Prompt 3

The main difference that I find when comparing the two William Penn paintings are the different genres. They are telling the same exact story and have two very different styles. The use of light, colors, people and details suggest different genres. The first painting by Edward Hicks was painted almost 100 years after the second painting. It has more of a folklore genre. It has deep, richer colors and the details are less defined and are more abstract. The bodies and faces are bigger and less real looking. The second painting by Benjamin West is more Romantic. The coloring is lighter and the light is brighter. There is more detail to the picture. The people are more real looking. It has the romantic haziness to it.
The two paintings are also flipped in arrangement. As you look from left to right, the first painting has the Native Americans first, followed by the Americans and then the open ocean. The second painting is the opposite with the ocean, then the Americans, and lastly the Native Americans. The first painting may show the Native Americans importance by showing them first. However, we also get a sense that they are being confined, or trapped, into the corner of the painting. The second painting shows the Native Americans as more free.
Some common things that the two paintings have are the subjects. In both we have the Native Americans and white Americans standing opposite of each other with a few of each sitting or kneeling to the other. We also have the subject of William Penn as a central figure, standing with open arms to the Natives. There is also the ocean in the background and other, non-central Native Americans and white American settlers on the sides and in the background. The both show the vulnerability of the Native Americans by painting them naked versus the fully clothed white Americans. We also see the Native American woman with the child in each painting perhaps to also show the vulnerability of the Natives in their own home land.

Prompt 2

The “New World Body” was one that was very different from what the Europeans had ever seen before. Therefore, because of their curiosity and at times disgust, the settlers wrote about their first accounts with these bodies. Just because they were different, the “New World Body” was strange. The Europeans saw them as uncivilized savages. John Lawson described them as being strange, disproportionate, poor and lazy. They do not have the material status or technology that the Europeans do. They don’t dress lavishly with ornamentation or shave their beards and cut their hair. They do not have the weaponry that the Europeans do; therefore, to the Europeans they are poor and lazy. According to Lawson, not only do the Europeans think they are the superior race, but the Native Americans do as well. He says it esteems them to have a white man’s child. The “New World Body” is definitely a gendered body. The women are treated as objects to the men and are expected to give their bodies up to them. Lawson accounts on how the women offer themselves to the European men as if it were expected, something the white men were not used to.
George Shelvocke described the “New World Body” as one that comes in large numbers. He says they are “quite naked”, had a “savage appearance” and were “wild” (p.338-339). William Bartram compares his encounter with a Seminole Indian with his encounter with an alligator. This implies the “New World Body” to be animal-like and a predator. They also show to be violent bodies in Samuel Hearne’s account of the savage massacre that he witnessed where they even sexually abused women’s dead bodies.
So overall, the “New World Body,” as described in the Travel Writings by white Europeans, was not normative. The European body is the right body; it is the normal body and powerful body. The images on the map do not seem to be similar to my definition of the “New World Body.” They do not have to physical appearance of Native Americans. I have trouble being able to tell if they are supposed to be Native Americans or Europeans in some of the pictures. I think the bodies are described differently in that they are clothed more with more ornamentation and weapons, and they don’t seem to be very savage or wild.

Prompt 1: The Body

I am exposed to all sorts of bodies of different shapes and sizes and thanks to the media we are all exposed to images and/or portrayals of bodies from every different segment of the population. The main body that I am exposed to in my world is that of the college-aged student. College students are mostly young, they don’t have to follow a certain uniform, and amongst them there are many different segments that identify with each other. Specifically, I am exposed to the body of the sorority girl. I am in a sorority and I live in my sorority house with 45 other girls who are my age and look and dress just like me. This body generally cares about how it is presented. Girls compare their bodies to everyone else’s. How fit their bodies are shape how well they are liked or accepted. They use material things to fit the norm and present themselves in a certain way.
The body functions as a canvas that we use to come across the way we want to others. We dress it up, accessorize it, put stuff on it (permanently and not), modify it and make it smell a certain way. We may do these things to our bodies because we simply like them. However, we also do them to present our identity to others or how we want others to see us. We know that we read people by their bodies, their body language and what they do to their bodies. Therefore, we do certain things knowing others are judging us. Some may argue there are people who simply do not care if they are judged by others and will not do things to alter their bodies in any way just for the way others see them. I would agree with this, however, they are still conscience of the things they do or do not do for their bodies and it is for some reason. Also, in the particular environment that I am exposed to, the bodies around me do care. There is also the point that if a body takes the time to present itself in a particular way, say in getting dressed up and putting makeup on, you care too much about how others perceive you and would be considered conceited by your peers.
On a regular basis, the student body may go to class not bathed and unpolished, wearing whatever they may feel like just to be comfortable. In our environment of higher education, we do not put an importance on body image. You generally are not judged on how you interact with others, sell yourself, etc. In the real world you have to dress and present yourself a certain way in order to give a good impression. The body in higher education is one who is humbled in the learning process, not yet having to get ahead in the world by having to fit a certain mold. And of course, there our always exceptions to this.