Quirks of Nature

How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life…

Death is treated in many different ways in different cultures, and by different people. Some treat it with utmost reverence, others ignore it and treat it as taboo, still others choose to fear it, while some prefer to celebrate the life before it. How a culture reacts to this is just as important as any other component of your wider society; in fact it can tell more about a culture than anything else.

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mutantninjaturdle:

Esoterica: SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A FANTASY:

bakethatlinguist:

I only disagree with one thing and that regarding what was said about Genghis Khan. He sold, kidnapped, and raped lots of women. He was also known to keep a harem and added 30+ virgins to it each year. After a conquest, he let his soldiers loot, pillage, and rape—because these were the spoils of war, of course! However, GK got first pick of the women. (A joy for them, I’m sure.) So when you say that he banned the kidnapping, selling and raping of women, whose women are you talking about? (I’m not being sarcastic. Please tell me, because Google is being stingy right now…)

Mongolian women were banned from being raped, bartered, sold, or kidnapped. All women under the rule of Genghis Khan were supposed to have these rights. Wives were supposed to initiate sex with their new husbands.

There are a lot of misconceptions floating around Genghis Khan. This is perhaps the biggest one.

For part of my source:

Even in a world hardened by the suffering or a harsh environment and prolonged warfare, nothing like Ogodei’s transgression had been known to happen before, and nothing could excuse it. The chroniclers, long accustomed to reporting on rivers flowing with blood and massacres of whole cities, seem to choke on the very words they had to write to record the Rape of the Oirat Children. The Mongol chroniclers could only speak in vague terms that acknowledged a crime by Ogodei without admitting the horror of what the Khan did to his own people. The Persian chroniclers recorded the full cruelty and sheer evil behind the crime inflicted on these innocent, “star-like maidens, each of whom affected men’s hearts in a different way.” Everyone knew that this barbarous act violated in spirit and in detail the long list of laws Ghengis Khan had made regarding women. Girls could be married at a young age, but could not engage in sex until sixteen, and then they initiated the encounter with their husbands. They could not be seized, raped, kidnapped, bartered, or sold. Ogodei violated every single one of those laws.

- The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Ghengis Khan Rescued His Empire - Jack Weatherford

Jack Weatherford is a bit of an expert in a sense that he’s not a traditional historian, but an anthropologist. He was awarded the Order of the Polar Star, Mongolia’s highest national honor for his research on Genghis Khan and Mongolia. Please please please read this book. Anything else aside, I loved and was stunned by everything I read in the book. I had no idea Genghis had made these laws, or how he had treated women, I only knew what people said the Mongolian empire as a whole did. Reading this book made me understand I was horribly mistaken about the history of the Mongolian Empire.

Genghis Khan only had four wives (though it is more than likely he had more mistresses) , of which his first and most favored was Borte. He was fiercely protective of all his daughters, although he did arrange marriages with politics in mind.

His son Ogodei was a rapist. A systematic one who used rape as a means of terror in warfare.

However, he used violence to strengthen his authority. In 1237 Ögedei dispatched his imperial army to punish the Oirat and seize their lands after the forest people refused to give tributes. Around 4,000 young girls became subject to war violence.^[23]

Did Genghis Khan never rape a woman? Obviously neither of us can say. But did he make raping a woman illegal? Yes. [The specifics of which women allude me but I’m assuming all women because in that section, the Oirat girls were obviously not Mongolian and this was breaking Genghis’ mandates after his death. I don’t have the book at my side otherwise I would quote the text beyond that saved quote.]

As for the good old ‘genetics argument for this:

Dr. Tyler-Smith and his colleagues estimate that the common ancestor of the signature chromosomes they found in the Mongol empire populations lived in around A.D. 1000, 162 years before the birth of Genghis Khan. Dr. Morgan said, ”I see no reason why the family shouldn’t have descended in a straight line” from that time to Genghis Khan.

The geneticists’ evidence for linking the cluster of signature chromosomes to Genghis Khan is necessarily indirect. The Mongol ruler was buried secretly and his tomb has not been found, let alone any bodily remains that might still harbor fragments of DNA. But the signature chromosomes are carried by only a fifth of present-day Mongolian men, suggesting they belonged to an elite group, presumably the lineage of Genghis Khan and his sons.

- source

I’ve honestly tried for a primary source that was during Genghis’ lifetime, but the only one I can find is the one that said he had 20,000 children - a quote from after his death. I honestly wish I had this book with me, I checked it out of the library. Even if this law was meant to only apply to Mongolian women, that is rather more than other societies of the time.

This review sums up the look at the Mongolian woman’s power of the time too:

Weatherford rejects the common failure of most historians to judge history through the prejudice of their own culture. Modern scholars may easily see the failing of monk recording Beowulf only to censor out the religious references he found to be heresy. But most people don’t think twice at how much attention is paid to the male leader on the battlefield, yet dismiss the female leaders as little more than consorts or how so little is known of the women who ruled the empire.

Their rule was not without contention. The struggle for power on the steppe became so bewildering that contemporary recorders and modern researchers alike struggle to find all the pieces. Jack Weatherford tackles that struggle like a Mongol horde on a great hunt to surround and capture all of the truth.

…

One could read volumes into a chain of events such as Genghis
Khan outlawing torture and rising to the absolute height of the Mongol Empire’s power, and when one of his successors reintroduced torture under a legal sidestep of a foreigner not being offered the protection of Mongol law it led to the fast shattering of the empire.

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens highlights the struggle of large and small nations, male and female rulers, nomadic and sedentary society, and how such history applies to a single region and the entire world.

The book is divided into three main sections.

The first part details how Genghis Khan built the empire and relied on the
leadership of the women of his family to govern and control it. They are
placed in the context of their culture and their time so that their importance is best understood. Like how the mother was the center of the
family while the father was off tending the herds, so was the khatun (queen) the center of the empire while the khan was off to war.

The second part shows how the sons and grandsons of Genghis Khan turned on the women of their family. The Mongol Empire was never conquered, it imploded from within and never before has anyone so clearly explained how or why this happened. In this part, the book also explains just how tenuous the fate of the Mongol people, and that of the ruling Borijin clan of Genghis Khan’s descendents, turned on a single warlord’s temper or a single loyal soldier’s skill on horseback.

The third and final part focuses on perhaps the second most important person in Mongol history, yet a name seldom heard outside of Mongolia: Manduhai Khatun. It goes from her humble beginnings through the hard choices and her ultimate accomplishments. Queen Manduhai the Wise was a brilliant strategist who personally commanded her soldiers on the field. It was her descendants who created the title Dalai Lama and later recognized as the fourth incarnation. She is credited with rebuilding the Mongol nation and giving it the cohesiveness to continue to exist without shattering the way the empire of Genghis Khan had.

- Review

So yeah. I hope this helps?

(Source: turdlewexler, via fatespectrum)

Tea is among the eldest and most revered beverage in all of history. In our modern world, it is the most popular drink, next to water. Today, there are more than 1,500 types of teas to choose from, due to the fact that over 25 countries cultivate tea as a plantation crop. 

For nearly 5,000 years Tea has been a source of medicine, meditation, piracy, political upheaval, social order, congregation, and superstition. While Tea has played many roles in Eastern and Western civilization, it is derived from a plant native to Central and Eastern Asia.

There are few basic types of Tea; Black (known as “Red” Tea in China), Green, White, Oolong and Pu-erh. The process used to prepare the leaves establishes the Tea’s further classification. Oxidation determines its colour, body, and flavour.

For example, in Black Teas, the leaves are withered, rolled, sifted, and fermented. This creates a hearty flavor and rich amber colour.

Green Tea leaves are fired shortly after harvesting to prevent fermentation, yielding a greenish gold colour and a delicate taste.

White Tea is  a selection of the youngest and most tender leaves and buds.  They are covered in fine white hairs and have a very delicate flavour.  White tea is lightly fermented.

Pu-erh Tea is the strongest and most bold flavour tea.  It is aged for many years and is referred to as a true “black” or “post-fermented.”  Good quality pu-erh comes in cakes or bricks. Usually cakes are the higher quality because the Chinese preferred the aesthetics and auspiciousness of the round shape. The bricks usually contain more broader tea leaves, since broader leaved produce a nice, full flavour.

Finally, Oolong Tea leaves are withered, rolled, twisted, and semi-fermented, producing a colour and flavour that falls between that of black and green teas.

Though designated as Teas, Herbal teas are not actually made from any tea leaves. Instead, these  contain peels, flavourings, grasses, berries, flowers and leaves from a variety of plants.

There are many Health Benefits of Tea, it can;

1. Stimulate mental clarity
2. Reduce the risk of certain cancers
3. Reduce the risk of heart disease
4. Lower blood sugar levels
5. Help prevent viral infections
6. Help prevent bad breath
7. Help prevent tooth decay

When and who “discovered it?

This is a complex question.

According to Chinese legend, Emperor Shen Nong who revered for his knowledge of agriculture and medicine, decreed (presumably for health reasons.) that his subjects boil water before drinking it.

While a servant prepared his water one day, a light wind deposited several tea leaves into his boiling pot.

The aroma enticed Shen Nong to sample the pot’s contents.

At once he found the flavor to his liking and his body rejuvenated. (Other versions of the tale cite that the source of the tea leaves was not from a tree above the pot, but rather from a camellia branch which was fueling the flames below it.)

Others attempting to validate the authenticity of the event by affixing a date to Shen Nong’s experience, assert that it occurred in either 2737 BC or 2690 BC.

However,

The Buddhist chronicle of the creation of tea follows the  religious pilgrimage of Siddhartha Gautama. ( A Nepalese prince and historic founder of Buddhism.)

Siddhartha who was eager to prove his faith travelled to China, pledging to forego sleep during his travels.

Exhausted after days of travel, Siddhartha breached his vow and slept.

When he awoke he cursed his eyelids and promptly removed them and threw them to the ground.

The eyelids quickly buried into the soil and within moments sprouted a tea bush. Siddhartha partook in the leaves of the bush, and immediately his tired body was replete with energy.

It is very well possible that neither story is in fact correct, and that these events didn’t occur. The important thing to be noted, is that both the Chinese and Buddhists respectively, regarded Tea to such a high standard that they both formulated creation stories around it.

Considering Tea initially used  as an antidote to the effects of alcohol, it is not surprising that such mythical tales of tea’s beginnings were formed.

Why is this so important?

Tea can be a wonderful addition to a story. It can show a serenity of a character, or a habit that adds to the tapestry of a characterisation.

However, many people are used to drinking Tea from Teabags. While this is common, and even typical for a character who lives in a modern age, a character who lives in a  different age will make Tea in a completely different way. In fact, a character from a different age will also have different effects that our modern Life usually negates.

• Tea can stain your teeth. (Although Tea contains fluoride,which creates stronger, healthier teeth, it won’t make them sparkling white. The extent of this depends on the type of tea, and the quality.) As a result, characters who drink alot of tea will generally have stained teeth. 
• Tea contains caffeine. The blacker the Tea, the more caffeine it contains. As a result, white and green Teas contain much less caffeine. Use this in the right situations. 
• Tea should be stored in airtight, opaque containers away from Heat and Light.
• Tea and tealeaves are naturally antimicrobial and are shown to improve microflora in the oral cavity. ( Which means that they kill off germs that cause bad breath and plaque.) White and green teas are best for fighting bacteria, while Oolong is best for fluoride. You can use unused brewed tea or a brew made with used leaves to rinse after brushing.
• Tea is a mild antiseptic and antimicrobial. Some people also apply moist tealeaves to their minor cuts to prevent infection. It also keeps your skin soft.
• “Chagra” (Dried Tea leaves which have been previously used.) is a natural bug repellent for common pests like mosquitoes and flies. Place compressed dry leaves on a nonflammable incense burner.
• Tea can prevent Rust. The tannin in tea binds to iron, creating a thin, rust-protective coating. Black tea is best for this use. You can use it for steel knives, iron pots, swords, and stirrups e.c.t.  Just wipe on, leave for a minute, and wipe off. Repeat as needed. (The more wear the item gets, the more often you need to repeat.)
• Tea is a deodorizer. Use this as you will.
• Tea aids in digestion. (Which is why many Chinese prefer to consume it after their meal.) 
• An interesting side effect for smokers is that tea hastens the discharge of nicotine from the body.

A you can see, there are many dual uses for Tea, which many societies have taken advantage of. This is a form of recycling, and convenience that are incredibly useful.

The way that a character prefers their Tea, the process and equipment they use and their attitude towards it, is incredibly important. Every part of this can directly be related back to their experiences, family and customs. Without using an entire book, you can give an insight about a society.

What do you mean?

For a dedicated Tea Drinker that arises from a society that places a great importance on Tea, considerations such as size and shape of the pot needs to be matched to the size and shape and behaviour of a type of tea. This will make a difference in maximizing the flavour.

 Having a separate pot exclusively for each kind of tea is also recommended, for example, a green tea pot, a black tea pot, an oolong pot, etc.

This is the Chinese method of making tea. This is due to the way they make Tea, which is often in quick steepings.  This method maximizes the flavour and cost of your tea. By using steeping quickly  (5-30 seconds, depending on the tea) and using many drawings (7-20, depending on the tea). 

Sipping tea in small cups is also recommended for greater quality and appreciation of flavour. For those who wish to drink tea from a larger mug, you can do two or three quick steepings into your mug and save the leaves for more drawings later. 

With most Western tea drinkers, the norm is steeping in a large teapot or mug.  Unfortunately, you also need more hot water in order to draw any flavour from the leaves, and increasing the steeping time. The chances of oversteeping is increased, and the potential for extra drawings from the leaves are decreased.

TEAPOTS

The Porous nature of clay,  makes Clay Teapots ideal. Each drawing leaves the tea dry and fresh, so moisture and mold does not make the tea taste stale. Because you are steeping for a shorter period of time, (even with bold teas like pu-erh) there is less of a danger of producing a bitter taste due to oversteeping.

Glazed pots, porcelain pots and metal tea pots are also a challenge in “authentic” tea making since they are non-porous materials. 

Heat retention and control is difficult. Great tasting tea needs oxygen and Non-porous tea pots reduce the amount of oxygen that tea can absorb, thereby reducing flavour.

1. Warm and sterilize the pot, strainer and drinking cups – starting with all your tea supplies on your tea tray, pour your hot water into your yixing tea pot full and overflowing, including the lid, to warm the pot.  Douse the entire outside of the pot as well.   Also douse the strainer and drinking cups. Discard all the hot water onto the tray.

2. Rinse the tea – put your measured amount of tea leaves (1-3 tablespoons, depending on the type of tea) into your tea pot and fill with hot water, overflowing the brim until the water runs clear.  Place the lid on and pour out the rinse tea water.  Open the lid to let heat escape so it doesn’t cook the leaves.

3. The first steeping – pour hot water into the tea pot until overflowing.  Place on the lid.  Steep for 5-10 seconds, depending on the type of tea being made.  While it’s steeping with the lid on, pour a little more hot water over the outside of the tea pot to retain the heat.  When ready, pour the steeped tea into a “fair cup” through a strainer.   The fair cup will be used to pour the tea into the drinking cups.

The fair cup evenly distributes tea to your guests.  Since pouring for multiple drinkers results in the first guest receiving tea quite weak and the last guest receiving tea quite strong with varying degrees of strength in between, the fair cup is where the entire drawing from the pot is poured into.  From the fair cup, you have a homogenous strength of tea for everyone to enjoy, thereby making it “fair” for everyone.

4. Repeat steepings many times.  As I’ve mentioned, good quality tea might cost more upfront, but using quick steeping methods really helps you get your money’s worth from your tea since you can do many drawings.  You can do about seven drawings for green tea and 15-20 for black teas.

Many different layers of Attraction are often over-looked by Writers, who have little idea on how to accurately begin to craft “realistic” relationships between their many different characters. Even the simplest knowledge, or thought on this subject can improve your craft, as it forces you to think about the “forces that bind” people together.

While this isn’t a complete and encyclopedic reference as to the many different natures of human attraction, this post will talk about the nature of some of the different attractions.

To be able to get the most out of this post, I first must ask you to remove any concrete connection you have between the word “sexual” and attraction. While it is indeed a form of attraction, it isn’t the only form.

A belief that only a “sexual” form of attraction exists, is something akin to the belief that the only form of fruit is an orange.

                                            Forms of Attraction

1) Sexual Attractions is the form of attraction that most people are aware of (in fact, it can be the only form that people ARE aware of.) This is the desire for sexual contact with another person/s. This can relate to a specific person/s, or to an unspecific person/s. Someone who does not experience this form of attraction is likely to identify as Asexual.

However, sexual attraction is NOT synonymous with “Sex drive”, which is a separate entity.

It also is un-synonymous to “celibacy”, as celibates can feel sexual attraction, but choose not to have sex. Likewise, Asexuals can choose to have sex yet not feel sexual attraction.

This form of attraction has a lose definer, as it has no “concrete” meaning. This is due to the differing opinions of individuals over what is inherently sexual and what is not. Many different levels of sexual attraction exist, ranging from sex, to mutual masturbation to kissing to petting.

2) Sensual Attraction is the desire for sensual (but not sexual) acts with another person/s. While this can vary between people, sensual acts are commonly held to include; kissing, hugging, holding hands and cuddling.

This classification can be considered flawed, as many people accept that sensual pleasure can be derived from objects such as pillows, to which no attraction is created.

It can also be difficult to separate sensual acts from sexual ones.

3) Aesthetic Attraction is the attraction to another person/s, with no desire to be in a sexual, sensual or romantic relationship with them. This can simply be a desire to appreciate the appearance or behaviour of another person/s. This form of attraction can also be debated as many people accept that aesthetic pleasure can be derived from people or objects (for example, music or a painting.) that they feel no attraction to.

4) Romantic attraction is a form of attraction that refers to a desire for a romantic relationship (or related classifier) with another person/s. This perhaps is just as difficult to categorize, as the features that constitute a romantic relationship is difficult to clarify. The existence of partner and community based intimacy can further murk the stereotypical (and often inaccurate) identifiers of such a relationship. People who do not experience this desire for a relationship may identify as being Aromantic.

A lack of romantic attraction can be confused as a desire to remain single, but this isn’t always the case.

5) Intellectual Attraction is the attraction to a specific or unspecific form/s of intelligence, or to a person/s that stimulates your own thoughts. This can refer to a direct intelligence (such as a person/s who is knowledgeable and/or qualified in a certain field/s.) Indirect intelligence (creativity, ingenuity, inventiveness) or imaginative intelligence (someone who thinks along the same lines as yourself, or along a certain line of thought.).

This can simply refer to the desire to be stimulated intellectually.

Each of these forms of attraction can exist separately, or in a form of conjunction with each other. Not everyone experiences all of these forms, nor the same “strength” of each. In fact, some of these attractions can be dismissed or seen as unimportant by an individual which will change their actions and behaviours.

                                             Related Terms

• A crush- Is the romantic, or sensual desire to be in a relationship with another person/s. This can sometimes extend into sexual attraction.
• A squish- Is the platonic, Intellectual or aesthetic attraction to another person/s. This refers to an admiration or appreciation of another person/.

Any corrections, thoughts, feelings or comments can be directed to;

-Theenumeration

Quills hold a special place in literature. Our modern day culture has romanticized them into a magical and mysterious way of writing that speaks of class, elegance and of an era far gone.

Though it is very common to read of quills in books, few writers seem to understand how to use them. This can lead to an improper usage that makes those who use quills shudder at the way they are depicted in books.

If you were to treat a quill, the way a character in ‘Harry Potter’, for example, does- your quill would last a few minutes at most.

Fun Fact: In the Civil War, 12 quills were issued every quarter to each person for normal stationary usage. Quick math reveals that the average life expectancy for a quill was one week.

How to Make a Quill

(This medieval method of Quill-making is simple, but requires a small amount of practice before you achieve a good result. )

You will need a Feather and a small, sharp knife.

1. Find a feather. More precisely, find a strong flight feather from the wing of a robust bird. (It is noted that theenumeration does not in any way suggest plucking a feather, or causing harm in any way to any living creature.)
2. Cut back the plume of the feathers and remove the barb (feathery bits) at least from the underside of the central barrel. ( While you may protest that the quill is now quite unromantic, this process makes the quill easier to write with, as it no longer scraped against the scribes hand.)
3. Let the quill stand in hot sand. This would strengthen the barrel of the quill, and makes it more flexible and easier to work with.
4. Use a small knife to cut a slope from the ‘point’ of the quill.
5. Turn the quill so the cut away side faces up. Insert the knife into the hollow of the quill and make a short slit.
6. On the opposing side of the slit, cut out a ‘scoop’. (Roughly, a semi-oval.)
7. Cut away the corners on either side of your ‘slit’
8. Scrape away at the ‘inside’ of the nib (your slit), to make it tidy.)
9. On the outside of your nip, use your knife to cut a small angle away.
10. It is now ready to use! (When your quill blunts, it can be reshaped with your handy knife.)

(Another method can be seen Here, and an awesome video can be seen Here.)

Pressure

When using a quill, the lighter you press the better. A good practise is to ‘draw” small circles on your hand, without ink. When you can do this without leaving indentations, you’re using the correct pressure. The pressure that most people use when using a pen is much much too hard.

How much Ink do I use?

Only a small amount, enough to get a few letters, or a single word done. Scrape off any excess ink, and try not to rush the ink.

Also- be patient. This ink will set slower than modern pens. It can even take a couple of minutes to dry.

Anything else?

1. Writing Style! Have you ever seen images of Medieval English writing? If you have, you would know that the writing styles between then and now are radically different. Quills were designed for a more relaxed and free-flowing style. Modern day writing uses a lot of sharp edges and abrupt changes in directions. Quills do not like this.
2. Ink: For exercises, use a good calligraphy ink. If you are mixing your own, know that you will never et a true ‘black’, only a deep grey. I do not recommend powdered inks when beginning your quill experience. AND DO NOT USE INDIA INK! This ink is far too adhesive an will not flow from a quill.
3. To make the nip fine- dip it in hot water to soften it before you cut it.
4. One easy way of making your own ink is to mix egg whites, ashes or charcoal and honey with a little water. Alternatively; soak walnut hulls in water and strain out the stained liquid. Vinegar was added to assist in setting the ink.You can also make ink by soaking walnut hulls in water and straining out the stained liquid. 
5. Be prepared to get a little messy. Wear old clothing and understand that your hands will get inky until you are proficient.
6. Writing on a slant can help you better your abilities. It also helps you to slow down the speed in which you wear out your quill.

-Theenumeriation

adailyriot:

Given that the old cultural appropriation resource learning list is being passed around more frequently now, and that some of the links on it no longer work, I thought it was high time to release an updated list. These links pertain primarily to the appropriation of Native American/First Nations cultures, spiritualities, and items. However, it’s important to note that cultural appropriation is not limited to the Native American/First Nations. Cultural Appropriation is something that racks the African American, African, Asian, Romani, Indian, South Asian, Maori, and many people and places around the world. It can (as it often does with Native/First Nations) perpetuate racist stereotypical caricatures of Native peoples, as well as colonization, and cultural genocide. i.e. you could be participating in genocide today even if you’re you or your ancestors did not partake in the first acts of colonialism.That is something to be aware of.

Before I send you to the list, I will satirically tell you in the tradition of the (blasted) “Two Wolves” story:

A wise person sat with an ignorant person and said “You can bring a horse to water, but you can not make it drink.” The ignorant person looked at the wise person perplexed, and the wise person said, “Will you drink the water?”

• Racialicious: Cultural Appropriation- Homage or Insult?
• Zine: Cultural Appreciation or Cultural Appropriation?
• Zine: Wanting to Be Indian- When Spiritual Searching Turns Into Cultural Theft
• Selling the Indian
• Video: Janessa Speaks on Cultural Appropriation
• Book: Going Native - Indians in the American Cultural Imagination
• Blog: Native Appropriations
• What is Institutionalized Racism?
• Canada’s First Nations: The Legacy of Institutionalized Racism
• Book: Power, Privilege, and Difference
• Stereotypes and Prejudices
• Cultural Genocide
• Earthen Spirituality or Cultural Genocide?
• How to Combat Racism in Your Every Day Life
• History is a Weapon
• Why the ‘Native’ Trend is Pissing Off Real Native Americans
• Why Can’t I Wear a Hipster Headdress?
• Lets Talk About Pendleton
• Reality Check! Indian Images and [Mis]Representations
• My Culture Is Not A Trend
• A Critical Fashion Lover’s Basic Guide to Cultural Appropriation
• Cultural Appropriation: Still Refusing To See The Truth
• An Open Letter To All Appropriators
• What’s Wrong With Cultural Appropriation?
• Appropriation- The Reality of Indigenous
• Native Stereotypes In the Dominate Culture
• Readings on Cultural Respect
• Racism Primer
• Racism: What It Means, What Most People Think It Means
• Documentary: Reel Injuns
• Documentary: The Canary Effect
• Documentary: White Shamans and Plastic Medicine
• Commercialization of Native Spirituality
• Twilight Saga and The Quileute Indian Tribe: Opportunity or Cultural Exploitation?
• Truth vs. Twilight: Quilieute Website Explores Reality and Fiction
• Halloween: Time to Wear Your Indian Costumes
• When Cultural Appropriation Goes Too Far

  Other Terms to Research:

• Cultural Appropriation
• Stereotypes /Stereotyping
• Racism
• Institutionalized Racism
• Oppression/Institutionalized Oppression
• White Supremacy
• White Privilege
• White Guilt
• Imperialism
• Colonization
• Genocide
• Cultural Genocide
• Spiritual Appropriation

Things You Should Not Say to Native Americans:

• Video: Shit People Say to Native Americans
• Video: Shit People Say to Natives 
• Tumblr: Shit People Say to NDNs

(Source: rematiration)