Ideas such as Mesoamerican mythology, emic and ethic view-points, along with the Métis people and history are such great topics that can challenge the way we think about the world and how we view it from a personal perspective.
The first part of this weeks discussion was on the “Métis-ization of Canada”, an interesting article that is centered around the process of claiming Louis Riel, a Métis political leader who is now being celebrated as political hero. Part of the discussion was to provide our thoughts on this article. The Métis people in Canada are names given to a cultural community who can trace their descendants back to the First Nations and European settlers. The majority of the discussion on this topic was about how Louis Riel played a huge role in shaping Canadian History, as he took extreme measures to ensure and preserve the Métis culture and rights as their homeland came under Canadian influence. Louis Riel described the Métis as they say themselves: “a people in the fullest sense of term” (pg. 65) [1], as in the Métis were very proud of their culture and identity. It was also discussed how the Métis have a tradition of viewing themselves as different from Canadians, which is paradoxical and inconsistent considering the fact that some scholar perceive him as a “Canadian icon”.
Personally, I agree with the general consensus of the group, Louis Riel was defending the Métis people because they were mistreated. A famous quote that the young Wilfrid Laurier said when protesting the execution of Riel in 1885 that I find very interesting is
“there never had been a people who suffered such gross injustice as the Métis … if [I] had lived on the shore of the Saskatchewan [I] would have taken up a rifle [myself]”. (pg. 65) [1]
The second part of this weeks discussion centered around exploring a metaphor/character from Mesoamerican mythology for its relation to local landscape. A group member pointed out the Cosmic Tree, and its relation to the local landscape lies in its metaphorical representation of the Mayan and Aztec beliefs, culture and life. The tree must be at the highest point of a mountain of in order to signify its importance to the surrounding area shaped the local landscape. The structure shown by the different parts of the tree mirror the social structure, from the bottom we observe darkness and poverty and as we go up, it becomes more divine and wealthy. This correlates to the pyramid structures seen in these Mesoamerican cultures as each layer becomes more compressed as you look up. Another group member discussed how the tree represents a “hierarchical system”, in which the majority of humans aspire to be higher up.
Personally, I find that the Cosmic Tree metaphor to be captivating, as I think it could be interpreted in so many different ways, depending on the mythology and tradition. I find that the cosmic tree can represent attaining knowledge, as looking from the bottom we see minimal knowledge, but as we go up, we see more wisdom.
Source: http://cosmictree.com
The third part of this weeks discussion was on a case from the current world scenario where emic and etic perspectives for a myth are at a tussle. A group member pointed out that in the Aztec society, those who were religious believed it was necessary to honor the gods by practicing rituals and sacrifices (emic). However, from an outside perspective, those practices appeared to be violent (etic). Another group member made the correlation between the two theorists Jennifer Reid and John Ralston Saul having differing perspectives than those of Métis people, based on the “Métis-ization of Canada” article.
Personally, I find the emic and etic concepts can draw contentions depending on the viewpoint, but I find it necessary because it helps us understand how different people think.
Karim Chalak.
[Note: All information presented were taken from D2L discussion group].
References:
- Gaudry, A. (2012–2013). View of The Métis-ization of Canada: The Process of Claiming Louis Riel, Métissage, and the Métis People as Canada’s Mythical Origin. Aps. https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/aps/index.php/aps/article/view/17889/pdf
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