Ethnic association

If you look at the ethnicity maps, it is apparent that people of the same race or ethnicity tend to group together. They live in close proximity with other of their own race. It must give them a sense of belonging, and helps to strengthen cultural sentiments. At the same time, this sentiment could also develop negatively, just like too much nationalism. There might be so much pride in one's own culture, that they act out against other races. There would be no avoiding conflict because of the city's design.

The images of the city, show how close all the buildings really are. there is very little room, it's a concrete jungle. We see an image of children playing in an small alley strewn with garbage. That is the type of poverty these lower income areas faced.  It seems logical that the different ethnic/racial groups of people would have to intermingle in low income places due to the overcrowded living areas.

The Hull House itself is an example of the intermingling. The city is analogous to the Hull House. In the house, there were people of different races and incomes. The goal was to get them to mingle. In the images we got of the Hull House, all the Mexicans were sitting together. They were in the same area as the upperclass and they intermingled, but they still felt drawn to people like themselves. In the city we have pockets of people with various races and incomes. All of these pockets are in the general vicinity of each other, and sometimes overlap, ( like how the article on moodle has a Greek-Italian area).

Addams Motivations

I think Jane Addams first associates the opportunity of living among the poor, with the chance to practices medicine. This was the first concrete example of the idea of social by Addams. The motivations in Addams life for doing the social work could be traced to various causes, such as her father and his interaction with Abe Lincoln. The question though, is what- if any- is the spiritual content of Jane Addam's work. Obviously there had to be some spiritual motivation because Addams was raised as a Quaker. She mentions that the school she attended turned out many missionaries, however i am not 100% sure it means missionaries in a religious sense, but rather in another sort of way.

Religion was an under-the-surface type of motivation for Addams. There were other reasons for her work. She was an idealist, as shown by the aper she wrote in college, and it seems that reducing poverty would be an idealist action. her philosophical view of the world was a great motivator, and this view was influenced by religion.

It seems the she speaks poorly of those who thought of her Settlement as a way to spread religious ideas. In London, and all over she saw poverty, and felt she had to help. There was no direct religious motivation that i could see, but rather in indirect motivation, based upon how her religious background shaped Jane Addams.

Babylon/System or Authority?

The Rastas are known for their resistance to authority. In class we listened to Bob Marley's I Shot the Sherif, which was about fighting against the system. Afterwards, some body mentioned that Rastafarian as a religion is its own system with its own authority. Therefore it would be sort of hypocritical to reject systems and authority as a Rasta. The goal is to separate from Babylon and live freely. The idea brought up, is that if the Rastas separated themselves they would become a system with authorities.

I disagree. The problem the Rastas have is not with necessarily with authorty or systems, it is with the actions and concepts created through these systems and by these authorities. Rastas did have their own authorities, in their charismatic leaders i.e. Howell. They also do have a system. We saw the way the Boboshanites opperated in their own commune. They have their own system which runs their community. Rastafarian was was around through Howell's time, although his ideal failed. Rastafarian is working perfectly fine for the Boboshanties.

Babylon is the evil of the system. It represents all he inequalities and oppressions Rastas have faced. That is what the Rastafarians reject. They dont reject systems and authorities in general, which is why Bob shoots the sherif but not the deputy. The deputy is part of the system, but the sherif is Babylon

Rastas in the Wild

This group of Rastas live in a remote village. From the looks of the area they live in, they appear to be following the basic idea of rejecting the advances of Babylon. there is very little evidence of modern day technology. The video mentioned a lack of running water and electricity. They pay attention to the biblical writings. They have religious colors and symbols, such as dreadlocks, throughout the town. Generally speaking, it seems that they would fit into the book's definition of Rastafarian.

Is it what i would expect to see? For Rastas in a rural area, yes. I wasn't very surprised to see the way these people lived. If the lived in a city, they would be very different, but not necessarily because of the religion. They would have the same basic religious ideas, but living circumstances would make them appear different. For example it may appear that Rastas living in a city would embrace Babylon more, but really they would have no choice if they wanted to live: there would be buildings, electricity, water all around them.

In general, this fits into what my basic idea of a true Rasta would be. They take their religion seriously, waking up at 3am to pray (i think). Does the fact that they do these religious things validate Rastafarian? To a certain extent it does mean that they are true believers in Rastafarian. I am not surprised to see that they live this way.

The Power of Self Revelation

There are many parallels in Rastafari and religious concepts that we have gone over in class. One of them that i noticed involves Ras Tafari's - Haile Selassie's - name taken at his coronation: "Ras Tafari, Son of Ras Makonem of Harar, King of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah." As Edmonds says, this title seems calculated to encourage people to search for proof that Haile Selassie is the Messiah.

This falls right in line with the part of Geertz's definition of religion that says it "creates an aura of factuality." Haile Selassie didnt exactly say he was the messiah, but hinted at that fact. it pointed people towards the understanding that he was in fact the messiah. What it allows, is for people to create the aura of factuality around Haile Selassie. This eventually becomes sort of a religious fact. If people say he is the messiah over and over, eventually they will believe it.

This aura of factuality around Haile Selassie being messiah, was so successful because the people came to the conclusion themselves. Halie Selassie related himself to several biblical texts but didnt necessarily say he was the messiah. People found the link he was hinting toowards with his new title, and thought they had found the messiah. It did not seem as though Haile was appointing himself, but rather they were appointing Haile, although he had pointed them in the right direction.

Kebra Negast Gives Importance to Ethiopia

The language used at the beginning was very hard for me to understand. It takes many re-readings for me to make some significance out of it. It is apparent though, that this writing is giving geographical significance to some area of land, though I'm not quite sure where, "From the north thereof to the south and to Western India is the portion of the Emperor of Ethiopia. Well, that was my first impression, that it was an area of land, but the reading goes on to say that the Emperor of Ethiopia is the firstborn and eldest son of Solomon. It was confusing because it seemed as though the writing was describing an area of land, maybe the area of Ethiopia? Maybe it is the area of rule that the Ethiopian Emperor controls.

The merchant Tamrin returns to Ethiopia with an abundance of riches given to him by King Solomon. This makes it seem as though Ethiopia is a country with whatever it needs, thanks to King Solomon. Eventually the Queen of Ethiopia feels she must meet with Solomon, and prepares a journey to Jerusalem. This is strengthening the bond between the holy city and Ethiopia.

King Solomon's dream also gives significance to Ethiopia, for it is where the sun in his dream choses to rest, not in any other christian land. The sun was a metaphor for Solomon and Sheba's (i think thats her name) own son who became a king of Ethiopia.

Religious Image

The image i chose is one on the Sistene Chapel. Specifically the image is a painting of God and Adam reaching out towards each other. It is one of the most recognizable paintings related to Christianity.

The painting is a symbol. Paintings carry meaning with them, as they are representations of parts of the religion. With paintings such as this, a religious entity such as the Sistene Chapel would have emit a more powerful and overwhelming impression on an observer. not only would the actual building have a meaning ( a place of worship), but they paintings would enable the building to express much more, such as religious rules, and examples through paintings.

Although this is a well known image, it is interesting to note that actual photography of the paintings in the chapel are not allowed. It brings an air of mystique to the image. This air of mystique emboldens the super-nature feeling religious symbols have. The fact that the image is in a chapel, depicts the actual image of God, and yet is not supposed to be photographed combines to create a symbol that is brought to the forefront of public consciousness and has become part of our culture. for example, there are many plays on this image