Social Work of Jane Adams

The discussion this week is if Jane Adam's social work was religiously motivated or not.  It class on Wednesday, we discussed the factors that motivated her for her work.  She was greatly influenced by her father, as well as the Abraham Lincoln letters, Quaker values, seeing poverty in person, and the idea of democracy and equality.

I remember the part of the text when Jane asks her father what he is.  Her father responds "I am a Quaker."  The most influential person in her life responds to the all-important question of "who he is" by saying that he is a Quaker, or a Friend.  The Quakers are some-what a sect of Christianity but not exactly.  They believe in God but only within people, the "inner light." They also do not believe that the bible is the written word of God, but rather Christ is.  They have no creed and do not practice any sacraments because they believe that holiness can exist in all the activities of ones life.  Thus two forms of her motivating factors, her father and Quaker beliefs, are tied to a religious form, but a loose form nonetheless.  

Her other factors, seeing poverty in person and equality, do not seem to have any religious aspect to them at all.  Seeing the poor only stimulated Adams' mind that she should help them and equality is just a belief that stems from the friendship ideals associated with the Quaker people.  Thus, looking at Jane Adams' motivations for the Hull-house has led me to conclude that there is not a great amount of religious connections to her work but there are a few.  I think that Adam's mostly just wanted to help the less fortunate.

Discussion on oppression

What really is oppression? How does oppression influence cultures?  In Rastafari, we have seen that oppression has almost shaped an entire culture.  From the music they play to their hairstyles, everything about them screams a desire for freedom and a pilgrimage back to their homeland, Ethiopia.  But the oppression we speak of for the Rastas is one of the most brutal kinds, slavery. How would another from of dominance affect a different culture.  I feel that there is oppression in the United States as well.  It might not be as extreme as felt by the Rastafari but it is still present.  Our oppression is more emotional.  The government uses our emotion of fear to enrich their power and keeps us blind to many things happening around us.  There are many secrets that the average American citizen does not know.

The music of Jamaica is the most obvious place to see the Rastafari beliefs about downpression.  Last class we listened to Bob Marley's "Redemption Song."  This song is a call to action for the Rastafari to pursuit redemption and freedom.  In the song Marley sings, "How long must they kill our prophets, while we stand here and look?"  This murderous from of oppression is the main driving force for this culture of people.  They need to act if they want a difference in their lives.  In American pop culture, the thought about government oppression are almost lost because not many people want to know about their own fear.  Americans want to run away from it as long as we can before we have to confront it.  However, there are some television shows that put a comedic spin on government happenings.  Shows like "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show" talk about Government oppression but usually in a joking matter.  These shows need to be funny or else many people would not watch them because of the fear factor.  Thus Americans and Rastas both have cultural changes because of oppression and it still affects them today.  They want pilgrimage and freedom, we want truth.    

Rasta movie

I thought that there were both similarities and differences between this Rastafarian culture and the cultures that we talked about in class.  Just like any Rastafarian group that we've seen, this village strongly identifies themselves with Africa and is actually preparing to travel across the Atlantic Ocean in order to get to Africa.  The people in this community also wear dreadlocks, to further their connection with Africa.  The people are also very spiritual.  They do physical and mental preparation for resurrection, redemption, and repatriation.  Thirdly, this community had made signs that preach "good over evil",  and "justice for all."  They must also have the common Rastafarian belief that they have been oppressed (or downpressed) and they know that they will eventually have peace and justice.

Event though there are some similarities, there are a couple key differences between this community and the communities of Rastafarians that we have studied in our text.  The first is that there was no mention of the ganja plant, or smoking it to free ones mind.  I did see one man possible smoking marijuana in the video but absolutely no talk about its enhancing powers.  I also did not hear any of the music associated with the Rastafarians.  There was no mention of reggae music or any group drumming that usually goes on.  I guess it would be hard to have reggae music in the middle of nowhere, but I didn't see one handmade drum in the whole village.

This community was definitely  a little different that most Rastafarian villages that we have looked at so far, but they do have the same basic beliefs.  This community does not contradict our image of Rastafarians but it does let us know that there are different sects of this religion, just like there are sects of christianity.

Domination

In the first chapter of Rastafari, Edmonds talks mostly about Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which I read this winter because I was in freshman studies.  It was interesting to look at Edmonds interpretations of the book because as we learned from Augustine earlier, there are multiple meanings for everything and we cannot judge without looking at all the interpretations.

The first chapter is divided up into three section for the most part, but I was most intrigued by the part on domination.  I thought that Edmonds and Weber's interpretation of this was quite nice.  One of the reasons why we obey a leader is because we are accustomed to it, or there is some sort of self-interest in it for the followers.  For example, I don't think that people would pay social security taxes if they were not going to receive the same support when they retire.  I think that this can also be brought to a religious scale.  Many followers of Christianity would probably think again about their religious beliefs if they did not believe that god will help them in times of trouble.  Those supplication Psalms would not exist if there was no thought of God aiding those in need.  The other form of domination threatens non-compliance with punishment.  One example of this is during torture or war.  If the captive does not give important information then there are sometimes hurtful consequences.  This is seen less commonly but still present today.

What I think is the most important stem from these dominance ideas is the necessary questioning of authority that usually does not happen.   Religious hierarchies have a known past of corruption and some of that still happens today.  It is the followers responsibility to resist dominance until they are sure that the higher powers are legitimate.  The corruption aspect is how religion and politics are so common.  People are easily manipulated and do not see when they are being taken advantage of.  This is a main problem with society today.

Ethiopia

In this text, I feel like Ethiopia is given status and value through its seeking of wisdom.  In the beginning of the text, I feel like Sheba represents Ethiopia and Solomon represents Jerusalem.  Ethiopia is always seeking wisdom from Jerusalem, coincidently the place where Jesus was born.  Because of the wisdom and virtue given by Solomon, Ethiopia becomes abundant with riches.  Sheba decided that she must visit this place and hear the famed Solomon speak for she must become wise just like him.  The pilgrimages which take place between Ethiopia and Jerusalem represent the long journey to become wise and powerful.

The most important connection is the marriage between Sheba and Solomon because it shows the everlasting partnership with Ethiopia and Jerusalem.  This reapplies what we talked about in class, about how Ethiopia is thought of as the Protector of Christianity.  This marriage signifies this bounding between the two sacred places.

The Birth of the child is also significant because it signifies future for the two nations.  The child and future king of Ethiopia sets out to find his father and further the relationship between Jerusalem and Ethiopia.  Without this child, the connection might have been lost and the Ethiopia might not be as important to the Christian religion as is today.

System of Symbols

I felt like this picture,  which was publishes on flickr.com, is a good representation of the system of symbols we have been discussing lately.  In this picture, a muslim man is praying in a mosque.  There are a few religious symbols in this photograph.

The most obvious religious aspect in this photograph is the act of prayer.  I cannot think of a religion which does not has some sort of prayer involved.  Prayer is usually made to some higher being or divine power which the religion believes to be real.  This God may symbolize power, forgiveness, grace, knowledge, or many other abilities.  Just as Augustine mentioned, we must examine the meaning behind our prayers and not be content with the fact that we do pray.  Our prayers are symbols for other things, which in turn makes them symbols for important parts of the religion. 

The other symbol in this photograph is the way this man is dressed.  The headwear has some sentimental value to this religion and usually represents devotion and commitment to his beliefs.  The dress of each religion has a common purpose, which the followers believe so it must be a symbol or that specific religion. 

During our most recent class on Friday, we talked a lot about interpretations and meaning. I imagine these ideas were important and controversial during Augustine's time and they are still predominant in today's society.  Most people interpret ideas and concepts differently and the inferences made by different people are never the same.  According to Augustine, there are multiple meanings of scripture, and all of these meanings are valid so long as they don't go against basic christian values, such as "worship God."  There is also note of literal and metaphorical interpretations.  According to Augustine, any ideas that offend morals should be taken as metaphorical instead of literal.  

Say there are two people, for instance, who disagree about some religion because some of that religion's follower's killed some people for land.  One of the two people might say that this religion is evil and immoral because they killed many people, while the other might say that we must investigate the intention and cause before drawing conclusions about those people and the religion.  Augustine would agree with the second person and say that no person has the right to judge an entire religion because of the acts of a few of there followers.  All religions have different interpretations.  Some are positive and some are negative but we can't place a judgement on a religion based on one or a few peoples actions.

To refer that to modern times, we know that the members of Al-Qaeda follow the muslim religion.  There are some citizens in the United States think that muslims are now associated with terrorists, but Augustine and most people would argue that we can't pin that judgement on muslims just because a few of their followers think that terrorism is an acceptable way of life.  Another thing about terrorists is that there are few people who interpret their behavior as just.  This population is slim but this only stresses the fact that there are people who interpret things differently than the majority of humans.