. This mends the upper dermis, where pigment remains trapped within fibroblasts, ultimately concentrating in a layer just below the dermis/epidermis boundary. Its presence there is stable, but in the long term (decades) the pigment tends to migrate deeper into the dermis, accounting for the degraded detail of old tattoos.

Some tribal cultures traditionally created tattoos by cutting designs into the skin and rubbing the resulting wound with ink, ashes or other agents; some cultures continue this practice, which may be an adjunct to scarification. Some cultures create tattooed marks by hand-tapping the ink into the skin using sharpened sticks or animal bones  with clay formed disks or, in modern times, needles.
 The most common method of tattooing in modern times is the electric tattoo machine, which inserts ink into the skin via a single needle or a group of needles that are soldered onto a bar, which is attached to an oscillating unit. The unit rapidly and repeatedly drives the needles in and out of the skin, usually 80 to 150 times a second. This modern procedure is ordinarily sanitary. The needles are single-use needles that come packaged individually. The tattoo artist must wash his or her hands and must also wash the area that will be tattooed. Gloves must be worn at all times and the wound must be wiped frequently with a wet disposable towel of some kind. The equipment must be sterilized in a certified autoclave before and after every use.



For me people get tattoos for different reasons, many tattoos serve as rites of passage, marks of status and rank, symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, sexual lures and marks of fertility, pledges of love, punishment, amulets and talismans, protection, and as the marks of outcasts, slaves and convicts. Tattoos may show how a person feels about a relative (commonly mother/father or daughter/son) or about an unrelated person. Today, people choose to be tattooed for artistic, cosmetic, sentimental/memorial, religious, and magical reasons, and to symbolize their belonging to or identification with particular groups, including criminal gangs or a particular ethnic group or law-abiding subculture.


This is my last tattoo (for the moment).

In class #6 : Invention imporant for humanity

The world as we know it today is convenient and fun to be in because of certain inventions which have made all the difference from being medieval to being modern man. Humans are an ingenious species. From the moment someone bashed a rock on the ground to make the first sharp-edged tool, to the development of Mars rovers and the Internet, several key advancements stand out as particularly revolutionary. I told you some very important for me.



It's one of the most famous discovery stories in history. In 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-filled Petri dish in his laboratory with its lid accidentally ajar. The sample had become contaminated with a mold, and everywhere the mold was, the bacteria was dead. That antibiotic mold turned out to be the fungus Penicillium, and over the next two decades, chemists purified it and developed the drug Penicillin, which fights a huge number of bacterial infections in humans without harming the humans themselves.

Penicillin was being mass produced and advertised by 1944. This poster attached to a curbside mailbox advised World War II servicemen to take the drug to rid themselves of venereal disease.

The German Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press around 1440. Key to its development was the hand mold, a new molding technique that enabled the rapid creation of large quantities of metal movable type. Printing presses exponentially increased the speed with which book copies could be made, and thus they led to the rapid and widespread dissemination of knowledge for the first time in history. Twenty million volumes had been printed in Western Europe by 1500.

Among other things, the printing press permitted wider access to the Bible, which in turn led to alternative interpretations, including that of Martin Luther, whose "95 Theses" a document printed by the hundred-thousand sparked the Protestant Reformation.

When all you have is natural light, productivity is limited to daylight hours. Light bulbs changed the world by allowing us to be active at night. According to historians, two dozen people were instrumental in inventing incandescent lamps throughout the 1800s; Thomas Edison is credited as the primary inventor because he created a completely functional lighting system, including a generator and wiring as well as a carbon-filament bulb like the one above, in 1879.

In class #5 : Kailasa Temple

This time we saw a video about the Colossal Kailasa Temple, that it's a Hindu Temple located in Ellora, Maharashtra,India. After saw the video we had to made a short investigation about the temple, and theories about how this amazing structure was building.

The Kailasa temple is a Hindu temple. It symbolizes Mount Kailash as the home of Lord Shiva. It is very much an elephant place: there are statues and reliefs of elephants in and around the location. The Kailasa Temple is part of the Ellora cave group. it is number 16 of a total of 34 caves. The Ellora caves are not natural caves, but religious dwellings excavated out of the face of a cliff. The 34 "caves" being Buddhist, Hindu and Jain rock cut temples and monasteries, were built between the 5th century and 10th century. The 12 Buddhist (caves 1–12), 17 Hindu (caves 13–29) and 5 Jain (caves 30–34) caves, built in proximity, demonstrate the religious harmony prevalent during this period of Indian history.

In class #4: Madonna and Isaac video

For this class we saw a video of Madonna and Isaac and we interpret at the same time that we answer this question. I leave here the questions to know what you think, but first I want to show you the video.

Now the questions. 

1. What elements make this video impressive?

2. Which it the main idea of this video?

3. Did you find/ see any iperialistic traits?

4. Consider gender innovative ideas.

5. How has Isaac's life changed after this performance? Explain.

6. Write a short message inspired by this video.

7. Research on the origins of Judaism, Christianism and Islamism,

Out of class #2 : Music

I like a lot listen music, and, know what I´m listen. So, I look for the lyrics of the songs to know what it says. I love rock alternative (more especific the grunge), metal alternative and soft rock music, also I listen country music. My prefer bands are Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Incubus, Red Hot Chillipepers, Sublime, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden and Audioslave. I like singers like Jack Johnson and Donavon Fankenreiter, both of them excellent for a trip to the beach.

This is a song called black from one of my favorite band called Pearl Jam. And it's about..... let go. The singer say that It is very rare that a relationship resist the forces of gravity and have heard out there that you can not have a true love unless it's something unrequited. It is hard to admit because then it means the most authentic love is that you can not maintain forever. I think that it is true, but the human being is possesive and can't let go nothing because want to keep it forever, even when (talking about people) a loved one left the human being's tried to keep it in our memory.

          

                 


This is a video from Jack Johnson

Writting #2 : Different Cultures

For the next topic we start with a writting about a culture that we found interesting; So, I wrote about the Maori Culture, I found this culture very amazing, in their rituals and forms of organzation in a type of comunity, also in the meaning in their symbols and tattoos. This is my writting.

Culture is a complex system of behavior, values, beliefs, traditions and artifacts, which is transmitted through generations. Cultures are an amalgamation of so many different elements like history, art, cuisine, language and many other tangible and non-tangible aspects. Studying a single culture in-depth requires immense effort and time to fathom the core values and fundamentals, this time we want to talk about Maori culture.

The Māori community is said to have its roots on the islands of Polynesia. By nature, Māori ancestors were excellent at navigation, seafaring and astronomy. The first Māori are believed to have arrived in New Zealand in their traditional waka (canoes) around 14th century AD from an island called Hawaiki, presumably near Hawaii in Polynesia. Soon, they named their new land as Aotearoa (Māori name for New Zealand) meaning the 'land of long white cloud'.  Interestingly, the term waka also means a tribe in Māori language. This might have been on account of separation of members of each waka or canoe into separate iwi (tribes). Each iwi was further divided into hapu (smaller clans). Members of these clans were treated as extended family. Members of each hapu were encouraged to pick their life partners from within their own clan. Each member of a particular tribe shared a common ancestry and exhibited loyalty to their respective chieftains.  The Māori stayed in traditional style houses known as wharenui. These structures had slanting roofs and wooden pillars carved with intricate designs that were dedicated to their deities or tribal chieftains. Māori people made their clothing out of flax fiber called muka or bird feathers. Clothes would be dyed in colors such as black, tan, or yellow and designed to look like kilts or long cloaks. Both men and women wore traditional Māori jewelry. Hei-tiki is popular piece of ornamental jade pendant worn by women in this community.

The Maori food is known as kai and is cooked in a natural earthen oven called hāngi. Basically, it is a shallow space dug in the ground. A fire is lit, on which stones are placed and heated. When the stones get really hot, marinated meat and vegetables are placed on them. The food is then covered with wet sacks. The traditional maorí diet consisted of sea-food, fowl meat, wild herbs, potato/sweet potato breads, manuka honey, and dried algae. Māori people made their clothing out of flax fiber called muka or bird feathers. Clothes would be dyed in colors such as black, tan, or yellow and designed to look like kilts or long cloaks. 

According to Māori mythology, creation of their deities and human beings began with first parents, Papatūānuku (Earth, the mother) and Ranginui (Sky, the father). They had 70 male children, including eight divine offspring known as: Tāne Mahuta (the god of humans, forests, birds, and animals), Haumia tiketike (the god of uncultivated food), Rongomatane (the god of peace and agriculture) Tāwhirimātea (the god of weather), Ruaumoko (the god of earthquakes), Tangaroa (the god of the sea), Tūmatauenga (the war god), Whiro (the god of darkness and evil).  In maorí village they have a sacred área called The marae  that was generally located in front of whare runanga (communal meeting house). Traditional Māori life practically revolved around the marae. Customs such as christening ceremony, weddings, tangihanga (funerals) and tribal reunions took place in this area. Traditionally, the Māori believe that all things, alive or inanimate, are connected by common descent to gods who resided in mountains, rivers and lakes. Probably due to this belief, the Māori community had strong ties with nature and land, in particular. They also believed that everything possessed a mauri (lifeforce) and wairua (spirit). 
Probably, Māori community is best known for their tattoo art. In fact, the word tattoo has its origin in the Polynesian word tatau which refers to marking something. They literally involved cutting of skin surface and inserting a special ink derived from caterpillars to create beautiful designs. Also they has the Carving that was an intrinsic part of Māori routine life. Traditionally, carvers were considered as agents through whom the Gods communicated and were held in high esteem out of respect.

Today, the Māori language or te reo Māori is one of the official languages of New Zealand. A lot of original Māori words have now been absorbed in New Zealand English language, for instance, kiwi (an exotic bird or kiwi fruit) and kea (a parrot species). Also, A set of proverbial sayings, called whakataukī, is quite popular in Māori community. Normally, at any social gatherings, the tangata whenua (hosts) welcome their manuhiri (guests) by performing traditional dance forms called haka and powhiri. A haka dance signifies respect for the guests, while a powhiri performance means that the community is welcoming the guest. These performances are accompanied by shouts and action songs. Traditional Māori music or Te Pūoro Māori involved songs that were sung as solos, duets or in unison. Vocal songs or waiata were often accompanied by music played on traditional musical instruments such as flutes, bull-roarers and trumpets created from wood.

 
The symbols of a culture define it. Wisdom of the Maoris seeps through the symbols that represent their ethos, and for that every symbol in Maori culture has a different meaning and idea associated with it. This symbolism is expressed in the form of carvings in wood, bone and certain types of stone. They represent the spiritual connection of man with the nature.