Academic integrity is a learned concept

Interesting that individual work is not the goal....

Interesting take on nursing students

This is a different view of authorship - elevating 1 above the many

Interesting take on east asian culture. it really makes sense if the collective owns the information - you don't have to cite authorship.

While Kaiser's definition of literature presumes letters and writing, his use of it doesn't narrow it down to require literacy, it speaks only of observations and language.

Similarly his use of "records" doesn't need to only to require writing.

As such, the description here of recording information, while applicable to literate cultures, leaves plenty of room for oral cultures who use similar systems to do the same thing.

Songlines and related mnemonics are certainly means of indexing information.

Support for

• for: cross-cultural dialogue - jawara and modernity,

• commentary

  • the tragedy of such myopic relationships and exploitation is that we miss the opportunity to hold cross-cultural dialogues to explore what happens when two human cultures that have developed in isolation meet for the first time.
  • the marvel of modern lights to the Jawara, and their quick embrace of it and expression of wonder is reminiscent of the chronicles of earlier European explorers/colonizers who exposed modern inventions and cultural artefacts to aboriginals many centuries earlier

via César A. Hidalgo at https://twitter.com/cesifoti/status/1715367744776908830

https://view.connect.americanpublicmedia.org/?qs=4b67c96dd579939fd9bd844055699bdeee293f04ea187ba67ab514e63f678713545e6ea21a9e4e47a466c8f9761fcdcaca521185a236c4d2f7d5d63af6400dc6b1e108d67d8d3c5a22f50f131947e1b7

Food cultures and restaurant changes can be a precursor indication of gentrification.

Here Hutchins is again prefiguring C.P. Snow's "two cultures". He makes the argument that by having a shared base of knowledge and culture in our society's past history of knowledge (and especially early scientists and mathematicians), everyone, despite their individual interests and specializations, can be an active participant in a broader human conversation.

A bulk of America was stuck in a form of economic slavery in the 1950s. See description of rural Texans in Robert Caro's LBJ biography for additional context --- washing/scrubbing, carrying water, farming, etc. without electricity in comparison to their fellow Americans who did have it.

In the 21st century there is a different form of economic slavery imposed by working to live and a culture of consumption and living on overextended credit.

Consider also the comedic story of the capitalist and the rural fisherman and the ways they chose to live their lives.

What is regeneration and why is it so urgent?

XR Regenerative Cultures - What are regenerative cultures?

Regenerative Cultures activities

Good start at an ontology for different kinds of work? Samsung Austin Semiconductor, for example, does not fall within the class that Simon calls "ambitious technology companies", despite nominally being a "tech" company and ostensibly "ambitious".

p. xxiv

Hutchins seems to indicate that the "vicious specialization of scholarship" is in part to blame for the emergence of the "two cultures" delineated by C. P. Snow later in the decade.

The idea of the two cultures had been brewing for a bit...

University of California, Berkeley — The Repatriation Project<br /> by Ash Ngu, Andrea Suozzo

https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/162-foundations-applications-of-humanities-analytics/segments/15617

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pSGniUOyLc

Digital humanities aka Humanities Analytics

5:54 Simon DeDeo mentioned Alastair McKinnon the philosopher in the 60s did a stylopheric study of Kierkegaard pseudonyms - Kierkegaard's Pseudonyms: A New Hierarchy by Alastair McKinnon https://www.jstor.org/stable/20009297

Tools for supplementing research and scholarship

core audience is Ph.D. students

https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/162-foundations-applications-of-humanities-analytics/segments/15618

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RV99eO_oZU

Foundations & Applications of Humanities Analytics

1.3 About the course

• history of space, genealogy
• science / tools for learning
• examples via guest lecturers

Simon and David indicate that they are not "two cultures" people.

"You can get really far by counting." -Simon DeDeo

Digital humanities is another method of storytelling.

A subtle difference here between the (hard) sciences and the humanities. Every human will bring to bear a differently nuanced perspective.

https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:33585/

See also Wiki created in combination with this course: https://digitalbookhistory.com/culturesofthebook/Main_Page

phy. In that sense, the reproduction of these three slips ironically resonates, if on a different scale, with the world tour of the mask of Tutankhamen. It refers, if not to the magic silence of a relic, at least to the ghostly parergonal quality of what French language calls a reliquat.

Hollier argues that Barthes' reproduced cards are not only completely divorced from their original context and use, but that they are reproduced for the sheen of reality and artistic fashion they convey to the reader. So much thought, value, and culture is lost in the worship of these items in this setting compared to their original context.

This is closely linked to the same sort of context collapse highlighted by the photo of Chief William Berens seated beside the living stones of his elders in Tim Ingold's Why Anthropology Matters. There we only appreciate the sense of antiquity, curiosity, and exoticness of an elder of a culture that is not ours. These rocks, by very direct analogy, are the index cards of the zettelkasten of an oral culture.

Chief William Berens seated beside the living stones of his elders; a picture taken by A. Irving Hallowell in 1930, between Grand Rapids and Pikangikum, Ontario, Canada. (American Philosophical Society)

Given the predominantly non-literate civilizations that comprised the ancient Near East, I've been wondering about how they may have actually been closer to Indigenous cultures than they are to more modern, literate Western culture.

Perhaps he shouldn't dismiss them so readily here, but rather tie them more directly into his broader thesis.

The cardinal directions are embedded in both the language and the cosmology of the Warlpiri language.

Western cultures describe people's position in the world with them as the center, while Indigenous cultures, like those of the Warlpiri Aboriginal language of Central Australia, embed the person as part of the world and describe their position with respect to it using the cardinal directions.

This is a great pull quote for the book, particularly for Westerners.

However, these ideas are not being introduced to the "world" for the first time, they've long lived in indigenous cultures. We should be more pointed in underlining that they're being introduced to the "Western World" for the first time. These ideas should take up their own space in the pantheon of intellectual history.

Hamacher, Duane. The First Astronomers: How Indigenous Elders Read the Stars. Allen & Unwin, 2022, https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/cultural-studies/The-First-Astronomers-Duane-Hamacher-with-Elders-and-Knowledge-Holders-9781760877200.

https://amzn.to/3wapIZt

The First Astronomers: How Indigenous Elders read the stars by Duane Hamacher, with Elders and Knowledge Holders

https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/cultural-studies/The-First-Astronomers-Duane-Hamacher-with-Elders-and-Knowledge-Holders-9781760877200

<small><cite class='h-cite via'>ᔥ <span class='p-author h-card'>LynneKelly</span> in Un-Stupiding Myself - a Memory Training Journal - Memory Training Journals - Art of Memory Forum (<time class='dt-published'>03/14/2022 18:43:38</time>)</cite></small>

Continuing on the analogy between addresses for zettels/index cards and for people, the differing contexts for cards and ideas is similar to the multiple different publics in which people operate (home, work, school, church, etc.)

Having these multiple publics creates a variety of cross links within various networks for people which makes their internal knowledge and relationships more valuable.

As societies grow the number of potential interconnections grows as well. Compounding things the society doesn't grow as a homogeneous whole but smaller sub-groups appear creating new and different publics for each member of the society. This is sure to create a much larger and much more complex system. Perhaps it's part of the beneficial piece of the human limit of memory of inter-personal connections (the Dunbar number) means that instead of spending time linearly with those physically closest to us, we travel further out into other spheres and by doing so, we dramatically increase the complexity of our societies.

Does this level of complexity change for oral societies in pre-agrarian contexts?

What would this look like mathematically and combinatorially? How does this effect the size and complexity of the system?

How can we connect this to Stuart Kauffman's ideas on complexity? (Picking up a single thread creates a network by itself...)

For the Europeans the drums were a different device of communication. Mostly attack retreat and come to church.But how we use drums today. Send out a different communication. In the music industry. It is basically electronics from that producers use. That communicates we need to make more money for this artist or out of this artist. And on the dance floor it means hey let’s dance.Even when someone is knocking on the door. That is a sound like a drum too. It means I am here and after the door please. Or I’m a total stranger and you might not have to answer the door.Or your packages arrived.

Sound when we think of sound we think of waves that travels through the air and hit are ear. But it is also a way of communication. We listen to music and we have a communication with are self getting emotional or empowered. We listen to friends professors and parents talk to us and have honest conversations. Or just droning on in class. Sounds can also have a scary sense to them too. Which is also communication. Like when the fire alarm goes off. It means there’s a loud sound and you must get away from it. Or when the tornado siren goes off and it’s not Tuesday or 10 o’clock. It means get in or underground. Heck even with sound cars can communicate with each other with people honking the horn‘s Long honks means I’m impatient and angry and I just want to go home. Short honk could mean anything hi hello or hey there’s somebody it might be the police slowdown. Or you just scared me what the hell are you doing.

When context keeps the meaning clear. What the authors talking about. He’s having a clear message. So people understand what is going on. But sometimes the message can be unclear. And people can take it the wrong way. Communication is complicated especially when you are talking to somebody through text. I think it is easier to talk to somebody face-to-face or on the phone or in a zoom meeting. That is a clear message to me. The messages that I can’t translate. Or mostly text, but sometimes to understand what is going on I would have to ask them multiple questions to get the clear answer.Context of everything and we take it for granted.

See the extant title in the series at: https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/series/information-cultures

https://infohist.fas.harvard.edu/news/information-cultures-series-john-hopkins-university-press

This looks like a fascinating series and who could go wrong with Ann Blair, Anthony Grafton, and Earle Havens?

Also interesting to see what sorts of things they will find interesting at the cutting edge of all these disciplines.

This is certainly what is happening in the commonplace book tradition and even more explicitly in the zettelkasten tradition.

What other methods of offloading exist besides writing and speaking? Hand gestures? Dance? What hidden modalities of offloading might indigenous societies use that Western culture might not be cognizant of?

Often journaling or writing in a diary is a often a means of offloading the psychological cruft of one's day to be able to start afresh.

This is some of the philosophy behind creating so-called "morning pages".

We're also dramatically missing thousands of years of indigenous experience as well.

"Many North American music education programs exclude in vast numbers students who do not embody Euroamerican ideals. One way to begin making music education programs more socially just is to make them more inclusive. For that to happen, we need to develop programs that actively take the standpoint of the least advantaged, and work toward a common good that seeks to undermine hierarchies of advantage and disadvantage. And that, inturn, requires the ability to discuss race directly and meaningfully. Such discussions afford valuable opportunities to confront and evaluate the practical consequences of our actions as music educators. It is only through such conversations, Connell argues, that we come to understand “the real relationships and processes that generate advantage and disadvantage”(p. 125). Unfortunately, these are also conversations many white educators find uncomfortable and prefer to avoid."

A nice overview of indigenous art in Australia from about the 1940's until today. Some fantastic pieces in here.

No offense, but do you expect every professor to take a field trip with their class each lecture? Let’s be realistic here. How about the students get a workshop on it in the first week (and a book for all I care) and then learn to apply these techniques as they see fit outside the classroom.

The article is about applying these techniques at the highest levels of education, at the point where the learners have already gone through 16+ years of intensive study. I wouldn't expect college professors to go on outings. But why not center these techniques and make them more mainstream at the lowest levels of education starting in kindergarten and for the first six years of formal education? Then they can become daily habits to make learning at the higher levels far easier.

The interesting, and all-too-often ignored, feature of most colleges and universities is that they are on expansive campuses with large numbers of buildings, grounds, and surrounding neighborhoods which could specifically be used to create massive memory palaces or extended local songlines.

Or not… some people prefer rote learning for certain actives

Some may prefer rote memorization, though I don't personally know many who do, and I expect that most probably don't. This research study specifically underlines evidence that these Australian methods are easier and more "fun". The bigger issue is that the vast majority aren't presented with any options for alternate methods anywhere in their educations. I would suspect that the vast majority here in the forums are 15 years old or far beyond by the time they hear about these alternate methods.

[...] others find “song, dance, painting” a little too new age to take it seriously… not passing judgement, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and you certainly have yours. I feel as if you have, however, passed judgment and simultaneously denigrated them (in my opinion) by labeling them "new age". The research article itself states:

The foremost consideration with respect to teaching of the Australian Aboriginal memory technique is the cultural safety aspect and respect for the peoples who developed this approach. In our program, the teaching of this program was administered by an experienced Australian Aboriginal Educator, who was able to integrate the method into our teaching program, while simultaneously preventing several breaches of cultural etiquette and terminology which could easily have compromised the material had it been delivered by a non-Australian Aboriginal educator (TY), however well-intentioned.

They're specifically mentioning here the lack of respect and attention (usually from Westerners, which I suspect includes you) that these methods are given outside of their home culture. I would suggest that you don't value these approaches because they weren't centered or focused on in your own cultural education. As a result you're missing out on the value they do contain, of which the research study under discussion provides direct peer reviewed evidence. Incidentally the metrical system you wish were centered is exactly the sort of technique that is already built into many indigenous systems and was very likely even embedded into ancient Greek culture, but it has long since disappeared and was nearly completely snuffed out by (religious) Western education reformers in the late 1500's.

I'd recommend looking at Dr. Lynne Kelly's texts The Memory Code: The Secrets of Stonehenge, Easter Island and Other Ancient Monuments (Pegasus, 2017) and Songlines: The Power and Promise (First Knowledges) (Thames & Hudson, 2020) (with Dr. Margo Neale) for more details on some of these cultural traditions which have a more nuanced and respectful approach.

Too often here in these forums, and in life, people treat these these mnemonic techniques as "clever hacks", when, for many current and past cultures, they were a literal way of both life and survival.

Let’s face it, be it law school, med school, or b-school… students manage to graduate with or without techniques at the moment, so it’s not like we desperately need memory techniques in higher education.

This is an incredibly privileged perspective. Sure these students do manage to graduate, but you're also looking a minuscule proportion of the most highly educated people on the planet. For perspective, in 2018–2019, 21,622 applicants were accepted to allopathic (MD) medical schools out of the 52,777 who applied, for an overall acceptance rate of 41% in the United States. The accepted people represent roughly 0.0003 percent of the world's population. This number doesn't get much bigger (or rosier) when you expand the population to those in all graduate schools world wide.

I've got several hundred friends and acquaintances who did either MDs or combined MD/Ph.D. programs and very few would say their studies were easy. Why not make it easier? Why not make these methods more widespread? Why not provide them to everyone? Imagine the number who could have not only an easier time, but greater knowledge, (and more fun!)? Very few of the practicing physicians I know could still diagram the TCA-cycle described in the paper, but if you could have a more knowledgeable physician treat you, wouldn't you want that? Wouldn't you want a more educated and happier society all around?

…I’d call that stone garden a “memory palace.” Is there an outdoor element or something that memory palaces supposedly don’t have? I really don’t get how this is different. I use outdoor memory palaces all the time

The stone garden certainly is a memory palace for those who wish to use it that way. However, from the Australian Aboriginal perspective, there are additional layers of narrative, movement, (and potentially song, dance, and art, etc.) layered on top of it to enrich the experience. It's unfortunate that the paper doesn't go deeper into the subtleties or differences, but they're also making at least some attempt to show respect to the culture from which the technique stems. This is a place where Drs. Kelly and Neale's Songlines text may help provide additional depth and perspective, though even it would be limited in comparison with embedding yourself within a culture to have indigenous elders to teach you directly.

I really appreciate the respect given to indigenous knowledge here.

The researchers could have gone much further in depth in describing it and the aspects of what they mean by cultural "safety". They've done a disservice here by downplaying widespread adoption. Why not? Why couldn't we accord the proper respect of traditions to actively help make these techniques more widespread? Shouldn't we be willing to do the actual work to accord respect and passing on of these knowledges?

Given my reading in the area, there seems to be an inordinate amount of (Western) "mysticism" attributed to these techniques (here and in the broader anthropology literature) rather than approaching them head-on from a more indigenous perspective. Naturally the difficult part is being trusted enough by tribal elders to be taught these methods to be able to pass them on. (Link this idea to Tim Ingold's first chapter of Anthropology: Why It Matters.)

All this being said, the general methods known from the West, could still be modified to facilitate in widespread adoption of those techniques we do know. Further work and refinement of them could continue apace while still maintaining the proper respect of other cultures and methods, which should be the modern culture default.

If nothing else, the West could at least roll back the educational reforms which erased their own heritage to regain those pieces. The West showing a bit of respect for itself certainly wouldn't be out of line either.

I'll have to bump up Tyson Yunkaporta's work on my reading list, particularly the cited text:

Yunkaporta T. Sand talk: how Indigenous thinking can save the world. Melbourne, Victoria: Text Publishing Company; 2019.

This is so heartwarming to me.

Not to mention a more sophisticated view of their culture and contributions instead of viewing them as "lesser", which is the dominant mode in most Western cultures.

Siehe Kryosphäre Report, Joelle Gergis, Reportage über Grönland, Ethnologie der Arktis

Papers that include non-western interpretations of time.

This could be a paper in and of itself for CSCW on possible friction points for SBTF practices that are Western-oriented with a global volunteer base. Should look at the Ning to get a better handle on how distributed folks are.

American but hyphenated, viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic

Bi-Lingual, Bi-Cultural able to slip from "How's life?" to "Me'stan volviendo loca"

Véase: https://hyp.is/spfTgqObEeeGy0vg-k0mAA

actively negotiating the terms by which they make themselves heard within computer engineering cultures (Fox, etal., 2015; c.f. Suchman, 1995). This “oppositional position-ing” (Haraway, 1988: 586) relieves them of expectations to hack in the same manner as men, women, or mothers. [...] Exposing a politics of difference — destabilizing the cate-gory of hacking — they not only build new material circumstance for the artists, makers, mothers and fathers within these spaces, but also position their work as relevant to the acts of “world-building” just beyond it.

Potente idea de construcción de mundo en el cotidiano.

1. What was the "Black Legend" and how did other European powers use it to justify their attempts to compete with Spain for empire in the Americas?

2. The Spanish were doing terrible things in the America by bring the population from 60,000 to 17,000 in the time they were here in America. Other European countries talked down on them for what they were doing to the New World. Spain called it a "black legend" because they thought they were rumors that other European countries were throwing out. The other European countries thought they could help the Americans out by bringing their own way of living over and help them get away from the Spanish cruelty.

3. In what ways did the French presence in North America differ from the Spanish?

4. The French came to the Americas and treated the natives with respect. They did not kill, enslave or try to conquer the natives who had lived there before. Unlike the Spanish, the French formed an alliance with the Indians and shared Christianity with the Natives rather than killing them because they wanted the land.
5. What role did slavery play in Dutch attempts to establish Empire? -The slaves built everything in Amsterdam for the Dutch. Without the slaves the Dutch would have nothing of their own because they would not have built everything that they have. The empire would have crashed if the trade routes were not kept up to speed. If it was not for the slaves, the Dutch would have been having a totally different outlook of where they were.

They had more to focus on than the younger generation. They needed to improve their way of making money and having better people to be around the land.

The Spanish were doing everything they could to take over the American land.

Spain's "new riches" were only new to the Europeans. But were not new to the Americas.