May 2008
27 posts
Wildlife in the Home →
Ran has mirrored a great article by Ianto Evans from The Hand-Sculpted House, about how humans and other-than-humans live with each other, rather than in isolation, in various saner societies around the world, and some suggestions on how we might renew that relationship. - Jason
WatchI’ve long loved Keith Olbermann’s rants. His characterization of assassination as the worst blight on American history seems over the top (Really? The worst? Not slavery, the genocide of our native population, the conquest of the southwest, the concentration camps and anti-insurgency practices we used in the Philippines, not the Tuskeegee experiments? … but now I’ve...
How Are Humans Unique? →
“Human beings do not like to think of themselves as animals,” this article begins, once again committing the fallacy Daniel Quinn called “The Great Forgetting,” corrected by his admonishment, “We are not humanity.” You might correct that statement to say, “Domesticated humans do not like to think of themselves as animals.” Animists have no trouble...
Six 'uniquely' human traits now found in animals →
Thanks again to Scout for this summary article from New Scientist about some of the “uniquely human” traits that we’ve since found in other-than-human animals. Humans have our unique characteristics like any other species, but the idea that we have some kind of unique uniqueness that sets us apart from the rest of the living community marks perhaps the foundational delusion of...
Airborne Bacteria Make It Rain, Researchers Find →
Urban Scout scouted out this piece of news: researchers have found that bacteria living in the clouds make it rain. And all that time, you laughed at animists who talked about the spirits who brought the rain. Who laughs now? - Jason
Getting to know Mother Earth the old way →
I read about an event, not a powwow because it involved different tribes dancing together rather than competing, described as evidence of a native animism renewed, because as the humans danced together, a pair of bald eagles appeared to dance with them. I had no idea that those dancers included the Seneca, or that it took place so close to my own home, in northwest Ohio. Neither did I realize...
Calvin Luther Martin →
I may have a new favorite author. I’ve read enough of Keepers of the Game and Way of the Human Being to love them both, each in their own unique way, yet it barely occurred to me that both had the same author. Calvin Luther Martin describes himself as a recovering historian running out of words, but if so, he’s spilled more than enough of them for the rest of us along the way. -...
Walking Stick Foundation →
I discovered this via the Alliance for Wild Ethics. The Walking Stick Foundation works for “the restoration and preservation of aboriginal Jewish spirituality.” - Jason
The Alliance for Wild Ethics →
Wondering what David Abram has kept up to since publishing Spell of the Sensuous? As you might expect, awesome things. - Jason
Chasing Utopia, Family Imagines No Possessions →
The New York Times takes notice of voluntary simplicity, focusing on Aimee & Jeff Harris, who have chronicled their journey at cagefreefamily.com. Thanks for sharing your experience, Aimee & Jeff—I can only imagine the hate mail you must get right now! Actually, Jeff asks the same question I’ve wondered about: “Do I have internet access in the woods?” Sorry,...
Not That the Actual Forbidden Knowledge is as... →
A fascinating article on the realities of infanticide. ”But addressing the issue in this way, and looking into the roots of the equation that predicts maternal infanticide, makes social psychologists confront the queasy implication of all of their work: if it’s that sane and natural for them to do this awful thing, if this awful thing is so hard to resist, how can we justify...
Tribe is Reclaiming a Lost Legacy →
This may present the best news I’ve ever heard. The Mdewakanton Sioux community, flush with casino profits, has begun a “shrewd chess game,” cutting off Shakopee developments, growth and expansion, slowly knitting back together their traditional territory. Says Stan Ellison, the tribe’s land manager, “Our staff is going through original surveyors’ notes,...
The Incredible Shrinking City →
In “The Longhouse,” I made the case that in the Rust Belt, collapse has already begun. Witness Ohio’s nearby Youngstown, a small city that really has more to do with Pittsburgh than Ohio. ”We’re one of the first cities of significant size to embrace shrinkage,” said Mayor Williams. As collapse looms, you can either wait for it to crush you down, or you can...
Gray Thunder: Listening to Elephants →
“One story told by Pacquo tells of a rogue elephant who was destroying crops in a nearby village. The elephant’s repeated intrusions prompted the authorities to threaten to kill it if the problem was not solved. A Samburu elder faced the elephant and somehow communicated that people were going to come and shoot it if it did not go away—and within a short while it disappeared in the bush. The...
WatchYes, I feel comfortable calling Edward Bernays the Antichrist. Part One of Adam Curtis’ documentary, The Century of the Self, looks at the connection between Freud, his American nephew Edward Bernays who invented the term “public relations” (by his own account, because of the ugly connotations of “propaganda”), and the grand strategy of controlling the masses by...
The Gospel of Consumption →
America’s capitalist system doesn’t manufacture goods or services, so much as it manufactures needs. We could supply the country’s needs off of an average three-hour work-day, so we need to sell people a life of consumption, always needing more, to justify the existence of our capitalistic hierarchy. Sound like the rantings of a Communist agitator or washed-up hippie? Try the...
Deep Survival #2: Folk Wisdom →
I don’t usually like Pinker, but I do usually like Gonzales. I should thank him for pointing to something I agree with Pinker on—even if “baloney machine” seems ridiculously harsh for such a wonderfully adaptive approach to the world as storytelling. And thanks to Mike for sending me the link! - Jason
WolfQuest →
Pure awesome. - Jason
Vengeance is Ours →
Jared Diamond’s new article in The New Yorker highlights how clan vengeance may work out better than our civilized justice system. As usual, Savage Minds has some nits to pick. - Jason
May Day Returns to Its Roots →
Eat the State on how the modern International Workers’ Day began, the irony of how this United States holiday is celebrated everywhere around the world except the United States, and why overworked U.S. citizens need to remember those old-time values now like never before. - Jason
Happy May Day! →
Halfway between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, May Day traditionally marked the beginning of summer. I have to admit, I can feel today as the beginning of summer a lot more than the end of June! - Jason
April 2008
27 posts
mingolanguage.org →
Father Bonnecamp’s map of 1749 called the Clarion River Riviere Au Fiel, “River of Hate,” because it marked the southern boundary of the Seneca and the northern boundary of the migrating Lenni Lenape. The Allegheny River itself remembers the name of the legendary Allegwi. Finding the natives of our bioregion presents a challenge; the Seneca came this south only recently. But...
Cultural Coevolution: How the Human Bond with... →
Marzluff & Angell investigate the possibilities of corvid-human co-evolution, and how humanity may have evolved in relationship to crows. - Jason
Crows have Human-Like Intelligence →
They make tools, play tricks on each other, speak to each other in distinct dialects, and maintain complex social relationships. - Jason
King, eh? Well, I didn't vote for you... →
First Dubya, and now “Hillrod.” Why do politicians think we’ll all just go along with their belief that a paper-thin majority is a mandate from the people?
You Walk Wrong →
Has someone at New York Magazine started perusing the Anthropik archive for story ideas? You decide. - Jason
A Drought in Australia, a Global Shortage of Rice →
Rice prices have doubled recently, in part due to the collapse of Australia’s rice crop as the six-year drought becomes even worse, leading some at the New York Times to link global warming and famine. - Jason
Why Bother? →
I have a love-hate relationship with Michael Pollan, but this article helped out the former much more than the latter. - Jason
Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing →
If you live in the United States, you might have missed the story about the four horsemen loosed upon the world. Ethanol and peak oil have created a food crisis that even the head of the FAO doesn’t expect to end any time soon. I wish this surprised me. - Jason
The Age of Autism: The Amish Anomaly →
When Leo Kanner of John Hopkins University first discovered autism in the 1930’s, he described it as a new and increasing phenomenon. And now it seems, strangely enough, to simply not happen among the Amish. Rather than a genetic anomaly, maybe autism actually arises as the consequence of an industrial lifestyle? - Jason
“Assume until proven otherwise that others are just as intelligent, complicated,...”
– Menzel, E.W. & Johnson, M.K. (1978). Should mentalistic concepts be defended or assumed? The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 4, 586-587
Pennsylvania Wilds →
I stumbled on the state’s tourism site for the “Pennsylvania Wilds” while looking for information about the geology of the Clarion River. The state cooked up the “Pennsylvania Wilds” brand to try to drive tourism to the north-central region of the state, and frankly, I think it makes for one of the nobler causes an advertising agency can undertake. The more people...
My Review of Once Upon a Time →
We bought a new game at our friendly neighborhood gaming store this afternoon, and Giuli & I just finished playing a few rounds of it. Once Upon a Time offers exactly what I’ve wanted to find in a game for some time now. I just posted a quick review on REWILD.info with more. - Jason
The Hardest Working Presidential Candidate Logo →
This note comes from Jason-who-designs-graphics—admitted Obamania aside, that logo rocks the wigwam, and rocks it hard. - Jason
Forest Service evades environmental laws to lease... →
With oil peaking, the vultures have come back to pick the bones of the very first kill. Pennsylvania saw the world’s first oil boom, and when the wells started to peak, they moved on. Now, prices have risen enough to warrant coming back to finish the job. Would you expect the Forest Service to stand up in defense of living things against this assault? If so, then you haven’t really...
Duck and Cover: It’s the New Survivalism →
The New York Times has deigned to notice our existence! Oh, Grey Lady, how you validate us! Well, no, not quite… - Jason
Dangerous Assumptions →
Here in the States, the IPCC gets labeled with a “liberal” moniker simply because it recognizes the reality of global warming, but its slow, deliberative process actually makes it incredibly conservative, and while its predictions may seem shocking and frightening to the ignorant, the nature of the IPCC means that it has systematically underestimated the problem we face. Hence, why...
“Story is never simply a cause-and-effect organization of events. It is that,...”
– Scheub, H. (1998). Story. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.