Classics Without All the Class discussion

I really enjoyed the thread we had in the Age of Innocence about the words we learned while reading the book, but I realized that the deeper discussions of research were really interesting. I not only picked up new words, but I learned a thing or two about the Pharisees and Ida Lewis. Here's the link if you are interested:

So with this spirit, I want to share what I learned while reading The Life of Pi in the hopes that others will contribute any little tidbits they picked up along the way.

Memento Mori - Chapter 1 - "My life is like a memento mori paining from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition."

Memento Mori is a classification of art whose purpose is to remind you of your mortality and the possibility of death. I enjoyed the wikipedia article that shows some examples of this type of art through the ages. This one is going on my further research pile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_...

Onanists - Chapter 8 - "And there are indecencies even more bizarre: onanists breaking a sweat on monkeys, ponies, birds;"

Ok - This one really disturbed me especially due to the context. Those poor monkeys, ponies, and birds! An onanist is one who masturbates.

Onan is the second son of Judah in the book of Genesis. His brother dies. Judah tells him that he has to perform his brotherly duty and make a child with his brother's wife. Basically, he pulls out and spills his seed on the ground. This is a big no-no, and he dies ahead of his time due to his inability to follow directions. The wikipedia article for this is a fun romp through the different interpretations of this passage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onan

Religion Specific :
Samskara - Chapter 16 - '"It will be his symbolic first outing, " she said. "It's a samskara!"'

Fana - Chapter 20 - "He sought fana, union with God,…" - I had to put this one in. Fana is my sister's name. I had never heard of this before.

Definitions with no other interesting notes:
Catholicity - Chapter 43 - "In fact, a hyena's catholicity of taste is so indiscriminate"

Definition: (esp. of a person's tastes) including a wide variety of things; all-embracing
An interesting word choice - especially due to the themes of the book

Insouciant - Chapter 49 - "But in the final set, when the challenger has nothing left to lose, he becomes relaxed again, insouciant, daring."

Definition: showing a casual lack of concern; indifferent, e.g., an insouciant shrug.

Cordate - Chapter 92 - "The cordate leaves were large and broad, and ended in a single point."

Definition: Heart-shaped

Wow..this is great. Thanks for sharing.

Tome wrote: "I really enjoyed the thread we had in the Age of Innocence about the words we learned while reading the book, but I realized that the deeper discussions of research were really interesting. I not ..."

That helped me understand things a little bit better. Thanks for sharing that! I need to go back and look a couple things up myself.

I have learned a lot I did not know about hyenas thanks to Part II of the book. They are a lot more terrifying than I realized. I fell prey to the Lion King's version of a hyena. What can I say, we win some and we learn some...Thankfully, I learned this while not being around a hyena.

I'm about to start part 2. I know quite a bit about hyenas. I hope the knowledge matches :)
Thankfully, in the last two years I've learned a significant amount more about India and its culture.
I took a World Religions course and learned about Hinduism and Islam (and more about Christianity). Very useful here.
I also have made great friends with a fellow constant reader from India. She's taught me quite a bit about Indian customs and celebrations in particular. And she happens to be an Christian so I understood easily Pi's father's assertions regarding Christianity and Hinduism as natural for Indians, but Islam as foreign.
So far, I've been able to keep up.
Onto part 2!

I actually had a pretty negative impression of hyenas from reading the version of them in the Earth's Children series, but having all that confirmed in this story just made them even more repulsive.