This book starts off well. When he sticks to reporting science research, he presents some interesting current ideas.
- the original homo sapiens population before the spread out of Africa seems to have been about 5000 people living in East Africa near the Red Sea - most of the rest of Africa at that times seems to have been suffering an extreme drought
- the original group that left Africa may have been as small as 150 people
- they seem to have spread east first, along the coast and into India and South-east Asia - from India, some groups spread back west towards Turkey and ultimately Europe
- the original Homo Sapiens would have been dark-skinned as there is strong selection pressure in Africa to have dark pigmentation to protect from degradation of reproductive capability (due to overproduction of vitamin D?)
- based on genetic studies of the differences between body lice and head lice DNA, it can be theorized that humans first started wearing clothes about 10 000 years ago!
- the migration out of Africa would have started about 50 000 years ago - this is also roughly when then last brain mutation appeared in an area affecting speech and language - people where this area is damaged or underdeveloped have trouble both articulating speech and processing incoming messages
- African click languages seem to be the oldest languages in the world - speakers of click languages have the largest accumulated number of DNA mutations in the homo sapiens population, making them the group that would have split off first from the original homo sapiens genetic profile - this suggests click languages may be the closest to the original speech of homo sapiens
- genetically, all lines of homo sapiens are descended from one X chromosome male and one Y chromosome female!!! Adam and Eve...
Unfortunately, when Wade gets past the earliest years of human development, he starts bringing in a lot of his own speculation and bias. There is a significant drop off of reference to research and studies once he starts discussing Neanderthal Homo Sapiens relations, early homo sapiens society and social relations, and intra- group dynamics. You get the strong sense he is a staunch Republican... war, conflict, social hierarchy and quest for dominance as the natural state of man.
Boring reading - I will not be finishing the book.
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Sunday, 8 March 2015
Wednesday, 31 December 2014
Basic Arabic Grammar - Waheed Sammy and Leila Samy
Well laid out grammar with at least some answers to exercises. Might be better used with a teacher.
- from TPL
- from TPL
Sunday, 26 January 2014
Ways of Seeing - John Berger
A reread from quite a while ago.
An interesting discussion of the nature and permutations of images in the west.
Some interesting points about how text changes the perception of the image - how language turns the image into an illustration of the words, nailing down a meaning instead of being a more open extra-lingual (?) experience.
He also points out the frequent cultural referencing of classic paintings in modern advertisements. The classical images have a reference, a weight, a story, a value, that advertisers want to carry into their advert., associate with the product. As if this almost unconscious collection of classical images is a language in itself.
An interesting chapter exploring the nude in western art - inherently voyeuristic. This comes out of a larger tradition in western art, possibly because of its emphasis on realism. The painting as a metaphor of ownership, and thereby of social status. This implies an inherent awareness of the viewer, almost as if the painting is a way of speaking to the viewer. There are some interesting indian illustrations of sexual activity as a contrast. The indian images simply show - the subjects in the images show no awareness of the viewer. This is in sharp contrast to many of the classic nudes, where the subject is looking out directly at the viewer, or presented as if offered to the viewer. This is possibly a mirror of the awareness of self as individual that is so strong in western tradition since at least the Renaissance.
Is there a way to create images, and yet stay outside that tradition that has been so co-opted by the advertising industry. I still feel we have too many images loaded with subliminal fantasy messages.
An interesting discussion of the nature and permutations of images in the west.
Some interesting points about how text changes the perception of the image - how language turns the image into an illustration of the words, nailing down a meaning instead of being a more open extra-lingual (?) experience.
He also points out the frequent cultural referencing of classic paintings in modern advertisements. The classical images have a reference, a weight, a story, a value, that advertisers want to carry into their advert., associate with the product. As if this almost unconscious collection of classical images is a language in itself.
An interesting chapter exploring the nude in western art - inherently voyeuristic. This comes out of a larger tradition in western art, possibly because of its emphasis on realism. The painting as a metaphor of ownership, and thereby of social status. This implies an inherent awareness of the viewer, almost as if the painting is a way of speaking to the viewer. There are some interesting indian illustrations of sexual activity as a contrast. The indian images simply show - the subjects in the images show no awareness of the viewer. This is in sharp contrast to many of the classic nudes, where the subject is looking out directly at the viewer, or presented as if offered to the viewer. This is possibly a mirror of the awareness of self as individual that is so strong in western tradition since at least the Renaissance.
Is there a way to create images, and yet stay outside that tradition that has been so co-opted by the advertising industry. I still feel we have too many images loaded with subliminal fantasy messages.
Wednesday, 13 February 2013
The World Until Yesterday - Jared Diamond
This book is a very interesting read. It looks at the great variety of human societies and how they deal with or conceive of some basic human activities. The book is divided into areas of human endeavour and life.: there are chapters looking at warfare and conflict resolution, child rearing, aging and the elderly, diet, dealing with strangers, danger and risk, languages, multilingualism and the disappearance of world languages.
Diamond frames his book as an attempt to see what is valuable in traditional societies and how we might benefit by adopting some of these elements in modern western society. I don't see that though. For me, the most important or valuable element of the book is the sheer variety of ways of life, thinking and understanding that humans have developed over the millennia, in response to different environments, social conditions and simply just because. It offers a huge shakeup to cultural self-centredness and western-centric thinking. The book underscores the sheer extent of possibility for us humans.
It offers background to understanding some of the cultural differences between different societies - for example the stronger family-focused element in Turkish society, which on the surface seems modern and western in many ways. You could see it as a surviving element from an earlier culture where the state did not provide the kind of security and support that we are used to in western Europe and North America, and where family was the main source of security and safety when faced with economic or social difficulties. Also, as a surviving element of village life when people's families remained close-by and provided a strong social network - true also for my mother and her generation (somehting which I observed but couldn't really be part of...)
His accounts of New Guinea are also in themselves very interesting. It's hard to imagine how such a small space came to be inhabited by so many different cultures and languages (over 1000 distinct languages from different families and types) in such a density without somehow blending and losing their distinctness. Reminds me a bit of the Caucasus, especially Azerbaijan.
Diamond frames his book as an attempt to see what is valuable in traditional societies and how we might benefit by adopting some of these elements in modern western society. I don't see that though. For me, the most important or valuable element of the book is the sheer variety of ways of life, thinking and understanding that humans have developed over the millennia, in response to different environments, social conditions and simply just because. It offers a huge shakeup to cultural self-centredness and western-centric thinking. The book underscores the sheer extent of possibility for us humans.
It offers background to understanding some of the cultural differences between different societies - for example the stronger family-focused element in Turkish society, which on the surface seems modern and western in many ways. You could see it as a surviving element from an earlier culture where the state did not provide the kind of security and support that we are used to in western Europe and North America, and where family was the main source of security and safety when faced with economic or social difficulties. Also, as a surviving element of village life when people's families remained close-by and provided a strong social network - true also for my mother and her generation (somehting which I observed but couldn't really be part of...)
His accounts of New Guinea are also in themselves very interesting. It's hard to imagine how such a small space came to be inhabited by so many different cultures and languages (over 1000 distinct languages from different families and types) in such a density without somehow blending and losing their distinctness. Reminds me a bit of the Caucasus, especially Azerbaijan.
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