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ma: Humanist x Humanist (,)
See also: [L/D] [S/D]
See also: [af/art3/pkda2001 - pizoig gaming projects]
(please page down if needed)
x-product: Humanist x Humanist (,)
Equations (so far):
-^_6
{ HU x HU (anthropology, perception) --> Cultural Relativism}
HU x HU (anthropology, perception) --> Cultural Relativism
From the history of anthropology, the concept of culturual relativism
resulted from the interplay of two variables (both corssed from the
Humanist Axis) was that of anthropology and percetpion.
Within the structure of antrhopology was the study of man. From a purely
humanist point of view (without any emotion), we see that this is akin
to the butterfly collector who is intent on capturing, mounting, labeling,
and classifying each and every species. And then on to the next: Moths.
And end the end a master "catalog" of all known species (both living and
exinct - or more properly exitant and existunt) is built up and the work
of the "scientist" is done.
This problem occurs through out history and is most readily seen in the first
of philosopher/futurist Isaac Asimov's masterwork "The Foundation Trilogy",
Volume 1: "Founation" in the section "Terminus". Similarly, H.G. Welles
explored this (briefly) in his "The Time Machine".
However, the key variable here is that of "perception", or more commonly:
POV - Point Of View
This is an important way to inject to almost any enquiry a new breaking
out of a cycle of enquiry that is not yielding new results. As the saying
goes, "If you change your point of view, you change everythihg about
the problem at hand.".
Thus, we begin to see this when (as for example with "tribal artifacts",
we begin to change our points of view about them. For example, when
the "spoils" of the French colonial efforts into Africa began to return
Dogon masks and swuch, they had a profound impact on artists such as
Picasso. (It is generally accepted that there is a particular mask
which was in the collection accessible to Picasso which was the model
for the right-most face of the woman in "Les Madamelle' d'Avinoign" ??sp??)
Similarly, we note in passing:
One of the most common fallacies in dealing between the arts and the
sciences is the quest to classify and reify the objects in its domain.
As artists, we do this with stories (eg, “Lives of the Artists”,
formal concepts (eg, line quality, volume, colour, etc).
In the science of anthropology, the terms and methods are quite foreign
to us. For, as Mary Anne Staniszewski [STANISZEWSKI] points out
"art objects" such as the Mona Lisa are NOT art, while Duchamp’s
Mona Lisa with the Moustache is. Likewise, an important distinction
to make is between tribal history and fictional stories. There is a
tendency in the Western tradition to either take stories as hypocryphal
and imaginative retelling of real events, as moral tales, or as factual
beliefs. Almost undoubtedly all human narrative is a mix of these.
That some of these stories are intended as just that -- A story of Fiction
-- is given clearly by the late, great ethnographer of Native American
narratives, John Bierhorst:
But in the stories themselves a different world
came to life. "There was a bark lounge," the
storyteller would begin, and at once the listeners
would be taken back to the days when their
ancestors had lived in longhouses framed with
arched saplings covered with elm bark, with
a bark-flap door at either end.
...
Yet despite obvious differences [between the
lifestyles in the 1800's and the time the
story was from], Iroquois storytelling
sessions in the 1880's had much in common
with those of the long-gone past. Professional
storytellers still went from house to house
and expected to be paid with small gifts of
food, tobacco, or other items. [Bierhorst, 1987, P. x]
Thus, these "rembrances of things past", like Marcel Proust's own
fictions based on his experiences, or more cogently, as in most
Bernard Shaw's works where he inevitably creates a character that
is essentially him, are simply ways of passing on the ideas of
a culture as well as stories of importance within that culture.
And indeed it is difficult to sometimes distinguish between stories
of fiction and those of healing -- as it would be for other tribes
to understand our stories; eg, the Lord's Prayer vs. Fables and
other cautionary tales. For example, Susanne K. Langer relates:
While religion grows from the blind worship
of Life and magic "aversion" of Death to a
definite totem-cult or other sacrementalism,
another sort of "life-symbol" develops in its
own way, starting also in quite un-intensional
processes, and culminating in permanent,
significant forms. This medium is myth.
Although we generally associate myth with
religion, it can not really be traced, like
ritual, to anything like a "religious feeling,"
either of dread, mystic veneration, or even
festal excitement. Ritual begins in motor
attitudes, which however personal, are at once
externalised and so made public. Myth begins
in fantasy, which may remain tacit for a long
time; for the primary form of fantasy is the
entirely subjective and private phenomenon of
dream.
...
There is another tale [of Papauns of Melanesia]
which begins: "One day an egg, a snake, a
centipede, an ant, and a piece of dung set out
on a head-hunting expedition..."
...
No sane human being, however simple, could really
"suppose" such events to occur; and clearly, in
enjoying this sort of story, nobody is trying to
"suppose" anything. To imagine the assorted
hunted-party really on its way through the jungle
is perhaps just as impossible for a Papuan as for
us. The only explanation of such stories is, that
nobody cares whether their *dramatis personae* act
in character or not. The act is not really proper to
its agent, but to *someone its agent represents*; and
even the action in the story may merely represent
the deeds of such a symbolised personality. [Langer, Pp. 171-173]
Indeed, compare this to the story of the wolf eating grandmother whole,
only later being split open filled with stones and then ultimately
drowned - in keeping with the moral dimensions of the social
requirements of "the happy ending". Thus, there are two roles of
narrative in ritual: As healing story (medicine, chants, etc) and
story (history, moral/cautionary tale, entertainment).
References:
Bierhorst, John. (). The Mythology of Mexico and Central
America.
---------- (1987). The Naked Bear: Folktales of the
Iroquois. The William Morrow Company. New York.
Langer, Susanne K. (1957, 3rd Ed.) Philosophy in a New Key
- A Study in the Symbolism Reason, Rite, and Art.
Harvard Press. Cambridge (Massachusetts).
Staniszewski, Mary Anne (1975). Believing Is Seeing: Creating the
Culture of Art. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
Regents.
Jump down to: {Abs} {Art} {Frc} {Fut} {Hum} {Jazz} {Sci} {Spi}
-^_6
Absurdist x Absurdist
Self-Referential
So would the absurdist view of abusurdity be reality (in a cynical/material sense)?
Jump randomly to: {x-product} {Abs} {Art} {Frc} {Fut} {Hum} {Jazz} {Sci} {Spi}
Absurdist x Artist
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Absurdist x Fractalist
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Absurdist x Futurist
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Absurdist x Humanist
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Absurdist x Jazzist
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Absurdist x Scientist
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Absurdist x Spiritualist
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