July 31, 2006

That wacky Zagar

More on the odd one of the "odd couple"--from a July 2006 posting at ZagarandSteve.com:

Meet ZagarYou ever gotten a roommate through potluck? Let’s just say there are upsides and downsides. One upside would be that I don’t have to pay as much rent each month. A downside would be he doesn’t speak a word of English and he performs ritual sacrifices in his room.

When he first got here I found him out front eating out of an anthill and I got the feeling he just might be a little different… That roommate finder service really knocked it out of the park. Right away he made himself at home, you know, the normal stuff. Hanging his favorite pelts on the wall, pinning up his goats in the backyard, setting up his alter. I won’t even tell you how he “claimed” his room.Actually, Indians almost never conducted ritual sacrifices of humans or animals (the Aztecs and Maya notwithstanding). Zagar's pseudo-religion sounds more like Santeria, which is an African import.

In contrast, animal sacrifice was common in the Middle East (from whence we get our Judeo-Christian morality) and Greece (from whence we get our democratic ideals). One could say that, unlike Indians, we built our civilization on a foundation of dead animals.

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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:44 AM

    I guess to me your points about Zagar not meeting the exact requirement of an Amazonian Indian just go to futher the idea that maybe he's not supposed to be a representation of one particular tribe, but instead a funny characature. I mean, who decided he was Amazonian? I don't hear that mentioned on the comercials or the blog. Did I miss something? Seems like you are the one who decided his origins and are now blasting the ads for not being accurate to your interpretation.

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  2. Rob12:09 AM

    I decided because I know enough about Indians. Here are some of the likenesses that led me to conclude Zagar was an Amazon Indian:

    Yanomami with bowl-style haircut and dots on face:

    http://www.agpix.com/view_caption.php?image_id=82644

    Yanomami wearing red loincloth (third image from top):

    http://indian-cultures.com/Cultures/yanomamo.html

    Two images of Yanomami with the haircuts and dots:

    http://db2.photoresearchers.com/feature/infocus32

    Another Yanomami with dots:

    http://www.ekumenizm.pl/index.php?topic=inne

    The breastplate doesn't fit the Amazon profile, but it is a classic American Indian symbol. To me it reinforces the idea that Zagar is an Indian, not just a generic primitive tribesman.

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