A question of culture and origami.

Ragnorax · Post by **Ragnorax** » February 6th, 2010, 2:49 am

origamimasterjared wrote:
fold-it-all wrote:Another one is that all asians are the best at everything, period.
Not driving.

lmao jared xD

chesslo · Post by **chesslo** » February 6th, 2010, 9:10 am

Who's next? lol

angrydemon · Post by **angrydemon** » February 6th, 2010, 10:28 am

I don't mean to be rude, but are any of you black? I have the impression that only white people and Asians fold origami.

Sunburst · Post by **Sunburst** » February 6th, 2010, 7:08 pm

wquiroz225 wrote:You forgot one:
- all Canadians are afraid of the dark.

Where does that come from? I think this one is best : all Canadians live in igloos...
And what about this easy one : all people from Middle-East are terrorists...

On topic :
Nobody practices origami in the province where I live (except me

). The only rare origami models I do see however are paper planes, the four-corners thingy and the extremely common jumping frog («What? You're folding a super-detailed dragon!? But, can you fold a jumping frog?» So annoying...)

Joe the white · Post by **Joe the white** » February 6th, 2010, 9:04 pm

HankSimon wrote:Guys, I'm not an expert here (altho I play at times), but we're leaving out half the the Origami world when we leave out Spain and South America, where they practice (and originated ... not independently, probably the Moors) what we consider Origami style, as well as the Spanish influence of papiroflexia.... [Origami in Spanish ]

Now, I am exaggerating that they are different, but there are styles or techniques that are not seen elsewhere... Just more knowledge to share...

And we left out New Zealand, too.

- Hank Simon

Thats true. The first official origami is theorized to have came about around the invention of modern paper in China around 300 b.c. (if memory serves). There is evidence of leaf folding in tribal type cultures of jungle regions, its not all that common, but it could be the precursor to origami as well in a sense. The hard thing about reading modern research into this, it that it often comes from JOAS or the NOA, and the texts are rarely in english.

In modern origami, the Japanese and Europeans seem to have taken an interest in it more than other cultures (at least, they left behind the most evidence). The interesting part is, Japanese models were based primarily on 22.5 degree angles, while European models were based on 45 degrees, which seems to show possible independent development. If one looks at the Kan no Mado/Kayaragusa, most folds are from frog bases (some models originating in the 1600's I think it is mentioned). In addition, some texts from Europe depict such things that appear to be the pajarita and sail boat (1490). Robert Lang's "FNAL" lecture featured a powerpoint presentation that inculded some of these pictures (a few links at the bottom of this post).

The main difference between the "ancient" history and present day, is that most origami designs have came from the past 100 years. That is either due to obscurity or lack of records, but we do know there was once more than the 30 or so traditional designs that have survived to this day (a few of them being part of rituals, such as the nori you attach to presents or butterflies you attach to wine bottles at weddings). It was even mentioned before that there was a prolific creator in old Japan, but I've never found further information on this or remember where I heard such a thing. If it is more than some sort of legend or fairy tale, that would be an interesting find indeed.

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/9827/1797.jpg
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/1047/1734y.jpg
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1529/1490h.jpg

FrumiousBandersnatch · February 7th, 2010, 12:04 am

Hence my mention of the moors, hanksimon. They are the ones that brought it to Spain, after all.

wquiroz225 · Post by **wquiroz225** » February 7th, 2010, 3:46 am

Sunburst wrote:
wquiroz225 wrote:You forgot one:
- all Canadians are afraid of the dark.

Where does that come from?

On of my favorite sitcoms is How I Met Your Mother. They constantly pick on one of the characters. Robin, a Canadian, who was an 80's popstar in the 90's in Quebec (the joke being Canada is 10 years behind the US). They poke at her Canadian heritage all the time. One episode was about her being afraid of the dark which translated to all Canadians being afraid of the dark.

ahudson · Post by **ahudson** » February 7th, 2010, 5:33 am

angrydemon wrote:I don't mean to be rude, but are any of you black? I have the impression that only white people and Asians fold origami.

yeah, there are some black folders-- Vernon Isaac and Denver Lawson come to mind, and I'm sure there are others that I just haven't seen photos of.

moonowl · Post by **moonowl** » February 7th, 2010, 9:30 am

How about alien folders? Any Zeta Reticulan Greys who've folded an origami model of Mulder and Scully?

HankSimon · Post by **HankSimon** » February 7th, 2010, 7:52 pm

I've heard that they have a summer place either at Carswell AFB, TX or somewhere in New Mexico - I forgot the name.

- Hank Simon

Geirolav · Post by **Geirolav** » February 7th, 2010, 11:53 pm

In norway I dont know anyone that does origami and the only norwegian origami site i know of is my own :/ I wish origami was more widespread in norway

qtrollip · Post by **qtrollip** » February 8th, 2010, 1:22 am

Well, if more people practiced origami, we wouldn't be so "special", would we?

Sunburst · Post by **Sunburst** » February 8th, 2010, 5:21 pm

qtrollip wrote:Well, if more people practiced origami, we wouldn't be so "special", would we?

Definitely. Having very few origamists in your region does have some upsides

fold-it-all · Post by **fold-it-all** » February 8th, 2010, 10:23 pm

I dont know Jared, that asian kid in Indiana Jones drove pretty well

Metangas · Post by **Metangas** » February 13th, 2010, 11:43 pm

To start, I have been an invisible reader for quite some time.
In other words, I KNOW YOU ALL!

Now to get on with the thread: I know no people in Denmark either! I have seen some old threads, with a few people, but I haven't seen any! Anyways, you guys have missed two far too common generalisations:

"All Scandinavians are brutal dumb vikings"
"All danes are racists"

The last one being the saddest