Live Deliciously or Die Trying

This terracotta figurine was created nearly 2,500 years ago, and it was likely designed as a toy. The doll is positioned above a small tray, and its torso is equipped with a set of pins (located in the waist and shoulders) that allow the figure to lean up and down, gently pushing the rolling pin back and forth across the tray as if preparing food.

Above: another view of the same doll

This is not the only known example of an articulated doll from ancient Greece. Many so-called "dancing dolls" (also known as plangones) were created throughout the Greco-Roman world.

Above: bone figurine with articulated limbs, from ancient Greece, c.350-250 BCE

As this book explains:

Female dolls with attached limbs known as plangones, korai, or nymphai were made in numerous areas in Greece over a considerable span of time from the Geometric to the Hellenistic periods. Male dolls also exist but were far less popular. Although made out of a wide range of materials, including wood, bone, ivory, marble, wax, cloth, and alabaster, dolls of terracotta are by far the most common.

The same book goes on to describe some of the other toys that were created and used by the ancient Greeks:

In antiquity, play was as much an integral part of growing up as it is today, and the ancient Greeks possessed a wide variety of toys and games. Both the archaeological record and ancient literature provide information about these, only some of which overlaps. The most common toys preserved include rattles, dolls, knucklebones, figurines, miniature vessels, miniature furniture, and miniature animals, some of which are wheeled and some of which have riders. Less common are balls and wheeled carts.

Ancient toys have been unearthed in many other parts of the world, too.

Above: a wheeled horse from Roman Egypt, c.50-250 CE

Some of the rattles, pull-toys, articulated dolls, and mechanical figurines from Mesopotamia and Egypt even date back to nearly 4,000 years ago.

Above: a mechanical dog figurine from Egypt, c.1390-1352 BCE, with a lever that opens and closes the dog's mouth

In one of my previous posts, I also mentioned a 3,500-year-old wheeled hedgehog figurine from Iran that may have been created and used as a toy.

Above: wheeled hedgehog from Susa, in modern-day Iran, c.1500-1100 BCE

Sources & More Info:

British Museum: Toy

Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past: Jointed Dolls and Play

American Journal of Archaeology: Jointed Dolls in Antiquity

University of Friboug: From Greece to Rome: Toys for Growing Up? (PDF in French)

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Bone Figurine with Articulated Limbs

British Museum: Wheeled Horse

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Mechanical Dog

The Louvre: Hedgehog Toy from Susa

Ulchanka - Photographed by Aleksandr Frolenok

In traditional Ulchi (who refer to themselves as Nani) cosmology, the natural world has been understood to be inhabited by spirits and other sentient supernatural beings. Animals, plants, places, and aspects of the landscape could possess spiritual significance, and these beings were understood to perceive and respond to human behaviour. Relations between people and the spirit world were for this reason governed by offerings, expressions of respect, and various taboos. Failure to observe these obligations could be understood as provoking spiritual displeasure, which potentially could result in misfortune, illness, and even death.

Because the environment was believed to be heavily populated by these invisible powers, the Ulchi traditionally utilized shamanic practices to interact with them. While everyday individuals maintained their own basic spiritual relationship, a designated sama (aka shaman; a word originating from fellow Tungustic people of Siberia) was called upon to act as an intermediary to heal the sick, secure safe hunting, or venture into the spirit world.

One of the most sacred forms of worship of the Ulchi was a cult centered around the veneration of the Bear. Bear cubs were captured and and placed in special log cages to be raised around a certain clan or family, where they were even occasionally nursed or hand-fed by women as if they were children. The practice culminated in a multi-day ritual festival known as буюмба хупи, during which the bear was ceremonially sacrificed by a skilled archer. The bear's soul was believed to return to the realm of the the masters of the Taiga (spirits governing this mountain-forest region), carrying with it the hopes and prayers of humanity.

And waving the token indigenous-candidate-demand flag just shows a failure to understand indigenous experience and views of their citizenship and relationship with the US. Reservations here are outside US jurisdiction because they're outside of the US period; on paper at least, these areas are under indigenous sovereignty, and are not truly US territories. This makes Native Americans basically dual citizens and means they have the interests of their own nations as well the interests of the US at large to consider, and plenty of Native Americans are actively involved in their own tribal governments. So whatever demographic within the already tiny indigenous population here is interested in, and has the means to pursue, political work is much more likely to end up in tribal politics. So, a truly miniscule amount of people are likely to move on from, or go directly into, greater US politics.

Even if they did, considering again, the mixed interests at play, and the genuinely infinitesimal amount of state and local politicians who even get near potential presidential levels, this is highly unlikely. Like, I win the lotto every day for a year-unlikely. Maybe even I win every day with tickets I found on the ground-unlikely. And again, we have to consider, would a Native American politician want to become president of the US? On the day-to-day they'll have far more chance of making effective changes in state government, and if they want to aim higher, there are still more active roles they could have within federal government without ever thinking about getting to the Oval Office.

And here we get to the uncomfortable chestnut: to be US president you'd have to lead the country that tried to exterminate your people. You'd be head of the government that approved their genocide, that is still partially controlling/interfering with reservation territories, and at least partially aims for ends that fly in the face of indigeous needs, safety, sovereignty, and progress. You'd be sitting in the office where Lincoln, Jackson, and the rest signed off on killing and disenfranchising your ancestors, representing the nation that colonized them and a current population whose majority either thinks you're all already dead or wishes you were. There's very little chance you can effectively represent indigenous needs here; even the whitest malest president on earth is going to have a 50+% automatic built-in resistance to any attempts to do so; how much worse is an actual indigenous, let alone female and indigenous president, going to have? So best case scenario you're going to be president just to say it happened: one time, in the entire nation's history, despite all odds, we had a Native American president. It'll be a symbolic victory, nothing more. And how many Native Americans are going to consider that a victory anyway?

This isn't New Zealand, there is not a healthy burgeoning indigenous population here that can reassert itself and command government attention, that has the numbers to take over politics and steer the country in a direction that favors us. And we aren't part of the mainstream American identity, arent represented— a situation like having haka as a normal part of sports culture is (I am not exaggerating here) literally unimaginable. At best we are firmly divided between the interests of two different nations, one of which has attempted to wipe us out and is still, less officially, trying to do so; getting involved in US political office is a potentially fraught enough, from that perspective. Even if statistically we could manage to get a presidential candidate, would we bother??? Idk. Wouldn't we be better served trying to strengthen our own tribal governments and sovereignty??

@foggyspecternova tokenizing us by throwing your theoretical indigenous "gotcha" in only shows how little you know about anything regarding Native American or indigenous Hawaiian issues. (Can you even name a single indigenous US politician?) Educate yourself, and until then, keep our names out of your ignorant mouth.

And better yet, since you want valorize yourself by dragging indigenous people into your foolishness, put your money where your mouth is and donate to support an actual indigenous cause. Here are some ideas:

Namaygoosisagagun First Nation wildfire relief

Go Fund Mes of individual wildfire survivors here, here, here, and here

Native American Rights Fund

Northern Plains Winter Fuel Fund

Re-Member Winter Heating Assistance

Apparently you can do a saliva test kit at home:

ladies and gentlemen

And she just looked at me like this