The Waitangi Treaty

There are a lot of similarities between our civilization now and the Ancient Roman culture. We've got great art, architecture, the Olympics and much more, but something that I found really interesting was how Alexander the Great was successful in maintaining the cultures of the places he took over, while incorporating new ideas from his own culture. 

In my home country of New Zealand, we celebrate Waitangi day; A national holiday that reminds us of a peace treaty the Maori Chieftains signed with the British Government in 1840. In short, they promised to provide the Maori people with greater education, imported goods and higher status, if they could establish themselves and share their goods. Eventually the British crossed the seas and began to establish themselves among the people. There were a few big cultural roadblocks, like not understanding each other properly about what was who's and who was in charge, but eventually the Maori people began to take to the English language and British culture. They could now be represented as a strong individual nation across the world. Luckily the Wairua, or the deeply sacred culture still remains intact, just like Alexander the Great tried to maintain. 

Even though at the time it was a bit of a struggle for the New Zealand people to share their land with these new white strangers, this integration of cultures provided us with greater opportunities to succeed not just in New Zealand, but all over the world. This development of cultures enabled my father to eventually meet my mother in Hawaii. If it weren't for the way history had played out, who knows if I would be where I am today! 

Should the Songs of One Man Ravage the Culture of Another?

Home Radio

As of the advent of radio music civilizations have been supplementing their ancestral heritage with that of musical pop-culture from far away nations.  This is a situation in which “what a work is man” gets taken to the extreme, with one man taking center stage for an entire culture.  Since the mid 1920’s radio broadcasting many singers to new audiences, by the 1930’s foreign pop-cultures centered on specific singers began to grow in many nations.

"Ut externus alieno pene non sit hominis vice." ["As a foreigner cannot be said to supply us the place of a man."]  And yet, without even gaining the citizenship of the worshiped artist, populations trade a significant part of their dress, time and music with that of foreign singers.

Justin Bieber in Norway

Recently the Canadian singer Justin Bieber became a huge hit in Norway. When he visited in 2012 about 50 fans were injured by each other in the commotion before his performance trying to get closer to where he would be.  How did the proud Norwegians, who fought wars for over 50 years to gain independence as a nation from, the Danish, become so focused on a single Canadian boy?  Any artist, through music, converting masses of fans from other nations seems unbalanced.  

But then, perhaps the pop-artist whose music travels on the waves of the air, is no longer a man of one nation.  "Quisquis ubique habitat, Maxime, nusquam habitat." ["He who lives everywhere, lives nowhere.]  

Perhaps their contribution to civilization enhances the music and art of the world in a general fashion.  Artists such as Shakespeare influenced the world’s popular culture though mass publication.  Was Shakespeare’s art a benefit to the civilization of the world?  It did help standardize English linguistics for many nations today. 

Where is the loyalty of the modern pop-artist?  To the art?  Their nation?  It seems today to belong instead to wealth and fame.  If the communication of art from one nation to another homogenizes world cultures and erases national tradition, then it is for money that ancestral identity is being stolen.

From 750 B.C. to 2000 A.D. and back to the 1860s

I looked up ancient Greek culture and several of the first few things that I found mentioned slaves, social cues, fashion, and games. 

Of course, that made me think of the 1860s and of my role as a “Southern Belle” at the Civil War reenactments back home. For several summers, I played the role of a southern slave-owning lady with the intricate outfits. There were a lot of social, fashion, and cultural cues that were strictly held to (in both the 1860s and in ancient Greece) that I got to abide by as a re-enactor.