...Research and Background The Nacirema tribe and their strange behaviors were first documented by Horace Miner in “The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” in 1956. Considerable effort has been extended to the study of this most unusual tribe in the years that followed and many print articles and lectures were devoted to trying to understand these people and their strange customs. Recently, many new research techniques combined with a host of motivated anthropologists and a fresh source of both corporate donations and governmental funds have uncovered new information about the Nacirema. Although there are hundreds or perhaps thousands of Nacirema rituals, ceremonies, and practices that merit intense study and analysis, the focus of this research paper is perhaps one of the most bizarre and poorly understood of all their rituals. This ritual has it’s roots in many different cultures dispersed across the world dating back hundreds of years. This most interesting ritual has been celebrated in a very concentrated region of Nacirema for hundreds of years located in a few costal cities north of the body of water “Gulf of the Land of Maize”. Although this ritual is celebrated to some degree in selected Nacirema cities of this region, the epicenter of this ritual and it’s many strange customs is the city that straddles the end of the big river Ojibwe. This city is “Crescent City”, aptly named for the villages of the city that followed the curvature of the big river Ojibwe. Once per...
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...Dogon Mask Dance Dogons are from Mali in West Africa. Dogon masks rank among the most respected within the world of tribal art collections and have influenced such Western 20th-century artists as Picasso and Braque, even the Cubist movement. The mask binds the Dogon people to the celestial world of heaven (where the afterworld exists) and Earth, which provides food, shelter and life. An important Dogon tradition is the Dama or masked funeral dance. By masquerading behind masks, the dancers allow the souls of the deceased to escape to their final resting place and to join the ranks of their ancestors, thereby restoring order to the universe. Participation in the Dama is a great honor as it represents the final step in the passage from boyhood to manhood. Boys eagerly watch the infrequently performed ``Dama``, in anticipation of the day in which they may also participate in the dance. The village Elders, who are too old to endure the physical exertion of the dance, stand on the sideline, play the music, explain the meaning of the various masks, and keep the pace of the ritual going. The Dama is usually performed every five years or so. Another one is the ``Sigi`` The most significant celebration that take place every 60 years. The dancers of the sirige mask are considered the most skilled. They use their teeth to balance the 20-foot (6-meter) high mask, which is carved from the limb of a single tree. Dancers swing the mask in sweeping motions to represent the...
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...many times in the past and one of the collections of Art that I always gravitate towards is the African Art. This collection of Art consists of artworks from Sudan, Central Africa and West Africa. These objects consisted of ceremonial masks made of wood, feathers, plant fibers, beads, fur, cloth, copper and other miscellaneous objects, Wooden figured called Pounders, religious scrolls and books and other artifacts pertaining to their culture. In this exhibit contained many masks. Two of the mask that was most interesting to me was a mask called the “Elephant Society Mask” and “Bwoom Helmet Mask.” The Elephant Mask was made by canvas embroidered with beads. It was from the Bamileke kingdom. Men that were members of this kingdom called Kuosi wore these masks to major festivals and royal funerals, the mask represent the royal elephant. The Bwoom Mask is from Kuba kingdom and is made from wood, beads, shells, fur, seeds, cloth, hide and copper. The mask was part of ensemble group who performed at royal initiations or funerals. Bwoom means dwarf. The masks are very different in size; the Elephant Mask is tall and lean. It is very detailed with beads that consist of blues, reds and whites. It has big ears to resemble and Elephant. The Bwoom mask is...
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...Literally essay Of Mice and Men Comparison The experience of the speaker in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is comparable to Crooks experience in chapter 4 of John Steinbach’s Of Mice and Men. The mask being figurative refers to the emotional mask that covers and conceals one emotion which many blacks wore while being segregated because they were afraid of what would happen if they showed their true feelings. Crooks had a similar experience in chapter 4 in Steinbeck’s book in which he backed down from an argument because he was afraid of the consequences that might fall on him because he was black. One of the lines from Dunbar’s poem shows how effective one could use the mask to hide their anguish and sadness. “We wear the mask that grins and lies- It hides our cheeks and shades our eye-“, the people in this poem used this “mask” to shade their eyes and cheeks which made other people incapable of seeing their true. This method of blocking true emotions is effective because often you can see the real feelings and emotions of a person by looking into their eyes and cheeks which are supposedly “gateways” to one’s true self. By putting on an emotionless and blank persona you can show no sign of you ever being tortured by the hateful words thrown at you. Likewise Crooks also has to deal with hurtful comments such as the N word yet he abides and remains throughout the rest of the chapter with a blank emotionless tone and voice. In chapter 4 page 81, Curley’s wife...
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...Explication of “Dulce et Decorum Est” By: Wilfred Owen Dulce et Decorum Est is a poem written by Wilfred Owen that uses powerful imagery to express an important message. A message that war is not glorious and noble and should not be portrayed this way. The speaker is a soldier in the army who describes the true horrors of the war and how young men believed it was an honor to die for your country. The poem is written in a simple regular rhyme scheme. Owen uses graphic imagery to show what the war was like. The similes and metaphors he uses give you a clear picture to describe the ugliness of the war. The tone is very harsh and he speaks very direct. He uses words that will shock you and leave you with a sick feeling. In the first stanza, the first two lines of the poem are, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks/Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge”. This represents the men bent over carrying their belongings through the mud. They are being compared to as old beggars & hags, (miserable ugly old women). However, these men were young. In the third and forth lines, “Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs/And towards our distant rest began to trudge”, represents the tired soldiers heading back to camp. In the fifth and six lines, “Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots/But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;” this shows how tired the men were as if they were marching in their sleep. Many have lost their boots and...
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...Final Image Preview ------------------------------------------------- The described effects look nice on portraits with good contrast and light background, but you can easy adjust the contrast and make the background lighter using possibilities of Photoshop. (to make this tutorial I have used Female Stock thanks to Katanaz-Stock). Step 1. In Adobe Photoshop, open our portrait ------------------------------------------------- and adjust the contrast Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Step 2. From the Select menu, choose Color Range. ------------------------------------------------- From the Select drop-down menu in the Color Range dialog, choose Shadows and click OK. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Press Ctrl+J (MAC: Command+J ) to copy the selected shadows pixels in a new layer. Back to theBackground layer in the Layers palette. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Step 3. Use Color Range again, but now choose Midtones from the Select drop-down menu and click OK. ------------------------------------------------- Press Ctrl+J (MAC: Command+J ) to copy the selected midtones pixels in a new layer. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Step 4...
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...The “masked” character Jack from Lord of the Flies is easily shown to have two different sides. Jack has a whole new personality once the face paint covers the real him. When Jack lands on the island he is already attempting to take control over the choir and has everyone believe he is the leader of them. His personality becomes more aggressive when he first goes to hunt. He sees a pig trapped in a bush and is afraid to kill it. He hesitates during this and lets the pig run away freely. Since that moment, he puts on a face paint from natural resources and it gives him a new character. He has the same encounter with a pig while hunting and kills it with ease. Ralph showed his joy and said excitedly “looked we killed a pig” (69 Golding) when...
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...The Hannya mask is a pat of Japanese culture. Hannya translates to wisdom, or more specifically, the Buddhist concept of Perfect Wisdom. Hannya is a demon or oni. They are also referred to as kijo - female demons. These appear in noh - a traditional masked drama with dance and song. They are human women who have been consumed by jealousy and transformed into demonesses. There are three types of hannya: namanari, chūnari, and honnari. The namanari still has human-like features. Their horns are small in size, and they use dark magic to perform their evil deeds. These demons still have a chance to change back into their human form. Chūnari are mid-level demons. They possess longer horns, and have tusk-like fangs. Their magic is also more powerful,...
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...Trench Letter Dear mom I have been fighting for six months now, I think the date it’s August 16, 1916 and I don't know how much more death I can bear. I don't feel any pride in fighting or dying for my country; at least not here in Somme. All day long all I see is people dying and I keep think I am next? I keep wondering will I be alive tomorrow. I see people jump up out of the trenches into no man’s land alive and then two seconds later fall back down because their dead. Two weeks ago while sitting in the trenches someone started yelling GAS! GAS! In that instant I feared for my life. I grabbed a gas mask, hoping that I would get it on in time, but there weren’t enough gas masks for everyone so I had to watch my friends suffocate from inhaling the gas. I can't believe I am here and wake up every morning wondering if I will wake up tomorrow. I wish that my friend would have never pressured me into doing this, but now he’s dead because when some of us had to charge his trench foot prevented him from moving fast so the machine gun blew him apart. The good thing though is that we don’t have to worry about rats, lice, and flies for a while because of the gas. Lately I haven’t been wanting to do my job. I’m supposed to be climbing up on the fire step with my Springfield sniper rifle but I’ve been too tired to do it lately. This kid who just started died today too; he was cutting barb wire and stepped on a bouncing Betty by accident. We only found him in pieces, or at least we think...
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...“MASK “with definition: anything that disguises or conceals; disguise; pretense: His politeness is a mask for his/her fundamentally malicious personality. In today’s Society people don masks every day to hide the many thing about themselves that they don’t want outsiders (people they don’t know) their personal friends and family even co-workers, their individual on-line profiles etc. The real truth is individuals fear facing their “REAL” selves like for instance, DORA, who is well known and a familiar presence yet she wears ill-fitting clothing showing the camel toe and her belly button, is way way too grown, what type of role model is that SMDH she be doing too much rocking a backpack filled with everything from Lowe’s and home depot combined within it and the damn backpack talks! She hangs out all day and night with a talking monkey who calls himself “BOOTS” I mean this dude be rocking red UGG’s and she has a cell phone SMDH and that isn’t the kicker, she is unsupervised all day goes on adventures, HOLD UP/HOLD MY PHONE!!! This is a ACS case waiting to pop off #fast-city-jones this shorty be all up in the nutty forest hanging out with all types of characters and what have you, plus she won’t face the fact that she has confused scores of children into thinking that she is a U.S. citizen just because she is all up in everyone’s home apt. condo, townhouse etc. on their TVs., Dvd, YouTube, Net flick, Hulu plus the plus etc. and in every family dollar, toys “r” us, and chain...
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...learn from it besides conquering fear. An example of what they do is his “battle buddies” training rolling a log down a fifty foot hill for exercise which was preparation for the gas chamber. The author grabs you by my speaking of army training and giving you examples of experience and feelings. 2. Unfortunately, we are learning the important stuff first after we learn about how important gas masks are the hard way. 3. Its relevant to its topic sentence because its relates in detail the fear of the gas chamber, and what it’s going to be like in there. It is also relates how being in the chamber experience will change you as a person. The angle of the body is to give you an understanding of what conquering your fears feels like especially when you have nowhere to run. Relating nightmares and near death experiences can cause Natural survival instincts being forced by fear is all a part of the 2nd paragraphs theme. 4. It relates because she goes in feeling better about herself and realizes that she in finally in the room. She gives detail of being in the chamber with her mask on and was able to be Observational of his surroundings. The theme of this paragraph was him building up the confidence going into the chamber and accepting his fate. Also realizing that there was more to come from this chamber and how serious this training was. 5. It connect by explaining her experience in the Fogged room and all the different feeling she had being in the chamber. How fast...
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...Gattaca and Lord of the Flies Comparison Essay By: Lauren Cody Gattaca and The Lord of the Flies have many overlapping themes like the loss of individuality or the abuse of power. The loss of individuality is shown through Jack and his tribe wearing their masks and hiding behind them when they hunt and run wild throughout the island. In Gattaca individuality is taken from people because their parents choose their children's genes before they are even born and individuals are grouped into genetically modified and invalids. The abuse of power is shown through Jacks power hungry nature while taking over island. In relation to Gattaca, business owners, the police, and the government all feel that they have the right to see your genes and judge...
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...The Mask: Personality Conformity & Self Acceptance A person is an amalgamation of other people’s personalities combined. They meet someone, and they subconsciously change ever-so-slightly. Does this mean people actually have a personality? Well, that unique combination of personalities is what makes it their own. However, people keep conforming to be like others and ‘fit in’ that everyone is just wearing a mask; masked by a pretense. It’s a safety precaution. The mask must be broken first before they show their true face. However, people keep changing in this never-ending spiral of conformity, eventually the real person behind the mask is gone, and all that is left is the mask itself. Everyone conforms. It’s natural and it’s even assumed that “conformity may have been of survival value when interacting with other tribes of cavemen” (Peutherer). Of course, we don’t live in the ‘dinosaur’ era anymore. We live in a modern time and we still change, but this time, it’s for social survival in a cruel and judgemental society. It’s not a good thing,...
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...Though a mask may only be a piece of paper, paint on a face or only a carved piece of wood, they all possess an innate symbolic meaning. Masks have many purposes ranging from a religious purposes in Africa to symbolize connections with their ancestors spirits to being used to symbolize emotions when used on stages in theaters. IN William Golding's, Lord of the Flies Ralph and the boys go through many change when they put on their mask ranging from a self detachment to a release of their primeval emotions. On my mask I've arranged all of my symbols on to two sides. On my the left side of my mask I've symbols that represent what makes me happy and calm while on my right side I have symbols that represent what stresses me out or makes me angry. On the direct right side of my mask I have many symbols that illustrate what stresses me out or what makes me angry. All around the inside of the right side of...
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...Things are not always as they seem, sometimes first impressions can be deceiving. In Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask” and Edwin Arlington Robinson’s poem “Richard Cory” the theme of appearance vs. truth is explored. These poems show how you can see someone and still not completely “see” them. They live an ironic life as their appearances differ from their reality. Everyone has a way in which they mask themselves from the world. Their hidden truth kept within a false persona. In We Wear the Mask people are described as hypocritical, deceptive and willing to appear content with their circumstances, although they are not. The speaker's world appears cold and indifferent; inducing false personas in an effort to appear unbothered. The people are determined to keep the true nature of their sufferings to themselves and to present to others happiness and lack of care, “We wear the mask that grins and lies,” (Dunbar line 1). All of the courtesy and feelings shown are just phony disguises for the painful truths that hide behind them. Furthermore, no matter what is felt one should cover it up, to allow what appears to become reality....
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