Sanja _uric_ic_ SDZ FDU English III

FAKULTET DRAMSKIH UMETNOSTI Katedra za snimanje i dizajn zvuka

Pisani seminarski rad, Predmet: Engleski jezik 2

ALUNA

Mentor: Ljiljana Bogoeva Sedlar, prof.

Beograd, januar 2013

Student: Sanja Djuričić, 4641

This semester we covered a lot of important topics. One of them was the great film “Aluna” filmed by Alan Ereira, award-winning British author, historian and documentary filmmaker, in 2012. Actually the first movie with this theme that aired on BBC was “The Elder Brother’s Warning” 1990. But first, we have to find out what is Aluna all about. To be able to fully understand the concept of Aluna we have to learn more about the civilization who believe in it. The Kogi are an amazing tribal people who live in Columbia in South America high on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain. What’s s special about that place is the fact that their sacred mountain home is like a whole microcosm, with all microclimates, so that they have a really good sense for environment, and our duties to the planet. They think themselves as Guardians of the planet and that where they live on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is the “Heart of the World”. The Kogi managed to keep their tradition despite the Spanish invasion of the country long time ago. The Kogi are descendants of the ancient Tairona culture like the neighboring tribe the Arhuacos. The Kogi first became famous when the movie From The Heart Of The World: The Elder Brothers’ Warning was broadcast on BBC television in 1990. Due to the ever-growing pollution of the world Kogi got the feeling that they had to speak up, and educate the Western world about it. Astonished by Western world blindness they call us “The Younger Brothers”. They agreed to talk to Alan Ereira in order to reveal some of their beliefs and their ways of living in order to end the Younger Brother selfishness. The Kogi think of the creator as a mother and believe that all is fashioned from the creative spirit and mind. They call this inner mind Aluna. Their tribe is run by shamanic leaders called Mamos or Mamas which means the sun, enlightment. They are the ones that are chosen by an oracle to enlighten and teach their people. After commencing a training of nine years in which they are kept in the dark in order to meditate they have to spend another nine years in training in the men’s circle before they are ready to be a Mama. The Mamas enter Aluna in their meditations and visualizations. They strongly believe that their meditations are helping to hold the world together. The tribe believes that the Younger 2

Brother was sent across the sea with tools long time ago. Sadly, he came back and destroyed their peaceful way of living. He brought the Catholic religion, guns, death and destruction. That is not the way we are supposed to live on Earth. The Kogi have lived in harmony with nature without the destructive use of technology. They are living in the way I personally think humans were supposed to live: guarding delicate balance of our world, being farmers and taking only as much as they really need. The Kogi are sure that we are the ones to blame for catastrophic temperature changes, new diseases and destroyed balance. Because of the big popularity of the documentary The Elder Brothers’ Warning the Kogi believed that we would change our ways. Sadly, we seemed to be interested in their story in the same way we are interested in the nature: seems honest and real, but this is just more fun. In the meantime our world is suffering even more. Without anymore time the Kogi reached to Alan Ereira again, this time to unleash Aluna. Lets’ hope someone hears their message. Another tribe that tried to warn us about the dangers of the new world is the Hopi. The Hopi live in North America and they have held to their ancient wisdom and traditions like the Kogi. They have prophecies that they have seen being fulfilled in the world events. In 1948 four Hopi elders were appointed as messengers to explain their prophecies and issue a warning to the modern world. These beliefs are commonly used to fuel doomsday belief systems, but they are not intended for this. They should be warnings. There is what is known as the “Prophecy Rock” which shows a choice of two pathways that humans can take. One path is the one that both Kogi and Hopi decided to take: living in harmony with nature and this road goes on and on but the other road depicted on Prophecy Rock ends in a zigzag line that is thought to show our destruction: the pathway of technology and materialism, the path the world has clearly been on. American Indian poet John Trudell is known for his songs in which he speaks about the balance of nature and the world and how it’s being destroyed 3

by the crazy system that is in power. One of the most catching questions is “How do we sell our Mother?” in his song “Crazy Horse”. Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994), was a Lithuanian archeologist, known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of “Old Europe”. That was the beginning of the matriarchal studies and the Goddess movement, spiritual beliefs or practices that emerged from the second-wave feminism, predominantly in Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s. She started talking about the cult of Goddesses rather than the cult of Gods and that shocked the society. In 1989 documentary film was made in Canada, “Goddess Remembered” by Donna Read. The main theme of the documentary is the unexpected story of the matriarchal period long before it was replaced by patriarchal official history. With that replacement all dreams of connection to Mother Earth vanished, our ideal society was no longer the one that stands strong on overall care, respect and love for each other, where equality and peace were ideas in minds of all. Our role model became fierce dominant man. Conqueror has replaced the nurturer. This may be the point in which we started behaving like a spoiled Younger Brother and took the zigzag Hopi line to destruction. Marija Gimbutas research found that the happiest cultures were the ones in which there was no dominance of men or women, pure equality. Nowadays, after feminists’ movements, it seems that we’re past the females neglect, but the dominance of the male is still around us. As Marija herself said in an interview: “With weapons, with hill forts, with war. That is a civilization? Only then we call it civilization —when weapons were used. But if there was a beautiful art and another type of social structure, then it was not a civilization. It was “precivilization”…” (Interview with Marija Gimbutas: The Language of the Goddess)

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It is not that hard to understand how can someone forget Aluna if psychology is serving them new ideas that promote materialism and financial success over love, care and spiritual success that makes our world better. I was deeply disguised when I read the article “How To Make A Money Maker” by psychologist Tim Kasser, Ph.D. It is literally an article on how to breed a child that is financially aggressive and values monetary success. First step is to make your self less warm, involved and democratic. Your lonely child will start trying being successful, since children indentify with their parents, hoping that you would love him. Tim Kasser writes: “When mothers are cold and controlling, their children focus on attaining security and a sense of self-worth through external sources, such as financial success.” Of course, the more people are materialistic, the less they value self-direction, sociability, relationships with others, and by that also with Aluna. Materialism is another catastrophe that is threatening to ruin our world.

Alice Walker (1944-) is an American author, poet and activist. Born in a poor, black family she learned very early how to fight for education. Her parents gave up everything they had just so they could afford to send her to school. She started writing and became famous for writing “The Color Purple” in 1982, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize. This novel was later made into a Steven Spielberg movie in 1985 starring Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg. The novel is about female black life in 1930s in the southern United States, racism and violence black women suffered. The main character is Celia the poor, uneducated, fourteen-year-old black girl. She is 5

being neglected, raped and beaten by her own father. The story follows many women with different personalities in her environment. Another book Alice Walker published is “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose” in 1983. It’s a collection composed of thirty-six separate pieces containing essays, articles, reviews, statements and speeches written between 1966 and 1982. Many of them are based on her understanding of womanist theory. In the beginning of the book, Walker describes “womanist” as “A black feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mother to female children and also a woman who loves other women, sexually and/or nonsexually. Appreciates and prefers women’s culture. Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female.” Someone who is still in touch with Aluna. Someone who understands that violence is not the best way to be remembered. In addition to writing about womanhood and creativity, Walker addresses subjects such as nuclear wars, anti-Semitism, and the Civil Rights Movement. One of her best works is a poem called “Democratic Womanism”. Walker read this song 40 days before the elections in 2012. The poem is beautiful and honest. Walker is criticizing the system in which you can only choose between two evils, where it doesn’t matter who is the president. She is talking about her ideal system, Democratic Womanism or Democratic Social Womanism that would honor the feminine. It is all about men and women being equal. She is against the cruel manner in which our values of compassion and kindness have been ridiculed and suppressed. Walker believes that we should examine the past closely if we want to make progress. She is saying: “I am thinking of Democratic, and, perhaps Socialist, Womanism. For who else knows so deeply how to share but Mothers and Grandmothers? Big sisters and Aunts? To love and adore both female and male?” We should all learn how to share and love from them. Scott Noble’s documentary film “The Power Principle” is about realities of todays’ system. The theme is the foreign policy of the United States. It demonstrates the importance of the political economy, the Mafia 6

principle, propaganda, ideology, violence and force. It has three parts: Empire, Propaganda and Apocalypse. The Power Priniciple is a history of the United States and the building of its empire. Key to Scott Noble’s hypothesis presented in this movie is the relationship between the US war industry, Wall Street, the US military and the government in Washington. The interlocking relationships between corporations like Lockheed and presidential appointees like Warren Christopher point to the connections between war and Wall Street in a very personal way. So do more personal relationships such as the marriage of Dwight Eisenhower’s personal secretary to an executive of the United Fruit Company. Other graphic reminders of how few families and corporations run the United States are also discussed: Kermit Roosevelt’s role in overthrowing the popular Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran; the friendly relations between US bankers like Prescott Bush and the German Nazi regime; the hiring of certain Nazis after World War Two by the United States; the reinstallation of fascists into government in Italy after the war to prevent the rise of the communists; and so on. All the things Alice Walker is fighting against. I hope that one day we will be able to live purely as the Kogi, and learn how to live without hurting the Mother Earth. Sadly, I think that that will be able only when we decide to abandon monetary system. I believe that we’ll have enough food, water and energy for everyone when we learn how to share like our mothers tried to teach us.

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