tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31372467304218666592024-03-13T11:59:42.947-06:00Past Times and Present TensionsJohn Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.comBlogger786125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-43079049876474322052017-08-23T10:54:00.000-06:002017-08-23T10:54:43.955-06:002017 Solar Eclipse from Calgary<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QNOiNBloRZU/WZ2gUWnFX-I/AAAAAAAAGxM/io1kJVdMDfo0YEL8Nr_MbnknHs6BESMMACLcBGAs/s1600/2017SolarEclipseCalgary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="571" data-original-width="591" height="386" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QNOiNBloRZU/WZ2gUWnFX-I/AAAAAAAAGxM/io1kJVdMDfo0YEL8Nr_MbnknHs6BESMMACLcBGAs/s400/2017SolarEclipseCalgary.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>2017 solar eclipse from Calgary with sunspots visible in the lower part<br />of the crescent. Click to see original file size image. The image has no<br />post-production editing apart from cropping. © Julie A. Ginn, 2017</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>mong the things we had planned to do while my friend Julie Ginn was visiting from the U.S. was to photograph the 2017 solar eclipse. She had brought her Sony dslr camera and zoom lens and I had ordered a good solar filter from a company in New York. Originally, I thought we would go to the "pop - up" observatory at the University of Calgary to see the event but just before we due to leave, I decided, instead that we should go, instead, to Crescent Road which overlooks the downtown core. I wanted to create a composite picture containing ourselves, the eclipse and the Calgary downtown skyline.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he decision turned out to be the right one as we not only had a great view of downtown during the eclipse, but Julie allowed several passers-by and some workmen renovating a house behind us who had been unable to obtain solar filter glasses to see the eclipse on the view-screen. One little girl even got to click the camera but her family left before Julie was able to get their email address to send her the photo.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MKDbCnJs66o/WZ2mfMDCxnI/AAAAAAAAGxc/ywxPItB5AXAqMsAzq8JtC-GXzp6NuM5HgCLcBGAs/s1600/CrescentRoad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="774" height="274" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MKDbCnJs66o/WZ2mfMDCxnI/AAAAAAAAGxc/ywxPItB5AXAqMsAzq8JtC-GXzp6NuM5HgCLcBGAs/s320/CrescentRoad.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> took the photo on the left at the time of the maximum eclipse of the house behind us where the workmen were busy. The light seemed similar to that of early evening but slightly less warm and, of course, the shadows were shorter.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zd_AJ4w_7xk/WZ2nuo5eYdI/AAAAAAAAGxk/yUOm6CGCdb0Nhf8ZAkIF-T-iLin10iF2ACLcBGAs/s1600/Composite2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1173" data-original-width="1189" height="630" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zd_AJ4w_7xk/WZ2nuo5eYdI/AAAAAAAAGxk/yUOm6CGCdb0Nhf8ZAkIF-T-iLin10iF2ACLcBGAs/s640/Composite2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>John, Julie and coydog Tristan at the eclipse photoshoot<br />©Julie A. Ginn, post-production processing, John Hooker.</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">F</span>or the composite photograph, Julie set up a delayed shot on her camera after photographing the eclipse at various stages. Because we were back-lit and not much better visible than a silhouette, I cut our images out and adjusted the brightness and contrast; added a photo of the eclipse with extra black to fill the top part of the sky and then added a gradient fill to the natural sky below. The cityscape was adjusted to recreate the lighting at the height of the eclipse.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2015/09/coydog-community-page.html" target="_blank">John's Coydog Community page</a></b></span>
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-21506506674905589962017-07-06T14:45:00.000-06:002017-07-06T14:45:39.237-06:00Tristan's coyote molt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CKAaUyG0Svw/WV6bAC_K-HI/AAAAAAAAGws/AfiA5zCvxJ4aKSOWp7EAtov8YenVrRrCQCLcBGAs/s1600/Tristan_Coyote_Molt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CKAaUyG0Svw/WV6bAC_K-HI/AAAAAAAAGws/AfiA5zCvxJ4aKSOWp7EAtov8YenVrRrCQCLcBGAs/s640/Tristan_Coyote_Molt.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>t happens every year at this time. July is the month when the coyotes here lose the remains of their winter coats. It starts earlier with the sort of shedding you can see with many dogs: single hairs being lost. in July, however, it starts coming off in clumps. Many people, who do not know that coyotes molt, assume that the animal has mange but mange is skin disease. If you look carefully, beneath this raggedy coat is another, perfectly smooth, shorter hair coat. He looks as if he has just escaped an attack by a sheep shearer.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>ristan did not get away from this characteristic by being a hybrid (coydog). Last year, I used to pull clumps off when they were almost ready to fall, but he did not like me doing that. Whenever some part becomes uncomfortable, he will scratch it off, but he does that rarely.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>hen he has finished this process, he will look as if he has just been groomed for a dog show. As for my carpet, I am thinking of buying a rake instead of just using the vacuum.
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2015/09/coydog-community-page.html" target="_blank">John's Coydog Community page</a></b></span>
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-71823554266895586962017-04-16T10:15:00.000-06:002017-04-16T10:15:14.348-06:00New project: Introduction to Jungian archaeology<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Current Mind Map (<a href="http://www.thebrain.com/" target="_blank">The Brain</a>) for the project (click image to enlarge)</b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>n "introduction to..." book is usually written to familiarize people with an an existing topic, but for this one, the topic does not yet exist and I am introducing it as a potential topic. How does the mind influence archaeological interpretation and how do these interpretations vary according to personal and collective psychology?<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he mind map is being constructed in order to create the basic outline for the book. Each title opens to a notes field and reveals further thoughts, links to other thoughts, and links to documents. Eventually, it will be arranged as an outline order instead of alphabetically, but it will not become the chapter headings (that will be another another title with its own "children".<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>n introduction will include the basics of Jungian psychology necessary to understand the text.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">H</span>ow long this will take to complete, I have no idea. I'm hoping it will be done within a year, but we hope for lots of things! I will post updates here and perhaps also on <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/home" target="_blank">Research Gate</a> and <a href="http://academia.edu/">Academia.edu</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>f I feel the need to take a break from it, I might write a book on training Coydogs.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2015/09/coydog-community-page.html" target="_blank">John's Coydog Community page</a></b></span>
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-75793343822508475522017-03-24T12:12:00.000-06:002017-03-24T12:12:13.572-06:00New page(s)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>nstead of cluttering up the left sidebar with book announcements, and as the list of titles is growing, I have now added a "books by John Hooker" page to the blog header. Each linked title will allow you to preview, buy the eBook and share the preview (with a very short link).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">L</span>ater, I will add other pages of books by other authors that I feel are important to many of the subjects I deal with in my blogs. early Celtic art and Jungian Psychology being high on the list. Previews will also be added if they are available and I might add some short reviews.
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2015/09/coydog-community-page.html" target="_blank">John's Coydog Community page</a></b></span>
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-46553981435367384862017-03-22T12:21:00.000-06:002017-03-24T11:33:04.176-06:00Published - Dean Crawford: Living among the Dobunni<span style="font-size: large;">H</span>ere is the preview and link for the Kindle e-book which can be read with the free Kindle app for tablets, phones or PC's:<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>his is an expanded and rearranged version of my blog posts with additional images and details of some amazing finds, some of which are extremely rare.
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-58941191953929887192017-02-21T09:07:00.002-07:002017-02-22T08:56:42.458-07:00The Annotated Poems of Carin Perron<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he Annotated Poems of Carin Perron is now available as an Amazon Kindle e-book. You can preview it live by clicking on the cover on the left or the button below. (I uploaded it on Saturday but the "look Inside" feature has yet to be enabled. It can take up to a week. The downloadable free preview for the Kindle readers is available now).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he poet Carin Perron (1957-2003) was a crafts-person of poetry and often spent many years to perfect a poem. Published in such prestigious journals such as Ariel: A Review of International English literature, she made history by winning first place in the Bournemouth International Festival poetry competition after placing third in the two previous years. She had entered the competition only those three times. To mark the event, the three prominent judges of those years gave her an additional prize of signed copies of one of their books. Her poem Anne (For Anne Morrow Lindbergh) was read to its subject on her deathbed in 2001 by a friend. It was one of the poems which had won a prize at the Bournemouth Festival.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">M</span>ore than a complete collection of poems, Carin includes many notes on her works including the stories behind the poems and even a short instructional essay on the very difficult poet form: the sestina. The rhyming example, The Room, was the poem published in Ariel. She always wanted to change people's perception of poetry and how it was taught. Many of the poems have not been previously published and she worked on the manuscript for this book entirely during her three-year chemo-therapy treatments for terminal breast cancer.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A</span> true "Renaissance Woman", at that same time, she worked on designing and building the "Celtic Coin Index Online" for Oxford University: a database of more than 28,000 ancient British Celtic coins and, as a portrait artist, had started a project of painting several copies on Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". Her two cancer poems present opposing views of the disease: one poignant; the other heart-warming.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>s her husband of nineteen years, I promised that I would see her work through to publication but it has taken many years for me to feel up to this task and for that I must apologize to those who have waited long to see this book. I have also included additional annotations on several poems. The structure and section titles are as she had planned although I have included an additional poem that had never made it to the manuscript having been written not long before her death. I have also changed the order of two of the last three poems reserving the final place for the poem, Domestic Epiphanies about our family life at home which she had me read at her memorial service. The collection includes both structured and free verse forms and includes several poem cycles. Much of her work owes something to French poetic forms. I have included, as an appendix, her last autobiography.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">M</span>y next e-book will be a reworking of two of my blog series: "Dean Crawford: Living among the Dobunni" and "In praise of metal-detecting". It will appear shortly. The following e-book project: "Jungian Archaeology" will take much more time to complete. I have published five e-books in the last ten months. This last one will soon show up on my Amazon Author Page:<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/author/john_hooker">https://www.amazon.com/author/john_hooker</a><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2015/09/coydog-community-page.html" target="_blank">John's Coydog Community page</a></b></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>ll three volumes of The Gundestrup Cauldron: a new theory are now published:<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N7U41AGhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N7U41AG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=pasttimesan04-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B01N7U41AG&linkId=a564850655c0c7374c2cf351a812cf6f" target="_blank">1: Imagery, origin and date</a><br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MUG6JBP/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=pasttimesan04-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B01MUG6JBP&linkId=b9abb1be806f908e69617fb8e4bfd581" target="_blank">2: Context</a><br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06VT8QS67/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=pasttimesan04-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B06VT8QS67&linkId=65b6c8994ae33200ccfab15b81a4730c" target="_blank">3: Symbols of Transformation</a><br />
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If you follow the links you will be redirected to your most local Amazon store to purchase.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">O</span>n Monday, I am starting a new project: the complete and annotated poetry of my late wife <a href="http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/calgaryherald/obituary.aspx?n=carin-perron&pid=157498873" target="_blank">Carin Perron (1957- 2003)</a>. She made history in poetry competition by placing in the top three positions three years in a row in the poetry contest at the Bournemouth International Festival (blind judging by three different British poets). In her first year of entry she tied for third place for <a href="http://www.writer2001.com/annepoem.htm" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Anne (for Anne Morrow Lindbergh)</a>. The judge, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Barker" target="_blank">Sebastian Barker</a>, said at the Adjudication that he found the poem "stylistically assured and deeply moving." The poem was also read to its subject, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Morrow_Lindbergh" target="_blank">Anne Morrow Lindbergh</a> on her deathbed by a close friend. The second year, she received the third place for <i><a href="http://www.writer2001.com/daughter.htm" target="_blank">Daughter</a> </i>The judge was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Hooker" target="_blank">Jeremy Hooker</a> (no relation to me!). In her final year of entry she won first place for <i><a href="http://www.writer2001.com/shadow.htm" target="_blank">The Shadow</a>. </i>Not wishing to temp fate, she did not enter the competition again. The judge, that time, was <a href="http://www.neilcurry.com/" target="_blank">Neil Curry</a>. Carrie wrote about his decision:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Neil Curry, the judge in 1993, said when he first read the poem, he thought it was okay, but nothing special. He put it in the pile to read again, rather than the reject pile, but it hadn't made that much of an impression on him. He found, though, that as he read other things, he kept thinking about it. When he found himself still thinking about it the next day, he thought he'd found the winner.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br /></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"It was great to have the poem appreciated at last (though when <a href="https://canpoetry.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/wiseman/index.htm" target="_blank">Chris Wiseman</a> [her poetry instructor at the University of Calgary] first read it, he said, "I wish I'd written it," a comment I've never heard from him before or since). I guess there's some kind of lesson here, about persistence or something: or maybe about obsessive forms obsessing people, I don't know. Because I'd won something at Bournemouth for three consecutive years, the judges each sent me an autographed copy of one of their books of poetry, as a personal prize."</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he book was being prepared by Carin Perron during the last three years of her life while she was fighting terminal breast cancer. Only one poem was yet to be added to the manuscript, one she had dedicated to me: <i>Trapeze à Deaux (for John</i>, but I will be including it in the appropriate section (as the last poem in <i>Turning Home</i>). Almost all of the annotations will be hers, but I will be adding some extra information in editorial parentheses. I have decided, in her biographical information, to omit the identity and her account of her first husband (now deceased), because what she wrote would be likely to upset his relatives and friends. As the section devoted to the poems he inspired is titled The Anti-Muse, you may well understand why. In any failed marriage there are usually two very different accounts as to the reasons for such failure and I must be sensitive to that.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he book, which is yet to be titled (her file title was simply "Poetry Book" is divided into two sections: Four Muses and Poet without a Muse. Each part of which will consist of a number of poems. The structure is her own and will be as follows:<br />
<br />
<b>The Four Muses</b>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>1.</b><i> The Reluctant Muse</i> (her friend, the potter <a href="https://nickle.ucalgary.ca/exhibitions/item/john-chalke-surface-tension" target="_blank">John Chalke</a>, 1940-2014)<br />
<b>2. </b><i>The Byzantine Muse</i> (another friend, Mark Joslin (1956 – 1996) who had worked at the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Edmonton Art Gallery (now the Art Gallery of Alberta) and Latitude 53.<br />
<b>3. </b><i>The Anti-Muse </i>(her first husband).<br />
<b>4. </b><i>The Hidden Muse </i>(Death).</blockquote>
<br />
<b>Poet Without a Muse:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>1. </b><i>A Tourist in People</i>
<br />
<i><b>2. </b>Visions & Architecture</i>
<br />
<b>3. </b><i>Turning Home</i></blockquote>
<i><br /></i>
<span style="font-size: large;">S</span>he had originally planned that all the notes would be at the end of the book, but as they are so much more than just the usual notes one finds in a book and have great historical narrative and even technical information about poetry. I have decided that each will follow its respective poem. People often do not read end notes and it was very important to her that readers and critics would not misunderstand her poetry as is so often done in the published works of other poets where such information is not present. Above all, she was a craftsperson and would often spend many years perfecting each poem before she would allow it to be published.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>s might be understood, it has taken me fourteen years to become prepared to tackle this project. I cannot say, at the moment, how long it will take to complete, but I am hoping that it will be less than a month. I also have to design a cover.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2015/09/coydog-community-page.html" target="_blank">John's Coydog Community page</a></b></span>
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-60904522956664849402017-01-31T08:40:00.000-07:002017-01-31T08:40:23.588-07:00Second volume of The Gundestrup Cauldron: a new theory is now published<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qla1N7usWfk/WJCtQk-cvbI/AAAAAAAAGt4/fcBhhXNUch4-5J2H0BYBjDkb-ZZ9uH1TgCLcB/s1600/Design02a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qla1N7usWfk/WJCtQk-cvbI/AAAAAAAAGt4/fcBhhXNUch4-5J2H0BYBjDkb-ZZ9uH1TgCLcB/s400/Design02a.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he second volume of The Gundestrup Cauldron: a new theory, series examines the context of the cauldron imagery within Celtic and Greek iconography and history and the nature of the classical influences that led to the emergence of early Celtic art. Fully illustrated and contains an appendix with photographs all of the Gundestrup cauldron plates shown in the previous volume.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>t is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MUG6JBP" target="_blank">available on Amazon for preview and purchase, or read free with Kindle Unlimited</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he third volume: Symbols of Transformation, will be out soon.
<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2015/09/coydog-community-page.html" target="_blank">John's Coydog Community page</a></b></span>
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John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-41062168346025250742017-01-20T07:41:00.003-07:002017-03-24T11:45:44.123-06:00The Gundestrup Cauldron: a new theory. Volume 1 now available<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RSkn7R3zS-w/WIIfr9hA59I/AAAAAAAAGtI/_xuS4DeDjbEhX2R76pnQ1cgvk2l15NAagCLcB/s1600/Design01a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RSkn7R3zS-w/WIIfr9hA59I/AAAAAAAAGtI/_xuS4DeDjbEhX2R76pnQ1cgvk2l15NAagCLcB/s400/Design01a.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
The first volume is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N7U41AG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01N7U41AG&linkCode=as2&tag=pasttimesan04-20&linkId=fd6421297aa233a34e614f3175672188">now available on Amazon Kindle</a>. the remaining two volumes are still in the editing stages and will be available in the next month or so.<br />
<br />
"This volume contains all the basic information for the
dating of the original vessel; its place of manufacture, and the meaning of its
imagery. Essentially, this is all that has been attempted in previous studies
although such studies have also ignored many details and used only some of the
imagery to support their theories. No motifs are ignored in this study,
although a few are so ubiquitous as to have several interpretations and I do
mention other alternatives for these. None of the interpretations of the motifs,
however, are unconnected with the narrative themes of the whole."<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-24649903270185485452017-01-06T08:22:00.002-07:002017-01-06T08:43:56.162-07:00The Gundestrup Cauldron: a new theory<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ha7jSGq4jSA/WG-zJHluofI/AAAAAAAAGso/d5JxGIcGytsi7uj4Jx-eRXOOjTdR560eACLcB/s1600/covers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ha7jSGq4jSA/WG-zJHluofI/AAAAAAAAGso/d5JxGIcGytsi7uj4Jx-eRXOOjTdR560eACLcB/s640/covers.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Covers for all three volumes</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">M</span>ost of the writing of all three volumes is complete. I only have a couple more introductions and the concluding chapters of all three volumes to write and perhaps a couple of editing runs. As the book was getting rather too large for a popular ebook, I divided it, quite naturally, into three separate stand-alone volumes. Once I have completed each volume it will be available on Amazon Kindle. I do not anticipate more than a month between each issue, and the price of each volume will be $9.99 US.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As a small preview, here is the Introduction for all three volumes:<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yu6CCkyhBL0/WG-x2pnsarI/AAAAAAAAGsg/Ag7nyom7OckfFnaF-oj9PLqz2-y83SbpwCLcB/s1600/Gundestrupkarret_F.I.7074b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yu6CCkyhBL0/WG-x2pnsarI/AAAAAAAAGsg/Ag7nyom7OckfFnaF-oj9PLqz2-y83SbpwCLcB/s400/Gundestrupkarret_F.I.7074b.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoCaption">
<i>Figure <!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>SEQ Figure \* ARABIC
<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]-->1<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-no-proof:
yes'><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span></span><![endif]-->: The Gundestrup Cauldron.</i></div>
<div class="MsoCaption">
<i>Photo: <a href="http://en.natmus.dk/">Nationalmuseet</a>, Copenhagen, Denmark</i><o:p></o:p></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Gundestrup cauldron was found in 1891 by peat cutters at
the Rævemose bog near the village of Gundestrup in Himmerland, Denmark.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The vessel is silver with some gilding and glass inlays
(used in the eyes of some figures). It was found dismantled and appears to have
been deposited before the bog had formed at that location. It is not complete:
parts of the rim are missing as is one of the decorative plates, and it shows
signs of having been repaired. Its reconstruction is largely hypothetical. The
silver used in its construction comes from multiple batches of recycled metal
as might be expected. The tin used to solder the plates and to attach the glass
eyes was very pure and consistent with British (Cornish) tin. This suggests to
me that the cauldron was constructed in its final form in northern Europe and
most likely in Gaul, although its original construction would have been far
distant. There are five rectangular interior plates, seven shorter rectangular
exterior plates (originally eight) and a circular bottom plate which appear to be a recycled phalera.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The style of the decoration is native Thracian and the
subjects of the decoration combine Celtic
and Greek iconography, the latter with, sometimes, Thracian variation. Many of
the repoussé decorative elements are connected by a background of chased or
engraved decoration in the form of the Dionysian ivy scroll and there is also
some (tonal) parallel hatching.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the years, there have
been two main theories about its origin: that it was Gaulish made or that it
was a Thracian product made for Celtic patrons. My study validates the latter
although for the place of its manufacture and its date, I am in complete
disagreement, and claim that the evidence presented here all indicates that its
original form took place at a Thracian silversmith’s workshop situated in
northern Italy most likely in the early second quarter of the 3<sup>rd</sup>
century BC, but certainly sometime during the 84 years between 275 and 191 BC.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Only one previous study has presented a linked narrative for
the meanings of the decorative plate iconography. This is Garrett S. Olmsted, <b>The Gundestrup cauldron: its archaeological
context, the style and iconography of its
portrayed motifs and their narration of a Gaulish version of Táin Bó Cúailnge</b>,
Brussels, 1979. As the Irish epic refers to events of the 1<sup>st</sup>
century AD and probably did not appear in a written form much before the 8<sup>th</sup>
century AD we can safely believe that the story would have undergone several
changes since even the later estimates of the cauldron’s manufacture and
Olmsted’s title might be misunderstood as the story being a Gaulish <i>interpretation</i> of an earlier Irish epic
rather than the Irish epic being a later, syncretized, telling of a Gaulish
myth. In not paying due attention to the role of the bull in Thracian and Greek
mythology and understanding that any syncretism includes both classical and
Celtic components, Olmsted places the figures of the bull in the wrong context.
However, this does not mean that other elements
of the Irish epic might be tracked back through other imagery on the cauldron,
even though tracing Medieval written accounts of Celtic subjects backwards to
their pre-Roman period origins is a very risky business. It is far safer to
project early myths forward to later usages, and this is what I do in this
series (although not in this volume). Even so, the method must be used with
extreme care because syncretism can take unexpected twists and turns.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my interpretation of the linked narratives, I am not just using mythological elements but am also
including mythological expressions of actual historical events experienced by
the patrons of the Thracian silversmiths.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In matters of style and the forms of what is depicted on the
plates, I am also including regional and time-sensitive data and identifying
several local models that were used by the Thracian silversmiths for reference.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This volume contains all the basic information for the
dating of the original vessel; its place of manufacture, and the meaning of its
imagery. Essentially, this is all that has been attempted in previous studies
although such studies have also ignored many details and used only some of the
imagery to support their theories. No motifs are ignored in this study,
although a few are so ubiquitous as to have several interpretations and I do
mention other alternatives for these. None of the motifs, however, are
unconnected with the narrative themes of the whole.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second volume: <i>Context</i>,
places the subjects and mythological themes of the Gundestrup cauldron within
the artistic, religious and historical aspects of the time and place of its
manufacture and includes both Greek and Celtic elements. It also reveals what
classical elements were adopted by the Celts in their La Tène art; why this was
done, and how the art-style, itself, indicates important syncretistic changes
in their society and religion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The third volume: <i>Symbols
of Transformation</i> takes the archetypal psychological factors and shows how
these images evolved from the Palaeolithic to the themes expressed in the
Gundestrup cauldron and beyond that right up to the present-day expressions of
these same themes. Interdisciplinary, Jungian,
and Postmodern, it also includes the psychology of the observer as an important
factor in the way that the Gundestrup cauldron has been studied, and the
importance (and unimportance) placed on its various aspects in these studies
and the reasons for such.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like the layers of an onion, each volume will present a
deeper understanding, but any of them will serve as a stand-alone reference for
anyone who has an interest in their contents.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2015/09/coydog-community-page.html" target="_blank">John's Coydog Community page</a></b></span>
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-6451244104187585962017-01-05T15:43:00.002-07:002017-01-14T12:17:32.536-07:00New type: two plastic style ring-headed pins of the middle La Tène<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KESnGXZTkMo/WG6p8Gi8LHI/AAAAAAAAGqc/u4rY9VzHshoee1ZM9Z0wFcNaPaI2jdkuACLcB/s1600/Group.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KESnGXZTkMo/WG6p8Gi8LHI/AAAAAAAAGqc/u4rY9VzHshoee1ZM9Z0wFcNaPaI2jdkuACLcB/s400/Group.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Objects featured in this post</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1: plastic style pin 11.4 cm</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2: plastic style pin 4.1 cm</b></b><br />
<b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3: pseudo-filigree fibula</b></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>
</b></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><b>all central European, 3rd Cent. BC, pers. coll.</b></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>
</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> purchased No 1. at a Timeline Auction last August. It had been <a href="https://www.sixbid.com/browse.html?auction=2352&category=46678&lot=1988772" target="_blank">previously offered</a> but had failed to reach its reserve price. I knew at once that it was in the rare plastic style and was eager to add this to my single, and <a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2013/08/important-new-example-of-british-early.html" target="_blank">only British example of the style</a>. The British Museum has only <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3595038&partId=1" target="_blank">a single example of this style</a> and it is also central European: a linchpin terminal (Bohemian workshop). from the auction photograph. I was puzzled by the "spike" issuing from the top of the pin, but when it arrived I noticed a very small indentation at the back of the head (situated in the middle of the small light green patina patch visible in the photograph below.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qdcTcEhK4mc/WG6y0fYh4gI/AAAAAAAAGqs/_UAA5MmtYxoCVoT44td42fHs_mUIsNumgCLcB/s1600/1back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qdcTcEhK4mc/WG6y0fYh4gI/AAAAAAAAGqs/_UAA5MmtYxoCVoT44td42fHs_mUIsNumgCLcB/s320/1back.jpg" width="177" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>No. 1 back<br />(click to enlarge all photos)</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> realized that the top had originally bent backwards to meet the head and that the indentation had been caused by the pressure of it pressing on the head.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> sent a set of photos to Vincent Megaw saying that I believed the pin to be from a Bohemian workshop. He replied saying that it might equally have come from France. He is currently finishing the text of a supplement to Paul Jacobsthal's Early Celtic Art and has access to previously unpublished examples of the plastic style. The type was new to him.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">F</span>ollowing are other views:<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-COjjyaiUJvU/WG63RurTkNI/AAAAAAAAGrE/f3cMsDxXhm895vGgt48Pl4H49KY__UYvwCLcB/s1600/1side.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-COjjyaiUJvU/WG63RurTkNI/AAAAAAAAGrE/f3cMsDxXhm895vGgt48Pl4H49KY__UYvwCLcB/s320/1side.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="168" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1: side</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GPhAlbh0e-4/WG63zT7lgGI/AAAAAAAAGrM/-0l_cIrDYCMXdDFdpWm8fi84w1SCO-BhQCLcB/s1600/1top.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GPhAlbh0e-4/WG63zT7lgGI/AAAAAAAAGrM/-0l_cIrDYCMXdDFdpWm8fi84w1SCO-BhQCLcB/s200/1top.jpg" width="171" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1: top</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XoOSeT8yq_M/WG62u5DlbmI/AAAAAAAAGq4/iI-kKLkTx0ECHtOhPx1nXft6ocSMuD6kACLcB/s1600/1front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XoOSeT8yq_M/WG62u5DlbmI/AAAAAAAAGq4/iI-kKLkTx0ECHtOhPx1nXft6ocSMuD6kACLcB/s320/1front.jpg" width="219" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1: front</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wyUU7eKebds/WG625J8hrSI/AAAAAAAAGq8/WiN4YOuxEqsyqiSV_HMAKQx3VxxqijWoQCLcB/s1600/1front3q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wyUU7eKebds/WG625J8hrSI/AAAAAAAAGq8/WiN4YOuxEqsyqiSV_HMAKQx3VxxqijWoQCLcB/s320/1front3q.jpg" width="193" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1: 3/4 front</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">S</span>everal months later, I noticed another example of the type for sale on an Ebay auction from the U.K. It was part of a lot of three artifacts and so I bought that lot as well. Although the seller was in Britain, the items he had for sale were fairly consistent with objects I saw that were offered from Serbian sellers. The new pin (No. 2.) was much smaller and although most of the lower part of the pin was missing, it had a complete top ring. While No 1 had four curls or comma shapes each terminating in a round boss, No. 2 had only three and the back was plain. Otherwise, the design was very similar. See below for different views of No. 2.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cageAsbZ1WU/WG68MRMC9HI/AAAAAAAAGrc/DWaPkNnUtNUK-NziUk6Sx8xlRMv17bCJQCLcB/s1600/2top.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cageAsbZ1WU/WG68MRMC9HI/AAAAAAAAGrc/DWaPkNnUtNUK-NziUk6Sx8xlRMv17bCJQCLcB/s200/2top.jpg" width="194" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>2: top</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_rWuSpTblZY/WG68qIiQ3EI/AAAAAAAAGrg/zd-V9ymabe4c5k83Bf3aYXqNq0Pb15YOgCLcB/s1600/2front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_rWuSpTblZY/WG68qIiQ3EI/AAAAAAAAGrg/zd-V9ymabe4c5k83Bf3aYXqNq0Pb15YOgCLcB/s320/2front.jpg" width="168" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>2: front</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r1zRtXeH-3w/WG69UuNE-FI/AAAAAAAAGrs/l4w7LLIrShsVg4k24sAr1_vr7aI_v9nbgCLcB/s1600/2side.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r1zRtXeH-3w/WG69UuNE-FI/AAAAAAAAGrs/l4w7LLIrShsVg4k24sAr1_vr7aI_v9nbgCLcB/s320/2side.jpg" width="143" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>2: side</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j3ov0j-vXM4/WG69yDgZsNI/AAAAAAAAGr0/eLoKcU-j35wI2mqXwVvs8RH4p5cJSULHwCLcB/s1600/2back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j3ov0j-vXM4/WG69yDgZsNI/AAAAAAAAGr0/eLoKcU-j35wI2mqXwVvs8RH4p5cJSULHwCLcB/s320/2back.jpg" width="157" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>2: back</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>nother object in the Ebay lot provided a clue to the second pin's origins. I reasoned that the items in the lot most likely had all come from the same country, and while the second item in the lot was rare, the type had been well recorded with <a href="https://www.academia.edu/1240283/Middle_La_Tene_female_grave_56_from_Bre%C5%BEice_Slovenia._In_Gu%C5%A1tin_and_Jevti%C4%87_The_Eastern_Celts_" target="_blank">details of the locations of archaeological sites where they had been found</a>. It was a pseudo-filigree fibula of the later 3rd cent. BC. See photos below:<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d0tt-CuBmvo/WG7A_qli1sI/AAAAAAAAGsE/9VJVEwf00N4jB5atzQNvPmdaiE0k_ZAdQCLcB/s1600/3front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="114" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d0tt-CuBmvo/WG7A_qli1sI/AAAAAAAAGsE/9VJVEwf00N4jB5atzQNvPmdaiE0k_ZAdQCLcB/s200/3front.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>3: front</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-thcGsuz7J7g/WG7BKbdnwJI/AAAAAAAAGsI/z0aPY9-HM-kvfL_3HQg2BMvXNpsUGXfxQCLcB/s1600/3back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="105" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-thcGsuz7J7g/WG7BKbdnwJI/AAAAAAAAGsI/z0aPY9-HM-kvfL_3HQg2BMvXNpsUGXfxQCLcB/s200/3back.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>3: back</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JpPdaLg9Mis/WG7Bh4zdepI/AAAAAAAAGsM/uSbGfAROnwMPUqovH9sHkMV2fNPQiCLdQCLcB/s1600/3side.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="92" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JpPdaLg9Mis/WG7Bh4zdepI/AAAAAAAAGsM/uSbGfAROnwMPUqovH9sHkMV2fNPQiCLdQCLcB/s200/3side.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>3: side</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he archaeological site finds (24) of the pseudo-filigree fibula are as follows: Hungary (29.17%), Slovenia (25%), Serbia (16.7%) , Slovakia (8.33%), Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Romania and Czech Republic (all 4.17%). Another clue (for what it is worth) is that the British seller had a Hungarian first name and a variation of a Slovak last name.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>his broad region of central Europe was very active in the time of the plastic style and it was not just members of tribes from the style's homeland which runs from Bavaria to Bohemia who were present, but also Gauls from the Champagne area of France were there too. I once saw a complete grave set from Romania that had exact parallels with every object with items in the Morel collection (Champagne) in the British Museum.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>here are no problems with the legalities of these items as although many of the source countries mentioned in the paper which discusses the pseudo-filigree type have export restrictions, Canada will only recognize claims for objects that have only a single country where they are found. With this lot, there are no records at all for the plastic style pins and the pseudo-filigree fibula is found in at least nine countries, and probably more. Some countries do not follow the letter of the law. For example, the U.S. has seized objects of types that are found in a number of modern countries deciding this on place of manufacture rather than where found. These extra-legal actions could be due to ignorance by archaeologists and/or customs officials and even perhaps even nefarious motives of politicians. Early Celtic art spans a great number of modern countries and finds can be scattered over vast distances from any known homeland of a style. In a number of cases, workshops, themselves, move locations. The first example of the plastic style in my collection (a sword pommel) is a case in point: It was from the workshop of a probable Bohemian master who moved to Britain and succeeded in changing the evolution of British Celtic art.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>here was a time that I believed I would never get an example of the plastic style for my collection. With three items now, I seem to specialize in it!
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2015/09/coydog-community-page.html" target="_blank">John's Coydog Community page</a></b></span>
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-68691394674201572972016-09-15T12:11:00.000-06:002016-09-19T11:46:06.046-06:00Change of direction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V0yRM8NkwQw/V-AkK2F4qOI/AAAAAAAAGpU/FG1pDQ89mNox4BuKOBrN9pdx0YW8pHG2QCLcB/s1600/Gundestrup_Cauldron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="502" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V0yRM8NkwQw/V-AkK2F4qOI/AAAAAAAAGpU/FG1pDQ89mNox4BuKOBrN9pdx0YW8pHG2QCLcB/s640/Gundestrup_Cauldron.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gundestrup cauldron<br />1899 published engraving by J. Magnus Petersen from his 1891 pencil drawing</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>his will be the last of my regularly scheduled posts on this blog. Instead of one post per weekday, I will be posting only infrequently, and mainly about additions to my collection of early Celtic art (another one is on the way to me) and news about Tristan, the world's most famous coyote hybrid (coydog) whose main post now has 10,464 page views from all continents save for Antarctica, and is the number one result in quite a number of Google searches about coydogs. You can always enter your email address in the "Follow by Email" widget at the top of the left sidebar and Google will let you know when a new post appears. I will continue to reply to any comments I publish and will add any pictures of other coydogs that their owners would like to see here, and give any training tips that are requested.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>nstead of writing this blog, my mornings will now be taken up with writing more books. Three are planned and there will probably be more to come. Foremost among these will be a major work on the Gundestrup cauldron. Vincent Megaw calls the cauldron "The most illustrated piece in all European prehistory" and yet there has never before been a very detailed and specific interdisciplinary study of it. My study will include art-historical and iconographic analyses that will reveal how the images are connected and the pattern of the syncretism between Greek and Celtic beliefs and mythology. It will also identify certain historical events that are symbolized in its iconography; present a much earlier dating for its manufacture and clearly show why, although it was made by Thracian silversmiths, their workshop was located in Italy. The book will appear as an ebook on Amazon, but I might publish paperback and/or hard cover editions as well. It is a project that has been far too long in the making and has already received very favorable comments in discussions I have had, such as this one from Professor Raimund Karl:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"This your theory about the Gundestrup cauldron date, origins & imagery I actually like quite a lot, and find quite convincing. I'd have to follow Vincent Megaw on this, it is definitely one of the most convincing theories about the origins & meanings of the Gundestrup cauldron I have seen so far! In fact, I may go even further and say that - without going through the other main theories again with a fine comb and comparing them to yours - it may even be the most convincing proposed so far!"</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">F</span>or more than three years I have been writing this blog. This is the 775th post and as of yesterday, its total word count is 673,253. That is the equivalent of about seven Ph.D. theses or eight mystery novels on average. My writing speed is about the same as that of Stephen King. This blog has been an interesting project and I am convinced that a regular writing schedule will completely eliminate "writer's block". Over time, it has seemed to me that the posts were writing themselves and I have just been the vehicle. It is has been said that the best way to learn anything is to write a book about it. I think that the same might be true for blogging. I have learned much and I hope that you have too.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>hank you for reading and for your support, and have an inspired life.
<br />
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-77101924294918476612016-09-14T11:54:00.000-06:002016-09-14T11:54:06.976-06:00The "cultural heritage" group neurosis: conclusion<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LT68KQzlge4/V9l2b_T9TBI/AAAAAAAAGoU/JN81X5g68C4SB1Pbrxi3J_ZO6qIZRDO9QCLcB/s1600/Hive_Mind_%25282067467%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LT68KQzlge4/V9l2b_T9TBI/AAAAAAAAGoU/JN81X5g68C4SB1Pbrxi3J_ZO6qIZRDO9QCLcB/s1600/Hive_Mind_%25282067467%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hive_Mind_(2067467).jpg" target="_blank">Hive Mind</a><br />an emergent metaphor<br />ants creating a cortex in the sugar jar.<br />Photo and caption: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/2067467/" target="_blank">Steve Jurvetson</a></b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>s "cultural heritage a neurosis? Not exactly: it is a weasel phrase that is passed as a meme. In its common applications, though, it is a neurosis and it has been used to create all manner of ills. It freezes cultural evolution into fixed moments of no change so we can say that it is as anti-evolutionary as creationism. Evolution favours change. We can see that clearly in the brain with pleasure-creating chemicals being created after new discoveries and experiences and these same chemicals being diminished by the repetition of the same event that caused them.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">F</span>reezing a point in cultural evolution has made the Athenian Acropolis look like the aftermath of a battleground. Everything that showed change has been removed and there is nothing that shows origins either. Most of history has been eradicated to isolate a single expression. It is more like a demonstration of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle" target="_blank">Heisenberg's uncertainty principle</a>. We have location but no momentum.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he term, itself, has no long history: <a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cultural+heritage&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=1&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ccultural%20heritage%3B%2Cc0" target="_blank">apart from some isolated occurrences in the nineteenth century, it is a twentieth century phenomenon, gaining its momentum mainly since the First World War</a>. Its biggest dip was in the first half of the eighties with the emergence of postmodernism which had emphasized individual viewpoints and the power of subjectivity. But a meme resists inspection being a mind virus. It vanishes when thought gets applied and there are so many agencies in the world that really do not want you to think but only follow. The hive mind is the <a href="http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/collectiveconsciousness.htm" target="_blank">collective consciousness</a> with, as Jung said, "its wretched "isms" that can launch wars and destruction.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">C</span>ultural heritage is said to belong to everyone, but when restrictions are placed on any personal ownership of it , it really belongs to no one apart from those who want to control. It is another expression of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie" target="_blank">Big Lie</a>.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>ll of the great discoveries have been made by individuals, but the only individual in the hive is the queen and it is her job (in the case of bees) to make workers and drones. Physical, species, evolution can dispense with intelligence. take the example of the shark: a very efficient killing, eating and breeding machine. But we have evolved in a different direction since we lost our our big teeth and powerful jaws. The universe, itself, seems to be evolving and the latest thoughts in quantum physics are about the universe, itself, being conscious and evolving organic life to experience that consciousness. The evolution of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microtubule" target="_blank">microtubules</a> in which quantum events can take place because their very small size restricts <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_decoherence" target="_blank">quantum decoherence</a> gives support to this idea.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">F</span>or the real discoverers within cultural studies (and this includes a great number of collectors who have populated the world's museums with the "raw material" for their thinking processes now, unfortunately. mostly isolated from view as you can only display so much), their subject is their vocation. I will leave you with what Jung says about vocation:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Vocation, or the feeling of it, is not, however, the prerogative of great personalities; it is also appropriate to the small ones all the way down to the “midget” personalities, but as the size decreases the voice becomes more and more muffled and unconscious. It is as if the voice of the daemon within were moving further and further off, and spoke more rarely and more indistinctly. The smaller the personality, the dimmer and more unconscious it becomes, until finally it merges indistinguishably with the surrounding society, thus surrendering its own wholeness and dissolving into the wholeness of the group. In the place of the inner voice there is the voice of the group with its conventions, and vocation is replaced by collective necessities. But even in this unconscious social condition there are not a few who are called awake by the summons of the voice, whereupon they are at once set apart from the others, feeling themselves confronted with a problem about which the others know nothing. In most cases it is impossible to explain to the others what has happened, for any understanding is walled off by impenetrable prejudices."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
C. G. Jung, Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 17: <b>Development of Personality</b> (p. 176). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>omorrow, an important announcement to all the readers of this blog.
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-avU_kPgpI2E/V9gp0eeaEgI/AAAAAAAAGoE/305KVMt_LOs6171abcYnANywYCnma5XxQCLcB/s1600/Goya_-_Caprichos_%252840%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-avU_kPgpI2E/V9gp0eeaEgI/AAAAAAAAGoE/305KVMt_LOs6171abcYnANywYCnma5XxQCLcB/s400/Goya_-_Caprichos_%252840%2529.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>"¿De qué mal morirá?" (What will he die from?)<br />Francisco Goya (1746–1828), Los Caprichos (40)</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>For the GroupThink chart, <a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2016/08/the-cultural-heritage-group-neurosis-19.html" target="_blank">see section (i) in 31st August post</a></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Box D: Symptoms of Defective Decision Making</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>1. Incomplete survey of alternatives.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>2. Incomplete survey of objectives.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>3. Failure to examine risks of preferred choice.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>4. Failure to reappraise rejected choices.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>5. Poor information search.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>6. Selective information bias.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>7. Failure to contingency plan.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">S</span>ometimes the treatment is worse than the complaint. Box D posits a relatively ordered situation and then reveals the manifestations of GroupThink which confound the result. In our situation, not only are the mechanics of cultural heritage misunderstood because it was engineered as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak" target="_blank">newspeak</a>, but the word <i>culture</i> is given the outdated nationalist meaning, and not even the also outdated ethnic meaning (as far as UNESCO is concerned, it is entirely up to the political leadership of any nation which ethnic groups are protected and which are neglected or even destroyed). We have seen how Celtic culture was defined from an outside perspective using criteria where "faulty" would be a compliment. For example, it was stated that as the British had round houses and the Gauls had rectangular houses the British were not Celts. It was not stated, however, that the traditions of these forms of houses pre-dated the La Tène Celtic cultures by thousands of years. But GroupThink creates gullibility and people bought it. So a common Celtic language was dismissed because language was said not to be a reliable gauge of culture, but house styles were! It got even stranger and there are actually people out there who believe that English was being spoken in Britain before the Romans arrived. All of these cultural definitions can be identified as <b>6. Selective information bias</b>.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he subheading <b>2. Incomplete survey of objectives</b> would be better placed as the first consideration in the subject of cultural heritage matters because various groups have different objectives and some of these actually have no bearing on culture except as a means to an end. For example, the United States memoranda of Understanding have the objective (to the State Department) of using cultural matters in order to gain political/economic advantages from other nations. The other party agrees to something which is not revealed to the American people and that is considered a state secret which has been held inviolate by the courts. The American people do not know if they get to set up more military bases in the partnering country or if it is a matter of Monsanto being allowed more freedoms there. Sometimes things leak out, though. A Memorandum of Understanding with Mexico, many years ago was signed so that Mexico would extend its contract with the U.S. to return stolen cars. The terms used in the formation of committees such as "stakeholders" also give an impression of a business bias to the proceedings, but business is just one part of any culture. It is one of a myriad cultural frames and these are often called cultures themselves e.g., "Hip-Hop culture". Sometimes, the business side <i>is </i>emphasized and called an <i>industry. </i>e.g., "the tourist industry". Often though, the larger picture of infrastructure is not well-considered and it has been noted that while tourist money can go to an attraction, when factors such as traffic problems are included, the benefits are not as good as they seemed. Without really knowing the specifics of <b>2</b>, then <b>1. </b><b>Incomplete survey of alternatives</b>, could well follow cultural topics even when culture has nothing at all to do with the motive because it is just one means to the end. Thus, also, <b>3. Failure to examine risks of preferred choice</b> and <b> </b><b>4. Failure to reappraise rejected choices</b>, could well omit some very important data as not only are the various visible options not examined properly, but there are possibly all sorts of other choices that are completely unknown except to a few who are not talking at all.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">S</span>ubheadings <b>5. Poor information search</b>, and<b> </b><b>6. Selective information bias</b>, could be reversed as any information bias will lead to a poor information search. there is a great example of this with a cultural heritage GroupThink access to archives of photographs of antiquities which had been in the possession of dealers convicted of buying from tomb robbers. These archives are not accessible by auction houses and dealers and are used to force these business to return such objects to other nations and at the same time give ammunition for their critics to blame them for a lack of "due diligence". The word "entrapment" springs to mind, but the underlying motive is to bring suspicion to trade, because trade focuses on individual possession rather than state possession.<br />
<br /><b></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">F</span>inally, <b>7. Failure to contingency plan</b>, must also recognize what actually might then happen if the the chosen plans go through. The view, however is so myopic that contingencies, in our topic, are to things that are also invisible. That will be part of my conclusion to this series which will start tomorrow.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f-JWVbzkYGU/V9ay3ADCh4I/AAAAAAAAGnw/nSofgho-a3Q725kkY-ydEMXgYKZTcCoGwCLcB/s1600/Odd_Man_Out_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1465070.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f-JWVbzkYGU/V9ay3ADCh4I/AAAAAAAAGnw/nSofgho-a3Q725kkY-ydEMXgYKZTcCoGwCLcB/s320/Odd_Man_Out_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1465070.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Odd_Man_Out_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1465070.jpg" target="_blank">Odd man out</a>. Photo: <a href="http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/4942" target="_blank">Martin Addison</a></span></b></td></tr>
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<b>For the GroupThink chart, <a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2016/08/the-cultural-heritage-group-neurosis-19.html" target="_blank">see section (i) in 31st August post</a></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Box C3: Uniformity Pressures</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>a) Self-censorship.</b><br />
<b>b) Direct pressure.</b><br />
<b>c) Mindguards.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he solitary cormorant sits on a post with a chain connected to something. The gulls sit on posts with chains that go nowhere; the only thing connecting them is their sameness. They are interchangeable. I remember being fascinated by a solitary cormorant among all the gulls when I was small boy looking out from the top of a cliff on the south coast of England. It even appears in my novel. Perhaps it became my spirit-animal. Mind you, <a href="http://www.peirce.org/writings/p27.html" target="_blank">a cable is much stronger than a chain when it comes to reasoning</a>.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">U</span>niformity pressures connect cultural heritage protectionists and not only are their products generic, but the same words and phrases appear again and again. They are often weasel words, too; having no real meaning in their application, they cannot be refuted. This sort of thing comes out of, common, archaeological writing: words like status; display; trade; and ritual; terms that can be used whenever anyone cannot really analyse something. The dullness of uniformity feeds back to the culture as well: fixing it motionless in a bygone era where, as an encapsulated idea, it serves only the politician as an exemplar for often only self-serving motives. When cultures cannot change and borrow from each other, they become extinct.<br />
<br />
<b>a) Self-censorship.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> remember being told about a lecture given about Celtic iconography where the speaker felt obliged to use the term "European Iron Age" instead of Celtic. It was obviously a painful thing for that speaker, partially, as its generality made it meaningless. Greece, too, was part of the European Iron Age. The Celts had no Muses and the Greeks no Morrigan. The use of iron never changed the spirit: It was matter, not mind. Without self-censorship, one could go against the group and might never again be invited to lecture in its halls.<br />
<br />
<b>b) Direct pressure.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> ran into Euan MacKie at the 1999 Bournemouth meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists where I was scheduled to give a talk and I asked him about his, then, recent difficulties in having one of his papers rejected by the Prehistoric Society. It was done so not because there was anything wrong with its data, but because it was on Archaeoastronomy and they didn't believe in that. I told him that it might be interesting to hear them explain the roof-box at Newgrange without any reference to that subject. It's not so much that they never mentioned archaeoastronomy, its just that they only published things that were critical of its findings. A bit like the AIA never publishing a post 1970 antiquity that is in a private collection unless the paper is to warn against looting. At least, with the <i>National Enquirer</i>, you know (or should do) that its content is nonsense.<br />
<br />
<b>c) Mindguards.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>hese are the self-appointed members of the group who protect the group from any ideas that might be contrary to its dictates. I often criticize collectors or dealers who lump all archaeologist together based on the utterances of such people, but whenever I give examples of bad or mediocre archaeology, any of these mindguards who do mention what I have said attempt to convince their followers that I am against archaeology and/or archaeologists in general. Actually, I hold a few archaeologists in very high regard, just as I hold a few collectors and dealers in very high regard. At the top of any subject of interest there are only a few who add a lot to our understanding, but it takes a very large pool to create that few and if you limit its numbers, you will diminish understanding. You mostly find mindguards in the blogosphere. They never provide anything original and they are interchangeable, differing only in the style of their rhetoric.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3ghzYmkpgoU/V9LTTX39JhI/AAAAAAAAGnY/3bW2hqrWouodiUqAJEJSytbsEr4rPfB4QCLcB/s1600/Salem_Witch_trial_engraving.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3ghzYmkpgoU/V9LTTX39JhI/AAAAAAAAGnY/3bW2hqrWouodiUqAJEJSytbsEr4rPfB4QCLcB/s320/Salem_Witch_trial_engraving.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Salem witch trial</b></span></td></tr>
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<b>For the GroupThink chart, <a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2016/08/the-cultural-heritage-group-neurosis-19.html" target="_blank">see section (i) in 31st August post</a></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Box C2: Symptoms of GroupThink</b><br />
<b><br /></b><b>a) Collective rationalization.</b><br />
<b>b) Stereotypes of outgroups.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he classic example of GroupThink is the Salem witch trials and "witch hunt" has become a common phrase in describing examples of collective rationalization combined with the stereotyping of outgroups. You can find many associations between the Salem witch trials and GroupThink on the web, a good example being <a href="https://socialpsyq.com/2014/10/31/the-salem-witch-trials-groupthink-at-its-worst/" target="_blank">The Salem Witch Trials GroupThink at its worst</a> which is on a blog run by three social psychologists.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>e cannot say that such things are over, and today, ISIS is doing the same thing within a different cultural setting. In fact, condemnations of the actions of ISIS restricted to the destruction of cultural monuments and the alleged income from selling antiquities and coins is being used to fuel another GroupThink movement populated mainly by archaeologists but including supporters from other professions which uses "cultural heritage" as its theme by which to condemn collectors, metal detectorists and dealers. Of course, the latter group are not executing anyone and their methods include misinformation and sweeping generalities; cyber-bullying through blogs and social media like Twitter and Facebook; complaining about their perceived enemies to their employers and the professional/cultural organizations to which they belong and so on. Some of their victims try to do the same thing back to them, but most come to realize that ignoring them completely is the best strategy. As the internet saying goes: "Do not feed the trolls".<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>hen I was doing voluntary work in cult awareness in the early seventies, a common practice in Scientology was to steal books and documents criticizing Scientology from public and university libraries; to gather any useful information on politicians that could be used to threaten them should they condemn Scientology. The most publicized case concerning the harassment of anyone criticizing Scientology was what was done to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulette_Cooper" target="_blank">Paulette Cooper</a>.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">C</span>ollective rationalization and stereotyping outgroups forms a feedback loop which pushes the group to ever-increasing escalation in their methods. While we think that Salem was totally evil, to the minds of those people who were executing suspected witches, killing was justified because of the greater evil they saw as the devil. This justification is very common in GroupThink to this day, as it is in a lot of violent criminal behavior. Sometimes, perpetrators of such behavior even become paranoid and imagine <i>they</i> are being hunted down.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>nother justification is frequently seen among more "moderate" critics of collectors, detectorists, and dealers where they do not engage in crazy behavior <i>themselves</i>, but provide non-critical links on their blogs and web sites to those who do engage in such. One blogger I know of removes excerpts from hate blogs when they are too extreme and replaces such with another excerpt which is less obviously hate-mongering. After a while, though, this selective quotation becomes obvious to most.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>t its most innocuous level, the public, itself, is sometimes stereotyped by archaeologists:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Most individuals in the general public find it extremely difficult to develop their ideas about an alternative past in relation to the data from the past. They are excited by Von Daniken and films such as One Million Years B.C. and Raiders of the Lost Ark, and they develop their personal views about what the past must have been like, but they are kept at a distance from archaeological artifacts by glass cases, systems analyses and the jargon of social theory. When they do manage to gain some access to an immediately experienced past, they are often directly confronted by the archaeological establishment, or else their views are studiously ignored."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ian Hodder, <b>Reading the Past: Current Approaches to Interpretation in Archaeology</b>, Cambridge University Press, 1986, p.163.</blockquote>
It is ironic indeed, that later, Harrison Ford, the star of Raiders of the Lost Ark and other "Indiana Jones" movies <a href="https://www.archaeological.org/news/aianews/282" target="_blank">was elected to the board of the Archaeological Institute of America</a>, one of the two main American archaeological associations which, in their journals, forbid the publication of any ancient object that violates <a href="https://www.archaeological.org/sites/default/files/files/Code%20of%20Ethics%20(2016).pdf" target="_blank">this regulation</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Refuse to participate in the trade in undocumented antiquities and refrain from activities that give sanction, directly or indirectly, to that trade, and to the valuation of such artifacts through authentication, acquisition, publication, or exhibition. Undocumented antiquities are those that are not documented as belonging to a public or private collection before December 30, 1970, when the AIA Council endorsed the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property"</blockquote>
<br />
unless that object is being used to condemn the practice of archaeological looting. So much for objective artifact classification in those journals. You will never see, for example, a classificatory paper on British Celtic coins or antiquities in their publications because a vast number of such objects have been found and recorded by metal detectorists and this activity <i>started</i> in the early seventies. Of course, the India Jones movie plots are all set prior to 1970 so they can be sanctioned.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">H</span>odder's quote separates knowing archaeologists from a public who believes that aliens from outer space built the pyramids and so forth. In actual fact, a large segment of the public, knows quite a lot about archaeological sites and antiquities and laughs at the lack of understanding they often see in archaeological journals and reports on archaeological sites in the press. The idea that a young person armed only with a Ph.D is automatically an expert and that a private collector after decades of experience resulting in a standard work on the subject is a "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoarchaeology" target="_blank">pseudoarchaeologist</a>" who can be lumped with von Däniken is very bizarre. If you read the linked Wikipedia article on pseudoarchaeology and have been paying attention to this blog series and its linked papers, you will see that much of what is blamed on so-called "pseudoarchaeology" is practiced by academic and professional archaeology, itself. For example, the religious nature of archaeological practices as with Raimund Karl's <i><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303373013_Every_sherd_is_sacred_Compulsive_Hoarding_in_Archaeology" target="_blank">Every Sherd is Sacred</a></i>, and most certainly archaeology's political influences. Fortunately, Cornelius Holtorf is quoted at the end to inject a little sanity.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I </span>do have a book planned on the explanation of the freakier aspects of fringe archaeology in modern times and it will include an analysis of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Fell" target="_blank">Barry Fell</a>'s strange theories and why a Harvard professor of invertebrate zoology would suddenly part company with scientific practices. All I can say about it now is that that many who believe that the remedy is more education are actually the main cause of it.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> will continue on Monday. Have a cult-free weekend.
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John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-37486964959654847482016-09-08T13:17:00.002-06:002016-09-08T18:28:49.896-06:00The "cultural heritage" group neurosis 19: GroupThink analysis and examples (vi)<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-30WQSj2TTtk/V9GNLHVC0KI/AAAAAAAAGnA/cPJ2BDepKJkgYEwZNK6YXR0NHaWvkBC2wCLcB/s1600/brains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-30WQSj2TTtk/V9GNLHVC0KI/AAAAAAAAGnA/cPJ2BDepKJkgYEwZNK6YXR0NHaWvkBC2wCLcB/s320/brains.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<b>For the GroupThink chart, <a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2016/08/the-cultural-heritage-group-neurosis-19.html" target="_blank">see section (i) in 31st August post</a></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Box C: Symptoms of GroupThink</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>C2. Closed Mindedness.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">U</span>nlike most governmental, military, or business occurrences of GroupThink, archaeology has some extra dimensions. As a discipline, it is far more theory-laden than other disciplines, even theoretical physics, because it not only follows various general philosophies but adds a number of its own. Of all of its homegrown theories, <i>context</i> is the most idiosyncratic. Instead of using context in its normal, English language, definition, which would be a very sensible thing to do, it picks at its central point, the archaeological site. What is found within the archaeological site are designated as objects, but the site itself is only so designated when a number of related sites are included in any study. Then, it is commonplace for archaeologist to make the claim that an object without the association of the other objects at an archaeological site loses a great deal of its information. However, when the focus is the archaeological site, that information is primarily about the site and not so much about the cultural content of any object within it.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>his is easily demonstrable with all of the cultural property laws which define ownership according to where an object was excavated. Thus a Greek pot in the U.S. that was known to have been discovered in Italy but was made in Athens, if "repatriated", goes back to Italy. Ask yourself where Greek culture is best expressed: Greece or Italy? If the same pot was discovered for sale in the U.S. under suspicious circumstances and the find spot was unknown then it could be repatriated to Greece. The term "cultural property" is illiterate. It is really "national property".<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">F</span>urthermore "culture" is anchored in time and is recognized as its objects being the property of the people <i>currently</i> occupying that modern country. The Elgin Marbles were allowed to leave Athens under the authority of the Ottoman Empire which had occupied Athens between 1458 and 1830 when the Ottomans relinquished their control of the country. Elgin took possession of the marbles in 1801. Yet, quite often, while saying that cultural objects are the "cultural heritage" of the people in the modern nation where the find spots are now located the people are not free to own them. As they belong to "everybody" the state looks after them for the people. In any practical sense, they are state-owned and many of them are not on display for the people to see, and if they want to put a picture of one of them on a T-shirt, its copyright is owned by the State and the State charges its people to depict their own property. The loophole is that a <i>photograph</i> of an object is the copyright of the photographer and only work-for --hire photographers might be allowed to photograph such objects in some jurisdictions. If a photograph is taken by an independent photographer it can then become that photographer's intellectual property (other than in Egypt, apparently). Data, however, is internationally uncopyrightable. So the description of an object does not belong to the author, but the visual image does belong to the photographer unless he is paid by someone else to create the photograph. Many of these laws are in a state of flux, of course. Images of two dimensional objects of a certain age are considered to be public domain, but most often sculpture are not included because they can be photographed "artistically:" from different angles. Bas-reliefs and coins, etc. are a grey area as they can only be properly photographed from the front, just like a painting. I also remember the Museum of London prohibiting people from <i>drawing</i> any of their exhibits. Like Egypt, the ownership of an image of a work of art is now the property of its <i>owner.</i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he cultural content of any object also slips in importance to its material content contexts:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Right from the beginning our position was clear: not until much more was known about the Gundestrup cauldron itself and its material aspects, so to say, would it be sensible to consider such intricate points as age, origin(s) and cultural setting(s) of this unique artefact."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Svend Nielsen, in the introduction to: <i><a href="https://www.academia.edu/1631111/THE_GUNDESTRUP_CAULDRON_New_Scientific_and_Technical_Investigations" target="_blank">The Gundestrup Cauldron: New Scientific and Technical Investigations</a></i>, (various authors), Acta Archaeologica vol. 76, 2005, pp. 1–58</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Y</span>et many of these considerations are about the environment of the find and materials that might well be much more recent than the cauldron in its original form by way of being additions, repairs, replacement parts etc. A good example being the beeswax backing of the plates. The real <i>cultural</i> content of the cauldron being both the art and the iconography. Its geographical origins as an object, are considered to be Thracian as the workmanship is certainly in the native Thracian style. It is still not understood by archaeology in general that artists followed markets rather than that their clients went to visit them, or obtained the object through "trade". In some cases, this is well-known. for example a great number of eastern Greek artisans moved to Etruscan Italy (which was already quite a cosmopolitan centre) to escape from the Persian domination of Asia Minor. Much of the genesis of early Celtic art owes much to the styles of such people that they brought with them. In Britain, trade is dismissed by Martyn Jope for the arrival of Early Celtic art there because of the lack of continental examplars and he says that it arrived in the hands and minds of artists trained in continental workshops. The Witham shield, for example contains southern Italian workmanship. There are a number of objects of Etruscan and/or Italian origin that have been found in bogs in Denmark, including the same bog where the cauldron was found. In my forthcoming book on the subject I will not only give very strong evidence for its manufacture in northern Italy by immigrant Thracian craftsmen, but will also fully interpret the iconography as a unified theme with Dionysian and Celtic syncretism expressed in Thracian styles using many Italian models. I will also tie this into the recorded history of ancient Italy and identify the various cultural groups involved in events that are symbolized on the cauldron, a record of such objects leaving Italy, and the date of the cauldron estimated to within about twenty years in the first half of the third century BC, but proven to be within a range of about 90 years. <i>None of this could be determined by using the scientific methods deemed most important in the above paper and the correct results could not even follow from such evidence.</i> Vincent Megaw thought my ideas were "better than most" and Raimund Karl, after I discussed them in depth with him, said:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"This your theory about the Gundestrup cauldron date, origins & imagery I actually like quite a lot, and find quite convincing. I'd have to follow Vincent Megaw on this, it is definitely one of the most convincing theories about the origins & meanings of the Gundestrup cauldron I have seen so far! In fact, I may go even further and say that - without going through the other main theories again with a fine comb and comparing them to yours - it may even be the most convincing proposed so far!" (<a href="https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A3=ind0802&L=CELTIC-L&E=7bit&P=1411270&B=--&T=text%2Fplain;%20charset=ISO-8859-1" target="_blank">Celtic-L</a>)</blockquote>
But don't worry, Ray and I still have lots of disagreements about related matters so these topics are still very viable. As he says: "ends are usually "dead ends".<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>hile some of the evidence is fairly obscure, a lot of it will seem very obvious to anyone reading it and perhaps they will wonder why none of it was even considered before. I can answer that quite easily: in most archaeological studies materialism is favored far higher than any other factors. Trade is preferred over migrating artisans because the material <i>proofs</i> of the latter are mostly unobtainable: objects can be seen to have moved more easily than people. Art-historical matters are treated with suspicion by many archaeologist as "subjective"and were largely abandoned before art-historical methods became far more objective and mathematically provable (through evolutionary cladistics utilizing overlapping features of many design elements), and of course, mythology is still widely believed, by archaeology to be "primitive science" instead of human psychology-based metaphor. We also have to consider that many archaeologists come to that subject because of their materialistic psychology, the same factor that separates Newtonian, classical, physics from quantum physics (where many even doubt the existence of the material in the extreme microcosm).<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>heories, academic house-styles, and cliques often define sub-groups within archaeology, but how they manage to remain cohesive will be introduced in tomorrow's post which will be on <b>C2a) Collective rationalization, and C2b) Stereotypes of outgroups</b> in the chart.
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John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-85616376142424845102016-09-07T12:18:00.003-06:002016-09-07T16:43:23.088-06:00The "cultural heritage" group neurosis 19: GroupThink analysis and examples (v)<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kYwTDCiesgU/V9AwS07ZXMI/AAAAAAAAGmw/dYHEVpuhB7kF0jGOaDLna6-rSLhVfZVlgCLcB/s1600/Superman_S_symbol.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kYwTDCiesgU/V9AwS07ZXMI/AAAAAAAAGmw/dYHEVpuhB7kF0jGOaDLna6-rSLhVfZVlgCLcB/s320/Superman_S_symbol.svg.png" width="320" /></a><br />
<b>For the GroupThink chart, <a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2016/08/the-cultural-heritage-group-neurosis-19.html" target="_blank">see section (i) in 31st August post</a></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Box C: Symptoms of GroupThink</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>C1. Overestimation of Group.</b><br />
<b>a) illusion of invulnerability</b><br />
<b>b) belief in morality</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>hese two subsections have to be dealt with together with any suzerainty assumed by archaeology over "cultural heritage" but first we have to backtrack a little and remember that culture is an ever-changing thing and that cultures interact with one another and that the information passes in both directions. Moreover, these interactions are initiated by individuals for a wide variety of personal reasons. A couple of examples are when someone in one group arranges a marriage for one of their sons or daughters with someone in another group. This can produce a greater state of allegiance between the two families for economic reasons and/or for protection. When a number of such associations are made between families either of the cultures might decide to cement formal agreements between the cultures. Another example is when two groups with differing religious beliefs are in a position of sharing other relationships (familial, social, economic). A natural outcome is the realization of metaphors as the expression of unique religious histories and the societies gradually become blended, at first through the syncretistic adoption of elements of each religion, and then a greater ability to abstract and symbolize. Ecumenical movements are not just a modern phenomenon but go back in time at least as far as the Neolithic. <a href="https://www.academia.edu/11470159/New_evidence_for_a_professional_priesthood_in_the_European_Early_Bronze_Age" target="_blank">Euan MacKie has seen stone alignments at Maes Howe in the Orkneys that reflect the same festival times as much later Celtic festivals</a>. A segment of archaeology believes that Neolithic stone alignments had a purely scientific purpose and the paper speaks much of this including:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The origin of the idea of “prehistoric science” almost certainly lies in Gerald Hawkins’ Stonehenge Decoded (1965) which, perhaps unwittingly, fostered the idea that this famous site was used as a “Stone Age computer” to keep the calendar in order and to predict eclipses. The author also has to take some of the blame; the title of his book—Science and Society in Prehistoric Britain (MacKie 1977) obviously perpetuated the myth and was ill chosen. By contrast, Colin Renfrew’s Before Civilisation (1973) had a chapter in which he summarized Alexander Thom’s basic discoveries but set them firmly within the real world of simple societies as traces of the religious activities of a professional priesthood of the kind that could be expected to emerge in the chiefdom type of social organization. If everyone the author included had paid more attention to Renfrew’s scenario, the mutual incomprehension that now exists between orthodox British archaeology and archaeoastronomy might not now be as basic as it is."</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">R</span>ather than leaving this situation as an odd phenomenon where one view has been adopted and the other neglected by some sort of happenstance, we really should examine it in its psychological context. We often see projected upon the past the mindset of an archaeological GroupThink. The reason that the religious aspect was neglected was that the assumption of archaeology being scientific was projected on to the material itself. Too often in archaeology, religious matters are gathered together under the term "ritual" and no further analysis is given. We see also, a very large percentage of archaeologists (and scientists) who profess to be atheists rather than agnostics (as might be more expected from people who believe in the importance of proofs). Atheism is a belief in itself and might be expressed as the "religion of materialism". Science took this wrong turn in the seventeenth century and in physics the universe started to consist of everything <i>but</i> Man. In the twentieth century, Einstein was the first physicist who brought Man back into a major theory in the role as "observer" but could not bring himself to go as far as quantum physics where Man becomes an integral part of the Universe. In the Copenhagen interpretation, the observer actually changes reality in the collapse of the wave function, but there is another segment which believes in the contrary many worlds theory where one thing changes or does not change in this universe, but the opposite happens as well and creates a new universe. In other words when we open the box and see Schrödinger's cat is dead, another universe then exists where the cat is alive. The reason for the other theory, I believe, is that some people cannot part with materialism enough to envision a state where a cat is both alive and dead at the same time. Remember it is not a matter of us not knowing whether the cat is alive or dead before we open the box, it is that either event is not realized until we observe it and that includes a situation whereby we open the box and another instrument in the box has recorded that the cat actually died some time <i>before</i> we opened the box. This time was part of the potential, but it did not become a reality before the box was opened. Before we opened the box, the cat was both alive and dead as a potential. Of course, this is a symbolic event as the cat is very much larger than an electron or photon and thus <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_decoherence" target="_blank">decoherence</a> will occur and we will not get any quantum phenomenon.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he funny thing is that an idea might not contain any mass, energy or space, or if it does, the amounts might be minuscule enough to at least severely limit decoherence (We don't know what an idea is, we can only see it registering in the brain and an idea is as much part of the physical brain as a T.V. script is part of the physical television. No matter how carefully we take apart the television set, we will never find the script).<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>n order to maintain and proliferate an idea we have to place great importance on faith and this becomes much easier to do when we create a group to do it. The group develops a greater sense of invulnerability (there is safety in numbers), and it enforces its belief in the creation of fixed morals which, when formalized and studied, become ethics. So strong is the resulting coherence that its members project this to everyone outside of the group. This, in turn, often cannot form itself into a version of the many worlds theory because we are all stuck in a single universe and it cannot take part in a quantum effect because of decoherence (many different ideas are also subject to decoherence in their own part of the universe). The solution that nature takes normally is to embrace such decoherence in the form of syncretism <i>which severely reduces its illusions of materiality.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>o maintain the group it is not only necessary to overestimate the group (size and importance), in order to express invulnerability, and to cement the group together through the creation of<i> </i>morals, it is also necessary to isolate the group from external forces which would bring about decoherence.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> will deal with the methods of this attempt to isolate tomorrow, but you can already see why "cultural heritage" is greatly concerned with fixing cultures and preventing their natural evolution through the psychological projection of GroupThink onto what is being observed. Within this isolation, nothing is allowed to change, even when such actions actually destroy cultures as cultures can only persist and avoid entropy by the reception of new ideas. The same is true in the evolution of ideas. I will leave you for now with a quote in preparation for tomorrow's post:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The goal of these predators is to close your mind to new ideas. You can see this in public discussions, when people argue on different sides of a controversial issue. In such discussions the focus of the participants is never on learning something new, but on protecting their personal bias. Max Planck, the founder of quantum physics, has described this phenomenon. “A new scientific truth,” he wrote, “does normally not prevail in the way that its opponents become convinced and declare that they have learned something, but rather because its opponents eventually die out, and the following generation is familiar with the truth from the outset.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Lothar Schäfer, <b>Infinite Potential: What Quantum Physics Reveals About How We Should Live</b> (Kindle Locations 256-261). Potter/TenSpeed/Harmony. Kindle Edition.</blockquote>
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John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-65779092117129491742016-09-06T11:48:00.001-06:002016-09-06T11:59:06.710-06:00The "cultural heritage" group neurosis 19: GroupThink analysis and examples (iv)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Usb3LZqQX70/V87red1hrrI/AAAAAAAAGmU/-AjfA5YDO-0mbK9qpPVqFiW8i4B5v9mOwCLcB/s1600/320px-US_Army_51713_Title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Usb3LZqQX70/V87red1hrrI/AAAAAAAAGmU/-AjfA5YDO-0mbK9qpPVqFiW8i4B5v9mOwCLcB/s1600/320px-US_Army_51713_Title.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Army_51713_Title.jpg" target="_blank">Students from the University of Mainz take part in an</a></b><br />
<b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Army_51713_Title.jpg" target="_blank">archeological dig for Roman artifacts and ruins</a></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>For the GroupThink chart, <a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2016/08/the-cultural-heritage-group-neurosis-19.html" target="_blank">see section (i) in 31st August post</a></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Box C: Symptoms of GroupThink</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>C1. Overestimation of Group.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>s this series focuses on archaeology's role in cultural heritage matters I thought it would be a good idea to see some numbers on the archaeology profession within the general field of cultural occupations. Being in Canada and thus more familiar and influenced with aspects of culture here, I decided to pick Canadian statistics. I wanted to find out how many archaeologists there here and how that profession stacked up in comparison with other cultural professions in the country. <a href="http://www.hillstrategies.com/content/statistical-profile-artists-and-cultural-workers-canada" target="_blank">A Statistical Profile of Artists and Cultural Workers in Canada (Based on the 2011 National Household Survey and the Labour Force Survey)</a> seemed a good place to start. Searching the page, though, there was no mention of archaeology or archaeologists at all. The closest I got was "Cultural occupations related to libraries, archives, and heritage." and under that heading were two categories:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A341 Library, archive, museum, and art gallery managers.<br />
F112 Technical occupations related to museums and art galleries</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> love irony and it dawned on me that by deciding to search in that document I had overestimated the importance of archaeology in cultural matters. After a little more searching I found out that archaeology is not considered a cultural profession at all and is listed under social sciences. Archaeology's overestimation of its role in cultural heritage seemed to be working on me!<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> finally found archaeology's slot in a Canadian Government document: "Other Professional Occupations in Social Science, n.e.c." with the sub-heading: Unit "Group 4169. Skill Type: Occupations in Social Science, Education, Government Service and Religion.". Under "Examples of Occupational Titles" (alphabetically listed) were:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
anthropologist<br />
archaeologist<br />
criminologist<br />
geographer<br />
gerontologist<br />
historian<br />
linguist<br />
political scientist<br />
psychometrician<br />
psychometrist<br />
sociologist</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he situation did not look for anyone considering a career in archaeology. In the general category where the above professions are included, the report stated:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Most university programs leading to this occupation attract many more candidates than the labour market can absorb. An illustration of this fact is that the employment situation for graduates of these programs, except for criminology, is much worse than for the average graduate, according to the provincial government Relance survey data: a lower placement rate, much higher unemployment rate, much lower salary, very small proportion of graduates working in a field related to their studies, twice as many graduates who continue their studies than graduates with other degrees, etc. In addition, only a small minority of graduates of these programs are in this occupation. The universities train an average of 1800 graduates of bachelor's and master's degrees every year, while it is estimated that the total annual needs in this occupation are less than 50 (see Statistics). Even if the jobs in other occupations related to this training are added, which include teaching jobs, in 2011 barely 20% of graduates with bachelor's degrees, and about three quarters of those with a master's degree considered their job in 2013 to be related to their field of study. Nevertheless, the employment situation for people with a master's degree in this field is better than for those with a bachelor's degree, but they are still clearly worse off than the average graduate with a master's degree. It is unlikely that the poor labour market outlook for graduates in these programs will improve over the next few years."</blockquote>
<br />
With 1800 graduates and the need for 50 jobs, less than 3% of students (about 50 of them) graduating in any year were going to find the sort of job they were looking for. They would mainly have to settle for something "related".<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>here were no statistics for archaeology and criminology was the only category where there was some specificity, probably because it said, earlier: "Actually, job prospects for criminologists are good and job prospects for other specializations have not been determined." Going into the details, things did not look so rosy:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The situation for graduates of criminology programs is similar to that of all university graduates in general. However, between 2001 and 2011, barely 10% of bachelor's and master's graduates in criminology worked as criminologists a year and a half after graduation. They worked in a variety of occupations, mainly in the social sciences. More than half of them held positions as community and social service workers (see 4212) or probation or parole officers (see 4155). Therefore, it seems that to hold a position in this occupation, candidates must first acquire experience in positions related to criminology."</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">P</span>erhaps this explains the recent academic interest in "Cultural Heritage Crimes" and its resulting university courses. So in these matters, the overestimation of the group archaeology in "cultural heritage" is a veritable necessity for personal employment motives. <i>Underestimating</i> its importance would seem to be practically impossible.
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-35566940190038396112016-09-02T13:49:00.000-06:002016-09-02T13:49:47.391-06:00The "cultural heritage" group neurosis 19: GroupThink analysis and examples (iii)<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_keyVXPO86U/V8mNjNTNTtI/AAAAAAAAGl0/mgtY80EJzGgOry0TUHNABBaR_5puyaGhgCLcB/s1600/316px-Flock_of_sheep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_keyVXPO86U/V8mNjNTNTtI/AAAAAAAAGl0/mgtY80EJzGgOry0TUHNABBaR_5puyaGhgCLcB/s400/316px-Flock_of_sheep.jpg" width="262" /></a><br />
<b>For the GroupThink chart, <a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2016/08/the-cultural-heritage-group-neurosis-19.html" target="_blank">see section (i) in Wednesday's post.</a></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Boxes B1: Structural faults and B2: Provocative context, cont'd.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>ny classification parameter is subjective and several identifiable groups are involved in the subject of restrictions of cultural property. Those of them who believe that the world's "cultural heritage" belongs to the collective, but not individual "everyone" include some archaeologists, politicians, legal professionals, journalists, all UNESCO people and all of these groups followers and supporters. The motives of each can be different as can the relationships between analytical thought and the transmission of unthinking memes. In this series, though, archaeological objects are emphasized and thus the core group consists of some archaeologists or those who quote them. Not every archaeologist is a member of this group although the group always takes criticisms as being against archaeology, itself, and not their subset. This is merely a PR trick. Sometimes, they label themselves as "Cultural heritage conservationists", and less often, "Cultural heritage preservationists". Neither term is accurate, as conservationists are mostly people who restore objects and/or prevent future decay, or people who protect things or creatures from destruction (such as by development) or danger of extinction, and preservationists are mostly people who protect ideas or interests (such as barber shop quartets, or jazz). There is an adoption of terminology, again, for PR purposes. As I am mostly dealing with archaeological objects (using archaeology in its broadest sense of objects from the distant past and not just as objects from an archaeological site),<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> think that the least inflammatory term for this group would be <i>private collection critics</i>. It is commonplace to use the term "anti-collecting" but that actually refers to it in its instrumental sense: if you make restrictions too severe, it will collapse the market as there is only a very small percentage of archaeological objects where you can track the chain of ownership earlier than 1970. Most archaeological objects are not listed with the names of former owners unless they are from an important collection and the name of that collector adds to their value and considerations of the objects worthiness. Many archaeological objects are sold as bulk lots with little description at all, and before the internet and digital cameras, most were not even illustrated in sales catalogues as the expense of doing so was often greater than the profit on their sale. So the term anti-collecting can be refuted by "we are not against private collecting, and are just demanding due diligence. again, this is a PR trick as, in reality, <i>due</i> diligence is reckoned by the degree of expense in comparison to the value of the object or project. No judge would expect a thousand dollars or a months work be devoted to something worth $500.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>hen I was in business, I turned down projects from large companies when they were contracting them out because they did not want to run the risk of legal liability. One such project was editorial work on a railway's maintenance manuals. They did not want us to rewrite them to make them efficient, they just wanted us to "tidy them up a bit". I did produce a series of dam repair diagrams, though, but I did not change the company design and just made them more legible. One engineer told me that one of my diagrams was wrong, so I showed him the original and he realized that it was just so badly drawn in the original that the mistake was not obvious. Another engineer criticized my digital emergency evacuation maps because they were "artistic" and to his mind, that meant inaccurate. He changed his mind when I showed him with a transparent overlay of a government map that the maps were accurate to a single pixel (and these were very large files printed at the equivalent of 300 dpi). We had one employee whose main job was to proof-read the maps: a young Vietnamese man, Tan, with the most amazing visual acuity and spacial perception I have ever encountered. When my assistant, Natasha, received one of <i>her</i> first maps for correction she looked at her mistakes and was about ready to fall on her sword until my wife showed her one of <i>my</i> maps where Tan had just finished circling my mistakes! These maps, by the way, were very expensive as you can well imagine. <i>Diligence</i> does not come cheap. I think that some private collection critics live in a magical world where things can just happen at no cost. Being against any sort of commercialism, and having no experience in business, they are poorly qualified to pontificate about such matters. Thankfully, they do not have to keep society running.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>e can see that the features listed in <b>Box B2</b> are mostly inapplicable to private collection critics as their statements are mostly a matter of belief or are received as memes and no real analysis is even taking place. what we have instead is actually religious faith without the benefit of metaphor use. In other words, a materialistic and historicism-dependent religion akin to religious fundamentalism. When such people refer to ISIS, it is the destruction and theft of objects that upset them most, and not the loss of life and livelihood that has created the large numbers of refugees, Thus, subsistence (or survival) looting is downplayed because in that scenario, and <i>by their own emphasis</i>, collectors are contributing to refugee survival. Thus there <i>might</i> be some private feeling about <b>B2: Moral Dilemmas</b>, but the evidence is not apparent. More apparent is <b>B2: Low self esteem due to recent failures</b> because of the realization that many "looted" antiquities are really tourist fakes. This has resulted in a lessening of coverage about the market of smuggled antiquities in recent months. The greatest religious animosity you see is between fundamentalist religious groups and they not only inflame hostility, but from a quantum intelligence perspective are the actual cause of it. Two objects that are of like charge will repel each other.<b> </b>The advantage in this case, goes to ISIS as they are intentional terrorists. Conflict and opposition are their means to other ends. <b>B2: Excessive complexity</b>, seems not to be represented at all. this is because of the prevalence of memes which are passed on with little variation.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A</span> dominant meme which everyone who looks into these matters encounters is "disappear into private collections". I used the following Google search terms to discover the number of instances but restricted it to where "archaeology" was a component to reduce such things as paintings, manuscripts and so on:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://www.google.ca/#q=archaeology+%22disappear+into+private+collections%22++" target="_blank">archaeology "disappear into private collections"</a></blockquote>
It got 647 hits and the first one, I am pleased to see, is my own criticism of the term. Changing "disappear" into "vanish" received only 141 results. There can be many different ways to word the meme: changing "disappear" into "disappeared" got 594. and I was surprised to see that "disappearing" got the most at 885. without the Boolean expression of quotation marks but including "disappear*" the results in a staggering 6,600,000 results but by the tenth page, other topics start to enter the results. I decided to check the internet results against a Google Books ngram and found that using the term "disappearing" got no results at all so I just used "disappear":
<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" hspace="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="ngram_chart" scrolling="no" src="https://books.google.com/ngrams/interactive_chart?content=vanish+into+private+collections%2Cdisappear+into+private+collections&year_start=1930&year_end=2016&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cdisappear%20into%20private%20collections%3B%2Cc0" vspace="0" width="610"></iframe>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Y</span>ou will notice that the majority of instances are after the 1970 UNESCO convention and the only much earlier peak (I did not include) was around 1920 and its results were about paintings. For my next experiment, I chose to emphasize how minor the terms really are in comparison with "Collection of Miss". I picked this because important collections of unmarried women are really in the minority and I wanted the other terms to show up as well. I also extended the search back to 1900. Here is the result:<br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" hspace="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="ngram_chart" scrolling="no" src="https://books.google.com/ngrams/interactive_chart?content=vanish+into+private+collections%2Cdisappear+into+private+collections%2Cdisappeared+into+private+collections%2Cdisappearing+into+private+collections%2Ccollection+of+Miss&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cdisappear%20into%20private%20collections%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cdisappeared%20into%20private%20collections%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ccollection%20of%20Miss%3B%2Cc0" vspace="0" width="610"></iframe>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>t seems that things <i>disappear</i> into private collections far less than they are said to do, because all of these authors used various records of the things in question: auction records; museums collections of former private collections and so forth. I suspect that where things have disappeared most often are within the archaeological storage facilities that Raimund Karl speaks about in his paper <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303373013_Every_sherd_is_sacred_Compulsive_Hoarding_in_Archaeology" target="_blank">Every sherd is sacred: Compulsive Hoarding in Archaeology</a>, which in part, inspired this series.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">H</span>ave a revelatory weekend and a pleasant Labour day (if you celebrate such) and I'll be back with more on Tuesday.
<br />
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-18218455235313515582016-09-01T13:16:00.000-06:002016-09-02T08:05:30.887-06:00The "cultural heritage" group neurosis 19: GroupThink analysis and examples (ii)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container tr_bq" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p9tb3Wjtgrc/V8hXXQeU2MI/AAAAAAAAGlk/ypGRWD0Y41oZOiGbeQQ_c-W3lFmxg-Z-ACLcB/s1600/Prince_Rupert_-_1st_English_Civil_War.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p9tb3Wjtgrc/V8hXXQeU2MI/AAAAAAAAGlk/ypGRWD0Y41oZOiGbeQQ_c-W3lFmxg-Z-ACLcB/s320/Prince_Rupert_-_1st_English_Civil_War.jpg" width="294" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>"The Cruel Practices of Prince Rupert"<br />1643 English Civil War propaganda pamphlet</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>For the GroupThink chart, see <a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2016/08/the-cultural-heritage-group-neurosis-19.html" target="_blank">section (i) in yesterday's post</a>.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Boxes B1: Structural faults and B2: Provocative context.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>hese two boxes work in combination.<br />
<br />
<b>B1. Insulation of group:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>hile there are many groups that are involved in the cultural heritage situation the apex position is occupied by UNESCO and within the sub-heading of "cultural property" it works with states to both limit the export of cultural property and to have such property returned to those states. Although such property can consist of non-archaeological items such as books and manuscripts, paintings and so on, the main topic I am dealing with here is archaeological material in its broadest definition; material objects from a relatively distant past that have, at some point, been either excavated from the ground or removed from above ground monuments. In some cases, these object were taken from their original locations many hundreds of years ago. For example, a vast number of Italian objects were excavated and moved to museums and collections under the authority of the Renaissance Pope Leo X Medici who encouraged the archaeological interests of the artist Raphael. The Renaissance was the main starting point of private collecting as well.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">G</span>oing back a few decades, and in general, both archaeology and museums were on the same side against private collecting. Before that, the conflict was far less extreme and I can remember when the British Museum released a number of duplicates which, under the discretion of its staff, could be given to young visitors to the museum who showed an interest in archaeological subjects. This was done in order to further their interests. It was also a small museum employee who encouraged my interest in ancient coins and antiquities and connected me with others who had the same interests.<br />
<br />
<b>B1 Lack of tradition of impartial leadership:</b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">R</span>ecently, though, museums have also been under the critical eye of archaeologists supporting the UNESCO aims, and this has generated further groups such as legal specialists and academic departments which focus on cultural property crimes. The states which ratify the UNESCO conventions about cultural property protection (although often more interested in its political applications) also hold authority over foreign archaeologists excavating in their country, so this becomes a very strong incentive for archaeologists to side with them. Museums, too, are now often complying with these states and in return, the larger ones, are getting permissions to show exhibits on loan from these same states. Smaller museums in less populated areas just cannot afford to mount such exhibitions so the idea that world cultural heritage belongs to all, is limited to people in large cities, and because of the efforts instigated in the main by many archaeologists, taken away from collectors who might live far from such cultural centres. Museums, who are mostly interested in getting people through the doors (in order to either receive box office receipts or government money to operate) are less interested in providing free images for less wealthy people in rural areas to be able to see and make use of. There are important exceptions, though. The British Museum and some other large museums in other countries have very good records online that can be accessed by anyone, anywhere. This is not the case, though, in most countries where archaeology is a major tourist attraction as I have satirized on this blog in <a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2014/05/scrooge-mchawass-money-bin.html" target="_blank">Scrooge McHawass' money bin</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>B1 lack of norms for methodological procedures</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>s archaeology has a vested interest in the UNESCO conventions, its PR instigators knowingly spread misinformation through its network of sub-groups such as the press who are always willing to bow to popular misconceptions because "popular" equals subscriptions and advertising revenue; the legal professions, and academic departments where it presents profitable avenues for specialization. I have spoken of evolution and how subsequent generations preserve gene-like changes (even including memes) that become a functioning part of future developments even when the original causes are gone. These can generate false actions because the organism or group is not only no longer affected by the original situation but has no conscious awareness of its purpose. Thus evolution rewards a pro-survival new action with pleasure. Tens of thousands of years later, a person places their first bet on a blackjack game at a casino and wins. The pleasure is so great that they continue to visit the casino and play more blackjack. Sometimes they win and sometimes they lose. Over time, the casino wins because that is how the game and betting is designed. Whenever they win, however, the pleasure is not as great as it was the first time because they are now in a very different social state than their distant ancestors and originality has succumbed, to a very considerable degree, to agreement and "being normal". Evolution's wires have become crossed. Winning is now the thing, not doing something original. They have confused the source of the evolutionary reward. Now, a few of these (now addicted) gamblers will seek ways to win more often and learn how to count cards to give themselves an advantage over the casino. After all, card counting is not illegal. It is, however "illicit" according to the casino, and the casino has the right to refuse service to them if they are caught.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">S</span>o archaeologists in league with the aims of UNESCO and who are part of a group who benefits from doing so has already inherited some of the corruption of foreign states who use archaeology for population mind-control (as is shown in <a href="http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9780306485084" target="_blank">Archaeology Under Dictatorship</a> as a spectrum not just restricted to dictatorships but present to a lesser degree in all states). This inheritance manifests itself in further illicit but not illegal actions where the mind control component is passed on to the public in the form of memes. Curiously, the word "illicit" is favoured far more than the word "illegal". In essence, it has become a typical "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freudian_slip" target="_blank">Freudian slip</a>" which can also then become another meme even where there is no unconscious reverberation <i>after</i> it has been passed on. The Wikipedia entry on Freudian slips reveals this secondary state under the heading of exceptions.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>here are a vast number of examples of archaeologist subterfuge I could use, but I will just give you an example of one of the big ones:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<b><a href="http://illicitculturalproperty.com/" target="_blank">Illicit trade in cultural properties is now the third largest black market after drug and firearms.</a></b>"</blockquote>
<br />
This comes from an academic legal specialist and is on the site of the blog of another academic legal specialist. Here's a fun project for you: identify the blogger. It is not at the top of the page. Perhaps it is at the bottom, so scroll down. You will notice that every time you do that, or type (on Windows) control/end, more posts will appear to scroll through. how many times do you have to do that to realize that it is a blog and who its author is? A Google search for anything on that run of posts will not go to the specific post but to the very long run of continuous posts. You will have to use your browser's search to get you the title I gave above. It's annoying and "illicit" by internet mores, but it's not illegal.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">N</span>ext, take a look at the verity of the statement that is made. I have selected just a couple of links with excerpts:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
1. Counterfeit Drugs $200 Billion<br />
2. Prostitution $186 Billion<br />
3. Counterfeit Electronics $169 Billion<br />
4. Marijuana $141.80 Billion<br />
5. Illegal Gambling $140 Billion<br />
6. Cocaine $85 Billion<br />
7. Prescription Drug Abuse $72.5 Billion<br />
8. Heroin $68 Billion<br />
9. Software Piracy $63 Billion<br />
10. Cigarette Smuggling $50 Billion<br />
11. Counterfeit Foods $49 Billion<br />
12. Counterfeit Auto Parts $45 Billion<br />
13. Oil Theft $37.23 Billion<br />
14. Human Smuggling $35 Billion<br />
15. Counterfeit Toys $34 Billion<br />
16. Human Trafficking $32 Billion<br />
17. Illegal Logging $30 Billion<br />
18. Methamphetamine $28.25 Billion<br />
19. Illegal Fishing $23.50 Billion<br />
20 Illegal Wildlife Trade $19 Billion<br />
(50 in complete list) <a href="http://www.havocscope.com/" target="_blank">Havocscope Global Black Market Information</a></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
The Black Market<br />
Product Counterfeiting<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$225 billion<br />
Illegal Gambling (80% Sports Gambling)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$150 billion<br />
Marijuana<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$82 billion<br />
Cocaine<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$35 billion<br />
Movie Piracy<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$25 billion<br />
Prostitution<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$14.6 billion<br />
Music Piracy<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$12.5 billion<br />
Cigarette Smuggling<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$11.75 billion<br />
Gas and Oil Smuggling<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$10 billion<br />
Software Piracy<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$9.7 billion<br />
Meth<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$1.8 billion<br />
Illegal Logging<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$1.25 billion<br />
Counterfeit U.S. Dollars<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$103 million<br />
Alcohol Smuggling<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$34 million</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.statisticbrain.com/black-market-illicit-trade-statistics/" target="_blank">Statisticbrain.com Black market Illicit Trade Statistics</a> </blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>here are differences in the two because of the sources used and times accessed and because of the lists classification parameters, but you can see where the truth is and the use of "drugs and firearms" in the first quote is deliberately orchestrated to produce a meme.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">M</span>ore tomorrow.
<br />
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3137246730421866659.post-74468469174028756382016-08-31T09:29:00.000-06:002016-08-31T09:36:51.083-06:00The "cultural heritage" group neurosis 19: GroupThink analysis and examples (i)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G0KMies7R1Q/V8baHKF0ZZI/AAAAAAAAGlU/g7JbZzXIoH0SkPCX78vwBuSQauO3z4cugCLcB/s1600/994px-GroupThink_Model.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="494" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G0KMies7R1Q/V8baHKF0ZZI/AAAAAAAAGlU/g7JbZzXIoH0SkPCX78vwBuSQauO3z4cugCLcB/s640/994px-GroupThink_Model.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.8192px; line-height: 16.2288px;"> <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GroupThink_Model.jpg" style="color: #993322; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">GroupThink Model</a><br />© Irving Janis 1972. Victims of GroupThink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-policy Decisions and Fiascoes<br />(click to enlarge) </b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">F</span>or the next few parts I will present an analysis with examples for each of the boxes in the flow chart above. While the chart is about GroupThink, the groups are not always organized and it is possible for one or more individuals to be working away from the direct influence of a large institutional group yet demonstrating certain influences from such groups. Only hierarchical and economic factors of the large group are absent with the individual or small group of followers. Additionally, a large group can exist with no formal group arrangement other than a shared philosophy and the transference of certain memes.<br />
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<b>Box A: Decision Makers (Cohesive Group)</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>t the top of this hierarchy is UNESCO with its cultural property conventions framed within purely nationalistic advantages. None of these bestow any benefits to any cultural groups within the national borders that are contrary to the policies and attitudes of the government of that nation, even if the government is engaging in genocidal practices. Furthermore, while any convention has a date attached to it, it does not come into force in any country until it is ratified by that country and made subject to its laws. Such laws can also vary, country to country, for the same convention. This is not just in matters of punishments for violating these laws but sometimes the laws can change the application of the articles of the convention to better fit other existing laws. Cultural heritage protectionists almost always use the term "illicit" and refer to to the date of the convention, itself and not "illegal" and the date of its legal implementation. Of course, no one can be charged with an offence that was committed any time before the law existed that made such acts illegal. Such subterfuge, which is using the word "illicit" not in a legal sense but according to the mores of the group which might be very different from that of other groups, is the first rung on the ladder of a gradual increase in misleading and false information given in order to sway public opinion toward the groups ideals. These include memes and weasel phrases which have no real meaning or are just false. The psychology is always the same: dishonesty is used "for a greater good". Even forgery can be praised as it adversely effects the "enemy groups" of art and collectible dealers and collectors, themselves. In a very extreme case, one archaeologist publicly compared the activities of the <a href="http://ancientcoinsforeducation.org/" target="_blank">Ancient Coins for Education (ACE) </a>non-profit charitable organization which provides free ancient coins that are donated by dealers and collectors for schools and which awards prizes for student's historical essays to "drug-pushing". Yet, in the same breath, cultural heritage is said to belong to all people. As far as I can see, the reason for such condemnation is that donations to schools from coin dealers goes against the image of dealers that the group is trying to create in the mind of the public. While school museums are condemned, public museums are only attacked when parts of their collections have no chain of ownership that can be tracked back to before laws were in place prohibiting their export from the source country. In actual criminal law outside of police states it is up to the prosecution to prove guilt and not up to the defence to prove innocence. Innocence is presumed.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>e also have to include evolution when thinking about UNESCO. It was founded with the stated belief in eugenics (Julian Huxley) and in a single world government. I have a personal interest in the former as I brought the problem of Alberta's eugenics law which justified the sexual sterilization of people with psychological problems, to the attention of Peter Lougheed, who, as the Premier of Alberta, eventually had that law overturned and its victims financially compensated. It was the largest compensation package ever paid out by the Alberta Government to its wronged citizens. Even though evolution never stands still, elements of former characteristics remain through those subsequent changes.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">B</span>elow UNESCO comes a great number of local public institutions and academic organizations, and in the case of the latter, some "art-crimes" courses are created which further the aims of UNESCO and they use all of the techniques I have mentioned here.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>omorrow, we move on to Box B in the chart
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<span style="font-size: large;">S</span>ometimes, life imitates art and after writing yesterday's post I saw a Google alert in my mailbox about <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/unesco-and-the-strange-career-of-multiculturalism/#!" target="_blank">UNESCO and the Strange Career of Multiculturalism</a> in the LA Review of Books and after reading it remembered my favourite scene in Woody Allen's Annie Hall. Apparently, life sometimes <i>is</i> like that.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> titled this episode "Fuzzy culture" not just because of the boundless aspects of culture, but because of <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/fuzzy-logic" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">fuzzy logic</a> where variables are weighted in various forms of artificial intelligence and elsewhere. The problem in AI, is that it is not artificial at all and really just reflects the opinions and viewpoint of the person writing the code. The results could well vary, person to person. When I built my first expert system, expert systems were part of AI, but in an expert system journal paper, it was suggested that expert systems should be removed from the category of AI because they worked (when Boolean) while AI did not work (at least if practically committed to its title). Boolean systems work because they are applied to things that do not change: <i>Is/is not</i> works very well in mechanistic systems and classical logic but not so well in social systems or in quantum physics and transdisciplinarity.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>n the LARB article we see many problems with various "cultural heritage" policies because not only is culture's "fuzziness" not recognized but policies and fuzziness are contrary to each other. We think of the saying: "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_by_committee" target="_blank">A camel is a horse designed by a committee.</a>"<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he ethnocentric/nationalist ideas of culture are not only academically circling the drain but they allow and propagate quite a number of injustices to various cultural frames and the compromises that are made, at best, only please the group who is making them. Sometimes. no one is pleased at all. Even cultural frames can have various embedded attitudes that can vary and the spread of cultural influences is also very fuzzy, as you see in the article:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Clifford Geertz redefined culture as the web of signs and signifiers (or “twitches, winks, fake-winks,” and “burlesqued winks”) that envelop and entangle us. Writing in 1986, George Marcus and James Clifford argued that culture was a set of political strategies inseparable from the contexts in which they are deployed, therefore implicating anthropologists in the very “cultures” they seek to explain. By 1991, sociologist Janet Abu-Lughod was questioning whether scholars could use the word “culture” rigorously at all without being implicated in a politics that exoticized non-Western others. In his influential Modernity at Large (1996), Arjun Appadurai asserted that the adjectival form “cultural” remained useful but that the countable noun, “culture/cultures,” should be rejected as a dangerous reification."</blockquote>
Janet Abu-Lughod's statement, while applied to "non-Western others" could be expanded to include some situations within the west and within multiple cultural frames at that. We also have many problems with the differences between living cultural frames and the cultural frames now extinct in their original form but continuing in their influences within groups and individuals. As culture is an evolutionary process, fixing it with policies also destroys it to a greater or lesser degree and the motives of policy makers and those who support them are frequently self-serving. Sometimes, the very opposite result to its ideals is what results.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pcKTz0q441A/V8ROHraRX5I/AAAAAAAAGlE/o4si1d_28lMdFm8IFYmDbMhtAFGL9cKnQCLcB/s1600/20151029_Inflatable_boat_with_Syrian_Refugees_Skala_Sykamias_Lesvos_Greece.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pcKTz0q441A/V8ROHraRX5I/AAAAAAAAGlE/o4si1d_28lMdFm8IFYmDbMhtAFGL9cKnQCLcB/s400/20151029_Inflatable_boat_with_Syrian_Refugees_Skala_Sykamias_Lesvos_Greece.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20151029_Inflatable_boat_with_Syrian_Refugees_Skala_Sykamias_Lesvos_Greece.jpg" target="_blank">An inflatable boat with Syrian Refugees</a> just arrived safely </b><b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to</b></div>
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<b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Skala Sykamias, Lesvos island, Greece. </b><b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">photo: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ggia" target="_blank">Ggia</a></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">S</span>ometimes, the media can be very obliging. Last Thursday's episode discussed a number of photos of fakes that I had seen in an article about looting in Syria. The article said that the "articles had not been evaluated as to their authenticity" So much for journalistic fact-checking and due diligence. Perhaps the journalist suspected they were fakes but thought "If I get that confirmed, I do not have a story. So, on Sunday, I was looking through that day's issue of <a href="https://exploratornews.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Explorator</a> where I came across two articles featuring Syria’s antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim. The first was from <a href="http://theartnewspaper.com/news/almost-70-of-smuggled-objects-seized-in-syria-and-lebanon-are-fakes-antiquities-chief-says/" target="_blank">The Art Newspaper</a> and the second was from <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14702710.Syrian_head_of_antiquities__I_need_Scottish_help_to_save_my_nation__39_s_cultural_sites_and_artifacts/" target="_blank">Herald Scotland</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>n the first article, Abdulkarim says "that while 7,000 objects have been seized by authorities in Syria since 2013, the proportion of fakes has risen from 30% to closer to 70%, both inside the country and in neighbouring Lebanon." there is not a word about this situation in the second article but he says “All people who buy should understand that if they collect objects supplied by Isis they are helping terrorism.” The article also speaks of "subsistence looting" and says:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Islamic State or Isis did not start the looting. They came across a pre-existing situation and institutionalised it,” says Dr Amr Al-Azm of Shawnee University when we spoke in April . “At first there was a casual arrangement to loot whereby Isis applied an obscure Islamic tax of 20 per cent payable to the Caliphate’s treasury but since the beginning of 2015 this has been formalised. Now you now have to have a licence issued by the archaeological administration office with punishments if you are caught digging an area where you are not allowed. Isis are knowledgeable about the value of the antiquities, they check the Internet and we suspect some are archaeologists.”</blockquote>
"Subsistence looting" is perhaps not a very good term as looting also includes raising money to secure the means to escape from an oppressive regime. There are vast numbers of Syrian refugees who are fleeing to Europe in boats and we can recall a similar situation with the Vietnamese "boat people" when Saigon fell to North Vietnam. I knew a young woman who escaped with her family from Saigon at that time, but she was part of an extremely wealthy and prominent Saigon family who was lifted out by a U.S. military helicopter. Over the next several years, she sent money back to other relatives who wanted to leave and a large percentage of that money went to bribes to officials to "look the other way". That did not include the costs of the passage out of Vietnam, it just provided the opportunity to negotiate for such passage. She adapted to her new life very well, but it was far from the usual refugee situation: she no longer had her own chauffeur and servants. She told me that her aunt had to learn how to tie shoe laces because the servants had dressed her and she showed me a painting of her grandfather wearing his dragon robe and holding his jade sceptre. Her family had originally been part of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annam_(French_protectorate)#Administration" target="_blank">Anamese Mandarate at Huế</a>. Her mother had run the family factory in Saigon and her father had been an officer in the South Vietnamese army. Refugees can come from any level of society, but they all have to pay to escape in one way or another. Her family, too, had to live in a U.S. internment camp for a long time, before they came to Calgary as immigrants.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>here are multiple layers to any refugee situation and it presents great difficulties for any country who gives them sanctuary. At the top of the scale are professional people and others who will contribute greatly to the economy of such a country and at the bottom of the scale are violent criminals who see a refugee situation as an opportunity to escape arrest. Every level of society is included. But what also happens is a transmission of culture and a greater understanding of different societies within any population. This understanding also aids in the prevention of future wars. One of the unusual features of ancient Celtic culture was fosterage. Celtic culture was far more localized than what we are used to today and below national, tribal and civic levels were family or clan affiliations and in Gaul, all were split into two factions with Druid (judges) representation at each level. Fosterage, where sons were always raise by a foster father and also the "private" issuing of coins cemented allegiances and lessened the likelihood of warfare in a society where status was determined by the size of your private army or membership in the Druid elite.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I </span>very much enjoy the benefits of multiculturalism here. Our Mayor is Islamic although the population of the city is only 5.2% Islamic. He is also the world's most popular mayor; a couple of blocks away from where I live I can buy (according to what they advertise, and they might well be right) Calgary's best Vietnamese subs. When I needed a very ancient Chinese poem translated, two Chinese men worked very hard (with much debate) to provide that for me as a favour. One had been in the country for a very long time, the other was a recent immigrant. Now, I cannot experience anything of ancient Greek culture at any museum here, I can experience modern Greek food, music and even dancing, but if I want to see some ancient Greek coins I can see quite a good selection at a friend's coin shop, including many from Syria. Syrian coins were very common when I started collecting Greek coins at the age of 13. I'll be 67 in another month. Many of those coins had left Syria hundreds of years ago. So the next time you are enjoying a cup of Vietnamese iced coffee, think about the strange circumstances of what made that available to you; if you track it all back you will encounter more than just one war and one other culture. There is a lot of history in that cup.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A</span> meme is a phrase that passes from person to person like a virus. Often completely untrue, the only cure for it is to look at it critically. We see people who say that "cultural heritage belongs to everyone" and then seek to restrict peoples access to it, often by supplying false or misleading information in a deliberate manner because they, too, are infected by the virus and it has taken over their consciousness. You are experiencing what might be described as a "intellectual zombie". There is no real life in the statement and it actually does not really mean anything. Culture can only be primarily received as a thought. Multiculturalism is an accumulation of many such thoughts and their material consequences and it reduces the "strangeness" of different cultures and promotes global understanding. thus anyone who would seek to restrict such transmissions is either evil or has been infected by collections of memes. In the latter case t<i>hey are not thinking at all</i>. The Dalai Lama promotes understanding and good will between Tibetan and Chinese people. Many people know this. Fewer people know that he is also very interested (and active) in quantum physics, especially in the subject of mind/matter.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>his brings us back to objectivity: We have the subject (you) and the object (what you are looking at), but in quantum physics, you cannot separate the two:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Our story begins in 1967 AD, when a young graduate student arrived at the University of California, Berkeley, to study physics. He had studied quantum theory and was impressed with its insistence that the observer could not be taken out of theory, as was the case in classical physics. In practice, however, he found that the interpretation of Schrödinger’s wave function as probability amplitudes allowed physicists to simply substitute probability orbitals for independent objects and still leave themselves out of the theory. He decided to propose a Ph.D. thesis that would allow him to study himself doing the experiment in order to address this deficiency. The experiment he chose was the spectral classification of promethium....</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"After presenting the self-inclusion idea at his oral examination, the thesis was rejected. Our candidate was furious and considered leaving the program. One of his thesis advisors, Nobel Laureate Charles Towns, intervened, and a compromise was reached. The student was to split the thesis into a conventional experiment on the spectrum of promethium and write whatever he wanted on the object-subject integration theme in an appendix, which would not be formally evaluated. In addition, he was to read a standard text on quantum theory and report on his agreement and acceptance of the theory described to the department chair. After that, the standard thesis was finished in record time. His feeling of being a sellout was mollified by his ability to record a picture of his breakthrough insight in the annals of a permanent institution."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The Physical Foundation of Consciousness</i> by Wolfgang Baer, Ph.D., in: <b><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Brain-Mind-Cosmos-Existence-Scientists-ebook/dp/B00KAKEYIY" target="_blank">Brain, Mind, Cosmos: The Nature of Our Existence and the Universe</a></b> (Contributions from Notable Scientists and Philosophers), ed., Deepak Chopra, 2013, (Kindle Locations 174-189).</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">R</span>eality consists of not just what you are looking at, but also the fact and interactions of you looking at it. To deny that is to deny that you, too, are part of reality.
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<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>e are going to have to deal with some weird stuff in this episode so I have included the above video in an attempt to make it just a little bit less weird. Now you could just read what I have to say here, but...<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>n yesterday's episode, we were talking about looting and ISIS and various knee-jerk reactions about banning collecting while keeping much "cultural property" away from any personal interactions with the individuals who, allegedly, it belongs to. In the episode before that I presented a model of cultural transmission that depended on such personal interactions and how culture either avoids or does not avoid the effect of entropy and how it must constantly change by gaining new elements or run a very real danger of becoming extinct. In an entirely neurotic fashion, people who are promoting a truth as they see it are resorting to lies to get there. This is enantiodromia. All of that did not require us to leave the world of classical physics. Everything was very cause and effect and mechanical like clockwork.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">N</span>othing represents the "cultural heritage" neurosis better than Lord Renfrew's statement "Collectors are the real looters". In this model, if there were no collectors then no one would be raiding archaeological sites to find stuff to sell them. In the same manner, child abuse could be easily prevented through absolute and global birth control. But ignoring human extinction as any sensible method to use. Is Renfrew's statement even right? Actually, it is not. because quite a number of metal antiquities had been excavated, recorded, and then sent off to the melting pots to profit on the metal. This activity took place in the nineteenth century and earlier and was not restricted to just gold objects. Copper alloys also received the same treatment. You can go back to Iron Age Hengistbury where cupelation hearths were used to extract silver from cultural objects such as Coriosolite coins with rich cultural iconography to make Durotriges coins with far less richer iconography. It is very difficult to find anything that has no economic value: we pay for water, for gravel, and even sometimes for clean air. When a very profitable market dries up, a less profitable one takes its place and balances the bottom lines by doing more of it. Instead of selling one object to the collector to get $10 a dozen are sold to the scrap dealer to get the same amount. When silver prices were high, I saw lots of Victorian and even some Georgian silver being melted down for the silver, Not to mention coins of an even earlier date. I have bought worn William III and Charles II five shilling pieces from a box of scrap silver awaiting the melting pot and long ago, I bought an Elizabeth 1st gold half pound for scrap value as it had a hole in it.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I</span> have also made it clear (hopefully) that "cultural property" regulations are made by people who care nothing at all for the subject but know that those who do will willingly sacrifice other things, and it is those other things that are really desired. "So, here's the deal: we will send you back all that cultural junk that is coming into our country from yours, and in return, you won't start to regulate our Monsanto operations in your country too heavily, Oh! and by the way, don't breathe a word of your side of the deal as our public might get upset about all that genetic engineering stuff. We wouldn't want to lose any votes for our side in the next election, right?"<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">N</span>ow, ask yourself if there was no objections, anywhere, to ISIS destroying cultural monuments and selling off cultural objects (the value of which has been found to be orders of magnitude less than what was believed at first) would they be doing that at all? Is it really a religious issue or is religion something that can get mass-support. We know for a fact that there were really economic motives for the Crusades, but the common foot soldier would have been less likely to sacrifice his life for the sake of the wealthy traders than for a good chance to enter Heaven. Mark Twain is reported to have said "History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes".<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>e have both a positive and negative situation with ISIS and cultural property preservationists. We cannot fully believe either side because they lie a lot and have motives other than what is presented. Does one cause the other? If so, which one is the "real looter". Perhaps we have a Schrodinger's cat sort of situation instead. Each side is simultaneously cause and not cause. The situations emerge, acausally, through potentialities.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">L</span>et's take what Jim Al-Khalili says about the double slit experiments and the process of photo synthesis in the video: a photon leaves the sun and hits a leaf. Deep inside that leaf there is a molecule that transforms the energy of that photon to the work that the plant needs to prosper, but the photon does not know the route to that molecule and thus would have to explore all potential avenues and bounce off various barriers along the way. Unfortunately, it would lose too much of its energy in this process to do the plant much good when it finally arrives at the molecule. So what it does is to act like a wave and this wave permeates everywhere, setting up all sorts of interference patterns <i>without losing energy as it does so. </i>When one part of this probability wave touches that molecule, pop! it becomes a fully charged photon again and the plant gets the goods.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">E</span>instein had a problem with the active role of the observer in processes and said that just because he did not look at the moon at some moment, it did not mean that the moon did not exist at that time. We get a little spooked about being part of the creation of the universe; about taking an necessary role in what happens to particles. Perhaps we are placing too much importance on the word "observer" and are getting a bit too psychologically inflated by it all. What happens to to the human observer in the double slit experiment is also happening inside the leaf. We do know that, left alone with no one watching them, plants continue to grow. Either that, or they instantly get bigger anytime someone looks at them. But we also know that plants were around a long time before we came into existence (unless we are also magically creating fossils too). All in all, it seems far more likely that the plant is also an observer.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">B</span>ut, you say, when a detection device is set up in the double slit experiment, it also seems to act like an observer, but the detection device is not alive is it? The answer to that is "No, but we are". The plant has built this molecule over aeons through evolution, but we have evolved to a point where we actually can build things, for ourselves, and at will. We are not alone in this, even crows use tools when they need to:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DDmCxUncIyc" width="560"></iframe>
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<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>hile we have an advantage in having fingers and opposable thumbs, my very clever coyote hybrid cannot do anything as complicated as that crow did and we must wonder if the crow had our fingers and thumbs instead of just claws and a beak whether it would start building all sorts of things after more generations of accumulated knowledge. Perhaps we should look at sentience as something not just in present time, but as something also manifested during the evolutionary process. The plant then has <i>evolutionary sentience</i>. It can make tools, it just takes many generations to realize that potential. Because of this, the plant is also an observer. We make the detection device that stops the photon, but when we switch off the power, it is no longer really a detection device because part of that device is the electricity that is running through it. We make that electricity, too.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">S</span>o let's replace the word "observer" with "active receptor". A non-active receptor like the screen at the back of the double slit experiment does nothing but stop the electron as a particle, but <i>where</i> it hits is dependent on the wave property. We are, or have, active receptors just like the plant. It is just that our active receptors are quite a bit freed from the time restraints of evolution and can be used through the will of an individual, whenever, rather than just as a species with a combination of evolutionary features and accumulated knowledge and the ability to communicate that knowledge to others. We have all that evolutionary and learning stuff, too, but we have gone just a bit further.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>his brings us to the current Big Mystery in quantum physics: consciousness. Is not the photon exhibiting some sort of consciousness with quantum entanglement? Einstein was right. it is spooky. The photon in the plant has to act as a wave to get to the active receptor in time. Perhaps we should think about particles and waves evolving in a similar way to organic life, but it is just that this sort of evolution would have taken place in an infinitesimal amount of time (by our perception) sometime around the time of the Big Bang. Our words are inadequate to explain this properly. A non active receptor does not have to be alive, but an observer does and it is the observer that creates the active receptor, whether through evolution, in the case of our eyes that we use in the double slit experiment, or in our ears that hears the beep from the active receptor <i>we have deliberately built</i>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">P</span>erhaps we should stop thinking about life in a purely organic form, and start thinking about life as an integral part of the universe that has been here from the start and has <i>evolved</i> organic forms which allows it to experience itself better. In other words, it is, indeed, a psychophysical universe and it always has been. We cannot find the cause of life within its products, but we might understand the products as being acausal manifestations of life. And that, too, will explain the acausal manifestations of cultural monuments being destroyed by ISIS. It's all about potentialities.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">H</span>ave a spooky weekend.
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2015/09/coydog-community-page.html" target="_blank">John's Coydog Community page</a></b></span>
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John Hooker FSAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001080340384925879noreply@blogger.com0