autism · cognition · language · psychology · youtube

Power of communication: "In My Language"

Beth Kelley

This video, which I found on the blog neuroanthropology, was created by a woman who is severely autistic. The first three minutes show the woman interacting with her environment, and then the woman, through typing on the computer, provides a translation of what she describes as her native language. She is severely critical of people who do not understand and appreciate how she views the world and who call her non-communicative.

This video is fascinating to me on so many levels (warning: possible spoilers). Watching her behavior from a psychologists’ standpoint is interesting with observing her self-stimulating behavior and how her mind is processing all this. But it also from a visual anthropology perspective. She chose to include these specific examples of her language in the movie, and even though she explicitly says they do not symbolize anything in particular, I wonder why these were chosen. Why did she choose to use a visual format to explain herself? Was this video made originally for Youtube, or some other audience? There is obvious editing, and not so much a storyline but definite parts to the movie. How did she decide on this structure, and who helped her, if anyone? Did anyone else film her (from what I can tell I don’t think so). How was she aided in this project? She gives credits at the end of her film, but they’re all thanks as opposed to assigned jobs.

From a communication studies and linguistics perspective, she’s challenging the definition of language. She argues that she has a discourse (several, actually) with her environment, with the objects in her house; they even get a credit at the end of the film. She also uses the “dominant language,” as she describes it, to explain herself and language and berate those who do not appreciate hers for what it is.

She also points out that most of us would probably not look at her on the street, or deliberately look away, which is absolutely correct, which makes a great statement about humans’ fear of the different, “disabled,” and unknown.
(end spoilers)

So a really interesting video on many levels, and I’m sorry my visual anthropology class is essentially over this quarter because I think it’d be great to show to the class and have them discuss it.

Uncategorized

More remote sensing

Beth Kelley

A new collection of Mayan ruins has been discovered deep in the Guatemalan jungles thanks to satellite imaging. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23282045/?GT1=10856

And you were using it to watch T.V.

cognition · creativity

Technology: old and new

Beth Kelley

Where does the time go? Not into sleeping, I’ll tell you that much. Here are a few of the lovely tidbits I’ve picked up in the past month, all with a technology/innovation theme:

First pair of ice skates discovered.

A 2300-year-old shipwreck carrying wine cargo was also discovered.

The Lemelson center for the study of innovation and invention. Makes the argument that science, technology, innovation, invention, and play are all connected (we’ve established this already, but for all the slow-learning, non-innovators out there, there is this). I actually found a whole bunch of groups that were working on this same idea – a collection of sci tech museums, conferences, and several academic groups. There is definitely a trend to combine computer science studies with creativity.

anthropology

Time to Get Opinionated

Beth Kelley

Nothing worth doing an entire blog about, but just some stuff I needed to get off my chest:

Discourse analysis and semiotic analysis for that matter are much, much, much too broad and loosey goosey to be of much use. If you believe Foucault that EVERYTHING can be a discourse, then you’ll spend your entire life trying to determine if every thought you share or action you take is your own creation or just another discourse that has been ingrained into you. Semiotics is a different story in that you can say anything symbolizes anything, but you end up in the same pickle.

Power DOES exist, thank you very much.

There needs to be a word that describes the study of Family Structure in Archaeology. Maybe I just coined it, I’ll have to look it up.

Graduate school is very time consuming, and while I love it, I wish I could afford to be a starving college student so I had more time to work on my schoolwork (I say this while writing in my blog instead of doing my reading), because they expect you read (ahem *skim*) so freakin’ much! And fit in research papers and thesis work at the same time.

Anthropology needs to be a more holistic approach. There, I said it. Maybe I’m taking too much of a “four fields” approach, maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, maybe I’m oversimplifying, whatever, but I say that the study of human beings needs to be an integrated study, looking at all aspects of being human, bones to brains, and separation of biological from cultural from physical from linguistic anthropology is going about things all wrong. We need integration of the disciplines, we’re supposed to be studying human beings as a whole, not looking at bits and pieces and then arguing about how these bits and pieces are the one truth, or how they obviously don’t fit together, so the other bits and pieces must be wrong. ACK!

The U.S. Government is making it harder and harder to leave, visit, work, or even share ideas with the U.S. So much for freedom and liberty and international ambassador-ness and all that.

architecture · play

Man single-handedly building replica of Stonehenge

Beth Kelley

This guy in Michigan is successfully experimenting with ways of moving several ton blocks into a Stonehenge-like formation.

http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/moving_big_rocks.

children · education · play

Some links to get your brain churning in the new year

Beth Kelley

First is an interesting blog I stumbled upon, and it may become part of my list: http://neuroanthropology.wordpress.com/

Next is an article that by itself isn’t so wow-zowy, but the fact that they are addressing the issue of just how important movement is to children’s development is wonderful.

Finally, I stumbled upon this program whose soul purpose is to get teachers to use puppets more in their teaching arsenal. Too cool!

Uncategorized

Gene Expression’s take on Diamond vs. the Cultural Anthropologists

Beth Kelley

I’m not sure why this argument has flared up again, but both popular anthropology blogs Gene Expression and Savage Minds are talking about Jared Diamond’s book Guns, Germs, and Steel, and some cultural anthropologists’ reaction to it. I say some, because while I agree with a lot of Gene Expression‘s post and what they have to say, I feel they over-generalize what “cultural anthropologists” think, feel, and say about the book and their philosophy and approach to the sciences in general. Or maybe I just live in a bubble where everyone uses the scientific method and can deal with messy or generalized answers. Probably the latter, from the feedback I’ve heard from others.

I hope the answer lies somewhere in the middle; that while there are many vocal cultural anthropologists that are completely relativist, there are others who are objective and don’t balk at information that doesn’t fit into their schema. Or maybe that’s just me and I’m in the wrong graduate program.

school

Journalism vs. Anthropology

Beth Kelley1 Comment

A friend asked me the other day why I was changing my career goals from being a journalist to an anthropologist. I couldn’t give her a good answer at the time. I mumbled something about low pay and a competitive drive that I just seemed to lack when it came to the written word.

But it got me wondering and really looking at my reasons why I was switching gears, and now even though the moment is passed, I’d like to answer her question in full:

Being a good journalist and a good anthropologist are actually very similar. You have to find a good question and try to answer it. You must do hours of background research and familiarize yourself with the subject. You must figure out who to ask and what questions to ask them. Then there are more hours of research and compiling your information into one cohesive picture. When you finally think you have enough information to give your readers the right message, you must write it all up in a readable, thought-provoking way, and even then only if you’re lucky will your work be published—unless you’ve been asked by your boss to do this work in which case there’s probably a ridiculously short deadline and it’s not something you particularly care about and you just slap something together and call it a day.

My Journalism teacher in college had his doctorate in Anthropology, and he was one of the best journalists I met, if however also one of the most jaded. Anthropology is the perfect accessory to an aware, mindful journalist, just as journalism and writing are essential skills for an anthropologist who wants to get their findings across to their audience.

Where the line is drawn for me, however, is somewhere among the details. The depth with which you explore the subject matter. The reasons behind why this research is being done. The pace and attitude behind the work. With Anthropology, you are (in theory) painstakingly recording people’s minute behavior and details about their situations. With Journalism you must sum up an entire world event in 1200 words or less (this is a skill, by the way, which is being taught more and more often by social science teachers). Anthropology is more interactive; you have to get to know the people you’re researching. In Journalism you are expected to keep your objective distance and not get involved in your story. To even acknowledge in the story that you were there is considered a bit tacky.

Anthropology seems to emphasize the journey, whereas Journalism emphasizes the destination. For me, an MA in Anthropology offers me the chance to study different topics I love in greater detail, and to apply them to different areas of life, not just in print or other forms of media. An MA in Journalism would have given me a better idea on how to hunt, capture, and skin the story, and not much else. For some, that’s enough. For me, the academic side of me won over the practical side and decided to give the whole researcher gig a shot.

That to me is the final kicker. I remember so often sitting at my computer, typing up all the wonderful stories I’d heard from researchers and scientists into an abbreviated article, and how I kept thinking to myself that I would much rather be the one out there doing the research and being interviewed about it than the other way around. That was why I made the leap. To get out there into the world and see what I could do, not just sit back and write about it.

play

Chinese Authorities Execute 10 Million…Toys

Beth Kelley

Not really, just an awesome story from the Onion (what? It’s cultural commentary!)

community · environment · psychology

Communities and Brains

Beth Kelley

This was interesting article about how living in larger households, or in this specific study living as a couple versus living separately after a divorce, consumes less resources overall and is better for the environment. Communes for the environment!

Speaking of groups, I found this an interesting use of group loyalty and playing with America’s usual perceptions of two supposedly polar opposite institutions, or just a cheap way for the military to get some publicity: Miss Utah, who is also an active member of the military, will be competing for the title of Miss America. What’s interesting is the military is actually paying for her training and travel to the competition.

On to brains.

One study has found that a high fever ( > 100.4) reduces symptoms of autism in children. Apparently the fever connects or stimulates nerve cells in the child’s brain. I’m curious why they only studied children (2-18) and not grown-ups. Perhaps because grown-ups don’t go to the hospital when they have a high fever.

And finally, 5-year-old chimps have better short term memories than college students, according to one study series done by researchers at Kyoto University. What was amazing to me was that the chimps were memorizing things in less than 3/10 of a second sometimes. That seems a) impossible for a human brain, and b) an adaptation to living in a setting of constant potential predation (baby chimps are tasty!). However, and even the researchers admit this, the real test would be to see how the young chimps fare against human kids.