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00:30:31
00:32:36
00:30:31
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Transcription: [00:30:31]

{SPEAKER name="Gordon Ekholm"}

So, here I think we have a good example of the need for some complexity in the things being compared. Another example, which is somewhat the opposite, in regards to complexity, is one which Heine-Geldern and I used in our original Across the Pacific exhibit.
And that was the use of certain elements such as the parasol and the big fan, and the use of the litter in both Asiatic cultures and the Middle American cultures. Throughout Asia you have the, the parasol as a sign of kingship and royalty and so on. The King of Siam never comes in public unless he has a parasol held over his head.

[00:31:44]

The same is true of Tibet and many of the Oriental, you know, Oriental states and cultures. And you get some indication of this being true in Middle America, in the murals of Bonampak and in some instances in South America and so on. Along with the peoples could be carrying in litters, we know for instance that when Montezuma came to meet Cortez, he was carried in a litter out to the edges of the city. He, as the king, was treated in this way. Now this is a similarity, there is, there is a great, there is a similarity here between Middle America and the Orient. But it's not as complex a thing as is the lotus motif...

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