Introduction to Humanities
hocdoetvay
ResponsetoInstructor.docxFrom student: MB
Inspirational piece: Paul Gauguin, Mahana no atua (Day of the God) 1894.
This piece reminds me of the Intensive Care Unit that I work on, the intensivist would be the Green "god" in the center. and the women working to please him are the nurses. In the world of nursing, we are the advocates to the patients. It is us our duty to be the eyes and ears for our patients. Nurses are constantly asking for orders and medications, of course, these things need doctors orders. Doctors are only around during rounding and the rest of the night they are in the sleep room, the nurse is allowed to call when necessary. Therefore, I see the Green guy in the center as the god someone who has extensive education in medicine, and the nurses are the hard-working women trying to care for the sick by the water. Nurses work very hard, we are the bread and butter to medicine, however, doctors seem to always get all the credit. Notice how the man in the center seems to be like he is floating in luxury while everyone around them is working diligently.
Reference:
Feedback from Instructor:
Class,
A big point of critique in this work of Gauguin's in mentioning that it is unrealistic. He was a European, traveling during the late colonial era and as such, had an outsider's (some would say even fetishistic) view of the indigenous population.
According to Thomas, "Gauguin also developed his own romanticized version of Tahitian spiritual culture. He hand-carved wooden idols, which he Westernized using polished shells as halos and parrotfish teeth for menacing mouths. In paintings such as "In Olden Times," he depicted local girls dancing around a gigantic idol, one several times larger than Tahitians would have had in reality. In 1893, he returned to France for two years with 66 canvases and his "ultrabarbaric" sculptures, as he put it, which the French neither appreciated nor bought."
Considering the perspective and ethnographic baggage that often accompany western attitudes and depictions of culture, can you see this in Mahana no atua? What about other cultural works today, are there any examples you can share?
reference: Thomas, Dana, "Tropical Feast", Newsweek (Pacific Edition), 01637061, 10/20/2003 (Pacific Edition), Vol. 142, Issue 16
