Metropolis

Watching Metropolis was very interesting especially because it was a silent movie. A little dramatic maybe, but I guess that was necessary to make the audience understand what the director was trying to get across.

The one thing that I walked away with from this movie was that continued oppression of the lower working class of a country/city will eventually bring about destruction upon it, and the suffers of that tragic consequence will be all. As we saw in the movie, the workers eventually got so frustrated with their hard working and strenuous life, while the upper class families were enjoying the fruit of their work that they revolted against it and the outcome lead to the flooding of the entire city. The moral of this being that there definitely needs to be a balance in the different classes that society has. You cannot forget or ill-treat the ones that helped build your city. Another personal example, that I think will help reiterate this point about continued oppression, is the liberation war that Bangladesh fought against Pakistan. Being under the Pakistani rule for many, many years built up frustration and anger amongst the people of Bangladesh. Then finally, following the voice of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Father of the Nation) the country revolted and eventually gained their independence from Pakistan. I could relate this very much to the role that Maria played in the lives of the workers. As long as she kept on reassuring them that the mediator would come they stayed under control, but once the evil Maria encouraged them to destroy the machines they followed her orders unquestioningly.

This definitely seemed like a cautionary movie to me where the director seemed to aim at an audience from the higher levels of society- making them aware of what the current situation is and how the eventual outcome may affect their lives. The metaphor of the heart being the mediator between the head and the hand was also another way of portraying the balance factor that is very much required for a harmonized city. Another reason why this may be viewed as a cautionary movie is because it shows how the exploitation of technology makes one lose the sight of the “big picture”- the workers running to destroy the machines leaving their own children behind

End of Faith

While reading Sam Harris’ “End of Faith” there were several things that I found quite surprising. Primarily his direct attack towards Islam and Muslims in general was very disturbing and I guess even unwanted to a certain extent. His argument behind Islam being such a threatening religion was not convincing at all, at least to me, and he did not seem to back up any of his arguments with substantial proof and reasoning.
In the very beginning of this chapter, he describes the great contributions that Islamic scholars have made in the past to science and math. Then rather quickly he moves on to discussing how those “very few” good deeds do not measure up to the plenty other bad ones that Islam alone has contributed over the last few decades. He provides five pages worth of quotations from the Koran, very carefully selected out, to portray what a violent and threatening religion it is. According to me, he has definitely taken the words in Koran for its literal meaning and has not analyzed them metaphorically. There seems to be nothing allegorical about the way he has interpreted them. These five pages worth of quotations do not depict the whole teachings of the Koran and therefore it definitely seems rather unfair that they were used to generalize about Islam and Muslims because Islam is a religion that highly encourages peace. He also discussed how the division of Muslims within Islam as Sunnis and Shias pose to be a threat to the Western world! I wonder why and how? Finally, I would like to make a note about the issue on suicide bombings. It seems rather irrational to judge the strength of belief of all Muslims by those who execute the suicide bombings. As in every other religion, Islam also has its fair share of extremists and their actions should not reflect the belief of the rest of the Muslim population.
Tying in this with all of our previous readings it makes me think if religion can be used as a “tool box” to explain historical and religious changes that have occurred over the years. Do we use religion to explain only those things that we cannot find a scientific reasoning for or those situations, which has brought upon us misery and sorrow as we saw in Lamentations? Religious interpretations change as times change so that we can understand and apply them to suit our needs. They undergo social and technological changes making religion more of a malleable form that takes different shapes depending on what era it is in.

Grizzly Man

While watching the Grizzly Man there were a couple of things that struck me as particularly interesting. It made me wonder if the message that Timothy desired to convey, was actually understood the way he wanted. His death resulted in people interpreting it in their own ways, and therefore maybe the true meaning of his project was lost. He spent thirteen summers with the bears and probably would have done it longer had he not been killed.

His approach toward the bears and the concrete and thorough understanding of how to interact with them left me in complete awe. His repeated mentioning of “I love you” to the animals obviously showed that he meant well. However, I wonder how far you can actually go, even with the right intentions, before you invade and disrespect somebody else’s territory. From the movie, we understand that he had been living and acting like those bears for so long that he probably thought himself to be one of them. In order to protect himself it seemed that he was trying to establish that he was the “dominant” bear. His desire to be a part of their world was plausible but not a probable one because we ARE different from them no matter how much one would want to believe otherwise. I strongly agree with the curator of the Native American museum that acclimating the bears to the presence of human beings who are kind to them probably does more harm than good because then they start believing that all humans will treat them the same way.

His love and respect for the bears were so deep that it almost seemed religious. His connection with them was strong enough that it was no longer human. Different religions have different beliefs and his belief may not have been in a supernatural power but it was definitely in the bears that he lived with. Religions have rules, regulations, and symbols, which incorporate the individual’s belief into them. Timothy’s according to me were all expressed through his dedication in protecting these bears. However, I wonder if religion can actually be the tool in defining the cognitive line that says where humans stand in the natural world. In comparison to our earlier readings, we do not observe this kind of love in the art of the Paleolithic hunters. But then again I am not sure if it would be reasonable to compare the two because the Paleolithic hunters hunted for survival very much unlike Timothy's intention.

Effigy Mound Builders-The Late Woodland Stage.

While reading the article, what I found to be particularly interesting was how the inhabitants of the Late Woodland society expressed their religious beliefs through the beautiful designs and patterns on their pottery. Their pottery types were much more elaborate in comparison to that from the early and middle woodland societies. Their designs were intricate and the pots were elaborately embellished.

Often the designs on these pots were those representing upper world and lower world imagery. The upper world was mostly depicted by birds or humans dressed as birds whereas the lower world was represented by “long tailed water spirits” that the Native Americans believed to inhabit a “watery world under the earth” (pg 107). The under world creatures that represented the evil kind took various forms such as that of cats, panthers, horned monsters, snakes etc. However, it was repeatedly observed at several sites, especially in the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) society that the “Benevolent Thunderbird” (pg 107) represented the upper world. It seems interesting that a variety of creatures represented the lower world but only the symbol of the bird was used to depict the upper world. It is unclear why the Shamans “who called upon these upper world forces during rituals” (pg 107) held the birds with such high respect. Their importance is very definitely evident because they appeared painted on cave walls as hawks, falcons and birdmen. The correlation between religous beliefs and the symbol of the bird with the upper world is what I felt was intriguing.

The Nature of Paleolithic Art: part 2

In part two of ‘The Nature of Paleolithic Art’ Guthrie discusses several interesting topics. His discussion on the Human Scale of Density: Nepotism and Reciprocity particularly interested me as it revealed how much of our present social behavior is deeply rooted in our past or is derived from our past.

When animals live or move in packs they remember or keep tally of favors done for them. In other words, help is received only when it is also given out. Guthrie gives several examples of such reciprocity and sociality viewed widely amongst chimpanzees, elephants, wolves, hyenas etc (animals which prefer to live in small gatherings). By helping other family members to whom one is genetically related increases one’s own genetic fitness. As Guthrie puts it, “sharing creates obligations that can be, and usually are, called on later” (pg 414). Amongst chimpanzees, a very common way to repay a debt or a favor is by grooming or by allowing sexual access, which increases reproductive fitness. Another form of altruistic behavior observed amongst chimpanzees that we discussed in my Biological Anthropology class is giving out alarm calls when a predator is close by. Although this puts at risk the life of the particular chimp giving out the alarm call, it allows the rest of its clan to escape. Included amongst this clan may be its own offspring, which are then taken care of by the other female chimpanzees in the group if the chimp performing such an altruistic act is attacked.

Such behavior is also observed amongst human beings, especially between family members much like that displayed by the chimpanzees. Guthrie says, “As uncomfortable as it was for many people in the late 1970s to confront the idea of sociobiology, it is clear that aspects of social behavior are shaped by evolutionary patterns” (pg 414). I agree with his point because this idea, that human behavioral pattern may resemble to that of certain animals, can be disturbing to some because according to Genesis mankind was created as superior to all other beings.Is it or is it not derogatory that there are similarities between human and animal behavior can be a debatable topic.Nonetheless, it does not make it false that animals to a certain extent behave much as humans do.