Microlecture 1 Part B

    I think the topic of literary mediums and printing history is a fascinating one that I have never really had the chance to look into. Western literature has been fairly straightforward, starting with Mesopotamian writing in clay, before evolving to Egyptian papyrus, and eventually becoming the paper made from wood pulp that we still use today. This was sharply contrasted by Native Americans, who used a diverse range of methods to transcribe stories and information. These included writing on animal hides, using different lengths of thread, and using clam shells as means of communication. While I normally think of indigenous literature being mostly oral, this was a good reminder that these Native Americans used many mediums to pass along ideas. It's easy to look at these pieces of literature and think of them as crude or simple, but as was discussed in the lecture, there is a lot more than meets the eye. One example of this was the Hiawatha Belt, which described a peace treaty between 5 different tribes. If I just saw the belt in a museum, I would have thought it was a cool design or a piece of art instead of an important historical document.

    The other thing mentioned in the microlecture was medicine bundles, which is a group of objects that individuals collected. This was a subject that was mentioned in There There, which I didn't really understand reading over the first time. This microlecture helped me better understand what a medicine bundle is and see what the significance was in Native American culture.