Words on Culture and Society

Global art started since the beginning of human history. The Paleolithic Age (from 25,000 B.C. to 8,000 B.C.) or the Old Stone Age involved human beings using hunting and gathering. Many humans lived in caves back then. So, cave paintings were developed. There were also statues like the famous Venus of Willendorf statue which was found between 28,000 B.C. and 25,000 B.C. It was found near Willendorf, which is a village in Lower Austria. It is also near the town of Krems. The statue is made up of limestone. There were human made objects in southern Africa, the Western Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe, Siberia, India, and Australia. There were wood and bone tools. Much of art back then used paint in red, iron oxide, clay, and black in manganese oxide. A lot of cave paintings were found in the Franco-Cantabrian region too. Many of the images show ritualized images. Some show animals. There were works like the Man from Brno and the Venus of Brassempouy. There is the Venus of Laussel too, which is an Upper Paleolithic carving. Many art images of that era included reindeer, horses, bison, birds, lions, woolly rhinoceros, etc.  There were African ancient art like African rock art found in the Nile River valley and Mali in about 10,000 years ago. There was the Apollo 11 Cave complex in Namibia with seven stone plaquettes painted with figures of animals have been recovered from a horizon dated to between 22,500 and 27,500 years ago. The Blombos cave in South Africa yielded hatched patterns incised on pieces of ochre dated to as early as 70,000 years ago, which has been classified as "art" in some publications. In Australia, human beings painted human figures on rocks in Western Australia dating to over 17,000 years ago. Gabarnmung, or Nawarla Gabarnmung, is an Aboriginal archaeological and rock art site in south-western Arnhem Land, in the Top End of Australia's Northern Territory. The rock shelter features prehistoric paintings of fish, including the barramundi, wallabies, crocodiles, people and spiritual figures.  Rock paintings existed in the Americas in central Andes, Ecuador, and northern Children from ca. 10,000 B.C. There were early art in the rock paintings of the Toquepala Caves from 9,500 B.C. The Mesolithic period was from 8,000 B.C. to 6,000 B.C. This is also known as the Middle Stone Age. During this time, cultures were diverse worldwide.  This was the time of when human agriculture developed. During this period, human beings formed cave paintings, engravings, and ceramics. They enacted this art for self-expression, a reflection of their lives, and for other purposes. During this time, people used stone tools or microliths. Cave art and rock art existed on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. There was a Mesolithic pendant found in England too.  The Mesolithic period had a warmer climate than the Paleolithic Age. The Man of Bicorp painting showed a person gathering honey from a beehive and it was found in an 8,000 year old cave near Valencia, Spain. The Dance of the Cogul painting was found in El Cogul, Catalonia, Spain.



The Neolithic Age came about from 6,000 B.C. to 3,000 B.C. Back then, there were more complex societies, religion was expressed, and agriculture started to flourish in a higher level. The rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin—dated between the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras—contained small, schematic paintings of human figures, with notable examples in El Cogul, Valltorta, Alpera and Minateda. This kind of painting was also similar to paintings found in northern Africa(Atlas, Sahara) and in the area of modern Zimbabwe. Neolithic painting was schematic, reduced to basic strokes (men in the form of a cross and women in a triangular shape). There are also cave paintings in Pinturas River in Argentina, especially the Cueva de las Manos. In portable art, a style called Cardium Pottery was produced, decorated with imprints of seashells. New materials were used in art, such as amber, crystals found in rock, quartz and jasper. During this period, the first traces of urbanistic planimetry appeared, such as the remains in Tell as-Sultan (Jericho), Jarmo (Iraq) and Çatalhöyük (Anatolia).The Neolithic Art also focused on agriculture and complex architecture too. There were more cultivation of wild and domestic crops and the use of domesticated animals. Neolithic is also known as the New Stone Age. The Neolithic cultures existed worldwide not just in the Near East. Pottery is part of art too and that was found during this age. Gobeki Tepe has the oldest human made place of worship in the world. It is found in 10,000 B.C. It has reliefs of animals decorated on the pillars. Fertility figures and terra cotta pottery has been found at Tell-Halaf (in northern Syria) and Tell al-Ubaid (on the coast of the Persian Gulf). Halafian pottery had complex geometric and animal motif on them too. Stonehenge in England is known as a megalithic henge. Its meaning has been debated. It aligned during the sunrise of summer solstice and the sunset of the winter solstice. Some believe that it was used as a large calendar to astronomically determine the growing season and harvest. Megaliths existed worldwide form Malta to Easter Island.


From 1797 to 1861, Baltimore was in the antebellum era. By 1797, Baltimore Town merged with Fells Point and incorporated as the City of Baltimore. The city of Baltimore grew quickly. It was the largest city south of the Mason-Dixon Line back then. Baltimore dominated the American flour trade after 1800. The reason was that there was the milling technology of Oliver Evans. The steam power in processing was introduced. There was also the merchant-millers’s development of drying processes which greatly reduced spoilage. By 1830, New York City’s competition was strong. Baltimoreans were hard pressed to match the merchantability standards despite more rigorous inspection controls than earlier nor could they match the greater financial resources of their northern rivals like NYC. Baltimore was the site of the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. Washington, D.C. was burned down by the British. The British also attacked Baltimore outside of the eastern outskirts of town on the “Patapsco Neck” on September 12 (at the Battle of North Point). They attacked Baltimore again on the night of September 13-14, 1814. The United States forces from Fort McHenry successfully defended the city’s harbor from the British. Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) was a Maryland lawyer from Georgetown and Frederick. He was a racist and a slave owner too. He was abroad a British ship where he wanted to negotiate the release of an American prisoner (as the War of 1812 started in part by the British kidnapping Americans and bringing them on their ships). The American prisoner was named Dr. William Beanes. Key witnessed the bombardment from this ship and after seeing the huge American flag on the morning of September 14, 1814, he wrote, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” His poem recounted the attack. Key’s poem was set to a 1780 drinking song by British composer John Stafford Smith, and "The Star-Spangled Banner" became the official national anthem of the United States in 1931. The original song had lyrics that condoned slavery, which is disgraceful. 

A distinctive local culture started to take shape, and a unique skyline peppered with churches and monuments developed in Baltimore. Baltimore acquired its moniker "The Monumental City" after an 1827 visit to Baltimore by President John Quincy Adams. At an evening function Adams gave the following toast: "Baltimore: the Monumental City—May the days of her safety be as prosperous and happy, as the days of her dangers have been trying and triumphant.” Alexander Brown lived from 1764 to 1831. He was a Protestant immigrant from Ireland. He came into the city in 1800. He formed a linen business with his sons. Later, the firm Alex Brown and Sons moved into cotton. They worked in shipping in a lesser extent. Brown’s sons opened branches in Liverpool, Philadelphia, and New York. The firm was an enthusiastic supporter of the B&O Railroad. By 1850, it was the leading foreign exchange house in America. Brown was a business innovator who observed social conditions carefully. He was a transition figure to the era after 1819 when cash and short credits became the norms of business relations. He concentrated his capital in small risk ventures. He acquired ships. He also got Bank of the United States stock during the panic of 1819 and he came to monopolize Baltimore’s shipping trade with Liverpool by 1822. Brown next expanded into packet ships, extended his lines to Philadelphia, and began financing Baltimore importers, specializing in merchant banking from the late 1820's to his death in 1834. The emergence of a money economy and the growth of the Anglo-American cotton trade allowed him to escape Baltimore's declining position in trans-Atlantic trade. His most important innovation was the drawing up of his own bills of exchange. By 1830, his company rivaled the Bank of the United States in the American foreign exchange markets, and the transition from the 'traditional' to the 'modern' merchant was nearly complete. It became the nation's first investment bank. It was sold in 1997, but the name lives on as Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, a division of the Germany's Deutsche Bank.

 One of the most anticipated films in our time has been the movie Black Panther. It will be released on February 16, 2018. It is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. For months, people have praised this movie as inspiring, historic, and filled with talented black actors and actresses. You do feel a sense of motivation to honor the project. The film is produced by Marvel Studios and it will be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Ryan Coogler is the director of the movie. The screenplay was created by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole. There are many famous actors and actresses in the film. They include: Chadwick Boseman (as T’Challa or the Black Panther), Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Michael B. Jordan, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis.  The plot involved the character named Black Panther or T’Challa returning home as king of Wakanda. Yet, he found out that his sovereignty is challenged by a longtime adversary in a conflict that has global consequences. As early as 1992, Wesley Snipes wanted to a Black Panther film. Today, the film will be released worldwide. The movie follows events of Captain America: Civil War afterwards. King T’Challa comes to Wakanda. He knows about two enemies conspiring to bring down the kingdom. He must team up, as the Black Panther, with CIA agent Everett K. Ross and members of the Dora Milaje—Wakanda's special forces—to prevent a world war. Lupita Nyong’o plays Nakia, who is T’Challa’s former lover and an undercover operative of the Dora Milaje. The Dora Milaje is the all-female special forces of Wakanda who serve as T’Challa’s bodyguards. Danai Gurira played Okoyke. She is a strong Wakandan and a traditionalist from the Border Tribe, who is the head of the Dora Milaje.  Gurira said that the fighting skills she learned playing Michonne (from the Walking Dead show, which is found in AMC) complemented the skills of Okoye, but that "there's a lot of ways that they're extremely different ... Okoye is a whole 'nother thing." Gurira described the Dora Milaje as "more like a secret service in a sense that it’s also very much about intel. It’s not just military," with Okoye the head of intel. Regarding Okoye's stoic demeanor, Gurira said, "She can be serious, but she also has an unexpected sense of humor. She has a heart, but for her country and for her people. She’s not a person who doesn’t connect to human beings as a result of what she does." Angela Bassett plays Ramonda or T’Challa’s mother. Forest Whitaker plays Zuri or an elder statesman in Wakanda. He is the keeper of the Heart Shaped Herb. He is a spiritual, religious character. The Black Panther character is a politician and a warrior at the same time. There is no doubt that the movie does show the cultural influence from Africa. Boseman was taught the Xhosa language by John Kani in order for him to prepare for his role in the film. The Kingdom of Wakanda hasn’t been conquered by colonialism or imperialism. Some supporters of the Afro-punk movement love the film. Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxanne Gay supported stories dealing with the Black Panther. Another World Fantasy Hugo and Nuebula Award winning novelist Nnedi Okorafor is dealing her story entitled, “Black Panther: Long Live the King” by December 2017. The movie Black Panther is historic and it shows once again the power and the intellectual strength of black people.


 By Timothy