Final Blog!

1. I leaned a lot from every culture we explored through Jan Term. One thing that really shocked me more than anything was how the people of Madagascar dug up the dead to celebrate their deaths. i guess growing up in that country you become accustomed to your culture, but I find it really weird to do that! The last video of the people dancing while lifting up the bodies was wild to watch. In America you would never see that here but every cutlure is different and unique in their own way. I found this to be such a great example that many countries whether it was in Africa or the Middle East that the elders came above all else. In America I have noticed that instead of the elders mostly being looked up to as wise human beings they have kind of lost their meaning, but in foreign countries it is different. Elderly people are respected and cherished rather than being taken for granite. I think this is quite awesome!
2. I learned that even in America we have such a unique culture. Native Americans all over America still exist and still carry on their culture and traditions. Also, that every culture feeds off of each other from sharing similar instruments to adopting other traditions from other countries. Every culture is connected in some way and I learned more about my culture than I ever thought I would. Music is used in churches and religious ceremonies through using prayer, dance and worship. Each religious ceremony was different whether the people were worshipping Buddha or God and it was so neat to actually see videos of how they gave thanks to their creator. Entertainment was a huge part of every culture from the Native Americans to the Middle Easterns through group dances to celebrations of one's birthday or even a wedding. To conclude, every culture is unique in its own way from the type of styles they use, the instruments that originated in their country, to the music they dance and sing to. My culture in America is more modern than perhaps cutlures in Africa or with Native Americans, but it still offers the musical world a wide variety of instruments, music, and dances.
3. Through this course I have been inspired to learn more about the African and Middle East culture. I was intrigued through Dr. Week’s presentation/slide show and all the information I gathered from class discussions. The African/Middle Eastern people are such a unique and different group of people. The instruments provide sounds I have never experienced before. I really hope I can travel to some of these countries one day to see all of these things first hand we learned about. This course has inspired me to explore more into my own culture through learning about new instruments to listening to music that I personally would not have listened to before. I have always wanted to learn how to play the drums. Honestly, I do not care what kind of drum it is perhaps the African drum called the Djembe which I find to be so cool, but maybe one day I will take up lessons or something. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY4_75Tmoc4
Even though this video is long I thought it was pretty neat to watch how in sync this group was. You can clearly hear in the background the drum being played. In my culture we have traditional dances, but it is interesting to see different cultures like Japans and see how different their traditional dances really are from the American culture.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/enricodee/masskara2005/villamonte-winner.jpg
I absolutely love how colorful the Japanense people are when it comes to creating customes for cleebrations, dances, and religious ceremonies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuKSvkqGwmM
Man, these kids can break it down...in Japan! When I think of Japan and I don't mean to stereotype them, but I do not see this! I see the more traditional dances you see on tv, but definitely not this. I am so intriged with the Japanese culture from the colorful customes the people wear for various occasions to the various styles of music that they present to the world and other cultures.
I have gained so much from this course and I now have a better understanding of music in so many different cultures. Music is everywhere, whether it is played on the radio, playing in the mall, or created on stage at a concert. I realized that I never branched out to listent to various groups from different cultures like Ravi Shankar to famous African choral groups, but now I will definitely add some of it to my Ipod. I really enjoyed taking this course again, thank you Dr. Vaneman!