Reflection – Guerts/Classen/Howes

The readings assigned had great detail about different cultures and beliefs that surround us today and existed in the past. This reflection from my understanding is supposed to be about how I feel about the readings and to be honest, I think the breath of god article is untrue, yet fascinating. In the article the breath of god, it is stated that St. Francis Xavier’s coffin was opened four months after his death and his body was found to be in-corrupt and sweet smelling. From personal experiences and viewings of dead bodies I can assure you that there is no way that a dead body can have a sweet smell to it mainly due to biological decomposition factors, there’s just no way. I totally support the view of Desjarlais on the Yolmo wa people (previous reading) in terms of occularcentrism, as seeing is believing in regards to ‘the breath of god’. If I haven’t seen it, I can’t fully believe it. The article even goes in depth about the odour as they state that the Nun notices a sweet odour which she believes is the saints even though she is deceased. This really boggles my mind because we never see such things for ourselves, we always tend to hear about these happenings from text or people which is not really a reliable source. Another reference that really bothered me was deep into the reading where the writer says that “women are marked for suffering, first of all through childbirth and second through…” women are definitely not marked for suffering as they tend to be the individuals that bring life and joy to this world. If anything women are marked for superiority as a man cares and protects her from any harm or bad comings.

 

Biology being my major is a big conflict in my life as I do believe in god, pray after I shower, go to the temple and all that good stuff but in school learn about how god doesn’t exist and evolution is the answer. As I read the article on the breath of god I saw some similarities within my religion as well as beliefs. I don’t know if your aware but there once lived a saint named Sai Baba (so is said, never believe what you hear as the Yolmo wa would say) who not only had similar characteristics as St. Teresa but carried out the same healing methods. In the text it says that a lady lost her sense of smell and through her sense of touch she regained her sense of smell as she simply kissed the saints foot. Where as Sai Baba performed a similar act in which he would touch the effected area of an individual and heal it or as my mother told me he inherits and frees the individual of his disease. Both saints from each religion are performing the same deeds but in different perspectives, better yet their using the same part of their sensorium to perform these activities. For ex: St. Teresa would use touch to fix smell, where as Sai Baba would use touch to fix vision. In my opinion I think these are all stories told in different forms as if the whole world was playing broken telephone. If god were to exist he would be within us and definitely wouldn’t write rules and regulations to see if we would follow them, better yet he would sit back and observe us as he tries to guide us along the righteous path.

 

In the Museum article there were a few interesting facts for example, sculptures and artifacts from exotic or ancient lands seemed to elicit more of a tactile response amongst individuals. I can relate to this because every time I go to a museum I tend to ‘touch’ most of the exotic sculptures that say ‘DO NOT TOUCH’ because im just more inclined and curious to know how they lived or felt at the time, and even the thought that did they have any clue that they would be viewed as a sculpture in a museum two hundered years from now crosses my mind. We have to realize that there’s more then what meets the eye. We have a vivid sensorium and to reduce it down to five ‘main’ senses is unacceptable.

 

If we take into consideration “Howes” article on Smell and how we interpret it today, one would notice that what is said is in fact true. In today’s time everyone is masking their true selves just to conform to society. What is society? Do we have to follow certain odour standards to be a part of this society ? Then why? Whats wrong with our natural scent.. people tend to de-odourize themselves so they can fit in with strangers that they are completely unfamiliar with. This is madness because overtime one does not know who he/she truly is. Lastly i would like to talk about “Guerts” article as the rock in the road was a big ordeal. In the article they talk about the lady going over the rock and have this sensation as if something had occurred. I can relate to this as when I first went and started living in India, I was unaware of the superstitions and/or beliefs that were incorporated in their daily lives. One day after school merely stepped on a book and had this sensation as if I had done something wrong. I never spoke of this event due to the fact that it was just a book that I had stepped on and continued on with my day. Later on in life I noticed that in India books are considered sacred as they provided us with ”vidhya’ (Knowledge). This reminded me of the Yolmo wa and their Tibetan scripture which was considered sacred and holy over their regular writing which had no significance. Due to the fact that I had a sensation throughout my body because I stepped on the book, I never did it again. This is similar to the rock that the lady went over because, that to was ‘Holy’ and she never did it again.