Tradition and Ancestry in Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo      In the Western industrialized world, time is seen as a progression of events, the present building on the past as civilization becomes more "advanced." However, in the African conception of time, "the human being goes backward ...he is oriented toward the world of the ancestors, toward those who no longer belong to the world of the living" (Zahan 45). Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo problematizes the relationship between past and present. Rejecting both the ideas of "progress" and of strict adherence to tradition, he advocates instead improvisation--responding and adapting to immediacy without uprooting one's connections to the past.  For the inhabitant of the Western industrialized world, the paradigm of progress dominates his or her conceptions of birth, death, time, and history. Tradition is part of a construction of history that shows the causal progression of events from the past to the present. Time is linear. An individual progresses forward in life, socially and materially advancing himself or herself as much as possible within one life-span. Old age denotes the approach of death--the end of individual progress and the barrier of human progress. Consumerism, materialism and scientific empiricism are the mechanisms of Western progress. They presuppose a separation between man and woman, his body, and his environment, and the ability of the ormer to control the latter three, assumptions which can ultimately wreak "havoc among cultures that are not organized around the pursuit of material abundance" (Diamond 138). According to anthropologist Dominique Zahan, tradition, for the African "is above all the collective experience of the com... ...Cited Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart New York: Astor-Honor, Inc., 1959. Badomo, Andre. "Tradition and Modernism on Horseback." Ness 99-107. Bernard, Bouba. "Reflections on the Life of the European." Ness 27-41. Desmangles, Leslie G. The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 1992. Diamond, Irene. Fertile Ground: Women, Earth, and the Limits ofControl Boston: Beacon Press, 1994. Ness. Philip A. Grafting Old Rootstock: Studies in Culture and Religion of the Chamba, Duru, Fula, and Gbaya of Cameroun. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc., 1982. Reed, Ishmael. Mumbo Jumbo. New York: Atheneum, 1972. Zahan, Dominique. The Religion, Spirituality, and Thought of Traditional Africa. Trans. Kate Ezra Martin and Lawrence M. Martin. Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1979. Tradition and Ancestry in Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo Essay -- Ishmael Tradition and Ancestry in Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo      In the Western industrialized world, time is seen as a progression of events, the present building on the past as civilization becomes more "advanced." However, in the African conception of time, "the human being goes backward ...he is oriented toward the world of the ancestors, toward those who no longer belong to the world of the living" (Zahan 45). Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo problematizes the relationship between past and present. Rejecting both the ideas of "progress" and of strict adherence to tradition, he advocates instead improvisation--responding and adapting to immediacy without uprooting one's connections to the past.  For the inhabitant of the Western industrialized world, the paradigm of progress dominates his or her conceptions of birth, death, time, and history. Tradition is part of a construction of history that shows the causal progression of events from the past to the present. Time is linear. An individual progresses forward in life, socially and materially advancing himself or herself as much as possible within one life-span. Old age denotes the approach of death--the end of individual progress and the barrier of human progress. Consumerism, materialism and scientific empiricism are the mechanisms of Western progress. They presuppose a separation between man and woman, his body, and his environment, and the ability of the ormer to control the latter three, assumptions which can ultimately wreak "havoc among cultures that are not organized around the pursuit of material abundance" (Diamond 138). According to anthropologist Dominique Zahan, tradition, for the African "is above all the collective experience of the com... ...Cited Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart New York: Astor-Honor, Inc., 1959. Badomo, Andre. "Tradition and Modernism on Horseback." Ness 99-107. Bernard, Bouba. "Reflections on the Life of the European." Ness 27-41. Desmangles, Leslie G. The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 1992. Diamond, Irene. Fertile Ground: Women, Earth, and the Limits ofControl Boston: Beacon Press, 1994. Ness. Philip A. Grafting Old Rootstock: Studies in Culture and Religion of the Chamba, Duru, Fula, and Gbaya of Cameroun. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc., 1982. Reed, Ishmael. Mumbo Jumbo. New York: Atheneum, 1972. Zahan, Dominique. The Religion, Spirituality, and Thought of Traditional Africa. Trans. Kate Ezra Martin and Lawrence M. Martin. Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1979.
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I am divorced and the father of 3 children. I grew up in a farm community in North Carolina, and when I was 15, my family moved to Lexington, South Carolina. I attended City High School, taking classes that concentrated on Electrical and Electronic Engineering and math. I also played football from the third grade until I graduated high school. During my Junior and Senior years of high school, I also worked part time for an industrial electrical company. I learned a great deal about life in those years. Most teenagers my age were attending parties or working at the local grocery store. I, however, was working 30 or so hours a week installing electrical motors, 3 phase lighting, and 480 volt transformers. Once I graduated from high school, my parents wanted me to go to college. I decided that instead of having them pay for it, I would take care of the financial costs my own way: by joining the United States Army and utilizing the Montgomery G.I. Bill for college. I took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and scored in the top 5% for my class year. What this meant for me was that the recruiters were beating down my door. The U.S. Army made the best offer by laying a book down in front of me and telling me I could pick any job I wanted. I chose wireless communications, because I knew that in 1994, wireless phones, which in those days were the bag phones, were going to be around for a long time, and it was a new technology that had a lot of growing to do. I left for Basic Combat Training (BCT) on November 29th, 1994. I spent the next 10 months in BCT and Advanced Individual Training (AIT). I learned everything there is to know about wireless communications. I graduated AIT at the top of my class an... ... was stabbed recently by a homeless man that I tried to help, and instead of getting a thank you, I got a shank between the 10th and 11th ribs. I am one of those people that has a 5, 10, and 25 year plan. Within 5 years I plan to finish my Master’s Degree and move into a director position within Verizon Wireless. Within 10 years I plan to continue my career and help others under me reach their goals so that they, too, can be what they want themselves to be. Within 25 years I plan to partially retire, start my own small company and contract my services out to the wireless companies in the United States. At this point I would begin to travel more and see the world. I have led an exciting and full life in my thirty-or-so years. I have a lot to show for what I have learned and what I have done. Finishing my degree can only add to what I have already accomplished
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