“Celebration of the Dead” by Brandon Schall

The day of the dead is the Mexican version of the United States Halloween. However, this holiday is not the same at all. Mexicans celebrate this holiday every year on November 2 to honor the dead. They dance, bring food, and honor those who have fallen in a cheerful way. My question is why can’t the United States have a similar tradition? Our Halloween holiday is more for kids and it does not honor the dead; it is a reason to get candy and dress in fun costumes. In the United States we are sad when someone we love passes and we grieve. Friends and family of the deceased send sympathy cards, flowers and wear black to the funeral. Mexico is proud of its’ dead and honor their deceased family and friends in a happy ritual. I think Americans should honor their dead the way Mexico does. The Mexicans believe that the dead go to a better place when they die, so instead of being sad let’s rejoice and honor their life as well as their death.
http://0-www.jstor.org.read.cnu.edu/stable/483058

“Special Tree’s” by Brandon Schall

My religion says that Adam and Eve took an apple from a tree, in which they were not supposed to. In other religions trees are also mentioned as special or sacred. This article says that trees have not lost their sacred symbol in the cultures. Trees play a large role in our society to symbolize life or growth or rebirth. They are also important symbols in Japan as well. Trees there represent a symbol of the beauty in that country. Trees provided many valuable things to the people. Some of these things included wood, paper, and oxygen. The reason I decided to write about this specific article is because I believe trees to be a symbol of life. Tree’s provided oxygen to people to be able to live. Every time I see a tree it makes me think about life and this symbol is sacred to me.
http://0-www.jstor.org.read.cnu.edu/stable/1177864

“Parks” by Brandon Schall

In Sacred Sites: Nature and Nation in the U.S. National Parks the article makes the argument that since the Civil War the United States has created a connection with parks and views them as sacred. The people of the U.S. view the National Parks as sacred sites and symbols of U.S. culture. It is not the actual park as a whole that is sacred but the experiences that one can have in theses parks. I have often felt that we do not have enough parks in the United States. We need to preserve more open space. Building and progress is great but we need to have parks to relax and enjoy nature. It was nice to see some others have a similar view on parks and the ability for each individual to be able to have a sacred experience in the parks.
http://0-www.jstor.org.read.cnu.edu/stable/4140106

”Rice Effect” by Brandon Schall

In the Philippines rice is an important part of their culture. If a meal does not include rice in it then the meal is not complete. When harvesting the rice the people have a colorful ritual that goes with it. The celebration is to encourage the rice to grow. There are two forms of the ritual, the first is the older version which is called the animistic rice ritual. The newer version of ritual is called Christianized rice ritual. Both processes play an important part in making the rice grow. They believe that if one of the rituals is not performed then the rice will not come out properly. This is strange to me because our culture does not eat rice or anything else at every meal. The one thing that makes sense to me is the ritual part because I believe that you can change the outcome of things by continuing to do the same thing year after year.
http://0-www.jstor.org.read.cnu.edu/stable/1177363

“Women and Rituals in China” by Brandon Schall

As I read the Article of The Oral and Ritual Culture of Chinese Women specifically the Bridal Lamentations of Nanhui I was shocked because they said women were only allowed to express themselves two times in their life. One was during their marriage rituals; they were allowed to express themselves. Normally they were expected to keep up their home. This is shocking to me because today women in the United States can express themselves whenever they want. For a culture to withhold women’s rights is shocking to me. I believe that women should be allowed to participate in all rituals in life not just during their wedding night.
http://0-www.jstor.org.read.cnu.edu/stable/1178916

“Hot Water” by Brandon Schall

The other day our shower lost all hot water. The experience made me curious as to how people in ancient times manage to take warm baths/showers. During the summer months I am sure the water was warm in rivers and ponds but how about during the winter? Did they clean themselves during these cold months? I had no intention of getting in that cold shower so I left my house and went to friend’s house to shower. How did the people of ancient times get clean? They had to take a cold dip in the river, boiled water to put in a big tub or they didn’t bath at all. We would not have any friends today if we didn’t bath. I believe that I would have had to have been a lot tougher than I am now to survive in ancient times. The ancient people had to make do with what was available. We are all spoiled today with our modern conveniences, and I hope I never have to do without them.

“Drumming” by Brandon Schall

When we went to the park and beat on the drums it was and experience that I had never had before. This was a little bit outside my comfort zone. However, as the class went on, I started to enjoy myself more and more. At the time I did not understand or comprehend what was going on. As I started to look back on the experience I began to feel that the experience was meant for me to learn how to connect with nature and the inner me. Through the ritual I learned to connect with my fellow peers. It was a time to feel free and just enjoy the environment. What made this ritual even more special was the fact that I was with my friends. I got to enjoy something that I had not done in a long time; which was to sit outside and enjoy all nature has to offer and just Be.

”Technology” by Brandon Schall

Yesterday I tried to go without my cell for the entire day. Although I could not go the day without using my computer because I had to check my e-mails and do my school work, I tried not to use my cell phone. I felt really awkward; I do not understand how people survived without technology in an oral culture. It was a feeling of uncertainty when I was not able to talk to my friends. I still met them for lunch and talked to my roommates at home but it was different. It was a lost feeling, I felt like I was no longer in control of my life. People in the past did not have this technological advancement and they survived just fine without it. They had to walk long distances to another person’s village in order to talk to them. It is hard to believe that a person had travel great distances just to carry on a conversation. But, I imagine they valued their friends and family back then more than we do today. I feel that since I depend on current technology it has hindered my ability to communicate through just one on one oral conversation and it is disappointing.

“Beach Day” by Brandon Schall

I was at the beach last week with my friends enjoying the environment. My goal was to enjoy the earth. I feel that many people today don’t stop and take some time to enjoy the earth as the ancient cultures used to because they depended on nature for survival. People used the rivers and the oceans to go to different places. They also used it to clean themselves and to fish for food. Today we go there to swim, play football and get a tan. Things are much different in today’s world. Technology has hindered modern people’s wants and needs and prevented us from fully enjoying the earth’s oceans. I sometimes wish we could go back to the old days and rely more on the earth’s oceans. Since we cannot go back to a time in which this happened, I plan on going to the ocean as much as I can to enjoy the ocean.

“Hockey Rituals” by Brandon Schall

As the new year of hockey begins it is a bitter sweet feeling. This is the first time in 10 years that I will not be playing hockey. I have achieved most things throughout my life that a hockey player would want to achieve. I have made it through 4 years of college hockey. As the season begins I start to get back to my rituals for the season. Although I no longer have to practice and I do not get to play this year I still do the same things with my team that we have always done. Each Tuesday and Thursday we get together for lunch and talk about the game, each Friday and Saturday we relax all day together and watch movies and prepare for the game. Also, on Thursday nights we get together to have a pasta dinner at one of the guy’s houses. Although each team’s rituals are different these are the rituals that have been passed down through our team and we continue follow them today as a team.

“Interesting Ceremony” by Brandon Schall

As I was reading through the Ritual Process I thought the APO Ceremony of the Ashanti was very interesting. It is an eight day ceremony that starts after their New Year on April 18. Their ceremony includes singing, skipping, dancing, Mirth, and Jollity. This holiday is also about expressing how you feel about you and your friends. The purpose of this is to cleanse your soul for the New Year so you can start the year off fresh. I think this could be interesting because the ritual allows you to be honest with one another. Often in our culture we do not want to hurt someone’s feelings by telling them the truth, because it could hurt them. I live in a house with two of my friends and we have it out all the time and tell each other how we feel. However, I know many living situations where people do not say anything and it hurts their relationships. If all cultures were more honest it might help relationships rather than lying to each other.

“How to Remember” by Brandon Schall

When reading Ong I learned something. I had always thought that in oral cultures people memorized stories and information from others telling the story. This is not completely true; often times the people learned the information from text or written documents in order to be able to tell the story orally. They remembered this through repetition until they learn the information. This reminds me of the way I learn for a test that I take in school. Although I hear the information in class orally, I still must write the information down to learn it. This helps me later when I am taking a test on the information because; I am able to read it over until I can remember it. Although I do not have to recite the information orally, it still helps me to learn it so I can write the information during a test. I think it is interesting that people in oral cultures learned the information similarly to the way I still learn the information.

“Oral Knowledge” by Brandon Schall

The invention of writing really had an affect on people. Ong says that lists were used initially to keep track of people. The Romans originally put people’s names on lists by the way that it sounded, not alphabetically. They also used lists to help preserve a permanent record of their oral speech. This has changed greatly, the only time I need to remember anything is when I have to memorize information for a test. I could not recite my paper for a teacher word for word. Our culture has shifted to a culture that is forced to depend on writings, books and technology not on our memory. I think our culture would be more knowledgeable if we were required to remember our work and be able to recite information orally. If schools such as those in England who make their students recite and make an argument on their paper orally were instituted in the United States, it would make us more intelligent as a whole. Being forced to exercise our memory would make Americans more disciplined and help us retain the information we read instead of forgetting it as soon as the test is over.

“Natural Knowledge” by Brandon Schall

As I watched the movie on Tuesday about the Native American Tribes I was shocked at their ability to understand their environment. They moved to different parts of their land to use the resources in their environment. This was interesting to me because I do not have to move from home to home when the seasons change. I do not depend on the environment in order to eat or make my living. This was something new for me to comprehend. The thing that surprised me the most was the way they adapted with technology by using a tractor. This helped them harvest the corn faster. This was crucial to their survival. It amazes me that they instinctively knew when to plant or harvest then move to a new location. I would have no idea how to plant, harvest or when to move to a fresh location. I think people today have lost touch with the environment and we would appreciate our resources more if we had to live off the land. It is sad that we depend too much on technology, and do not enjoy our environment as we should.

“Flower Tokens Response” by Brandon Schall

As I was reading Kelsey’s blog I was inspired to comment. The Neanderthals’ ritual of burying their dead with flowers was a very important way of life to them. It seems today that some people take death as a sad misfortune that just happens. People get very upset in America; however in Mexico they honor the dead. It is called the Day of the Dead. During this ritual people laugh, dance, make food, and put on plays. America as a whole does send flowers as a token to of sympathy. However, some do not just send it once to the funeral home, but later quite frequently to the deceased’s grave site to make sure their resting place is very beautiful. As well as flowers, the families have grave markers and beautiful tombstones to show their honor and respect. This seems to be similar to the beauty that the Neanderthals believe the flowers represent. I do not think people take things for granted today but the present day American people just have different rituals at funerals.