Thursday, February 26, 2015

Rocks (with Names) as Seen on TV (and in Movies)


      As the coldest and snowiest month in recorded Connecticut weather history draws to an end, I find myself looking forward to the snow melting more than I ever have before. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting older, entering my 60th year on the planet, that also makes me pretty sure this is the longest February that there has ever been. I never did write up a little highlight of the year 2014, probably because this spring will mark 25 years of a different way of looking at stone features on the New England landscape, after “Waking Up on Turtle Island,” seeing instead of “farmer’s walls and clearing piles” but rather stone features that may possibly be remnants of the Indigenous Cultural Landscape of Turtle Island.
      So I’m gonna offer up a little Cabin Fever Reliever since I suspect many of us have come down with the malady, a little look at what just might be a familiar landscape to you. Someone has taken a lot of time to research and visit these places, sometimes giving certain rocks and/or stones names, some of which may even actually be Indigenous origin – or at least sound like they could be. It’s a pretty widespread sort of thing in the Indigenous way of thinking, naming stone features for a variety of reasons, as places where history is remembered or where spirits live etc.

     What is really ironic about this place is that many stereotypes about Indians were sometimes created and most often certainly reinforced at the Iverson Ranch (sort of near Burbank CA) where all sorts of TV and Movies were filmed. Looking at some of the photos, I think I see layers of Cultural Landscapes there, just as I do here (under all that snow).
     Some samples:
Mandatory Anthropormorphic Face or Skull:
"The Phantom"
Above: The Devil's Doorway
Below: "Ophiomorphic Doodles" on the Doorway 
(Compare to Photo #2 above)

So if you are cooped up in the cabin and feel so inclined, check this out in person:


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