4.1 Hagia Sophia

February 20, 2016 by petewcook 1 Comment

Hey y’all Pete here. The purpose of this post is to tell you a little about the architectural features of Hagia Sophia. These features were added onto the structure during it’s time as a Mosque from 1453-1935.

Prior to 1481 a small minaret was built above the stair tower on the southwest corner of the building. Later, another minaret at the northeast corner of the building was built by the succeeding sultan, Bayezid ll (1481-1512). After the Earthquake of 1509, one of the minarets collapsed and near the middle of the 16^th century two diagonally opposite minarets were built at the east and west corners of the building in place of the old ones. The first minaret by the southwest corner was built from red brick while the other three were built from white limestone and sandstone. The two larger minarets were built by Sultan Selim ll and designed by Mimar Sinan, the famous Ottoman architect. During the 16^th century, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent returned to the structure with two massive candlesticks from his conquest of Hungary. They placed these on either side of the mihrab. In 1740 under Sultan Ahmed lll, a Sidirvan, fountain for ritual ablutions, was added to the structure. A new mihrab was also added at this time. During the Renovation of 1847 the minbar and mihrab were renovated and the two minarets were also set to equal heights.

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.

5.2 Incas and Aztecs

February 13, 2016 by petewcook Leave a Comment

Religion-Kaleob

Empire- Logan

Mythology- Indea

Architecture-Lindsay

Engineering – Pete

Mythology: Aztec mythology like many cultures is various in it’s stories. The Aztec people (1) where nomadic people when they arrived in the Valley of Mexico. The other tribes saw them as uneducated and held them in disdain. to which they studied the groups already inhabiting the land and adopted aspects of their culture. (2)The ‘Toltec’ people where a large inspiration for their creation story as the Aztec saw the Toltecs as the Roman saw the greek. One of the most popular myths was that of ‘the five suns’ which describes the era’s (four of them) preceding the then current one. The myth said that each of the previous four eras had meet ruin of a natural disaster as as such were named after there catastrophe. The last era was said to be the result of Nanahuatl the most humble aztec god and Tecuciztecatl sacrificing themselves. Nanahuatls sacrifice started the sun moving in motion and thus time and Tecuciztecatl became the moon. Like the Aztec the Inca Mythology is rich in stories though what they have is the result of oral storytelling (3) due to most of their records being destroyed by conquering peoples. like the aztec, the Inca mythology was a mixture of the beliefs of the people around them Which can be scene in the iconography of peru’s historical relics and ruins.

“Aztec History and Culture.” Aztec History and Culture. 2016. Accessed February 14, 2016. http://www.history-aztec.com/.

2.Brundage, Burr Cartwright. The Fifth Sun: Aztec Gods, Aztec World. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979.

Roza, Greg. Incan Mythology and Other Myths of the Andes. New York: Rosen Central, 2008.

ARCHITECTURE: The most dominant aspect of both the Aztec and Incan architecture were and are still the massive bold temples. The force behind Aztec architecture was their desire to sacrifice to their gods. Part of the awe that is experienced in both empires architecture is the fact that both were built using tools such as hammer and chisel (1). The structures are massive and it is hard to believe such work could be done with simple tools. Local materials such as wood from surround forest and local stone were used in all of their structures. Art and decorations were carved into the stone structures. Relating Aztec architecture back to their religion and beliefs, the Aztecs carved figures as decoration into the stone (3). Some being eagles, representing the sun and warriors. Serpents representing fire or water. Conch shells to represent fertility. Sea creatures and frogs representing Tlaloc symbols (1). The extremely tall large temples built by the Aztecs and Incan were a way to get closer to their gods. These temples also had double staircases facing west towards the sun. There were 13 steps on the staircases, the reasoning for 13 steps had astronomical influence. The tops of these temples were flat, with block stone tops for the purpose of sacrifice (1).

1) Legends and Chronicles staff, Aztec Architecture

http://www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-civilizations/the-ancient-aztecs/aztec-architecture/

2) Read, K. A.. (1986). The Fleeting Moment: Cosmogony, Eschatology, and Ethics in Aztec Religion and Society. The Journal of Religious Ethics, 14(1), 113–138. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40015027

Empire:

At its peak, the Incan Empire stretched over current day Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador and had anywhere from 4 to 37 million inhabitants (1), the reason this number has such a wide range is because the Spanish Inquisition destroyed all the Incan census records they had. The Incan Empire was the largest pre-Columbian Empire in the Americas. The capital was located in Cuzco, Peru and where they had a well-organized imperial government with a strong central administration as well as intricate political and military powers. Around 1500, the leader of the Inca, Pachacutin, helped reinforce the Imperial Empire by forcing regional tribes to be vassals for local Incan Lords (1). All was going well until Francisco Pizarro conquered Cuzco with less than 200 men in 1533 and strangled the 13th and final Incan Emperor, Atahuallpa (2). The Incan Empire lasted right around 200 years, until it came to a swift end due to the arrival of the Spanish and their European disease which wiped out up to 95% of their population. Similarly, the Aztecs were also wiped out from being conquered by the Spanish and then further destroyed by small pox, measles, typhus, influenza and diphtheria. Although they came to the same demise, The Aztec Empire’s history is rather different. The Aztec empire was located in present day Mexico and had a triple alliance between the three city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoc and Tlacopan (3). They controlled vast parts of Mesoamerica between the 14th and 16th centuries. The Aztec Empire was based off a type of government where the capital cities were paid tribute to from outside villages which made the city an imperial center with its’s political reach extending from ocean to ocean and as far south as Guatemala. In 1519, Cortez reached the Aztecs and allied with their enemies, the Nahautl, in order to dismantle the Empire (3). The Aztec Empire was slightly smaller than the Inca Empire in population, 5 million to up to 37 million respectively, and the Inca Empire covered far more land.

1) Seaman, Rebecca M. 2013. Conflict in the early Americas: an encyclopedia of the Spanish Empire’s Aztec, Incan, and Mayan conquests. http://ebooks.abc-clio.com/?isbn=9781598847772. (188-189)

2) History.com Staff, Pizarro Executes Last Inca Emperor. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pizarro-executes-last-inca-emperor.

3) Sandine, Al. 2015. Deadly Baggage What Cortes Brought to Mexico and How It Destroyed the Aztec Civilization. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=213008

Religion

The ancient South American religion of the Incas is a polytheist belief that encompasses both political and spiritual elements as an essential part of the largest empire in the Americas. This religion held a belief system and a series of religious practices that intertwined with the ideology of the ruling elite. The Incas developed systems to control and organize their massive empire, much of which was centered on the management of religious symbols and rituals. An example of this was the consistent problem of water availability and water gods and goddesses were highly worshipped and mythologized, and given sacrifices to ensure survival. The supernatural had a constant presence in Incan society, and consisted of two categories: deities and animistic forces taking human form. All of this existed in a crucial balance of forces, whether it was supernatural, political, or social. Maintenance of these forces was essential to life and the prevention of chaos. Viracocha, was the creator god who initiated life for the Incan empire. In comparison to the Aztec religion, which combined and transformed a number of rituals, mythic, and cosmic elements from heterogeneous culture grouped in the central plateau of Mesoamerica. The city of Teotihuacan was organized into four great quarters around a massive ceremonial center that archaeologists have theorized that the four-quartered city was a massive spatial symbol for the major cosmological conceptions of Aztec religion. Aztec religion also held a polytheist belief, but has major problems due to the Spanish conquests to eliminate Aztec symbols, images, and ceremonial buildings.

Spivak, Deborah E. “Incas.” Encyclopedia of Global Religion. Ed. Mark Juergensmeyer and Wade Clark Roof. Vol. 1. Los Angeles: SAGE Reference, 2012. 545-47. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.

Carrasco, Davíd. “Aztec Religion.” Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 715-720. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.

Engineering

The Aztecs used primitive tools such as stones, chisels, and blades to construct their buildings, structures and temples. The warm and moist climate, which made the ground sink, provided a challenge for the Aztecs to build any structure. They overcame this challenge by creating a strong foundation that could hold up to the sinking of the ground. They used a very beautiful and easy to cut volcanic stone, tezontle, to form the base for their strong foundations. They also used other stone such as rubble and limestone. They mostly carved their stones for decoration, to show texture and a visual pop. The Aztecs also used Pine and Oak wood from the surrounding forests to build the beams and doors. (1)

1) Legends and Chronicles staff, Aztec Architecture

http://www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-civilizations/the-ancient-aztecs/aztec-architecture/