Jake’s Sunday Post: Concept

Jake has come up with a bit of a teaser for his theme this week. A concept is defined as “an abstract idea; a general notion; a plan or intention.”

Earl Nightingale, renowned U.S. motivational speaker and author, once said, “Everything begins with an idea.”

Even getting my toenails painted, was because I had a notion to do it. Did you know that the concept of nail painting dates back to the Chinese?  As early as 3000 B.C. royals used a variety of substances including flower petals, beeswax, egg whites, and silver and gold to tint their nails. In Egypt, both men and women embellished their nails with different colours indicating social status. The royals used darker colurs, while the lower classes used paler tones. I decided to go for the Christmas tinsel look. My finger nails are always pale though, so what does that make me? 😀

Are any of you old enough to remember the old fashioned laundry mangle? This concept originated in the 18th century, and I remember my mom had one with rubber rollers. Turning that handle was quite an effort, and I wonder if the worldwide problem of obesity would be solved if we all had to go back to the old methods of doing the laundry? 🙂 This pic was taken whilst out walking in Umhlanga. Someone had used it as a garden feature.

The concept of underfloor heating is not new. When we visited a 3rd century Roman villa in Bignor, England, we saw the excavation of the Hypocaust heating system employed by ancient Roman Engineers. The original villa had 65 rooms which were all heated by this method. We were shown the furnace outside which had to be continuously stoked with fuel, by hapless workers, who also had to clear away the ashes.

The idea of cooking and eating meat is not new to us, but the concept of  breeding Guinea Pigs, for the eating thereof, as we saw in Peru, was very foreign to me.

The very idea of cutting off the head of someone you don’t like and then shrinking it in a process which you probably don’t want to know about, is really shocking.This concept originally had religious significance. Shrinking the head of an enemy was believed to harness the spirit of that person, and compel him to serve the ‘shrinker’, and was believed to prevent the soul from avenging his death. We were ‘privileged’ to see these examples at a museum in Ecuador. I decided to make them small to spare you some of the horror. Did you ever watch that movie “Honey, I shrunk the kids?” 😆

The concept of takeaway food is very popular in the Western world. I’m sure that your favourite take-out doesn’t look anything like this one seen in a rural market in Peru.

The concept that illness and bad luck can be cured by witch doctors is found all over the world. In La Paz, Bolivia, we came across this Witches Market, which sold all kinds of  horrid looking cures for every ailment imaginable. The most awful of all were dried Llama fetuses, which apparently are buried in the foundations of new houses, to bring good luck.

Well there you have a few illustrated concepts, some pleasant and some terrifying. If you want to see what other bloggers have come up with for Jake’s theme, click here.