The following blog post was designed and written by students from The Science Club (class of 2017 students):
Camanchacas are cloud banks that form on the Chilean coast, by the Earth’s driest desert, the Atacama Desert, and move inland. (via)
This film was based on an ancient Chilean myth and it explains a natural phenomenon: the result of the Chilean coastline meeting with the driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert. Ancient people explain natural phenomena with myths. The following animation tells the beautiful and poetic story–a love story–of how these cloud banks formed. But we know that jealousy cannot account for natural phenomena. Without science, the ancients had to rely on mythology to make sense of nature, which can be both beautiful and terrifying.
10 thoughts on “Camanchango: a short film about myths, love & nature”
Science is a body of practical and theoretical knowledge about the natural world. It is used by scientist to explain their observations about a natural phenomena. Since the early 18th through 20th century, the history of science (especially physical and biological sciences) was seen in a progressive narrative that was used to replace false beliefs. Early people were unaware of scientific knowledge so they uses myths which are traditional stories, concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural phenomena, that involves supernatural beings or events, to explain there “scientific discoveries.” One of their discoveries, Camanchaca, is a thick fog on the coast of Peru and Chile. According to science, fog is produced when cool air passes over a warm body of water or moist land or in areas where there is a temperature difference between to ground and the air. In conclusion ancients rely of myths to explain nature but the development of new sciences prove their beliefs wrong.
Taíno people also had a lot of myths to explain natural phenomena that we understand very well today—thanks to models that explain complex patterns, such as cyclones.
I recommend you do research on the story of Guabancex & Guatauba.
Myths are greatly under appreciated. Many have shaped our beliefs, morals, knowledge and imagination during our lifetime. As humanity began to ponder about the three basic questions of existence; who we are, where we come from and where are we going, we began and continue to look for explanations for things we don’t fully comprehend. As you mentioned in the prompt, scientific explanations were in the hands of cultures with beautiful imaginations, therefore we have a wide array of mythology from every part of the world. For example, taking the example of earthquakes, the Japanese myth of Namazu accounts for a giant catfish that lives beneath the earth that causes these. In Indian mythology, the earth is held up by eight huge elephants who stand in the back of a giant tortoise, and the tortoise stands upon the coils of a snake, and when one of these animals loses their balance, earthquakes occur. Chinese and Mongolian traditions believe the world is carried by a frog and when it twitches an earthquake is formed. In Greek mythology, Poseidon, the god of the seas, accounts for earthquakes. There are many more myths that account for earthquakes in this link: http://manmythmagic.blogspot.com/2014/11/mythology-and-legend-of-natural_9.html .
Some of those myths can be the foundation of a highly developed field of knowledge. Alchemy was all about magic and the myths surrounding the transmutation of any kind of matter into gold. But if it were not for these proto-scientists, we would’ve never had Chemistry.
Myths have always existed with the purpose of either explaining the past or purpose of existing things or an idea with an encouraging lesson to follow or look up to.
myths are a way of explaining the nature of things the we don’t really understand.
This short film has a small, but meaningful beautiful lesson. This small film shows us that love is not conquered by pretty objects, its conquered by the actions taken to achieve or get what you truly want.
different myth emerges depending on the different cultures that exist all around the world. http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/userstory11587-how-the-sun-and-the-moon-came-to-be.html
This link leads to a website that contains every kind of myths and legends from all around the world with a story explaining the nature of the things.
Myths are fascinating yet extremely underrated. They came before religion, science, philosophy, literature and even language; the earliest example being cave stick figure paintings over 30,000 years old. Hundreds of years ago the vast majority of the population (and a few are currently widely believed) swore by these myths and would not be convinced otherwise. Personally, I believe myths are a way to satiate some people’s, and I include myself, fascination and ‘need’ for magic and mystery. Although we now know they are untrue, that doesn’t take away from it’s allure and the interest evoked by our inner child. While we know they are most likely false, we wish they were true just for the diversion. If anyone is interested in learning about some other compelling myths I’ll leave a link below! http://listverse.com/2014/01/16/10-universal-myths-of-the-ancient-world/
Its human nature to make up excuses or find reasons for certain things, especially if these things scare us. Like when you hear a noise outside and say “oh that must’ve been the cat”. I like to look at myths that way, because myths are essentially our way of giving reason to or making thing less scary. Myths even run parallel to religion in most cultures, roman and Greek mythology. But if you think about it, these were the first scientific observations. These people had questions and they answered the best way they could, making up a story for it, but without posing questions and the hunger for knowledge modern science wouldn’t exist.
The most terrifying thing a human could face is the lack of knowledge or information.For a long time natural phenomena has being explained by myths that have survived thousands of generations. Every early civilization have their own ways of explaining things. We should not see these people as uncultured nor ignorant, in fact they were the first ones to appreciate and praise nature. The creation of myths show their desire to solve unexplainable events such as modern scientists. The short film proves that love is not conquered by materialistic objects, it is only achieved by the desire you have toward a feeling.
Here are some interesting indian myths created to explain nature and emotions. http://www.hartford-hwp.com/Taino/docs/myths.html
I always find it iterestig how we, humans, can connect to things that might have not neccesarily anythig to do together. We can put together jelly and chocolate and make it taste delicious, we can basically find the combinations in every object in the world. Just like in this video, we made a formation of clouds into a love story, just to show how magnificient they really are and they are trully impressive. It is not something you can see everyday and in any part of the world, and when it does happens its astonishing. We trully have to appreciate how mother nature works, it gives us the biggest wonders and marvels in our world, if it werent for how wonderfully she works life wouldnt be the same. https://www.google.com.pr/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://esseacourses.strategies.org/module.php%3Fmodule_id%3D54&ved=0ahUKEwiYy_HPmILTAhVD5SYKHYzoACUQFggdMAE&usg=AFQjCNGpmxSwayi_qD-nKU73fVIdhCejlQ
It’s amazing how ancient people explained what they experience through myths. Nowadays with all the advancements we have we can know really why natural phenomenon happen and explain it through the use of science and technology. Every civilization has their way to explain their questions, as scientists do in the present trying to answer the why of things. I found amazing how a civilization with the resources they have do their best to find an answer to a question in various ways and different methods of study. The civilization presented in the post used myths while we today answer questions with scientific studies and advancements.
The Hypertextual Lounge 
Science is a body of practical and theoretical knowledge about the natural world. It is used by scientist to explain their observations about a natural phenomena. Since the early 18th through 20th century, the history of science (especially physical and biological sciences) was seen in a progressive narrative that was used to replace false beliefs. Early people were unaware of scientific knowledge so they uses myths which are traditional stories, concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural phenomena, that involves supernatural beings or events, to explain there “scientific discoveries.” One of their discoveries, Camanchaca, is a thick fog on the coast of Peru and Chile. According to science, fog is produced when cool air passes over a warm body of water or moist land or in areas where there is a temperature difference between to ground and the air. In conclusion ancients rely of myths to explain nature but the development of new sciences prove their beliefs wrong.
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Taíno people also had a lot of myths to explain natural phenomena that we understand very well today—thanks to models that explain complex patterns, such as cyclones.
I recommend you do research on the story of Guabancex & Guatauba.
LikeLike
Myths are greatly under appreciated. Many have shaped our beliefs, morals, knowledge and imagination during our lifetime. As humanity began to ponder about the three basic questions of existence; who we are, where we come from and where are we going, we began and continue to look for explanations for things we don’t fully comprehend. As you mentioned in the prompt, scientific explanations were in the hands of cultures with beautiful imaginations, therefore we have a wide array of mythology from every part of the world. For example, taking the example of earthquakes, the Japanese myth of Namazu accounts for a giant catfish that lives beneath the earth that causes these. In Indian mythology, the earth is held up by eight huge elephants who stand in the back of a giant tortoise, and the tortoise stands upon the coils of a snake, and when one of these animals loses their balance, earthquakes occur. Chinese and Mongolian traditions believe the world is carried by a frog and when it twitches an earthquake is formed. In Greek mythology, Poseidon, the god of the seas, accounts for earthquakes. There are many more myths that account for earthquakes in this link: http://manmythmagic.blogspot.com/2014/11/mythology-and-legend-of-natural_9.html .
Source: http://www.davidkabraham.com/OldWeb/Beliefs/Education/mythology.htm
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Some of those myths can be the foundation of a highly developed field of knowledge. Alchemy was all about magic and the myths surrounding the transmutation of any kind of matter into gold. But if it were not for these proto-scientists, we would’ve never had Chemistry.
LikeLike
Myths have always existed with the purpose of either explaining the past or purpose of existing things or an idea with an encouraging lesson to follow or look up to.
myths are a way of explaining the nature of things the we don’t really understand.
This short film has a small, but meaningful beautiful lesson. This small film shows us that love is not conquered by pretty objects, its conquered by the actions taken to achieve or get what you truly want.
different myth emerges depending on the different cultures that exist all around the world.
http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/userstory11587-how-the-sun-and-the-moon-came-to-be.html
This link leads to a website that contains every kind of myths and legends from all around the world with a story explaining the nature of the things.
LikeLike
Myths are fascinating yet extremely underrated. They came before religion, science, philosophy, literature and even language; the earliest example being cave stick figure paintings over 30,000 years old. Hundreds of years ago the vast majority of the population (and a few are currently widely believed) swore by these myths and would not be convinced otherwise. Personally, I believe myths are a way to satiate some people’s, and I include myself, fascination and ‘need’ for magic and mystery. Although we now know they are untrue, that doesn’t take away from it’s allure and the interest evoked by our inner child. While we know they are most likely false, we wish they were true just for the diversion. If anyone is interested in learning about some other compelling myths I’ll leave a link below!
http://listverse.com/2014/01/16/10-universal-myths-of-the-ancient-world/
LikeLike
Its human nature to make up excuses or find reasons for certain things, especially if these things scare us. Like when you hear a noise outside and say “oh that must’ve been the cat”. I like to look at myths that way, because myths are essentially our way of giving reason to or making thing less scary. Myths even run parallel to religion in most cultures, roman and Greek mythology. But if you think about it, these were the first scientific observations. These people had questions and they answered the best way they could, making up a story for it, but without posing questions and the hunger for knowledge modern science wouldn’t exist.
LikeLike
The most terrifying thing a human could face is the lack of knowledge or information.For a long time natural phenomena has being explained by myths that have survived thousands of generations. Every early civilization have their own ways of explaining things. We should not see these people as uncultured nor ignorant, in fact they were the first ones to appreciate and praise nature. The creation of myths show their desire to solve unexplainable events such as modern scientists. The short film proves that love is not conquered by materialistic objects, it is only achieved by the desire you have toward a feeling.
Here are some interesting indian myths created to explain nature and emotions.
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/Taino/docs/myths.html
LikeLike
I always find it iterestig how we, humans, can connect to things that might have not neccesarily anythig to do together. We can put together jelly and chocolate and make it taste delicious, we can basically find the combinations in every object in the world. Just like in this video, we made a formation of clouds into a love story, just to show how magnificient they really are and they are trully impressive. It is not something you can see everyday and in any part of the world, and when it does happens its astonishing. We trully have to appreciate how mother nature works, it gives us the biggest wonders and marvels in our world, if it werent for how wonderfully she works life wouldnt be the same. https://www.google.com.pr/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://esseacourses.strategies.org/module.php%3Fmodule_id%3D54&ved=0ahUKEwiYy_HPmILTAhVD5SYKHYzoACUQFggdMAE&usg=AFQjCNGpmxSwayi_qD-nKU73fVIdhCejlQ
LikeLike
It’s amazing how ancient people explained what they experience through myths. Nowadays with all the advancements we have we can know really why natural phenomenon happen and explain it through the use of science and technology. Every civilization has their way to explain their questions, as scientists do in the present trying to answer the why of things. I found amazing how a civilization with the resources they have do their best to find an answer to a question in various ways and different methods of study. The civilization presented in the post used myths while we today answer questions with scientific studies and advancements.
LikeLike