Screen Cultures and Mutated Wolves

One of the things in the class that grabbed my attention was Sheila Petty and Charity Marsh explaining that a certain culture cannot truly express itself or show how life is in their culture without using the same technology as everyone else.  While their main examples and area of specialization were in African cinema and Hip Hop,  I believe that this is also important in countries that are spread out and diverse, such as Canada.  Before the rise of social media, it was difficult for people to communicate over long distances, and so the art of their films was needed to express and spread one people's culture to others.  The effect of this tends to be misunderstanding between cultures. 

I believe that wildlife is an important part of the culture of an area.

An interesting example I found of this is a documentary on the wildlife living in Chernobyl, an area where a nuclear reactor exploded in 1986.  This area has since been deserted by all humans who fear the radioactive fallout.  The wildlife that had survived, however have adapted to the higher radiation levels.  The documentary was first created by PBS and since reposted on youtube as Radioactive Wolves of Chernobyl - Scary Mutations.  After watching the documentary I couldn't help but notice that the wolves seemed perfectly healthy, despite the scientists warnings and evidence that both they and their prey have 50 times what was thought to be the safe level of radiation for their species.

I find it interesting that an area that is not suitable for human life is thought by many to be a dead wasteland, but wildlife flourishes there better than most other places on earth.



The picture above features two completely different species of canines, one is a Eurasian Wolf that has survived in the wild for countless generations naturally(and looks very similar to the wolves of Chernobyl), and the other is a Miniature Schnauzer that has spent many generations having its features and behavior adapted to better serve another species.  While they are completely different in both appearance and demeanor, it is common knowledge that all domesticated breeds of dogs originated with the wolf.  So which one is the Mutant?