Even though the problem of sexism has been improved greatly with process over time, it cannot be denied that inequality between men and women still exists at present. For example, there are fewer chances and more requirements for women in the job market. Obviously, in the ancient society, this problem is even more serious, which is showed clearly in Ueda Akirari’s Bewitched. According to Bewitched, there is a traditionally masculine society. The relationship between man and woman is generalized as “man is superior to woman”, which is especially presented as the position of man and woman in marriage. Basically, the feminine are placed as lower status during that period. The inequality might be resulted from the social productivity and the traditional culture. A continuation of this traditional system would probably lead in some potential consequences, such as women would not get real emancipation and freedom.

French and Industrial revolution, two most important social transformations that not just changed the outlook of the world. They also changed the way how people think, feel, and believe in the new society. In Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Burke showed how French Revolution  formed social instability by threw away old traditions like the spirit of gentlemen and the spirit of religion. He also argued that what France need is reform not revolution, he demanded for Monarchic system to come back. In contrast, in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s A Defense of Poetry (1821) he advocated French revolution’s idea of Enlightenment. He believed that people with awareness of nature and rational thinking can work together to address problems in society. While Burke and Shelley both disagree on effects of French revolution on society, they both agree on that the importance of tradition, nature, freedom and etc. They both believe that rational thinking can not success without emotional, desire part of human. However, whereas Burke emphasizes on conservative perspective, he believes that French revolution is unnecessary, Shelley demonstrates that Revolution ideas/thinking (Poetry) can construct a better society and bring back things lost from past.

Liberal or conservative? The iconic political principles we all love and hate today, compose the greatest discrepancy throughout the enlightenment era.   After the dramatic revolution happened in France, when the authority has been challenged by the ordinaries, when the king is no longer on the throne, people of Europe start to recognize the importance of freedom, the rights of being independent. They demanded a CHANGE! But what kind of change do they actually needed as a Society? Well, Philosophers like Edmund Burke and Percy Shelley, two famous scholars have shared their ideal vision of a nation in writing. Though both Burke and Shelley desire a world of liberty, where every man can have the rights to participate in government and deciding his own faith, Burke prefers a society which honors the tradition from the past, and prohibited any abstract theories to take control over the government, while Shelley was much more enthusiastic about the imagination  from individuals and believes it is those evanescent emotions from our heart create the ultimate harmony for the world.

One common theme of both story is power imbalance. As we know in history, slaves were mistreated and was treated as property. In Malagasy, metaphor was heavily used to express love. The expression of love of one another shows that power was not equal like in Ohabolana. In the poetry, the speakers feels they want to reconcile the relationship and have a balance whereas slaves have no sort of equality. The two poetry can be very difference since one is talking about love and one is the harsh treatment towards.

I found this topic to be very related to the Malagasy Wisdom Poetry. Both presentation has both similarities and differences.  In Malagasy Wisdom of poetry, it history is somewhat related towards the people. One major differences I found is the pictures for each presentation. The picture I represented shows leaders where their goal is to unify the people of Madagascar, King Andrianampoinimerina and Queen Ranavalona I. King Andrianampoinimerina and Queen Ranavalona I both try to unify the people of Madagascar where as in the United States, the slave owners wanted to keep it. In addition, there was a power struggle in both story. In the U.S, their government had a power struggle between the North and the South where the North appose slavery and and the South was pro slavery.  Queen Ranavalona was described as a “weak” ruler since she was fail to stop the European conquest (the French). Andrianampoinimerina use force to unify the kingdom of of Malagasy and Madagascar like the south wanted. Even though his picture do not seem heroic, he had the power to make his goal into reality. Similarly, U.S slaves was forced on their will and abused by slave owners. This is also similar when the French colonize Madagascar.

At the end, both picture and poetry show an imbalance of power and how each power was used.

from “Online Etymology Dictionary”

ecstasy (n.) late 14c., extasie “elation,” from Old French estaise “ecstasy, rapture,” from Late Latin extasis, from Greek ekstasis “entrancement, astonishment, insanity; any displacement or removal from the proper place,” in New Testament “a trance,” from existanai “displace, put out of place,” also “drive out of one’s mind” (existanai phrenon), from ek “out” (see ex-) + histanai “to place, cause to stand,” from PIE root *stā- “to stand” (see stet).

Our group had discussed about “Navajo ceremony: the night chant” in last week.  Classifying few themes and adding visual aids thanked to understand easier about Navajo ceremony.  As I mentioned in our lecture, ceremony has certain purposes that it indicates how and what they are presenting for.  One of the most key themes, healing, is the best well known for ceremony.  Especially, since they were Native Americans, they had their own religion that a lot of traditional behaviors were involved in mysterious things.

Song was presented for their ceremony.  Mostly, they were demanding and wanting for their health and well-being.  Dividing into few parts just like thunder of god and finishing song, each parts had some symbolized meanings that it directly expressed as their motions.

Comparing with other group’s presentation, the secular song, is the best comparative story for me because both are traditional song and contained different themes and meanings.  As I stated above, our song is presenting for health and well-being. Whereas the secular song is presenting for freedom.  Personally, I feel more comfortable when I read the Navajo song because it is more peaceful and less-stressful song that it is only dealing with their God.  Moreover, in Navajo’s culture, they did not have certain enemy that they did not even have to concern about slaves.

Ultimately, each song and story was not occurred at the same time; thus it may led different themes and backgrounds.  Maybe, geographical things will also indicate the differences as well.

After listening to six groups’ presentation, each group’s story has its own profound moral that want people to learn. By comparing U.S Slave Stories And Hawaiian Folktale, I realized that both stories convey a similar central idea even though they talked in a different way.

Our group presented three folktales about different chiefs during the early 19th century. In Hawaiian folktale, it reveals how people wanted to get rid of the oppressor and jump out of the tough life. There are three chiefs Halaea, Koihala and Kohaikalani. They all have a selfie overbearing governing style, such as forcing people to carry heavy food to move around to meet him and let people bring back large pebble from many miles away. Due to their unreasonable governing style, people cannot endure anymore. Eventually, three of these chiefs were dead under their people’s rebellion. The outcome of the chiefs tells us a lesson: no matter how powerful leaders are, as long as people dissatisfied with his ruling way, when these weak strengths combine together it overcome any difficulty and defeat any barrier.Therefore, as a leader, a governor must fear and respect their people, they cannot impose any tyrannical rules on people.

 
In the U.S slave stories and secular song. It talks about how inhumane treatment that slaves had to undergo every day, and how many pains that they had to endure. No matter men, women or children, these slaves all had to work so hard day and night till they die, and then the master will buy a new slave to replace. In the story, there was a young girl who had just given birth to her first child. Without a full coverage of strength, she had to go back to work with her child. Under the intensive workload, eventually she was fell to ground couple times, but the overseer didn’t let her stop and take a breath. He lashed her until she got back to work. At the end, with an old man’s help, she was flying high over the cotton fields, and run away. Eventually, the old men not only help the young girl to get free but all the slaves. They all gone like the bird, flying in the sky, and seeking freedom. Through this story, we see that how these weak slaves work together, help each other, and united together to escape from the cruel condition. The story also reveals the idea that how can vulnerable people gather together to become a strong group to against the unjust oppression and get the freedom to be what they want to be.

By comparing U.S Slave Stories And Hawaiian Folktale, I found that these two stories are somehow similar. Both stories told us the same idea in a different way. These two stories convey the desires of disadvantaged people. And how brave these people are, they all have the ability to gather together to against higher power. Both stories reveal that when people united together, their inner belief and their desire of freedom would be the most powerful strength to defeat any barrier in front of them.

For my group presentation, we presented on the Navajo Ceremony Night Chant. We discussed how this chant is a way that the Navajo community has a relationship with nature, and that it can be tied to romanticism because they always turn to nature in times of desperation and healing. We also mentioned how many components of the ceremony are temporary, such as the sand paintings on the floor, the ceremony itself which only lasts 9 days, and fact that no photography is allowed at these ceremonies. The photography represents a danger to the nature of this ceremony since taking a picture would freeze the Navajo in some sense, disrupting the flow of the ceremony and their relationship with nature.

The English and German Folktales on the other hand tell stories of young woman who must lie and plot their way to the top. The female protagonist is usually portrayed as the typical “damsel in distress” and waits for her luck to change by meeting a young man, usually someone of higher status. The difference in social class is evident through the dialect the characters use, showing some are more educated than others.

Both of these texts also seem to have a different version of beauty. In the Navajo texts, beauty represents the ideal healthy state of a human being, while the folktales perceive beauty as something physical, representing youth and attractiveness. The folktales also incorporate magic of some sorts, through wishing or doing favors for someone in return for something. An example of this is when the 3 “ugly” women spin yarn for the girl so she can marry the prince. The deceitfulness and trickery is not something the Navajo community would agree with, and they would definitely not perceive that as a source of beauty or nature. It would seem rather unnatural to them.

You may find that the same stories that you have been told by your family or friends that are slightly different than other people who had heard about it.  That is the beauty of orature. They are not necessary to be written down, but they still can be passed down from generation to generation. They can a short story, poem or history that hidden the wisdom or message behind the words. Since the spread rate of orature is out of control, stories are changed time by time or maybe varies in different regions. The use of language and the mix of cultures makes the orature seems more attractive than the boring letters on paper. On the other hand, it is easy to understand. Orature is one of the spotlights in the literature.

By reading the Three Anansi Stories and the US Slave story & US slave Spirituals and Secular Songs, one common theme is about the rise of the slaves.

Three Anansi stories are from Ghana, Jamaica, and the United States. Anansi is characterized as a cunning spider. The origin was from Ghana, however, while it spreads to worldwide, the name and personality of Anansi have changed as well. All the characters in the stories are animals with human behaviors. Different animals represent different kinds of group of people. In the Ghana and Jamaica version, Anansi (Ghana) or Annancy (Jamaica) are brave and full of wisdom. It is a positive figure that acts as a model for the society. We all know that spiders are small in size, but, by using his knowledge, he is able to defeat the enemies that are stronger than him. Anansi symbolized power and resistance. Anansi, however, named Aunt Nancy are deems as a negative figure in the US. It changed from male to female, from hero to devil.

US Slave story and Spirituals and Secular Songs shares the same theme that slaves are fighting for their freedom. In the history, slaves are an object that can be purchase and trade. They had no individual rights and treated terribly by the slave’s owners. In the short story “All God’s Children Had Wings”, it shows that slaves wished to leave the “hell” so badly. Every man, woman, child is forced to work hard without having rest. The slave’s owners are deemed as devil who have strong power that taking away other’s life. In this story, the old man may represent the god who can bring slaves out of the situation. The woman who just had birth was not allowed to rest until her body are recovered. She was forced to work while breast feeding the baby. The woman fell repeatedly, but the overseer forced her to get back to work. It shows how cruel the society was, when slave was on the bottom on the “food chain”. At the end, she flew up to the sky and leave all the troubles behind her. You could say that she maybe died and went to a better place without suffer. But, it is also a sign that slaves finally realized they need to fight for their own rights by going further and untied the chain that’s on their feet. They are no needed to be afraid to seek for freedom. The story also indicates the culture difference, it states that “He replied; but the driver could not understand what they said; their talk was strange to him.” It is clear, that orature can be limited by the different language. The US Slave Spirituals and secular songs are pass down to every slave that needed to unleash from the chain. They are passion about fighting for freedom. They rationalized they are equal as everybody. Loser are weak when they are acting weak. Those songs promote and inspire slaves to get out of the box to fight against the strong power.

The connection of Anansi and this short story shows how slaves getting out to find their own freedom by against the strong power. Anansi are also deemed as the slaves who are weak because they are small and have no strength. However, they use their wisdom to confront the people who are “stronger”. The desire of being free is big enough to be brave and confident.

Orature is an important literature to passed down the culture and religious. My group presented The Three Anansi Stories in three different countries include Ghana, Jamaica, and United States. Throughout these stories, I learned that the Anansi stories were originated at West African during the period of slavery. The stories of Anansi were used as a source of hope and culture retention and renewal for the Africans during slavery. Sharing these stories within the slave community allowed them to form a cultural rebellion and and to gain freedom.

Comparing the Three Anansi Stories and U.S Slave story, both of them use the slavery as the background and they both are in pursuit the idea of freedom.  In “All Stories Are Anansi’s,” Anansi represents a wise character. Anansi use his clever to defeated the hornets, the python, and the leopard who are stronger than he in order to gain the right to tell all stories. In addition, in “Annancy, Monkey and Tiger,” Annancy use his clever and strategy to deceive the tiger and save the life of monkey successfully. From these two stories, we can see that Anansi or Annancy represent the wise figure who has ability to defeat the powerful animals. In my opinion, the spread of Anansi stories represents the best wish of the West African because they wanted to overthrow the colonists in order to gain freedom as Anansi. In the U.S. Slave stories and secular Songs, the story “All God’s Chillen Had Wings” describes that how miserable life of slavery. The oppressor struck them with his lash once they stop working and they did not have time to rest and have enough food to eat. Also, the song expresses the terrible life of the slave. Both story and songs convey the strong feeling to escape for freedom.

However, the Anansi Stories more focus on expressing the idea of cultural retention because the limited education make African become illiterate and cause them can only spread their culture through oral expression. Also, the Anansi stories express the idea of freedom from indirect way because we can only understand that when we read the background of the stories. When we read the stories of Anansi, it is just like a fairy tale to teach us a lesson. On the contrary, in the U.S Slave Stories, the stories convey the idea of the freedom directly. When we read the story and songs, we can strongly feel the terrible life of the slaves and the desire of slaves to escape the painful life and to gain freedom. Therefore, the U.S stories make us feel more passionate than the Anansi stories.