Man!, I Feel Like a Woman!

This article describes how a "man" discovered at the age of 66 that he has ovaries!

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Becoming the Other: Pentheus Undercover

In the play, Pentheus takes on the role of a Maenad in order to infiltrate their operation.  He has been convinced that this is the best of the two options presented by Dionysus: going to war with the Maenads or spying on them.  Given that Pentheus is guided by Dionysus, it appears that he is losing his resolve and his becoming more like his "other half".  Pentheus wears a wig of long curls, fawnskins and long robes.  He also carries a thyrsus.  Dionysus describes Pentheus as being prey thrashing in a net.  This is a reversal from Pentheus's original decision to be the one to capture and tame the women. Dionysus wants to make Pentheus obsessed and to make him unable to refuse the god.  Again, this is meant as a reversal or as a cure to the original situation where Pentheus was hyper-rational and unwilling to submit to the god.  

Pentheus talks about seeing two suns, two cities and two bulls.  Dionysus says that it is a god that he sees and that he has been cured of his blindness (918-924).  Dionysus also helps Pentheus to play the part of the Maenad, helping him with his disguise.  Pentheus focuses on physical appearance and sight, but since he does not follow Dionysus willingly, he can never be a true Bacchante (927-940).  The conflict between the two men is cast as athletic contest where they are vying for divine glory (963-975).  Dionysus predicts that Pentheus will go home cradled in his mother's arms, and he may interpret this as a celebratory transport of a victorious person, but in truth this refers to the fact that his mother will take Pentheus's head home as a trophy.  Indeed, Dionysus predicts that Agave will take Pentheus to be the son of a lion and a spy, thereby disowning him (978-990).  In lines 1016-1021, Dionysus predicts that Agave will call for Dionysus to manifest himself as an animal to to kill the interloper.  

Pentheus finds a place to watch the Maenads in a tree that reaches up to the heavens.  He is discovered and Dionysus calls on the Bacchae to take vengeance upon the man who mocks the holy mysteries of the Bacchae.  The women climb a great stone to reach him and then stoned him.  The women eventually try to pry up the roots of the tree, but when unsuccessful, Agave tells the women to encircle and grab the trunk of the tree.  These evokes line 653, where Dionysus threatens to encircle the city.  Pentheus falls to the ground, representing his fall from grace and a loss of balance between humanity and nature.  Pentheus removes his wig in an attempt to make his mother recognize him, but she is possessed by Dionysus and she commits sparagmos.  Agave returns home, gloating over her prize (which she thinks is the head of a lion), but in truth she only carries her own grief (1148).  For the first time, sight is repudiated as Agave realizes that she has killed her son and she proclaims that she cannot look at her crime (1243).  Dionysus then exiles the women and turns Cadmus and his wife into a snakes  

Plato's Protagoras: Of Gods and Men

The main topic of this dialogue is whether virtue can be taught.  In the myth discussed in the story, Epimetheus provides humans with nothing whereas he provides many talents to non-human animals.  This imbalance was fixed by Prometheus, who stole fire and wisdom and brought it to humanity.  As such, humans have language, make artifacts, and worship gods. Before Prometheus, humanity could not take part in god-like activities.  Afterwards, they could, but they still lived in isolation and were destroyed by strong animals.  They lack the art of politics, so any attempts to organize as a city ends up in injustice.  Hermes then brings humanity justice and shame, which form bonds of friendship and bring order.

How might this relate to Bacchae?

Dionysus' first miracle is to release the jailed women in the city.  His second miracle is an earthquake (586-588) and his third is his escape from jail (613-617).  Dionysus claims that whereas Pentheus thought he was chaining Dionysus, in fact Pentheus never touched his hands.  It is also important to note that Dionysus says that Pentheus was feeding on his desires.  Dr.Giannopoulou claims that this is part of Pentheus' transformation into Dionysus.  In the following lines, Dionysus explains that he was placed in a stable, as if he were an animal.  He then turns into a bull and in this form he is imprisoned as an animal.  Pentheus tried to restrain this bull, but Dionysus was also watching from the outside.  Then he explains how Bacchus came and brought an earthquake and fire.  He also claims that Bromius appeared in the palace.  In lines 618-632, there are thus at least four versions of Dionysus.  Dr. Giannopoulou argues that when Pentheus takes a sword against Dionysus, this is a futile attempt to use a phallus to destroy his sexual desire (as represented in Dionysus).

In the mountains, we have a much more peaceful picture.  The Maenads are enjoying sober rest.  Importantly, they were also being modest, which is the most important female virtue.  In other words, they are acting very Greek.  When the women awaken, they let their hair loose and they use snakes to attach their fawnskins if they need it.  Lactating women suckled animals and the women cried out for Bacchus until the beasts were wild with divinity "And when they ran, everything ran with them" (727).  In short, this "society" of peaceful women includes harmony with animals and nature.  One women uses a thyrsus to strike a rock and create a fountain of water.  Another makes wine spring from the earth.  Women who wanted milk scratched at the ground and pure honey spurts from their wands (702-711).  The women are thrusting a phallus into a surface in order to eject liquids.  Women, as changing and fluid entities, were often associated with liquids.  Whereas Pantheus is unable to be successful with his phallus, the women are able to use the thyrsus with success.  This represents a reversal of roles.

Then, after being seen by villagers, the women pillage and destroy a town and kidnap the children (747-754).  The townspeople take up arms against the Maenads and the men's spears make no wounds whereas the women's spears do cause damage.  Eventually, the men turn and run, having been defeated by the women.  This represents the main problem of the play for Pentheus: the men are ineffectual.  The men are incapable of fulfilling their roles, but the women have success in masculine roles.    

When the women are spotted by men, they perform sporagmos on men, but they also do the same to animals sometimes even when they do not think they are being observed (736-747). In lines 811-816, Pentheus admits that he wants to watch the women of the Bacchae.  

Pentheus vs. Dionysus

From Pentheus' point of view, Dionysus is merely an impostor--an effeminate charlatan from a foreign land who spends his time polluting women and girls.  Pentheus wants to bring Dionysus under the roof of the palace and decapitate him.  This is symbolic of his desire to bring him into the confines of society's rules and concepts.  Pentheus wants to classify Dionysus as a mortal woman and to capture him and constrain him as a woman was normally constrained.  Pentheus thinks that the Dionysian religion means that the women act like animals.  For him, the irrational nature of both makes women like animals and makes animals feminine.  Pentheus also thinks that Maenads actually serve the lust of men rather than the divine interests of Bacchus.  By claiming that the women adore Aphrodite, he attempts to demean Dionysus and deny him legitimacy.  Pentheus makes a big point of displaying civic authority.  He says the women will be "captured" and "hunted down". He also wants to destroy the place where Bacchus prophecies with a metaphorical earthquake.

When Dionysus is actually captured, he acts as a tame animal.  This could mean that Dionysus is purposefully trying not to be treated as an animal.  As Bacchus is captured, the women in the dungeons are freed (444-449).  Thus, his first miracle in Thebes is an act of liberation.   When Dionysus and Pentheus meet, Pentheus comments in detail about Dionysus' looks.  Dionysus is evasive in order to arose Pentheus' curiosity.  He does not reveal his rites, as only initiated women can know his religious rites.  Dionysus warns Pentheus and the other fools of Thebes not to enchain him .  Pentheus represents repressed sexuality and xenophobia, whereas Dionysus represents release of sexual power and is adored by foreigners.  Pentheus decides to punish Dionysus by removing his golden locks, making him surrender his wand and confining him in the palace (492-496).

One theme that comes up in the exchange between Dionysus and Pentheus (499-507) is the different between knowing and being ignorant.  Accusing Pentheus of blasphemous ignorance, Dionysus invokes the Greek concept of hubris while warning Pentheus. Metaphors of sight are used.  Blindness is associated with ignorance and sight is associated with knowledge.  Even though Pentheus knows who his parents are, Dionysus reminds him that Pentheus does not know who he himself (Pentheus) is!  Dionysus says that Pentheus will repent his name.  His name is from the greek penthos, which means grief.  Only after he knows grief and repents will he become himself.  This happens right before he dies at the hands of his mother while mobbed by Maenads.
       

Bacchae and Antigone

Bacchae. Pentheus, the king of Thebes, is the grandson of Cadmus (the founder of Thebes) and the son of Agave.  He leads the men of Thebes against Dionysus.  Pentheus refuses to acknowledge Dionysus' existence.  So, Dionysus says that he must prove himself to the men of Thebes (47-48).  He says that if he is attacked with force that he will retaliate (51-53).

In the first chorus, we hear a story about Dionysus' birth.  The bacchae report that his mother died at the time of birth and that Zeus had to keep him in his thigh in order to keep him safe before he could be born away from Hera (88-99).  Semele is merely the incubator for Dionysus' fetus for a short period before Zeus is able to be a surrogate mother for his own child with Semele.

In this story, we have a clash between Apollo and Dionysus.  This is representative of a conflict between rationality and irrationality.  We can contrast wisdom with foolishness to flesh this out.  A prophet of Apollo, Tiresias, represents wisdom, meaning conformity to tradition, prudence, "seeing" with "clear vision", rationality and understanding human limits.  Foolishness is then associated with defiance against tradition, impractical thinking, blindness, madness, silliness and hubris.  Hubris means the prideful ways in which humans try to be godlike and overstep their mortal boundaries.

Antigone is a play from Sophocles.  It is about a conflict between Antigone and Creon.  Antigone is devoted to divine authority whereas Creon is devoted to civic authority.  In general, men are portrayed as dominating nature by "taming" the wind, "snaring" birds, "imprisoning" beasts, "mastering" beasts and "yoking" the horse and the bull.  Man teaches himself language, knows to avoid bad weather, has a way to face obstacles, and escapes diseases.  In short, man is a problem-solver and a calculated actor.  There is emphasis on the power of human rationality.  Man cannot, however, escape death.  This is exactly what separates us from the gods.

Now think back to the story that the bacchae provide about Dionysus' birth.  Tiresias, as a prophet of Apollo (and hence rationality), provides another story about the birth of Dionysus.  In this alternate story, it is not the case that Zeus used his thigh as a womb but that Zeus made a dummy Dionysus from ether (air) in order to trick Hera into throwing out the dummy instead of Dionysus.  Tiresias claims that the story has gotten confused because the term for to turn someone into a hostage (as Zeus did with the dummy Dionysus), homeron, is close to the word for to sew (en meron).  So the story was originally about a hostage dummy but after being misheard, it turned into a story about Dionysus being sewn into a thigh rather than a story about a dummy being used as a hostage.

Dionysus, AKA Bacchus, Bromius, and Evius

Bacchae is the main text of this unit.  Dionysus is the main character of the play, and is an Ancient Greek god.  He is the son of Zeus and Semele, a mortal.  He is the god of vegetation, just as Demeter is the female vegetation goddess.  He represents ecstasy and madness and is associated with theater.  Ecstasy means literally beyond stability, or transcending a static or normal state.  In other words, he is the god of being outside of one's self.  Every spring, there was a theater festival in Athens to celebrate Dionysus.

Characteristics of the religion of Dionysus include spiritual release through music and dance, possession of the god by his followers (entheos).  The wine is meant to help followers to be possessed.  Sporagmos ripping apart a sacrificial animal. Omophagy is when you eat the sacrificed animal raw.  The title of our text, Bacchae, means the female followers of Bacchus (which is the Latin name for Dionysus).  Maenads is another term for the exclusively female followers of Dionysus.

Dionysus represents hte dissolution of boundaries.  Psychologically, he represents a free emotional life without the traditional constraints of other people, society, morality, etc.  Culturally, he blurs boundaries between civilization and the wild, moral and immortal, humanity and beasts and male and female.  In theater, an actor is thought to fuse with his character and the viewer is meant to identify with the actors, thus breaking the boundary between self and her.

Dionysis is both a god and a beast.  As a beast, we mean that he is unintelligible or unhuman.  As a god, he is at the center of a civic religion, but is he worshiped in the mountains.  He is male, but appears feminine.  He is Greek but comes from Asia.  He is neither child nor man, but a perpetual adolescent.  He brings wine to men and madness to women.  His Thyrsus is meant to open channels of fluid from the ground (wine, milk, water), but this can also be a dangerous weapon--a shaft or missile.

Euripides is the author of Bacchae.  The text was chosen because it shows many themes relevant to the year-long Humcore course.  This text was chosen because it features humans being punished for refusing to worship a god.  God is portrayed as an enemy to society, and nature upsets social norms.  We might also consider why god is worshiped in nature.  Other themes include rationality impedes understanding divinity and divine wrath is excessive and unable to be appeased.

Another important theme is doubling.  There are two opposing worldviews: the rational civic world of Pentheus and the irrational world of Dionysus.  There are two sets of maenads: one group of Asia and another from Thebes. There are two Dionysuses: the god himself in the prologue and exodus and the god in disguise.  When in his own form, he is presented as a deus ex machina, meaning he arrives in his god form from a machine on stage as if from the heavens.  There are also two scenes of constrained maenads: one peaceful, the other murderous.  When the women are left alone, they are peaceful, but they become murderous when bothered.

The structure of the work is a prologue at the beginning and an exodus at the end with a series of episodes followed by choral odes.  At the beginning of the play, we are near a path to Citchaeron, a mountain.  Dionysus is literally standing between nature (the mountain) and the city.  The scene opens on the tomb of Dionysus' mother.  Dionysus enters and stage directions describe him as looking like a woman: beardless, long hair, ivy wreath, etc.  He addresses the audience and tells them that he has come back to Thebes.  He says he is a god and the son of Zeus, which is exactly the question at issue in the play.  At the end of the play, after he punishes the city, he reminds the audience that he is god.  Dionysus indicates that Hera has had something to do with Semele's death.  He tells of the spread of his religion, and tells how he has forced the women in Thebes to follow him as madwomen.  As a result, they have abandoned their "womanly" duties at home.    

Homer, Similes and Nature

This last unit will focus on how divinity, society and nature and their interrelationships with one another and with humans.  Dr. Giannopoulou will talk about nature primarily, but she will also explore these interrelationships.  The Bacchae will be the main text of this unit, but we will compare and contrast ideas from this Euripides play and from Homer, Sophocles and Plato.

The Homeric Question.  Who is Homer?  Homer is the author of The Illiad and The Odyssey, but there is no single historical figure to whom we refer when we talk about Homer.  Heroditus, an Ancient Greek historian, said that Homer lived in 850 BCE.  Other sources have him living five centuries earlier. We assume that at some point in this period, there was some poem named Homer.

Homer wrote in dactylic hexameter.  This means that he wrote phrases that contained six sets of vowel sounds grouped in pairs of long sounds or in groups of three with one long sound and two short sounds.  In other words, he wrote lines with six dactyls.  A dactyl is a set of two long vowel sounds or one long vowel sound followed by two short vowel sounds.  This means that it was very difficult for Homer to compose his prose, as it was all constrained by these parameters.  This would have been particularly difficult because the poems were composed orally, meaning that nothing was written down when the poetry was created.

Aoidoi were singers, or bards.  Often they were authors of poems, as well, such as Homer.  Rhapsodoi replaced aoidoi as a term.  They were performers of poetry who would compete.  Literally, the term means that they sewed songs together.

Many scholars have tried to solve the Homeric question.  Milman Perry and Albert Lord were two important Homeric scholars.  Perry, who wrote in the 1930s, provided the idea that Homer's formulas were inherited from predecessors.  Formula here means a group of words used regularly under the same conditions in order to express an idea.  For example, "the man of twists and turns" is a formulaic description of Odysseus.  Another example of a formula is "swift-footed" Achilles.  Albert Lord contributed the fact that every time a Homeric epic was performed by a different person, there were changes made.  The texts we read are thus the result of a long oral tradition.

Homer's similes are his most interesting references to nature.  Metaphors are comparisons without words like "like", "such as" "as", or "similar to".  When these words are used, then it is a simile.  For example, in Iliad, Eumelus' horses are described as "swift-moving like birds".  Humans are also compared to animals.  Gods are also able to change their own form into animals and turn humans into animals.  Human and animal forms are interchangeable.  In Homer, the boundaries between humans and nature are flexible.

In Iliad, Achilles has a dialogue with his horse.  He tells a horse to bring him back and shames him by telling him to do better and not to leave him dead as they left Patroclus dead.  He also calls his horse "illustrious", which is a term not often applied to horses but only to humans.  Achilles' horse responds by bowing his head and is then given a voice by Hera.  The horse says that they will do their best, but that the gods ultimately decide who dies.  It is significant that the horse in this play has logos, or speech and reason.  The horse not only responds with language, but he responds with good reasons and prophesizes Achilles' death.  The furies then struck the horse dumb.  Achilles responds by asserting his courage and superiority.  In short, although the man has the last word, the animal has the capacity to act as the best humans can.

In Odyssey, Odysseus fights the Scylla, a six-headed monster.  He also fights a whirlpool, the Charybdis.  Both of these monsters are female.  Here is an example of a male exercising his ability to make a woman submit.  Even monsters such as the Charybdis that are characterized as excessive and grotesque have human characteristics, such as gulping, swallowing and spewing.  Scylla, who snatches six men, is described as similar to an angler fishing for little fish.  She is also described as having a cavern, referring to her mouth and throat and as being like a fishing rod.  The men are described like little fish.  Contrast their animalic writhing with Scylla's calculated movements.  In sum, animals in Homer are like and unlike human beings.  When like humans, the characteristics are extreme and monstrous.  IT is the intensification of human characteristics that makes them a monster.  Also, they are dominated by human beings.

"Bushmen" as "primitive" and the Human/Nature Boundary

Today's lecture focuses on changing perceptions of Khoisan people, the place of "bushmen" in modern society and the boundary between humanity and nature.  Dr. Mitchell also focuses on 5 concepts and 5 skills that we should have gained from her lectures.

5 Concepts.  Dr. Mitchell hopes that you have a working definition of history.  History is a way of asking question and of making meaning of the past.  At its core, history is about change over time.  Historical materialism is the approach to history that treats the past as a collection of economic relationships (e.g., buyer/seller, producer/product).  Time/place specificity means looking at the way certain ideas or events emerge in a specific time and place.  Contingency is the notion that many conditions of our lives are beyond our control.    Causality is how we explain the relationship between a cause and an effect.

5 Skills.  First, one should be able to interpret source material.  Second, you should be able to identity the steps of a historical argument.  Third, you should be able to explain change over time or long-term continuity.  Fourth, you should be able to identify and shift between different scales of analysis, meaning that sometimes we look at the big picture and sometimes we zoom in on a specific community or set of individuals.  Different questions have different scales.  Fifth, we should know how to pose humanities research questions.

Perceptions of Nature.  Khoisan culture sees a constant interaction and exchange between humanity and nature.  The European tradition has tended to emphasize the difference between humanity and nature as well as the hierarchy in which humanity stands above all non-human natural phenomena.  In European art, science and descriptions of African landscapes, Africa has often been depicted as wild, savage and primitive.  The humans living there were also treated as part of nature and as primitive.  Scientists of the time categorized different races and put different people into a hierarchy where not only humans dominate non-humans, but as some people are de-humanized, humans dominate other humans.  

Changing Perceptions of the San People.  In 1925, Denver businessmen financed an expedition to South Africa.  The images and film that came from Africa helped to change the image of "bushmen" from that of a lowly human being to a noble savage.  Khoisan represented a time when humans had a simple existence in harmony with nature.  This "tamer" image allowed settlers to feel safer from attack from locals.  Ultimately, the image of a peaceful "savage" was used to garner positive publicity for South Africa.  In the 1950s, Lawrence Marshall brought his family to Namibia in order to seek a more peaceful life.  John Marshall, one of the sons, became a filmmaker and he documented the local people.  The mother, Lorna, a schoolteacher, is credited with the advent of "Bushmen Studies".  This family found new ways to present local African people to a Western audience.  Sir Laurens van der Post, a writer and close friend to Prince Charles, claimed that the "noble savage" represents a kind of living that Western people should envy.

Casting Africans as "primitive" or "savage" depends on a certain notion of progress.  If we only count a certain kind of technology as progress, then other cultures will appear "less evolved".  This stereotype also relies on a notion about where humanity should be headed and/or is headed.  If we think that all of humanity is going towards the same endpoint, then others will appear closer to this goal than others.  Only with certain standards of progress and achievement can we judge ourselves as better or more advanced than others.

Dr. Mitchell notes that the Khoisan are not "people out of time",  or people who are "less evolved" or "less advanced" than other humans.  Nature, progress and advancement towards a goal are all ideas that we construct together.

Humanities Research Questions.  One example of a humanities research question might be how the perceptions of Khoisan culture have changed over time.  How have opinions of these people changed?  How have our evaluations of them changed?  How have we valued them differently?  What has been positively valued and negatively valued at different times and how might we explain this in terms of other social or economic values in our own culture?

Reading Colonial Landscapes

The topic of today's lecture is the development of colonial science and the boundary between humanity and nature.  We will also focus on archaeology as a science in the Western Cape.  We will look at rock art as evidence and ask humanities-based research questions.  Dr. Mitchell claims that the colonial development was intertwined with the development of science.  Europeans grew more interested in South Africa as they pursued scientific knowledge about the land, flora, fauna and local people.  Collaboration was often needed from the locals, although the white scientists were often in a significant position of power over the locals.

Wilhelm Bleek, a linguist, studied the Zulu language in the 19th language.  His first exposure to the language was through prisoners.  He eventually received permission to have prisoners and their wives live with him and his family.  Bleek, his wife Jemima Lloyd, his daughter Dorothea and his sister-in-law, Lucy Lloyd, created a series of notebooks.  The notebooks began as linguistic inquiry and eventually transformed into ethnographic interviews about the Khoisan culture.  These books are now stored in an archive at the library at the University of Capetown.  An archive is a selected series of materials stored together and made available to scholars to have an in-depth set of materials to study.

It is unclear to what extent some of the locals participated willingly in helping European scientists and researchers.  In some cases, travelers interacted with locals as equal in market exchange.  In another case, a group of Khoisan were captured and brought to London on display.  Some of Bleek's collaborators were perhaps less than enthusiastic, but many seem to be very interested in participating. But we cannot deny that there were differences in power.  Consider the authors for the books Speciments of Bushman Folklore.  Both Wilhelm and Lucy are listed as authors, even though Bleek had been dead for decades and Lucy was responsible for the bulk of the content.  Because a woman had limited authority and legitimacy, a male author gave legitimacy to the project.  Also, there may be a dedication "To All Faithful Workers", but none of the collaborators, including ||kabbo, who was a significant contributor, are listed as authors.

Now let's consider representation of landscape and local people.  The cover for Le Vaillant's book is an image of animals and the landscape with a single European gentleman looking on.  There are no buildings or interactions with locals depicted in the image.  At this time, there was also a strong interest in phrenology, or head size and shape.  Archaeology has been and still is a main way of studying the culture of locals in the area.  Rock art has been a main subject of inquiry for archaeologists.   The rock art depicts initiation rituals and significant animals and experiences.  Entoptic lines, or series of zig-zag lines, indicate a spiritual importance and transformation.

Colonial Contexts of Knowledge Acquisition

How can we understand the significance of colonial acquisition?  What relationship is there between colonial development and science?  We will look at the mutual development of science and colonialism. In terms of method, we will focus on change over time, interpreting sources, and scale.  By scale, this means whether we are looking at "the big picture" or whether we look at stories about specific individuals.

Dr. Mitchell thinks that the natural resources in South Africa help us to understand colonial development and conflict with native culture.  The expansion of colonial settlement extended from the wettest parts of the interior cape region and then outward, pushing locals into the drier areas to the North and the East.  Indigenous Khoisan people were forced into indentured labor by European settlers after they were forced out of their land and left without a way to practice their culture.

Technology such as guns, illness such as smallpox and ideas such as racial superiority and private property are all sources of power that were at play during colonial development of South Africa.  The settlers and local Khoisan had different access to technology, science and medicine.  They also had very different ideas about how humanity is related to nature. What are the long term consequences of the different ideas about and interactions with nature?  And is nature still an important part of current Khoisan culture?

Early scientists, such as Galileo, did not consider himself to be a "scientist" as such.  He was meticulous and methodical and the father of modern science, but he considered himself to be a philosopher.  "Natural philosophy" was the name for early science.  Many early scientists would display collections of curiousities and evidence.  A Wunderkammer, or wonder room, could be shown to other natural philosophers or interested parties.  These items were often acquired from trade with merchants who got their goods from international voyages.  These precursors to natural history museums did not divide natural objects into different categories like modern scientists do.

Other displays of knowledge also reveal a shift from science as a consideration of nature as a whole to science as the study of a specific part of nature.  The South African Museum, at the top of the botanical garden, features information about flora and fauna.  The South African National Gallery, on the side of the garden, features European fine art.  The Slave Lodge, at the bottom of the garden, now features displays of the material culture of Khoisan and white settlers.  Why is there this division?  Why is there this hierarchy?  Other divisions, such as chronological division, are other ways to categorize knowledge.

So what is the significance of this division? Scientific division of plants and animals coincides with scientific division of people along racial lines.   After 1492, European travelers experienced a radical increase of exposure to non-European culture. A number of technological innovations meant that they had better ships with more gunpower and more room for people and goods.  Vessels became more efficient mobile fortresses.  Early navigation required keeping track of landmarks on nearby landmasses. Trans-oceanic navigators had to find other ways to travel.  This is how latitude and longitude markers were invented.  As a wedding present, Christopher Columbus received his father-in-law's maps and maritime knowledge.

After the historic voyage of 1492, trans-oceanic voyage, many others traveled across oceans.  In 1519, Magellan began the voyage that proved that the world's oceans were connected.  European sailors could bring people all over the world.  In some places, sailors merely made landfall.  In other places, there were trading posts and rest posts set up.  In yet other places, settlements were set up.  In all these places, there were material exchanges with locals.  Botany was of interest for local Europeans visiting South Africa.

Kolb, Sparrman and Blake represent different views towards nature.  All three views fit together to create a more complete worldview.   Kolb's ethnography emphasizes domestic activities of settlers and native Khoisan people.  Sparrman, a Swede, gives detailed description of land, plants and animals.  He uses Latin names and seldom writes about people.  Wilhelm Bleek, a German, worked to categorize language of Africans with a zoologist.  Bleek was convinced to come to South Africa to study the Zulu language.  He provides the first written grammar of the language.  Wilhelm met his wife, Jemima, during his travels from Europe to Africa.  Lucy Lloyd, his sister-in-law, also collaborated with Wilhelm to study language.  First they spoke with prisoners.  One was brought home to live with them and another Zulu speaker joins them, ||kabbo.  ||kabo became an important part of the intellectual community and provided a lot of information to Bleek and Lloyd.

One Biome, Two Moral Economies

Today we focus specifically on conflict about land use in the Olifants River valley between 1725 and the 1780s.

Dr. Mitchell identifies components of a "historical argument".  First, there is a chronology, or explanation of a sequence of events.  Second, there is evidence of events on the chronology.  Then there is a claim about the causes of these events.  Some explanatory principle must be used to account for continuity or change.  Last, there is a discussion of significance.  In other words, we need to explain why we should care about these events.

The Olifants River Valley is in the Western Cape of South Africa.  It would have been a nine hour ox ride from Cape Town, but we could get there in two hours today. The climate is arid and the land is rocky and dry.  Irrigation from this river is important for farmers in this region since 1775.  Much of the vegetation here is endemic.  There is a low carrying capacity for this region.  There are no herds and little large game, as the plant-life cannot sustain large animal populations.  There were some rhinos and hippos through the 18th century but never many.  There is an abundance of rock art sites in this river valley, including images of elephants.  Along with this, European accounts confirm that there were elephants in this region from time to time.

In 1725, men began to claim land in the valley, mostly for grazing cattle and to supplement permanent farms closer to the city.  Yet by 1763, there was the beginning of a permanent settlement.  Although most of the claimants were white males, there are some instances of racial diversity.  When we look at a formal claim for land, we can read this as a mere financial transaction, or we can see this as an example of the Dutch East India Company violently taking land from and selling it to others.  Regardless of which interpretation you take up, this practice was legitimized by the government.

Halve Dorschvloer is the name of a farm on Karnemelksvlei.  It was family property located on the east side of the Olifants River.  It was a loan farm, but like many loan farms, were owned by a single family for multiple generations.  The Burger family, in one form or another, leased the land for 26 years.  This information is pieced together from multiple sources.  Official land records indicate that one many had a claim to the land for 19 years, but the death certificate for that man indicates that his wife was actually running the land for half of that time.  And although there is no official record of the son making a land claim, there are letters that indicate that he was pursuing a claim to this land.

The institutions that managed land use precluded the possibility for shared land use.  In other words, they excluded the Khoisan from using the land and favored settlers.  Although both relied in herds for their wealth, only the settlers had access to land after the 18th century.  Not only did they lose land but also the ability to reproduce their culture.  The power dynamic that had been set up was inherently unbalanced.  As a result, Khoisan were somewhat integrated into colonial society, since they could not longer maintain their own society.  They had to be part of the labor force because they could not herd cattle or hunt the land.

Dr. Mitchell notes that the basic cultural differences between Khoisan and settlers led to a basic incompatibility where two moral economies conflicted within a single biome.

South Africa and the Khoisan Today

This article is about the attempts of current members of the Khoisan culture to seek compensation for the injustices done to their ancestors and their culture.

Hunters, Herders, Farmers and Nature

We will me comparing and contrasting Khoisan cosmology and its relation to land use with Christian settler cosmology and its relation to land use.  Dr. Mitchell introduces a view of history, called Historical Materialism.  Historical Materialism focuses on economic production and goods as a way to interpret historical events.  This can be contrasted with a focus on merely cultural accounts.  The relationship between the Khoisan culture and the Europeans can be explained in terms of economic needs and activities.  Water played a large role in determining where people could easily live.  Climate and resources required that the Khoi be mobile, which in turn limits the amount of stuff people could acquire.  Both cultures also put their wealth into livestock.

Origin myths are very revealing about a culture.  They are cosmological insofar as they are about the nature of the cosmos, or the existence of the universe.  This is the San creation story.  In the beginning, humans and animals lived together with Kaggen, the creator and a trickster.  They lived underneath the earth until Kaagen made a whole for the humans to rise to the surface.  Some animals were able to get to the surface not through the hole but through the branches of a tree that had been planted next to the hole.  Kaagen gathered the people and animals and warned the humans not to use fire.  After the sun set, humans were afraid and cold without the sun's light.  The animals, however, had natural adaptations to see in the dark and stay warm.  The humans decided to light a fire, which scared the animals away and forced them to live in caves, trees and mountains.

Themes in this story include free will, heavenly realms (underground), the trickster/creator figure, transformation and the relationship between humanity and non-human animals.  San religion also included the notion that spirits of humans and animals could go into the form of the other.  Kaagen, the sometimes man, sometimes preying mantis, had a favorite animal, the eland.  He punished his son for killing an eland by making humans hunt the eland in spite of the fact that they will rarely succeed.  Eland were represented in much San art.  Women are initiated into society by acting out the scene of joining a herd of eland (which is acted out by the other women).  Men are initiated into society by a procession of eland hunters.  Men wear cloaks as a symbol of a man wearing his wife.  The eland is also a symbol meant to mediate between men and women.  Both in the hunt of the male and in the menses of the woman, important blood is spilled.  The blood of the eland is an important symbol.

The sources for this information comes from European descriptions of dances in the 18th century.  San also told ethnographers about their stories in the 19th century.  Current ethnogrophies in Namibia and Botswana also reveal parallel stories.  We also have cultural artifacts and art left behind.

In one San story, "The Great Thirst", there are many elements shared with the creation story.  Animals as a source of change, transformation and blood as life are three important themes.  There are three worlds, the heavenly realm, the everyday world and the underworld.  Those with strong spiritual power can move between the two realms.  Humans and animals have obligations to each other.  Another important theme is the ability of animals and people to transform into one another.  Animals are also often portrayed as doing human things, such as in "The Lion and the Jackals".

Let's now consider Christian cosmology.  The Christian settlers in 18th century South Africa did not expect their God to manifest himself in the real world.  Rather, God lives in one of three realms: heaven.  The other two realms are the world of humans and the underworld, or hell.  In the Great Chain of Being, we see how God stands at the top of a hierarchy that goes all the way down to humans, animals, plants and even demons.  Only God and angels are higher on the hierarchy than humans.

How did the Khoisan use the land?  They moved around, following game, water and seasonal shellfish. They would use the same sites again and again although they maintained no permanent settlements.  Wealth was measured by livestock.  Contrast this with the way that settlers used land.  They practiced extensive grazing and settled agriculture.  Long term settled agriculture was facilitated by land rights.  Land was demarcated, owned permanently (if one chooses) owned and alienable, meaning it can be transferred to heirs, or other people.  People could either get a free hold grant, where the land was permanently owned.  There were also loan farms, where people leased their land for a year.  In practice, people held these leases for decades and transferred them to heirs.  Settlers measured wealth in land, livestock, slaves and material culture such as houses and other structures.

Dr. Mitchell thinks that settlers had many similarities with Khoisan culture.  Older South African nationalistic histories claim that the two cultures are irreconcilably different.  She thinks that there were large differences between settlers, where some were limited in material resources and mobility, whereas other settlers had larger markers of wealth such as vineyards.  She acknowledges that each interpretation has its own point to make, however.

Conflict in South Africa: Background

For the next three weeks, we will be looking at the history of societies in conflict with one another, starting with South Africa.  Not only are cultures in conflict with one another, but there are conflicts between the different ways that cultures interact with the natural world.  Dr. Mitchell claims that "nature" is at the heart of the conflict between cultures.  We will consider the control and use of natural resources, the proper relationship between humanity and nature and the nature of humanity itself.

We will focus on historical thinking skills, an introduction to geography and culture of South Africa, and the importance of contingency and specificity of time and place.  Time-place specificity means that certain truths arise in a particular time and in a particular place.  For historians, an attachment to time-place specificity means that there is almost always an exception to universal laws and rules.  The clearest universal law seems to be that humans are diverse and unpredictable.  Our specific place for this unit is the Cape of Good Hope and the time is 19th century.  To say that something is contingent upon something else means that it is dependent upon that thing.  For example, the fact that Afrikaans, a language in South Africa, sounds like Dutch is contingent on the fact that there were so many white Dutch colonists in South Africa hundreds of years ago.

South Africa has many different climates. Dr. Mitchell notes that the landscapes impact the lives of people living there.  For example, not all of South Africa has significant rainfall.  Also, some areas are cut off from other areas by mountains.  The diverse countryside ranges from dry deserts to sub-tropical forests.  Cape Floral Kingdom, which is .5% of the size of South Africa, has 20% of the diversity of the country.  There is also a lot of diversity of species within every genus.  Also, approximately 30% of plants are endemic, meaning they grow nowhere else naturally.  The biodiversity of the Cape Floral Kingdom has made it the subject of much scientific interest.

Early humanoid evolution has been documented in South Africa.  Australopithacene fossils as old as 2.6 million years old have been found.  There is archaeological evidence of humans hunting and foraging in this place 20,000 years ago, known as the San.  Herders, or pastoralists, the Khoi, arrived 2,000 years ago.  Bantu-speaking farmers arrived by 300 C.E. (300 A.D.) and moved down the East coast of South Africa.

The sources about Khoisan culture are somewhat questionable.  European colonists  described the locals as a mix of bushmen (foragers) and hottentots (herders).  By 1750, Khoisan culture was almost entirely obliterated because of the disturbance caused by European colonists.  There is linguistic evidence that the Khoisan culture had significant interactions with early versions of Bantu culture.  We have rock art from this culture, which has no clear meaning and can be interpreted in many ways.  There is also some further material culture and art, some colonial records and 19th century ethnographies.

"Bushmen" and "hottentot" are words used by colonists that were often intended as insults.  From the European perspective, it appeared as if these people were somehow living "outside of time", suspended in a prehistoric way of living.  But this ignores the complexity of the lives of such cultures.

In modern South Africa, there are 11 official languages, each of which carries socio-historical significance. Afrikaans, spoken over most of Western South Africa, in the places with significant rainfall, is spoken by the descendants of Dutch settlers.  The Dutch East India Company was established to take advantage of trade opportunities with India.  The Cape of Good Hope was supposed to be an outpost on the trading lines.  In 1652, a small garrison was assigned to the area in order to establish a pit-stop for sailors.  Jan van Riebeeck was in charge of this garrison.  By 1656, he convinced the directors of the Dutch East India Company to import slaves from Asia to perform labor. In 1659, there was the first Khoi-Dutch war.  In 1666-1679, Europeans built the oldest stone building in Capetown, the Castle of Good Hope.  By 1763, the settlement had grown significantly from the original outpost.

Philosophical Interpretations of QM

Remember, our task is not to evaluate quantum mechanist as if we are scientists.  We are to consider what the consequences of QM might be for humanistic inquiry.  Dr. Bencivenga notes that many of these interpretations of QM challenge not only our everyday notions about objects, but it also challenges the very structure of our language.

One everyday opinion is that the world is made up of different elements, or substances.  In other words, there is some basic material or basic unit that makes up the world.  In Ancient Greece, the basic components of reality were called atoms.  Today, particles such as electrons are thought to be the most basic components.  Yet modern physics challenges the idea that there are some basic components.  Electrons can be created from energy.  One kind of energy can be transformed into another kind of energy.  According to modern physics, it appears as if the world is not made out of basic components or substances.  It appears instead that the world is made up of energy.  Heisenberg compares this idea to the idea of Heraclitus, an Ancient Greek philosopher.Heraclitus thought that fire affects particles.  Energy moves things.  Fire is the source of bodies just as particles can be made out of energy.

Heisenberg also refers to Anaximander.  Anaximander thought that the origin of the universe was something indefinite or something indeterminate.  He thought that things emerge out of this indeterminacy before returning back towards indeterminacy.  Heisenberg thought that this idea is supported by QM.  This theory still includes the idea that there are material objects in the world.  According to Anaximander, material objects simply emerge out of indeterminacy and exist for awhile before returning to a state of indeterminacy.

Dr. Bencivenga encourages us to consider whether it is even the case that there are concrete, material objects in the world.  In the Rutherford Gold Foil experiment, he shot large particles at a thin sheet of gold.  Many of the particles were able to travel through the gold foil without any impediment.  Rutherford hypothesized that this happened because the particles themselves are not material but are rather empty.  They are not substances.  Dr. Bencivenga suggests that what we think of as basic units (e.g. quarks) are merely points in space organized by forces.  Heisenberg indeed seems to think that QM supports the claims of Pythagoras, another ancient philosopher.  Pythagoras thought that the world is not made up of matter but rather is made up of mathematical form.

Quantum Mechanics even seems to undermine our langauge and logic.  Language, for example, is thought to be made up of elementary sentences, such as "All bachelors are single".  In such a sentence, there is a subject (what we are talking about) and a predicate (what we are saying about that thing).  In the previous sentence, "all bachelors" is the subject and "are single" is the predicate.  Yet QM challenges the notion that there are any basic facts that are true about the universe.   It even becomes difficult to talk about a specific subject if we take QM seriously.  At one point, an electron may be a wave and at another point, that same electron may be a particle.  It seems impossible to even refer to any single object.  Logic itself is also based on the principle of non-contradiction, meaning that one thing cannot be one way and the opposite way at the same time.  But QM seems to entail the fact that at any given point, any object both is and is not in a certain position or is or is not travelling at a certain velocity.  In other words, QM seems to require contradictory descriptions of entities.  For example, light is both a wave and a particle--which had often thought to be contradictory.

Another notion that should be challenged by QM is the notion that scientists are somehow neutral and disinterested observers.  Heisenberg notes that scientific endeavors such as the Manhattan Project (the project that led to the genesis of the atomic bomb) reveal that scientists are not merely observing the world but that they also shape the world in important ways.  Dr. Bencivenga notes that at a time when many German scientists left Germany in order to support Allied forces, Heisenberg stayed in Germany to help the Nazis to make an atomic bomb.  A recent book argues that Heisenberg remained in his homeland in order to purposefully stall these experiments.   the NaAlthough we cannot know for sure if Heisenberg was trying to help or hinderzis, we can clearly see that science has many important moral consequences.

Traditionally, nature is often thought to be either a resource or a threat.  It is an other with which we interact.  The most authoritative means of interacting with nature has been science.  Since the time of Galileo, science has gained a reputation for predictability and reliability.  Dr. Bencivenga argues that this reputation is based on an old-fashioned notion of science that has its proper place in the 19th century and before.  We often think that there is objective knowledge about the world that science can discover. But this idea seems outdated now. Since Max Planck, a revolution in the sciences has occurred.  QM is one major aspect of this revolution. Relativity Theory is another important aspect of this revolution.  According to Relativity Theory, space and time are relative to each person.   Another aspect is Chaos Theory, according to which all things are singularly complex entities that can be thrown into chaos at some unknown breaking point.  The most important moral to draw from these developments in modern science is that we should not be too optimistic about the extent to which the traditional scientific method can help us to understand the universe.

Traditional views of science see the scientist's task as a neutral observer of nature, but Dr. Bencivenga encourages us to see science as a dialogue between a scientist who is involved in and who affects nature.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

In this short comedic sketch, Tim Minchin explains the logical mistake of confusing correlation with causation, also known as post hoc ergo propter hoc.  This is relevant to our current lectures because scientists are supposed to identify causal connections and not only mere correlations.  Warning: vulgar and offensive comedic stylings!

Hip Hop and Quantum Theory

In these two tracks, hip hop duo Eyedea & Abilities wax philosophical on the relationship between human consciousness and reality. Some explicit language.

"Powdered Water Too"

"Birth of a Fish"

Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Physics

Today we will get a basic overview of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.  Then Dr. Bencivenga will discuss a few lessons that can be taken from this interpretation.

The Copenhagen Interpretation.  The main idea is that only when an electron is observed can we fix a position or velocity of the electron.  When a body (such as an electron) is not observed, it is in a superposition, meaning that it has many values for any given parameter.  For example, a body may be in many positions or it may have different velocities.  Each velocity that a body has a weighted value that can be mathematically represented.  For example, an electron, E, may be 20% at location A, 20% at location B and 60% at location C.  It is only when the electron is observed that it becomes a matter of fact what the velocity of the electron is.  The electron will instantaneously and randomly shift from a state of superposition where there are many values for each vector to a state of determinacy where there is only one value for the vector that is being measured.  Before the electron's position is measured, it can be expressed by a formula expressing the probability that the electron is located at any given place.  A probabilistic notion of the mechanics of matter is just as causally necessary as a Newtonian view.

But one feature of quantum mechanics (QM) is that whenever one parameter, such as location, is measured, this means that other parameters, such as velocity, cannot be measured with as much accuracy. This is the indeterminacy principle, or uncertainty principle.  Dr. Bencivenga notes the difference between uncertainty and indeterminacy.  Uncertainty has to do with our knowledge of the world.  Indeterminacy, however, has to do with the way the world is.  It is one thing to claim that we are uncertain about the location of an electron.  Yet it is another thing to claim that the position of the electron is indeterminate.  Heisenberg himself endorsed this stronger, second notion.  He thought that until we measure the position or velocity of an electron, there is no matter of fact about the position or velocity.

Heisenberg then makes some philosophical conclusions based on this innovation in theoretical physics.

We used to think about the world as having some determinate, fixed state that we can learn about with science.  Even if our understanding is limited, we have often thought that there was some concrete, fixed, matter of fact about the world.  But quantum mechanics views a world that is always in a possible state and never in a fixed state until we encounter it. Probability thus viewed is no longer a measure of a degree of likelihood that something will happen.  In quantum mechanics, probability is used to express the potential within a body.

Another important feature of QM is the notion that observation itself changes the physical nature of the observed entity itself.  According to QM, it is only when the position is measured that there is a fact about the position.  Observing a body takes it out of a state of superposition and brings it into a fixed and determinate state.  There is a reaction between reality and the observer.  Quite literally, observers change reality when they observe it.  Scientists are thus not just observers of the natural world, but they are players in nature who take part in making the thing that they are trying to observe.

QM has been criticized by modern scientists.  Einstein, for example, was unhappy with the random view of nature presented by QM.  He thus added to the theory of QM in an attempt to reduce indeterminacy to uncertainty.  He thought that if we could take certain hidden factors into consideration, then we could have a complete and fixed image of nature.  However, Dr. Bencivenga notes that there is not a single set of hidden variables that can be applied consistently in order to complement QM.

Some Relevant Tunes

Here is the Ellis Paul track I played in class called "Did Galileo Pray?", a song that considers to what extent a convicted heretic himself may have been spiritual.

The next track is more like a poem set to music.  Tim Minchin's "Storm" is the tale of a scientifically-minded man trying to avoid making a scene as he debates with a new-age woman at a dinner party.  Explicit language.

Scientific Revolutions

Aristotle and Ptolemy believed in a universe that was divided into two parts.  On the one hand was the earth, with water, fire and air.  On the other hand, beyond the moon was a fifth element, called ether.  In this realm of ether, things moved eternally in perfect circles.  The original four elements, including earth, were thought to be stable and fixed.  The movement of earthly bodies was thought of as a disruption from its natural state and the body's subsequent tendency to get back to this natural state.  For example, since a stone is made of earth, it is supposed to be on the ground.  A stone moves only when this natural state is disrupted, such as when it is thrown or kicked.

Dr. Bencivenga emphasizes the symbolism of Galileo's gesture of turning a telescope, which had been used only to look at the earth, to the heavens.  Such a gesture indicates looking at the earth in a similar way to how we look at the other heavenly bodies.    This is exactly the shift in scientific thinking that occurred when Galileo hypothesized that the earth is in motion just as other heavenly bodies are in motion.

Dr. Bencivenga notes that the common idea of modern science is that a super-human intelligence should be able to explain the movement of the entire universe with a single formula.  It is only because human intelligence is limited that we cannot know everything.  An unlimited intelligence could know everything.  Dr. Bencivenga also notes that this conception of science is not faithful to current practice.      Our next text, from Werner Heisenberg, will focus on the ways that science has changed in the last few hundred years.

In order to understand Heisenberg, we must understand the scientific context in which he was writing. Newton was very influential into the 18th century.  Newton thought that the movement of light could be explained by particles.  His system (Newtonian Mechanics) characterized physics for decades.  At the outset of the 19th century, a famous experiment seemed to prove him wrong.

Thomas Young performed the two slit experiment.  The experiment involves a source of light that goes through one screen with two slits onto a second blank screen.  If light is made of particles, then some of these particles should go through either slit and hit the back screen.  We would expect that the back screen will be illuminated by two spheres of light that overlap with a bright patch.  But what we actually see is a series of strips, some brighter, some darker.  This suggests that light is not made of particles but of waves.  If waves travel through a slit, they can interfere with one another and either amplify or minimize the intensity of the light.  The resulting display of light is an interference pattern.

Another change in science in the last couple hundred of years is how we conceive of motion. Aristotle, for example, thought that all motion is continuous.  To travel from point A to point B means to travel on a continuous path between the two points, where all points on the path are met along the way.  Max Planck thought that energy must travel in units of energy called quanta (or photons for light).  Rather than moving in a continuous manner, energy makes giant leaps.  Rather than passing by all points on a path, energy travels quantitative jumps from one place or value to another place or value.
Experiments about light in the early part of the 20th century seemed to indicate that both theories about light had some support in empirical evidence.

Heisenberg suggested that rather than conceiving of mechanical laws as equations for positions and velocities of electrons but for the frequencies and amplitudes.  Frequencies themselves are the complex mixture of many different frequencies that occur at once.  The extent to which a frequency is composed of other frequencies can be indicated with weighted measures.  For example, a certain frequency, F, may be made of up 1/4 fA, 1/4 fB and 1/2 fC.  So the equations are not fixed numbers but their value shifts depending on the complex event that is being described.

Vocab for Heisenberg

An interference pattern is the pattern that results from when two waves interfere with one another.  If two crests meet, the waves become amplified.  If a high point on a wave meets a low point on another wave, the wave becomes interrupted and de-intensified.

Quanta are small units of energy in Quantam Mechanics.  Photons are small units of light energy.  These can be contrasted with particles, which are thought to be basic units of energy in the system of Newtonian Mechanics.  Particles were thought to move in a continuous manner, whereas quanta move in large jumps (quantum jumps).

Fourier Expansion was used to explain the movement of heat through a surface.  The idea was that the movement of heat cannot be explained in one general theory but must be explained by appealing to explanations of the different parts of the larger event.

A parameter is a feature of a body that can be measured, such as velocity and location.

Superposition is a state in which a body has many values for any given parameter such as velocity, location, etc.  In this state, there are many overlapping and co-existing values for each parameter.  This is the state of things before we observe them.  For example, before we observe an electron, there is no given fact about the position of the electron.  The electron is rather co-located at many different positions.

Scientific Method Pt II: Another Application and Critical Comments

Today, before we turn to criticisms of the scientific method, we will first look at another application of Galileo's method.  Consider arguments about the daily, or diurnal, movement of the earth.  One might wonder why we feel no wind from the movement of the earth.  Or one might wonder why gravity pulls things straight down rather than at an angle.  Indeed, these considerations seem to show that the earth is stationary.  It does not seem as if the motion of the earth has an impact on the physical laws that govern the movement of things on this planet.

Galileo responds with an analogy.  Imagine standing high on the mast of a ship.  If you were to drop a stone, it would land directly below where you had dropped it--even though the ship is moving just as the earth is moving!  This analogy is not yet conclusive, however.  The scientific method requires that there be a causal explanation of the movement of objects.  One explanation for why we feel no wind from the movement of the earth is that the atmosphere of the earth rotates with the earth.  This is a causal explanation for why we feel no wind from the movement of the planet.  Also, consider the movement of a stone that is dropped.  At the time that the stone is dropped, it is already moving at the velocity of the earth.  As it falls to the ground, it maintains this motion, which is why it falls directly below where it is dropped.  Both the stone and the ground below it have the same motion, so it appears as if they stay in the same location in relation to one another.

Dr. Bencivenga notes that the scientific method does not prevent Galileo himself from making serious mistakes.  He notes two important mistakes in particular.  First, Galileo thinks that stars and planets move in perfectly circular motions.  A contemporary thinker, Thomas Kepler, was correct to theorize that the planets move in an elliptical shape.  Second, Galileo was very invested in his explanation of the tides.  He thought that because the earth moves on a rotation around its own axis as well as around the sun, this creates a very irregular motion that causes the waters of the oceans to slosh around.

Another criticism of the method is that it does not help us to make a choice between two opposing theories.  Both the view of Ptolemy and the view of Galileo are able to provide a causal account for the evidence.  Both can provide   Ultimately, Galileo claims that his view is better because it is more natural.  Specifically, he appeals to a notion of simplicity in justifying the truth of his own view.  He thinks that it is simpler to explain the apparent motion of the heavens if me hypothesize that the earth rotates around the sun rather than other planets rotating around the earth.  He also thinks that his explanations are more elegant.  Another notion that he appeals to is a notion of proportionality between causes and effects.  In short, little things have little causes and big things have big causes.  According to this principle, it seems silly to think that the earth (which is relatively small in the cosmos) could cause the heavens (relatively large compared to the earth) to move.  Proportionality, elegance and simplicity are three intuitive principles that Galileo appeals to.  None of the three are themselves justified by the scientific method.

In short, Galileo thinks that the Copernican system is more credible and reasonable.  Dr. Bencivenga questions why we should think that the universe is organized according to credible and reasonable principles?  Indeed, Galileo himself at certain points notes that we should not think that the universe operates only in ways that we are able to understand clearly.  The actual events that happen in the universe are not limited simply by what we find to be reasonable and credible.

The upshot of all of this is that there is no single method that can be used infallibly to find the truth.  Mistakes will be made when searching for the truth.  Trial and error are both important in the quest for knowledge.  Galileo thinks that we must accept that our searches for knowledge may not always yield knowledge.  We must have intellectual courage in the face of this daunting fact.  Not only do we need courage but also freedom in order to perform science.  Freedom is necessary in order to pursue alternative explanations and to try to explain things in new ways.

Galileo's Scientific Method

The most basic feature of Galileo's method is that we must rely on data and evidence.  We cannot judge without evidence and facts.  We must first take notice of data before we can judge.  Science should not be based on a priori principles, meaning that science should not be based on principles that we have before we actually get evidence.  Science should be done in an a posteriori manner, meaning that science should be based on evidence and experience.  In short, sciences should be empirical. Also, a scientist should not just cherry-pick evidence that already confirms the beliefs that she or he holds. Recalcitrant evidence, or evidence that seems to go against one's presuppositions, is the most important evidence.  Scientists should not be concerned with confirming presuppositions but they should want to explore all of the evidence and let the data itself determine the progress of the sciences.

Once we have the data, scientists should provide a causal account. For example, we can explain the movement of billiard balls by explaining how forces are transferred between two entities when they come in contact with one another.  The scientist aims to identify necessary and universal links that explain the relationship between causes and effects. A ball moves because it is hit by a cue or by another ball.  If this is truly a discovery of cause and effect, then it must be the case that in general, all balls will move when hit by a cue or another ball.  Scientific principles thus seek to provide general truths that apply to a broad class of events and occurrences.  The power of such principles is that we can use them to predict the motion of, for example, billiard balls or constellations in the sky.  Because sciences identify universal truths, they can predict the future.

Causal accounts should be represented in mathematical form.  Effects should be calculated from causes.  If we formulate causal principles in mathematical form, then we can deduce certain effects.  For example, if we know that f = ma, and we know the mass and acceleration of a certain object, then we can calculate the force of that object.  Not only can the sciences predict, but they do so with mathematical certainty.  Galileo thought that humans can have perfect knowledge of mathematical truths.  Indeed, he thought that our perfect knowledge of mathematical truths was comparable to God's knowledge of mathematical truths.

One example of this method in Galileo's work is his discussion of the surface of the moon.  Aristotle, for example, thought that the moon was made of ether, or an unchanging substance.  The moon was popularly thought to have a smooth, glassy surface that was unchanging.  Galileo, using a telescope, saw that the moon's surface was actually rough and included many features.  This was evidence that directly contradicted Aristotelian physics.  Dr. Bencivenga notes that Galileo's knowledge of techniques used in perspective painting may have allowed him to correctly "read" the combinations of color and shadows on the moon as evidence of mountains and other features.  To show that the moon had a rough surface, the characters in the dialogue show how the rough surface of a wall reflects light in a more uniform way than a mirror does.  With a mirror, light is reflected in a very directed way.  With a rough wall, light is reflected in many directions, creating a more uniform appearance of light.  Rough and irregular surfaces have many different angles off of which light can be reflected.  This means that no matter the angle from which one is viewing the surface, light will be equally reflected.  On a smooth surface, in contrast, light is only reflected at one certain angle. Here we see how Galileo 1) used empirical evidence to 2) challenge presuppositions and then 3) theorized about how the evidence can be explained.

Another point that Galileo made about the moon is that the light that comes from the moon is actually a reflection off of the earth.

Intro to Humanity & Nature

Science is the method through which we encounter the third "other" with which we can compare and contrast humanity: nature.  Dr. Bencivenga is providing an introduction into the modern conception of science.  This interpretation will be coming from the sciences itself.  Specifically, we will be looking at Galileo and Heisenberg.  

Galileo is regarded as the founder of modern science, including the scientific method.  Dr. Bencivenga will introduce this method and critique it, as well.  We will also be looking at a dialogue between two important theories about the universe.  These two views are coming from Ptolemy and Copernicus.

When encountering nature, some of the most basic phenomena that we observe are the sun, moon, stars and planets.  Each night and each year, we see shifting patterns in these phenomena.  The sun moves in the same direction all the time, but sometimes it appears as if the stars move in an opposite direction.  The earth, however, seems to remain still.  Based on this most basic data, then, it was commonly thought that the earth was the center of the universe.

Three Ancient Views: Aristotle thought that the entire universe was spherical.  Indeed, he thought that it was a series of concentric spheres.  The innermost sphere was made of the four basic elements: earth, water, wind, and fire.  This allows for things to live, die and change. Beyond the moon, everything is made of ether, an unchanging substance. Ptolemy explained the motions of heavenly bodies by appealing to eccentrics and epicycles.  Eccentricity means that the earth is not exactly at the center of the universe.  An epicycle is a circle that is centered on the perimeter of another circle.  He hypothesized that planets and stars did not merely travel in a circular pattern, but that they traveled in a circle around the perimeter of another circle.  Copernicus, in contrast to these other two views, thought that the sun (rather than the earth) is the center of the universe.

The Players: Gallileo's dialogue includes three figures, but the author himself never directly speaks.  Simplicio is named after a commentator of Aristotle and he represents the Aristotelian/Ptolemic view.  Salviati is the spokesman for Gallileo and Copernicus.  Sagredo is a neutral and intelligent observer, but we also see that he ends up sympathizing with Salviati and he straightens the Copernican view.  The dialogue takes place over four days.  The first day is about Aristotelian physics.  The second is about the daily rotation of the earth around the sun.  The third is about the yearly rotation around the sun and the fourth is about the tides.

Practical Rhetoric: Dr. Bencivenga notes that the dialogue is meant to be somewhat leisurely and playful, so as to allow for transgressions.  He also reminds us of the danger of addressing such issues at the time.  It was considered heresy to claim that the earth revolved around the sun.  Indeed, one could be executed for such crimes.  Galileo himself was tried in 1616 and was forced to recant his views.  The dialogue is thus an attempt to distance himself from his own claims.  He distances himself from the views he represents in order to try to avoid persecution.  His attempt was unsuccessful, however.  It took two years for The Church to grant permission to publish the book, which was then revoked.  Galileo was then tried and shown the instruments of torture, after which he recanted his views again and was then sentenced as a heretic.

Vocab List for Galileo

Data, in its most basic sense, is what is given.  Data is the sensory information provided to us by phenomena.

Phenomena are just what we experience.  A phenomenon is an appearance, or the way a thing appears to us.

Retrograde motion is what happens when the stars appear to move in a direction opposite of the trajectoryin which the sun appears to move.

Concentric means sharing the same center.  Concentric circles are circles that have the same center point.  Larger and smaller circles can be organized around the same point.

Quintessence or ether, is a theoretical construct of an absolutely unchanging substance.

The deferent circle  is the circle that is centered on a single point.

Eccentricity means that the earth is not exactly at the center of the universe.

An epicycle is a circle that is centered on the perimeter of another circle.

A priori means before evidence or before experience.  An a priori principle does not depend on experience in order to show its truth.

A posteriori means after experience. An a posteriori principle is based upon evidence and experience in the world.

Extensive knowledge is having knowledge about a broad range of things.  In comparison to God, Galileo thinks that we know a finite number of things compared to God knowing an infinite number of things.

Intensive knowledge is having in depth knowledge about one thing.  In comparison to God, we can know some things, such as mathematical principles and proofs, perfectly.

Diurnal means daily.  To talk about the diurnal movement of the earth means to talk about the daily movement of the earth, or the movement of the earth in a 24 hour period.

Dogma is a set of doctrines taken as an authority.  Einstein praised Galileo for going against scientific dogma.

Hater Babies

In this article, psychologists discuss the formation of social bonds in infants.  In this experiment, it is shown that babies respond positively to people who harm those who are different from them.  Note, however, that the differences in this experiment are not physical differences but are personal preferences, such as which cereal they like.  I thought this was apropos to our discussion about what kinds of experiments would need to show that the race instinct is natural and not the result of social learning.  How might an article like this weight in on the debate?

China Men: Language, Silence and America

How does language help to establish the otherness of the Chinese family in China Men?  First, the narrator identifies them as being "eccentric" (15).  Otherness is also described on pages 12. 273, 276.  Also, the mere fact that they did not speak English made them an other (45).  Indeed, many Chinese-Americans self-identified as others, calling whites "Americans" (53) and calling themselves "sojourners" (44-45).  Sometimes, it is the mere lack of language--silence itself--that makes a group an other.  It is the untold history and "rule of silence" that keeps us from recognizing the important role that marginalized groups play.  The rule of silence in the book is when the sugar can workers are forbidden from talking while working, but in the real world, it is an overall trend to silence and rob marginalized groups the opportunity to express themselves.

Appropriation vs. Assimilation.  To assimilate means to be similar, whereas appropriation means to make something one's own.  Appropriation is thus a transformation of meaning, whereas assimilation requires fitting into a pre-existing mold.  In this country, however, there is no such pre-existing mold.  What it is to be American has changed drastically in the last fifty, hundred and two hundred years.

Using language to appropriate meanings is one way to find and express power.  For example, choosing a name for yourself is a power (242).  Ed-Da-Son, for example, is a modification of the name for famous inventor Thomas Edison (71).  Lo Bun Sun is a modification of Robinson of Robinson Crusoe. Also, the title of the book itself "China Men", is an attempt to take an offensive, de-individualizing term for Chinese-Americans, "chinamen" (as if they cannot be told apart and are merely some homogeneous mass), and reappropriate the meaning of this term.  Her story is called China Men because she wants this word to represent very individual and personal stories rather than to represent the perceived anonymity of Chinese immigrants.  Also, it is important to note that the translation of "chinamen" into Chinese is perhaps more directly translated as "gold mountain warriors", a reference to their time in California.

Kingston wants us to see that not only American citizens but anybody who helps to make America is importantly "American" even if not in the legal sense.  These people are important contributors to American society and culture, even if they are not citizens.

Supreme Court and the 14th Amendment

In Brown vs. Board of Education, the majority opinion was that segregation was bad because of the negative psychological impact on the people who experienced segregation.  In this video, a pediatrician and father addresses the issue of whether there is harm caused by same-sex marriage.

This month, the Supreme Court is set to hear Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8 in CA, which banned gay marriage.  An argument of the petitioners and of the White House is that Prop 8 does not provide equal treatment under the law, which would be an argument that it violates the 14th Amendment.  How might claims about psychological harm impact this court decision? Read an article about this here.

Beauty is Skin Deep?

Dr. Thomas named the cosmetics and beauty industry as being guilty of imposing a double consciousness on Americans because of the unrealistic standards that are portrayed.

In these two videos, we see how far the images we see are from reality.  Both videos show the process of what happens between the time a model arrives at a photo shoot to the final image used in advertising.  One video features a woman model, the other features a male model.

Busting Open Categories

In "Out of Category", POS claims that he cannot be adequately defined by traditional categories and ideas that we apply to people.  This is a similar to the way in which Kingston wants to defy our traditional categories about race

Excluded Voices in America: China Men

Kingston's goal is to encourage ways in which humans can interpret and understand (or "read") one another.  On page 3, she tells the reader that she wants the experience of reading the book to be a process of discovery.  This story is a narrative about discovery.  The protagonist discovers the land of women.  Rather than being welcomed as a lone man, he is rather kidnapped and turned into a woman.  They bind his feet, which is a practice meant to make a woman beautiful but it essentially immobilizes him.  He is also turned into a servant.  At the conclusion of this little story, we find out that this place is America.

This can be interpreted as a metaphor for the emasculation of Chinese men in America or as a tale about the oppression of women in China.  Likely, both interpretations are true.  Kingston uses humor to engage the reader and to disprove the stereotype that Asian Americans are not funny.  She also tries to take up stereotypes and rather than abandon them, she tries to change them and make them her own.  Her goal with the book is to honor and still be critical towards her male ancestors.

The book is made up of myths and legends and then gives the tale of four generations of male ancestors.  This makes it a special blend of fiction and non-fiction.  In doing so, she not only defies traditional categories applied to Asian Americans, but she also defies traditional categories about genre.

What is the role of law in this book?  Well, part of the story is about becoming an American after immigrating, which is a legal issue.  To be an American, one must be born here or be naturalized.  The process of naturalization is controlled by congress.  The Naturalization Act of 1870 excluded immigrants from Asia from the process of naturalization.  In 1879, Chinese immigrants were banned from owning property or having access to work.  In 1882, legislators from CA helped the federal government create a law that all but completely banned anyone with Chinese descent to enter the country.  In 1892, a new Exclusion Act added the provision that any illegal immigrants from China would serve a year of hard labor before being deported.

Why was there so much hatred and racism towards people from China?  One simple reason is just because they were different from Americans with European heritage.  Also, there were a lot of very racist images that people were exposed to, including "Yellow Peril", commissioned by the Kaiser of Germany in late 19th century.  Another issue was that people from China were not Christian.  Because Chinese immigrants were not well assimilated into the dominant white culture, they were seen as sojourners, or temporary visitors of America (155).  Rest assured, there was also economic motive to exclude Chinese immigrants from American culture.  People thought that Chinese immigrants would lower the standard of living in America because they were willing to work harder for less money.

In 1898, US v. Wong Kim Ark ruled that the any person, regardless of their heritage, is a citizen so long as they are born on U.S. soil.  There are two kinds of jurisdiction: jus soli and jus sanguinis.  In this case, it was declared that American jurisdiction is not a matter of blood (sanguinis) but a matter of territory (soli).  In 1906, the great fire in San Francisco destroyed all proof of citizenship, thereby providing all Chinese immigrants to claim to be citizens (150).  Also, many young men claimed to be the sons of men born in America and thus gained entrance into the country.  These men were known as paper sons (46).

The father figure in the story has two alternate stories about entering the country.  In the story about his illegal immigration, he comes in through Cuba into NYC (48-53).  In the legal story, he enters through Angel Island in San Francisco, where in reality many people were denied entrance (53-60).  She leaves this ambiguity in order to protect her father.  Just as Douglass had to keep his escape secret, Kingston wants to keep the details of her father's immigration a secret.

Segregation Is Happening Now

Here is a link to an article about a segregated bus line in Israel that got torched.

This is an article about de facto segregation in schools in America.

Some students at Oberlin have vandalized school property with racist slogans calling for segregation, such as writing "Whites Only" over a drinking fountain.

Fiji has a history of segregation which is briefly discussed in this essay asking what the purpose of celebrating Fiji's Independence Day... sound like anything else you've read this quarter?

Defying Double Consciousness in Hip Hop

In this track, "Forest Whitiker", Brother Ali rejects popular standards of beauty.  In doing so, he defies the double consciousness imposed by such unattainable standards.  As he claims in this uplifting yet lighthearted track, "You might think I'm depressed as can be, but when I look in the mirror I see sexy ass me!".

Dessa, an MC from the Doomtree collective, inverts common metaphors in order to indicate that she has broken out of the negative role afforded to her through a gendered double consciousness. She invites the reader to "...forget the the bull in the china shop, there's a china doll in the bullpen", indicating that she is perceived as too delicate to succeed in the male-dominated field of rap music.  Yet she is able to thrive, as she points out that  "...now I've got glass floors", which is an inversion of the metaphor of the invisible glass ceiling that is supposed to keep women from succeeding in the workplace.  Here is her track "Bullpen".

Epicanthal Fold, Standards of Beauty

I would not recommend Wikipedia as an academic source, but this short article on the epicanthal fold may help to explain what I was talking about in class.  The article also links to one on epicanthoplasty, the surgery some people get to "fix" the fold.


Here is the link for the video we watched in class that recreates the Clark experiment.

Brown, etc.

The first half of the twentieth century of the United States was marked by segregation.  This was not just a matter of black and white.  In 1927, in Gong Lum v. Rice, a case decided that the definition of being colored is left to states, such that it can include, for example, immigrants from Asia.  In Mendez v. Westminster (1947), it was ruled a violation of due process (14th Amendment) to have segregated education such that minority populations were systematically denied opportunities.  Plessy, however, did not apply because there was no law requiring segregation in California.

Other attempts were made to overturn Plessy.  The role of civil disobedience is well known in this country.  The strategy of the NAACP, however, was to work within the system.  They filed legal briefs and made oral arguments before judges.  They had two main strategies: equalization and anti-segregation.  The goal of the first was to remove systemic inequalities such as salary disparities.  The second goal was to overturn segregation laws.

World War II played a large role in changing attitudes about civil rights.  There was a strong disgust against Nazi racism.  Also, many northerners were stationed in the South and experienced a new level of segregation, which seemed unjust to Northerners who experienced more freedom and equality in the North.  Also, black Southerners left the South and went to more open places, such as California and the North.  Also, many black Americans served in the Army.  The Cold War rhetoric used to demonize USSR made people feel hypocritical to see such injustices in a country claiming to be morally superior to other world powers.

An important part of the NAACP's rhetoric is to show that intangible factors such as reputation of the school are important for determining if a school is truly equal to another.  How does this translate into a case about K-12 education?

In 1954, the plaintiff's claim in the case Brown v. BoE is that the schools for African American schools are unequal and thus violate the 14th Amendment.  A key issue was the intention of the original amendment (285).  Ultimately, it was decided that the intention is unclear.  As such, the judicial branch is granted the power to treat the Constitution as a living, evolving document.  The judge (Earl Warren) considered the role of public education in the current time rather than its role in the previous century (286).  The current function of education was deemed to be necessary for basic civil duties and is the foundation of good citizenship.  As such, everyone should have equal access to quality education.  Warren also noted intangible factors relevant to K-12 education include being denied access to peers (287).  Simply being treated differently is an intangible factor that effects how one perceives oneself.  Separate, ultimately, was deemed to be unequal (287).

Brown was seen to overturn Plessy not based on legal reasons but based on the evidence about the reasonableness of segregation.  New evidence was brought to light in Brown that was not considered and/or available in Plessy (290-1).  This new evidence was the psychological damage of segregation.
There are many ways to interpret the law.  In the Plessy majority decision, the structure and form of the law was the focus.  In Harlan's dissent, he focused on intention of the law.  In Brown, the consequences of the law were more important in the decision (287).      

After Brown there was the task of integrating schools.  The court called for "all deliberate speed".  In 1957, the governor of Arkansas refused to integrate schools.  Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce the legal decision.  We have progressed significantly since then.  There is no longer any de jure segregation or legal segregation.  There is, however de facto segregation, or segregation in practice.  Affirmative action is the requirement to take race into account in order to make sure that our workplaces and schools are representative of our larger demographics.

One case relevant to this is Regents of Univ. of Calif. v. Bakke (1978).  Bakke was a white student denied admission to UC medical school.  He claimed that underrepresented minorities were granted preferential treatment, thereby unfairly denying him opportunities.  The court was very divided on this issue.  5 justices said race can be taken into consideration as one factor to determine who is granted admission but there cannot be a quota to be filled.  4 justices claimed that admissions processes should be entirely color blind.  Proposition 209 in CA imposed such a standard.