Unit 4 Report
On the History Channel website there are some great video clips about the Aztec Empire. One thing I noticed were the Aztec Pyramids and the hundreds of skeletons found there! I did not know a lot about this so I wikipedia'd 'Aztecs' and found out that human sacrifices were quite frequent in the Aztec culture. Apparently blood was quite important in dedicating various things to their gods. One interesting aspect is the 52-year cycle where the Aztecs believe the end of the world will occur at the end of these 52-year cycles without a proper sacrifice to the gods. Also, some of their sacrifices were based on voluntary sacrifices - what an amazing amount of faith the Aztecs must have had! From what I understand, hundreds of skeletons were found in the Aztec pyramids shown below.
I also learned a lot about their empire and their practices that don't involve human sacrifice. What amazes me is that they were one of the first parts of the world to require education for all children, not just boys as seems to have been the common practice. At age 15, Aztec children were sent to school - before that they were taught by their parents and even had somewhat of a curriculum as they were supervised by government authorities and required to teach their children certain things before this age.
On another topic, the Cuban libraries issue that you (Mary) raise in our lecture notes is very interesting. According to one of the websites we read there are somewhere between 15-20 libraries in Cuba who are trying not to be censored. This situation made me think about the way we view information in the US - we are overly concerned with privacy issues and putting too much information out there about ourselves; I can't imagine having what information I receive being somehow restricted. It is good news that these indepednent libraries exist; the ALA report we read stated that these libraries are backed by foreign agencies with political intent (i.e., ran by political dissidents). Because of this, a lot of the people who run these libraries have been arrested and this threatens the existence of such institutions. What will happen if no one in Cuba can truly have freedom of information? As quoted by the Friends of Cuban Libraries, Fidel Castro said: "Sometimes certain books have been published, the number does not matter. But as a matter of principle not a single book of such kind should be printed, not a single chapter, not a single page, not a single letter!" He did say this in 1971, but still, he's running the country! Limiting information is a bad idea; companies do it to their employees all the time - the managers always know more than their employees and so on up the hierarchy. The troubling problem here is that people cannot form their own opinions without open access to all the information around the issues. Even worse, Friends of Cuban Libraries report that people who visit these libraries are threatened by the secret police and labeled 'social dissidents'. I think I may be talking too much about this one issue but it is unfortunate that Cuba isn't that far away from us and this is going on. I know everyone is essentially waiting for Castro to die so we can open up all kinds of restrictions and I hope this is one of them. It's interesting to think about now with the transfer of power to his brother due to Castro's failing health.
The New Jalisco Library in Gudalajara's design competition does bring up a lot of questions about how we get information and use our information 'space'. In particular, it made me think about my reading spaces in my home. When the weather is nice I like to sit on my balcony and read in my huge chair - we have decorated the balcony to be a haven of sorts (at least for my fiancee and I) with lots of plants, flowers, bird feeder, comfortable chairs, etc. I also have a 'reading chair' that's a big cushy chair with big pillows and a blanket and NO ONE is allowed in my reading chair other than me - it's my space. When I'm doing work for class (like now) I have to sit at my big wooden desk that I've had for years because it puts me in 'work mode'. I LOVE that the design competition has the reading rooms as open spaces and an atrium. I think it's a great idea! They also bring up the issue of how important it is to have closed spaces for meeting rooms and administrative tasks. It's t he ideal working environment (other than the fact that it's imaginary!).
The "Of Majesty and Mayhem" article was a lot of fun to read! Until I read this I thought the Maya were a peaceful people, but apparently as the author states they were very "territorial and violent". From some of the links from the article I found some additional information on Lady Xok - apparently she was quite involved in several rituals that were normally completed by men. The pictures below are lintels Lady Xok dedicated to the courts to adorn the doorways and they show her making a blood sacrifice, talking to a dead ancestor, and preparing her husband for war:
The videos were a lot of fun to watch. My fiancee and I are thinking of going to Cabo for our honeymoon and it looks absolutely beautiful. I also enjoyed the Coyoacan video - especially the music! I have to say though, that the Cayman Islands look like a lot of fun! There just seems to be so many 'touristy' things to do. I'm not sure where we'll end up on our honeymoon but I hope its somewhere in this area!
I think I've learned more this unit than any other unit; this was surprising because I thought I knew a good bit of information about South and Central America. However, I learned a lot about the history of this area that I would have never known - so much doesn't get taught in history classes! The history of the Aztecs and the Mayas was what interested me the most - I thought I knew a good bit of information of these two groups of people in particular, but I learned so much! The most unfortunate part of this unit was the restriction of information in Cuba. It just astounds me - at SILS we are constantly overwhelmed with theories on information overload and these people are restricted to what information they can have on-hand. This censoring of information reminds me of the Google and China situation. It's so unfortunate that Google, who claimed to be all about information freedom, has censored itself just to expand its market. The censorship of information has to be the most unfortunate aspect of being an information professional.
I also learned a lot about their empire and their practices that don't involve human sacrifice. What amazes me is that they were one of the first parts of the world to require education for all children, not just boys as seems to have been the common practice. At age 15, Aztec children were sent to school - before that they were taught by their parents and even had somewhat of a curriculum as they were supervised by government authorities and required to teach their children certain things before this age.On another topic, the Cuban libraries issue that you (Mary) raise in our lecture notes is very interesting. According to one of the websites we read there are somewhere between 15-20 libraries in Cuba who are trying not to be censored. This situation made me think about the way we view information in the US - we are overly concerned with privacy issues and putting too much information out there about ourselves; I can't imagine having what information I receive being somehow restricted. It is good news that these indepednent libraries exist; the ALA report we read stated that these libraries are backed by foreign agencies with political intent (i.e., ran by political dissidents). Because of this, a lot of the people who run these libraries have been arrested and this threatens the existence of such institutions. What will happen if no one in Cuba can truly have freedom of information? As quoted by the Friends of Cuban Libraries, Fidel Castro said: "Sometimes certain books have been published, the number does not matter. But as a matter of principle not a single book of such kind should be printed, not a single chapter, not a single page, not a single letter!" He did say this in 1971, but still, he's running the country! Limiting information is a bad idea; companies do it to their employees all the time - the managers always know more than their employees and so on up the hierarchy. The troubling problem here is that people cannot form their own opinions without open access to all the information around the issues. Even worse, Friends of Cuban Libraries report that people who visit these libraries are threatened by the secret police and labeled 'social dissidents'. I think I may be talking too much about this one issue but it is unfortunate that Cuba isn't that far away from us and this is going on. I know everyone is essentially waiting for Castro to die so we can open up all kinds of restrictions and I hope this is one of them. It's interesting to think about now with the transfer of power to his brother due to Castro's failing health.The New Jalisco Library in Gudalajara's design competition does bring up a lot of questions about how we get information and use our information 'space'. In particular, it made me think about my reading spaces in my home. When the weather is nice I like to sit on my balcony and read in my huge chair - we have decorated the balcony to be a haven of sorts (at least for my fiancee and I) with lots of plants, flowers, bird feeder, comfortable chairs, etc. I also have a 'reading chair' that's a big cushy chair with big pillows and a blanket and NO ONE is allowed in my reading chair other than me - it's my space. When I'm doing work for class (like now) I have to sit at my big wooden desk that I've had for years because it puts me in 'work mode'. I LOVE that the design competition has the reading rooms as open spaces and an atrium. I think it's a great idea! They also bring up the issue of how important it is to have closed spaces for meeting rooms and administrative tasks. It's t he ideal working environment (other than the fact that it's imaginary!).
The "Of Majesty and Mayhem" article was a lot of fun to read! Until I read this I thought the Maya were a peaceful people, but apparently as the author states they were very "territorial and violent". From some of the links from the article I found some additional information on Lady Xok - apparently she was quite involved in several rituals that were normally completed by men. The pictures below are lintels Lady Xok dedicated to the courts to adorn the doorways and they show her making a blood sacrifice, talking to a dead ancestor, and preparing her husband for war:
The videos were a lot of fun to watch. My fiancee and I are thinking of going to Cabo for our honeymoon and it looks absolutely beautiful. I also enjoyed the Coyoacan video - especially the music! I have to say though, that the Cayman Islands look like a lot of fun! There just seems to be so many 'touristy' things to do. I'm not sure where we'll end up on our honeymoon but I hope its somewhere in this area!
I think I've learned more this unit than any other unit; this was surprising because I thought I knew a good bit of information about South and Central America. However, I learned a lot about the history of this area that I would have never known - so much doesn't get taught in history classes! The history of the Aztecs and the Mayas was what interested me the most - I thought I knew a good bit of information of these two groups of people in particular, but I learned so much! The most unfortunate part of this unit was the restriction of information in Cuba. It just astounds me - at SILS we are constantly overwhelmed with theories on information overload and these people are restricted to what information they can have on-hand. This censoring of information reminds me of the Google and China situation. It's so unfortunate that Google, who claimed to be all about information freedom, has censored itself just to expand its market. The censorship of information has to be the most unfortunate aspect of being an information professional.
posted by Christie at
7:23 PM
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