Tribe Colors: Red and Black
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"There are 5 clans in the Maasai proper, descended from 2 totems--Oodo Mongi (the Red Cow) and the Orok Kiteng (Black Cow)."
-----------------------------------------------------------------Merge Color: A color apprearing in the logo and the same color as Official Site "episode list" color...Yellow???
"For both S1 and S2 the merge color has been in the logo, not true for the initial tribe colors. Also,, on the official sites, if you check under "Show" there's a running list of episodes. For both S1 and S2, the color of the episode list has been the color of the merged tribe."
The following excerpts are part of an interesting discussion from the "Mess" and the basis for my speculation. Knowing the tribal colors is interesting, but knowing the merge color could help in spoiling and categorizing photo evidence as it surfaces this fall...
Tribal Names and Colors Researched and Speculated
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To determine the new colors of the tribes, we have a bit to look at. First of all, let's see how the original tribe names/colors were probably determined.
SURVIVOR 1
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Orange, Tagi tribe, name of beach.
Yellow, Pagong tribe, name of beach.
Green, Rattana tribe, name decided by merge members.
SURVIVOR 2
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Blue, Kucha tribe, Aborigine for "Kangaroo."
Green, Ogakor tribe, Aborigine for "Alligator."
Orange, Barramundi tribe, name decided by merge members.
SURVIVOR 3
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Red, Shumusi tribe, Swahili for "sun".
Black, Balamwezi tribe, Swahili for "moon".
Yellow, ??? tribe, name decided by merge members.
How did I come upon these conclusions?
First of all, the reason that Orange was not used for one of the two starter tribes in Survivor 2 was because then people may dub that tribe "the new Tagi" and the other as "the new Pagong," which of course Burnett would not like for obvious reasons. Had Green been used again as the merge color, that would have established a precedent for that. But it wasn't, so I think that we can come to the conclusion that Green, Orange, Yellow, and Blue are out for the two initial tribe colors to avoid duplication, and Orange and Green are out for the merge colors.
Let's examine the two initial tribes first.
Out (see theory above): Green, Blue, Orange, Yellow
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So let's take all main colors:
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Purple, White, Black, Grey, Brown
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Green/Blue/Orange/Yellow are gone. This leaves us with
Red, Cyan, Purple, White, Black, Grey, Brown
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We can assume that Cyan won't be use, because it's too close to Blue, which was used last season. Brown is close to Orange, used for Tagi, which makes it less likely than Red, Black, and Grey. Purple and White don't sound very African-like.
Red, Black, Grey
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Now we move on to logo evidence. The main colors in the logo are Orange, Yellow, Red, Black, Green, and Brown. Out of those, the only two in our batch are Red and Black, making them the two most obvious for the two starting tribes.
Now onto the remaining tribe, the merge tribe.
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Initial Colors:
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Purple, White, Black, Grey, Brown
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Red and Black are out, those are our two initial tribe colors. Orange and Green were used for previous merges, so they're gone too.
Yellow, Cyan, Blue, Purple, White, Grey, Brown
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We'll go back to our earlier argument that Purple and White don't sound very African-like, and Brown is too close to Orange (Barramundi). This leaves us with
Yellow, Cyan, Blue, Purple, Grey
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Returning once again to logo evidence, we can find that the only color out of that batch that passes the tests is Yellow. Yellow is our merge tribe.
So we have Red & Black as our starter tribes, and Yellow as our merge tribes.
Some speculated that the tribes were going to be the names of animals again. I don't think so, Mark would want to keep things different. So then some people speculated that they would be plants. Even though plant names would be logical, the tree tribe? The grass tribe? It would seem quite pathetic. The tribe names have to sound cool -and- have cool meanings behind them. Thinking about the colors, red and black, I wondered what they would do with them. I tried to think of things that were associated with Africa that corresponded with these colors. Bodies of water was my first guess, but the "river" tribe would seem awkward coupled with either red or black. If you ever encounter a red or black river, you're probably in hell. :-P
Then it hit me: sun and moon. We know S3 takes place in Kenya, and the Masaai people are deeply rooted in ancient tradition. Excited by this, I tried to find places where I could translate "sun" and "moon" into Swahili and Masaai. Unfortunately, I could only find a Swahili translation engine, as Masaai is a dead language, and Swahili is not.
So I translated them. Because of the different regional dialects, I got multiple words for each word I translated. "Sun" came up with:
Jue, Shemshi, Shumusi
I don't think that they would use Jue, it looks like "Joe" and it's not really native-sounding. Shemshi is somewhat of a tounge-twister to American tounges. Therefore, I think we can narrow it down to the Red Tribe, Shumusi.
"Moon" came up with:
Mwezi, Balamwezi, Mbalamwezi, Mbaramwezi
The "Mw" and "Mb" sounds do not exist in the English language, so English-speakers cannot pronounce them. "Mwezi" would be pronounced by an Anglophone as "IHMM-weh-zee" and "Mbalam" as "IHMM-bah-lahm", both of which are really wrong. The obvious choice would be the one with the least disputable pronounciation, which is, of course, the Black Tribe, Balamwezi.
So, I want to hear what everyone thinks. Here's the recap (and so far, I believe, the best guesses on the board):
Red - Shumusi
Black - Balamwezi
Yellow - (decided by merge members)
-Evan L. Jones
emailjonesie@yahoo.com
AIM: TkThatGuernica
May 26, 2001
11:46 PM US Eastern Time
(in case I need to prove that I'm right, and this IS the original post. Optimism, j0! :-P )
...The following comments, made in response, are also interesting:
Re: Tribal Names and Colors Researched and Speculated
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Excellent post artquality/evan ! Thoughtprovoking.
I agree with you completely about red. Black is well argued, too.
I can see your point about yellow and blue, which would otherwise have been excellent companion colours for red. (In fact, I still think a deep or sky blue might still be possible).
However, I don't think we can necessarily cancel out white yet, mainly because the Maasai have that blood and milk ritual, which is core to their survival (sources of water when there's not much of the fresh kind, etc). Blood is red, and milk is ... White. (Just pointing out the obvious for dramatic effect).
The main problem I see with a white team, is that it could be construed as a racial issue (I can't exactly see there being a white team and a black team over there in Africa...). White is also completely impractical as the colour of a bandanna on the sweaty head of a survivor.
On the other hand, it is a traditional 'safari' colour, so together with red that could join the two key elements of Kenya's human history. (It's a safari-type colour for very practical reasons, as it reflects the hot sun away -- in some tropical countries, most of the cars are white for that reason).
Edited to add my second thoughts : All that cultural background I tried to incorporate _might_ mean nothing I have just remembered that the SII colours had no particular basis in Australian culture...
Edited by: ssstefffii at: 5/27/01 2:48:29 am
And what I found most interesting...
the colors
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Wow, Evan...
It turns out that red and black are important colors for the Maasai.
I posted this in the 'general information' thread, but here it is again:
Quote:
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There are 5 clans in the Maasai proper, descended from 2 totems--Oodo Mongi (the Red Cow) and the Orok Kiteng (Black Cow).
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Though on the other hand, light blue and orange are also likely choices, but may have been eliminated for reasons that you have stated:
Quote:
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The people of the Ilpurko tribe(which is in KENYA) prefer orange and light blue on their beaded decorations, whereas the Ilkisongo (in Tanzania) like dark red and dark blue.
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MARCVS SEMPER OMNIPOTENTIS EST
(Mark is always the All-Mighty)
I believe in a higher power...and it's Mark Burnett
"The Tribe has spoken. It's time for you to shut up. Now."
...and some observations about past merge colors...
Edited..Evan, I like your post. For both S1 and S2 the merge color has been in the logo, not true for the initial tribe colors. Also,, on the official sites, if you check under "Show" there's a running list of episodes. For both S1 and S2, the color of the episode list has been the color of the merged tribe. And, to get further out, the colors for S1 were yellow, orange and green and for S2 they were blue, green and orange...both had one primary color and two secondary colors. Red (primary) and purple (secondary) haven't been used, although purple doesn't seem likely.
Edited by: LadyIreneAdler at: 5/27/01 9:23:58 am
...thinking about the names is fun, but doesn't seem to have any real spoiler value.
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I think Red will definitely be a tribe color though.
Krautboy
