Agriculture and Nature

A wonderful film which illustrates the change from nature to agriculture is Mononoke-Hime (Princess Mononoke). It is about a tries attempt to kill the Gods of the forest and end the dominion of nature so they can harvest more iron. Wonderful film which explaines beautifully the concept previously discussed.

Presences of Orality

I noticed vestiges of the oral tradition, particularly that involing names, while watching "Spirited Away" on Sunday. Those of you who haven't seen the movie should. The bathhouse was a primarily oral cutlture but I noticed something interesting, which would be impossible for an oral culture. When Chihiro's name is taken away her new name becomes Sen. This is because the Japanese Kanji (Chinese character) for Chi can also make the sound Sen. With out literacy this distinction would be impossible.

Lack of Post

I was unable to post for the past week because my internet was completely down and it left me in an interesting situation, namely feeling out of place in a world that has moved way beyond just print.

On a side note, if any of you have read Eragon by Christopher Paolini take a look at the story told by Brom in the beginning. It seems wrong now that I have an understanding of Oral Traditions.

A short thought

It came to me recently that an Oral culture cannot really have slang because there is no standard of words. I don't have any more thoughts on this at the moment, but more may come later.