Archive for the 'Inuit' Category
Contents
Posts
Mama Lisa Now Has a Facebook Group
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009We’d love it if you’d join the Mama Lisa Facebook Group. You can post anything you’d like about your culture. You can post your own musical recordings or YouTube videos… Links to culture and musical sites… Photos of your country… Questions about songs or cultural issues… Anything related to World Culture and Music…
Click on the icon below to access the group. If you have a Facebook account already, you just need to click on “Join the Group” to join. If you’re not a member, you simply have to sign up for free to become a member and then you can join the Mama Lisa Group…
Looking forward to seeing you in Facebook!
Mama Lisa
The Simpsons Movie and Inuit Throat Singing
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007We brought our kids to see The Simpsons Movie this past weekend. It was like watching a decent, extra long episode, that looked wonderful (much better than on a TV screen). I wouldn’t say it’s a movie you have to go out and see. But if you’re a Simpsons fan, you’ll probably enjoy seeing it on the big screen.
There was one scene (and I’ll try not to say too much about the movie in case you want to see it yourself) in which Homer has reached an all-time low. He happens upon a Medicine Woman who engages him in Inuit Throat Singing. Through the singing, Homer is supposed to have an epiphany (definition: “an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure”*) about his life.
It was fun to watch, but actually, Inuit Throat Singing wasn’t normally used to help people find themselves. Rather, it was used primarily by Inuit woman as a game to amuse children and to help pass the time in the winter while the men were away for long periods of time hunting.
The most common way it is done is that two women face each other. They put their arms on each other’s arms. They take turns “singing”. The singing is really a throaty sound – which involves the breath, sounds that come out of the throat and the regular voice. Some of the sounds that are made are meaningless and some are actual words.
Below you can hear an example of Inuit Throat Singing.
The video of the Inuit Throat Singing is mesmerizing. I don’t know if the process leads to having an epiphany, but it seems to have a meditative quality to it.
Many thanks to Clint Cora Leung at Free Spirit Gallery for allowing me to post his video. Clint sells contemporary Canadian aboriginal art on his site.
*Source: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
-Mama Lisa
________
Help Support
Mama Lisa's World!
$5, $10, $25
or any amount welcome!