BS: Non-music: Archaeology or Graverobbing?

Subject: RE: BS: Non-music: Archaeology or Graverobbing?
From: GUEST,Banjo Johnny
Date: 23 Jun 00 - 11:45 PM

Well it is prob'ly some kind of archaic singing, if you stretch a point. Somewhere it was lamely called "throat singing". If they are using their throats, what am I using -- my medulla oblongata? Maybe we should start a new thread called Weird Singing.

I remember when I was a kid I found I could sort of sing, real low, by singing on the inhale, rather than the exhale. I wonder if it's something like that. I can't do it now, it sounds like I am croaking. Wonder if it would hurt my regular singing.

Also, do you know anything about "circular breathing"? I think you are supposed to be able to sing or play a continuous sound without stopping. Something to do with didgery-doo players, and a rumor that Raasan Roland Kirk could do this.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-music: Archaeology or Graverobbing?
From: Metchosin
Date: 24 Jun 00 - 01:34 AM

Inuit traditional "throat singing" is called "katutjatut". Two women stand holding each other, face to face, using circular breathing and producing sounds in the bottom of the throat.

There is an uncanny similarity in the sound of the chants the Inuit women produce, with the sound of a digereedoo and that of the chants of Tibetan monks.

The Inuit chants are an imitation of different sounds of the wind, rushing water, geese, dogs, gulls and other natural sounds, which they use to tell stories of hunting, fishing and legends, to put their young children to sleep. Lullabyes with a difference.

If anyone is interested there is a wonderful CD by Alacie Tullaugaq and Lucy Amarualik that is available.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-music: Archaeology or Graverobbing?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 24 Jun 00 - 02:04 AM

The Tuvan styles of 'throat singing' are called 'khoomei'. You may find about a billion different transliterations of this word from Tuvan and Mongolian (xoomij, hoomi, etc...), plus the names of all the styles from both lands... And with all the umlauts I'm too lazy to include;) The Khakass and the various groups in Altai Republic have their own versions, but, at least in the Altaian 'kai' style, they don't produce the kickass overtones as in 'khoomei'. In Bashkortostan they have the similar 'uzlyau' style, so it was once probably pretty widesperad among Turkic and Mongolain peoples. 'Uzlyau' is interesting, but doesn't really blow me away. I'm writing this junk from memory, so if anyone wants to correct me, please do:) Ah, and there's a site with a lot of good links and info, dinging instructions, etc... Pretty much everyting you might want to know about Tuva and khoomei. Should be at: http://www.fotuva.org . I REALLY need to learn how to put spaces in my entries... I bet this comes out as one big paragraph, heh.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-music: Archaeology or Graverobbing?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 24 Jun 00 - 05:25 AM

Metchosin... I've got a cd of that kind of Inuit singing somewhere... Really interesting stuff. Say, that reminds me: I have a National Geographic around somewhere that has an article about Inuit ice mummies. Has a mummified infant right on the cover... No idea if the present-day Inuit found this excavation offensive or not. Anyone know how they might feel about the desecration of their dead?

Subject: RE: BS: Non-music: Archaeology or Graverobbing?
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jun 00 - 08:54 AM

To all who question why we practise our varied burial customs, and why we are outraged by sensationalism, the answer is simple. We love. We love our departed and hold them dear. So we spend "thirty large" (Mrrzy) and we give them the best send off we can. We don't necessarily do it for them but for ourselves. I remember a funeral for a friend where the minister talked of our sitting at a table with him. He said my friend had just moved to the other end of the table and was sitting at the right had of God. I am no Christian and I took no comfort from those words but his mother and the rest of the people ther did. And that is the point of our complex burial customs.

Sensational exhumations and disrespectful archaeology, however, attacks those customs and our dead indirectly. If they can do that to the ancient peoples then they could do that to Uncle Bob!

Subject: RE: BS: Non-music: Archaeology or Graverobbing?
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 10:03 AM

Burial custo

Subject: RE: BS: Non-music: Archaeology or Graverobbing?
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 12:54 PM

Thanks, Grab. I'm still wondering about the people who are worried that this will happen to their kin... why not? I'd love to see a study utilizing my ancestors, I think it would be TOO COOL to be able to indentify with what was on Nova instead of just touristing...

Also, I think that the thing about Christians and Judgment Day includes some kind of "And then a miracle occurs" stage between the worms crawling in and the rising for the Last Day. I think the dead do rise from the grave but not in their current form. My guess (corrections from the cognoscenti appreciated) is that you get the form you had when you died, so if you were 10, you're 10, and if you were 90, you're 90. Whether you'd been dead for 10 or 10,000,000 years is probably irrelevant.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-music: Archaeology or Graverobbing?
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 02:32 PM

Without the intervening miracle that Mrr mentions, this whole resurrection thing could be pretty damn unpleasant. The folks who died old and decrepit would spend eternity that way, as would the disease-ridden, and those who had had various body parts pared away in an effort to stave off death would have to enter God's kingdom without them. And then there's the smell...

Hope this doesn't offend anyone's cherished beliefs, but the whole business is pretty ludicrous when you actually try to follow it through. I'm happy to believe in some sort of spiritual resurrection, but adding the physical to the metaphysical doesn't work so well.