#Daily Life in Pre-Columbian Native America

[tinynavajoreads]

Hi!

Asking because you’re a librarian: I read 1491 and liked it; what other nonfiction books would you recommend on precolonial Indigenous civilizations in the Americas, especially on civilizations other than the famous (Aztec, Mayan, Inca) ones? I was especially interested in the parts on Amazonian civilizations.

Hello! I'm hopefully living up to my librarian title with these titles!

Indians Before Columbus; Twenty Thousand Years of North American History Revealed by Archeology by Paul S. Martin

Fair Gods and Stone Faces by Constance Irwin

America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization by Graham Hancock

The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World edited by Nina G. Jablonski

Daily Life in Pre-Columbian Native America by Clarissa W. Confer

This is only a handful of what I was able to find, but there is plenty more if you'd like those as well. Hope you find something you like in this list and happy reading!

[whencyclopedia]

Dogs and Their Collars in Ancient Mesoamerica

Dogs were an integral aspect of the lives of the people of Mesoamerica regardless of their location or culture and, throughout the region, were recognized as liminal beings belonging not only to the natural world and that of humans but to this world and the next.

Dogs were believed by the Aztec, Maya, and Tarascan to travel between worlds, assist the souls of the dead, warn of dangers to the living and, at the same time, were regarded as a food source, companion, and guardian in daily life. The dogs of the indigenous people are frequently depicted without collars because it seems to have been thought that these would restrict the dog’s movement between worlds.

Even so, collars did exist – fashioned for humans to wear – and it is thought that these developed from dog collars. This model changed with the arrival of Christopher Columbus (l. 1451-1506) in the West Indies in 1492. Columbus’ dogs all wore collars and were much larger than the animals the natives were used to. The European dogs had also been trained for war and so were far more savage than any dog a Taino, for example, had ever known.

After Columbus, who sailed for Spain, more Spanish invaders arrived and made their way north through South America to Mesoamerica, bringing Christianity with them. Christianity began to replace indigenous beliefs and, as the Catholic Church claimed dogs had no souls, belief in the supernatural power of the dog declined. Although there were no doubt many indigenous peoples who still believed in the dog as a psychopomp, there is no widespread evidence of this belief after the arrival of the Spanish as compared with pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The descendants of the ancient people of the region have only begun restoring their ancient cultures in the past 100 years and so, in time, the dog has slowly regained the status it once held.

Olmecs & Their Dogs

The Olmecs of Mesoamerica lived in the lowlands along the Gulf of Mexico c. 1400-400 BCE and bred dogs as food. The Olmecs are the oldest civilization in the western hemisphere, inventing the first written language of Mesoamerica as well as distinctive art and architecture which would influence the later civilizations of the Aztecs, Maya, and Tarascan, among others. The sacred animal of the Olmecs was the jaguar which was thought to be spiritually related to the dog. The dog was therefore associated with the divine while, at the same time, serving as a food source. There seems to have been no contradiction in this as dogs, servants and messengers of the gods, also served humanity by graciously offering themselves as food.

A tomb of the Zoque peoples, a Mesoamerican population thought to be descended from the Olmec, was discovered in 2010 in Chiapa de Corzo containing jade collars. These were ornamental collars for human wear but could have developed from the dog collar. The tomb dates to between 700-500 BCE and is the oldest pyramid tomb yet found in the region.

The indigenous people of modern-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and neighboring regions, built pyramids as temples, not as tombs, and this find is thought to reflect an earlier Olmec practice of keeping precious objects in temples – one that was observed by later cultures. The jade collars, though clearly for human use, could have linked an officiant with the spirit of a liminal dog who would bring messages from the gods.

Continue reading...

[peacefulheartfarm]

Coyotes on the Homestead

Coyotes are a plague when you have sheep. Today’s podcast is going to be all about coyotes. Probably more than you ever wanted to know. Some things about coyotes might surprise you.

I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the farm this week.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates

So why is the topic today about coyotes? Well, we have had issues and I need to talk about it. I’ll try to keep it mostly factual and as upbeat as possible. In the end though, sometimes homestead life has tragic consequences.  

Sheep and Lambs

Over a span of about 3 or 4 days we lost more than half of our sheep. All six of our lambs, including my bottle baby, Susie Q are gone. Five adult ewes are also gone. We have 10 sheep left out of 21. Yeah, it’s a big loss. I’m still heartbroken about losing Susie Q. I still look for her. When I look out the window, momentarily I’m looking for her. Especially in the evening, when I go to create bottles for the twin calves, I briefly look for the very small bottle we use for lambs. Then I remember. She’s gone.

I was unusually attached to Susie Q. We’ve had bottle lambs lots of time. But I’ve never been so attached. Well, perhaps it’s that we have never lost one. And after they are grown and no longer need me for daily feedings, I naturally let go of them. Like Lambert. He’s still out there with the boys and he was a bottle baby. I just don’t think I would miss him the way that I miss Susie Q. And we’ve had others that ended up at freezer camp. I don’t know what’s different except that she was still so young dependent on us.

Cows and Calves

We moved all of the animals out of the back fields where the attacks were occurring. Scott brought out a couple of guys that hunted the male leader and we also used poison. That’s a really harsh method, but sometimes it is necessary.

The twin calves were also quite vulnerable to coyote attack. Scott moved them to a sheltered area. Virginia is also with them. We had to pull her out of the general herd because she was nursing on Cloud. If you remember, Cloud is already feeding two calves. Adding Virginia was definitely more than Cloud could support. You can likely guess that the ones who would suffer would be Princess and Winston. Virginia is about a year old and would definitely wipe out all the available milk and the younger two would be left hungry. So, Virginia is safely away from the other cows and hanging out with the twins.

Keeping the various calves out of one or another milk supply has really been a challenge this year. I don’t know if I mentioned that we briefly had all the calves and cows together. It’s much easier to maintain the pastures if there are only two groups of animals. The boys and the girls. However, having all the cow girls together immediately failed. Rosie came in for milking down a couple of quarts of milk. We suspected Princess as Rosie is her mom, after all. Now I’m wondering if it was actually Virginia and after she got a taste of milk she started looking around and found Cloud after Rosie was gone. Who knows? Rosie and Butter are in a field by themselves. The twin calves and Virginia are in the loafing space. And the rest of the crew which includes Violet, Claire, Buttercup, Cloud and her two calves, are out front. The boys, of course, are in yet another place. We have cows all over the place.  

Everyone is relatively safe at the moment. Let’s talk about coyotes. I didn’t want to know all of this and I’ve left out the most gruesome of details. But the gist of the story is here.

Coyotes

The coyote is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf. It fills much of the same ecological niche as the golden jackal does in Europe and Asia. Though the coyote is larger and more predatory. Other historical names for this species include the prairie wolf and the brush wolf.

The coyote is listed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, due to its wide distribution and abundance throughout North America. Coyote populations are also abundant southwards through Mexico and into Central America. Even now, it is enlarging its range by moving into urban areas in the eastern U.S. and Canada. The coyote was sighted in eastern Panama (across the Panama Canal from their home range) for the first time in 2013.

Coyote Subspecies

There are 19 recognized coyote subspecies. The average male weighs 18 to 44 lb and the average female 15 to 40 lb. Their fur color is predominantly light gray and red, sometimes interspersed with black and white. The colors vary somewhat with geography. Coyotes are highly flexible in their social organization. Sometimes living in a family unit and sometimes in loosely knit packs of unrelated individuals. Primarily carnivorous, its diet consists mainly of deer, rabbits, hares, rodents, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, though it may also eat fruits and vegetables on occasion. Its characteristic vocalization is a howl made by solitary individuals. Humans are the coyote's greatest threat, followed by cougars and gray wolves. In spite of this, coyotes sometimes mate with gray, eastern, or red wolves, producing "coywolf" hybrids. Genetic studies show that most North American wolves contain some level of coyote DNA.

Coyote Folklore

The coyote is a prominent character in Native American folklore, usually depicted as a trickster that alternately assumes the form of an actual coyote or a man. After the European colonization of the Americas, it was seen in Anglo-American culture as a cowardly and untrustworthy animal. Unlike wolves, which have undergone an improvement of their public image, attitudes towards the coyote remain largely negative. I’m in the group with that attitude.

Hunting and Feeding

Two studies that experimentally investigated the role of olfactory, auditory, and visual cues found that visual cues are the most important ones for hunting in coyotes.

When hunting large prey, the coyote often works in pairs or small groups. Unlike the wolf, which attacks large prey from the rear, the coyote approaches from the front, lacerating its prey's head and throat. Although coyotes can live in large groups, small prey is typically caught singly. Coyotes have been observed to kill porcupines in pairs, using their paws to flip the rodents on their backs, then attacking the soft underbelly. Only old and experienced coyotes can successfully prey on porcupines, with many predation attempts by young coyotes resulting in them being injured by their prey's quills. Recent evidence demonstrates that at least some coyotes have become more nocturnal in hunting, presumably to avoid humans.

Coyotes may occasionally form mutualistic hunting relationships with American badgers, assisting each other in digging up rodent prey. The relationship between the two species may occasionally border on apparent "friendship", as some coyotes have been observed laying their heads on their badger companions or licking their faces without protest. The amicable interactions between coyotes and badgers were known to pre-Columbian civilizations, as shown on a Mexican jar dated to 1250–1300 depicting the relationship between the two.

Vocalizations

The coyote has been described as "the most vocal of all wild North American mammals". Its loudness and range of vocalizations was the cause for its binomial name Canis latrans, meaning "barking dog". At least 11 different vocalizations are known in adult coyotes. These sounds are divided into three categories: agonistic and alarm, greeting, and contact. The lone howl is the most iconic sound of the coyote and may serve the purpose of announcing the presence of a lone individual separated from its pack.

Habitat

Prior to the near extermination of wolves and cougars, the coyote was most numerous in grasslands inhabited by bison, pronghorn, elk, and other deer, doing particularly well in short-grass areas with prairie dogs, though it was just as much at home in semiarid areas with sagebrush and jackrabbits or in deserts inhabited by cactus, kangaroo rats, and rattlesnakes.

Coyotes walk around 3–10 miles per day, often along trails such as logging roads and paths; they may use iced-over rivers as travel routes in winter. They are often more active around evening and the beginning of the night than during the day. Like many canids, coyotes are competent swimmers, reported to be able to travel at least 0.5 miles across water.

Diet

The coyote is ecologically the North American equivalent of the Eurasian golden jackal. Likewise, the coyote is highly versatile in its choice of food, but is primarily carnivorous, with 90% of its diet consisting of meat. Prey species include bison (largely as carrion), white-tailed deer, mule deer, moose, elk, bighorn sheep, pronghorn, rabbits, hares, rodents, birds (especially young water birds and pigeons and doves), amphibians (except toads), lizards, snakes, turtles and tortoises, fish, crustaceans, and insects. More unusual prey include young black bear cubs and rattlesnakes. Coyotes kill rattlesnakes mostly for food but also to protect their pups at their dens. They will tease the snakes until they stretch out and then bite their heads and shake them. Birds taken by coyotes may range in size from thrashers, larks and sparrows to adult wild turkeys.

If working in packs or pairs, coyotes have access to larger prey than lone. In some cases, packs of coyotes have dispatched much larger prey such as adult deer, cow, elk, and sheep, although the young fawn, calves and lambs of these animals are most often taken. In some cases, coyotes can bring down prey weighing up to 220 to 440 lb or more. When it comes to adult animals such as deer, they often exploit them when vulnerable such as those that are infirm, stuck in snow or ice, otherwise winter-weakened or heavily pregnant. Less wary domestic animals are more easily exploited.

Although coyotes prefer fresh meat, they will scavenge when the opportunity presents itself. Excluding the insects, fruit, and grass eaten, the coyote requires an estimated 1.3 lb of food daily, 550 lb annually.

The coyote feeds on a variety of different produce, including blackberries, blueberries, peaches, pears, apples, prickly pears, persimmons, peanuts, watermelons, cantaloupes, and carrots. During the winter and early spring, the coyote eats large quantities of grass, such as green wheat blades.

Other interesting diet components

In coastal California, coyotes now consume a higher percentage of marine-based food than their ancestors, which is thought to be due to the extirpation of the grizzly bear from this region. In Death Valley, coyotes may consume great quantities of hawkmoth caterpillars or beetles in the spring flowering months.

Livestock and Pet Predation Statistics

As of 2007, coyotes were the most abundant livestock predators in western North America, causing the majority of sheep, goat, and cattle losses. For example, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, coyotes were responsible for 60.5% of the 224,000 sheep deaths attributed to predation in 2004. The total number of sheep deaths in 2004 comprised 2.22% of the total sheep and lamb population in the United States, which, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service USDA report, totaled 4.66 million and 7.80 million heads respectively as of July 1, 2005. Because coyote populations are typically many times greater and more widely distributed than those of wolves, coyotes cause more overall predation losses. United States government agents routinely shoot, poison, trap, and kill about 90,000 coyotes each year to protect livestock. An Idaho census taken in 2005 showed that individual coyotes were 5% as likely to attack livestock as individual wolves. In Utah, more than 11,000 coyotes were killed for bounties totaling over $500,000 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017.

Livestock Guardian Dogs

Livestock guardian dogs are commonly used to aggressively repel predators and have worked well in both fenced pasture and range operations. A 1986 survey of sheep producers in the USA found that 82% reported the use of dogs represented an economic asset.

Protect Yourself and Your Pets

Coyotes are often attracted to dog food and animals that are small enough to appear as prey. Items such as garbage, pet food, and sometimes feeding stations for birds and squirrels attract coyotes into backyards. About three to five pets attacked by coyotes are brought into the Animal Urgent Care hospital of South Orange County (California) each week, the majority of which are dogs. Cats typically do not survive coyote attacks. Smaller breeds of dogs are more likely to suffer injury and/or death.

Coyotes are one of my least favorite parts of God’s creation. I’ve probably given you far too much information on these creatures. But as I said earlier, I needed to talk about this. Thanks for listening.

Final Thoughts

Living on the homestead is not always pretty. Survival is always relative to the environment. Many times, survival is a competition between humans and other species. All animals have a right to live. God made them and there you go. They have a right to live. And we also have the right to protect our other animals. Sometimes it is a small parasite – which is also deadly at times. And sometimes it’s larger animals such as coyotes and bears. Everyone is just trying to survive. I miss my Susie Q. And when I look at our decimated flock of sheep, I am filled with sadness. However, in the end, some of our flock has survived and we will rebuild. It’s what we do. Our flock will rise again. In the fall or next spring, we will have lambs again. The life cycle continues.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please hop over to Apple Podcasts or whatever podcasting service you use, SUBSCRIBE and give me a 5-star rating and review. If you like this content and want to help out the show, the absolute best way you can do that is to share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content. Let them know about the Peaceful Heart Farmcast.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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[mikeruggerisancientcahokla]

ANCIENT CAHOKIA OVERVIEW

Metropolitan Life on the Mississippi

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/march/12/cahokia.htm?noredirect=on

NEW CLUES TO ANCIENT CAHOKIA CULTURE

https://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1219/p14s01-stgn.html

Cahokia: Cosmic Landscape Architecture

https://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/101363.html

Cahokia: The Largest Mississippian Archaeological Site on the North American Continent

https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-americas/cahokia-largest-mississippian-archaeological-site-north-america-1020500

Where Did the Cahokians Come From?

https://gamblershouse.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/where-did-the-cahokians-come-from/

Who the Cahokians Weren’t

https://gamblershouse.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/who-the-cahokians-werent/

JQ Jacobs; Cahokia

http://www.jqjacobs.net/archaeo/cahokia.html

Making Mississippian at Cahokia

https://www.academia.edu/19909362/Making_Mississippian_at_Cahokia

Prehistoric Panopticon: Settlement Visibility at Ancient Cahokia Mounds

https://www.academia.edu/37587673/Prehistoric_Panopticon_Settlement_Visibility_at_Ancient_Cahokia_Mounds?auto=download

Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians

https://www.academia.edu/38922545/Ancient_Cahokia_and_the_Mississippians

The Residue of Feasting and Public Ritual at Early Cahokia

Pauketat et al.] RESIDUES OF FEASTING AND PUBLIC RITUAL AT EARLY CAHOKIA 259

Cahokia and the evidence for late Pre-Columbian war in the North American midcontinent

https://www.academia.edu/1332749/Cahokia_and_the_evidence_for_late_Pre-Columbian_war_in_the_North_American_midcontinent

Women shaped cuisine, culture of ancient Cahokia

https://phys.org/news/2019-03-women-cuisine-culture-ancient-cahokia.html

The Skywatchers of Cahokia

https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/home/skywatchers-of-cahokia

Ancient bones, teeth, tell story of strife at Cahokia

https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/391703

Wikipedia; Cahokia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia

The First US City Was Full of Immigrants

https://www.livescience.com/43896-cahokia-ancient-city-immigrants.html

Cahokia; America’s First Melting Pot?

https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0306/Cahokia-North-America-s-first-melting-pot

Study Says Cahokia, America’s First City, Was a Melting Pot

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/3/140307-cahokia-native-american-archaeology-mississippian/

Filed Teeth at Cahokia

https://gamblershouse.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/filed-teeth-at-cahokia/

Ceremonial ‘Axis’ Road Discovered in Heart of Ancient City of Cahokia

http://westerndigs.org/ceremonial-axis-road-discovered-in-heart-of-ancient-city-of-cahokia/

Perspectives on Cahokia and Northern Mississippian Expansion

https://www.academia.edu/6205195/Perspectives_on_Cahokia_and_Northern_Mississippian_Expansion

GREETING THE DAWN: INVESTIGATIONS OF CAHOKIA'S EAST PLAZA

https://www.academia.edu/31934049/GREETING_THE_DAWN_INVESTIGATIONS_OF_CAHOKIAS_EAST_PLAZA

Conclusion: Cahokia and the four winds

https://www.academia.edu/1332742/Conclusion_Cahokia_and_the_four_winds

The Elements of Cahokian Shrine Complexes and the Basis of Mississippian Religion

https://www.academia.edu/38184950/The_Elements_of_Cahokian_Shrine_Complexes_and_the_Basis_of_Mississippian_Religion?email_work_card=view-paper

Toward an Understanding of Complexities: Archaeological Researches in Cahokia's West Plaza (Illl., USA)

https://www.academia.edu/19172720/Toward_an_Understanding_of_Complexities_Archaeological_Researches_in_Cahokias_West_Plaza_Illl._USA_?email_work_card=view-paper

Matter, Places, and Persons in Cahokian Depositional Acts

https://www.academia.edu/33304678/Matter_Places_and_Persons_in_Cahokian_Depositional_Acts_with_erratum_?email_work_card=view-paper

City of Earth and Wood

https://www.academia.edu/11933160/City_of_Earth_and_Wood?email_work_card=view-paper

Medieval Mississippians: The Cahokian World

https://www.academia.edu/12096048/Medieval_Mississippians_The_Cahokian_World

An American Indian City

https://www.academia.edu/19633787/An_American_Indian_City

The role of water in the emergence of the pre-Columbian Native American City Cahokia

https://www.academia.edu/12921854/The_role_of_water_in_the_emergence_of_the_pre-Columbian_Native_American_City_Cahokia

Cahokia's Rattlesnake Causeway

https://www.academia.edu/6310158/Cahokias_Rattlesnake_Causeway?email_work_card=view-paper

Making Time: Monumentality and Temporality in Cahokian Mississippian

https://www.academia.edu/4443004/Making_Time_Monumentality_and_Temporality_in_Cahokian_Mississippian

New Research on Maize Cultivation at Cahokia

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-cahokia-parallels-onset-corn-

New Research on the Mississippian Civilization

https://theconversation.com/cahokian-culture-spread-across-eastern-north-america-1-000-years-ago-in-an-early-example-of-diaspora-130106\

Timothy Pauketat on River Basin Weather Shaping Cahokia

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-climate-catalyst-greater-cahokia.html

New Research on the Mississippian Civilization

https://theconversation.com/cahokian-culture-spread-across-eastern-north-america-1-000-years-ago-in-an-early-example-of-diaspora-130106

____________________________________________________________________

BEYOND CAHOKIA

The Emerald Acropolis; Elevating the Moon and Water in the Rise of Cahokia

https://www.academia.edu/31721351/The_Emerald_AcropolisElevating_the_Moon_and_Water_in_the_Rise_of_Cahokia?email_work_card=view-paper

Pilgrimage and the Construction of Cahokia: A View from the Emerald Site.pdf

https://www.academia.edu/26477802/Pilgrimage_and_the_Construction_of_Cahokia_A_View_from_the_Emerald_Site.pdf

The Moorehead Phase Occupation at the Emerald Acropolis

https://www.academia.edu/36291389/The_Moorehead_Phase_Occupation_at_the_Emerald_Acropolis

Moonbeams, Water, and Smoke: Tracing Otherworldly Relationships at the Emerald Site

https://www.academia.edu/15330318/Moonbeams_Water_and_Smoke_Tracing_Otherworldly_Relationships_at_the_Emerald_Site

Ancient Illinois village unearths lode of questions

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-09/uoia-aiv090202.php

A Mississippian conflagration at East St. Louis and its political-historical implications

https://www.academia.edu/20631524/A_Mississippian_conflagration_at_East_St._Louis_and_its_political-historical_implications?email_work_card=view-paper

Cahokia Interaction and Ethnogenesis in Midcontinental US

https://www.academia.edu/6523208/Cahokia_Interaction_and_Ethnogenesis_in_Midcontinental_US

The Lamb Site (11SC24): Evidence of Cahokian Contact and Mississippianization in the Central Illinois River Valley

https://www.academia.edu/31139995/The_Lamb_Site_11SC24_Evidence_of_Cahokian_Contact_and_Mississippianization_in_the_Central_Illinois_River_Valley

EVALUATING CAHOKIAN CONTACT AND MISSISSIPPIAN IDENTITY POLITICS IN THE LATE PREHISTORIC CENTRAL ILLINOIS RIVER VALLEY

https://www.academia.edu/5813207/EVALUATING_CAHOKIAN_CONTACT_AND_MISSISSIPPIAN_IDENTITY_POLITICS_IN_THE_LATE_PREHISTORIC_CENTRAL_ILLINOIS_RIVER_VALLEY

Gypsy Rose Lee, an Early Mississippian Site in the Greater Cahokia Uplands: It’s Not Just a Small Farmstead Like We Once Thought

https://www.academia.edu/38274446/Gypsy_Rose_Lee_an_Early_Mississippian_Site_in_the_Greater_Cahokia_Uplands_It_s_Not_Just_a_Small_Farmstead_Like_We_Once_Thought

Refiguring the Archaeology of Greater Cahokia

https://www.academia.edu/19633431/Refiguring_the_Archaeology_of_Greater_Cahokia

Elements of ancient power in the Cahokian world

https://www.academia.edu/5822561/Elements_of_ancient_power_in_the_Cahokian_world

Cahokia’s Northern Neighbors: Late Mississippian Rural Settlements in the Northern American Bottom

https://www.academia.edu/1164829/Cahokia_s_Northern_Neighbors_Late_Mississippian_Rural_Settlements_in_the_Northern_American_Bottom?email_work_card=view-paper

Unraveling Entanglements: Reverberations of Cahokia’s Big Bang

https://www.academia.edu/4443012/Unraveling_Entanglements_Reverberations_of_Cahokia_s_Big_Bang?email_work_card=view-paper

The Morrison Site: Evidence for Terminal Late Woodland Mound Construction in the American Bottom

https://www.academia.edu/31286193/The_Morrison_Site_Evidence_for_Terminal_Late_Woodland_Mound_Construction_in_the_American_Bottom?email_work_card=view-paper

Trempealeau Entanglements

https://www.academia.edu/11933213/Trempealeau_Entanglements

Trempealeau's Little Bluff: An Early Cahokian Terraformed Landmark in the Upper Mississippi Valley

https://www.academia.edu/34057366/Trempealeaus_Little_Bluff_An_Early_Cahokian_Terraformed_Landmark_in_the_Upper_Mississippi_Valley

The Dugan Airfield Site A Stirling Phase Civic Node in the Southern Illinois Uplands

https://www.academia.edu/36291403/The_Dugan_Airfield_Site_A_Stirling_Phase_Civic_Node_in_the_Southern_Illinois_Uplands

[micaramel]

Artist: Paulo Nazareth

Venue: Mendes Wood DM, Brussels

Exhibition Title: [A] LA FLEUR DE LA PEAU

Date: April 24 – June 1, 2019

Click here to view slideshow

Paulo Nazareth, Iroko de Bom Jesus, 2017, video performance, 4:17 (excerpt)

Full gallery of images, videos, press release, and link available after the jump.

Images:

Videos:

Paulo Nazareth, Iroko de Bom Jesus, 2017, video performance, 4:17 (excerpt)

Paulo Nazareth, Iroko de Bom Jesus, 2017, video performance, 4:17 (excerpt)

Images courtesy of Mendes Wood DM, Brussels

Press Release:

On my mother’s saints: colonial cartographies and urgent epistemologies

Throughout the journey of Paulo Nazareth’s [A] LA FLEUR DE LA PEAU it is impossible not to evoke the abyss metaphor suggested by Martiniquais writer Édouard Glissant in Poetics of Relations. The image of the ship operates as a place of exile for Black bodies on the way to the unknown. The first abyss is experienced when entering the ship. The second is the sea crossing. Great Kalunga. The third abyss is the inverted image of glimpses of memory where new roots are laid through networks of learning. Rhizome. The shared knowledge of an experience of meandering exile, where every identity is extended through a relationship with the Other. Paulo Sérgio da Silva. Paulo da Silva. Sérgio da Silva. Ser da Silva. Paulo Nazareth. Nazareth Cassiano de Jesus. The Mother of his Mother. Ana Gonçalves da Silva. The Mother of his Sister. Ana Maria da Silva. The Grandmother, the Mother, The Sister and Motherhood. His Égun or Égúngún, for the Yorùbá people. Or, even, his Marét, for the Boruns, Indigenous people from Vale do Rio Doce. The ancestral spirit. Nazareth also becomes art materiality and immateriality. Transit between worlds. Transit between times. The act of traveling and handing out pamphlets reasserts the place of aesthetical conduct: expanded performance, generational event. Selling homemade soap made with chicken fat, sugar, lime, avocado, urucum. Distributing pamphlets-cards-leaflets for dentists, healthcare plans, Candomblé houses in Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais). All work activities that the artist has performed in the past.

The journey introduces a self-ethnographic dimension where both autobiography and ethnography force us into a relationship of pertaining symmetry between Same versus the Other, Subjectivity versus Alterity, Individual versus Collective, Subject versus Object. Consequently, this generational event is mirrored in the act of walking performed by his mother Ana and sister Ana who go on a pilgrimage via emblematic routes as a metaphor for Mother Africa and the Diaspora. The route covers places such as the Musée de l’Homme (France) and the maximum-security prisons La Santé (France) and Saint-Gilles (Belgium). A ritual performance that combines aspects of the sacred and the profane when his mother Ana prays for the afflicted souls of genocide victims. The act condemns the colonial violence imposed by Belgian King Leopold II to secure the appropriation of the Congo. To the same extent, the pamphlets provide a sort of aesthetics of emergency in the artist’s own words: to burst open the headstone and cut the king’s throat with an arrow soaked in GOLDEN FROG poison. —– with an arrow from the Pre-Columbian people EMBERA::: kill the king before he arrives in CONGO. 

Within this performance context, we have the series Santos de Minha Mãe [My Mother’s Saints] made-up of food products inside resin blocks that feature the names of saints that safeguard requests for family protection and amulets to protect the body against danger. Nazareth also reclaims different forms of resistance used by enslaved people, such as Black brotherhoods and sisterhoods. Or even the Christianity of traditional street events such as Folias de Reis, Guarda de Congado and Moçambique in Minas Gerais. It refers both to a history of agricultural technologies linked to a colonial logic of commodities and the commercialization of faith. His visual discourse presents art collecting as a critical practice. The processes of ordering objects evoke the collections of cabinets of curiosities that later became ethnographic museums, tangentially to values of aesthetics, art and science.

In the field of anthropology, the invention of photography anticipated its scientific use in studies on evolution, anthropometry and material culture. This led to the selection, classification and hierarchy of the cultural Other. Here we can cite the five daguerreotypes of a Borun woman and young man captured by E. Thiesson in Paris (1844), which belong to the Musée de l’Homme. The records of these dehumanised bodies that were exhibited under a mechanical gaze are confronted by his mother’s human gaze. This is not only Ana’s gaze; it is combined with Nazareth’s, re-signifying the place of science, annihilation and slavery in the re-elaboration of the subjectivity of these two people photographed, conjuring up a family history. The meaning of the exhibition becomes polysemic when connected to the voids and confrontations of the everyday experiences of hegemonized bodies.

The place of technology as politics of destruction and restitution of narratives is challenged in another series that uses black and white photography and printing on cotton paper to show images collected on the Internet. This materiality refers to agricultural technologies and social division of labour, as well as to cotton trading routes within a colonial history that entailed the transplantation of science from African people to the colonies during the Diaspora. The souls of anonymous people are captured at the same time these images are diluted by the fading of a collective social memory. It is a sort of shadow projecting an absence. Yet, it is one that paradoxically reveals a presence that is anterior to Ana and Nazareth. The photographic records are disrupted with white circles made of efun (a type of chalk used in Afro-Brazilian rituals). These circles are used in liturgical activities and refer to the re-establishment of balance by reclaiming a new voice for these hegemonized narratives.

In another work, Nazareth examines the political technology of bodies when he approaches the issue of the imprisonment of Black men in penal institutions. They are the drivers of the exercise of violence as a programmed and selective erasure of these selves. These relations appear in placards with the names of maximum-security prisons contrasting with the relationship between colonial powers and their colonies: La Santé (France), Saint-Gilles (Belgium) and Kabare (Congo). Most importantly, the African prison is not a native institution, but a colonial remnant of body control. Crime becomes a tradable Black product. The experience of walking as an aesthetic form also appears in the performance (Mendes Wood DM Brussels, April 24th 2019) where the anonymous bodies of non-white immigrants perforate bags of flour and sweep the white powder into circles. The object of art is intertwined into the everyday life in the brutality of the white circle. Concrete geometric order. The daily ritual manifested in contemporary art. White circles associated to efun as a liturgy that re-organises a history interwoven with colonial violence and trauma.

Nazareth’s artistic propositions create a journey where aesthetic acts produce urgent epistemologies to invest against the marks of colonial cartographies. This appears in the duality of the circle that evokes the mathematical thought of Ancient African and 8th century Islamic geometry. The circle of African tradition contrasted to the rationality of Western art’s concrete art circle. Modernism. Post-Modernism. The performance and labour gesture of forming the circle. The political context of neoliberal capitalism that perpetuates inequalities.

The tensioning of these cartographies and the re-affirmation of community voices are re-elaborated in the dismantling of colonial traps through the use of technologies to control and intervene on individuals by articulating the planned annihilation of collectivity.

– Janaina Barros Silva Viana

Visual artist, researcher and art critic, focusing on Brazilian contemporary art produced by Black artists.

Paulo Nazareth (Governador Valadares, 1977) lives and works throughout the world. His most recent exhibitions include Paulo Nazareth, ICA Miami, Miami (2019); Faca Cega, Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2018); Old Hope, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2017), Genocide in Americas, Meyer Riegger Gallery, Berlin (2015), Journal, Institute for Contemporary Arts, London (2014), Premium Bananas, MASP, Museum of Art São Paulo (2013).

Recent group exhibitions include How to talk with birds, trees, fish, shells, snakes, bulls and lions, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin (2018); EXTREME. NOMADS, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (2018); The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp, Prospect.4 Triennial, New Orleans (2017); Field Gate, Remai Modern, Sasktoon (2017); Soft Power. Arte Brasil, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort (2016); Much wider than a line, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe (2016); New Shamans/Novos Xamãs: Brazilian Artists, Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2016);Indigenous Voices, Latin American Pavilion 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (2015); The Encyclopedic Palace, 55th Venice Biennale, Venice (2013); Museum as Hub: Walking Drifting Dragging, New Museum, New York (2013).

Link: Paulo Nazareth at Mendes Wood DM

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from Contemporary Art Daily http://bit.ly/2HHFaTa

[vacationsoup]

New Post has been published on https://vacationsoup.com/marco-islands-key-marco-cat-is-returning/

Marco Island's Key Marco Cat is Returning

Marco Island’s Key Marco Cat is Returning

Marco Island’s Key Marco Cat is returning to the island soon! The Key Marco Cat is one of the finest pieces of Pre-Columbian Native American art ever discovered in North America. It will be on display at the Marco Island Historical Museum from December 2018 through April 2021. This is something I can’t wait to see!

The Marco Island Historical Society has been trying for 25 years to bring the Key Marco Cat home to the island along with other Pre-Columbian Native American artifacts discovered on Marco Island, Florida in 1896 by Frank Cushing.

  The Key Marco Cat

The Key Marco Cat is only 6 inches tall and carved from buttonwood. The feline statuette has captured the public’s imagination for more than a century.  Replicas of the cat are at many gift shops on the island. Other important pieces in the MIHS exhibition will include a ceremonial mask, alligator figurehead, painted human figure and a sea turtle figurehead.

The MIHS is mounting the exhibit in collaboration with Collier County Museums, the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of ARchaeology and Anthropology. The loaned artifacts will be showcased in one of the Museum’s permanent exhibits – Paradise Found: 6,000 Years of People on Marco Island.

The artifacts were originally buried in an oxygen-free layer of muck. These rare wooden objects are between 500 and 1,500 years old. They are astonishingly well preserved. The pieces provide extraordinary insight into the daily lives of the Calusa Indian tribe and their ancestors. The Calusas dominated Florida’s Southwest Coast and controlled South Florida by the time the Spanish arrived in the 16th Century.

The Key Marco Cat and many of the other exhibit pieces have been in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The Key Marco Cat is from the Smithsonian collection.

These artifacts probably had deep ritual significance to the Calusa people that created them. The paint that remains on the wooden objects serves as an important reminder of the level of detail and skill of the native artists. One can only imagine the original beauty of the pieces. The fact that they have survived is incredible and provides a unique look into the past of the Marco Island area.

Marco Island Historical Society Exhibits

Paradise Found: 6,000 Years of People on Marco Island

The Paradise Found: 6,000 Years of People on Marco Island exhibit will also include interactive activity stations, state-of-the-art projections, dramatic animations, stunning new original artwork and exciting additions to the museum’s immersive life-size Calusa Village.

Other exhibits at the MIHS Museum include Modern Marco Island and Pioneer Marco: A tale of Two Villages.

Modern Marco

Explores Marco’s explosive growth over the last 50 years, beginning with the vision of Deltona Corporation’s Marco brothers. Their massive development project forever changed the face of Marco Island, paving the way for people to live on the island.

Visitors are transported back to the 1960s when new houses on the island sold for as little as $14,900.

Pioneer Marco: A tale of Two Villages

This exhibit is an interactive exhibit which chronicles the evolution of the pioneer villages at Marco and Caxambas. It offers visitors an look at the people, industries and lifestyles on Marco Island during the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the late 1800s, pioneers began settling on what is now Marco Island. By the early 1900s these settlements had become Marco and Caxambas, two small villages separated by five miles of shell road.

Be our Guests to see the Key Marco Cat!

The display at MIHS will generate increased tourism for the Marco Island area.  It will also provide an extraordinary educational experience for both residents and visitors.

The Marco Island Historical Museum is located at 180 S Heathwood Drive, Marco Island, Florida. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 am to 4 pm. Admission is free.

We welcome visitors to the island as our guests at Sea Mar Condo. This is the perfect time to see Marco Island’s Key Marco Cat and schedule the vacation of your dreams! Visit our website at www.seamarcondo.com to see availability, rates, and contact information.

[multiracialmedia-blog]

Sarah's World Beat: Glorifying European-Centric Beauty Standards—How Did We Get Here?

Before I started writing about glorifying European-centric beauty standards, I decided to try a little experiment. I googled something simple: a beautiful woman. I purposely didn’t narrow down my search by adding Black, Biracial, Multiracial, ethnic or anything else that would skew the results.

This is what Google showed me. What’s wrong with this series of photos?

Not only is each woman White, but all have long, flowing locks of straight, and in very few cases, wavy hair.

I had to drop down to row six before I saw any women of color (WoC). I saw five, one of whom was probably Biracial and another we know to be Biracial (although she identifies as Black). This underscores my point above about hair: the only photo they could find of Halle Berry (bottom row, fourth from the right) that epitomizes beautiful is from ten years ago when she used to have long and straight hair.

  When it comes to the complex issue of glorifying European-centric beauty standards, I think it’s crucial to explain how we got here and how difficult it will be to work our way back to a point where all ethnicities are considered beautiful and equally sought after.

Ultimately I am on a mission to explain why WoC have the complicated relationship with our hair we do. I realized as I was starting to write that blog (a few weeks ago), I had to start at the beginning, which I did in this piece called What is Race?

This led me to a bit of a history lesson. If race is a social construct, why, more than 500 years after Christopher Columbus supposedly “discovered” “the new world” are we still reliving the affects of slavery and colonization? So before we get to glorifying European-centric beauty standards, we need to discuss how we got here.

A clue: images like these don’t help. But the answer is far more insidious, as it’s been creeping up on us for the last 500 or more years.

The Brutality Against People of Color in Making European-Centric Beauty Standard, Well, the Standard

Two separate yet equally damaging events (over a very long period of time) took place in world history that have continued having ripple effects on how PoC see ourselves and how White people see us: Colonization and slavery, both of which are driven by capitalism.

Before we move on, I need to clarify three things.

In general, the terms PoC and WoC are used interchangeably to describe people of African descent and anyone who is not White. For all these pieces I am writing about race, I refer to all people who are not White. I will be specific when I mean a person of African descent.

When I refer to the Americas, I mean North and South America, and the Caribbean islands. Outside the United States, when people use the words America and Americans, they do not mean the United States but rather the two continents and the Caribbean islands. Americans and Canadians are the only ones who use America to describe the home of people residing in the United States.

I go back and forth between past tense and present tense. I do this both accidentally and purposefully because while we’ve been led to believe colonization and slavery no longer exist, both still do. If you need me to explain this, please ask me in the comments and I am happy to.

Colonization

Although long assumed by many that Britain was the first to colonize a territory when they established the Jamestown settlement in 1607, the Portuguese preceded them by nearly 200 years. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal controlled the trade route between South Africa and Europe—specifically along the West African coastline.

This explains why the Portuguese were among the first on the scene to begin transporting West African people to the Americas to be used as slaves.

The purpose of colonization is simple: economic power vis-à-vis control of natural resources and consumables (such as minerals, spices, fabrics—i.e. silk in the far east and cotton in the tropics and semi-tropical areas—and in modern times, oil, rubber from trees, semi-precious and precious stones, etc.), in other words, anything that has a perceived monetary value and items that can’t be found or grown in the colonizing country, also known as the “mother country.”

Controlling a population of people in order to maintain economic power is done by direct control. Colonizers came in and controlled every aspect of daily life of those colonized.

Over time, following are inevitable outgrowths of direct power:

Indirect control

Slavery

Raping women

Conquer and divide

Removing and replacing

Indirect Control

In order to continue maintaining power, over time colonizers delegated locals to work with them to control the masses. Although their freedom and movement were initially very limited, it was considerably better than for those who’d been completely stripped of their freedom. Over time as loyalty was proven, liberties were offered to the group who controlled the masses. This scenario set up a situation where individuals fought to be recognized and chosen. Colonizers weren’t stupid. They were greatly outnumbered and by appointing people who knew the language, customs and lay of the land, they could achieve two goals: maintain power and conquer and divide.

Slavery

Every business owner eventually realizes there are only a four ways to increase profits:

Increase the price

Reduce overhead

A combination of both

Eliminate the competition

The ultimate way to maximize profits is by paying ridiculously low wages, or even better, not pay to harvest (be it fruit, cotton, tobacco, what have you), produce / turn what was harvested into a consumable, and/or ship / move goods. As the power base grew, competition was naturally eliminated.

In colonization, local businesses weren’t always wiped out, but supplies needed for agriculture and farming were only made available from the mother country, and often at a premium price.

In slavery, there was no opportunity for slaves to own their own land. Opportunities existed, although in small numbers, for slaves to earn their freedom. These instances were few and far between. If slaves were able to escape and move to a place where there was no slavery, they were very fortunate. Many died trying to escape.

Raping Women

Raping women in a culture that’s been dominated by another culture is as old as time. It served two very important functions: proved to the colonized and/or enslaved men they were impotent and it also spread their seeds. By spreading their seeds, this ensured two things: they had a loyal following and they could continue dividing and conquering, using their own flesh and blood. Now we have a situation of half colonizer / half colonized: it’s easy to see how the offspring of colonizers and slave owners would get preferential treatment, thus creating a natural divide between those who were related to the slave owners / colonizers and those who weren’t.

The message here was clear: although rape was a hard way to go, life was certainly easier when you’re in versus out. Beatings were less frequent, eating was more frequent, your kids were cared for a little better, etc.

Remove and Replace

Language and Education

By removing access to education, the colonized / enslaved were completely under the thumb of colonizers / slave owners. Lacking the ability to read, write and communicate in their own language, nobody could overthrow the controlling regime. This was more the case under slavery than colonization. While language was replaced, educated colonized people proved valuable to colonizers. During slavery, reading and writing were verboten. Some snuck books in and taught themselves to read and write.

Culture

Once the enslaved spoke the language of the slave owners, it was imperative to strip slaves of their culture and all forms of artistic expression that made their culture unique. It was replaced with the culture / artistic expression of the mother country.

A note about music: Slave owners figured out by removing the drum from slaves (in particular the talking drum), they stripped them of not only their music but also a means of communication not understood by the slave owners.

Religion

When slaves were brought to the new world, the once polytheistic gods who controlled every aspect of their lives: the sun, the moon, weather, natural disaster, happiness, sadness, etc. were replaced with one God. All slaves were forced to convert to Christianity. Although it happened under colonization, it was less frequent, with one exception. The Spanish forced Christianity on its South American, Caribbean colonies, and the region we know today as the Philippines. Hitherto the natives in South America and the Caribbean were polytheistic and the Philippines was Muslim.

History

Open a history book in grade school, high school, college or graduate school in any European country and former European colonies and what you’ll learn is about Europe. You’ll learn about the music, the art, the history, the culture of England, France, Italy, Spain, etc. Any mention of the brutality suffered at the hands of the colonizers and slave owners is brief and minimized.

In fact, if you think of words we use in our every day vernacular today: pre-Columbian is one that comes to mind, implies there was nothing before Christopher Columbus arrived to the Americas. We were / are taught that Africa and South America lacked civilization and structure before the Europeans came. The reverse is true. The continents of Africa and South America were far more advanced than Europe, with large and bustling cities. Many had electricity and running water, and separate water for sewer and drinking. By contrast, Europe was in the dark and drinking water contained both feces and sometimes the remains of corpses.

Who civilized whom?

Anyway, as it relates to history, the only way you’re going to learn about the history of Africa, Asia and the Americas—prior to the Europeans, through colonization and beyond—is by either by doing research on your own or by taking so-called ethnic studies classes.

By the way, people, it’s not ethnic studies, it’s simply history.

Who Caused the Brutality of People of Color?

Slavery mostly took place in the Americas, although there was some in Madagascar:

The British (after they were kicked out of North America, Americans)

The Spanish

The Portuguese

The French

The Dutch

The Danish

Colonization took place in the Americas, Africa, Asia, including the subcontinent of India, as well as Australia:

The British (ever here the expression, “The sun never sets on the British Empire?”

The Spanish

The Portuguese

The French

The Belgians

The Dutch

The Danish

Glorifying European-Centric Beauty Standards Didn’t Happen Overnight

As colonizers and slave owners continued raping women, miscegenation was a natural consequence. Along with conquering and dividing, came lighter complexions, less textured, sometimes even straight hair and more European facial features. Women from the mother country taught the colonized and enslaved women to hate their own hair, skin color, body type and facial features, and revere those we have come to associate with White people.

The message here was “you’re ugly and I am beautiful. Be more like me. Your children will live better and happier lives the more like me they look.” It’s easy to see how PoC came to believe they should strive for the European-centric beauty standard, isn’t it? Initially it could buy one’s freedom and once free, opportunities for employment hinged on it. Darker complected freed slaves had a much harder time getting work than their light complected brothers and sisters. Over time products were created to lighten skin and remove the curl (both temporarily and eventually permanently). The Whiter people looked, the easier life was and the more acceptance they had.

Did slave owners and colonizers care the divide they created around the world (not just in the United States) continued after the granted independence  to once colonized territories and slavery was abolished? No! In fact, it continues to behoove those at the top of the economic food chain to continue keeping us divided.

So you can see how we came to glorify the European-centric beauty standard. Now the question is, how do we recognize the problem isn’t between light and dark complected brothers and sisters and how do we move on and become united?

Stay tuned for those answers in upcoming Sarah’s World Beat columns.

  Sarah’s World Beat: Glorifying European-Centric Beauty Standards—How Did We Get Here? if you want to check out other voices of the Multiracial Community click here Multiracial Media