Are We all the Same?

(image: Construction Worker, Qingdao, China- Anne-Marie, 2007).

*he was just as intrigued as I

Word: Human-of or characteristic of people as opposed to God or animals or machines, esp. in being susceptible to weakness (Human b. New Oxford American Dictionary).

Term: Structuralism- Complex system of interrelated parts (structuralism, wikipedia).

Article: Los Angeles Times, Obituaries, November 4^th, 2009.

“Claude Levi-Strauss towered over the French intellectual scene and founded the school of thought known as structuralism”(Obituaries, Nov.4^th, 2009, LATIMES)

“Part philosopher, part sociologist, and entirely humanist, he studied tribes in Brazil and North America, concluding that virtually all societies shared a powerful commonalities of behavior and thought, often expressing them in myths” (Obituaries, Nov.4^th, 2009, LATIMES).

“He concluded that primitive peoples were no less intelligent than “Western” civilizations and that their intelligence could be revealed through their myths and other cultural keystones. Those myths, he argued, all tend to provide answers to such universal questions as ‘Who are we?’ and ‘How did we come to be at this place?’” (Obituaries, Nov.4^th, 2009, LATIMES).

“By the mid 1980’s, however, his ideas were being supplanted by those of the so-called post-structuralists who argued that history and experience were far more important than universal laws in shaping human consciousness” (Obituaries, Nov.4^th, 2009, LATIMES).

Why does Creativity Thrive in Some Parts of the World and Not in Others?

(image: Rueters, theage.com.au- Emily Kngwarreye) 

Word: Aesthetics- Critical reflection of art, culture, and nature (Encyclopedia of Aesthetics Review, Tom Riedel).

Term: Human Geography- a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with man made surroundings that provide a setting for human activity, as well as causes and consequences of the spatial distribution of human activity on the Earth’s surface (straight up wikipedia).

Book: Passing Strange and Wonderful by Dr. Yi-Fu Tuan

“In general the richer the environment, the denser the human population, and the more ceremonial exchanges and commerce that occurs there, the more likely it is to have a wealth of art” (Yi-Fu Tuan, 121). 

A “distinctive trait of Aboriginal art is the importance of the multi-modal performance…contemporary rituals of any scope require the service of not just one or two but several aesthetic skills” (Yi-Fu Tuan, 125).

"Every person, place constellation, wind, cloud, plant, animal, fish, clan, dance and song in between has a value."- Australian Aboriginal curator Djon Mudine 

"This is my country, this is me."- Emily Kngwarreye, Artist

Spent: $104.28- Cell Phone Bill