Link salad

[osprey_archer]

A cornucopia of links.

First, We Aren’t the World, which is about the fact that recent anthropological research shows that people in different cultures often respond to psychological tests like ultimatum games very differently than the Americans from whom many psychology researchers have drawn their samples and their conclusions about human nature.

Researchers had been doing the equivalent of studying penguins while believing that they were learning insights applicable to all birds.

Or, as my government professor used to say, “Studying the US system to learn about government is like studying platypi to learn about mammals.”

Super interesting!

On a less high-minded note, sineala sent me this article: Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman Probably Had Sex Once, which, well, what it says on the tin. I share this because the article is hilarious - ”This is a gift. You do realize that, don’t you? History has reached out to you specifically and given you a gift.” - and also because I feel that someone (someone else, someone who cares about Wilde or Whitman) should totally make this story happen.

In fact, someone already nominated Wilde and Whitman for Yuletide! So there is a golden opportunity right there.

And finally, a how-to for Kirsten braids. Yes! At last I can emulate Kirsten Larsen, the American girl with the most iconic hairstyle.

I am thinking of saving this for a St. Lucia Day party in December. I can make saffron buns! I can figure out a way to put a wreath of candles on my head! Or at least a wreath of holly! I have yearned for this day since I was seven.

Comments

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

You must include a picture if you do the braids ;o)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

When I do the braids, I intend to devote an entire entry to their glory.

[anait.livejournal.com]

I really liked the first link, the article about the importance of culture in understanding human behaviour. I read it and passed it on to my sisters too!

At its heart, the challenge of the WEIRD paper is not simply to the field of experimental human research (do more cross-cultural studies!); it is a challenge to our Western conception of human nature. For some time now, the most widely accepted answer to the question of why humans, among all animals, have so successfully adapted to environments across the globe is that we have big brains with the ability to learn, improvise, and problem-solve.
Henrich has challenged this “cognitive niche” hypothesis with the “cultural niche” hypothesis. He notes that the amount of knowledge in any culture is far greater than the capacity of individuals to learn or figure it all out on their own. He suggests that individuals tap that cultural storehouse of knowledge simply by mimicking (often unconsciously) the behavior and ways of thinking of those around them. We shape a tool in a certain manner, adhere to a food taboo, or think about fairness in a particular way, not because we individually have figured out that behavior’s adaptive value, but because we instinctively trust our culture to show us the way. When Henrich asked Fijian women why they avoided certain potentially toxic fish during pregnancy and breastfeeding, he found that many didn’t know or had fanciful reasons. Regardless of their personal understanding, by mimicking this culturally adaptive behavior they were protecting their offspring. The unique trick of human psychology, these researchers suggest, might be this: our big brains are evolved to let local culture lead us in life’s dance.

So interesting! Also, the bit about how cities and civilizations maybe were able to come into being because of religion (or maybe not!). And the idea that culture shapes human cognition that definitively, at a biological level.

[anait.livejournal.com]

Also, if culture is wired on a biological level into the human brain, then it's fluid.

I remembering reading a meme about 'third culture kids,' linked by a friend who spent years living in first one country, and then years in a second country (and then worked and lived in a third!). It was about the unique mish-mash of adaptive behaviours that third-culture kids share in common with each other, because it's such a strange thing to live deeply in one culture and then another! http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/31-signs-youre-a-third-culture-kid

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

The brain is fluid, you mean? Because if culture is wired into the brain biologically - not in a "racial memory" sort of way, but a "we learn culture as children and it shapes the way our brains develop" - then there's a certain lack of fluidity there.

And the third culture thing is interesting. I hung out with a lot of international students in college, and the list reminded me of them...

[anait.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. Culture must be one of those areas to which discussion of neuroplasticity is relevant. It's been studied in the last few decades how the brain is fluid, and this article got me thinking about the ways that culture is and isn't fluid, hence the third culture kids.

I remember the year I lived in London. I learned to say 'Alright?' instead of 'Hi.' I learned to look the wrong way when crossing the street. And to alter my vowels so that people could understand me clearly when I spoke. Things like that and many more became second nature. Then I went back home, and in 2 to 3 months those things fell away.

I didn't stay for years, so had only of a little of the cognitive dissonance that third culture kids must feel when switching from one home country to another.

This article got me thinking about just how important culture is. How when you move to a different place, to live, not just to travel through - even to college - so much of your energy and attention gets devoted to learning and acquiring the new culture, whether you realize it or not.

[artemis_wandering]

Thanks for those links! The first fits right up my alley. Can't wait to read. And I do love me some Whitman. I'm thinking he'll be either my third or fourth tattoo.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Will you be using that picture of Whitman from the beginning of Leaves of Grass? Or a quote from one of his poems?

[artemis_wandering]

It would be a quote. "Do I contradict myself? I am large, I contain multitudes." I know I'm missing a line in there. I haven't decided if I want the whole chunk or the essence. But I love that poem and those lines, when I first read them, I felt someone finally understood something about myself.