Re: Jorden at MIT

From: Jed Rothwell (jedrothwell_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 09/12/04 

Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 19:23:13 GMT

Marc Adler writes:

> Practical, practical, practical. Who cares about practicality and
> efficiency?

People who have to work for a living.

> > there is snow on the ground, and on your futon when you wake up. Frozen
> > toothpaste and shaving with ice water gets old.
>
> You sound like one of the guys from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Never saw it. I have, however, lived in a traditional Japanese house. It is
more comfortable than camping, but not one person in a thousand would choose
to live that way, any more than people would choose to live in cardboard
boxes behind dumpsters.

> > All cultures, in all countries, are ambiguous, and confusing, and
beautiful.
>
> Not Piraha~ culture, in the Amazon. They can't even count higher than
> two. "One" - "Two" - "Um, uh..."

I have heard that, but I doubt it is true. People often hide knowledge from
outsiders, or bamboozle outsiders for various reasons. Margaret Mead used to
go around asking young women in the South Pacific about their sex lives, and
she got back all manner of incredible responses, which she duly published in
serious tomes. You would get back equally amazing responses if you asked
high school students or housewives in Atlanta similar nosy questions, but
that does not mean your respondents believe what they say, or they are
accurately describing their culture. It means people lie about sex. They
also lie about language, money, ethics, the television shows they watch,
where they buy their clothes, what they had for breakfast, and just about
everything else an anthropologist would ask about. The reasons Americans
today lie about what they have for breakfast are obscure and would be
impossible for outsiders to understand. Heck, I would not have understood
the reasons in 1970, when no one felt guilty about eating eggs and sausage.
You never know what will trigger controversy and lying.

- Jed

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