May 2013 -

28 May

Research reading: Hopping

I discovered recently, to my great joy, that I can still use my grad school credentials to log in to Project Muse and access a wide variety of academic publications. I spent a happy evening going down the rabbit holes of different search queries – ‘salmon anthropology’, ‘mongol horde history’, ‘transvestite shaman’.

The last, of course, is when my taller half looked over my shoulder. His query: What are you doing?

Research. I’m doing research for Isobel the Bear-Eater, because her story is set in a place not so different from Siberia and the Russian Far East, although I am adding in a healthy dose of my own knowledge and experiences from Alaska, and taking a great many liberties in mixing my own imagination in with true cultures described in historical and anthropological accounts. The more I know about these places, the richer my writing will be. Read More →

22 May

Hunting with Golden Eagles

Lady-berkutchi Makpal Abdrazakova, aka “eagle-babe”

Maybe you’ve heard of falconry, the practice of training birds of prey to catch small animals and bring them back to human handlers. Personally, I associate them with medieval Europe. However, the International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey informs me that falconry was already popular in Mongolia 3000 years ago, and it’s still practiced in contemporary central Asia. And don’t go assuming that “falconry” is only for falcons, because I got on this track after reading about Makpal Abdrazakova, the only woman in Kazakstan who has been trained as a berkutchi, or golden eagle hunter. Read More →

16 May

Lua – the Hawaiian art of Bone Breaking

Michelle Manumaleuna has done a lot of things – professional hula, professional football, martial arts consultant for Femme D’Action show, you know, the usual. In 2010, she taught at PAWMA camp and the large Seven Star contingent there realized that she was awesome and should come visit us. We were super stoked when she agreed to do a workshop with us in early 2011. Her martial art, lua, is a native Hawaiian martial art, a hard side precursor of hula. In 2011, she explained that lua is the Hawaiian word for pit, and they call it that because that’s where you put the bodies.

In a kajukenbo school, everyone’s eyes light up when you say something like that. Shark bite and stinging squid strikes? “Poi pounding” to tenderize an opponent’s flesh? Choking each other out with our belts? Yes, please! Read More →

13 May

Etymological geekout: БОГАТЫРЬ [bogatyr’]

Bogatyrs (1898) by Viktor Vasnetsov

If you’ve spent any time on Russian history, you’ve probably seen this painting before. It shows a classic view of the epic heroes Dobrynya Nikitich, Ilya Muromets, and Alyosha Popovich. If you’ve got the language skills, the Три богатыря [tri bogatyria] or Three Heros have recently been reincarnated as animated children’s films, available on the youtubes. Even if not, humor me and watch this brief trailer for the latest: “Три богатыря на дальних берегах” after the jump. Read More →