Coronation

Syotie

Broken Messages, Broken Dreams;

Nothing truly as it seems.

Blinding dark, silent night,

warring peace and peaceful fight.

Gentle Angel, fly away

knowing what I have to say.

Is it such a frightful thought,

whispering what I not ought?

Child of earth, I fade from sight

Mourning the angelic flight.

Dwelling in the hidden caves,

Navigating endless waves.

Solace in the solemn trees

Praying on bended knees.

Getting crowned as Gaea’s heir.

Sitting in the mountains chair.

Changing as I sit alone.

Wooden limbs and heart of stone.

Close my eyes to setting sun.

Sleeping King, your reign’s begun.

Gentle breeze of slowing breath,

Making offerings to death.

Closing the great mountain’s door,

Courage yet to dream once more…

Discussion of Mayan Epigraphy

Albert Abrajano

Introduction:  Archaeology and Epigraphy

Archaeology is described as a systematic study of past human life based of material remains. It is part science and part art.  There is a science to it, and it requires a level of precision and accuracy in many aspects of interpretation.  However the problem with it is that hypotheses formulated about the past, in general cannot be tested for absolute truth.  In fact, one can look at the field of archeology as a series of very highly educated guesses.  The record is vastly incomplete; hence it leaves room for connecting information that we know with greater certainty.  This notion is supported by the constant scholarly debate that goes on in the field about individual’s interpretations of the evidence, many times both very valid. The absolute truth about the matter is in fact that it is difficult to know for sure, barring somehow going back in time and witnessing history for oneself.  If only the dead could talk, then that would provide more insight about the past.  Indeed, a first hand account from those who lived during the time in question, would likely bear more merit that an archaeologist interpretation in the field and the laboratory, many thousands of years late.  Though we can't speak to the dead, we do have one type of evidence that is almost as good. Around 3500 BCE, humans developed a tool that would change the world as we know it.  They became literate.  But what use is writing if we cannot understand it?  Even today, there are many types of writing used. From Japanese Kanji to Arabic, there are many forms of live languages today that are still a mystery to many of us. Even within our "Roman script" there is a great variation, not only in language but also in writing styles.  Enter the epigrapher.

Epigraphy is the study of inscriptions, and while the main focus of epigraphers, since the 16th century has been on Roman and Greek inscriptions, their methods and expertise can give archaeologists valuable insight in their interpretations of the other evidence. Fortunately, once people began to write, there is generally never a shortage of examples. From grand monuments, commemorating great military victories, to cups found in trash pile outside the ruins, or possibly the Holy Grail of writings, actual manuscripts.  More recently, however, epigraphers have begun to put their skills to use in another part of the world.

Mayan Writings

Mesoamerica is a culture area that extended from central Honduras on the south to, in Mexico, the Soto la Marina River in Tamaulipas on the north. And it was there that that some of the largest ancient caches of literary wealth is found in the new world. Finding and recognizing writing from art is one thing, but actually being able to decipher it is another. There is also the matter of the high complexity of Mayan writing. One thing is the apparent hieroglyphic nature of the Mayan writing system. At a glace, with over 800 seemingly unique glyphs recorded, and the dual column spread, it would appear that the language is largely hieroglyphic. It is accepted now that Maya exhibits not only both hieroglyphic and syllabic elements, but it is possible to combine them to represent even more complex ideas. This is not entirely clear in the formation of the glyphs. Some glyphs seem to have only one major element, while others are built up from smaller elements that constitute a glyph, much like Korean Hangul. There could be more added into a glyph than just what fits into a syllable, and there is a great deal of complexity within each glyph, both pictorially and artistically(Callahan, 1997).  The following inscription from the Naranjo staircase is such an example.

(Fig1)

Further difficulties arise in the artistic nature of the Mayan writers. It appears that there are also a variety of ways certain glyphs can be written, and it's not just a matter of preference by the authors. In many cases we see different ways of creating the same word implemented on the same text, by the same author. This is due to the creative and artistic nature of Mayan writing. Many examples we have of Mayan writing come from architectural sources, such as buildings, temples, monuments and stele. These writings were not simply for reading, considering most of the population was illiterate, but for their aesthetic quality as well. These texts, to those who could read, symbolized the honor and grandeur of the person who had the building commissioned. The basis of the "beauty" of the art of writing seems to have been variation and stylistic enhancements. And while these styles might be pleasing to the eye, they make the decipherment more difficult. In the example below, the "u" vowel has many ways it can appear in a Mayan script.

(Fig 2)

The ones on top are the bigger representations and usually appear as the center of the glyph, accompanied by other syllables glyphs, and the ones below are of other ways of representing U that usually are written accompanying portrait glyphs or joined with other stylized symbols. These symbols can be combined in several different ways; sometimes they can be prefixes, suffixes, and even infixes, depending on the way they are drawn in relation with each other. (Callahan, 1997)

Decipherment of Mayan Texts

Though it was stunted for some time, the mid-twentieth century discoveries of Tatiana Proskouriakoff helped epigraphers begin to tackle the challenge. Proskouriakoff had theorized that the recovered inscriptions from stele and monumental architecture were, in fact, historical records. And through the analysis of the pattern of dates and hieroglyphs, she was able to demonstrate a sequence of seven Mayan rulers who collectively ruled for two hundred years. Aside from historical documents inscribed onto monuments, such as buildings and stele, there were other subjects about which the Mayans wrote. Archaeologists have also uncovered several codices that speak of other matters. Not surprisingly, as evident of from the focus on the dates recorded on the monument's historical inscriptions, the Mayans also kept records of astronomical occurrences and had developed a complex calendar. Their calendar (like ours) was based primarily on lunar and solar cycles. But their notation goes far beyond the "Day-Month-Year" configuration. The inscription below shows an example of the Mayan Long Count system.

(Fig 3) Lintel 21 at Yaxchilan

9 Baktuns (9 x 144,000 days = 1,296,000 days)
0 Katuns (0 x 7200 days)
19 Tuns (19 x 360 days = 6840 days)
2 Uinals (2 x 20 days = 40 days)
4 Kins (4 days)

This count is supposedly from the beginning of time, on 0.0.0.0.0, which approximately correlates to the date September 6, 3114 BC on the Gregorian calendar. Another interesting point is the "base twenty" number system that the Mayans developed. This reflects in the Mayan long count as well. These dates did not change or have to compensate for the solar or lunar cycles.

            There was also another set of notation in regards to another calendar. This is the 260-day sacred calendar, or Tzolkin as it was referred to. It consisted of a twenty-day week, which were recorded as names, and a thirteen-day week, which were recorded as numbers. The way it was read is that the two cycles would rotate independent of each other. But the particular offset of numbers was able to cycle through once every 260 days. There were also 18 months that changed at the end of every 20 day cycle, which completed every 360 days. There were also 5 ceremonial nameless days at the end of that cycle to complete a 365-day year. These 5 days were considered unlucky so nothing of importance was conducted for those days. But the calendar picked up again after that.

The somewhat formulaic structure of their writing style also lends a hand in helping decipher other historical texts as well. We see on much of the monumental architecture, and other examples of text a series of numbered glyphs. Although the glyphs seem to remain constant, there is a variety of ways to represent numbers in Mayan writing. As shown below with the numbers nine and fifteen, numbers have a both a numerical glyph and a portrait glyph.

Nine                                           Fifteen        (Fig 4)

However, as we can see in calendar markings that these are combined with day names or month names, revealing their numerical status.  By comparing dates, even the values of the portrait number glyphs are present.  For example nine ahau, could be represented as

                                         Or                                     .

(Fig 5)

            The next step in figuring out Mayan text would have to come by being able to determine what, in fact, comes after the date. The next clue came from the Dresden codex, first cataloged by Johann Christian Goetze in 1744, after acquiring it from a private collector. It consisted of ritual almanacs, and natural cycles, including eclipse and Venus cycles. This was instrumental in associating visual graphics with the accompanied texts. Along with further patterning, some glyphs would be repeated and some can be changed. Coincidentally, portraits depicting action accompany some of the texts. (Matthews,1998) This observation eventually led to the interpretation of several verb actions. And although it is not direct reading, with enough of the same examples, a general consensus can be made about what some of these verbs mean.

            Yet another breakthrough was the discovery of the linguistic verb object subject typology. (Matthews,1998) This allows epigraphers to at least now know what part of speech they are examining. This typology, consequently still used in many of the modern day Mayan languages, means that the word order is usually the verb glyph, followed by an object (if there is one), and then the subject. English on the other hand is SVO or Subject-Verb-Object. Comparatively, sentence structure would look like this:

Subject Verb Object - "Paul ate an apple"

Verb Object Subject – "Ate an apple Paul"

It is also common to have a sentence without the object expressly mentioned.

Subject Verb Object - "Paul ate."

Verb Object Subject – "Ate Paul"

This reflects in Mayan glyphs as well, shown below is part of an inscription of a

sarcophagus lid in the Temple of Inscriptions of Palenque. (Criscenzo, 1997)

(Fig 6)

Knowing the word order, epigraphers can now determine not only whether or not they are likely looking at a verb, or noun, but combined with the historical contexts, be able to associate Glyph markings to specific people. In other words, since the inscriptions were historical, and that most of the writing was probably commissioned by people with power, this lead to the recognition of proper names, specifically, names of Kings and other nobles.

            There are also other ways of confirming specific names in the Mayan inscriptions. For example, shown below is a portrait of someone (Hanab Pacal) accompanied by two glyphs. One has been though to be read, u b'ah, '[It is] the image of ...', but the other glyph is also represented in the text in the word position of the subject. (Matthews,1998) As it is apparent in the inscription of Figure 6 and the second glyph of Figure 7, the glyph is very similar.

(Fig 7)

Usually, archaeologist tend to look at evidence tell stories of the culture as a whole. But writing has always been able to reveal something about the individual. It might not be a common individual, but it gives researchers a glimpse to what life was like to at least a portion of the population. Being able to track individuals via sarcophagi and other inscriptions tell us a story of a life in that time. And though these people may not have been common laborers and merchants they were the leaders, the movers and the shakers of Maya Civilization. The study of these people is obviously beneficial in creating timelines and for postulating hypotheses on the trends and eventually the downfall of the civilizations.

Conclusions: State of Mayan Epigraphy

            The current state of understanding of Mayan writing has vastly improved over the course of the past half-century, but there is still much left to understand. To date, the inscriptions have only been able to be interpreted, not a straight reading. Other aspects in archaeology also help in the interpretation of ancient Mayan glyphs, not necessarily in the advancement of the reading, but in confirming the facts and current interpretations. Other sciences such astronomy also aids in the interpretation and confirmation of Mayan solar, lunar and Venus cycles, as well as eclipse tables. As any other field, cross disciplining with related fields yield far more holistic information and broaden the paradigm of what can be discovered by analyzing these ancient texts. From the creation of the world to the death of specific individual rulers, Mayan epigraphy gives us even more insight on this rich and ancient culture, the intricacies of religion, science, and even politics are recorded all over the Mayan world waiting to be discovered, and a slumbering culture is waiting to be given new life.

Works Cited

Callahan. Kevin L. “Maya Writing Systems.” Mesoamerican Writing systems. 1997.

<http://www.angelfire.com/ca/humanorigins/writing.html>

Criscenzo, Jeeni. “Temple of Inscriptions.” The Maya. 1997. <http://www.jaguar-

sun.com/temple.html>

“How to Identify Classic Maya Individuals”. Foundation for the Advancement of

Mesoamerican Studies Inc. June 9, 2007. <http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/index.html>

 “Mayan Hieroglyphic Writing”. Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican

Studies Inc. June 9, 2007. <http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/index.html>

Matthews, Peter. “Who’s Who in the Classic Maya World”. Foundation for the

Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies Inc. June 9, 2007. <http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/index.html>

“Writing and Hieroglyphics.” Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. November

21,2006. <http://www.civilization.ca/civil/maya/mmc04eng.html>

Cross Cultural Emic Measures of Morbidity

Albert Abrajano

The concept of morbidity is an important aspect of Demographics. It is a measure of the individuals in a given population who are diseased. To better understand what that entails, we look for the simple dictionary definition:

2 : a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its parts that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms

In the United States there seems to be a fairly rigid definition of what it means to be sick or ill. In Western Medicine, doctors are trained to diagnose and treat certain conditions, such as microbial infections, and damaged tissue. Western Medicine also designates a different set of doctors to handle conditions of the mind. There are also a certain set of treatments assigned to treat any abnormal condition in the body or mind. After all, that would be a proper definition of what illness is, an abnormality to health. Merriam Webster defines illness as :

2 a : an unhealthy condition of body or mind b : a disordered, weakened, or unsound condition

That still is a fairly vague definition. It must all based on a preexisting definition of what is considered a normal or healthy condition. Which is, according to Merriam-Webster:

1 a : the condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit; especially : freedom from physical disease or pain b : the general condition of the body <in poor health> <enjoys good health>

As we can see, the definition of health essentially becomes “the absence of illness.” This then just becomes a question of cultural norms and what a certain population considers normal. So too, are the methods in treating, what is perceived as the deviation from normal health. In essence, in trying to understand the mere concept of illness, one must first associate it with particular cultures. Anthropologically, Illness is defined as the sufferer’s interpretation of his or her experiences, using meanings and notions of causality provided by the culture to explain misfortune, while Sickness is described as social category, in which the sick are expected to behave in a certain way (McElroy and Townsend, 2004). Let us first consider the essentially vague definition of the word Illness. One could expand the definition to include any bodily or mental state that may inhibit the functionality of the daily lives of a normal individual in a given cultural population. This could include, though not limited to, tissue damage, such as flesh wounds or broken bones, genetic abnormalities, microbial infections, and mental illnesses, including psychosomatic illnesses. Though there is little dispute about the causes of tissue damage, it is easy to determine that a burn was cause by the individual touching a hot cauldron, or a cut via stray arrow of a hunt. It is the other causes of illness that can be interpreted differently. And the most varied sort of illness in interpretation would seem to be the psychosomatic illnesses. Once one has established a definite criterion on which to define illness, only then can one take a look at the way different cultures diagnose, treat, and/or cope with illness in an emic perspective.

Humans even before Homo sapiens have known physical injuries. We see evidence of injuries in the fossil records of many pre-human ancestors. Not surprisingly, in the earliest of these fossils, we see that any major injuries were probably the eventual cause of death for these individuals. In later fossils of species such as Homo erectus and Homo neandertalensis, we see evidence of compassion in the form of older individuals, sometimes with deformities or serious injuries that have been healed. There was even a case of an erectus skull with evidence that this particular elderly individual was toothless for at least two years before he died due to the amount of re-growth of some bone material (Wilford 2005). This shows that there were others that must have cared for him. There has also been evidence of individuals with severe arthritis that were able to live out longer lives. This shows that even pre-humans had a sense of the concept of illness. They knew that certain individuals could not care for themselves, so they assisted. What exactly they did to assist the ailing, and how, may forever be a mystery. But we can see today there are many different methods in the treatment of patients in contemporary times. For example, the length of time a patient is cared for in cases of hospitalization differs greatly between countries. In the United States, the average length of hospitalization is 8.1 days. This is actually relatively short when in Europe the average is about 13-14 days. In Japan, the average time of hospitalization is much longer than those, approaching 43 days of hospitalization (Ohnuki-Tierney, 1984). For conditions such as prenatal care, in Japan, expectant mothers are recommended to admit themselves into a hospital well before the any signs of labor, while in the United States, women normally only come once labor has already started (Ohnuki-Tierney, 1984). This may indicate a discrepancy of each cultures view of something as common as pregnancy. While In the United States, it an be interpreted that Americans do not view pregnancy as something that does not seriously inhibit the normal functionality of the woman, in Japan, the woman is more considered inhibited and that they should be separated much earlier to be able to care for them better.

In the interpretation and diagnosis of mental illness is also an area in which cultures may differ in diagnosing. In Western Culture, many mental illnesses are attributed to chemical imbalance to the brain. Many cases are even considered treatable by prescription medicines. With conditions such as depression, there are many medications such as Zoloft that have been advertised as a treatment. In Japan many metal and depression based illnesses are due to “Shinikei” roughly translated to meaning “nerves”, not in a physiological sense, but in a psychological sense (Ohnuki-Tierney, 1984). Recently in the United States, there has been a debate about the over prescription of drugs to patients, especially those with mental illness. It has been shown that there are various ways in dealing with conditions such as stress and depression that do not require drugs. Psychosomatic diseases, as they are known, are also interpreted differently among different cultures. Until now, we have been mostly exploring, what have been considered to be advanced societies, even though they differ culturally. In lesser developed populations such as the Zinacanteco of Central America, illnesses, take one an even broader definition. In Zinacanteco thought, illness is seen as reflecting and expressing the status of a man’s relationship with himself, his social group, and his gods (Fabrega and Silver, 1973). Though this is similar to the definition established earlier, this calls into view another aspect of the human trappings. This definition takes into account, not only the body and mind, but also the soul. In Zinacatan, an individual’s relationship with god is considered in their overall wellness. In this sense, emotions such as hostility and envy are conditions that can permeate interpersonal relationships and cause dysfunction in the individual’s involvement in the population (Fabrega and Silver, 1973). Taking to account the anthropological definition of sickness, these conditions may, in effect promote injury and other illness in a direct or indirect way (Fabrega and Silver, 1973). For example, hostility towards a neighbor could result in a direct conflict and consequent tissue damage, or indirectly eliciting the services of a sorcerer to dispatch the neighbor. The Zinacanteco’s also consider illness in three categories: Strong Illness, which is when the sufferer is heavily incapacitated from normal function, Weak Illness which is when the sufferer s only mildly affected by the illness, and Simple Illness, in which the illness is brief and does not incapacitate the sufferer at all, and is described as “little more than a monetary concern.” (Fabrega and Silver, 1973) This makes sense when one considers that even physical injuries are attributed to spiritual states of being.

Spiritual well being is another source of illness. In these cases, even conditions not recognized in Western Medicine can be considered as true illnesses in our definition. Traditionally in Judeo-Christian texts, the were marks of ritual “uncleanliness” such as vaginal bleeding, discharge after childbirth, penile discharge, and skin blemishes known as tsara’at (Freeman and Abrams, 1999). These could bar the individual from entry to the temple, which, at one point in time was the main hub of social interaction. Though tsara’at may have a true medical cause for concern, the mark of vaginal bleeding is interesting in the fact that a very natural female bodily process was considered an unnatural sign of dirtiness. The causes of illness can also be attributed to divine powers. Though some people may attribute suffering to malevolent gods or spirits, Judeo-Christian Tradition, God may let individuals be afflicted by suffering for a greater good. In many instances in the bible, God put man through struggles to reveal His glory or teach man a lesson. In the book of Genesis, God physically struggles (wrestles) with Jacob, eventually breaking his hip in order to teach Jacob.

Jacob Wrestles With God

 ²² That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³ After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. ²⁴ So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. ²⁶ Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
      But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

 ²⁷ The man asked him, "What is your name?"
      "Jacob," he answered.

 ²⁸ Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

 ²⁹ Jacob said, "Please tell me your name."
      But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.

 ³⁰ So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

 ³¹ The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel and he was limping because of his hip. ³² Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.

~(Genesis 32:22-32 NIV Bible)

As we can see here, Jacobs suffering is considered a blessing, even an honor. Though it may have, at the time, seemed like an inhibition, according to Judeo Christian tradition. That point in time is what specifically put Jacob on the right path that he was destin to take. In other words, Jacob was able to perform culturally what was considered normal (following the will of God) because of his injuries (Bae, 2007). Chapter 1 in the book of James relays a similar message:

“Trials and Temptations

 ²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does… “

“… ¹²Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

 ¹³When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. ¹⁵Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. .”

~(James 1:2-8, 12-18, NIV Bible)

This passage is even more general in the way Christians are supposed to view suffering according to James. Verse 4 mentions that trials are what complete a person by giving them wisdom. The second part of the passage also gives reference to persevering during trials, which many times in the bible,u translates to physical affliction. In each case, these people were chosen so that they could learn lessons and take something greater from it by enduring and having faith (Bae, 2007). Some conditions, then, that may affect many people, are considered blessings in the sense that God is trying to teach the individual a lesson. In this case illnesses then take on a less inhibiting role in life, which may in turn render them less affected to certain non physical illnesses, such as depression and stress.

As there seems to be certain cultural resistances to some forms of mental illnesses, there are other types that seems to be culturally specific in nature. Though not surprisingly many of these seem to be psychosomatic in nature. One very prevalent one of these psychosomatic illness found in North America would be Anorexia nervosa. The symptoms of which include the sufferer to inflict a near starvation diet, and in most cases combined with extreme exercise. This illness is usually suffered by adolescent females due to the near impossible standards of beauty set forth my media. Left untreated, this could lead to starvation, though other serious symptoms such as anemia, low blood pressure, osteoporosis and even kidney failure (McElroy and Townsend, 2004). Bulimia nervosa is similar to Anorexia in that it is an eating disorder found predominantly in North America. This is when the sufferer induces vomiting or taking laxatives to purge their systems after eating. This illness has the added danger of dehydration and the erosion of the esophagus and mouth due the oral purging of stomach acid. Though there is some natural lining to protect these organs, frequent purges quickly neutralize any defense the body may have (McElroy and Townsend, 2004).

Culture-bound syndromes are not only psychosomatic. But definitions if health can be redefined almost at a whim. Linked to the previously discussed Anorexia nervosa, though quite opposite, is the recent virtual epidemic of American obesity (McElroy and Townsend, 2004). The catch is that up until the twentieth century, what is now considered mild to moderate obesity was a social marker of beauty and high social standing. Recently, however, such a lifestyle is looked down upon and considered to be a serious disease by people today. One set back of seemingly arbitrarily assigned diseases is when people from other cultures, that still hold the viewpoints similar to nineteenth century United States, about the beauty and high social status, come to the United States. Cultures, such as the Samoans, who hold such views of beauty. This cultural bias by western doctors has tended to deter these people from normal clinical visits from the doctor.

Most of these culturally bound syndromes arise from the sufferer not fulfilling certain roles and possibly receiving negative criticism for not meeting the expectations of the culture which they are a part of. These many of these types of illnesses are similar cross culturally in that they are essentially reactions to stress in an individual's environment. The part that makes this seem culturally distinct is that every population faces their own situations that they view as stressful. Many times, people are able to cope with stresses, without disrupting their roles, but if they are not unable to cope, they turn to other distressful behaviors in response to the stress. Outlets which people can turn to in these situations differ culturally. In the United States, long term drug abuse and alcoholism can be linked with the inability to cope with cultural stresses. Others are not so long term.

The Inuit are said to have bouts of what is called Arctic Hysteria, or pibloktoq in their native language. The attack normally consists of the sufferer tearing off their clothing and running around making senseless syllable noise and other animal noises.Though there are many hypothesis about the onset of pibloktoq, including calcium deficiency, it usually occurs in the long winter months, though cases have been reported at all times of the year. But the most common explanation is that pibloktoq is a learned hysteria and seems to be the reaction to feelings of helplessness and confinement. This is supported by the frequent winter occurrences, the sufferer having feelings of depression before the attack, and that the sufferers are usually females, though some men have shown symptoms. There is also the case of a European contracting it while living with the Inuit. (McElroy and Townsend, 2004)

What can these insights on emic morbidity contribute to practical application in the field? Consider the case of Kuru in New Guinea. It is an illness that, in the local Fore language means “trembles” or “fear”. This, they believed was the cause of sorcery, and were not very receptive to the medicines given out by the Australian government . The symptoms actually corresponded with a curse that Fore sorcerers chanted:

I break the bones in your legs.

I break the bones in your feet.

I break the bones in your arms.

I break the bones in your hands.

And finally I make you die.

(Lindenbaum,1971 )

The truth is that neither the Fore nor the Government was aware of the actual cause of the disease at the time. The government thought that initially it was a genetic mutation, but in order to keep occurring at the rate it did, there must have been some genetic advantage in having Kuru, as opposed to not. Further studies revealed that Kuru was the result of specific protein they ingested via the cannibalistic burial practice in which the women consume the internal organs of the deceased, sometimes feeding their children. After banning the cannibalistic practice, instances of Kuru went down dramatically. Since the incubation time of Kuru was highly variable, instances of Kuru surfaced sporadically for about twenty years after the ban was implemented (McElroy and Townsend, 2004).

The etic perspectives of sicknesses is also not without merit. In fact some of the most beneficial or at least, insightful criticisms, whether positive or negative have been made by researchers outside of the system in question. This is not even related to the distinctions between so called Eastern and Western Medicine as is often the case. We often compare “Wesern Medicine” to remote areas, such as Navajo medicine men, or Chinese apothecaries. But There is always a different insights to be gained by taking etic perspective. This doesn't mean analysis of Western Medicine by Dobe !Kung Healer. However using the methods anthropologists developed in analyzing outwardly with as little ethnocentric connotations as possible. Much can be learned about American Medicine when explored, say, by a German Anthropologists. This paper is in no way an attempt to discredit the fields of Demographics and cultural anthropology, but to explore a new dimension of illness that is not inherent in the data. It's also useful to explore different conditions that may be used to determine illness in other underdeveloped cultures, and even, possibly to take another look in what Westerners view as illness. Such a holistic understanding of illness and injury is beneficial in trying to understand the the human condition. Though we have a pretty good handle on the physical nature of humans, we need to draw on the many psychological aspects of health and illness. Taking this paradigm, cultural background is essential in a person's view of themselves, and, in fact, other peoples views of them, both of which are used to define illness and sickness.

Works Cited

Abrams, Rabbi Judith Z. Freeman, David L Illness and Health in the Jewish Tradition. The Jewish

Publication Society. Philadelphia, 1999.

Bae, Jeong. Bible Study: Suffering and Affliction. Smallgroup Bible Study Leader in the Korean

Christian Fellowship of NY. Troy NY, April 4, 2007.

Fabrega, Horacio, Jr. Silver, Daniel B. Illness and Shamanistic curing in Zinacatan. Standford University Press. Stanford, California. 1973.

Lindenbaum, Shirley. Kuru Sorcery: Disease and danger in the New Guinea Highlands. Mayfield

Publishing Company. Palo Alto, CA.1979

McElroy, Ann. Townsend, Patricia K. Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective. Westview

Press. Cambridge, MA. 2004

Merriam-Webster Dictionary online. <www.m-w.com>. May 4, 2007.

Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. Illness and Culture in Contemporary Japan: An anthropological View.

Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.1984.

The Holy Bible. New International Version.

Wilford, John Noble. Roots of compassion seen in toothless fossil. San Fransico Chronicle.Thursday,

April 7, 2005.

Following Mayan Individuals From Mayan Heirglyphic Text.

When trying to identify a Classic Maya individual, the first task we have is to isolate that individual's name in hieroglyphic inscriptions. Since the vast majority of surviving Classic Maya monumental texts are historical in content, it follows that they should contain the names of historical individuals. The question is how can we break down the inscription in order to identify references to individual names from the rest of the text? One way is to work out where in the hieroglyphic sentence the name is likely to occur: for this we need to know about Maya syntax: the word order within Maya hieroglyphic sentences.

It is now well established that the preferred word order in Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions is Verb-Object-Subject (this is also the usual order in modern Mayan languages). Many hieroglyphic sentences involve actions of the king, and in most such statements there is no grammatical object-just the verb and the subject (who is the king). Also, since most surviving Maya inscriptions are historical in nature, dates usually are involved. Maya hieroglyphic dates are typically recorded at the beginning of the sentence (usually in 'Calendar Round' form), and are often introduced by a 'Distance Number', an interval of days, months, and years leading from the date of the preceding sentence to the date of the sentence at hand. In other words, most Maya hieroglyphic sentences consist of the following sequence: Distance Number, Date, Verb, Object (if present), Subject.

Some sentences are so short that the identification of the subject is quite easy. For example, in the text on the edge of a sarcophagus in the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque many of the passages consist of the Calendar Round date and just two other glyphs. In most cases the glyph that follows the Calendar Round date is identical, and it is logical to assume (with our knowledge of Maya syntax) that this glyph should be the verb of the sentence. The other glyph, then, should be the grammatical subject, and if the text is indeed historical, it should record the name of the person who is doing the action of the verb.

Presumably, if there is only one name glyph recorded, as in many of the passages of the Sarcophagus Lid Edge, that one glyph is the customary name of the individual. In other references to the individual, there may be additional glyphs, which comprise a more extended name phrase containing other names and titles of the individual. The additional glyphs in a more extended name phrase commonly contain additional names of the individual as well as titles that the individual held, and sometimes also a statement containing his or her parentage.

Another way in which we can identify historical individual names is by looking at glyphic captions that often accompany their portraits. These captions are invariably adjacent to the portrait of the person they name, and often the name phrase is preceded by the hieroglyph u b'ah, '[It is] the image of ...', although sometimes just the name is recorded.

We can usually identify personal names of historical individuals with a high degree of reliability. Minimally, their personal name is recorded, but more often we also get additional names and titles. Calendar names, so common elsewhere in Mesoamerica, are very rare in Classic Maya texts. The names by which we know the Maya kings appear to be 'royal' names, adopted upon their accession. Because of the issue of legitimacy in royal succession, many kings recorded their parentage, enabling us to begin the reconstruction of royal genealogies for several of the greatest Classic Maya kingdoms. Titles are common in the name phrases of Maya lords, and their study is important for our understanding of Classic Maya social organization and the Classic Maya court. Some titles seem to be universal, while others are distinctly regional.

Given how much 'history' we now know about the Classic Maya, it is rather ironic that we still no relatively little about their personal naming patterns. We do know that the way their names were recorded could be quite varied: some rulers are referred to with only one glyph in some instances while in others their names and titles can occupy twenty or more glyph blocks and take up most of the passage. We also have indications that there were several components to a Maya personal name, particularly that of a Classic Maya king.

Although it is almost a hallmark of Mesoamerican civilization to have a part of one's name taken from one's birth date, this pattern was not nearly so widespread among the Classic Maya. Nevertheless, we do have a few examples of such names. From Palenque, especially, we have some examples of what are called 'child names'. These are personal names that presumably were given at the birth of the child, and for most individuals probably remained for life as their personal name. In several sites, one name is widespread among the ruling lineage members. It is possible that this is some kind of family name, although this is by no means certain. In the case of rulers, a royal name would also be adopted upon their accession. Again the best evidence for this comes from Palenque, where we are told on occasion that 'such and such is his accession name' . In most cases, the rulers used this royal name without reference to their child name.

In addition to these names, Maya kings and nobles could include various titles in their name phrases. It was also very important that Maya rulers and nobles were able to document their genealogy, as part of their claim to holding office legitimately. Because of this (in addition to reasons of filial piety, perhaps), parentage statements were fairly commonly included in the name phrases of individuals, particularly those of kings.

In Mesoamerica outside the Maya area, calendar names were often the most commonly recorded component of an individual's name. Quite simply, these names recorded the position within the ritual 260-day calendar on which the individual was born-rather like our naming a baby 'Tuesday'. Rulers like the Mixtec Lord 8 Deer are among the most famous of all Mesoamerican individuals. And his calendar name Yya Nacuaa (Pohl 1994:49), or '8 Deer' as we transcribe it, is better known (and probably was in his own time too) than his personal name, which we translate as 'Jaguar Claw'.

Among the Classic Maya, however, we have very few recorded calendar names. Most of the calendar names that we do have, in fact, tend to be associated with locations on the fringes of the Classic Maya world. For example, there are several calendar names recorded in texts from Palenque and its environs, but all are plausibly associated with the coastal lowlands to the north of the site: the ruler Wak Kimi Janab' Pakal III, Ho' K'an Yitz'in, and Chan Ajaw ?? Itz'at are all named in inscriptions from Palenque itself, and another Chan Ajaw, Chan Ajaw Aj Ux Te' K'u, is named on a panel from the (probable) nearby site of Pomoy. Wak Kimi is the calendar name '6 Kimi', Ho' K'an is '5 K'an', and Chan Ajaw is '4 Ajaw' (it is possible that the two Chan Ajaw names refer to the same individual).

Other calendar names, such as ones recorded on Ucanal Stela 4, are recorded in square cartouches to highlight their 'foreign-ness'. If the Maya used Calendar names in their daily life, there is very little evidence for it from their inscriptions.

In some sites, components of names are shared widely enough that it is possible that they are in fact family names. An example of this is at El Cayo, a secondary center within the kingdom of Piedras Negras. El Cayo was ruled by a family whose members had the subordinate rank of sajal. There are several known rulers of El Cayo, and all of them have k'u-ti-ma or k'u-ti, k'utim, as the final component in their name. This may be a title, but if so it is unknown from other Maya sites. It is possible, therefore, that K'utim was a kind of family name of the ruling lineage of El Cayo.

At other sites there are some similar possibilities: for example, Ak, 'turtle', is a part of the name of almost all the Piedras Negras kings, and 'Jaguar' and 'Skull' names are common at Yaxchilan. Many of the Tikal and Copan rulers have K'awil in their names. From the above examples it is apparent that animal and deity names are common in these patterns of possible family names.

The Classic Maya individuals referred to in the inscriptions fall into two categories: rulers and others. There are indications that the names of rulers as we know them were royal names, usually adopted upon their accession. This is most clearly indicated at Palenque and Piedras Negras, where we have evidence of the child names of several rulers as well as some explicit references to royal names.

For example, the inscription of the Palace Tablet at Palenque begins with the birth of the future king K'inich K'an Joy Chitam II. In the lengthy statement of his birth his royal name does not occur. Rather, he is named with glyphs that commonly occur in later references to K'inich K'an Joy Chitam II: Ch'ok "Ux Ch'akan Kab'" Mat.

The first of these glyphs, ch'ok, is generally translated loosely as 'the youth', and has the implication that the person named is a junior member of his lineage. It doesn't necessarily mean simply that the individual is very young-even older individuals could be called ch'ok if they were not the leading lineage member.

In addition, there is evidence of 'upward mobility': one could become the B'a Ch'ok, 'First Youth'. And, in fact, this happened to the future K'inich K'an Joy Chitam II upon the accession of his elder brother, K'inich Kan B'alam II, as king. On the Palace Tablet, following the statement recording the accession of K'inich Kan B'alam II, we are told that the future K'inich K'an Joy Chitam II, who was the younger brother of K'inich Kan B'alam II, became the 'First Youth', in this case the heir apparent to the throne of Palenque.

Earlier in the Palace Tablet, we are also explicitly given the royal name of K'inich Kan B'alam II. A panel now in Emiliano Zapata, Tabasco, records his birth date, and we are told that his name was 'Kan B'alam'. If this was indeed his birth name, it appears that his royal name changed only with the adoption of the honorific prefix K'inich, 'Sun-faced'.

Another accession name is recorded at Piedras Negras. The text on the Left Side of Stela 14 begins with the accession date (A1-A11) of Yo'nal Ak III in AD 758. After the verb for accession (B11), the child name of Yo'nal Ak III is recorded (A12-A13). The next three glyphs (B13-B14) say 'Yo'nal Ak [III] is his accession name', paralleling the 'royal name' statements on Palenque's Palace Tablet. Explicit statements of Classic Maya royal names like the ones mentioned above are quite rare. In other cases, differences between the names of individuals before became king and the names they used once in power imply that the pattern was widespread. In the case of many Classic Maya kings, however, only one name has survived: generally it can be assumed that this name is their royal name.

Most of the surviving Maya inscriptions detail the lives of Classic Maya elite individuals. These individuals often are recorded with extensive name phrases usually include a number of titles. In Classic Maya passages, over 80% involves the name of the ruler along with a long string of titles.

Some titles are closely tied to the high status of the individual. For example, a title now read as Kalomte' (earlier attempts at reading this glyph were "Macuch" and "Chakte'") appears to be linked with the most prestigious of Classic Maya kings. Kings and high-ranking nobles can be of ajaw status, and can have the title Ajaw, 'lord', incorporated in their names and also in several titles. The most notable of these is the 'emblem glyph', a high title of kings which incorporates also the name of the kingdom. An honorific prefix or suffix attached to many royal names is a title that reads K'inich 'Sun-faced'. Lesser nobles can have titles such as Sajal.

Numerous other titles include Ch'ajom, 'Scatterer'; Pitzil, 'Ballplayer'; Yajawte', 'Lord of [i.e., belonging to] the Tree'; Yajawk'ak', 'Lord of [i.e., belonging to] the Fire'; B'akab' and so on.

Other 'titles' probably relate to particular occupations and offices: Itz'at, 'Learned Man'; Cheb', 'Artist'; Aj Kuhun; Ti' Sak Hun, etc.

Two important categories of titles are the so-called 'k'atun titles' and 'directional titles'. The former combine the 'k'atun' glyph (which in the Classic period was read winik hab', 'twenty years' [of 360 days]) with a numeral prefix, ahead of one of several other titles, such as Kalomte', Ajaw, Sajal, Ch'ajom, and Pitzil. The 'numbered k'atun titles' are particularly important because they incidentally record the age of the individual by saying in which k'atun of life he or she is on the date of the passage in question, as Proskouriakoff (1963:153) first recognised. 'Directional titles' combine one of the four cardinal directions with a recognised title, such as kalomte' or chajom.

Women also are recorded with many of these titles: they are written with the 'female prefix' sign, read Ix, 'woman', as prefix to form titles such as Ix K'alomte', 'Lady Kalomte''; Ix Ajaw, literally 'Lady Lord' –this title is attested in Colonial Mayan dictionaries as 'queen'; Ix Sajal, 'Lady Sajal'; and Ix B'akab', 'Lady B'akab'.

Numerous women are also named in the inscriptions of the Classic Maya. Their importance as wives and mothers within the royal families ensured for many women that their names would be preserved for posterity. A few women ruled their kingdoms in their own right, and other women are prominently named and portrayed, as wives and mothers of kings, and as noble women in the royal courts of the ancient Maya. We have a few examples of women shown as military conquerors, and at least one instance of a woman captive.

In Classic Maya art, women are usually identifiable from elements in their portraiture (such as their long hair) and from their costume. In hieroglyphic texts women are identified from the presence, in front of their name, of a 'female head prefix', as it has become known. This prefix represents a youthful female head, with a long strand of hair trailing down in front of her ear. (A variant of this sign, portrays a female head with the hair done up in a kind of bun above the ear, and without the long, trailing strand of hair.) One or other of these head variants almost always precedes the name and titles of women,.

The reading of this female prefix has long been a problem for Maya epigraphers, and over the years several readings have been proposed. The main candidates have been ix, ixik, ixok, na', and ch'up, all of which are words with the general meaning of 'woman'.

Until very recently, Peter Mathews thought that in order to avoid this confusion, and because there was no clear consensus on the reading, it would be best simply to refer to women as 'Lady ...' This had the double advantage of avoiding the disagreement among scholars over the reading of the female head prefix and at the same time making the identification of women quite clear. The problem has always been that there are several different affixes that can be attached to the female head prefix. The sign i- can be prefixed, and -ki can be suffixed indicating a reading ixik, but in other cases the head has a -xi suffix, indicating a reading ix; there is even one case of an apparent phonetic spelling i-xi, ix. In other examples, such as Stela 3 from Piedras Negras, signs that read -na immediately follow the female head prefix, which was seen by some scholars to indicate a possible reading na', the original meaning of which was 'mother'.

All this means that most of the 'female head prefixes' to names probably read ix, literally 'female' but perhaps better freely translated as 'Lady'. In some cases the reading is ixik, but in those cases the female head is in suffixed position.

A specialized usage of Ix should also be noted. Some female names incorporate what look like emblem glyph forms. The male title equivalent reads (K'uhul) ... Ajaw, 'the (holy) ... lord', where 'lord' has the sense of 'king'. The female title reads Ix ... Ajaw, literally 'Lady ... Lord'. However in at least two colonial-period lowland Mayan languages, Yukatek and Tzotzil the compound ix ... ajaw means 'queen' (ix ahau in Colonial Yukatek and the cognate form x'ojov in Colonial Tzotzil. In cases where a female 'name' is preceded by ix and followed by ajaw, it may well be that the translation should be 'queen'-indeed, the examples that come readily to hand do all involve wives or mothers of Classic Maya kings. This in turn begs the question whether some of the female 'names' recorded in the inscriptions are proper names or whether in fact they are titles, labeling the queen but not naming her.

The most poignant depictions of Classic Maya individuals are almost invariably the captives. They are portrayed beneath the feet of triumphant rulers, or kneeling, bound, by his side. Usually they are bound with ropes, and most often they are naked or nearly so. Commonly they are depicted with costume elements that mark them for sacrifice. In some cases they are shown in the act of being captured, usually by having their hair grabbed by their captor.

Usually, captive portraits are accompanied with glyphs that identify them (although sometimes even that dignity is not accorded them and the portrait is anonymous). Most often, the accompanying glyphic caption is the captive's name glyph. Occasionally, however, the captive is referred to only by a reference to the place from whence he came. In addition, names could be modified upon the capture of an individual. Generally, the modification involved a 'demotion' or a 'generalization' that had the effect of diluting the captured individual's prestige. No doubt this was part of the concerted ritual humiliation that followed a battle and often preceded the sacrifice of the captive.

Captives generally do not have honorific titles recorded in their name captions. The aim of the record seems to have been to name the captive, in order to show how great the captor was, but at the same time to strip the captive of any noble titles and honorifics, just as their portraits show them stripped of their elite costumes. For example, when the Palenque king K'inich Joy Chitam II was captured by his enemy K'inich B'aknal Chak of Tonina, he was portrayed as a captive at the latter site. His portrait is curiously ambiguous: he still wears his jade royal diadem, and a simple necklace of jade beads, but he wears sacrificial clothing and ear ornaments and his arms are bound with rope. His name is carved on his thigh, but it is recorded simply as "Joy Chitam", without the honorific prefix K'inich, 'Sun-faced'. The last glyph is the Palenque emblem glyph, B'akal Ajaw, 'Lord of the B'ak polity', but again the customary honorific prefix (K'uhul, 'Divine'), has been left out. In other cases, references to individuals on the losing side can involve an even more dramatic 'demotion'. At Dos Pilas the defeated king of Tikal, Nun U Jol Chak, is on one occasion referred to as 'the Tikal-place [person]'. At Tonina, captives who were subordinate nobles from the Palenque kingdom are referred to as vassal lords of 'The Ballplayer' –almost certainly a reference to the contemporary Palenque king, K'inich Kan B'alam II. When it comes to lower-ranking captives, we basically have two naming patterns. Many are apparently referred to by their personal names, but some captives are simply named Aj ..., 'he of ...'-in other words giving their provenance but not their personal name.

In some parts of the Classic Maya World, captors incorporated in their name phrases information about their captives. This could be done in two ways. In some cases, rulers would include the name of their captive their own extended name phrase. This involved the use of an expression called the 'captor of ...' title. The 'captor of' expression comes in two glyphs. The first probably reads u chan, and can be translated as 'the guardian of'. The second glyph is the name of the captive. This can best be shown by the example of "Jewelled Skull", a captive of the great Yaxchilan king Yaxun B'alam IV. On Lintel 8 of Yaxchilan, Yaxun B'alam IV is shown in the act of capturing "Jewelled Skull", on 9.16.4.1.1 (AD 755). In subsequent monuments, Yaxun B'alam IV very often included 'captor of "Jewelled Skull"' among his titles: an example can be seen in Yaxchilan Lintel 3, which contains the date 9.16.5.0.0 (AD 756). There are even anachronistic references to the capture: Lintel 1 of Yaxchilan also records Yaxun B'alam IV as the 'captor of "Jewelled Skull"', despite the fact that the recorded date is 9.16.1.0.0 (AD 752)-three years before the capture! Lintel 1, however, was carved (along with Lintels 2 and 3) around 9.16.6.0.0 (AD 757) or later.

A second way in which captives could be incorporated in the name phrases of their captors is in another title, referred to as the 'count of captives'. This title is composed of three elements: the first is Aj 'he of ...'; the second is a number; and the third is B'ak, 'captive[s]'. The whole title, then, can be translated 'He of # Captives', and explicitly refers to the number of captives taken by the individual in his military career. The highest number of captives recorded in this title is 20 or possibly 21, recorded for Yaxun B'alam IV of Yaxchilan. In at least one instance the recorded number of captives can be seen to grow: Yaxun B'alam IV's son and successor, Itzamnaj B'alam IV, is recorded as 'He of 15 Captives' but also-once in a posthumous text-as an 'He of 16 Captives'.

Usually records of past civilizations tell stories of the culture as a whole. But writing has always been able to reveal something about the individual. It might not be a common individual, but it gives researchers a glimpse to what life was like to at least a portion of the population. Being able to track individuals via sarcophagi and other inscriptions tell us a story of a life in that time. And though these people may not have been common laborers and merchants they were the leaders, the movers and the shakers of Maya Civilization. The study of these people is obviously beneficial in creating timelines and for postulating hypotheses on the trends and eventually the downfall of the civilizations.

Ethnographic Look at Tales from the Himalayas and Central Africa.

Albert Abrajano

The discovery, history, and national geographic channels, rolled into one very powerful source, fairy tales have existed before TV and radio; before the dawn of nations, and civilizations. They have stood the ravages of time and have evolved with human kind into the ones that we hear today. Stories were not merely to entertain, but to teach virtues, morals, and tradition to the listeners. They warned of moral dangers as well as very real dangers of the world. These stories provided archetypal characters for the listener to emulate or to ridicule. They shaped the way people thought, and viewed the world around them. In a world where the average person would seldom travel more than twenty miles from their house, stories spread like wildfire on a sun scorched field. Stories traveled where people traveled, and especially on the windswept outposts of civilization, stories were shared to pass the chill of the unforgiving night. Through these tales, cultures were crossed, bridged and sometimes even woven together, though sometimes, they stood to create identity. They were dynamic, and ever changing. With each retelling,new life was breathed into it. The essence of the teller pured into its own life force as it spread with infectious haste.

The keepers of these tales, too, should be regarded with such esteem. For they are the stewards of a potentially ancient life, that, though may have existed for centuries, without the proper care, could die, buried deep in the memories of the silent dead. And if Tales were the delicate flowers in Eden's garden, then the story tellers would be like gardeners, tending to their growth while sewing the seeds for the next generation. As time progresses, distinct styles and tale types begin to form regionally within each generation. We now explore two distinct families of Tales, one hails from the bushmen of africa, and the other from the heights of the Himalayas. What types of things can these two tradition tell us of these people, and is it possible to say anything at all about a particular group based on their tales? I believe so. On an individual basis, one thing they can tell us, is what is mostly on the mind of the story teller's group. In many cases, these keepers of the tales, are no so by profession. They are normal functioning members of the culture, that have other responsibilities, and the stories are just a particular aspect of an otherwise uniform life.

In Narayan's Mondays on the Dark Side of the Moon, Urmilaji, the story teller, is a sister to tea house owners and rented her rooms out to people such as school teachers. It is not, however, what she did that played a role in her stories, but what she was; a woman, and a Hindu. She was not even the only story teller in the area. Narayan just happened to have develop a bond with this woman since child hood. And as we see many times in the book, Narayan consults other older women, neighbors mostly to provide variations or per haps clarification of the stories told by Urmilaji. Most of the tales she told where of women's rituals. In these stories, women perform rituals to worship, based on gaining merit for themselves or others. Worship was not the only way for a woman to gain merit. These separate virtues are readily revealed in the stories, among which are obedience, patients, generosity and humbleness. In “First Sour, Then Sweet” two sisters are tested by a god, based on their hospitality. The younger sister, though she is poor, gives the god (in the guise of an old man seeking shelter for the night) all that she can give (the sour berries). After he has had his fill, the god says that he has to “Take a shit” and instead of allowing him to venture off into the dark, the younger sister demonstrated her compassion by allowing him to take relieve himself, not once, but five times, once in each corner and in the middle. Her efforts and compassion were rewarded the next morning when she wakes up to see that the old man was gone, and instead of a mess, she finds mounds of riches. When the older sister comes by to check why her younger sister hasn't been to work that day, she comes and sees what the younger sister has come to posses. After finding out how her younger she orders her younger sister that the next time the old man comes around, that she should send him to her. When he finally returns, he is sent to the older sister's place where she only does for him what her sister has done, though she was far wealthier than her younger sibling. In a classic turn of events, her insincere mimicry leads only to a mess in the morning after the old man have left. She didn't realize that the test was not about what was given, but the manner in which it was given. One sister gave all she could out of compassion and the other gave as little as possible for greed. And instead of learning her lesson, the older sister had her younger sister clean up the mess left behind. The younger sister did her duty and was even further rewarded two fold by the god.

The sense of a woman's duties is also a subject in the tales told by Urmilaji. In “The Daughter-in-Law with No Groom,” a merchant's wife is overburdened with the tasks of the household and asks her husband for a daughter-in-law so that she would have help. This mere request shows some insight into some of the social structure of this society. It would seem that there was to some degree of patrilocality. This is evident for her request of a daughter-in-law. If all she needed was another woman's help, it would seem that the logical request would be simply for a daughter, but in that case, by the time she is able, she would have to be married off and then lost to some other household. The content of the story supports that she was not looking for merely another female, but specifically a daughter-in-law. This particular story revolves around the problem that this couple had no children. They had no son, so how would they have a daughter-in-law? Eventually, after consulting a Brahman and following his directions, was finally able to find his wife a Daughter-in-Law.

Not only was faithfulness to the gods rewarded, but filial piety was also a major topic in the tales. In “Daughter, My Little Bread,” the daughter starts off as very conniving. When her mother brought home supplies, she would make two pieces of bread, one larger and one smaller, and would keep the larger one for herself. Though she eventually realized the error of her ways, she one day decided to give her mother the larger piece. This was a case of too little too late, and Karma had seemed to come full circle, as her mother goes mad and demands her exact piece of little bread. This was an impossible request since the daughter had already eaten it up. Situations go from bad to worse as she ends up abandoning her mother, then further on, having her mother killed. Though she is able to get away with it for awhile, karma seemed to finally catch up with her. By the time she finally came clean she died. Another casee of filial impiety is in the case of the “Fragrant Melon”. A daughter-in-law was charged by her father in law to keep a melon aside for him. Overcome with temptation, she eats a piece of it. When the Father-in-Law asks for his melon, he sees that it is half eaten and asked his daughter-in-law what has happened. She blames it on the mouse. Again, as with the first tale of “Daughter, My Little Bread,” karma seems to come back at her as the mouse hears of the false accusations and exacts his revenge by framing her for adultery with the watchman. The mouse slips into their bed chambers at night and replaces key aspects of their clothing; the woman's blouse and the watchman's cap. She is then sentenced to be burned for her infidelity by her father-in-law, until her husband hears the truth from sacred floating boats and sheds light on the matter. Taking a step back, there seems to be more revealed, not only about karma, but again with the social structure of the household. At this time, Daughters-in-law seem to basically be the subjects of their husbands household. She was not only expected to serve her husband, but his parents as well. We even see the enormous power the father-in-law has over her. He has the authority to order her death. Whether it is despite the absence of her husband or because of it is unclear, but in the story he does so without hesitation. It is also interesting to note, that her husbands belief in her was not enough to save her from death. She had to prove to everyone that she was not guilty of adultery. There is seen also in this interaction with Narayan, Urmilaji, and the other older women in the room about the “boldness” of daughter-in-laws in the modern day. This seems to be a reminder of the ever changing climate of cultures today. This was the point in the story where the daughter-in-law lied about the mouse eating the melon. It would seem that at the time that this story ws taking place, that lie would seems almost unheard of, and very bad indeed, while in todays society, may seem like a harmless lie, to save some of her dignity in the eyes of her father-in-law, and providing that you don't have a sentient mouse who would be sore about a false accusation, it is doesn't seem all too bad in this current age;. At one point they share a chuckle at this before continuing with her story. Though, the sentience of the mouse, would today seems outlandish, or merely an anthropomorphism of animals to appeal to children, we must step back and consider the Hindu tradition. The simple basis of Hinduism is that bases on the actions of their life, a person is reincarnated after death into what they deserve. So if a mouse is to be judged by their actions, there seems to be an implicit consensus that the mouse has knowledge and control over their actions. And as we see in another tale of “The Female Weevil Who Fasted,” that this is indeed the case.

In this tale, we see that the there are two weevils who live with each other. One male, the other female. When the ritualistic Five Days of Fasting come around, the female weevil observes it and fasts, obtaining from wheat, while the male does not. It is also made very clear to us that the male Weevil has a choice and is not merely ignorant of the matter. He even boasts, after explicitly being urged by the female to fast, ”No, I am going to eat wheat. You can die of hunger. A splash of buttermilk is not enough for for me. I am going to eat my wheat.” So they both grew old and died. For her actions, the female weevil was reincarnated into the King's Daughter, while the male was reincarnated as an elephant. This is an interesting point. I can can think of no really good reason how the elephant could be considered lesser than a weevil, and in fact this could be supported by the fact the male weevil, who was reincarnated into the elephant was part of the princess' dowry, indicating a high value to elephants if they were fit for a King's dowry.. This could be interpreted as though the male weevil was not particular evil for not observing the fast, just, perhaps, indifferent. The story also gives no attention to any other differences between the two weevils besides that particular ritual. It could then be concluded that there likely was not that big of a moral deviation between the two. This, then, tells us that in Hindu culture, there are many different level of piety. The fact that you are merely not a bad person may be enough to advance you on the food ladder, but it takes true devotion to the gods to become human.and that mere observance of the Five Days of Fasting was enough from reincarnating her into perhaps another elephant, to a Queen.

Though storires about women are certainly not the only stories that Narayan was able to compile from Urmilaji and the other, they made up the majority of the tales that were told. Though even in the other tales, these values came up as well. In “The Girl who went on Quests,” the sister was able to be commanded by her sister-in-law. This might stem from the perception that they rank higher because of their marriage to the girl's brothers, and though they were not blood ties and resided in their husband's house, in which the unmarried girl was of the blood, the sister's in law still took precedence over the unmarried girl. Though this also showed the devotions the brothers had for their sister when they asked their wives to look after her. This kind of devotion is some what mirrored in the relationship that Urmilaji's brother share as they run there tea house.

The African tales have a sort of different flavor. They could be considered slightly more organized. While Urmilaji was just a woman who happened to tell stories, the African storytellers seem to put a little more emphasis on the performance of the tales. In the tales themselves, there seems to be more formulaic repetition of certain passages, though, some may say, awkwardly translated into English, are compatible to the effect of the European tales, that perhaps even rhyme in their native language. An example would be from the tale of “The Three Little Pigs.” the verbal exchange of “'Little pig, little pig, let me come in.' to which they reply 'Not by the hairs of my chiny chin chin.'” this serves to aid in the listeners memory and add a little more flavor to an otherwise dull formulaic repetition of evens. These teller are by no means dull. It would seem that these story tellers were more animated. In fact there is a certain degree of acting on the part of the teller. In “The Dancing Crocodile,” the story teller clears her throat as a demonstration. Urmilaji's tales were told in a more informal setting with constant, but seemingly welcome interjections, not that they were boring by any means, but the interaction between the the teller and the listener were more fluid than mere dictation, whereas the African tellers seem to provide all the energy and emotion to carry the tales by themselves. The African tales also tell of different concerns than the Himalayan tales. While the Himalayan tales were more about duty and piety, the African tales seem to be more about the dangers in the world. Such as the fear of wild animals and other creatures in the wood. Though they also deal a lot about family matters. They also, though, bear similarities to the Himalayan tales in that they teach valuable morals and wisdom. The first set of tales dealt with topics such as greed, disobedience,loyalty and foolishness.

The first tale of “The Selfish Husband,” tells of a person who is hording food away for himself. He feasts on young calves milk and maize while he lets his family eat sorghum. His child finally catches his father in the deception and informs his mother. At this, they find his hidden cache of food, and take it and leave the selfish husband. In American society, putting aside a little bit for one's self, while not the most admirable, is not taboo, and buying a box of cookies all for yourself is rarely detrimental to a families structure. In an environment, however, where food can be scarce at times, and

nutrients from meat and maize are a rare treat at any time, the husbands actions would be extremely taboo in that culture. Another story in that series was “The Dancing Crocodile.” This told of a sister's disobedience to her brother's warning not to roast meat, because it would draw unwanted attenton of he wild animals. Not heeding his warning, the sisiter comes to roat a piece of meat that predictably calls the attention of the wild animals that her brother sought to avoid, specifically a crocodile. As consequence, the girl is captured by the crocodile and was swallowed. If not for the efforts of he brother, that would have been the end of her. But her brother employs a cunningness, that is also very highly praised in African tales, and is able to lure the crocodile out of his den and slay him. Other tales utilise this cleverness as a means for survival. This story is almost directly mirrored in “The Children of the Ant Hill.” The whole sequence of a creature decieving the sister into identifying him as her brother, only to come in and abduct her when she opens ther door. In another identical manner, the sister, upon her abduction, leaves a trail of ashes for her brother to follow. While one brother used his wit to just save his sister, the other one succeeded, by playing his sister's servant and at the end, getting off better than when they had started the ordeal.

Though the tales are not only similar to each other but they also do bear similarities to the Himalayan tales. There is one tale of “The Runny Eyes of an Old Woman.” This tale is similar to the Himalayan “First Sour, Then Sweet.” And incidentally also have the same structure as “Mother Halle” recorded by the Brothers Grimm. In the African version of this tale, on sister sets off and along the way, comes across a frog, an old woman and an old man. She is asked by each of them to perform a task that seems at first revolting to her, but then in return for her favors, she is lead to a place where she is able to find a good husband and some wealth. Upon returning, she informs her sister of what has happened and sends her on the same route. The younger sister, however is totally disgusted by the tasks and is mislead by the old man, and she married a poor man, that lived hand to mouth.

These tales have been evolving for centuries and their reach has spanned the world over, and each re-telling breathing new life to the tales themselves. Parts are omitted, some are added, but some formulas remain the same, and are recognizable throughout the world. What is added is the cultural and personal experience of the teller. And though the traditional methods of transmission are slowly dwindling, the tales are already adapting and evolving to match the needs of upcoming generations. Even stories that are considered new and modern at times exhibit old world qualities. In the cinemas, remakes and new adaptations of old tales are being rethought. Movies such as Gaslight and Freeway, embody the old stories of Blue Beard and Little Red Ridding Hood. Though different than the traditional, what, in fact, is the same? What we consider traditional, are themselves remakes of even more ancient tales that were modified to make sense to the audience at that time. With the current rate of our advancement and seemingly lager gaps of knowledges between generations, that just means that the tales must evolve faster to keep up. That is the world we live in and in essence the world that the tales live in. Bearing that in mind, they are the essence of human imagination and ingenuity, and in turn will continue to show the same drive drive for survival as their progenitors.