#inca challenge

[zerguette]

Echidna ocs:] Plus, the last three Guardians before Knuckles (and Claws)

Iam latino and these fellas have basically latino ancient cultures, like omg dude thats exactly what You need for Ari/Dreads to get hyperfixated on the longassdead echidna culture

[thebekerslegecy]

👑 MEDIEVAL MODS + CC | The BEKER LEGECY

I am currently playing Morbid’s ULTIMATE Decades Challenge. Below is a list of all of the Mods + CC I am using in my game🐝

🍯 MODS: Wicked Whims (+18) MC Command Center MC Woohoo More Traits in CAS Royalty Mod Medieval Interactions Ye Olde Cookbook + Stoves +Fires Require Wood  + Hunting & Foraging ModHome Region +Townie Demographics by Kuttoe Fashion Authority 2 by Lot51 Functional Broom Functional Loom Functional Pottery Wheel Archery Skill Blacksmithing Skill Historical Simolean Override - English Shillings Children/Toddlers Can Die of Anything Playable Harp + LuteFunctional Horses & Carriages, No Helmet Create Campfire Bonfire Anywhere Arranged Marriages Custom Farm Animals Purchase Custom Animals Zero’s Historical Mods (pickpocket, disease, etc.) Phone to Notebook Replacement Sippy Cup + Toys Default Replacements Stuff for Pets Natural Knitting Stuff PreTeen LittleMsSam Mods ( Pick what you want) Sims4me

🐝 CC:

🍯Build:

TSR Ye Medieval - Ligna Windows Set TSR Ye Medieval - Timber Frame Walls TSR Ye Medieval - Framework Walls TSR - Broken Wood Door TSR Ye Medieval - Soil Terrain TSR Ye Medieval - Hay Ground Terrain

🐝Objects:

Lili’s Palace - Folklore Set No. 1 Linzlu’s Frontier Items TSR Ye Medieval - Peasant Homelife 1 TSR Ye Medieval - Peasant Homelife 2 TSR Ye Medieval - Peasant Homelife 3 TSR Ye Medieval - Peasant Homelife 4 TRS Ye Medieval - Tristan Bathroom TSR Ye Medieval - Tavern Part 1 TSR Ye Medieval - Candle Holder TSR - Skara Stool TSR - The Old Garden Boat TSR - The Old Garden Quay Fish Market Decor Fish Rack Fish Crate V1 Fish Crate V2 Bohrium Vegetables I Old Rustic Well (“Eco Living” version) Stable Set by Moriel Rustic Animal Shed Rustic Chicken Coop Rustic Bee Box Bassinet + Infant Crib SimsHistoricalfinds tumblr (directory) SIMS 4 MEDIEVAL CC TheSenseMedieval Allhistorical cc tumblr Medieval & Fantasy Mods List | Notion Kosmic Hippie's CC Finds — 👑 MEDIEVAL MODS + CC | The Sims 4 antiquated plumbobs : Directory CC Finds Navigation

🍯CAS:

TheSimsResource (Ye Medieval) TheSimsResource (Sifix) Simverses  Melancholy Maiden | creating Historical Sims 4 CC | Patreon satterlly | creating The Sims 4 CC | Patreon

🐝 SAVE FILE:

Srsly’s Blank Save Map Replacement Medieval Windenburg Medieval Map Replacement

🍯MY SIMS 4 MEDIEVAL WORLDS:

How to change sims4 world names (for existing save)How to change sims4 world names ( for new save)

Kingdom of France – Willow Creek’ Mali Empire – Oasis Springs’ Kingdom of Norway – Newcrest’ Inca Empire – Granite Falls’ Holy Roman Empire – Windenburg’ Kingdom of Denmark– Magnolia Promenade’ Republic of Genoa – San Myshuno’ Kingdom of Hungary – Forgotten Hollow’ Grand Duchy of Lithuania – Brindleton Bay’ Aztec Empire – Selvadorada’ Kingdom of Sicily – Del Sol Valley’ Ottoman Empire – StrangerVille’ Hawai’i – Sulani’ Kingdom of Scotland- Glimmerbrook’ Duchy of Milan – Brightchester’ Maya city-states – Evergreen Harbor’ Tatooine– Batuu’ Goryeo– Mt. Komorebi’ Kingdom of England – Henford-on-Bagley’ Republic of Venice– Tartosa’ Duchy of Burgundy – Moonwood Mill’ Kingdom of Aragon – Copperdale’ Mongol Empire – San Sequoia’ Mamluk Sultanate – Chestnut Ridge’ Kingdom of Ayutthaya – Tomarang’ Kingdom of Castile - Ciudad Enamorada kingdom of Moldova - Ranvenwood

[neminomnom]

Arcane characters favourite flowers

Includes- Caitlyn, vi, jinx and au powder

It’s not much but it’s something, someone tell me if I got anything wrong and I will correct it ‼️ hope you enjoy!!

Caitlyn

- Despite her girlfriend being named Violet, Caitlyn loves white Alstroemeria flowers, also known as the lily of the Incas.

- Caitlyn doesn’t just love these flowers for the looks and decent variety of colours they can come in, but also the symbolism that the flowers bring along side them-The flower as a whole symbolises friendship, love, strength and devotion.

- If she had to pick her favourite colour for them it would be either purple ones or white ones, likes the purple because what they symbolise, royalty, elegance and admiration, but likes the white ones because they look pretty and they were Cassandra’s faves.

Violet

-vi isn’t that picky when it comes to flowers, anything what smells nice and looks good was fine to her until she met Caitlyn, now her favourites are Amaryllis.

-She didn’t know the name of the flowers for a while and called them ‘the pretty red ones with a thick stem’ for about three months. Vi likes what they symbolise, pride, strength and determination, what vi has a lot of.

-She read a bunch of books about how to care for certain types of flowers, the climate they thrive best in and how much you are supposed to water them, likes Amaryllis because vi likes being warm and so do the flowers.

Jinx

- Any flowers with a huge colour variation and looks funky is right up jinx’s street.

-roses? basic, tulips? Boring, hydrangeas? Ehh, too big. So, hibiscus it is. She had a collection of them and put them in silcos office so they get sunlight, but always forgot to water them. Jinx loves the bright blue ones, or any shade of pink, specifically the magenta ones.

-Jinx doesn’t care about the symbolism about them that much, she likes the flower because its colours, not because of what hibiscus symbolise, but they mean love, beauty and impermanence.

Powder

- powder loves flowers, she’s interested on how they grow, how different types of flowers need different care and all the pretty colours they come in.

- likes flowers what are decently hard to care for, she’s up for the challenge, so her favourites are orchids, specifically boat orchids, likes the symbolism and the funky shape compared to other flowers, she doesn’t keep any in her hideout because of the light, so you bet there are a bunch littered around in the corners of the last drop.

- orchids symbolise love, beauty and strength, all what powder carries, her favourite colour of orchids are the orange ones, she loves how vibrant they are.

[sarahwellshunter]

AI Challenge No.5

Well it's time for the next AI challenge.

The theme this time is

A Time and Place

I am sure we all have that time and place in our minds that we long to have been a part of?

Perhaps fog-shrouded streets of Victorian London, or the future Jungles of Jupiter? Maybe the Inca period, or part of lost city of Atlantis? Or even just a moment in time that has always fascinated you?

Wherever it may be ( and whatever timeline too) I am sure you will have that place in your mind.

So, One image or more, short animations, links to music, you can decide, we all shine in different ways.

The closing date for entries will be ...

Thursday May 15th.

I hope you all wish to join in and give your creative skills to this latest challenge.

@gigiprinceton2 @ai-satin-chic @danni-gurrl @mohairmaster @anderii @dryndelicate @sarahwellshunter @astogurlnikkipinkai @andysfantasie @alyssa-ai @celestmilena2 @mistressmaurahypno @danni-gurrl @synth-ai, @fluffyfaza

And a new member

@miphisticated

If you think I forgotten someone let me know and I will update.

Sarah ❤️

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but you should make an OC.

You should make an OC. Specifically a Spider-Sona. Like now. Preferably yesterday. [A MEDIUM-LONG essay about OC's, fanfiction, and how to enrich and better your writing skills in literally every sector. Throughout this essay I reference my two characters Disco-Spider and Inca-Spider as examples of the way OCs can be used.]

_________________________________________

"But no one cares about OCs -"

OKKAYYYY??

IDK about ya'll but fandom is NOT my final destination no siree

I feel like a lot of the time we get so caught up in posting and notes we forget that for many artists and writers on this platform - fanfiction is not the true end goal.

Many of us write and draw fanart for years -

But the fact of the matter is if you want to be an author someday, if you want to be a graphic novelist, an animator, etc, etc - You're going to HAVE to make OCs.

If you want to study English in college or publish books - you're gonna have to write an OC at least once. If not hundreds of times.

If you want to study art - chances are at some point you're gonna have to fill a portfolio with original pieces, including some of OCs.

If you want to do something with your writing, if you want to get better - or make a career out of your art, you HAVE to make OCs at some point.

And this is especially true for fanfiction writers.

You can get very very very good at writing in your specific fandoms, you may have the emotions of the characters on point, and the ability to describe the scenery.

But if you don't know how to create and design a character - if you don't know how to worldbuild, or come up with scenarios without the help of characterai and ChatGPT - you won't be able to write a book.

If you're an artist and you don't know how to draw an original character from scratch, how to match colors, how to draw certain skin tones, certain hair, wheelchairs and mobility aids, how to design a character from looks, to clothing - it's going to be so hard to expand your art outside of fanart. You'll always be beholden to the notes and popularity of your particular fandom.

Do it - even if you've never written or never draw before. Even better.

That's why I CHAMPION Spider-sonas so much. They're basically OCs on easy mode.

Can't write backgrounds yet? Here's a bucket on canon events to pick from? Can't draw faces? Blank mask with eyes.

Hell, if you're really really new about it - just pick a character and make a slightly different variant. Make a Hobie of your own, make a Peter variant. Make a Mary Jane variant. Pick a something you like and turn that into a character.

Can't write? Just fill-in the 'My name is [blank], I was bitten by a [blank]' script that Miles does. Can't draw, just draw out a basic shape of a body and color-out the suit, no fancy pose needed. That still counts!!

Make a self-insert. Make yourself fit into the story, design your suit, write out how you fight crime, how you'd act at the Society, meeting Miguel or Miles.

That's still character design, that's still worldbuilding.

We always hear people say 'Make art for yourself' and yeah that sounds nice - but people also misinterpret it.

Make art for yourself doesn't just mean making art that you personally like.

Making art for yourself also means making art that develops your skills even if no one gives a fuck. It's about making art as practice without the intention of it being 'completed', making OCs that never get used, drawing locations you see or writing a random ass short story then shoving it into your Google Drive forever.

Making art for yourself means making art that invests in yourself.

It means making art that interests you, challenges you, or helps you develop.

And making OC's helps develop your fanfic writing skills.

In may fandoms we begin to fall into these routine 'tropes' between characters and their personalities. This is usually known as the 'fanon' characterization.

Because when you have a set amount of characters and people, there's also a set amount of interactions and relationships between those people.

Writing OCs and having those OCs interact with canon characters allows you to dig deeper into sides of the canon characters we'd never otherwise see.

That's why I wrote Disco-Spider Diane like I do. Often, we see Hobie characterized as the chaotic, rowdy, confident type - which is perfect characterization for him. But in almost all of his interactions - he's the wilder, bolder, extroverted one. I wanted to put him in a situation where for once, he was the calmer one. I wanted to explore more grounded and chill sides of Hobie, one where he's the one grounding the other, and thinking logically - because in canon, we're hinted at a side of Hobie who's way more methodical and slow-paced and willing to stop and wait it out and play it off. And I wanted to see that. I wanted to explore what he'd do if he was faced with someone just as chaotic, who put on a cheeky ironic act - just the same as him.

Because no other characters serve that purpose in canon.

If there are elements of a character or concept you think are interesting but outright ignored by canon and fanon, you can create an OC to explore those parts.

For Disco-Spider: I wanted to explore how someone like a militant Black Panther would handle being Spider-woman, when Spider-people are usually shown as pacifists - what that would look like or how it'd shape her morals based on era, etc. For Inca-Spider: I realized there were so many culture based Spider people like Pavitr and Spider-UK. But none for indigenous communities, and NONE from countries that only existed in other universes. So, I created an indigenous character from Tawanti - a country that's located where Peru would be for us.

You can give a canon character a sibling, to explore how they'd interact with family. Give them a partner that acts totally different than their canon partner, write how that'd change the way they show love.

OC's make your original writing better, AND your fanfiction writing too. They can help you understand canon characters on a deeper level.

And sure, nobody likes your OC. NOW.

But every single character you write about, is someones OC. Every character you write about was once treated that way. Once upon a time, Dean Winchester was just some rando character in the pilot script of a show that hadn't picked up yet. Probably no one gave a fuck until CW picked it up.

The writers had to not only make him and develop him - they had to BELIEVE in him enough to pitch him to a TV show channel to make people care.

That's always the first step. Believing your character's story is worthy enough of being told and presenting it as such.

ESPECIALLY if your OC represents a demographic you don't see represented. Cause yes if there isn't any black women in canon then I'll Thanos this shit and do it myself.

Make OCs.

Write them. Draw them. Even if it's bad. Who the hell cares. Big Mouth is on Netflix with multiple seasons, have you seen that show?? 'Ugly' art is not a crime.

Make piccrews, fill out OCforms or take quiz's as them. Write little blurbs of them hanging with canon characters then post it in the tag.

You don't need a huge Spidersona sheet or a long long fic explaining their backstory. They can just be there.

MAKE OCs.

Make them to explore more in your fanfiction, make them so future you can write that novel or draw or that comic or sell those prints or whatever it is you plan to do.

Make it so your fanfiction AND original writing can grow stronger. It isn't just about notes and content and follows.

Make an OC. Make a Spidersona. Literally you have nothing to lose but your chains.

"Nobody cares-"

Oh they'll care when you pop out with that 6-book publishing deal. They'll care when you're designing big characters for movies. Cause that's how it happens. Watch.

ANYWAYSSSS if you made it this far I hope this inspired you to at least play around with the idea of OCs and Spidersonas in general.

Here's Hobie.

BYE.

If you want to make a sona and are kinda lost on where to start, lemme know!! Because I think they're amazing starting places for those who have never written or drawn before. Or if you have a sona but want to develop them further.

I haven't seen a guide to spidersonas and i wonder if that's something some people might want/need.

Seriously if I can even get one person into writing or drawing I'll be over the goddamn moon.

MAKE OCS PLEASE.

[yanxidarlings]

Aaaaaa i did not expect you to reply so soon! Love your perspective, especially the part about spain playing favourites and choosing the most catholic and most resource heavy 😭😭.. i feel like most people never really talk about former colonies and their colonisers... bc theres no way india would be that happy and pleasant with england😭😭.... anyways rant over im really into ur latin america hcs... especially mexico... 😇😇

anonymous asked:

Sorry if im spamming you but i also just had a thought... since mexico would be very similar to spain, would he be equally as delusional... or worse? I think he would start thinking hes in some telenova or hes a cowboy or something ( north america try not to be delusional challenge)(impossible)

i saw the ask and my brain went ding ding that is extremely rare round of applause for anon please do keep spamming i'm on a roll here

oo! i feel like spain is in an interesting position among colonisers and their former colonies; i'm pretty sure, or at least headcanon, that he found pretty much all of his former colonies as chibi's, kind of like china, so they probably don't have as many memories of their native cultures that were stripped from them. that's why they might not bare as intense hatred for spain as someone like vietnam would hold for france.

but there's definately alot of resentment. i think this is especially prominent for peru, who i have often seen characterised as quite in touch with his parent, Inca's, culture and history, and probably wonders what his life might have looked like if he had been allowed to grow up out of spain's iron grip.

i headcanon that latin america, spain's portion of it at least, try to make spain feel as excluded and alienated from what antonio perceives as his 'legacy' in the america's, it's a way to subtly let out some of their repressed resentment towards him.

and on india — you're definately right! i think england and india have a much more snarky? relationship. india is nearly as old as china and was trying to finesse his way through europe's colonial era only to get stuck with this entitled asshole with a superiority complex, that's gotta breed some strong resentment. india is alot like china in the way that he just tolerates those he dislikes for the sake of politics - he's not getting chummy with england unless there's something in it for him.

back to latin american colonisation — i've always characterised mexico as being one of the former spanish colonies that drinks the 'big brother spain' kool-aid. he's not so delusional about colonisation as he is not wanting to recognise how much of a monster spain really was. i can't imagine josé likes to hear or talk about the aztec empire's slaughter at spain's hands; it tears him apart that he lost his actual parent to the only parental figure he knows.

and this definately bleeds into his yandere psyche. mexico doesn't like to confront the reality that any love his darling has for him is manufactured; stockholm syndrome at best, entirely faked at worst. he doesn't like to think of himself as being manipulative or wrong because the implications of that truth are just too much for him to handle.

this is definately where he differs most strikingly from spain; fundamentally, spain isn't able to see the reality of his actions and how wrong they are or how much he's messed up his darling in the process of 'pursuing' them. it's all just a grand romance, his darling is the one with the issues.

josé is definately the type to play into whatever fantasy will best charm his darling, and try to glamourise the relationship "we would make good characters for a telenovela, cariño! we would have so many fans". he likes to compare his actions to others to justify them as well "spain had his own key for your room back in the day" and make intruding on their life seem so normal.

not to mention, piggybacking off my last post, latin america would be a cesspool of yandere's validating each others behaviours. they all picked it up from spain at somepoint, maybe even from each other, so no one bat's an eye when mexico goes on another obsession fueled rant; some countries he's closer to might even offer to help.

the fandom likes to hype up russia and belarus as scary but at least people recognise them as dangerous. latin america is equally as dangerous if not more, imagine being stuck between one, two, or more of them? at least in europe you can pit yandere's against each other, spain raised his colonies as siblings and despite their conflicts they are capable of mass cooperation.

[lostinhistory]

Heritage News of the Week

Discoveries!

Archaeologists suggest ‘woodhenge’ was built between 2600 and 1600BC on similar axis to English stone circle

Man's brain turned to glass by hot Vesuvius ash cloud

Nearly 2,000 years after a young man died in the Vesuvius volcanic eruption, scientists have discovered that his brain was preserved when it turned to glass in an extremely hot cloud of ash.

New Pompeii excavations reveal frescoes depicting a mysterious ritual

A downright bacchanalian frieze has just been unearthed in Pompeii, one so large it spans three walls of a massive banquet room.

From destruction to discovery: Ancient Greek tombstone discovered in Libya after Storm ‘Daniel’

The Libyan Antiquities Authority has officially confirmed that an ancient artifact uncovered in the torrents caused by Storm “Daniel” in the city of Shahat is a Greek tombstone made of limestone, located in the northern cemetery area.

'Nailed-head ritual' in Iron Age Spain was more 'complex than initially thought,' severed skulls reveal

An analysis of the origins of seven severed skulls with nails through them shows that some people treated this way in Iron Age Spain were local while others came from afar.

A new study hints at the origins of an ancient Easter Island script

The language could have predated the arrival of the Europeans.

Archaeologists reveal a 3,000-year-old gold processing complex

Archaeologists from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) have completed a two-year project to uncover a 3,000-year-old gold processing complex at Jabal Sukari, southwest of Marsa Alam City in Egypt’s Red Sea Governorate.

Ancient DNA reveals mysterious origins of the Huns who sacked Rome

The origin of the European Huns, a nomadic group that helped topple the Roman Empire, has been shrouded in mystery — until now. A new study of ancient DNA from fifth- to sixth-century Hun skeletons suggests they were a motley crew of mixed origin with a few connections to the Xiongnu Empire in Mongolia.

Neanderthal 'population bottleneck' around 110,000 years ago may have contributed to their extinction

A study of the inner ear bones of Neanderthals shows a significant loss of diversity in their shape around 110,000 years ago, suggesting a genetic bottleneck that contributed to Neanderthals' decline.

New insights into Inca pilgrimages to volcanic peaks

Archaeologists have examined the ritual landscape the Inca used during their pilgrimages to perform capacocha rituals on volcanic peaks.

Royal mosaic house found in Pergamon

Turkish archaeologists discovered a large and elaborately decorated Roman-era building at the site of Pergamon in Izmir.

1,800-year-old mini portrait of Alexander the Great turns up in surprising location

Today, Alexander the Great is widely considered antiquity’s preeminent military commander. As it turns out, his battleground fame was so far flung that, even 500 years after his death, Alexander was being venerated in lands untouched by his blistering campaigns.

Over 7,000-year-old traces of life discovered in Ratina Cave on Šćedro Island, Croatia

Recent archaeological excavations on Šćedro Island, located south of Hvar, have unveiled significant findings that challenge previous understandings of the island’s prehistoric past. The Ratina Cave, a site of interest since the early 20th century, has revealed evidence of human activity dating back to the late Neolithic period, approximately 3000 years earlier than previously believed.

20,000-year-old evidence of ancient 'vehicles' discovered in New Mexico

Ancient footprints and drag marks at White Sands National Park in New Mexico suggest the earliest known Americans dragged wooden travois-like vehicles.

Medieval church discovered beneath Eschwege car park

Construction works to transform a former car park into a public space has revealed the remains of a medieval church.

150,000-year-old stone tools reveal humans lived in tropical rainforests much earlier than thought

Researchers have discovered that humans lived in tropical rainforests 150,000 years ago, around 100,000 years earlier than previous evidence suggested.

Oldest example of writing in northern Iberia

Archaeologists uncovered a small inscribed object at the Iron Age settlement of La Peña del Castro that bears evidence of one of the oldest examples of writing ever found in northern Iberia.

Researchers uncover stories of Black Londoners who escaped slavery

The untold stories of Black Londoners who escaped slavery in the capital and joined free communities in the East End have been uncovered by researchers who draw comparisons with the Underground Railroad in the US.

Museums

Amid ceaseless attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, art institutions have a responsibility to center and support their queer and trans staff and visitors.

Stonewall National Museum says its financial future is shaky

The Stonewall National Museum, Archives & Library in South Florida claims that state and federal anti-LGBTQ policies have siphoned off the institution’s operating budget and scared off corporate investors, leaving the museum in financial peril.

“Exhaust all options”: City council holds hearing on Brooklyn Museum layoffs

Museum workers and union representatives urged the institution to explore alternatives before cutting nearly 50 full- and part-time staff.

Buffy Sainte-Marie removed from Canadian Museum for Human Rights exhibit

Buffy Sainte-Marie has been scrubbed out of an exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights because of questions surrounding the folk singer and activist's claims of First Nations identity.

First Leonardo da Vinci museum in the US coming this fall

The Colorado museum will focus on the artist’s engineering endeavors, bringing his drawings, text, and experiments to life through interactive models.

Horn heist: B.C. train museum gets railroaded by targeted thefts

Pictures of priceless horn found circulating on a Discord server in the U.S. prior to theft

Repatriation

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has repatriated a 7th-century bronze head donated by a former trustee head to Greece following a review internally of it’s provenance records. The museum’s researchers concluded it was likely illegally removed from the Archaeological Museum of Olympia in the 1930s, though details of the removal aren’t known.

Nigeria works to reclaim Benin Bronzes, with a change of custodian

The country’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments will now be responsible for retrieving and housing the looted works, according to Reuters. This is a shift away from the 2023 presidential decree that named the Oba of Benin, the traditional ruler of the Edo people, as their rightful owner and custodian.

Ancient artifacts worth $2.2m recovered by Manhattan DA’s office will be returned to Greece and Italy

The Manhattan District Attorney‘s Office recently announced the recovery of two groups of ancient artifacts which would be returned to Greece and Italy.

Heritage at risk

Experts worry for the future of vital preservation programs as the US State Department reviews its policies.

Odds and ends

Howard Carter's luggage is still covered in the sand of the Valley of the Kings, according to a local antiques expert.

This First Nation is recruiting its members to do archaeology and prove their oral history is true

Chipewyan Prairie First Nation has taken part in archaeological digs in its territory for several years now, according to Shaun Janvier, director of Chipewyan Prairie Industry Relations, who says the work proves what the community's always known.

Edward II: Did a gay love affair spark a 14th-century royal crisis?

A new revival of Christopher Marlowe's pioneering play about the 14th-Century King of England puts the spotlight back on his relationship with his male "favourite" Piers Gaveston.

Is there graffiti of a legendary film star under the Lincoln Memorial?

A sketch hidden on concrete walls for over a century may depict early film star Theda Bara.

We stan a goth queen

‘We’re being treated as grifters or terrorists’: US federal workers on the fear and chaos of their firings

An educator, archaeologist and scientist were among the thousands of government workers culled by Musk’s agency

[flowerishness]

Helianthus annuus (sunflower)

Sunflowers were first domesticated in the southeastern US about five thousand years ago. A thousand years later they were being grown as a food crop from South America to southern Canada. Many indigenous peoples used the sunflower as a symbol of the solar deity. The Aztecs in Mexico and the Incas in Peru often represented sunflowers as stone motifs in their temples.

Sunflowers arrived in Europe in 1510 and they were an instant sensation. Nowadays Russia and the Ukraine are the largest producers of sunflowers in the world, grown mostly for cooking oil. However as per usual, plant breeders have produced umpteen cultivars and the Royal Horticultural Society has given the Award of Garden Merit to no less than 46 different varieties of sunflowers.

These particular sunflowers are a horse of a different color. They seem to challenge my concept of what a sunflower should look like. After all, isn't a sunflower supposed to be yellow? You know, like the sun.

[whencyclopedia]

Quipu

A Quipu (khipu) was a method used by the Incas and other ancient Andean cultures to keep records and communicate information using string and knots. In the absence of an alphabetic writing system, this simple and highly portable device achieved a surprising degree of precision and flexibility. Quipu could record dates, statistics, accounts, and even abstract ideas. Quipu are still used today across South America.

Quipu use a wide variety of colours, strings, and sometimes several hundred knots all tied in various ways at various heights. These combinations can even represent, in abstract form, key episodes from traditional folk stories and poetry. In recent years scholars have also challenged the traditional view that quipu were merely a memory aid device and go so far as to suggest that quipu may have been progressing towards narrative records and so becoming a viable alternative to written language just when the Inca Empire collapsed.

Method

A typical quipu consists of a horizontal string or even wooden bar, from which hang any number of knotted and coloured strings made from either cotton or wool. Some of the larger quipu have as many as 1500 strings, and these could also be woven in different ways suggesting this, too, had a meaning. The various colour shades used could also carry a specific meaning. So, too, the type of knot, the position of it on the string, the total number of knots and the sequence of the knots could all combine to create a potentially huge number of meanings. The whole method was based on a decimal positional system, with the largest decimal used being 10,000. The Inca mathematical system was almost exactly the same as our own system in use today. The numbers or units in the system on a particular quipu are indicated by the strings furthest from the primary string, acting as a sort of key.

Different types of knot had different meanings. For example, a knot could indicate a number from one to nine by the turns of string within the knot, a figure-of-eight knot could indicate a fixed value, a 'granny' knot equalled ten, and a string missing a knot signified zero. Secondary strings could also hang from any single string and these could indicate that this string was an exception or of secondary importance to the other strings. Finally, individual quipu could join with others in a specific and meaningful sequence.

Naturally, to maximise the quipu's potential for information storage, it was better to have an accompanying oral record and so there grew a body of experts or masters, the khipu kamayuq (also quipucamayos). These individuals memorized the oral account which fully explained a particular quipu and, as the job was hereditary, the oral part was passed from generation to generation. There was a certain pressure attached to the job, however, as lapses in memory could be severely punished.

Continue reading...

[galeriacontici]

The Spondylus shell, often called the “thorny oyster,” was more than a natural curiosity for pre-Columbian civilizations; it was a revered artifact symbolizing fertility, rain, and divine connection. Found in the warm Pacific waters, the Spondylus shell was challenging to harvest, which enhanced its value and made it a prized material for trade, ceremonial use, and artistic expression. From its extraction to its role in rituals, this artifact reveals South American societies’ intricate spiritual and cultural framework.

[mybeingthere]

I have always loved this photograph of potatoes from Peru but didn't know where it came from. Now I do.

"With a climate changing faster than most crops can adapt and food security under threat around the world, scientists have found hope in a living museum dedicated to a staple eaten by millions daily: the humble potato.

High in the Peruvian Andes, agronomists are looking to the ancestral knowledge of farmers to identify genetic strains which could help the tubers survive increasingly frequent and intense droughts, floods and frosts.

The Potato Park in Cusco is a 90 sq km (35 sq mile) expanse ranging from 3,400 to 4,900 metres (16,000 feet) above sea level. It has “maintained one of the highest diversities of native potatoes in the world, in a constant process of evolution,” says Alejandro Argumedo, the founder of Asociación Andes, an NGO which supports the park.

“By sowing potatoes at different altitudes and in different combinations, these potatoes create new genetic expressions which will be very important to respond to the challenges of climate change.”

Under a cobalt sky by an icy mountain lagoon, a father and his son-in-law hoe thick brown soil. They pull out reddish potatoes and throw them into waiting sacks.

The pucasawsiray potatoes they gather are among the 1,367 varieties in the park, which lies in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. The intensely cultivated patchwork of tiny fields and graded terraces is a living laboratory of potato diversity."

https://www.theguardian.com/.../how-perus-potato-museum...

[specialagentartemis]

Chaco as a military state- what?? What grounds is that theory using??

Steve Lekson is a genuinely respected Chaco archaeologist with a... very idiosyncratic proposal about its social organization, which I am never sure how much he seriously believes and how much he puts forward to be provocative on purpose.

I think he put forward his idea of Chaco Canyon as the seat of a true state with the ability to muster a military to enforce the alliances with other Great House outliers back when it was more popular to view Chaco as a much more communal religious pilgrimage location. He posited the Great Houses as elite spaces akin to palaces, with their displays of wealth and power and evident ability to organize vast amounts of labor to build them, and the Chaco Roads serving a similar function as Inca or Roman roads: allowing the ability to muster forces and move people and supplies across the landscape quickly. He interpreted elite control over exotic and valuable goods as evidence of a much stronger and more centralized control over the political sphere, and outlying Great Houses not as individual organizations mirroring and claiming Chacoan power for their own communities but impositions of a Chaco worldview from the Canyon as center. and this was even before the DNA study where we learned about matrilineal elites/rulers!

Genuinely can't tell how much he believes it, vs. how much it's the academic version of performance art where he' says's saying to the Establishment, "you wanna believe in hippy-dippy Chaco soooo bad. What if they were a state? What if they did rule by imposed hierarchical coercion? What if the outlying Great Houses weren't a voluntary alignment with Chacoan ideology but an imposition of it by force? Why do you think there couldn't be a North American empire? Does that challenge your ideas of Chacoans as peaceful religious noble savages too much?" He has a very well-written and thought-provoking chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Southwest Archaeology about the need for scientific imagination and narrative history. It begins like this:

A colleague once told me that it was impossible to write a narrative history of the ancient Southwest. So I wrote one. In my narrative (Lekson 2009), there were rises and falls, triumphs and tragedies, nobles and commoners, war and peace, cities and countrysides—tropes of history everywhere in the world—but these almost never appeared in scholarly accounts of the ancient Southwest. And that was the polemic of my history: American anthropological archaeology denies to Native societies north of Mexico any significant history (Lekson 2010). Just a few notable events, mostly natural: a drought here, a collapse there, a migration or two, and so forth—but no kings-and-battles history, nothing for narrative.

It's a political stance as much as it's an archaeological claim, and he has been annoying other Chaco specialists for decades with this.

[synergysilhouette]

I swear, they approached Disney's 100th anniversary film all wrong.

The best part about "Wish" were the easter eggs, and even those were hit-or-miss. The plot didn't scream fairy tale or Disney--and neither did the music; if I never knew this film was a Disney film, I'd say it was a company's first attempt at an animated film. As a first attempt, it's not bad, but as Disney's 62nd film and an ode to 100 years of business....I was heavily disappointed.

I've made posts about how this could've been another epic Disney film, but for this post, I wanna try another angle, with two different ways Disney could've approached this celebratory film.

Option 1: A parody. Looking at "Enchanted", AKA one of Disney's best live-action films, the movie makes fun of classic Disney tropes as well as paying homage to renaissance-era films, which at the time this movie came out, was Walt Disney Animation Studio's biggest successful period. A film about a naive animated soon-to-be princess who is banished to the real world discovers what she wants out of life, all while charming those around her. I'm not saying "Wish" needed to include the real world aspect, but having a parody about a princess (or prince) who comes off very early-Disney while still feeling modern and giving us Disney-esque tropes and a fun story would've been a great vibe. Imagine if Asha is naive and easily taken advantage of by King Magnifico, who teaches her magic and manipulates her into harming others, seeing her youth as a weakness ("Well, you're young. You don't know anything, really."). Imagine the story actually having her BE a fairy godmother, albeit in training, and she has to learn the price and limitations of wishes (very "Cinderella"-esque) and learning when to help and when not to help others. It'd be mature and magical at the same time! Plus I imagine Magnifico being a cross between Narissa and Gaston. Amaya would probably be non-existant or an admirer Magnifico uses.

Option 2: A cutting, modern take on a classic. While I'd rather have "Kingdom of the Sun," "The Emperor's New Groove" is a funny and irreverent story about a selfish Inca Emperor who's turned into a llama by his power-hungry advisor and must return to the palace while learning to care about others along the way. Kuzco, in contrast to most Disney protagonists (or most protagonists in kids/family films in general) starts off petty, untrustworthy, and self-centered, but these qualities also give way to cleverness and humor, something that most Disney heroes lack due to either their innocence, kindess, or seriousness. Kuzco continually comments on things around him with quips and remarks that go unnoticed by the general populace (thanks to breaking the 4th wall), and it got me thinking, what if Asha was like this--or better yet, Magnifico? What if Magnifico wasn't a villain per se, but a selfish and mean king who continually had pessimistic comments to make about this fantasy-esque kingdom he created and his airheaded inhabitants. Their growing dependence on him--as well as their happy-go-lucky attitudes make him constantly patronize and devalue them, and his attitude accidentally causes destruction for the kingdom. When Asha challenges his perspective and goes on an adventure to bring back his love for others (trauma does run deep for him), he learns that everyone has a wish worth granting, and that he shouldn't be so quick to look down on others because they still have the joy and innocence he lost. Plus the people of Rosas learn not to take advantage of others and appreciate the things they have. Magnifico being like a cross between Yzma and Kuzco would be a sight to behold, while Asha takes on more of a wise Pocahontas-type role.

I can't be the only one who thinks this was a better approach to "Wish" if they didn't want to do a typical epic film.

[krispyweiss]

Dweezil Zappa at KEMBA Live!; Columbus, Ohio; April 30, 2025

With choreographed dance moves, a lack of spontaneity and Dweezil Zappa speaking between songs with the purposeful inflections of his father, Frank, the son for the first time since 2006 felt more like an imitator than an interpreter of timeless material.

The Dweeze’s band that brought the Rox(postroph)y tour to Columbus, Ohio’s, KEMBA Live! April 30 sported a new lineup that found keyboardist Bobby Victor and guitarist, percussionist and singer Zach Tabori joining the long-term core of Ryan Brown (drums), Kurt Morgan (bass), MVP Scheila Gonzalez (woodwinds, keys, percussion, vocals) and guitarist Zappa, who played Dad’s Gibson Les Paul and SG guitars as part of his six-string arsenal.

Technically proficient in the extreme, the sextet performed with invisible chains holding them back, making for an evening of potential excellence that broke free but a few times - Gonzalez’s singing of “Montana” among them - during the 150-minute set. As a result, “Inca Roads” dragged rather than raced across more than a quarter-hour of composed improvisation that left the smallish, seated audience antsy and mild in their reactions between tracks.

But then …

… the lengthy and challenging “More Trouble Every Day” and “Punky’s Whips,” both full of tricky time signatures and stylistic shifts, earned the only mid-show standing ovations as Dweezil channeled Frank with searing solos over the double drumming of Tabori and Brown. These were the kind of performances that’ve kept people returning to see and hear the son of … for nearly two decades.

These moments ameliorated to some extent time-eating escapades that included a band dance-off for baby-seal nachos after the early-show run of “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow”-> “Nanook Rubs It” -> “St. Alphonso’s Pancake Breakfast” -> “Approximate.” Later, Gonzalez led a duckcall-subbing-for-vocals version of Lionel Richie’s “Hello,” which was funny enough; however, the joke was stale by the time Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” followed. And to tack Van Halen’s “Push Comes to Shove,” with Victor down front as “Bobby Lee Roth,” on to that was a sucking-oxygen-from-the-room decision.

The band ill-advisedly wrote some new lyrics to “Cosmik Debris” and wisely resurrected the “Lost Zappa Song,” a never-recorded-or-written-down piece Dweezil learned from his uncle that sounded like something Edgar Winter might’ve wrote.

It this’d been Sound Bites’ first Dweezil/Zappa Plays Zappa gig, the blog probably would not go see it again. But given the previous seven shows were unbelievably spectacular - more interpretation than tribute act - he’s willing to consider the possibility of an off night, or perhaps overall rustiness after not touring since before the COVID-19 pandemic, including a show in Columbus two days before quarantine began, and will give it a shot next time.

Grade card: Dweezil Zappa at KEMBA Live! - 4/30/25 - B-

5/1/25

[orangenationperu]

The Inca Trail: A Magical Journey to Machu Picchu

The Inca Trail is more than just a hike — it's a transformative experience that connects body, mind, and spirit with the ancient heart of the Inca Empire. This legendary 4-day trek blends breathtaking landscapes, cloud forests, impressive archaeological sites, and a special energy that accompanies you every step of the way.

Along the route, travelers walk on original stone paths, cross high mountain passes like the challenging Warmiwañusca (13,828 ft), and camp in the middle of nature. Each day reveals new wonders, including ancient sites like Wiñay Wayna and Runkurakay, seemingly untouched by time.

The final day is unforgettable: you reach the Sun Gate (Inti Punku) at sunrise and gaze upon the majestic citadel of Machu Picchu, emerging through the mist.

The Inca Trail is not just an adventure — it’s a journey into history that leaves a lasting mark on your soul.

Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

[reddest-flower]

Only at the end of his life did Karl Marx leave the shores of Europe and travel to a country under colonial dominion. This was when he went to Algeria in 1882. ‘For Mussalmans, there is no such thing as subordination’, Marx wrote to his daughter Laura Lafargue. Inequality is an abomination to ‘a true Mussalman’, but these sentiments, Marx felt, ‘will go to rack and ruin without a revolutionary movement’. A movement of revolutionary understanding would easily be able to grow where there was this cultural feeling against inequality. Marx did not write more about Algeria or about Islam. These were observations made by a father to his daughter. But they do tell us a great deal about Marx’s sensibility.

There was no room in Marxism for the idea that certain people needed to be ruled because they were racial or social inferiors. In fact, Marxism – from Marx’s early writings onward – always understood human freedom as a universal objective. Human slavery and the degradation of human beings into wage slavery awoke in Marx his prophetic indignation. One of Marx’s most famous passages in Capital (1867) pointed out that the ‘rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production’ should not be found in the antiseptic bank or factory. The origin of capitalism had to be found – among other processes – in ‘the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of Black skins’. Capitalism grew and was sustained by the degradation of humanity. No wonder, then, that anti-colonialism would play such an important role in the Marxist movement.

When Marxism travelled outside the domain where Marx first developed the theory, it had to engage with what Lenin called ‘the most essential thing in Marxism, the living soul of Marxism, the concrete analysis of concrete conditions’. This formula was valuable from the Dutch East Indies to the Andes.

In the Andes (in South America), one of the greatest (and least known) Marxist thinkers – José Carlos Mariátegui (1894-1930) – wrote in 1928, ‘We do not wish that Socialism in America be a tracing and a copy. It must be a heroic creation. We must, with our own reality, in our own language, bring Indoamerican socialism to life.’ What did Mariátegui do? He read his Marx and his Lenin – and he studied deeply in the social reality of the Andes. Lenin’s theory of the worker-peasant alliance provided a fundamental addition to his Marxism. The ‘socialist revolution in a mainly agrarian country like Peru in the 1920s’, he wrote, ‘was simply inconceivable without taking into consideration the insurgent mobilization of indigenous rural communities that were challenging the power of large land-owners (latifundistas) who were responsible for keeping alive old forms of economic exploitation’. The agent of change in Peru amongst the producing classes had to include the indigenous rural communities whose population was mainly Amerindian. To seek the insurgents amongst the minuscule industrial sector of Lima alone would be to go into battle with capital with one hand tied behind the back. This is an echo of Lenin’s call for worker and peasant unity, but with the indigenous communities now in the framework.

Were the indigenous rural communities capable of a socialist movement? In the 1920s, when Mariátegui was writing, the prevailing intellectual fashion with regard to the rural communities was indigenismo, or Indianness – meaning a cultural movement that revived and celebrated Amerindian cultural forms but did not seek to explore their transformative potential. Indigenismo defanged the Amerindians and romantically saw them as culture producers but not history producers. Mariátegui reinterpreted their history in a more vibrant way – looking backwards at Inca primitive socialism and current struggles against the latifundistas as resources for social transformation. ‘The thesis of a communist Inca tradition is’, he wrote, ‘the defence of a historical continuity between the ancient Inca communal way of life and the Peruvian communist society of the future’. Mariátegui’s Andean socialism was never a restoration of the past, of a primitive communism of an ancient Inca world. ‘It is clear that we are concerned less with what is dead than with has survived of the Inca civilization’, he wrote in 1928. ‘Peru’s past interests us to the extent it can explain Peru’s present. Constructive generations think of the past as an origin, never as a programme’. [my italics] In other words, the past is a resource not a destination – it reminds us of what is possible, and its traces show us that elements of that old communitarianism can be harnessed in the fight against colonial private property relations in the present. When Marxism came to the Third World, it had to be supple and precise – learn from its context, understand the way capitalism morphs in a new venue and explore the ways for social transformation to drive history.

The Comintern tried to be supple, but its limited knowledge of the world meant it ended up being far too dogmatic to be always useful. By the late 1920s, the Comintern suggested the creation of a Black Belt in the southern region of the United States, Native Republics in South Africa and an Indian Republic along the Andean region of South America. From Moscow, it appeared as if the nationalities theory could be easily transported to these distant lands. For South America, the theory was debated at the First Latin American Communist Conference held in Buenos Aires in June 1929. Fierce debate broke out here, with the Comintern’s preferred position being opposed by Mariátegui’s associates. ‘The construction of an autonomous state from the Indian race’, Mariátegui wrote, ‘would not lead to the dictatorship of the Indian proletariat, nor much less the formation of an Indian State without classes.’ What would be created is an ‘Indian bourgeois State with all of the internal and external contradictions of other bourgeois states’. The preferred option would be of the ‘revolutionary class movement of the exploited indigenous masses’, which was the only way for them to ‘open a path to the true liberation of their race’. The debate on goals and strategy became so fierce that this was the only Latin American Communist Conference to be held. ‘The indigenous proletariat await their Lenin’, Mariátegui wrote. He meant not a Lenin as such, but a theory that could emerge from the movements to lead them against the rigid structures of the past and present.

This was not always the lesson that was learned. But it is our lesson now.

Red Star Over the Third World, Vijay Prashad, 2019