Share Spotlight: Lilo and Stitch - Main Title (He Mele No Lilo)

Since we were talking about Hawaii last week, I thought I would share a good representation of both traditional Hawaiian music and hula dance. Disney really did their homework for the Lilo and Stitch movie.




Traditional Hula always tells a story, often about the Hawaiian gods and goddesses, including the daughters of Haumea, several of whom are given credit for the invention of Hula.
Schools for Hula are making a comeback in Hawaii, teaching both traditional Hawaiian Hula and a new style that is fusion of traditional and the more modern version created for the tourist trade.

Astronomical Mythology

This week I’m starting on a new series on the Mythology surrounding the figures the different things in our Solar System (and maybe out of it) are named for. We’ll start off with how they get their names.

Everyone knows the names of the 8 (formerly 9) planets in our Solar System. Most of us even know where their names come from, Greek and Roman mythology. But what about all the other bodies in the solar system?

Turns out there are pretty specific rules that govern what a discoverer can call something, based on what sort of thing it is. For example, the moons of Uranus must all be named after Shakespeare characters while the moons of Jupiter must be named after Zeus/Jupiter’s lovers or children.

The four Gallilean moons of Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. (Wikimedia)

Some bodies, such as the first four of Jupiter’s moons back in the 1600s, were named by the people who discovered them. When the formal naming process was created, these names were confirmed and others were made to follow in their mold. Others held a scientific notation, such as Jupiter VI, until the official rules were created.

But who decides what these rules are?

In the 1970s, the International Astronomical Union put together a taskforce to deal with what things should be called and now decides on the “unambiguous astronomical nomenclature” (read How Space Things Are Named So No One Confuses Them with Something Else) that results in the names used for various types of astronomical objects. The IAU is an organization of thousands of astronomers and other cosmologists from around the world that get together every year to decide on important issues in astronomy. They’re the ones who decided that Pluto was a Dwarf Planet back in 2006.

Astronomers, professional or amateurs, must submit their discovery and proposed name to the IAU for scrutiny before it becomes official. They make sure that the name is not already taken and that it accords with the rules for whatever has been discovered.

Curious what all of the rules are? Check out the International Astronomical Union’s website.

Share Spotlight: Viking women, warriors, and valkyries

This week's Share Spotlight comes from the British Museum's blog.
Viking women, warriors, and valkyries

The British Museum opened an exhibition on Vikings last month, called Vikings: life and legend. Their blog post this weeks covers a little discusses aspect of the Vikings: their women. Viking women certainly were a more diverse group than most of their continental counterparts. However, the idea of warrior women among the Vikings is something Jesch, the author of this post flatly denies.

So, how to explain the Valkyries? Jesch contends that they are simply "creatures of fantasy rooted in the experience of male warriors." The Valkyries certainly wouldn't be the first. Athena in Greek mythology would be a similar figure.

What do think? Can such a pervasive mythological figure exist without a real life model? How do you think that such figures are created?

The White Elephant

We're in Southeast Asia again this week, this time for the story of the royal symbol of Thailand.

In Thailand, as well as Siam, Thailand's predecessor, the White Elephant is a symbol of the royal line. All White Elephants belong to the king and are ceremonially presented to him.

White Elephants, also sometimes called Pink Elephants or Auspicious Elephants, are not actually white. They are generally a light reddish-brown, sometimes turning pink when wet. The elephants are not actually albino and the determination of a White Elephant is made by palace experts.

A White Elephant at Naypyidaw's Uppatasanti Pagoda (Wikimedia)

White Elephants are found almost entirely among Indian Elephants and are extremely rare or nonexistent in African Elephants. 

Despite the English use of the phrase White Elephant, there is no evidence to support the idea that the King would give a White Elephant to someone in order to bankrupt them. In fact, all White Elephants belong to the King, so one would never have been given away.

To the people of Thailand, these White Elephants are priceless. A White Elephant even appeared on the flag of Thailand from 1855 to 1916, over 60 years.

The Flag of Thailand, 1855-1916 (Wikimedia)

In Buddhism, the dominant religion in Thailand, the Buddha's mother dreamed of a White Elephant on the night before the Buddha's birth. The White Elehphant is a symbol of wisdom and purity in Buddhism and of prosperity and good fortune throughout Southeast Asia.

The current King of Thailand owns 10 White Elephants, six males and four females. The male and female elephants are kept in separate facilities, since they are not allowed to breed.

There is currently only one confirmed White Elephant living in the wild. Called Sudu Aliya, which means white elephant, she lives in Sri Lanka. She is currently being monitored by the Center for Conservation and Research of Sri Lanka and was last seen in 2012.

I found the website of the Thai Elephant Conservation Center very helpful in writing this article. The Conservation Center cares for all of the royal White Elephants.

Letters from the Seams of a Skull

Devanagari is one of the widely used scripts in the world

Devanagari is used for Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, and Nepali languages and so is used all over the Indian subcontinent and the surrounding areas.

Devanagari is an abugida alphabet or alphasyllabary, which means that there are distinct vowels and consonants, but that vowels are also used to modify the consonants, which unmodified have a certain syllable sound.

Devanagari is most easily recognized by the bar that runs across the top of the script, from which all the letter seem to descend.

Some consonants in Devanagari. (Wikimedia)

Devanagari has been used from about the 12th century CE. There are about 50 letters in the Devanagari script, not counting the numerous derivations caused by combining the consonants with vowels. Devanagari is read from left to right.

The Vedas, the Hindu scriptures are generally written in Devanagari and the word "Devanagari" derives from deva, deity, and nagari, city.

In Hindu myth, the Devanagari script comes from Brahma. When Brahma went to write down his teachings, he found that there was no system to record them with. In order to share his teachings, he invented writing, using the seams of the skull as a pattern for the letters.

In some forms of the myth, it is Sarasvati, Brahma's wife, who invents the letters. Sarasvati (sometimes Saraswati or Saraswathi) is the goddess of knowledge, music, and arts, so writing would fall within her purview.

Svarasvati, holding a string of crystals, a book of the Vedas, and playing the veena (Wikimedia)

For the first post in my Writing Systems series, see The Beginning of History.

Baba Yaga

Every culture has a being used to scared children. In America, it's the Bogey Man. In Russia, it's Baba Yaga.


Baba Yaga is a witch common in the folklore of Eastern Europe and Russia. Baba means grandmother, but is probably better translated as old woman or wise woman, since Baba Yaga is far from grandmotherly.

Baba Yage is generally depicted as an old crone who lives in the woods. Her house stands on chicken legs, spinning shrieking constantly until the magic words are said. The house's windows are often characterized as eyes and sometimes a fence made of bones encircles the house.

Baba Yaga herself travels in a mortar, using a pestle as a rudder and sweeping away traces of her presence with a silver birch broom.

Baba Yaga traveling in her mortar and carrying her pestle and silver birch broom. Painted by Ivan Bilibin. (Wikimedia Commons)

Baba Yaga is a complex figure in Eastern European and Russian Folklore. She is often the antagonist of the story, preventing the hero from reaching his goal and misdirecting people in the woods. However, she is also known to share her wisdom when approached correctly.

One of the most well known stories involving Baba Yaga is that of Vasilisa the Beautiful. Similar to the Western European Cinderella, Vasilisa finds herself at the mercy of her step-mother and two step-sisters. When all of the lights are extinguished, she is sent to Baba Yaga to get coals to relight the fires. After numerous tests, and with the help of a doll given to her by her mother, Vasilisa receives a skull full of coals from Baba Yaga. When she returns home, the skull burns up her step-mother and -sisters and Vasilisa lives happily ever after (in some versions she become Czarina of Russia).

Vasilisia leaving Baba Yaga's house with the skull full of coals. Painted by Ivan Bilibin. (Wikimedia Commons)

Baba Yaga has made several appearances in popular culture, including Bartok the Magnificent, the much less well known but still adorable spin-off movie from Anastasia, where she sends Bartok to complete impossible tasks before she will help him with his own quest.

Piasa

A fearsome being from the cosmology of the ancient Mississpians, the Underwater Panther ruled the watery Underworld.

I'm volunteering with a museum here in town, putting together an exhibition on Native Americans and their connection to animals. I've been writing a lot of labels, but one of my favorite cases has to do with the Underwater Panther.

Also called the Piasa and Mishipeshu, the Underwater Panther is the ruler of the Underwater realm. To back up a couple of steps, many of the Eastern Woodlands Native Americans believed in a world with four corners that rested on top of a watery realm (the underworld) which then rotated up to form the night sky. Or, in another version, the world was made on a Turtle's back, with creatures diving through the watery Underworld to bring up the dirt necessary to make the land.

The Underwater Panther was described as having the head and body of a cat, perhaps a mountain lion or lynx, the horns of a deer, and the tail of snake. One image of the Underwater Panther was described by Father Jacques Marquette, a French explorer on his travels on the Mississippi River.

Drawing based on Father Marquette's description of the Underwater Panther.

The Underwater Panther uses his tail to whip up whirlpools, and he was said to appear in places where whirlpools occurred. He could be very dangerous, often drowning those who got too close, but for those bold enough to seek him out, he could also give great rewards of power, knowledge, and strength.

The image of the Underwater Panther, particularly his tail, appears all over Eastern Native American imagery.

Piasa pot in the National Museum of the American Indian. (Wikimedia)

The red and white swirl indicate the whirlpool the Underwater Panther creates and allow the artist to distinguish the creature without having to actually depict a long tail, something a bit difficult to do in ceramics.

The tail was also said to be made of copper, a valuable material, particularly in Mississippian times. Many copper items have been found across Eastern North America in shape of spirals, echoing the whirlpool made by the creature from which they came.

Unlike many European cosmologies, the Underworld is not evil, and neither is the Underwater Panther. Powerful spirits, whether they be from the Underworld or the Aboveworld, were dangerous if approached inappropriately. The Underwater Panther is simply a powerful being, one who could use his powers to reward the bold or punish the proud.

The Doorkeeper of the Year

 January begins our year, but do you know where it came from?

January was added around 700 BCE (along with February) to bring the Roman calendar to 355 days, closer to a full a solar year of 365 days. Originally, the month was near the end of the year, but Julius Caesar reordered the calendar in 45 BCE, adding 10 days for a true solar year and January was placed at the beginning of the year.

 January (Ianuarius in Latin) is named for Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings.

 Head of Janus, Vatican museum, Rome from Wikipedia Commons 

Janus had two faces, which looked both backward and forward. With such an ambiguous description, Janus oversaw birth and death, war and peace, as well as the past and the future. He was invoked at the beginning of any number of things, including marriage, harvest, and journeys.

Temple of Janus on Coin from the time of Nero, from Wikipedia Commons

A temple to Janus in Rome would keep its doors open during war time, so that the god could intervene if necessary, and would close them during peace time. However, the doors were rarely closed and the ceremony to close them was an important event.

Janus is generally associated with doorkeepers and we derive our word "janitor" from his name.

"There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception." --Aldous Huxley