Final Post: Community and Communication

This morning we gathered in small groups to discuss each unit covered in the course (folk knowledge, oral knowledge, written knowledge, print knowledge). I enjoyed getting some new perspectives on my thoughts on the connection between the mode of communication and the type of community formed. The last rotation, focused on print knowledge with Brianne and Montana, was particularly helpful. In my notes for the final, I mentioned my impression that studying different mechanisms of communicating knowledge affected how our group interacted; discussing with my classmates helped my expand that idea to the cultures that we studied in the course. The broader the reach of the a type of knowledge, the larger but less intimate community it forms. 

Notes on the semester

Ok So I thought I would get this going so we can have some ideas start flowing. I have this same table as  a google doc so you can add or subtract from it.

Retrospective on Spelling Paper

Having completed my final paper on spelling, I wanted to reflect a bit on my experience writing and polishing it.

Draft. Spelling and Renaissance

So I made some changes after today. Thanks for your help, especially Morgan.
I got some mixed feed back on how well I support my thesis. Your feedback on that and the flow would be appreciated

Standardization of Spelling correlated with increased literacy

Ok so here is the topic I am interested in but I need you guys' help with a compelling thesis. I'm having trouble because the two events do seem to be correlated and I want to argue for causation but at best any evidence is circumstantial and the arguments rather circular.
How can I improve this statement?
The increase of literacy during the Renaissance made greater standardization of written language necessary to preserve meaning and understanding.

Some interesting additions from Thanksgiving

So, for thanksgiving I got to go to my sister's wedding in Hong Kong. I notices several things that we had mentioned in previous blog posts or comments that I took pictures of and thought would be good to pass on to you all.

Ah my old nemesis...Spelling

All my life I have been a horrible speller. Going to bed early on Christmas eve was never a problem because my family would always have a giant family Scrabble competition into the wee hours of the morning (thought still retiring before St Nick made an appearance). Who wants to be awake for that? When I learned that spelling and punctuation were not standardized in the distant past, I thought it was the most brilliant idea ever. But, like many of you, when I try to read old documents I shake my fists and shout to the heavens "had these people no sense of language?" Standardization is important for more universal understanding and this standardization has been facilitated and fostered by print and publishing.

I have compiled an annotated bibliography of useful sources on the standardization of spelling. I hope you find it informative.

Influence of King James

I went to see the exhibit in the library about the King James Bible several weeks ago. While I enjoyed seeing the old Bibles, I, like Will, found the display about the impact of the King James Bible on the English language and modern culture most interesting. I was reminded of the university forum presented by Dr. Norton on the King James Bible. If you didn't get a chance to watch it, I would highly recommend it. In essence he talks about the impact of having a standardized Bible. Suddenly, people expected a particular tone for scripture and, to some extent, if it didn't match that, it wasn't just different, it was wrong.

Bring out the Money

Cabbage, dough, mulla, green, buck. The number of terms of endearment for currency is staggering. I can recognize money immediately, as can most of you.  In currency there needs to be extreme consistency, inconsistencies are what allow us to identify forgeries. The first money was coinage. It could be cast or imprinted with exactness. The level of consistency needed for paper money to function was made possible by the advent of printing. And for that we can thank the Chinese.

The Chinese gift

Qufu

For the Rosetta stone project  I had the opportunity to work with the group representing Asia. Two of us represented China, one Japan, and one Cambodia. Because the majority of our group represented China, and China represents the majority of the world, we thought it best to portray China in our project.
Our first thought was to have a quote from Confucius on rice paper. This would have been culturally significant because paper was invented in China (see Shuan's post on this). However, attempts at making rice paper were disastrous. Contrary to popular belief, at least my own and that of my group members, rice paper is not actually made out of rice. It is made out of rice straw or more modernly wood fiber,, mulberry, or bamboo. Also the arguably most famous Confucius artifact is actually the Confucius temple of Qufu. Confucius sayings are inscribed in stone.

Monks, Meditation, and Mummies

In honor of Halloween (which is actually also the anniversary of Martin Luther pounding his 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg in 1517), I have dedicated a post to the mysterious mummified monks of Japan. While we are all familiar with the mummies of Egyptian acclaim, I argue that these mummies of northern Japan are more remarkable. Why? Because they didn't wait to die to be mummified; they did it themselves as the ultimate expression of devotion.

Arabic, hems, and the Virgin Mary

The Cambrai Madonna ~1340 Cathedrale de Cambrai, France
notice the script on the sleeves and hood.

Mike's post on the different value system of the Hopi started me thinking about the exchange of information between civilizations, especially when they have very distinct cultures. One example I encountered is very fitting because it deals with writing (our current unit), the concept of occult (as defined by Dr. Petersen as hidden or mysterious not as the devil worship), art (mentioned by Misa), and the Virgin Mary (the rise of the cult of Mary was also discussed in class, though more in connection to archetypes and the importance of myth to cultures). I call your attention to Islamic writing in paintings of the Virgin Mary.

Choosing a Medium

I really enjoyed Mike's post about the metal plates and it started me wondering, is there a correlation between the medium used and the kind of document preserved? There are records from the Chinese preserved on wood, bamboo, silk, stone, paper, metal, and ceramic. I hypothesized that more domestic things would be preserved on ceramic, silk, and bamboo while the official institutional documents would be kept on paper, metal, and stone.

The beauty of the text

Eusebian Canons from the Book of Kells

Islamic Calligraphy

As promised, I have put together a little post on calligraphy. Calligraphy is the art of beautiful writing. Most cultures with a form of written language have elevated portions of that writing to art. This goes beyond the idea of good penmanship, it is more than clear uniform writing, it allows creative presentation of the text to accentuate the message conveyed by its meaning. In this way it is different than the utilitarian writing; it is not an efficient conveyor of ideas, it is a fine art like sculpture or painting.

Khmer--the language this time

Elvish

Khmer

All growing up my family read Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I loved the story and the poetry and I loved the funny writing on the cover. How great was my surprise when, preparing to serve a mission for the LDS church, I encountered another missionary with the Bible in what appeared to be elvish. I had no idea that that language actually existed outside of Middle Earth. The missionary was going to Cambodia, not Middle Earth and the language was sadly not elvish but Khmer.

The Speech Expirience

Hey guys!
Great job reciting the speech today, I think it went great and it was definitely a memorable experience for me. I really enjoyed your comments and thoughts about it and thought it would be good to have a little platform to discuss it and build off each other's thoughts without having to run off to another class.
So to start it off...
I was most impressed by the unity created by all reciting together. I felt drawn closer to you and thought it was a good example of how ritual is an important part of creating a cohesive society.

Talking with the Past. My interview

For my interview I decided to carry on the theme I started in my first post on the Khmer, so I talked to a eastern studies Professor and to a survivor of the Khmer Rouge. For my brief summary of Cambodian History and the distinction between the Khmer and the Khmer Rouge click here.

Khmer History

As I have been talking with you this week I have realized that I have been unclear in explaining the actual history of the Khmer and Cambodia. Here is a brief summary of the events that I have mentioned in my two previous posts and an explanation of the terms I used.

Choral Recitation at gaming events

I wanted to make the conversation I had with Morgan after filming our discussion today. We were walking to the homecoming devotional thing and started doing the football cheers. Who are we? BYU! Who are we? BYU! BYU! BYU! And then we realized this is exactly what we had been doing in class.
In class today, Mrs Burton came and presented on Choral Recitation. She is a Kindergarten teacher for special need children and taught us to all respond in unison to her questions. This is an effective way to teach things.
Obviously we are being clearly taught about our identity and how to spell C-O-U-G-A-R-S at sporting events. We therefore decided to classify them as important educational rituals.
Remember that as you visit your next football game!

Aspara and the Churning Sea as performance

Last week, I introduced the Khmer both as an ancient and a modern civilization. This week in class we have had rich discussions on myth and ritual. Our discussions reminded me of what I experienced visiting Cambodia in 2006. In preparation for the trip, we studied the myths that we would see repeatedly in the country, sort of like brushing up on the best hits of the Bible before touring cathedrals. We each were assigned several myths by my mother and subsequently relayed them for the enlightenment and education of our family. Once we arrived in Cambodia we found the myths everywhere and expressed much more eloquently than our home spun attempts.