The following photograph-packed article is about Giant Snake
sideshows as seen at midways of state fairs in the United
States. This manuscript was produced by Dr. Eriko N. Bond, noted
art critic and New York City author, as told by Takeshi Yamada.
Efforts were made to feature giant snakes and giant snake
sideshows in a proper perspective in the cultural anthropology
and visual anthropology. Takeshi Yamada is one of the most
influential and active educators in New York City with several
dozens of awards, recognitions and nominations including two
“Key to the City” from Mayors, “Who’s Who in America”, “One
Thousand Great Americans”, “International
Educator of the Year”. He has also taught classes and
given public lectures at over 40 educational institutions
internationally. Yamada is also a prolific author of article
publications including 11 published books, and an artist with
over 500 fine art exhibitions with his paintings and sculptures
exhibited internationally in Spain, the Netherlands, Canada,
Japan and the United States.
In
addition, rogue taxidermy artworks, sideshow gaffs, large
sideshow banners and showfronts created by Yamada in the last 40
years have been exhibited at dozens of state fairs and festivals
annually even today around the nation.
TAKESHI YAMADA
ON
GIANT SNAKE SHOWS
Coney Island Sideshow and Beyond
Article by Dr.
Eriko N. Bond as told by Takeshi Yamada
Chapter 15
Takeshi Yamada and Seara (sea rabbit) in front of his newly
completed 139 x 114 inch “Snake Girl” sideshow banner
installed at John Strong circus sideshow at Dreamland Amusement
Park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York.
At this particular sideshow company, the live female
contortionist is also called “Serpentina” and “Snake Girl”.
(June 7, 2009. Photo copyright by Takeshi Yamada)
In the previous chapters, we’ve shown how snakes have been
treated in spiritual and religious cultures in major
NON-Judeo-Christian nations. There, snakes have been treated as
respectable, sacred, and even God-like.
By way of contrast to those NON-Judeo-Christian nations, this
chapter is about how snakes have been culturally treated by the
general population in major Judeo-Christian nations such as the
United States, Ireland, and Italy.
In the United States, snakes have two major symbolic meanings;
one is the symbol of evil presented in the Old Testament and
another is a national symbol of liberty and freedom from an
oppressive government by the general public.
Symbolic Meanings
of Snakes in the United States (Part 1)
Example #1: The
Evil Snake in the Old Testament
Historically, America was founded by
the followers of Judeo-Christian values and the Constitution of
this nation is profoundly based on the values stated in the
Bible. It is a well-documented fact that each founding Father
and Early Settler were deeply faithful people of Judeo-Christian
values.
(left) Adam, Eve, and evil snake, which handed a forbidden fruit
to them.
(right) After tasting the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve were
expulsed from Garden of Eden by angry God.
Fresco paintings
by Michelangelo at Cappella Sistine (Sistine Chapel) in Vatican
(1509 – 10).
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti
Simoni (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564)
was an
Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and
engineer.
The influence of the above
shown 16th century painting by Michelangelo
(500 years ago) is clearly seen
in this 15 x 15 foot
“showfront” of the Giant Snake Show painted by Juan for Four C
productions in Florida.
This Mexican artist painted
the giant snake as an evil animal stated in the Bible.
(This showfront was
completely re-painted by Takeshi Yamada in 2006. See the
following website for details.)
http://sideshowworld.com/TY-SB-Chap4.html
Unfortunately, these time-tested, old and traditional values
(including family values) have been under assault in recent
decades by its fanatical opponents. In recent decades, people
with such traditional and time-tested Judeo-Christian values
have been viciously attacked, ridiculed, and harassed by
anti-Judeo-Christian liberal leftwing political activists,
anti-religious politicians, and Marxist main stream journalists.
It is a deep and sad irony that people who are self-proclaimed
“open-minded” “liberals” are the one who have been trying to
destroy one of the foundations of the constitution of this great
nation - the freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
For liberal leftwing activists, the Freedom of Speech does not
apply to people who disagree with them. These self-proclaimed
“open-minded” “liberal” people are the ones, who try to
censorship people’s constitutional right to worship their
personal God, and practicing their traditional and widely
accepted personal religious activities on this nation. Liberals
hate main stream religions and chant “Religion is the opium of
the masses” and worship Karl Marx, their God. It is one of the
many reasons why Dr. Michael Savage stated repeatedly in his
nation-wide popular radio talkshow and published a NY Times
bestseller book entitled Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Adam and Eve (1504), engraving print on paper by Albrecht Durer
24.8 x 19.2 cm (9 3/4 x 7 1/2 in)
Durer proudly signing the image in Latin, ALBERTUS DURER
NORICUS FACIEBAT 1504
(in English, “Albrecht Durer of Nuremberg made this engraving in
1504”).
Durer is one of the favorite artists of Takeshi Yamada.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ESC4bygtp2M/SCEI35mcP6I/AAAAAAAADgQ/8WFQ_ENQ6LQ/s400/Durer+Adam+and+Eve+1504.jpg
Note:
There are major differences between non-Christians and
anti-Christians. Buddhists are non-Christians but they share
most life-values such as a conservative lifestyle, heterosexual
marital commitment (“Family Values”), condemnation of increasing
abortions, condemnation of suicide (our lives belong to
God/Buddha, thus they must not be terminated by individual
choice) and morality based on their sacred religious books
(Every major religion of the world teaches that morality cannot
be determined by individual choice). On the other hand,
Atheists, Communists, Marxists, and Socialists are
anti-Christian, and share very few values with
Christians/Judaists/Buddhists because those liberals worship
their human god, Marx, who declared “Religion is the opium of
the masses.” In recent centuries, history witnessed with
unparalleled magnitude, the leaders of those so called
“enlightened Marxist, Communist and Socialism nations” who
massacred their own people (systematically mass murdered and
committed genocide on innocent humans) in Soviet Russia (Vladimir
Lenin), China (Mao Zedong),
Cambodia (Pol Pot), Germany (Adolf
Hitler of National Socialist Party or Nazi Party) more
than in any Capitalist nations.
Bible Belt
The approximate extent of the Bible Belt, indicated in red
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BibleBelt.png
Note:
Bible Belt: Bible Belt is an informal term for an area of the
United States in which socially conservative evangelical
Protestantism is a dominant part of the culture and Christian
church attendance across the denominations is extremely high.
Much of the Bible Belt consists of the Southern United States.
During the colonial period (1607–1776), the South was a
stronghold of the Anglican church. Its transition into a
stronghold of non-Anglican Protestantism occurred gradually over
the next century, as a series of religious revival movements,
many associated with the Baptist denomination, gained great
popularity in the region.
Super fashion model, Kate Moss strikes a pose in nude as the
Biblical Eve with an apple and a big albino python.
Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated each year on March 17th in the
United States just like Ireland. (In Ireland, Saint Patrick’s
Day is both a holy day and a national holiday.) Saint Patrick
is the patron saint of Ireland as he was the one who brought
Christianity to the Irish. One of the many tales about Patrick
is that he drove the snakes from Ireland. The stories of Saint
Patrick and the snakes are likely a metaphor for his bringing
Christianity to Ireland and driving out (exterminated or
genocided) the pagan religions. The serpent/snake is a
“code word” in Christianity. Specifically, in the story of Saint
Patrick, serpents in Christianity symbolize evil other religions
and their snake-like barbaric/savage religious followers.
(Compare this to the previously shown political cartoon
produced in the United States during the World War Two.)
Saint Patrick, who drove
the snakes from Ireland.
St. Domenico procession in
Cocullo, central Italy
Shown below are dramatic photographs of the wooden statue of St.
Domenico covered with live snakes at the beginning of the St.
Domenico procession in Cocullo, central Italy, May 1, 2008.
Every year on the first Thursday of May, live snakes are placed
onto the statue of St. Domenico and then the statue is carried
in a procession through the town.
St. Domenico is believed to be the patron saint for people who have
been bitten by snakes. The St. Domenico procession in Cocullo in Italy is a very rare
religious event with snakes seen in the Western nations
(Judeo-Christian nations). The St. Domenico procession has
not been held in the United States.
St. Domenico procession in Cocullo, central Italy, May 1, 2008
(left) http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html
(right)
http://blogs.reuters.com/oddly-enough/tag/snakes/page/2/
Continue to Chapter 16
Copyright by Takeshi
Yamada, Museum of World Wonders in Coney Island. Yamada Art
Center. Brooklyn, New York, 2007. Revised in September 2009, All
Rights Reserved.
E-mail: yamada108@verizon.net
Special thanks to Dr.
Eriko N. Bond, Lauren D. Travis, Seara (sea rabbit), Maremi
Kakushina and Dr. Abraham Morris.
Also special thanks to
Jack Frost (senior proofreader)
http://www.sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html
http://www.roguetaxidermy.com/members_detail.php?id=528
http://www.horseshoecrab.org/poem/feature/takeshi.html
http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/events/exhibitions/other/worldwonders.jsp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NlcIZTFIj8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpVCqEjFXk0
