Meridith Berson - Logic and Ethics

October 21, 2010

I was reading a book for my ethics class and it dawned on me that it would be much harder to have a firm set of ethics if we were an oral peoples. Ethics depends on the past, on writings from Plato to Mill, Aristotle to Kierkegaard. Without these recorded arguments little progress would be made.
The same applies to logical reasoning. Without an actual recording of the way to go about logic, we would never progress. Without Aristotle's categories recorded, we would not have the genus/species set up we do today. I feel like in class we focus on stories and traditions, not so much logic, ethics, and science. Without writing it would be hard to progress as a civilization. Writing things down that are not emotionally charged allows the living to continue the work of someone who has passed on. It seems that this is something we have overlooked in class, as far as the importance of the written language. Oral is important and carries what is important in tradition, not science.

Meridith Berson - "Whatever."

October 21, 2010
In Ong's book, Orality and Literacy, he argues on page 42 that verbal cultures are unable to disconnect words from emotions. For example, a list of people, politicians for example, removes them completely from any type of human action context (as Ong puts it.) It is simply a list, devoid of what comes with oral communications. If I was to read the list I would have some type of reaction. It may be a facial expression, body language, or the tone of my voice that would show something more then just names on paper would.
I like this argument for a series of reasons. The most prominent of these is how strong of an argument that it is, as well as being associated to everyone. I feel that a lot of issues we have today are started by the technology of writing. Text messages and emails have a way of wrongly expressing what the person is trying to say. Tone is lost as is the emotion of the person. For example, saying "whatever" to someone in a text message may come across as with an attitude, when in person it could be more in the tone of "oh, it's whatever. Anything is fine with me." I feel like Ong has really created a valid argument in this section.

Magic in Primal Religions- Hilary Kolodziej 10/20/10

For my final paper, I have been researching the role of magic in primal religions. To my surprise, there is a lot more information on the topic than I expected. One source I was reading is a textbook entitled "Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion: An Anthropological of the Supernatural" which really dives deep into several cultures who use magic as a form of healing. One society in particular has a concept of "swallowing frogs," where women repress any negative emotion. This repression eventually leads to serious illnesses, and women end up being forced to follow rituals and smooth over any social disagreements before they can be healed. This excerpt really made me think about the cultural context of illness and how different societies react to ailments.

Meridith Berson - Between the Gods and the Earth

Meridith Berson - October 9, 2010 (Happy birthday, John Lennon)

The other day in class, Dr Redick read a poem to us at the beginning of the period. There was one line that struck me. Excuse me if I wrote it down wrong, but it alluded to something like this, "I am between the gods and the earth... I am alive." The repetition of "I am alive" in itself was a statement that held a powerful message. Although I know this can be interpreted in a million ways, it seems as if its this self realization of being. Not "The Being," but simply existence. The fact that every second we are alive and have not had the powers of death succeed over us is amazing.

The line that I mentioned above was the one that hit me the hardest. It almost seems to capture that idea that the gods, a symbol of the infinite and perfect, is closer then I always feel. But on the other side we are still here, part of this earth, and have reason to be here. It's inspiring, and calming. Although I lack any belief in divinity within ourselves, it seems so peaceful and completely entrances me.

Kelsey Brooks - Plumbing Issues

As my roommates and I were doing our homework, we heard a strange gurgling sound coming from our toilet. We went to check it out and little did we know our toilets didn't flush. We have two bathrooms so we checked out the second one and little to our knowledge the shower is overflowing. We currently can not use any plumbing. To relate this to class, we are somewhat experiencing oral practices. We do not have the luxury of the plumbing system. We were joking around having to use the bathroom outside. This reminded me of the discussion we had in class one day about the way oral people used the bathroom. I really hope our plumbing gets fixed by tonight, but is not looking like it is in our future. So, we might have to come in touch with nature and dispose of our waste outside.

Meridith Berson - Sources

Meridith Berson - October 4, 2010.

In Ong's book Orality and Literacy he talks about Homer's readings and how it is controversial whether he actually wrote them. In Homer's time people were polytheistic and piety toward the gods was important which is the important part of the debate. Whether Homer wrote them or if it was a collection of people or someone unaccredited, doesn't really seem to matter. The culture that we take from it and the story behind it is the only part that we should be focusing on. This is much like Shakespeare's writing.

I bring this up because oral people didn't seem concerned about where their stories started from, they accepted them as truth. I think our overly high criticism of who the author is is important, but I think that in a lot of readings we should just accept the overarching meaning of the traditions. To make an analogy, its like watching a philosophically charged movie. First you need to understand the storyline and all the intricacy within the plot and characters before you should start picking apart the theories. To enjoy it you must relax and take it in.

I doubt Ong would agree with me on these points, but to argue about Homer seems utterly pointless. The Odyssey and Iliad were and still are revered works. Enjoy them for the story, not who wrote it.

Kelsey Brooks - Touch

In class on Monday, September 27 we watched a video. Dr. Redick pointed out the emphasis of the two oral people touching. I thought about the different aspects from the oral culture and today's world. Oral people communicate by touch. They might have been showing love or just warning each other of something to come. Today, we mainly see that type of hand holding in an intimate relationship. You do not see us standing in a line holding hands intimately. Some days when I leave class, I realize how many things we take for granted and don't realize what we have. Oral people were nature lovers as some poeple are today. How do you see this intimate type of hand holding? Is it just a way of their culture or do you believe it is an intimate relationship?

Kelsey Brooks - Alphabet

In Ong's Orality to Literacy book, he mentioned Julian Jaynes Theory. Jaynes theory said the main shift from orality to literacy was the right hemispher was producing uncontrollably voices. These voices were processed into the left hemisphere of the brain as speech. He said these voices began to lose their effectienesss. This period led to the invention of the alphabet. I found it interesting that how someone could just invent letters in a specific order due to the uncontrollable voices in their brain. I believe if the alphabet was not created, we wouldn't have anything written down today. There would be no books, religious texts, writing, etc. I believe we would be more "in touch" with the Earth as oral people were. Oral people spoke to each other through touch. There way of writing was much different than ours. The different practices they had represented who they were as a perosn and their culture. Today, we do not have that because we have too many resources. We rely too much on texts to tell us what to do and what not to do. I ask you this, "What would life be like today without any kind of books or writing?"