11-15 for 11-19

1.       

“Contemporary cultures also have totem animals, such as those for clubs or societies like the Lions Club… or for sports teams such as the Chicago Bears… Even Christianity has the totems of the lamb and the fish.” (page 328)

So the first half of this quote got me thinking and questioning about the definition of totem animal. Totem means a spirit being or a sacred object, so I assume that a totem animal is basically like a spirit animal that guides people through life. But I don’t understand how this can apply to sports teams, because that’s normally what we call a “mascot.” Would UT Austin call the Longhorn its totem animal? This also reminds me of a South Park episode where PETA attacks South Park Elementary for having their mascot be the Cows, claiming that they are “responsible for the enslavement and genocide of millions.” Is there a line to be drawn for this?

For the second half of the quote, I did some research on the Christianity part. I learned that the sheep, or lamb, is associated with the resurrected Christ, and represents the idea of how love heals all wounds through purification. The fish, on the other hand, represents life since the animal moves freely through water and water makes a good visual metaphor of how life is constantly flowing.

2.       

“Trickster figures like Raven are particularly adept at changeovers and in addition to becoming living incarnations, they can manifest as wooden dishes, dirt, pine needles, or totem poles.” (page 328)

Wow! I remember when I was in elementary school and our teacher read to us a picture book called “Raven,” and this was exactly the story that the book told! Raven transformed into a pine needle that fell into a soup that a woman drank. I forgot the details but the overall narrative was Raven trying to search for light, in a world coated in darkness. The concept of transformation is definitely a fascinating one, and there have been many modern fantasy stories that incorporate these beliefs and myths. Harry Potter is the first one that comes to mind; the character Sirius Black had the magical ability to change into a dog whenever he wanted to, and the term for such a wizard was an animagus. Speaking of Harry Potter, I just noticed that the idea of the Patronus charm sounds similar to what spirit animals are. Harry’s was a stag and his mother’s was a doe, etc.

3.       

“If you were to move to a foreign country, you would have to learn the language of that country to survive and be productive. The more you understood the intricacies of that language, its dialects and uses, the more effective you would become within your life. The easier it becomes for you to survive and grow.” (page 332)

It was very interesting to see the author take the idea of a foreign country to justify the need to understand the natural world, because we’re all a part of it. I probably agree with these statements, that yes, we have a responsibility to know about the environment that we’re living in, because we will be able to progress our lives further if we understand our surroundings better.

4.       

“Some animals never get cancerous conditions. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to learn their secrets?” (page 332)

Yes, but some secrets are impossible to learn, haha. That is simply because there are animals out there whose biological constructs are radically different from humans. We will never survive in the Arctic cold because we have no fur or blubber in our bodies. This is a topic that I bring up all the time with my friends, because honestly, I’m jealous that a lot of animals have really cool traits that humans just don’t have; often times, I feel like the human race is a very boring species. But in the end, I agree with the author that “this attribution helps us to appreciate the natural world more fully.”