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Memes Summarizing Key Points (16)

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ILL Book and Summary of Main Claims from Chapter 2 “Borderline” (15)

In his book, Meeting Place: the human encounter and the challenge of coexistence Paul Carter discusses the issue with first encounter between two groups of people meeting for the first time is the need for open communication and the problem is often throughout history communication is limited or misunderstood due to language or cultural barriers. Carter brings up that it is necessary for communication between first time meeting people to have a clear line of communication. The problem the Europeans ran into when they first discovered the new world is they rushed to find out what resources can be gain or what information can be taken back to Europe for the rest of the world to benefit from and there was not even enough attempts to open a line of communication on a long term scale when they first encountered the Native Americans. Openness of the dialogue is what creates communicate as the foundation for a strong coexistence. The issue is throughout early history of encounter, communication has been shrouded in fail to communicate as well as learn from each one’s culture and because of that the word encounter has been a constant challenge making coexistence impossible and fighting more often among different people from different cultural backgrounds.

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Reading, Note Taking, Studying and Synthesizing Session

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Bell Library Book Holdings, Reading, Research, Note Taking, Studying and Synthesizing Session (14)

In his book, Tales of distinction: European ethnography and the Caribbean Peter Hulme discusses the differences that can be made between “different kinds of other peoples” based on religious or culture grounds (191). By noting the difference between cultures and people he suggests that knowing these differences can allow for the reader to see a comparisons and understand the differences between cultures. For example, Hulme looks at the Europeans religious background of Christianity and traces it throughout history. Christianity is as he claims “a territorially bounded faith that gradually consolidated its hold on what we now think of as the continent of Europe” (192). With Hulme understanding of Europeans religion and the nature of its constant expansion under Roman empire, he starts to see the possible reason Christianity was so important in spreading into new world and explain the interaction and some of the narratives of storytellers arguing about how the women are dress or men act. Religion shaped the culture, attitude and ideas of what Europeans saw as what a proper society consists of.

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Three Memes for Arguments Made By Scholars (13)

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  Images for Three Texts (12) 1)TeachingNativeCulture,2)GreetingDance3)EnslavementofNativeAmericans

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Five Articles from Project Muse and JStor (11)

First Article: “The Discovery of Mankind: Atlantic Encounters in the Age of Columbus” This article details the eyewitness accounts of Native Americans from Columbus journal, logs, letters etc. of his encounter with the natives as written by Abulafia. The account discusses observations of the Native Americans religious belief/practices, codes of morality and the level of advancement in tools compared to the Europeans. One question Abulafia wanted to answer was “Were the peoples of the Americas human?” and if so “What rights did they have?” The Europeans view of Native Americans and how they treated them was based on how they deem them either human or not. One unique thing Abulafia did was with his writing he created a narrative based on observations and did not include bias narratives but instead a narrative that present the Native Americans as they were rather than how they were viewed by white Europeans in penny novels.

Second Article: “Rituals of Encounter: Interpreting Native American Views of European Explorers” This article engages in discussion of Europeans thoughts on Native American ritual activities including first encounter with French explorers. When the French first entered the Native Americans village, they greeted them with open arms and went through “elaborate greeting ceremonies” (Sabo 54). The French were able to get an exchange of cultural tradition and learn from each other’s culture. From the Native Americans series of encounters between themselves and the French they were able to show them their social system and how they run their society, but the Native Americans were confused by some of the Europeans cultural pattern, but nonetheless they were able to interact with different groups of Europeans according to each is own unique cultural perspective. Both the Native Americans and Europeans learn things about each other and their practices and in the process start a process that would start trade between the two nations, but this article only details the first series of encounters between the French and the Native Americans during this time.

Third Article: “Written out of History: Contemporary Native American Narratives of Enslavement” This article is about the untold stories of enslavement that not only effected African Americans, but Native Americans alike. Early on when Europeans started to settle American land they did not have easy access to slaves and African slaves were not in full operation yet, so Europeans used indigenous people to perform free labor for them and in effect turning them into slaves to do the Europeans work. The stories of the Native Americans being forced into slavery to develop the land for the Europeans goes untold in most history book and this article hopes to inform readers of the true nature of early American slavery.

Fourth Article: “Shipwrecked in the Atlantic World: Reevaluating Jonathan Dickinson's Interactions with Native Peoples along Florida's Southeastern Coast” This article discusses the first interactions with Native Americans in Florida as a personal narrative written by Jason Daniels. Early on in Daniels accounts he discussed the unnecessary and danger that the land before them offers. What Daniels soon found out is that Florida was not just a “isolated outpost” but rather a rich land with much to offer the explorers (454).

Fifth Article: “Muting White Noise: The Subversion of Popular Culture Narratives of Conquest in Sherman Alexie's Fiction” This article discusses the often-misrepresented narratives that took place during first encounter with the Native Americans. It was thought that narratives written about explorer’s findings were bias by the writer to give them favor and paint this picture of the Native Americans as being savages and this image persisted for hundreds of years. This article points out the importance of identifying narrative such as these to be aware of bias stories and how easy it is to craft a story that pribvilages the narrator to create their own reality and by extension their own history of events.

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Literature Resource Center Search (9)

Gather from the Literature Resource Center Linda Scarangella McNenly Contemporary Authors Online writes that McNenly (University of Alberta) is an academic and anthropologist living in Canada working at the University of Toronto and has written one article entitled “Native Performer in Wild West Show: From Buffalo Bill to Euro Disney. McNenly’s research expertise is in “native-colonial encounters in the context of performance (such as tourist sites and exhibitions historically), as spaces for the negotiation of relationships, and as representations of identity, culture, and history” (Contemporary Authors Online).

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                  Three Images to represent 3 articles from step 7 (8) 

1) Penny Novel Depicting Native Americans as  enemy

2) Native Americans practing Religious Rituals 

3)  Christianization of Native American 

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Find 5 articles in MLA International Bibliography (7)

First Article: “Damas indias: America's Iconic Body and the Wars of Conquest in the Spanish Comedia” This article details the Christianization attempts made by the Spanish to civilize the Native Americans and take control over them through Christianity they hoped they could more easily control them. The article discusses some of the key elements of what makes a group of people civil. Civil for the Spanish meant being fully dress, educated, religiously devoted, whereas the native women who were nude were regarded as aggressive and exotic rather than civilized like the Europeans, which is the idea behind their ultimate Christianization attempts.

Second Article: “Foe, Friend, or Critic: Native Performers with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and Discourses of Conquest and Friendship in Newspaper Reports” Looks at how Native Americans encounter and its after math effected how Europeans wrote stories about them and how they were represented. In the penny novel written during this time were centered on white representation foe a white audience. When Native Americans are written about, they are represented in a stereotypical manner if at all. Europeans would often label the Native Americans as savages and that was a common character quality often since in Native Americans characters in penny novels during this time as nothing more than a plot point. Native Americans are used as a means to an end to entertain the reader, which is the same case foe the wild west show during this time period.

Third Article: “Spiritual Genocide: The Denial of American Indian Religious Freedom, from Conquests to 1934” After generations of Europeans beating down Native Americans to be more civilized and religious this had a lasting effect one them. As recently as the mid-twentieth century Native American’s religious practices were not recognized by the U.S government. Christianity was such an depth part American and its conquest, that Native Americans after their first encounter and Europeanization their own religious freedom was taken away from them, and they were unable to practice their spiritual practices and sacred acts with complete freedom on their land, because this right was not protected under the U.S. constitution. Here we can see that the results of European expansion and control over what the natives could do has a lasting and recent effect in the all to recent history.  

Fourth Article: “The Jesuit Republic and Brother Care in The Mission: An Allegory of the Conquest” This article details the long history of first encounter and the sequent conquest after the arrival of Columbus. There are sections of Columbus journal that detail his first meeting with the natives and once of his first observations he wrote in his journal was that the natives “should be good and intelligent servants” (22). It did not take long for Columbus to look at the Native Americans as nothing more than objects to do his or the king’s bedding. In this detailed encounter the reader can start to see the early signs that the native were going to be used to the benefit of the Europeans and those that do not fall in line will be dealt with in the process.

 Fifth Article: “Coping in Cuernavaca with the Cultural Conquest” This article details the long history of the Latin American natives from their initial expansion and adapting to the new land and building up their culture. Then down the line it deals with the issue of conquest by the Europeans to take their land as they resist having everything taken away from them even if it means fighting to the death to maintain the culture and land that they have cultivated for generations. This article also shows how Native American culture changes from when they first settled the land to being overtaken by Europeans in the early America.

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Related Keywords (6)

I.   Encontrer

II.  Engagement

III.  Conflict

IV.  Battle

V.  Confrontation

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Google Image Meme Creation (Step 5)

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Google Scholar (4)

First:

The first article I found of interest in google scholar search was “The Great Encounter: Native Peoples and European Settlers in the Americas”. This article discusses the Native Americans and Europeans settlers both before and after their encounter with the new world, specifically looking at where each were (settlement wise) and the author discusses possible reason for invasion and possible benefits that their interaction both to the Natives and the European settlers. This looks like an great source to find out more information about how far reaching the benefits of this new found land in expanding not only their map of the western world but the ownership of this new resource for Europeans (both in land and products of trade).

Second

My second find I google scholar was an article called “Rituals of Encounter: Interpreting Native American Views of European Explorers”.  This article discusses the cultural rituals of the Natives as view from a Fresh anthropologist who details the first encounter between Native Americans and Europeans explorers, taking note of their diverse cultural perspective. This article can be helpful in gaining a more objective view of the natives around the heated subject of encounter to get a better humanistic study of a developing society.  

Third

My final google scholar find is an article entitled “The Native Encounter with Christianity: Franciscans and Nahusas in Sixteenth-Century Mexico” This articles deals with the subject of converting Native Americans to Christianity and discussing the first missionary work on all across Mexico with tribes such as Nahuas, Otomies, Mazahuas, Huastecas, Totoncas, Tarascans, Mayas. This article looks at the lasting impression the missionaries had on Mexico from traditions and construction to folk art this encounter had far reaching effects as the Spanish crown took control of the region through intense missionary involvement.

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Google & Find Three Websites (3)

Searching google for encounter has brought up some very unhelpful and completely unrelated websites. The first site is for a Broadway play titled “The Encounter” which ended in January of this year and is about a photographer who gets lost in a remote area of Brazil in 1969.  The second website is an Internet Movie Database (IMDb) listing for a horror movie called simply “Encounter”. The movie revolves around a recently married couple who rent an old farm house and come face to face with a ghost that is haunting their home. The final website is VOA news website with articles on immigration in the U.S and a handful of articles about Trump’s policies. Google is probably not a very helpful research tool for simple term search terms, and because of that it’s problematic to find related websites without sifting through millions upon millions of websites.

http://theencounterbroadway.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3719434/

http://www.voanews.com/

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Wikipedia &  Encyclopedia Britannica Academic Edition (2)

On my quest to find more information on my term “Encounter” I started with Wikipedia, and the search came up broad and largely unrelated to the encounter I defined earlier. The page was littered with film, television and music references to encounter but none that furthered my research into the term. Just before giving up I found a choice to look at the dictionary page on the term and found it much more helpful. Wikipedia starts off by giving alternative forms of the word and the history of Encounter from 1297 in which the French used “encontrer (to confront)”. I found this historical context helpful, as it supports my earlier observes of encounter of having mainly negative connotations of conflict between two opposing forces. To confront is to meet with someone face to face with a hostile or argumentative intent (dictionary.com). This origin explains why my initial definition of encounter had such a heated tension in its meaning. Going from Wikipedia to Encyclopedia Britannica Academic Edition the story changes, the search results pull even less information and largely unrelated results with the exception of the “journals and periodicals” section of the results. The results were largely related to a meeting of some sort between two forces, but what this tells me is that simple single terms are not enough to do research, one must narrow down the field of information by adding more context to the word to put up information. If I search Native encounters then I can find specific helpful articles that discuss the encounter between colonial forces and native tribes. Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica are great resources for surface level research if you need to dip your toe into the subject and find out what directions your research might take you but by no means is it a substitute for peer-reviewed journals and academic works.

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Final Thoughts

I learned the importance of disability represention in media and how to go about discussing disability. With the help of all the readings from class I'm better able to read disability & intersectionailty as a text; pulling the important sub-text of disability to the surface be it race, gender or variable bodies. #disabiltyfarr

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Week 11: Narrative Prosthesis Continued: Disability In Mad Max: Fury Road

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While disability is not in the forefront of the narrative of Mad Max: Fury Road we have two different visual representations of disability in the film. The first representation is that of the villain characters, and their appearance is meant to be outrageous from Immortan Joe’s diseased skin (hidden under armor) and savage mask (which acts as a respirator) to The People Eater who has an enormous foot (likely tumorous growth from Fallout). While Immortan Joe seeks the able-body (both for himself and his children), this takes away from the normalization of disability and instead creates larger than life exaggerated disabilities. David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder comment on the representation of disability in narrative as they write “The re(mark) upon disability begins with a stare, a gesture of disgust, a slander or derisive comment upon bodily ignominy, a note of gossip about a rare or unsightly presence, a comment upon the unsuitability of deformity for the appetites of polite society, or a sentiment about the unfortunate circumstances that bring disabilities into being” (228). While characters in the film don’t stare at the villains in disgust, the camera holds the attention of the viewer on each of the disabilities of these evil characters. Even in our class I heard sounds of disgust when The People Eater foot is shown. Now it can be said that since this first representation is that of the villain characters seeking the able-body and not our main characters that our attention as viewers is not on curing the disabled or focusing on the disability itself. It’s true that in the second representation of our hero characters is a true normalization of disability. Furiosa is a strong woman with an important title as a war rig driver and the only woman under Immortan Joe’s power that is given such a high position. Furiosa both with and without her prosthetic arm is able to hold her own in fights, shooting rifles and holding up Max while driving with a knife in her side (if that’s not badass I don’t know what is). Throughout the whole film no one questions or gives the slightest attention to Furiosa’s prosthetic, almost like the prosthetic is an extension of whole herself. Much like The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Furiosa’s disability is left undiscussed and seen as normal in this war torn world. One big difference between the Tin Soldier and Furiosa’s story is what is defined as normal in their narratives. The Tin Soldier is disabled in a society of able-bodied characters but Furiosa is disabled within a society of many variable bodies as to not bring her prosthetic into the forefront. Next we have Max who has PTSD and it affects him throughout the film, but this disability doesn’t come to the surface or kill him (in fact it might have save him once). Only problem I have is the title of the film is called Mad Max, this seems like a call to his mental state as his PTSD has affect him on a level that makes him seem mad or crazy for the actions he takes in the film. Ultimately this film does a good job of framing the good guys in a normalizing light and the bad guys (who seek able-bodiedness) are placed in roles with exaggerated disabilities.

- Gary Pack