When asked where I am from, I tend to feel a bit of worry. The truth is I have moved 30 times in my lifetime and can’t really think of a way to explain it to someone who has never had this experience. I attempt to say I really don’t have a single place. The response is usually some attempt to figure it out, as if this thought process hasn’t happened before. Where are my parents living? What do I consider home? Where was the place I left when I came here? My parents are moving to another town, and I will likely not see any of my friends at the last town. My heart lies somewhere in many different places; Lok’ch’gai in the Navajo Reservation, Seattle, Portland, Boise, Middleton, Pueblo, Denver, Las Vegas, Laramie, and many many others are deep in my heart and remain home. I try to explain that I am from all sorts of places, but no one believes this since I never lived in those places long enough.
The explanations go cold, and even when I try to explain to people that really do know, they try to place something on me. For example, one of the latest Ke Alaka’i articles had a quote from me. They made sure to include that I was from Liverpool[1], even though I said I had moved 30 times.
Then of course there is the wonderful part when they ask about where my family is from. My Dad is German Argentine, but grew up in Idaho. My Mom is French, but her family has been in the States for centuries. Trying to explain this over and over leaves people exasperated and I can see somewhere in their minds the thought, “You have to be from somewhere, if you were from nowhere you wouldn’t exist.”
When people ask about my heritage, I explain my Dad is German Argentine. The looks on the faces of everyone tends to be that of confusion. I try to explain that Germans have been moving around for years. In the minds of the people I talk to, Germans come from Germany, and that’s it. In their minds, the world has maps, and these maps have had the same people in them the entire time. Trying to explain that this really doesn’t work when dealing with people like my Dad, who gets a feeling and starts to move, or how my own family history works.
So Let’s begin with Germany. Germany began its history about 1930 when the German republic was formed[2]. Before hand it was several different groups. The Major one was called Prusse and was expanding slowly thanks to a guy named Otto van Bismark. However, he did not complete the country.
Germany became what it is today thanks to the fall of the USSR. Although the fall happened later, the opening of the Berlin Wall in Germany allowed Germans to cross back and forth in their own traditional lands. So the history of the people of Germany is about 22 years old today.
What? You mean you want the history of the people within Germany? Well, there were several different groups. Today Germany has Arabs, Turks, Polish, and many other cultures in it. It has been this way the entire time.
Do you mean, you want the older history of the people of Germany?
This is a picture of Germania in the minds of the Roman people. You will notice that Germany is only a part of the lands being covered.
It gets even weirder than that though. The people of Rome didn’t go much further north than what the map shows, so we don’t really know about the further German groups. Then during the fall of Rome, the Germans emigrated all over Europe and taking power where ever they went. The English Kings were Saxons, the Lombardi’s took Italy, and the Rus, well you can guess that.
Basically put, the Germans took over much of Europe.
This isn’t the first time this happens either. The Vikings take over lands again in the tenth century. So Europe has a large Germanic ethnic population before we even get into visiting the Americas.
The British Colonies had German and Dutch immigrants. Keep in mind, Germany did not exist yet so much of England viewed them as the same people. Benjamin Franklin wrote of Germans[3],
Which leads me to add one Remark: That the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their numbers were increased. And while we are, as I may call it, Scouring our Planet, by clearing America of Woods, and so making this Side of our Globe reflect a brighter Light to the Eyes of Inhabitants in Mars or Venus, why should we in the Sight of Superior Beings, darken its People? why increase the Sons of Africa, by Planting them in America, where we have so fair an Opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red? But perhaps I am partial to the Compexion of my Country, for such Kind of Partiality is natural to Mankind.
The Germans at this time were still the foreigners, even though the English colonists were descendants of Saxons. This immigration continued throughout the history of the United States. The Scandinavians came into Minnesota and the Northern Midwest without much notice.
It goes further than that, Germans migrated everywhere there was a colony to be found. They were on naval vessels for every country, and therefore helped build the colonies they would live in. Yet no one really noticed this.
The American revolution was very strange. The British forces had the British Saxons, and then hired mercenaries from Hessia which is near Denmark. The American side had German and Dutch immigrants, and then French Soldiers, many of whom did not speak French but a form of Germanic speech common to the lower peoples.
Argentina had Germans, and so did much of South America. Africa had several different groups that were Germanic colonists. The Dutch East Indies and other trading groups spread language and ideals throughout the world.
This leads me to point out that there are several people from Polynesian cultures that have heritage to German and Dutch travelers. In other words, while no one was noticing the Germans globalized.
This is just one culture, one ethnic group that spread throughout the world. There are hundreds of them doing the exact same thing. We don’t notice them because they fall under “lower” groups, or don’t follow our own national ideals. They adapt to their new culture and keep parts of the old one as well. So we have a huge sense of diversity from ethnic groups that most people are simply not watching. In fact, it gets even odder. Some of these groups have had entire Empires, and because they were based on movement instead of traditional civilization systems, no one remarked about it.
In the book Empires of the Silk Road, the author Christopher Beckwith points out that the Germans had similar cultural aspects as the people of Central Asia. The common things were long braided hair, a system of brotherhood among warriors called comitatus, and burial of a warrior with his weapons[4]. The nazi symbol of the swastika can be found throughout the Eurasian continent[5]. In other words, we really don’t know which culture is truly German, how to properly describe it, or who is German.
First things first though, we need a name for this civilization that we have ignored. I call it the Other Civilization, for two reasons. The first is that Other tends to be the term for people that fall into the foreign and unknown. The mystical other is something that has been used to describe many of the groups throughout history. The second reason is with a simple honesty, when talking about these two different civilizations the people involved will often say, “No, no, the Other Civilization... the one that travelled.”
The comparison between them now needs a term for the more traditional idea of civilization. This one used a more permanent style. It viewed itself in slow moving and historical ways. We tend to trust the sources from this civilization more than the Other. It relies on Walls and Rules to keep power among the people. This is not just walls in real life, but walls in the mind and culture as well.
To give an idea of walls and rules you must see how it was used.
Let’s use women within a strong walls/rules civilization. Within the Roman civilization, women were not allowed outside of the home. They were rulers of that house, but it was all they ruled. Within Confucian ideals, you find that women were in the same place and same rules. In fact, you can find the same idea within adds for American women in 1950.
During the Roman occupation of the British Isles, Boadicea a queen of the icena revolted and burned down the many towns built by the Romans. She would charge into war with her warriors. Not only did she fight as a warrior, she was accepted as a leader without question by her people[6].
Then we have how the Romans settled areas.
This is a map of Londinium or London during the Roman Era. Note how everything is placed with a system of roads, and walls. Then notice how each place is for a specific thing. People live in one place. The military stays in the northern area. There are places for entertainment. All of this is kept within walls.
This map is of Jamestown Virginia when it was a colony. It is similar to the Londinium map. See the walls and how every thing seems to have a place.
As can be seen from this picture, the idea of places really hasn’t changed. The suburban planned lifestyle is full of places for things and how they should be.
In fact, walls are the solution to many arguments. Lets look at a few.
This wall was known as Hadrian’s wall and it stopped the Scottish and other folk from fighting the Romans. It is the de facto separator between England and Scotland today
The Great Wall of China specifically kept Nomadic invaders out. Notice how the walls were used to keep out invaders, and other things from crossing. This solution was a surefire for someone who believed in walls.
Now lets look at walls within the mind.
During the Cold War, Germany was placed in four parts. The reality was it had two in modern minds. The part run by the US and its Allies, and the part run by the USSR. This caused many problems, and people began to cross from one side to the other. The USSR was frightened by this and built a wall down the middle of Berlin. Buildings that were down this line were allowed to be there, but the windows were bricked up. People died trying to cross the wall.
The American and Russian forces played a dance for the rest of the war. If a tank on one side backed up, the tank on the other would do the same. This was considered a better solution to all involved[7].
Even within sports we find the same walls in the mind. If even one person crosses this line in football at the wrong time, there is a penalty.
These walls within the mind allow the civilization to make rules, and punishments for crossing those lines. Hence, the treatment of women is strictly held because of the wall held in the mind. This also helps in seeing maps.
This map shows the territory of Tejas in 1835. In the minds of the Spanish, they ruled all this territory and had already divided it up. If you look, you can see how it seems as if the idea was to make the area just like the small town or colony. There is a place for everything. The entire reasons of why something goes where is arbitrary, but it should be seen.
This leads wonderfully to how the Other Civilization thinks. It does not see this map at all. In fact, during the time of 1835, the Commanche had free reign of this entire territory. It continued to expand for most of the 19th century.
The Comanche were in charge, yet as far as the Spanish, and then Mexican forces were concerned, it was owned Spanish land.
The Comanche like the Central Asian tribal groups held vast lands and even had peace treaties among themselves. They demanded tributes and payments, and if they didn’t get them would enact raids for the items demanded. There were large meetings between them in cities every year. These cities were not permanent, but were larger than any American city at the time.
The person I am talking to usually stops me right here and demands to know how the Spanish didn’t notice they were being taken over? Didn’t they just attack the buffalo like the Americans?
That gets into a really odd point. Within one of my previous papers I talked about how a a people or idea takes over. The basic premise was that they slowly worked their ways up until it was obvious they were the dominant group. The former dominant would remember the fall and would add it to their cultural memories. When doing the Other Civilization vs Walls and Rules it doesn’t happen.
The truth be told the Comanche hunted the buffalo down themselves, they continued to live as if nothing had changed even when their major supplies had dwindled. To them, the forts and settlements were under the tribe and that was that. Within the Spanish ideas and the modern views of history, the forts were signs that the comanche were already destroyed. Neither side acknowledges the other for dominance. The modern views say it never happened.
The person who brings up the question on where I am from then says something about the plight of the people, and how nomads were destroyed.
I then have to point out that nomads are still here today. Even when one idea changed another came into reality and the people continued to travel, just in a new name. While walls and rules were built up for a certain people, others just ignored them and continued to travel.
Fine the person says, name some.
I know of at least a few I respond. My friend Amanda, the Carling family, the Wasdens, and of course myself.
When I talk to them about travelling around there tends to be some consistent patterns.
The first is that there is a desire to move.
“About a year and a half and I start to get rid of stuff for a move,” says Amanda.
“Our son always gets ready in October,” says sister Wasden, “they just say, ‘Oh, time to move!’ and start to pack.”
Within my own life, after about three years of living in a place, I would feel like I had stayed there for long enough. Some towns it can even feel that way after a week or a month.
This willingness to move causes problems within the civilization of walls and rules. For example, in a conflict with someone else, the expectation is that a person would challenge or accept what is being demanded of them. Within the world of the Other, there is a third option of leaving.
“I had a boss that was nice enough, but we didn’t see eye to eye on some issues,” says brother Wasden, “she began to demand I do as she say or else. So I left.”
Within history, King Darius charged after scythian warriors to teach them a lesson. He went well outside of his land to pursue them and found his men slowly falling apart. When finally he had them cornered, the scythians warriors disbanded and left which ever way they felt like. When Darius demanded a fight, the response was this.
It is thus with me, Persian: I have never fled for fear of any man, nor do I now flee from you; this that I have done is no new thing or other than my practice of peace. But as to the reason why I do not straightway fight with you, this too will I tell you. For we Scythians have no towns or planted lands, that we might meet you the sooner in battle, fearing the one be taken or the other wasted. But if nothing will serve you but fighting straightway, we have the graves of our fathers; come, find these and essay to destroy them; then shall you know whether we will fight you for those graves or no. Till then we will not join battle unless we think it good[8].
As you can see, the ability to move and to not actually go into the conflict helped the scythians destroy an enemy without having to fight them. When push came to shove, the scythians left in victory[9].
The person I am talking to asks what else is important. I inform them that I don’t enjoy giving out names. To me thats a personal thing and I shouldn’t know it at the very beginning.
To the civilization of walls and rules, everything needs a name. It is not discovered or real unless it has a name. So, when greeting someone, a name must be given. Even when given the name, I tend to forget it.
What the person is called usually goes about in a special pattern. Amanda gave the description as where they were from, how they met, height, or some random fact. The looks of the person also fits into a description of the person.
Within the culture of the Navajo, it is rude to give out your name. When the first census workers came to the Navajo reservation they asked about names. The person being asked would give a general description or relation. B’j’eh or B’h’a are descriptions of relation or friendship. B’j’eh or Bejay means brother and B’h’a or Bia means older brother. Because of this much of the reservation has people with the last name of Begay and Bia.
The reality of remembering names takes some requirements. For the Carlings it takes about three weeks, as it does Amanda, the Wasdens say it will take a few months. Sister Carling remembers the name quickly, when talking about it brother Carling has said that they would visit someones home and she would remember their names quickly.
What brother Carling didn’t see was that they had entered into the home. Within the other interviews, entering into the home is an obvious sign that a name should be known.
The home and the family become a much tighter unit. Since other people outside of the family can change so much. Those people who stay close are given a closeness of being almost family. Within Germanic and Northern Eurasian groups the system of Comitatus was used often. Sometimes used as “Blood Brotherhood” the system of comitatus was that of near brotherhood in adventures. They would enter into a battle or adventure with the promise that they would not leave without the other.
As the system of walls and rules began to take power in Europe, the comitatus became the regiment of knights and lords. The system itself stayed, but the ideals behind it changed.
Finally is the need for adaptation.
“If you don’t fit in quickly, you can get hurt,” says Amanda.
“I don’t think it was that different,” says the Wasden’s daughter Rebekkah, “It was all mostly English and had similar things.”
“Yes, but that’s because you grew up with it,” says sister Wasden, “you don’t even realize how different England is from Singapore, because you adapted to it so quickly.”
This sense of constantly moving as being normal was a pattern I saw with all of them. Amanda did not view herself as different from anyone else.
“I think its weird to think that people entered into school at kindergarten and then graduated high school with the same people,” says Amanda.
Within my own life I have found that a Uhaul has brought back nostalgia just as easily as seeing a house I used to live in. In some cases more than that even. The sense of movement and adaptation creates problems for people who only view a place on a map as home. The stories by people who travel change with their needs. Within anthropology the stories of the nomadic or Other Civilization does not make sense since the ideals are so different from each other.
A common story is that of the trickster and the wanderer. The wanderer is a person or people that travel. Odin became a wandered to find truth[10]. The other is the trickster. Coyote or Raven is the common trickster within Native American stories. Raven once stole the Sun, Moon, and the Stars[11] from an eagle’s house. While trying to make his escape he used them to create the sun in the sky, the moon and stars at night, and water and fire. The fact that he did this by trickery confuses someone who follows walls and rules. How could craftiness and trickery help do so much good? Yet, Raven is not good himself, just doing what he wills.
There have been several people who have tried to explain the stories of what is called the trickster in anthropology. A trickster Claude Levi Strauss first attempted to explain it in 1967 by saying:
The trickster of American mythology has remained so far a problematic figure. Why is it that throughout North America his role is assigned proactically everywhere to either coyote or raven?
….
If we keep in mind that mythical thought always progresses from the awareness of oppositions toward their resolution, the reason for these choices, becomes clearer. We need only assume that two opposite terms with no intermediary always tend to be replaced by two equivalent terms which admit of a third one as a mediator; then one of the polar terms and the mediator become replaced by a new triad, and so on[12].
He basically says that coyote is the mediator between life and death. He goes on and tries to explain that this mediator is how we can understand the trickster.
Another attempt at it is that the trickster does not fall into any definition and is therefore defiled. Mary Douglas in 1966 believed that this defilement was symbolic and thus since the coyote was an eater of the dead, it was also out of place since it was alive.
The writings of the trickster would seem obvious to those in the Other Civilization. The need for survival, the ability to adapt, the need to outsmart or outwit someone.
The reason for this confusion is the thought that things need to be separated to be understood. So a person who does not care about this separation appears, it seems almost surreal.
Within this graphic we can find the slow change from the civilization of walls and rules to the other civilization. Each one shows how the moral system and understanding of structure works.
The far left is that of Confucian ideals and stories and the best descriptions of walls and rules, the main character hears of a thing not done correctly and makes sure to not make the same mistake. Ye Baolin in the 17th century burned all her poetry in protest when she heard that women had poetry clubs that met in drinking establishments[13]. She saw her own morality as above that of her talent.
Then we move onto King Arthur stories, a moral character goes on adventures, the ability of his adventures is based on his sense of morality and conduct. A knight would arrive and perform some great task, and because of his own nobility win and gain favor from everyone[14]. This story has actually become a modern set up for several stories in media today. Set for children, such shows as GI Joe, Pokemon, Naruto, and Power Rangers have noble stories told while battling some monster or bad guy[15]. It can be rather awkward at times as they declare war or battle to be horrible while making it look really fun[16].
This method was used in ancient times as well. The poem of Mulan tells the story of a woman who goes and serves in the army for her father. Although Hua Mulan is not Han herself, she is praised for her Confucian thoughts and decisions[17].
Robin Hood is in the middle because there are basically two different stories of Robin Hood. The first is that of a villain that the populace adored.
Then [c. 1266] arose the famous murderer, Robert Hood, as well as Little John, together with their accomplices from among the disinherited, whom the foolish populace are so inordinately fond of celebrating both in tragedies and comedies, and about whom they are delighted to hear the jesters and minstrels sing above all other ballads[18].
The brave Robin of Locksley comes later on, and takes on the Steal from the Rich and give to the Poor attitude. The duality of how he was viewed continued for centuries as one side saw him as a basic outlaw hero, and the other saw a knight or noble in distress[19]. Did Robin Hood exist? It doesn’t really matter in this case it is the story itself that is important[20].
So, I place Robin Hood in the middle as a person who both Walls and Rules fight over with the Other.
Monkey is a legend found in Chinese tales. He fights the other gods and makes a nuisance of himself as he attempts to better himself. Although constantly in trouble, he is beloved by many for his sense of skill and luck. His tale follows as he breaks all the rules placed by the Gods for the heck of it[21].
But wait, says the person, how can Monkey and Confucian stories exist in the same place with the same people? They must be separate? They can’t be sitting next to each other, that would just mean it was a different part of society not another civilization.
The response would be that most people are probably something like Robin Hood. They have the walls and rules placed in their lives, but also the idea of a brilliant or talented person tricking everyone to get his own desires. The idea of this Other Civilization is not that it existed separate, but that it was a different thought process, and the nomadic groups tended to follow the Other more than the Walls and Rules.
There is a sense of order, but Monkey does not view it as important. He performs tasks, and fights gods with skills he learned or gained in previous battles. Within the Buddhist tale, he is outwitted by Buddha himself. The character of Monkey is that of a breaker of rules, he plays the trickster in the same way as Loki[22], Pan[23], or Puck[24]. They stand as great godlike beings, but follow their own rules and ideas.
Finally we find a full trickster Anansi[25]. Within Ghana he can be a rabbit or a spider. His stories are of how he tricked others to get what he wanted. His stories are full of trickery, magic, and quick whits. Although there are other characters that have greater power than Anansi they do not use this power as a form of law against him. Thus, he outsmarts tiger over and over again[26].
Amanda tells the story of when she was in grade school and asked what she wanted to do when she grew up. She said she wanted to take care of a panda. Her teacher said this wasn’t possible. But this was what she truly wanted. Her Dad seeing this talked to a friend at a zoo. So she spent an entire day with pandas.
The next day at school she stood up to talk about what she wanted with a picture of her hugging a panda.
“This is my panda,” she said.
As the idea of walls and rules leaves, we find more and more tricksters. Loki, or Puck make sense to those that would need to survive by adapting and making bigger foes fall by whits. Along these same lines we can see people living within these civilizations.
The truly nomadic people such as the Wasdens, Amanda, or I have the thought that there is a constant need to move and to adapt to wherever we are. Thus, the idea of a Loki, or a Anansi makes sense because we are doing the same things within our own lives.
When I asked the Wasdens about their children, Sister Wasden pointed out that Rebekkah would very likely stop moving around. Her cultural upbringing was that of movement, but her personality would be one that needed to find a place and stay there. She would be a former nomad and would change her stories so that they would seem to be for people that stopped.
There is also a reverse idea, that of people who were forced to stop.
When I asked Brother Wasden about Globalization and nomads he responded, “the technology has made it easier, but I think we were here the entire time.”
The basic concept is that nomadic groups have been around the entire time. There is also the idea that if there was a stop for the culture, they would be sitting and waiting for a time to travel again. These Nomads in Waiting, would be a people that were sequestered by the rules into a single spot, even though culturally they covered a larger area. They would expand quickly when the chance was given to them. Through my study for my paper on Lip Pointers[27], you will see a point in time when the Europeans took over and believed that the islands had been separate. In their minds, the pacific ocean had lines and rules about who was what and did what. Within modern scholarly work such as that of Epeli Hau’ofa, we see a rejection of this thought. At this same time the Polynesians hire themselves out on these ships to get money. Through this they begin to expand and intermingle again[28]. So for them, there was a time of semi-sedentryism, and a time of cultural expansion. The Other Civilization was sitting there in waiting for the right time.
Then we have semi nomadic people, who are either transnational or enjoy visiting family. These people have specific areas they go to back and forth, but do this as frequently as possible. The Carlings are working to figure out how they might live this life as they now begin their family.
Then within Beckwith’s book we find that farmers and traders would stay on a post and lived off of working between the two civilizations. They would be like Robin Hood, caught between the two[29]. Telling stories about both.
Finally we find ourselves getting closer and closer to Walls and Rules. They create official stories, and give official names, and for the most part have been the history that we have records of today. The Romans believed themselves to be the reason for the invading Hun army and not the Goths nearby[30].
The system of understanding for walls and rules is fairly well known, and the majority of things in the newspapers, NEWS, and TV are about this subject.
Of course then the person I am talking to stops me cold. I was about to explain more, but they simply have enough.
“This is not possible,” they say, “you have wasted my time with your silly ideas for long enough! You say you moved around, but have no home? Your people are from Argentina and Germany, but its the same group? The German people may have been part of a culture that covered all of Eurasia. Then a full on system of civilization has been ignored for years because they moved around just like these people you know? I don’t know what a trickster is, why should I care? So what if they match some made up line with monkeys and King Arthur and whatever a Loki is, its just in your head. Listen, I just wanted to know where you were from. I did not want to stand here and listen to a long oration on the philosophical understanding of place and civilization within it!”
This is when I say I am from Seattle, even though I have only visited.
[3] Benjamin Franklin, Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc., 1751http://bc.barnard.columbia.edu/~lgordis/earlyAC/documents/observations.html
[4] Beckwith, p. 80-81
[5] Swastika, Wikipedia, 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika#Archaeological_record
[8] Beckwith, p. 69
[12] Sidky, p 263-264
[13] Theodore Huters, Roy Bin Wong, Pauline Yu, Culture and State in Chinese History: Conventions, Accomodations, and Critiques, (Stanford University Press, 1997), p. 240
[15] An Aesop, Television Tropes, 2011,
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnAesop
[16] Do Not Do This Cool Thing, Television Tropes, 2011
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DoNotDoThisCoolThing
[17] Hua Mulan, 2011
http://www.yellowbridge.com/onlinelit/mulan.php
[19] For a more thorough history, Wikipedia has the best summary and sources. I would also recommend Ben Turner’s Robin Hood site.
[20] Though I would be quite angry if I found Robin of Locksely as my ancestor on Ancestry.com again. Ben Turner was able to help me find the fakery from the last entry.
[21] For a more in depth look into the story, please see Hera Walker, Indigenous or Foreign: A look at the monkey hero Sun Wukong, (Sino Platonic Papers, September 1998)
[22] Loki, Wikipedia, 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki
[23] Pan, Wikipedia, 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_(god)
[24] Puck, Wikipedia, 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_(mythology)
[25] Anansi, Wikipedia, 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anansi
[26] Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys,(HarperCollins, 2008 January 22nd), p. 38-39
[28] Helen Lee, Migration and Transnationalism: Pacific Perspectives, (Australian National University Press 2009), pg. 7-42
[29] Beckwith, pg. 76
[30] Beckwith, pg. 82
