Death Rituals

When I was looking for different rituals of different cultures, I found interesting to put three of them: one that I find horrible, another that I find interesting and another one funny.

Endocannibalism: This ritual consists in rating the death body. The meaning to do it could be to absorb something about the person that is dead. This was done in South America and Australia, but some academics say this is false and it is a lie done by colonists. I find this ritual a horrible practice. 

Mummification: When a rich person died in the Ancient Egypt, it was mummified. The idea is that the soul had could pass the other side as another life. The process consisted in extracting brain, stomach, intestines, lungs and liver to keep them in different jars in order that Gods could protect them; the heart was not extracted because it was considered important to keep it connected to the body. Then the body was covered with different materials such as cloth. Then it was introduced into a coffin with treasures inside. 

Fantasy coffins: Accran suburb’s people put the dead people in fantasy coffins. The idea is that they bury the body in a coffin that has the shape of the profession the person had when he lived. This images is an example, the person that died probably was a fisherman.

Deeoa, Mankani. "Top 10 unusual death rituals". Toptenz.net. Web. October 30, 2011. http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-unusual-death-rituals.php

The Feared Death...

I think "death" is a very complex idea for human beings. We all fear death, I think because the only thing we know is life and because we don't know what we are going to face. During the world's history, different ideas have been proposed, mainly by religion. But even though some ideas can bring hope to people, I think there will be always fear.

By nature, death is thought as something bad. When someone that we love dies, thing that hasn't happened to me, the feeling inside us must be terrible because that person leaves an important gap in your life and this must be very difficult to face and to understand that person is not coming back. 

But we can see the notion death as something that could be positive for life. For example Steve Jobs said different intelligent things about death; I want to show some of them because I think this are very intelligent and profound things that people should think about:

"If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.” Steve Jobs 

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life” Steve Jobs

Speaking Einstein Documentary

My English class, unit number one

During this unit I English class I’ve learned different things about the roaring twenties; their life, their dream, their mind and the failure of the American dream. And also different events and common situations like prohibition and bootlegging.

We read The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and I didn’t like it at first because it was a little slow. But when the climax took place it started getting fun to read because events started to be unexpected. So at last I liked the novel because of the ending part and climax, and because it shows the failure of the American dream in a very interesting way.

The "Roaring Twenties" represented in Duke Ellington

When I think of the "Roaring Twenties", I mainly think in jazz. It´s not a coincidence that when you think in this period of time, you think in a couple dancing; the man in a black suit and a hat and the woman with short hair and long dress with a man playing jazz behind them with a saxophone. In fact the period of time was also called the "Jazz Age". Thats why I decided to chose an important jazz artist, and I found Duke Elligton. A he was one of the most important jazz artists in the 1920´s, I think he could represent this period of time. Duke Ellington was a very important jazz composer in the 1920´s. He was born in 1899 in Washington and died in New York in 1974. During the twenties he played in famous groups and in famous clubs.




"By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with." Duke Ellington

"There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone." Duke Ellington