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The Cultures of Avatar: The Last Airbender

@atlaculture / atlaculture.tumblr.com

Dissecting the real life cultures that make up the show.
Anonymous asked:

Do you think a hypothetical character isekai'd into the fire nation could make it into the earth kingdom? Or well how easy/expensive do you think it would be to get to the earth kingdom? For reference said character is essentially living their life with intention to become as similar to maomao from apothecary diaries as possible as a survival tactic, they're starting from the caldera city, and they want to get to that herbalist lady from the greenhouse pyramid to learn as much about medicine as possible from her to try and make it the rest of their life in the earth kingdom

The Earth Kingdom herbalist canonically lives somewhat near the Pouhai Stronghold, where the Yuyan Archers are stationed. You could have your character enlist in the military as a medic or cook, with the intent of being assigned to the stronghold. Then your character would have to find a way to desert their post. That would be the most challenging part, as the Fire Nation is heavily implied to execute deserters, as the only people to successfully desert the FN military are Jeong Jeong and Chey.

However, once your character successfully escapes, you'd just have to find the herbalist in the mountains of Taku. She'd probably house and mentor your character in exchange for them doing the hard work of foraging and growing all the ingredients needed for her work (and feeding Miyuki the cat).

Overall, I think your character could probably make it to the EK within a year of being isekai'd. Especially if your character is a firebender, they'd be pretty useful as a cook or even as a medic (for cauterization purposes).

Anonymous asked:

someone else has probably asked you this already (i think you were tagged in one of their posts) but that black sleeveless shirt with the gold trim zuko wears in b1 (i think it was in the waterbending scroll episode) is there an office name for that top or would it just be called a sleeveless tunic?

Katara basically wears drawers consisting of wrappings as lower body under clothing. Did any cultures in real life ever do this?

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I have a whole post about it here:

Yes, Katara (and Sokka)'s undergarments come from Japanese culture. These cloth wraps are known as sarashi (晒し) and the loin cloth undies are specifically called fundoshi ().

hi! just wanted to say thank you so much for your amazing work in exploring the cultures making up atla! it’s beautifully written & has helped me a lot with my writing in terms of the characters! sorry for rambling & i hope you have a great day ! :D

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I'm glad! I think cultural context allows us to appreciate our favorite characters more and can help us to better understand their motivations/psychology.

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A Rose by Any Other Name

So today I learned that many Inuit, Inupiat, and Yupik peoples did not historically eat capped mushrooms, despite the many varieties that can be found in the arctic. There's no singular, clear-cut reason for this aversion, but some arctic mushrooms can be hallucinogenic or cause gastrointestinal issues, so it's not an unreasonable food taboo.

Anyways, as a result of this aversion, the traditional name for capped mushrooms in many Inuit languages is pretty hilariously rude and specific:

  • Nunavik Inuktitut - Tunitinging ("Caribou Food")
  • East Greenlandic/Tunumiisut - Qivittoq Sopa ("Cannibal Ghost Soap")
  • Inuinnaqtun - "Shooting Star Shit"
  • Inupiat - Argaignag ("That which makes your hands fall off")
  • Yupik - Chertovysuhi Ushi ("Devil’s Ears")

Anyways, this led to the following scenario popping into my head:

Aang: Sifu Pakku gave me and Katara the day off today. We should go out and pick some mushrooms! Katara, Sokka, & Yue: [awkward pause & looking confused] Katara: ...Oh, right! Gran-Gran did tell me that people outside the poles like to eat mushrooms... Sokka: Well, if it's good enough for them, then I guess it's good enough for me... Yue: I suppose I'd be willing to try some... My father taught me which ones are edible... Aang: Wait, do people in the Water Tribe not eat mushrooms?? Katara: You have to understand Aang, mushrooms take a lot of time to forage and many of them can upset your stomach. Aang: Well, what kinds of mushroom grow out here? Yue: Let's see... There's "Reindeer Feed"... "Cannibal Shampoo"... "Haunted Snot"... Katara: "Lunar Diarrhea"... "Hand-Rotters"... "Vaatu's Earlobes"... Sokka: "Kuruk's Toe Jam"... "Kyoshi's Hemorrhoids"... "Sozin's Anus"... Aang: Never mind, my stomach's already upset.

I especially like the names ‘frog’s navel or umbilical cord’, ‘star excrement’, and ‘squirrel food’.

Very interesting read! I didn't realize an aversion to mushroom was common to so many indigenous cultures:

Examples of peoples who did not normally eat mushrooms include Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Nuxalk (Bella Coola), Kwakwaka’wakw (Southern Kwakiutl), Haisla and Hanaksiala, Haida, Upper Inlet Dena’ina of Alaska, Innu of Ekuanitshit (North Shore, Quebec), the Naskapi Innu of Labrador, and most Inuit...

The broad swathes of Indigenous peoples with an aversion to mushrooms lends credence to the "protein poisoning" theory. In the initial article I read, the author theorized that the aversion might come from a fear of "fat starvation", also called "protein poisoning". This is a type of malnutrition that develops from a diet high in protein, but low in fat. High-protein, low-fat foods like mushroom generally require more calories to digest than the food itself can actually provide. Additionally, the protein content causes the metabolism to speed up, leading to even greater hunger. If fat is not available to consume, the individual will develop fatigue and nausea within a few days, diarrhea in seven to ten days, and will die after several weeks.

When eating them is basically a net negative, it's no wonder why so many Indigenous peoples gave them mean names.

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Cultural Calendars: Earth Kingdom

Years

Since the Earth Kingdom's biggest cultural inspiration is China, their traditional calendar would likely be the Chinese lunar calendar. This calendar is made up of 12 months that alternate between 29 and 30 days, as the actual lunar cycle is 29.5 days long. This leads to the Chinese lunar year being shorter than the solar year, resulting in a 13th "leap year month" occurring every few years to re-align the lunar year with the solar year.

Since a year in the Avatarverse is implied to be 360 days (as opposed to our world's 365.25 days), that means the Earth Kingdom has a "leap month" every 5 years.

Months

As for what the individual Earth Kingdom months are called, they are officially known by their order in the year (e.g. first month, second month, third month, etc.). Since the EK is a vast and diverse country, their month names are intended to be as simple and intuitive as possible. However, different areas may also have their own regional names for the months of the year.

Regarding weeks, the Earth Kingdom follows the xún () system aka 10-day weeks. I'll just quote the Wikipedia entry:

As early as the Bronze Age Xia dynasty, days were grouped into nine- or ten-day weeks known as xún (旬). Months consisted of three xún. The first 10 days were the early xún (上旬), the middle 10 the mid xún (中旬), and the last nine (or 10) days were the late xún (下旬). The structure of xún led to public holidays every five or ten days. Officials of the Han dynasty were legally required to rest every five days (twice a xún, or 5–6 times a month).

In short, the first 10 days are called "Early Week", the second 10 days are "Middle Week", and the final 9-10 days are "Late Week".

Unfortunately, due to the time-sensitive and labor-intensive nature of agriculture, peasants could only rest/bathe every tenth day, rather than every fifth day like a government official. Thus, a lighthearted way of noting that someone seems tired or lazy is to say "They look ready to work a bureaucrat's week".

Days

Similar to its months, the Earth Kingdom refers to the days by their order in the week, rather than naming them. For example, a person might say "Today is Day 3 of Middle Week." Since the EK is a vast and diverse country, they try to make their timekeeping as simple and intuitive as possible.

HAVE we seen evidence that an Avatarworld lunar cycle is 29.5 days like Earth's though? It's entirely possible that its moon travels a little slower, since the planet clearly orbits its Sun a little faster than Earth, as mentioned in the linked post. Could be a coincidentally convenient 30 day cycle with no need for leap days or months ever, at least not on the frequency that Earth's calendars do.

Here's what trips me up the most about the Avatar calendar though:

Since we never see planetary rings from the non-equatorial regions of Avatarworld, it's probably not that third planet from the sun. SO A.W. must be either the 2nd or the 4th planet from the sun. If Venus and Mars had better atmospheric pressures they'd be within Sol's Habitable Zone (Venus' is too high at 93x Earth's, Mars' is too low at about 0.02x Earth's) but their years are also very different (almost 225 days for Venus and about 687 for Mars.

Assuming Agni (I think it would be fair for the Avatar World's sun to be named after that setting's Spirit of Fire) is near identical to Sol, then those first four planets have got to be either REALLY tightly crowded around it for the 4th one to have an orbital period that's "only" 360 days, or the "rocky" planet neighborhood is really sprawled out for the 2nd one to have that kind of orbital period.

There ARE exoplanets out there with crazy tight orbits, I'm talking "years" that only last a couple hours. If Agni has a couple like that, it's not inconceivable that there's enough room at the edge of the HZ for A.W. to inhabit the 360 day niche at the 4th position.

Personally though, I think A.W. is a "far Venus" vs a "close Mars". Planet 2 is noticeably smaller than Planet 4, and with all the crazy acrobatics people are capable of (as well as Appa being able to haul ass ALL OVER the place in Book 3 of ATLA) A.W. has GOT to be the itty bitty one with less surface area to cover and less gravity to hold people down.

Guess we'll have to wait for Avatar Seven Havens, or its Firebending Avatar successor series, to see if technology improves to the point where they can visit the other planets in that solar system and confirm which it is.

Upon further thought, I also believe that if A.W. is a far Venus, Tui must necessarily be much smaller than Earth's Luna. It's obviously a similar apparent size in the sky, since otherwise the "ring of fire" wouldn't be visible during eclipses if it was too big, and it would barely block out any sunlight at all if it was too small.

But, if A.W. IS less massive than Earth, with correspondingly weaker gravity, then Tui cannot have similar mass to Luna or else Tui and A.W. would be tidally locked to each other like Pluto and Charon, and it wouldn't have phases. So Tui must be iron-poor compared to Luna, in order to have the right size without too much mass AND maintain analogous-to-Earth phase cycles and eclipse patterns.

I love these posts! Really detailed and well thought out. Another thing to consider is that the Avatar world has permanent human settlements in both poles, something that has never occurred in our world. This would indicate that the Avatar World's climates are less extreme across latitudes, as their poles are obviously warm enough to support villages and even cities.

I'm not knowledgeable regarding the sciences, so I'm wondering what that would indicate as far as the differences between their planet and ours. Google is telling me that natural drivers of greenhouse periods include:

  • Volcanic activity
  • Tectonic shifts
  • Changes in ocean currents

I'm wondering if Avatar shenanigans are actually where this greenhouse effect comes from, considering that powerful Avatars are shown to be able to...

  • Activate volcanos (Szeto)
  • Shift tectonic plates (Kyoshi)
  • Change ocean currents (Kuruk)

"The Avatars caused global warming!" would honestly be some great anti-bender propaganda in Korra's era.

Ok i've been digging for ages but I don't think you've written a piece on this specifically- do you know what the gold insignia on Suki's warrior outfit says? or is meant to symbolize? I know she SAYS it "represents honor" but from what I can tell, historically this would be a clan symbol. Thoughts?

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The symbol on the vambrace is this character: 京

It's pronounced "Kyo" in Japanese and means "capital". It's one half of the characters that make up the "Kyoshi" (京士) in Kyoshi Island. The other vambrace likely has the character for "Shi" (士), which means warrior. In short, Kyoshi's written name during Aang's lifetime meant "Capital [of] Warriors". A pretty fitting name for the island and the warriors that protect it.

It's worth noting that Avatar Kyoshi did not initially spell her name this way. On the mural in her temple, she spells her name using these characters: 虚子. This "Kyo" (虚) means empty and the "Shi" (子) means "child". In short, her name was originally written as "Empty Child". According to the Kyoshi novels, she was made an orphan by her parents abandoning her, so the "Empty Child" spelling makes sense. Maybe she changed the spelling of her name after Kyoshi Island developed a reputation for its lady warriors?

Anonymous asked:

hypothetical, would kanzashi like the kinds made by sakae and wargo be too anachronistic for atla era?

For anyone wondering, kanzashi are traditional Japanese hair decorations. Sakae is a modern kanzashi maker and Wargo is a store in Japan (Asakusa) that sells modern kanzashi. Here is an example of Sakae's kanzashi below:

The designs of Sakae/Wargo's kanzashi actually look pretty timeless, but the material used to make them looks to be "resin epoxy", which became popularized for use in arts and crafts starting in the 1960s. So yeah, the material would be a little too anachronistic for the ATLA era. You could probably incorporate it into Korra's world without it feeling weird, though. For contrast, pictured below are traditional folded fabric (tsumami) kanzashi:

The ATLA era probably uses mostly traditional kanzashi materials: fabric, starch paste glue, wood, and metal. China also has a similar history of making fabric flower hair pins. You might want to reference those styles of hairpins for areas of the EK outside Kyoshi. If you want to be avante garde in a way that makes sense for the ATLA era, glass or crystal hair accessories made by earthbenders would work. Glassbending would probably be a sandbender specialty. Pictured below, a glass kanzashi:

Tsumami Kanzashi Hair Ornaments is a great resource for traditional kanzashi.

Anonymous asked:

Hi! Firstly, thank you so much for all the work you do! I love this blog and have been a silent enjoyer for ages now :)

I was wondering if you’ve compiled anything about non-royalty/nobility Fire Nation clothing? I know they’re pretty southeast Asian inspired, and I’d be interested in how you think the average or poorer fire nation citizen would dress? Where would you recommend looking to for research?

Yeah, I have a few posts that touch on commoner's clothes. To be honest, what Azula and Zuko wear in "The Beach" also could've passed as commoner's clothing, if not for all the jewelry and gold embroidery that they insisted on wearing for the party.

As for resources, I would say to start on Wikipedia and then look up the terms shown in a search engine.

Dude that band rec from earlier is fantastic. I've been playing Yin Yin on repeat all week. I didn't even know south Asian psychedelic rock was a thing and I'm loving it. You mentioned Khmer psych rock, any bands I ought to look into?

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Glad you like Yin Yin! They're a real great find and they even sound good playing live.

Also, I just want to clarify for anyone wondering: Cambodian and Khmer are the same thing. Cambodian is the English name for us and Khmer (pronounced k'my) is what we call ourselves. I just use the term Khmer because it's quicker to type.

So for Khmer rock, there's the modern LA-based band Dengue Fever that I mentioned prior:

However, if we're talking the OG 60s/70s Khmer psych that birthed it all, the king and queen of the genre are Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Sereysothea. I do have to warn you that the woman's style of singing is a bit of an acquired taste, though. It's very much a continuation of that traditional Southeast Asian style of singing, where the women kind of sound like very strained birds. I grew up with it, so I'm used to it, but it might sound a little thin if you're primarily accustomed to Western Pop-style singing.

Sinn Sisamouth's song, Mou Pei Na ("Where Are You From?"), is about a young man cat calling some young ladies and their responses basically being "buzz off, you're annoying". A fun call and response kind of song.

Ros Sereysothea's Chnam Oun Dop-Pram Muy ("I Am 16 Years Old") is pretty much about a 16-year-old girl celebrating her youth and how all the boys like her.

Anonymous asked:

genuinely baffled that in all the years being in this fandom that joss paper doesn't come up more often in fanfics where fire nation characters are grieving or visiting graves or shrines to the dead...

It's an offering to the dead you're literally supposed to burn. You can get effigies of stuff like houses, cars, games, anything you can think of that a dead relative might want and send it to them in the afterlife by burning a joss paper effigy of it.

Personal headcanon is before losing their ship in the north iroh had an ornate butsudan for luten, his wife and ursa in his quarters that he and zuko used to leave offerings of paper tea, small scrolls of plays, and pai sho boards at

(my only real reason for the butsudan is i like them I think they're neat, but i guess you could argue that Japan and the fire nation are both island nations?)

For context, here's a pretty good video summarizing the practice:

Yeah, I think the practice of joss paper burning ("ghost money") would fit in well with the Fire Nation. I also think it would add a whole new dimension to the Fire Nation's view of its own element.

The idea of fire as a tool for conquest and suppressing descent is reinforced in the "modern" Fire Nation. It's the same ideology that fuels Jeong-Jeong's self-loathing. Having joss paper burning be a forgotten tradition that was banned by Sozin reinforces how much of the FN's culture has been warped by fascism. Suddenly, fire isn't just a tool for combat, it can be used as a tool for connecting to others and bridging worlds, much like how the dragons used fire to communicate with Aang and Zuko.

As for the alter on the ship, I 100% agree that they would have one. I do think butsudans look the nicest and most decorative of the East Asian alters.

Anonymous asked:

Hi! I'm wanting to make a few atla ocs, and was wondering if you had any jewelry masterposts? Specifically the water tribes and fire nation. Your post about inuit earrings was very helpful! I was just wondering if you had more like it. Thank you so much for all the work you do this blog is a blessing!

I have some posts that mention jewelry as part of an entire outfit, but I don't have as many that specifically analyze cultural jewelry. Mainly because the characters of ATLA don't dress all that ostentatiously most of the time.

I can link you to all my jewelry and jewelry-adjacent posts, though.

Water Tribe

Fire Nation

Anonymous asked:

Hey! I'm writing a fic with Azula as the main character set post-canon. I happen to have schizoaffective disorder and really identify with her; I know a lot of people tend to think her breakdown was temporary but in my fic it was not. Schizophrenia is an illness that has been recorded in every culture across time and history. We have records of it in ancient Egypt and Sumeria and so forth. But our name for it is modern and comes from Latin. Even the older name from the turn of last century comes from Latin.

They don't have Latin in ATLA! I was wondering if you had any resources on what it might have been called in China/Japan/Korea etc in the good old days? Something that might fit the tone of a fic better than our modern terminology ?

Thank you for reading!

I'm not super well-versed in psychology or traditional East Asian medicine, but I can give it a try. Anyone more knowledgeable in these subjects, feel free to chime in.

So, from what I understand, most pre-modern medicine in East Asia has its roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the philosophy behind it. In TCM, the underlying belief is that there are multiple energies (yin-yang) and metaphysical elements occurring within your body. These energies and elements are all necessary for you to be healthy and functional. If your body is unwell, it's because there is a lack of balance in your elements and energies. As such, there's really not as much emphasis on creating very specific labels for every variation of human behavior or human illness (schizoaffective vs schizophrenic, for example). The emphasis is more on diagnosing what is lacking or in overabundance within you that is causing your imbalance and recommending lifestyle changes to re-balance your energy/elements.

As you can see, this underlying philosophy is very much baked into Avatar's worldbuilding. Anyways, now that we've established the hypothetical philosophy of how illness would be viewed in the ATLAverse, we can discuss terminology that might effectively encompass Azula's mental condition.

  • Kuang (): In TCM, the term kuang refers to a state of mania or acute, wild, and violent madness.
  • Excessive Heart Fire: In TCM, the heart is where one's mind, consciousness, and spirit lie; it is associated with yin energy. Fire is the element of enthusiasm and drive in TCM; it is associated with yang energy. When your heart is too aligned with fire, it indicates a deficiency of yin to balance out the yang. Thus, the enthusiasm and drive of fire will escalate into restlessness, anxiety, and emotional instability. Since "excessive heart fire" sounds clunky, you could try wording it something like "a heart set ablaze" or "a heart overwhelmed with fire"--- something more poetic like that.

Interestingly, quite a few websites recommend Tai Chi as a way of calming a mind afflicted with kuang. It makes me wonder if Iroh's interest in water bending stems from him noticing how destructive an excess of "heart fire" could be, through his observations of his own family.

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Thank you @atlaculture!!

Thank you for helping me with restoring my account! It took me some time, but it happened!!! Have a Waterbender to celebrate!

His name is Umiaktorvik, and his clothing is inspired by Kazakh traditional clothing (ton and börik).

You're welcome! Your illustration is great. I love how you drew the textures on the fur trim. Were you inspired by this Twitter trend?

If we assume Wolf Cove is one of several small settlements in the general Southern Water Tribe region, what are some names other similar settlements could go by?

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So if you skim through this page here:

You'll find a list of towns within the Inuit regions of Canada. Perusing through this list, you'll find that Inuit towns will either be named after...

  • Physical characteristics of the area (Aupaluk - "Where There Is Red Earth")
  • Animals that are common or significant to the area (Aklavik - "Grizzly Bear Place")
  • Unique aspects of the town itself (Inurjuat - "Lots of People")

In general, just very practical names for towns and villages. One name that I thought up, and that has a good ring to it, is "Orca's Edge" for a coastal village. In Inupiat and Yupik folklore, it was believed that some orcas can transform into wolves. This was due to the phenomenon of wolf tracks appearing to lead into or to come out of the sea as a result of ice breaking away. Given ATLA's love of fusion animals, I think it would be great if there were a village where they hunt wolf-orcas.

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How to Get Your Tumblr Account Back after a Scam

I'm Back Babyyy~

I'm so happy! Tumblr really came in clutch. I also learned how great my followers are. Thank you all for your help.

In return, I will share with you the entire story of how my blog got murdered deleted and then revived reinstated. Learn from my foolishness.

1. Context

So I've recently started training in Muay Thai to help deal with my insomnia. Last week, I had the bright idea to train immediately after working a 10-hour shift. Unsurprisingly, I was very tired when I had to wake up for work the next morning. I ended up drinking 30 ounces of Hong Kong milk tea, which is very strong (to me).

2. The Scam

Anyways, exhaustion + caffeine high + sugar rush = paranoid out of my mind. Which made me the perfect target for this scam:

I ended up talking to a scammer on Discord who convinced me to reset my password to a "default" one, which they used to add a 2-step verification to my account, which I normally don't have. By connecting my account with their cell number, my account became inaccessible to me. The scammer would only give me my account back if I paid up, but I cut them off as I had regained my senses once my caffeine/sugar high wore off.

3. The Solution

I immediately went to: https://www.tumblr.com/support

Here is what I submitted for my ticket:

Tumblr also emails you when someone changes your password, and even shows you their IP address. So I did a screenshot of the password change email with the scammer's IP address shown. This is what I attached to my Tumblr Support ticket:

Tumblr Support sends me an email asking me to verify the IP address of the last valid password change I did:

I searched for the last password change email that I received before the scammer one and screenshot'd it for Tumblr Support's Jason.

And, in less than a week, I received this email and my account was re-instated:

Jason, if you ever see this post, I just want you to know that you're officially my favorite person on Tumblr. If you ever need a favor from me, don't hesitate to ask!

4. In Conclusion

You're never too old to be reminded...

  • Get good sleep
  • Cut back on the caffeine/sugar
  • Don't push yourself too hard
  • Don't trust strangers

I'm in my 30s and I managed to get fooled, so don't be too hard on yourself if something like this happens to you.

Hey everyone, if you come across random comments that look like this on your post, please report them. It's the scam repackaged.

Sponsored

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