Q The Imagery of Traditions and Customs Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read the following essays in your course text: “Journey by Inner Light,” “Body Art as Visual Language,” “A Look Behind the Veil,” “Too Many Bananas,” “An Island Passover,” “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema,” “Shamans, Healers and Experiences I Can’t Explain,” and “Walking Back Alone.” In this discussion, you will consider how writers use imagery to paint a picture of the traditions and customs that help to define a community and its values. The essays that you read this week document traditions and customs that help to define communities. These communities may be centered around nationality, ethnicity, proximity or location, a religious practice, or a specific culture and cultural practices. The authors use vivid imagery to depict traditions and customs. Imagery can be defined as language (which can be real, figurative, or metaphorical) that creates images in the reader’s mind; the specific language used by a writer evokes the five senses, and thus heightens the experience of reading the text. These images may draw you into the story, or they may repel you or even challenge you. They serve to persuade you of the author’s message, to help you better understand a community or culture, or to enable you to merely sympathize or identify with the author’s experiences. Choose two of the essays read this week, and identify one image or use of imagery in each that stands out to you, draws you into the story, and helps you better understand the author’s meaning.

Q Choose two of the essays read this week, and identify one image or use of imagery in each that stands out to you, draws you into the story, and helps you better understand the author’s meaning. In your initial posting, • Identify the image and where it is described in the essay. • Define the tradition or custom that the image is describing or exemplifying. • Discuss how the author uses the image, or imagery, in depicting the custom or tradition. o Does the author evoke one or more of the five senses? o Does the image help to add meaning to the discussion of traditions and customs? o Does the image help your understanding of the tradition or custom? • Explain what the image reveals about the community’s values. o How does it help to link tradition and custom to cultural values? • Describe briefly a tradition or custom that is important in your own life. o If you had to choose one image to define that tradition or custom, what would it be? Your initial post is due by Day 3 and must be at least 300 words in length.

Q Guided Response: Respond to two or more of your classmates’ posts by Day 7. Your responses should be substantive and provide comments and questions that further the conversation. Compare the images you chose with those chosen by your classmates. What different observations did your classmates make about the same texts, and what meanings did they ascertain from the authors’ depictions of traditions and customs? Continue to monitor the discussion forum until 5:00 p.m. (in your specific time zone) on Day 7, and respond with meaningful dialogue to anyone who replies to your initial post.