FYS Week 7

One of the most fascinating of the spectacles of the known Mayan culture is the presentation of Kukulcan, otherwise known as Quetzalcoatl, in snake form on the side of the mayan temple of Chichen Its.  Kukulcan is a feathered serpent that is shown in on the side of the mayan temples during the spring and fall equinoxes.  This formation using the sculpture of Kukulcan's head and the temple's shadow is definitely no coincidence.

Dance

How was your experience today either as the active participant or as a witness of your peers’ participation?  How does it reflect your attitude towards partner dance?  Do you think your reaction is cultural, generational or unique to yourself?

My experience watching was actually entertaining.  I got to watch a lot of my friends feel extremely uncomfortable as they danced with random people.  The man leading the assembly did a fairly good job of recruiting our classes to participate.  Personally I would not be able to partner dance without some practice first.  I have done ballet before so the idea of dance isn't such an awkward suggestion.  I guess my reaction to dane is cultural, generational, and unique to myself.  Cultural and generational tie in together because my generation has set its own culture with our own specific dances.  The reason it is unique to myself is because I don't mind dance and personally am interested in such dances as ballet.

FYS Week 6

Religion:  Codified beliefs and rituals directed to supernatural powers believed to control both society and the universe.  The Popul Vuh is the religious text of the Mayan life.  The Popul Vuh explains the humans' place in the world in relation to the gods in the sky and underworld.  It begins with the creation story of two gods, the god of the sea and the god of the sky.  It also tells of the "Hero Twins" and their adventures.

Chaac the Mayan Rain god

Chaac, or Chac, is the Mayan rain deity.  Normally Chac is depicted having cat-like whiskers, a reptilian snout, and he's often fishing.  He uses his lightning axe or snakes to strike the clouds and create thunder and rain.  Chaac's actions influence the growth of maize and other vegetation as well as affect the other parts of nature.  Weather such as rain, storms, and hailstorms were all considered to be the doing of Chaac.  Like other Mayan gods, Chac could be represented as four gods, one for each direction (North, South, East, West).

Chaak Xib Chaac, Red Chaac of the East

Sak Xib Chaac, White Chaac of the North

Ex Xib Chaac, Black Chaac of the West

Kan Xib Chaac, Yellow Chaac of the South

The Mayan legend says the Chac broke open a huge rock and pulled maize out of it. This myth of Chaac was estimated to be drawn up more then 1000 years ago.  Chaac is believed to be the oldest, continually worshipped god.  

FYS Week 5

This week we discussed the most philosophical and mind-bending topic so far, Time.  By definition, time means: The system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration.  Of course this definition is only textbook  and time means something completely different to humans.  In my mind, Time cannot be put as a definition or explained by any one human or being.  Time is the only topic that will never be controlled or explained properly.

 

FYS Week 4

Classical Period Maya & the Popul Vuh

Classical Period Maya dates back to 300-900.  Each city was built around central plaza which included a temple, a palace, and a ball court.  The ball court was one of, if not the MOST important part of the Mayan way of life.  As for the Mayan world, they considered it to be the center of the universe.  The super natural was all around them and mixed in with everyday life.  

Now for the Popul Vuh, which is the Mayan creation story describing the creation of the earth, animals and humans.  They believe that humans had actually evolved from from corn, which is why corn was  so highly regarded by Mayan culture.  The Popul Vuh is actually made of four or five codices, or books, in which the story had been written down.  It is said that there were more created however they had been destroyed due to the Spanish invasion.

FYS week 3

Now this week we had two completely different discussions.
Our first one being about the so-called "End of the World" predicted by the Mayans.  Now we only started a brief discussion but I have been informed that the world will NOT be ending.  Actually it refers to the world, as the Mayans know it, ending. We didn't exactly go into detail about what this means but I'm sure we will talk about it soon.

Now the next thing we talked about was OUR input on the whole sexual harassment ordeal occurring in today's society.  I would say one of the most important concepts we talked about was victim blaming.  It is ALWAYS the aggressors fault, no matter what.  Another concept we talked about was the Subjective vs Objective idea behind harassing women.  When a man yells at a woman, he no longer associates the woman as an equal human being (subject) but degrading her to an object which can be possessed.  As much as I would love for this problem to disappear, I don't see this problem just ending abruptly.

sexual harassment is WRONG

I feel that the street harassment is not even close to how severe as it is in other countries.  Maybe I'm just in a sheltered society, but I don't think sexual harassment is as bad in the US.  Other countries are always portrayed as much more violent in terms of sexual harassment but then I always wonder how the US is portrayed to other countries.  During the speech, she mentioned many situations, all of which were a man sexual harassing a woman.  Most instances of harassment were just verbal but there were cases of actual groping, public masterbation, and assault.  I don't believe there were any major differences, just the way in which people were harassed.  But nothing really surprised me, other then the amount of harassment that actually takes place here in America.  Most of these offenses also go un reported so it really makes sense as to why I believe I live in this "sheltered" society when really I could be misinformed with what is happening right around me!  This whole speech really got me thinking and actually looking for instances of harassment!

FYS Week Two

Again, we did our culture speeches again.  This time we were finishing up with the last few people.  Even though this sounds cliche, when my classmates open up and present their backgrounds (even though some were very short) it helps actually learn them as a person.  We have this class together for a whole semester and the least we can do is feel comfortable around each other.

GCP Fair

Truthfully, when we went to the GCP Fair, I did not think I would find anything really worth traveling abroad for.  Then I saw a program called JAFSP.  This is a program based in Jamaica that works in Jamaican schools to teach kids.  This includes Music Therapy, Tutoring/ Service Learning, and music education.  Even though I'm not really music oriented, I still think traveling to teach kids in Jamaica would change my life.  The reason I found so much interest in Jamaica was because my best friend is Jamaican and it would be nice to be able to connect on something after the school year.

First Week FYS

Now that we all know each other names, we needed to be informed of each others cultures. Learning about everyone else helps me to connect more with my classmates.  I realized that most of our class comes from the east coast and we all seem to be caring individuals.  Personally, I really admire the people who went on mission trips and have military oriented backgrounds.  Some peoples backgrounds seem to be a little too plain though, and they presented almost as though they weren't planned to share with the class.  Overall I think the whole "present you culture" speech was a good tactic to bring together our class and help each other feel more comfortable around each other...seeing as how we have a whole semester+ together, it makes sense to do that as an exercise.