Mayan and/or Aztec Bleifs: Apocalypto

Topic: Beliefs

Source: Saturday, December 11th around 9pm in the dorms with friends


Relation: Observing how the movie "Apocalypto" depicts the beliefs of the Mayan (or Aztec) Culture before the Spanish Colonization 

Description: Last Saturday I watched the movie "Apocalypto" Directed by Mel Gibson. I really liked it, even thought there was some bad reviews. It a story about a young Mayan man, Jaguar Paw, and his journey back to his family and his village which was raided by another tribe who practice human sacrifice. It shows the strong connection the main character has to his wife, son, father, brother, tribe, and forest he lives in. These connections and the overall intensity of this film is why I liked it so much.
On the other hand, "Apocalypto" was very gruesome at some points. They vividly show the attack of many innocent people and the bloody sacrificial practices of the Mayans.

Analysis: I read some of the reviews for "Apocalypto." Most of them were bad because of how Mel Gibson depicted the Mayans. Anthropologists say that the theme of mass human sacrifice was mainly present in the Aztec society rather than the Mayans. All through there has been some evidence of sacrifice, they wouldn't have done this mass execution of villagers, there would have been occasional sacrifices of royalty or elites. There also wouldn't have been a massive pit of dead bodies that was shown in the movie.


Other than the downsides of the movie, it showed a great connection the main character had with multiple things such as his family, tribe, and forest he lived in. I feel like this connection would be much more hard to see in our modern society. I think that, generally, Americans in specific, are raised to be less connected to our families, community, and environment. I think that the life style of the tribes people in the movie showed how in tuned they are to where they live and the people they live with. Nowadays, most American children are brought up with a heavy influence on media and technology to influence us how to act or look or live. The Mayans have to hunt for their food, hand make everything, and work together to have a successful community. Even though the movie showed a gruesome, somewhat not true, view of the Mayans, I think our society would be more peaceful if we all had to work together and harder for our way of living.

Violence at School

Topic: Violence


Source: Tuesday, December 2011 in my photography class, around 8am. Also, December 2 during the robbery


Relation: Observing how violence has changed so many lives and it's relevance throughout history.


Description: I noticed that this week has been filled with cases of violence. The first violent act that occurred was the robbery/assault that happened on campus in the Sunset dorms. Three men tied and beat one other student and then robbed him. I heard around school that they weren't even looking for the man they beat up but his roommate and that they broke the victims ribs and arm then ran away.

While also learning about violence in Anthropology class, I continued to view violence in my Photography class. We often watch short videos or documentaries about WeeGee, a Photographer in the depression era who lived in New York and became famous for his pictures of violence, mainly gang violence in New York. This documentary we watched showed how WeeGee was scared for life from the pictures h took and the life style he had to live to be able to capture these pictures.

One of WeeGee's most famous pictures of a shooting

Biography of the photographer WeeGee:
http://www.biography.com/people/weegee-40873 


Analysis: In class, we learned about violence in South Africa starting in the 1960s when the African National Conference turned to a violent campaign. The ANC started out as peaceful but then turned violent because they didn't think their peaceful protesting was working. Nelson Mandela was one of many who was sent to jail at this time.
Also in the 1960's in Sharpeville, people were peacefully protesting then the police killed 69 people, among them, 50 women and 8 children. While people ran, the police shot them.
In the 1970s, Steve Biko was killed in police custody because he was beaten to death due to his anti-apartheid activism.
Also in the 1970s, children were killed by police for their involvement in student protesting.

All of these examples of violence in South Africa during the 60s and 70s began with a peaceful protest and ended with violence, hate, and death. I think that most acts of violence start out with some sort of peaceful protest,argument or conflict that could have been solved through a much more peaceful alternative.
For example, the robbery/beating that occurred at school last week definitely could have been avoided by peacefully talking their issues out and finding a solution to their problems.
The video I watched about WeeGee showed that violence, even when WeeGee didn't take part in any of them, still effected his life in some ways.
This week I learned a lot about violence, examples of it around school, examples of how it can effect someones life, and examples in history.