Concept Map: Time keepers

February 27, 2016 by lindsayhaskins Leave a Comment

On the discussion of other sacred structures, Camilla wrote about the time keepers of the mosque. It really intrigued me that there was a person thats sole purpose was to keep time in regards to the 5 daily prayers.

I decided to do my concept map on the Muwaqqit and dipped into the 5 prayers times a bit. I started with explaining what Muwaqqit was and why that position came to an end. The obvious answer is technology but also the structures of the states played into who was in charge of keeping time for prayer. Looking at the time keeper I wanted to know why prayer at a certain time was important. With the concept map I discussed the 5 prayer times, and the changes urbanization and technology have had on calculating the times. Initially I wanted to look at the Muwaqqit and other personnel in religous structures that held the same importance as the Muwaqqit. I couldn’t really find anything that would give my anything substantial.

Prownian Analysis of a Hair straightener

February 18, 2016 by lindsayhaskins 1 Comment

I chose my hair straightener.

Description: This object is primarily plastic on the outside. The plates used as the heating elements are made from titanium. Obviously the mechanics of this object are covered inside part of the plastic pieces. There is also a cord to connect it to a electrical source to heat it.

Deduction: This object is used for flattening curly or otherwise un-straight strands of hair with the titanium heated elements. I would assume that it is primarily used by women, since culturally they more often then men, have more hair, hence more to straighten. The largest group to use this item would be women. Primarily located in the bathroom or where a woman would do her hair or makeup. Could also be located in most salons for styling purposes.

Speculation: In a culture where it seems that beauty is held above all else, it would seem that this item was created to perpetuate the value of “beauty”. The idea that fuzzy untamed hair is not beautiful and should or could be flattened, or even the grass is greener on the other side. Those who have straight hair want natural curls, or those who have natural curls want straight hair. I think this item was created in a culture that something you don’t naturally have will make your more appealing if you did have it.

Complex questions:

Will society always value physical beauty as much as we do now?

We all know the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, so why do we as a society strive for something others have that we don’t? In terms of physical beauty?

Is it the object perpetuating the need for physically beautiful attributes or is it us as a society perpetuating it by using the object?

Resources

-Thompson, Cheryl. “Black Women and Identity: What’s Hair Got to Do with It?” Black Women and Identity: What’s Hair Got to Do With It? 2008. Accessed February 18, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.ark5583.0022.105.

This article talks directly about specifics involving hair, though the discussion revolves around women of African decent. The author talks about how different types of hairstyles define different parts of these women’s lives and identities.

-Tate, Shirley. “Black Beauty: Shade, Hair and Anti-racist Aesthetics.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 30, no. 2 (February 02, 2007): 300-19. Accessed February 18, 2016. Taylor and Francis Online. doi: 10.1080/01419870601143992

This article does not apply as much as the previous one, but it does discuss the afro of African American women being and identifier for again, many aspects of life and identity.

I did not find any articles or blogs discussing a hair straightener or flat iron culture specifically. When using “cultural history of hair straightener” to search, almost all of the articles or blogs or websites that followed were about black women and what hair or hairstyles represented. There were a few articles that discussed black women finding it necessary or societally appealing to wear their naturally curly hair straight to gain some level of elite. The articles talked about flattened or straightened hair for African American woman representing them in a higher class then those with curly or natural hair. I don’t know how the authors of the articles I listed could be related to Prown’s method because there were not talking specifically about the object, but more touching on what the object was capable of creating because of our society.

Other large sacred structures

February 6, 2016 by lindsayhaskins 2 Comments

The Great Mosque of Djenne was built using baked earth bricks called ferey, and sand and earth based mortar. It was then coated with plaster giving it the smooth finished look. The walls are decorated with rodier palm stick bundles called toron. This toron also serves as ready made scaffolding for the restoration done yearly. The foundation of the mosque is lifted to prevent severe damage during flooding. Only small changes have been made to the mosque since 1907 because it is maintained and restored on a regular basis. Though the original structure had much fewer toron. The part that I thought was really cool regarding the the Great Mosque of Djenne was that there is a annual festival held for everyone to participate in the restoration and maintenance. In the days leading up to the festival the plaster is premixed in large pits, and is stirred and mixed by the young boys playing in it. The women bring water to the plaster pits as well as the men. The men climb into the toron and place the plaster on the walls. The members of the Djenne mason guild direct the work and the elders of the community sit and watch for they have already participated in the festival many times. The original mosque presided over one of the most important learning centers in the middle ages, with thousands of students coming to it to study the Qur’an. Also after vogue magazine held a photo shoot there with scantily dressed models, the mosque was closed to non muslims. Though this isn’t exactly a threat, the community saw a group of men hacking at the roof of the mosque which sparked riot and led the men fleeing in fear of being hung. These men were actually part of a restoration project. This just goes to show how respected the mosque is by the community and what they would do in fear of threat to the structure.

Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba- The roman columns part of this structure came as presents from governors during that time. For some of the decorations inside of the mosque ivory, jasper, porphyry, gold, silver, copper and brass were used. The mosque is also covered in many mosaics and azulejos (similar idea of art work). This mosque is most notable for arcaded hypostyle wall, which is a roof held up by 856 columns. This structure to me is far more exquisite, compared to the other structures discussed in this post, the materials used are much different. I am a little confused on one part of this structure so if anyone can clear it up for me that would be great, I know that the structure has been shared by more then one religion but was it first a muslim mosque and is now Catholic, or has it been switch more then one time? I know that currently it is a Catholic structure, knowing that muslims across spain still lobby to be allowed to pray in the church. In 2010 two muslim men were arrested when during a tour they stopped and started praying, the guards asked them to stop or leave and upon refusing a fight broke out and the two guards were injured. There is a law in place that guarantees the protection of the property by the state.

Ise Grand Shrine- Compared to the two previous structures discussed above these shrines are and were created with extreme simplicity. Though similar to the the Great Mosque of Djenne, a festival going back as far as the 7th century is held every 20 years to destroy and rebuild the main shrines. The new shrines are built using the exact same methods as used on all of the previous shrines, which means no nails. Also the old wood is recycled some times being used for other shrines around Japan. These shrines are extremely important and sacred to Japanese religion, also being an attraction to tourists.

Buddhas of Bamiyan- The main bodies of the buddhas were carved into a stone cliff, the other parts of the bodies were sculpted from stone and stucco mix supported by wood posts. At one time an emperor attempted to use heavy artillery to destroy the structures but failed. Another attempt was made by a persian king also using heavy artillery but also failed at his attempts. An Afghan king succeeded at destroying the face of one of the structures. Though the last and final attempt of destruction was successful. In 2001 the Taliban dynamited and destroyed both of the structures. This was part of cracking down on “un-islamic” parts of Afghan society.

Friends meeting house- also called religious society of friends, created and used by the Quakers. The friends meeting house is a stark contrast to all of the other structures discussed. The Quakers didn’t believe that they needed a specific special place to gather and worship. They believed that “where two or three meet together in my name, I am there among them“. I had to take this directly from wiki because it explains it perfectly. The guidelines to a meeting house were simplicity, equality, community, and peace, without any symbols of public worship. Since this is there belief there wouldn’t really be much importance is restoration. Really no more than one would to there own home because they live in it and need to be able to use it. The traditional model of a friends meeting house had a main meeting room and a separate meeting room used by the women. I think more importance is held for restoration and or preservation of friends meeting houses more for the history and less for the religious importance since the building itself was not important, it was the group of people meeting together to worship.