Sociological Images

Yesterday we posted about an effort to raise consciousness about racist costumes.  Those who celebrate Dia de los Muertos are similarly frustrated about people who appropriate the traditions of the holiday, celebrated in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, California, and Arizona.

Not just another name for Halloween, Dia de los Muertos is a two day celebration honoring children and family members who have passed.  Nuestra Hermana explains:

On these days, altars are made in honor of them. People build them on their loved ones graves, at home or anywhere they find rightful to honor their loved ones. They make ofrendas (offerings) to the dead of their favorite foods, toys (for children), pictures, pan de muertos, sugar skulls and many other things that help guide the spirits of the dead safely to the altars. Marigolds, known as the flowers of the dead, are usually prominent in the altars.

In Mexico, many people sleep overnight at the graves. Every ritual & altar is not the same everywhere. Many places have their own traditions and ways of honoring the dead. One thing is for sure, Dia De Los Muertos is not Halloween. It is a sacred time and holiday for Latin@s everywhere.

Hermana implores readers not to borrow imagery or traditions from Dia de los Muertos just for fun.  To do so, she argues, is “disrespectful… [and] also a erasure of someone’s real life culture.”

“Day of the Dead” (and other offensive Mexican stereotype costumes) from Costume Craze:

Thanks to Dolores R. for the tip!

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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Carni K sent in an interesting story about Kellogg’s, the cereal company. Kellogg’s is suing the Maya Archaeology Institute (MAI), a non-profit Guatemalan organization aimed at protecting the local history, culture, and natural environment. Why? It uses a toucan in its logo.

For those of you who did not spend your youth eating highly sugared empty carbohydrates for breakfast, the toucan (specifically, Toucan Sam) is the mascot of Kellogg’s Froot Loops. The toucan is also a large-billed colorful bird indigenous to Central and South America, the Caribbean, and southern Florida.

While this sort of cultural cannibalism is certainly common in American culture, it is a bold move nonetheless for Kellogg’s to not only appropriate the toucan, but to claim that no one else has a right to represent the toucan.  Dr. Francisco Estrada-Belli puts it this way: “This is a bit like the Washington Redskins claiming trademark infringement against the National Congress of American Indians.”

And therein lies the problem: who is allowed to claim the symbolic use of this bird—an indigenous Guatemalan organization or a company that makes cereal and other convenience foods marketed to children and families?

To me, this brings up another question: what gives any of us the right to use the toucan at all? While cultural representations of animals may not directly harm animals, and have been central in human cultures for tens of thousands of years, they can contribute to a particular perception of those same animals. And animal advocates know that perception then shapes treatment. If we perceive an animal to be dumb or trivial, for example, then that animal may not seem worthy of our concern.

Many types of toucans, for example, are endangered. Of the more than 40 species making up their family, 35 are included on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list, meaning that they are either endangered, threatened, or otherwise subject to concern.  Their troubled status comes not from people hunting or eating them, but from the increasing levels of habitat destruction in the tropical regions in which they live… which brings us back to the Maya Archaeology Institute.

The organization’s mission includes protecting Guatemala’s rainforests, including the animals and plants that live there. Kellogg’s, on the other hand, has made the toucan into a funny bird whose large nose lets him sniff out Froot Loops wherever they are hiding.

Who should have the right to represent the toucan?  Anyone?

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Margo DeMello has a PhD in cultural anthropology and teaches anthropology, cultural studies, and sociology at Central New Mexico Community College. Her research areas include body modification and adornment and human-animal studies.

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Jennifer R. sent in a really interesting clip from the 700 Club in which the program highlights its support of an orphanage in Guatemala though the story of a little girl named Aury.  What Jennifer found interesting was the way that the translator voiced Aury.  The translator assumed a child’s voice and spoke in accented, choppy English.

Speaking in a child’s voice helps preserve the illusion that the child is actually speaking directly to you, instead of through a translator.  This is no doubt is useful for soliciting donations.  But what does speaking in an accented voice accomplish?  Maybe it, also, was in the service of making viewers feel like they were really talking to Aury. But, in producing this “realism,” the dubbing served to reproduce stereotypes about how Spanish speakers talk and, even, how well they can learn English pronunciation.

UPDATE: Jennifer did some more digging and discovered that the person doing the voiceover is not a translator, but likely a professional voiceover (V/O) actor.  She says:

I did a little research and found that, when Terry Meeuwsen, co-host of the 700 Club, is dubbed into Spanish, they do not use a native-English speaker speaking in choppy Spanish.

They use a person like Vivian Ruiz, who, in the past, had done V/O for Ms. Meeuwsen. She (Ms. Ruiz) is a Union-member V/O talent from Miami, Florida, fluent in both Spanish and English.

According to www.voiceovermiami.com, Ms. Ruiz can perform in ‘neutral,’ Cuban, Mexican, and Castilian Spanish accents. She is also hired out to speak in both accented and un-accented (‘neutral’) English.

And, according to her profile… Ms. Ruiz can perform… [different] ages…

If it is the case that the 700 Club hired an actor to play Aury, then it was certainly a deliberate choice for her to speak in an accent.