1. I found this page while looking up the name of the Norse tree of Life, Ygdrassil.
   
   In the opening paragraph, some passing reference to other cultures and their use of "Trees of Life" would drive home the idea that the concept is wide-spread - including mentioning the proper name for the Norse tree.

2. quote:

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   Halloween, complete with its pagan connotations with Satanism and evil
   

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   I'm unclear as to what you're saying here.
3. You start with a discussion of the "Tree of Life" motif as found in a variety of cultures and then end with a conclusion involving native folk art and influence by the Spanish.
   
   It seems to me that you're drifting a bit or perhaps I don't understand the specific theme of your paper.

-Trevor

[ November 28, 2004, 09:33 PM: Message edited by: TMedina ]
 

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Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
 
1. Cool page! My sources for global tree-of-life symbolism, which I was attempting to address in my introduction, were an article on the Tree of Life as a design motif from a needlework periodical and a book of essays called The Social Life of Trees. Both of these works addressed the global presence of the tree of life with no mention of Mesoamerica. ( I am surprised to see that your page mentions the Maya's Yaxche. Unfortunately, internet sources are frowned upon by my professor - he wants everything verifiable in a journal or a book.) My aim was, therefore, to prove that this ubiquitous indo-european symbol also appears in Mexican folk art and discuss its ramifications.

2. What I was trying to say, in layman's terms, was: "We mistakenly associate Dia de los Muertos with Halloween, and assume the death imagery is evil or satanic in nature, when in reality, it is a common theme that celebrates life through its dualistic partner of death." Hmm... maybe I should just say that.

3. This may be a function of my introduction being too long. The global tree of life imagery is only supposed to be a lead-in to the specific appearance of tree imagery in Mexican folk art. The point of the paper is to address what the tree means in contemporary folk art by discussing ancient mythology and historical influences. I also wanted to highlight the paralells between Catholic and Pre-Colombian beliefs.

Thanks for your comments. They are very helpful.

[ November 28, 2004, 11:42 PM: Message edited by: Annie ]
 

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Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
Halloweens associations with evil or satanism is the result of ignorant people in the 18th and 19th centuries convinced anything different than them was morally repugnant, primarily. Its origins are a harvest festival, for goodness sakes.
 

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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
 
Ohh, she knows Fugu, the whole paragraph in context shows that sh's making your point all ready.

quote:

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Chicano culture and the proximity of Mexico to the United States have caused many of us to draw parallels between Mexican and North American aesthetics that can be misleading and cause misunderstandings about the very premises of the culture. Halloween, complete with its pagan connotations with Satanism and evil, is often mistakenly associated with the Mexican festival of el Día de los muertos, a holiday with both Catholic roots in the tradition of All Saints' and All Souls' Days and pre-Colombian roots in ancestor worship and the duality of life and death.

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Hobbes
 

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Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
Uh, no, it doesn't. Shows nothing of the sort, in fact.
 

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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
 
Well her point isn't yours, but I think it's pretty clear she knows that, and she's saying that with the pagan and satanic connotations Americans mistakenly associate it with... yada yada yada

Hobbes
 

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Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
 
The American holiday of Halloween has been inncorrectly associated with vaguely evil or Satanic undertones; because the Mexican festival "The Day of the Dead" shares some superficial likeness with the trappings associated with Halloween, it has been compared to the North American holiday and as a result, "The Day of the Dead" has inherited the same misconceptions associated with the North American holiday.

-Trevor

Edit: Tweaking structure, sorry.

[ November 29, 2004, 09:32 AM: Message edited by: TMedina ]
 

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Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :
 
I've miiiiissed yoooou Annie!

Good to "see" you again!


 

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Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
No, no, its still not clear at all, Hobbes. In fact, that would undermine the false-parallelism she seems to be trying to establish (halloween associated with evil and satanism, day of the dead not, but people think it is because they associate it with halloween).
 

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Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
 
Feel free to use my ad-hoc paragraph.

-Trevor
 

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Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
No offense, TM, but she would be ill-served to use your paragraph. It suffers from, among other things, the fault of being one gi-mongous sentence.

edit: oh, and it would be plagiarism.

[ November 29, 2004, 10:40 AM: Message edited by: fugu13 ]
 

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