Maria Sabina brings a very big concept to the table, is our culture the only one who shuns different religions the way it would Maria Sabina? Religion to our society is sturctured, balanced, sober and often emotionless. Most people would look at Sabina and say there has to be something wrong with her, she’s chanting and screaming these meaningless non rhyming words. Once anyone where to confirm the fact that she ate a “mushroom” before performing/healing she would surely be dismissed without a second thought. I guess it just makes me wonder what is so different that our culture has become so close minded as opposed to other cultures, what has happened to us?
with the past readings i’ve been thinking, are we a hybrid of an oral and a text culture?, sure we’ve been ‘hearing’ that we’re a literate culture and we’ve been educated to depend on the text, but in that’s on in terms of science, business, formalities, and part of our educational process, the other, (in my opinion the reason society can bear to exist) is still highly focused in the oral, the music, stories, conversation, improvisation, communication. we might have to read stories and write papers in class, but we often have to hear family stories from aging family orally, we hear music across the radio, etc. what is everyones take on this are we a hybrid, or have we essentially given ourselves to the text?, you don’t need to mention that in most things there is an underlying text, that’s obvious, but you could present mabey the benefits of both a purely oral culture and that of the written culture, and what we gain/loose by having a hybrid,
cheers