Maggie Spencer-Pick - reflection 9/11/2022

 In researching for the exploratory essay assignment one, I have been thinking about ways that the environments in which we live shape our view of the world. Our class discussions have mainly focused around habitat versus habituse and cosmology studies. A mythology I've always found very interesting are the stories that come out of the Polynesian Islands and Hawaii. The environments in these places are full of life and activity. Most notably, the volcanoes in these areas shaped how these peoples saw the environment and attributed humanistic/cosmic actions to times of destruction or unknown events. The Disney movie Moana is the most recent pop culture rendition of these myths. Even though this movie is obviously meant for children and is not wholly accurate to Hawaiian mythology, it explores the elements within Hawaiian myths in an easy to understand way. I've since found out that Maui is actually a real God in Hawaiian mythology with a fish hook. He is known as a trickster, and he created the islands with his fish hook by tricking his other demigod brothers into going fishing with him. Moana, the chief's daughter, goes on an adventure to restore the heart of Te Fiti, the goddess that lives in and is an island. Te Fiti gives life to the islands and keeps their soils fertile. Moana is seen as 'chosen' by the sea to go on this journey to both save her people as their lands are dying and to find herself along the way. 


Myths and Disney movies have some things in common: they both examine the way an individual perceives and lives within their environment- their habituse. Their habitat often shapes this relationship. For example, in Moana, even though they are islanders, they do not fish beyond the reef. This relationship to their habitat is based on an experience Moana's father, the chief, had in where his best friend died when they tried to sail beyond the reef. This experienced shaped the way the tribe related to their environment in the same way that ecological experiences can also change one's relationship to their environment. Volcano eruptions were often seen as expressions of anger from gods, while plentiful banana skins were seen as tools to achieve one's goals. I also think that because Polynesian peoples were semi-isolated from others and their habitat was arguably often smaller and less endless than others, that this also shaped their habituse. Practices of these cultures were shaped around ultimate respect for the natural world through animism, believing that spirits are in all things in nature. 


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