PRE-TASK
Date - 26 September 2020, Saturday
JAINISM is a religion that my family practices solely. We celebrate a lot of festivals, one of which is Paryushan Parv which is also known as DAS LAKSHAN. Digambara Jains celebrate this festival for ten days.
Why it is celebrated?
It is a time of purifying one's soul and, during this time all the saints (MAHARAJ JI) stay at one place.
What is the significance of the festival?
The Maharaj Jis stay in one place because this festival is in the rainy season, and all the insects and creatures come to the surface during this time, so to avoid stepping on them they don't move.
This is me with my cousins in the temple on the tenth day of Das Lakshman. I don't have many pictures of this particular festival because we are not allowed to click pictures inside the temple as well as I love to stay in the moment and enjoy it.
During these ten days, we go to the temple and at night there are games organized for kids and elders. We also keep fasts according to our will and capacity.
ILLUSTRATED VOCABULARY
ASHT DRAVYA - 8 elements of pooja.
MATERIAL - Something that we can physically touch or what is visible.
NON-MATERIAL - The belief or the reason for the material component.
CONTEXT - situation, the soul purpose of an object.
TEXT - the physical aspect of an object.
SUBTEXT - feel or vibe of the object.
COMMUNITY - a group of people who have a common goal.
CULTURE - The differences which distinguish human societies and human beings.
CASTE - a group of people who are commonly based on their profession.
BELIEF - an acceptance that something exists or is true.
VALUE - principles or standards of behavior
DAY 1
Date - 30 September 2020, Wednesday
REFLECTIVE WRITING - 1
The project started with a video that gave me a hint of how valuable these festivals are to my family and me. Without them, our lives will be boring, they help our family come together and bond. For example, I get to meet my cousins on Diwali with whom I don't talk for months.
The word "culture" for me is 'festival'. It is like my identity, the festivals we celebrate. We celebrate DAS LAKSHAN every year but, I had no idea why we celebrated it. Asking my grandparents made me realize that I do some stuff without knowing why I'm doing them. Today I got the chance to dig into these unanswered questions in my head which never came before today. We categorized the answers into 2 categories, i.e. MATERIAL and NON-MATERIAL.
The MATERIAL component contains the object side of the answers, that we can physically hold. For example, the ASHT DRAVYA ( eight elements ) of the pooja thali is offered to God. These are tangible materials.
The NON-MATERIAL component has the belief part. What are the reasons for using tangible materials? For example, The reason we use rice in ASHT DRAVYA is that they are uncooked and thus there is no HIMSA happening. This is the belief part.
These two components are interrelated. Every material component has a non-material aspect of it. The NAVKAR MANTRA that we chant is the material aspect. We chant this to salute ARHANTS, SIDHAS, ACHARYAS, UPADHYAY, and SADHUS. This is the non-material component, this is the significance of chanting Navkar Mantra.
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, there are feelings, emotions & a deeply developed thought process between every ritual, there is a significance of every big and small material which reflects its originality and distinctiveness.
There is a soothing unsaid warmth and sentiments.
HOME TASK
I've taken a phone as my object, which I use every day. Everything nowadays is available on the phone. It is a means to socialize these days, which is what I do, scroll down through social media on my phone. I chose it because when we were given this task, my phone was in my hand.
DAY 2
REFLECTIVE WRITING - 2
In my culture, there is no role of the phone. On the contrary, my parents tell me to keep it away while we are in the middle of some ritual. Even in the temple, we are not allowed to click pictures and, also were asked to keep it silent.
The image on the right is of the entrance of the Jain Temple. I was not allowed to click pictures inside of the temple.
As we discussed with Gauravi ma'am today, we live in more than one community. Being in a design community demands excess usage of the phone whereas, when I'm in the sports community, there is no requirement for the phone.
Material-Nonmaterial is a macro concept under which Text-Context-Subtext comes. They are, in a way similar but also different as the latter is a more complex concept.
The smaller one is my phone whereas the bigger one my friend's. At first glance, it is clear that there is a difference in the size of the screen. This is the Text component of the phone because it tells about the physical aspect of the phone. The reason I use a smaller size phone is that it is compact and easily slides down my pocket. Whereas, my friend loves to play games which is why his screen size way bigger than mine. The main purpose of my phone is to make calls and have basic applications that I can use for my college work. On the other hand, my friend's phone has a better battery life and performance that helps him in playing games.
CONCLUSION
My culture teaches us to enjoy and embrace every individual moment and seize the day. This moment is the only reality, the only thing that matters. To do this, to simply embrace this moment completely you must be willing to witness and confront everything as it is, as it happens, without judgment, without control, without past conditioning, without fear, without running away, without creating elaborate mind games and without any belief that there is anything more than just this moment itself. They want to reserve their distinct art form and thus prohibits us from clicking pictures inside.
HOME TASK
DAY 3
INDIVIDUAL ORGANISER
We made the individual map on the same board so the link is the same.
INSIGHTS
INDIVIDUAL
Women of the Tuareg community wear indigo burkhas.
They are non-vegetarians but they eat fruits and vegetables more often. They only eat meat on special occasions like weddings.
It is a matriarchal community where women own houses after divorce. Also, there is equality amongst the genders.
They have a special connection with tea. It is served to depend upon the mood of the officiator.
Weddings are the most sacred and huge ceremony for this community.
GROUP
REFLECTIVE WRITING - 3
A community is a group of people who have the same goals. They practice the same set of norms to do the same. Tuareg community wear long robes and turban, which protects them from sunburns. Here long robes and turban are the TEXT whereas, the reason why they wear it, i.e. for protection is the CONTEXT. The similarities between the Tuareg community and the community I live in are that we consider a wedding to be one of the most sacred ceremonies similarly, the Tuareg community organizes a wedding in a very holy manner.
There is a big difference between the indigenous and my community in terms of patriarchy and matriarchy. I live in a male dominant community. The women of my community are considered inferior, whereas men sort of rule their lives. On the other hand, the Tuareg community follows matriarchy, where women are given equal opportunities as men. After a divorce, the women of the Tuareg community get the tents, whereas in my community both the partners get to divide the property. People of my community call it "TEA PARTY", where people gather around and talk. The Tuagers call it a "Ritual" where they serve tea according to the mood of the officiator. I belong to a Jain community, on the other hand, the Tuaregs follow Islamism.
CONCLUSION
Various practices we discussed in both communities are reflective of what their definition of culture is. There are numerous beliefs and a thought process behind following these practices and norms which a community agrees upon. These lead to cultural differences between different ethnic group and the environment
DAY 4
REFLECTIVE WRITING - 4
Context refers to the reason for the TEXT part. The concept of beauty is "what" a community considers beautiful in its community. The way one dresses and carries themselves depicts beauty. Every community has there own eyes for beauty, some like simplicity, while others want to play around with their look. The context here will be "why they want to look like that?".
The Tuareg people like to be simple so they wear long robes. These long, indigo robes are considered beautiful in their community. They wear them to protect themselves from sunburns and also they can redye them in many colors. The first one is the concept of beauty for the Tuareg people, and the latter is the context. In my community, we wear lehengas, jeans, and tops to cover our bodies. These lehengas are considered beautiful in my community. But we don't wear them to protect ourselves from the scorching heat of the sun, rather look traditional and be trendy.
The Tuaregs don't do body art of any kind. The women also braid their hair. They think tattoos ruin the natural beauty of a person. Braids Are to protect their hair from the dust storm of Sahara. The concept of beauty here is being simple and more realistic and braiding o the hair. Context is the reason why they do it i.e. to protect their hair from the storm. We, on the other hand, think that untying the hair makes us look beautiful.
CONCLUSION
Everybody’s particular context determines how we perceive what surrounds us, and therefore it also affects what is or is not beautiful. Context is the reason why a community considers something to be beautiful. The concept of beauty comes with the context of one's culture.
DAY 5
FINAL REFLECTION
I choose the JAIN, SPORTS, and NETFLIX COMMUNITIES from my visual organizer. The main belief in the Jain community is AHIMSA. This aspect influences my eating habits majorly. I am a vegetarian, I can sit and eat with a non-vegetarian, but I never eat. In the Sports community, they believe that without discipline, no one can learn anything. Being a part of that community has made me confident and punctual in a disciplined manner. The Netflix community, on the other hand, has no rules and beliefs in particular. Because of this, I wear a night suit all day. And due to this pandemic, I only wear PJs, and I love them.
I agree with the AHIMSA part of the Jain community to some extent.
We believe in not killing animals or plants. This is the reason we
are vegetarians.
But for plants, if we think practically when we take out roots of the plants it gets killed. I agree with this. But when we pluck fruits or leaves of the same plant, we basically are taking its body part. This is more painful than killing it.
I agree with the fact that Jains eat before sunset. There is a scientific reason behind this - DIGESTION. Scientists say that there is a gland in our stomach that closes after sunset, and whatever we eat after that, doesn't get digested.
The WHATSAPP COMMUNITY and the SCHOOL COMMUNITY are the two conflicting communities. The school community teaches me to be punctual. Whereas, the Whatsapp community has no fixed time. Going to school in a proper uniform made me feel like I'm part of that community. Because every student there wore the same uniform, and there were no differences based on class. In the WhatsApp community, people who have expensive mobile phones become dominant. Their rich lifestyle is seen through their profile pictures and selfies. This marks a boundary line between rich and poor. In school, teachers teach every student the same thing and there is a set of rules to talk to a teacher, for example, always speak in English, don't use bad words, etc. But in the WhatsApp community, there are no such rules, we write what we feel. Be it Hindi words in the English language or swear words to elders. "WHY" we use this language? Because there is no grading
system, no one is marking you on writing "u" instead of "you" or "pagal" instead of "mad". In school, if I write any of the above, I shall be scolded because both these words are not acceptable. Those are the beliefs that every student has to value.
CONCLUSION
Every community has its own belief system that we follow. These beliefs teach us a value that influences our daily practices.
Sometimes we disagree with what we are made to believe. We try to question why we are being taught those things.
We behave differently in different communities. Practices accepted by one community don't mean that other communities will have the same belief system. We have to adapt according to the community we join in.
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