The Culture of Empathetic Humans Through Technology

Communication is a very powerful tool that has changed over time through the use of technology, which shapes the culture and leads to social change. There are many sources that help to educate the masses about how communication has changed and how it affects the population as a whole. Press Pause Play is a documentary, featuring the words of many famous individuals in popular culture, that discusses how technology has changed and how that change influences the democratization of art. Two chapters titled Culture and Communication Parts I and II from a textbook provide ideas from educated sources about how technology influences mass popular culture around the world. Another reading titled (E)dentity, by Stephanie Vie, discusses what an (e)dentity is and how that can affect the way people see who others are as a person. Also, four videos helped to provide knowledge about communication between individuals and how humans are empathetic and helpful to one another. First, The Empathic Civilisation, by Jeremy Rifkin, explained what mirror neurons are and how they affect the interaction between humans. Mirror neurons relate to why humans are empathetic towards each other and how it is changing the global consciousness. Second, Roman Krzarnic gave a lecture called The Power of Outrospection describing affective and cognitive empathy. Krzarnic introduced the idea that the 21^st century needs to be about outrospection, or feeling empathetic towards others rather than focusing only on oneself. Third, Changing Paradigms, a lecture by Sir Ken Robinson, gave a whole different perspective on the education system and how it could be changed for the better. It also looks at the growth of ADHD and how the pills that children are taking for ADHD aren’t working to help them become more educated. The last lecture, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, by Slavoj Zizek, gave insight to cultural capitalism in which people aren’t actually always sympathetic to others, but majorities of the time are just playing a role of being a sympathetic individual. Finally, the documentary Craigslist Joe follows Joseph Garner on a journey where he attempts to survive completely off of Craigslist for an entire month. He meets a number of very empathetic individuals who offer him places to stay, food, travel, etc. simply because they want to help another human being out. Throughout history, mass communication and popular culture has changed due to advances in technology and the way human beings can communicate with one another which allows for empathy in every possible aspect.

Technology, including technology interface, is constantly changing which allows people the ability to communicate easier, but can also create two different lives for every one person. People have friends in their life, but also have the ability to be a completely different person, which can be seen in the reading (e)dentity. “…We also carry with us an ‘(e)dentity, an electronic identity composed of the digital traces left behind as we participate in virtual worlds. Every time you upload a picture to a social networking site, create an avatar in an online game, blog or tweet about your life, or buy something online, you generate digital traces that, when examined, form your (e)dentity,” (Stephanie Vie 1). Originally, nobody had an (e)dentity because there was no Internet, but technology has evolved immensely in the past few decades and now almost everybody has two separate identities. We use our online identity in various ways, such as to communicate with others, but more importantly it provides us with the ability to see what popular culture is at any moment. Humans have a different amount of access to the technology due to contrast between various societies and how humans receive mass communication. “Psychological noise refers to internal factors that lead to misunderstandings in the communication process. The concept of psychological noise comes from consistency theory research that found that people usually prefer to seek out information and ideas that are consistent with their beliefs, attitudes, and behavior and tend to avoid information that is inconsistent. Selective exposure holds that, as a general rule, we expose ourselves to information that reinforces rather than contradicts our beliefs or opinions,” (Wilson, Wilson 11). Every person has different access to mass culture because they choose what they want to see, as well as the society may choose for them. Some countries have strong religious beliefs in their law, so citizens are not allowed to use the Internet, or parts of it, meaning that not everybody will see popular culture as easily as others. Lastly, humans try to help others that are not able to access the Internet due to not having the wealth for it. Agenda setting allows for mass media to decide what news the masses can see and therefore show people that they are helping those less fortunate through their purchases. “This is what I call cultural capitalism at its purest. You don’t just buy a coffee, you buy, in the very consumerist act; you buy your redemption from being only a consumerist. You do something for the environment, you do something to help starving children in Guatemala, you do something to restore the sense of community here… This generates almost a kind of semantic over-investment or burden,” (Slavoj Zizek). Everyone thinks that they are helping an unfortunate individual, but in reality it is the mass media creating cultural capitalism so that you pay into their company rather than another company. Technology isn’t easily available to everyone, so through charity people are able to give to them, however it just turns into cultural capitalism. On the Earth, some people don’t have access to technology or may use it in a different way, and through this evolution different cultures don’t always receive the same mass communication that everyone else receives.

The impact that technology has on popular culture comes, at the root, from various changes in communication, technology, and how technology is used as a vehicle which can be seen through various sources. Democratization is the act of allowing technology to everyone which gives everyone the opportunity to get into the creative industry, rather than being as talented and having to go to school like it used to be a few years ago. “There were professional artists and now everybody’s a musician… And suddenly I understood, like, this is a different world and it’s possible for anybody to make a movie now,” (PressPausePlay). In the past few years, advanced technology has become available to the public which allows anyone to make it in the creative industry. Before this time, people had to go to school and study the professionals in order to get a career as a creative, but now that technology has evolved, anyone can become a professional creative if they produce content that the appeals to popular culture. Technology itself has also evolved allowing everyone to know what the current popular culture is. “The newspaper found its niche by becoming a medium from which the common person could learn about what was happening in his or her city… Radio’s more important function was as a mass medium for news and entertainment… Television was invented as a potential replacement for radio by adding a picture to the sound… Critics also detested the fact that the mass media conformed to average tastes and did nothing to elevate the cultural level of the masses,” (Wilson, Wilson 28-32). Popular culture was made available to the masses which lowered the cultural level of the masses because anybody could understand what was popular culture, rather than just the elite being able to access and understand the technology. This was a major impact on culture because it lower the elitist culture since everyone had access and it conformed to the masses so that anyone could easily understand it. With this new availability of technology, it changed the entire world, especially the education system to where some students no longer wanted to participate because they believe they can earn a career as a creative. “When we went to school we were kept there with a story which is if you worked hard and did well and got a college degree, you would have a job. Our kids don’t believe that, and they’re right not to by the way. You’re better having a degree than not, but it’s not a guarantee anymore,” (Sir Ken Robinson). This new idea of education has impacted culture because children no longer need to go to school. It is risky to not go, but a child could make a career as a creative and would never need to go to school because they have access to technology that can help them succeed in another industry. Mass communication can also help these children to put their creativity into the world, simply from sitting in one spot. The evolution of technology and communication has drastically impacted the culture of the world and popular culture in individual societies.

Mass communication is a powerful tool for empathy because humans can see what others are feeling, react to it, and help them for the better. Everyone has empathy inside of them because they learn about life at a young age which makes everyone want to help each other. “When a child learns that life is vulnerable and fragile and every moment is precious and that they have their own unique history, it allows a child then to experience another plight in the same way. That that other person or other being, could be another creature, has a one and only life, it’s tough to be alive, and the odds are not always good. So if you think about the times that we’ve empathized with each other or a fellow creature, it’s always because we felt their struggle. Is it really a big stretch to imagine that new technologies allowing us to connect our empathy to the human race writ large in a single biosphere?” (Jeremy Rifkin). Every individual has empathy inside of them because they understand that every creature has one life. People are able to extend this empathy to humans in other parts of the world because through mass communication and mass media anyone can see what is happening to humans on another part of the world. Through this availability of mass media, people feel empathy for others on a different part of the world because they can see their struggle and relate to it. Humans originally only felt this empathy towards people of the same religion, ethnic group, or country, however that has evolved over years and now the majority of humans feel empathetic towards all humans, some even toward all creatures. “Socrates said that the way to live a wise and good life was to know thyself. And we generally thought of that as being self-reflective, looking in at ourselves, it’s been about introspection. But I think in the 21^st century we need to recognize that to know thyself is something that can also be achieved by stepping outside yourself, by discovering other people’s lives and I think empathy is the way to revolutionize our own philosophies of life, to become more outrospective and to create the revolution of human relationships that I think we so desperately need,” (Roman Krznaric). This century needs to be about helping others because we feel empathetic towards them. Mass communication can let anyone empathize for another person that is anywhere because humans see what they are struggling with and feel empathetic towards them which can lead to helping them in some way. The use of technology can let people help others because people empathize with others they see through a technological interface and then can help them using another piece of technology. Years ago, there was only the newspaper or maybe radio, so it was difficult to help people that lived far away and before that people didn’t even know what was happening to others outside of their own community. Now-a-days anyone that feels empathetic toward another human can find a way to help them. Currently, a great example of this is the documentary Craigslist Joe, where Joseph Garner meets people through Craigslist that help give him shelter, food, travel, and a good time for an entire month. “Meeting everyone and telling them my story and the journey and having people, like, invite me, a complete stranger, into their homes, and feed me, and go out, and, you know, share themselves and their lives with me. It was truly inspiring, just you know, on humanity, to know that we can take care of each other,” (Joseph Garner). Empathy is possible through technology which can easily be seen through this documentary. Every single day Garner has to go online to see if anyone is offering shelter or travel so that he can survive. For an entire month, Garner was able to survive off the empathy of others that he found through technology. This would have been incredibly difficult years ago because the interfaces wouldn’t have allowed for him to see what people were offering on that exact day, but with the evolution of technology, anyone can easily see what people are offering at that exact moment. Empathy is easily possible through technology these days, especially with the current technological interfaces.

Throughout history, mass communication and popular culture has changed due to advances in technology and the way human beings can communicate with one another which allows for empathy in every possible aspect. Many sources can be found that demonstrate how empathy has changed in humans, yet, at the same time, remained the same because everyone realizes that all creatures have one life. Originally that empathy was only between people of the same tribe, religion, or region, however technology has evolved so that any human can communicate with any other human on the planet which allows for people to feel empathetic to all humans and creatures of earth. Technological advances have shaped that empathy as well as the popular culture of societies. Culture changes because mass communication and agenda setting show the public what the popular culture is. This has changed the many industries because now, anyone can succeed as a creative if they follow popular culture and use mass communication to get well known. School is no longer needed for people to get educated on the technology that creative use because they are made for anyone to use. This has changed education because children don’t necessarily need to go to school anymore since they can now learn how to use the current technology to get a career in the creative industry. Technology is constantly changing and nobody knows where it could lead to in the future with the education system, mass communication, and popular culture, but hopefully no matter where it goes, humans continue to feel empathetic towards other, if not even more empathetic towards all creatures. 

I enjoyed watching The Empathic Civilisation, The Power of Outrospection, Changing Paradigms, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, and Craigslist Joe during class this week. All of them made me think about an aspect of my life and how I could change it for the better. They were all fantastic videos and it was important to show the class these because I think they help everyone realize what this world is like, how we can improve, and to be sympathetic towards others. First, was The Empathic Civilisation which discussed how humans feel empathetic towards each other and how that has developed over time in different ways. He talked about mirror neurons which are neurons that make us feel whatever emotion we see another person feel. If we see someone crying then we feel bad for them and get sad because our neurons mirror the emotion they are experiencing. "All humans are soft wired with mirror neurons, so that if I'm observing you, your anger, your frustration, your sense of rejection, your joy, whatever it is, I can feel what you're doing. The same neurons will light up in me as if I'm having this experience myself," (Jeremy Rifkin). I could relate to this because whenever I see anyone crying I feel sad as well because I want to make them feel better and know that they are crying from something that mad them sad. It makes me sad in the same way that they are crying. Later, Rifkin went on to explain that we feel empathetic towards others because we all realize that everyone has one life and that their life could end just as easily as ours, so we feel emotional towards everyone. This helped the class because everyone can relate to feeling bad for someone else and it helps us realize that we are all humans living our single life. Then, we watched The Power of Outrospection, where Roman Krzarnic describes stepping outside of our bodies to really feel the same emotions as others, either from mirror neurons or because we can relate to them. "We need to shift to the age of outrospection, and by outrospection I mean the idea of discovering who you are and what to do with your life by stepping outside yourself  and discovering the lives of other people and other civilizations," (Roman Krzarnic). Affective empathy is the same as mirror neurons which we saw in the last video, but cognitive empathy is where you can relate to someone which makes you feel the same emotions. It's interesting seeing the different ways that we feel empathy towards one another and I think it helps the class realize that we are all related and should be kind to everyone.

The next video we watched was a lecture by Sir Ken Robinson called Changing Paradigms. Robinson discusses how a majority of the world wants education to change in the way that it is taught. Specifically standardized testing because that is simply memorizing facts and regurgitating them on paper rather than actually learning material and being able to apply knowledge to something. He compares the growth of ADHD with standardized testing. "It seems to me, not a coincidence totally, that the instance of ADHD has risen in parallel with the growth of standardized testing," (Sir Ken Robinson). He then goes on to talk about how ADHD pills are an anaesthetic, which is unhealthy. "An aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak... an anaesthetic is when you shut your senses off and deaden yourself to what is happening. And a lot of these drugs are that," (Sir Ken Robinson). Everything about those statements is completely true and needs to be progressed. Robinson knows what he is talking about and I think that that he brought up many good points that made the students re-think about everything and question the entire education system. Which led into the last video, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce by Slavoj Zizek. Zizek lectures about cultural capitalism and how everyone plays roles rather than actually being a true, compassionate human being. "When you go to a store, probably you prefer buying organic apples. Why? Look deep into yourself. I don't think you believe that those apples, which cost double the good old genetically modified apples that we like, that they are really any better. I claim we are cynics, they are sceptics, but you know it makes you feel warm that 'I am doing something for our mother earth'," (Slavoj Zizek). I agree with Zizek in the fact that some people play a role and don't actually feel sympathetic towards something, but that they just do it to seem good. However with this example of the apple, I, respectfully, disagree because genetically modified apples are bad for human health and nature. It causes insects to die that are part of the environment and growth to apples and the GMO's in apples cause cancer in humans. Other than that, I agree with all four videos that we watched and I think they were beneficial to the everyone in class and changed some perspectives for the better.

Democratization

Democratization is basically the idea that through mass media anyone is able to become a famous artist. Moby stated it really well by saying, "There were professional artists and now everybody's a photographer, everybody's a filmmaker, everybody's a writer, everybody's a musician," (PressPausePlay). I agree with this statement and I think it is good to have democratization. Nowadays anybody can become famous if they buy the technology to make music, movies, etc. The technology is much easier to afford these days, so anyone can buy them and become famous. Another lady says that, "And suddenly I understood, like, this is a different world and it's possible for anybody to make a movie now," (PressPausePlay). There are many benefits and negatives to this, however I think the benefits out weigh the negatives. The main benefit is obvious; that anyone can become a professional filmmaker, musician, artist, etc. which helps people to accomplish something they may want to pursue. The main negative is that the industry of professional creatives could die.

Although technology is more accessible to the public now, you still need a large amount of money to buy the high end equipment that the professionals use. Much of the technology that everyone in the film said it 'accessible by the public' is actually incredibly and expensive and is definitely difficult to understand. Someone that wants to use high end cameras would most likely have to go to school to learn how to use the equipment and would still need to be able to afford the equipment before they could use it for their own personal use. Not many people even become famous, only a few of their friends know about them, but they will never perform in front of large audiences or been seen by a huge number of people because it is still difficult to get famous. Amy Phillips from Pitchfork describes, "Should everyone be able to be a successful musician... have a fan base, have people buying their music, make their living from music? No, absolutely not. There are talented people, there are not talented people," (PressPausePlay). I agree that not everybody is talented, so it is still difficult to get famous. Democratization allows people the opportunity to get famous, however talent will actually allow people to become famous. Adam Watson talks about how you have to know the equipment in order to become famous. "If you can get work without going to film school, I mean great, more power to you. The Oscar winners, or nominees, look at the 10 of them and see how many didn't go to film school," (PressPausePlay). In general, I think democratization is good because it gives everyone at least a chance to become famous as a creative if they have the talent.

Reflection 22

I don't have my notes because they are currently being graded, but I will still reflect on what happened in class this week. On Monday we did one more essay to finish the book Ceremony. All of my questions were written down in the reflections that we wrote in class, and they were answered. We watched Smoke Signals this week in class. It was a fantastic film. I wrote a reflection in class over the film so I don't know what else to write down here. The film had a major theme of the colors red, blue, and white which represented anger/violence, relaxed/calm, and healing. I love how the director created the mood throughout the film with the use of the colors, it was very effective. There were also camera angles that helped enhance the film as well. Now that I am reflecting on the movie I remembered a camera angle that I forgot to write down in my notes. When Thomas is looking at the river and Arnold comes to pick him up and bring him back home the camera angle shows Arnold above, reaching down for Thomas. That camera angle shows that Thomas is vulnerable and needs help. The camera angle is looking up at Arnold which creates the image that he is helping Thomas up and is saving him. Other than that the rest of the film was fantastic.

The end of Smoke Signals was unexpected and made me enjoy the film even more than I already did. Arnold is the one that killed Thomas' parents because he was an alcoholic, which relates back to the entire film. I always thought that Arlene was mad at him because he was always drinking instead of being himself, but after seeing that his alcoholism caused him to kill someone it explains why she always hated him drinking. Victor had an incredible amount of healing in the end of the film. Seeing Suzy Song burn the trailer that Arnold lived/died in was a very dramatic scene that created many emotions in me. Then, when Victor gave Thomas some of the ashes of Arnold I was very moved. It shows that Victor is healing and that he was very calm and actually showed some respect and love to Thomas. Especially since Arnold killed Thomas' parents, yet saved him. It definitely was a part of Thomas' life and was necessary that he got some of the ashes. The film was fantastic and I am glad that we got to see it. Finally, on Friday we got the prompt for the essay to write this week. I have been thinking about how I am going to relate the films as well as the novel. I think alcoholism is a major theme in Smoke Signals, but that doesn't seem to be very important in Dances with Wolves. I need to think about it a little bit more and then I am going to start writing the essay tomorrow, Monday.

Reflection 21

I finished the novel, Ceremony, this week and wrote about it during class. Tayo went through an incredible amount of healing in the last section of reading. There was a lot about Ts'eh and how she is a metaphor for the earth. All throughout the reading, the sections went back and forth from something Tayo was doing to how he dreamed about Ts'eh and was in love with her. Tayo and Ts'eh helped raise the cattle and it made Josiah's vision come true, which was beneficial to Tayo's healing because he was very close to Josiah and creating his vision helped bring Josiah back to life metaphorically. It was also mentioned several times that Tayo woke up dreaming about Ts'eh which adds to the fact that she might only be a dream, rather than an actual person. Robert came to see Tayo and kept telling him that everyone was about to start looking for him and they were going to bring him back to the hospital because nobody thought he was healed. Ts'eh kept telling Tayo that if they caught him he would have to go back to the hospital and that he shouldn't run, but should bring himself to the hospital which makes me think that Ts'eh could be Tayo's subconscious trying to tell him to go to the hospital. It also talked about a she'elk that was painted on a cliff. I'm not sure what the she-elk is, but I assume it is a painting of a female elk. Betonie's sand paintings have been mentioned several times throughout the novel and I wonder why they are so special to Tayo's healing. There is only one picture in the entire novel and I think it is of Betonie's sand paintings of the stars, which were also mentioned in this section of the reading. I want to know more about these paintings and why they are so essential to Tayo's healing.

Near the end of the novel. Harley and Leroy drive by Tayo and he stops them. They try to drive him back home and Tayo agrees to go with. Both of them are incredibly drunk and it adds to the theme of alcoholism in the book. Later, it explains that they were trying to take him back to the town so they could give him to Emo, or bring him to the hospital. Tayo did not want either of those, but he didn't know that's what they were doing until later. Once he found out that is why they were drunk then he runs from the truck and hides in boulders. Atom bombs are brought up which is a theme in the novel. It states how there were wide open spaces where nobody could live and one day a few people say an incredibly bright light which was the atom bomb. The bomb only causes destruction which shows more about the theme of destruction as well. Finally, Tayo is hiding the boulders because he sees a car driving down the road. The car pulls up and Pinkie and Emo walk out of the car with Harley and Leroy. Both of them are tied up. Emo begins to beat Harley so that Tayo runs out of the boulders and they can catch him. Tayo was going to kill Emo with a screwdriver he got from the truck, but realizes that if he does that he is going to be sent back to the hospital so he decides not to kill Emo. Pinkie kills Leroy and they both kill Harley. The dead bodies are found the next day. The time changes settings to Tayo being in a kiva to tell his story, but I wasn't sure what a kiva is. I assume it is similar to a church, maybe a church for Native Americans. Finally, the novel ends with Emo killing Pinkie. Emo was drunk and shot Pinkie in the back of the head. Overall, the novel was interesting and Tayo went through an incredible amount of healing throughout. The ending was a huge surprise, except that Emo always seemed a little crazy. The novel ended with a short poem that symbolizes a new beginning for Tayo.

Reflection 20

We are getting very close to the end of the book and continued to read and discuss it this week. My first comment on the reading this week was the drawing on page 166. It is the only drawing in the entire book and Tayo seemed to mention a few things about what the drawing is. Specifically on the next page he talks about when he looked up at the sky he saw Old Betonies’ stars. He always refers to the stars that Betonie drew and I think that is significant to his healing because he is remembering Betonie, whom he was very close to. Tayo showed more signs of healing in this reading as well. He has a very intimate connection with Ts’eh. I have a question about a quote. “He ended the prayer with ‘sunrise’ because he knew the Dawn people began and ended all their words with ‘sunrise’,” (Silko 169). I am confused about who the dawn people are, as well as why they say sunrise. I’m sure that it doesn’t literally mean they say sunrise, but I still am not sure about what it means. Later in the reading Tayo talks about when he saw his cattle and the white men had stolen them from him. He keeps talking about how the white men are destroyers by stealing the land from the natives. And then says that the Earth is going to cause destruction in the form of droughts. When he sees the cattle he becomes racist towards the white men. He keeps saying that they stole the cattle from him, as they do from many natives. However he hesitated because he was taught that white men didn’t steal. They have money to buy everything, while “brown-skinned people,” (Silko 177) have to steal everything because they don’t have the money. Tayo was racist towards the white men, but then remembered what other people taught him that was racist. As he was hunting the cattle to try and bring them back to his own land it was really helpful to his healing. He became so focused on trying to get the cattle that he forgot about his past and no longer had dreams from PTSD. Tayo brings up more about racism, classism, and destruction when he talks about his school. He said the teacher used to bring in dead frogs for them to dissect and all of the Navajos left the room because the teacher wasn’t respecting the frogs. The teacher would say that their beliefs are stupid, which shows racism and classism. The teacher doesn’t respect their beliefs; she attempts to say that she is above them and their beliefs are wrong. While herding the cattle out of the fence, Tayo’s horse falls and he blacks out. When he wakes up he sees the blue sky and thinks that he is back on an island in the Pacific, fighting in the war. He forgets that he is trying to herd the cattle and has a flashback from his PTSD.

A new theme pops into the reading in this section, about lies. There is a lie that white people have money and can buy everything they own. However, Tayo claims they are telling a lie. In actuality, the white men stole all of the land from the natives and they claim to own it, but it’s all a lie because they stole it. He says the lie is destroying the white people because they have guilt for stealing everything and know that nothing is actually theirs. Tayo went to Ts’eh house to get his cattle back. While he was there, a hunter walked into the room and the hunter seemed to be living with Ts’eh. I am not sure if the hunter is Ts’eh’s husband, or if they just live together or work together. He also states that the Texas ranchers have no connection to the cattle they are catching. They just ride horses and rope them around the neck until they fall. While natives had to shoot the cattle with bows and it was actually a challenge and connected them to the cattle. Finally, more about Ts’eh is given, however there is no proof that she is real. Every time he talks about her, he says that he saw her in his dreams. There is no proof that she is real, meaning she could just be part of his healing, rather than an actual person. And in the very end, Tayo sees snake tracks and puts yellow pollen in it. Earlier in the reading, he put yellow pollen in mountain lion tracks. I am sure that natives do this as tradition and it is part of their culture because he has done it with all of the animal tracks that he has found. 

Reflection 19

In this section of the reading, Tayo is with Betonie and is receiving much help in his healing process. He talks to Betonie, as well as Descheeny, Betonie's grandfather, to get help for his PTSD. There are many poems throughout this section that help tell stories. It was discussed in the beginning that storytelling helps heal people and that is a major theme throughout this novel. It begins with a story about how Shush, Betonie's servant, got his name. There is a note added into the writing in between poems. The title of it is "Note on bear people and witches." It talks about what a witch is versus a bear person and I am confused about what relevance that has to the novel. It is randomly placed in between sections and nothing has appeared like this before. Plus, I haven't read about witches at all, and all of the sudden it is a major portion when I read about Tayo's healing. Then, a poem about how witches created the white people and the destruction the white people would cause.

Tayo meets Descheeny, Betonie's grandfather, and they begin the ceremony to heal Tayo. Throughout the ceremony, Betonie keeps repeating "en-e-e-ya-a-a-a-a!" and I think it has an important meaning. I searched in Google the word and I looked for a meaning, however, nothing came up. I am not sure what the word means, but I think it is important and has relevance to Tayo's healing and the ceremony. When I looked closer, that was actually only the first verse of the poem. Later, Betonie repeats "eh-hey-yea-ah-na!" which is different than the other chant. I looked up the meaning of this chant and couldn't find anything either. I will keep it underlined in case I get the chance to ask in class. Later in the ceremony, Betonie cuts Tayo across the head by surprise and when Tayo is waking up later the wound isn't swollen. I am not sure if the wound is completely healed or it just doesn't hurt anymore. If it's healed it just shows a time change, at the same time, if it doesn't hurt that could represent time change as well. Descheeny tells Tayo a story, as part of his healing, about men that were riding horses and a girl fell out of a tree so they captured her. I am confused about why the girl might have been in the tree, maybe she was spying on them, and that's why they took her captive. But they were going to kill her, however Descheeny said they shouldn't. I also noticed that at one point Descheeny stated that he had multiple wives and I was thinking this might be part of the native culture, to have multiple wives. Later, it is clarified that he has specifically three wives. There is more information given about Descheeny and how he is mixed races like Tayo. Descheeny's mom was supposed to be killed because she slept with someone of a different race, but instead she ran away and took Descheeny with her. Finally, Tayo shows great signs of healing in the end of this section. In the end there are many times where he says he feels healing and the evil leaving his body.