This is the tendency to interpret or evaluate other cultures in terms of one's own. This has been seen more prevalent in modern nations. The citizens of a large nation, especially in the past, have been less likely to observe people in another nation or culture.
Ethnocentrism became prominent among many European after the dicovery of the Americas. So there have been ways of thinking that postulate those that don't have the art of writing, were described as immoral, illogical, queer or just perverse. As an example of this we have slavery in all its words, not just that one against africans ( who were said that didn´t have a soul!) but indians in America or the unfair treatment to men in Salitreras in Chile.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Evolution of Culture
From biologic evolution towards expansion and security of life, the advance from instictive bahaviour to learned and freely bahaviuor, patterns may be are acquired
and transmitted from one individual and generation to another, and finally to a system of things and events. The system is called Culture, a man-made environmnet brought up into existence by the ability to symbol. So, we human beings, live within a Cultural System.
Society preeceds Culture, conceived as an interaction of living beings. Man's inmediate prehuman ancestors had societies but they didn't have Culture.As men developed and the assumption of erect posture were other ways in which Culture emerged. Erect posture freed the arms and the hands from their early function of locomotion and made possible an extensive and versatile use of tools. Again tools are related to the growth of the brain.
The introjection of Symboling into primate social life was revolutionary, everything acquired new meaning. There was another dimension from the one to primate- non human- existence ; an axe for example, wasn't anymore just a tool, it was a symbol, a symbol of authority. Mating became marriage and all the relationships between parents and children and brothers and sisters became moral obligations, duties, rights and privileges. Now man knows who is who and incest didn't take place again.
So the Paleolitic Era was converted into the Neolitic Era.
Culture has been considered in general as the possession of all mankind. But there are particular Cultures or Sociocultural Systems. Human beings, like other animal species live in societies and each society possesses Culture.
Society :
Culture possessed by a distinguishable and autonomous group of human beings such as a tribe or a modern nation. Every human Society has its own Sociocultural System, a particular and unique expression of human Culture as a whole. There are some variations among societies; that is, physical habitats and the resources that they offer or language or manufacture and use of tools.
There is a difference between the North and the South. It's said the South is more romantic and deals with the heart and the North is more intelectual and cold and deals with the capacity of rational approaches, the head . We can find this difference in the western and eastern societies. In United states the afroamerican music ( Hip-hop) expresses the difference in the lyrics ( West= social problems and poverty etc. and East=gangters and crime)
Culture and Personality:
The infant of the human species is powerfully influenced by the Culture that surrounds him on all sides. It's powerful enough to hold the sex urge in check and achieve premarital chastity and even voluntary vows of celibacy for life. It can cause a person to die of hunger because some foods are branded unclean by the Culture, there are even people that commit suicide to wipe out a stain of dishonour.
Death is only a concept. Just man knows death, but Culture triumphs over death and offers man eternal life. May be Culture deny satisfactions on the one hand while it fullfills desires on the other. Within this concept, a member of a Society might have profound experiences in different chronological permutations to another one. The experiences are the same, but they happen in different order. For example two young women experience 1.) having a baby 2.) getting married 3.)graduating from school. As personality developement regards, the experience and point of view would be quite different according to the order of events. What's your order? Which is the best? Would Culture determine the results then ?. Of course it will!!
and transmitted from one individual and generation to another, and finally to a system of things and events. The system is called Culture, a man-made environmnet brought up into existence by the ability to symbol. So, we human beings, live within a Cultural System.
Society preeceds Culture, conceived as an interaction of living beings. Man's inmediate prehuman ancestors had societies but they didn't have Culture.As men developed and the assumption of erect posture were other ways in which Culture emerged. Erect posture freed the arms and the hands from their early function of locomotion and made possible an extensive and versatile use of tools. Again tools are related to the growth of the brain.
The introjection of Symboling into primate social life was revolutionary, everything acquired new meaning. There was another dimension from the one to primate- non human- existence ; an axe for example, wasn't anymore just a tool, it was a symbol, a symbol of authority. Mating became marriage and all the relationships between parents and children and brothers and sisters became moral obligations, duties, rights and privileges. Now man knows who is who and incest didn't take place again.
So the Paleolitic Era was converted into the Neolitic Era.
Culture has been considered in general as the possession of all mankind. But there are particular Cultures or Sociocultural Systems. Human beings, like other animal species live in societies and each society possesses Culture.
Society :
Culture possessed by a distinguishable and autonomous group of human beings such as a tribe or a modern nation. Every human Society has its own Sociocultural System, a particular and unique expression of human Culture as a whole. There are some variations among societies; that is, physical habitats and the resources that they offer or language or manufacture and use of tools.
There is a difference between the North and the South. It's said the South is more romantic and deals with the heart and the North is more intelectual and cold and deals with the capacity of rational approaches, the head . We can find this difference in the western and eastern societies. In United states the afroamerican music ( Hip-hop) expresses the difference in the lyrics ( West= social problems and poverty etc. and East=gangters and crime)
Culture and Personality:
The infant of the human species is powerfully influenced by the Culture that surrounds him on all sides. It's powerful enough to hold the sex urge in check and achieve premarital chastity and even voluntary vows of celibacy for life. It can cause a person to die of hunger because some foods are branded unclean by the Culture, there are even people that commit suicide to wipe out a stain of dishonour.
Death is only a concept. Just man knows death, but Culture triumphs over death and offers man eternal life. May be Culture deny satisfactions on the one hand while it fullfills desires on the other. Within this concept, a member of a Society might have profound experiences in different chronological permutations to another one. The experiences are the same, but they happen in different order. For example two young women experience 1.) having a baby 2.) getting married 3.)graduating from school. As personality developement regards, the experience and point of view would be quite different according to the order of events. What's your order? Which is the best? Would Culture determine the results then ?. Of course it will!!
Another beautiful sight of my San Pedro de Atacama
When the wind takes its way through the Andes a silent color brings up the desert with the deep blue memories of the Aymaras hiden in the rocks, singing that unforgotten melody of eternal beauty.
Friday, April 11, 2008
A poem by Andy Taylor
The Invitation
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”
It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”
It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Culture to have a secure and endurig life
Culture could be a kind of behaviour peculiar to homosapiens together with material objects used as an integral part of this behaviour. So Culture includes: language, ideas,beliefs,customs, codes,institutions,tools,techniques,works of art,rituals and ceremonies among other elements.
The existence and use of Culture depends upon an ability possessed by humans alone. This ability is the capacity for rational or abstract thought. But the meaning of abstract it's not precise. The term Symboling has been proposed as a more suitable name for unique mental ability of humans that give meaning to things and certain events that won't be undestood with the senses alone; articulated speech for example, language is not inherent in the sounds themselves, it is given freely and arbitrarily to the sounds by human beings.
So Symbol is a thing that represents something, so words get a meaning when you link them, they get a sense and a direction. Borges is one of the representatives that postulates this concept regards Literature, as he says, a book is just an object before the act of reading begins, then the reader gives life to the symbols in this act and the magic of Literature takes place.
Culture is a whole which includes knowledge, belief,art,morals,law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of Society. In this case I have to share with you certain customs in africa, where women are castrated because they are not suposed to feel pleasure. I mean this is one of very many examples, or women in Latiamerica victims of Machismo.
Anthropologists have got into the agreement that Culture is a learned behaviour to ideas in the mind, logical construct, a defense mechanism and so on. Culture is an abstraction of behaviour,this conduct is transmitted by social than rather biological facts. Ideas in the mind become significant in society only as expressed in language, acts and objects. Nonbiological anthropology defines Culture as out of existance and without real,objective things and events in the external world .For Kroeber and Kluckhohn Culture is an abstraction fron concrete behaviour but it is not a behaviour.
When words are considered to human being, that's called behaviour(Psychology), when words are considered in terms of their relationship to one another producing lexicon, grammar, syntax, this is called Language ( Linguistics).
Culture, therefore is the name given to a class of things and events dependent upon Symboling.( words, drawings, objects etc).
We have to think then about the difference between the mind of man and that of the lower animals. To classify between one's relatives and to distinguish one class from another, for example the difference between uncles from cousins, defining and prohibiting incest among relatives.
The ability to symbol is a clear exmple with Hellen Keller's life. Her blindness and deafness made her build up a way tomake contact with the world.
Evolution of minding
The mind is considered as a process rather than a thing in which one finds symboling as the characteristic of a particular stage of developement: 1st Stage: it`s the simple reflexive stage in which behaviour is determined by the intrinsic properties of both, the organism and the thing reacted to. Example: The pupil of the eye contracted by light.
2nd Stage: it`s the conditioned reflex stage that is when the organism reacts through responses( Pavlov's experiment).
3rd Stage : it`s the instrumental stage.( an ape knocking down a banana with a stick) The response is determined by the intrinsic properties of the things involved: banana-stick
4th Stage: it's the symbol stage in which the configuration of behaviour involves nonintrinsic meanings.
The 4 Stages exibit an evolution of all living things, a movement in the direction of making life more secure and enduring.
The existence and use of Culture depends upon an ability possessed by humans alone. This ability is the capacity for rational or abstract thought. But the meaning of abstract it's not precise. The term Symboling has been proposed as a more suitable name for unique mental ability of humans that give meaning to things and certain events that won't be undestood with the senses alone; articulated speech for example, language is not inherent in the sounds themselves, it is given freely and arbitrarily to the sounds by human beings.
So Symbol is a thing that represents something, so words get a meaning when you link them, they get a sense and a direction. Borges is one of the representatives that postulates this concept regards Literature, as he says, a book is just an object before the act of reading begins, then the reader gives life to the symbols in this act and the magic of Literature takes place.
Culture is a whole which includes knowledge, belief,art,morals,law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of Society. In this case I have to share with you certain customs in africa, where women are castrated because they are not suposed to feel pleasure. I mean this is one of very many examples, or women in Latiamerica victims of Machismo.
Anthropologists have got into the agreement that Culture is a learned behaviour to ideas in the mind, logical construct, a defense mechanism and so on. Culture is an abstraction of behaviour,this conduct is transmitted by social than rather biological facts. Ideas in the mind become significant in society only as expressed in language, acts and objects. Nonbiological anthropology defines Culture as out of existance and without real,objective things and events in the external world .For Kroeber and Kluckhohn Culture is an abstraction fron concrete behaviour but it is not a behaviour.
When words are considered to human being, that's called behaviour(Psychology), when words are considered in terms of their relationship to one another producing lexicon, grammar, syntax, this is called Language ( Linguistics).
Culture, therefore is the name given to a class of things and events dependent upon Symboling.( words, drawings, objects etc).
We have to think then about the difference between the mind of man and that of the lower animals. To classify between one's relatives and to distinguish one class from another, for example the difference between uncles from cousins, defining and prohibiting incest among relatives.
The ability to symbol is a clear exmple with Hellen Keller's life. Her blindness and deafness made her build up a way tomake contact with the world.
Evolution of minding
The mind is considered as a process rather than a thing in which one finds symboling as the characteristic of a particular stage of developement: 1st Stage: it`s the simple reflexive stage in which behaviour is determined by the intrinsic properties of both, the organism and the thing reacted to. Example: The pupil of the eye contracted by light.
2nd Stage: it`s the conditioned reflex stage that is when the organism reacts through responses( Pavlov's experiment).
3rd Stage : it`s the instrumental stage.( an ape knocking down a banana with a stick) The response is determined by the intrinsic properties of the things involved: banana-stick
4th Stage: it's the symbol stage in which the configuration of behaviour involves nonintrinsic meanings.
The 4 Stages exibit an evolution of all living things, a movement in the direction of making life more secure and enduring.
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