Collie's Bestiary

Paper originally written for a fascinating The Bible as History & Literature class, circa the late 1990's.

In the time of the Diaspora, the Jews must have suffered a great crisis of faith. In fairly rapid succession, they got to see their lands overrun by foreign barbarians, their property confiscated, their families enslaved or sent into exile and, worst of all, their holy of holies, the Temple, desecrated and razed. It must have seemed to them that their god was not watching over them as closely as they might have liked. Read the rest of this entry »

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, New Edition

In this book Benedict Anderson discusses the imagining and rise of nationalism. He lists several ideological changes that allowed the creation of this concept. First is the loss of the 'sacred silent languages,' which held together religious communities that spanned continents. These languages were believed to consist of meaningful symbols of essential truths, and thus transcended culture.

Read the rest of this entry »

5. Homosexuals are destroying the institution of marriage

The social ritual of marriage in the United States today is highly unstable, as the 50+ % divorce rate shows. I don't think it's fair to blame that instability on late-comers to the institution of marriage. That's like seeing a tire is getting low on your car, letting a friend drive it, and then blaming him for the tire now being completely flat.

Let's face it: marriage is not being destroyed; it is changing. This is expected and normal, since a society's institutions change as it changes. We have all of human history to show us how common and predictable this constant cultural change is. Read the rest of this entry »

Originally posted August 2004

Credits: Thanks go to Lou, Bob, George, & Ian, for input and answers to difficult questions

My May Firestarter, Why not Same-sex Marriage? prompted some wonderfully fascinating discussion.

I've been told by a friend this is the hardest he's ever thought about issues like this. He thanked me for encouraging that, even as he half-laughingly, half-irritatedly added he just hated when I asked the hard questions! Read the rest of this entry »

Physical characteristics

One other interesting observation: almost all the people there were White. I saw a small handful of Asians or Pacific Islanders, and maybe three black people all week — a Navy guy and his family. I didn't notice any Hispanics at all, although Bob said he heard some Spanish. It was… a little odd feeling. I guess I like San Jose's ethnic plurality.

I didn't see much in the way of piercings, aside from earrings, but I saw a huge number of tattoos, even on what you might call "respectable-looking" middle-aged women. Nice tat work, too. There were many women (unsurprising in a Navy town), and quite a few of them were apparently Mary Kay ladies. Then again, that seems an elegant solution for a bored Navy wife to fruitfully occupy her time.

Read the rest of this entry »

Air conditioning!

Remember I said the weather was unseasonably wonderful? I loved the warmth, but I felt really sorry for the island's local folks when I found out most of the buildings on Whidbey (including all the Navy buildings — what were they thinking?!) have no air conditioning.

There were interesting side effects of this decision. For example, the hotel rooms had air conditioning, but the hallways didn't. This meant the hotel had little table fans going almost constantly in the hallways, because it got so breathlessly hot there. It was a very pleasant hotel, though, with a lovely little heated pool and a nice fitness room — much nicer than the hotel by Seattle-Tacoma Airport, even though they were equally priced, and of the same chain.

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally posted July 2004

Credits: For my extended family, who gave me cause to be there. It was a great reunion!

I recently spent a week on Whidbey Island, in Puget Sound off the coast of Washington state. It was lovely, and I had a great time. It was also fascinating from an anthropological perspective, in that there's obviously a different subculture there from the one I usually live in (San Jose, CA).

Here are a few interesting things I noticed while there. Just for fun I've also tossed in a few random observations regarding two other locales I've visited in the last three years: St. Louis, MO, and New Haven, CT.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache

The Apache feel that speech should be used with economy. Verbosity is not considered precocious, merely loud. Indeed, careless use of language can be perceived as both rude to the listener and disrespectful of the ancestors. It is considered better to listen, observe, and reflect before one speaks or acts, since extended contemplation allows for deeper understanding (p 10-11). Read the rest of this entry »

Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache

A sense of history is given by the Apache location stories. The
stories relate the past, but are usually told in the present tense. Quotations are frequently used, to invoke a sense of current presence,
and the language is concise and avoids redundancy. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the first paper I handed in for my "Language and Culture" class. I found it an interesting window on what the professor expected. I was really worried about it, before handing it in, for several reasons. Firstly, I had no real idea of what the professor expected in a good paper. Secondly, it was my second time back in college after about a decade away. I had a really bad inferiority complex about my potential ability to keep up with all these young students who were tossing around terms and concepts I didn't yet understand. It took me a few weeks to realize they didn't understand them either — at which point I got my confidence back. ;)

Finally, I was worried because the book the paper was supposed to be based on (Wisdom Sits in Places by Keith Basso) was about the connections between location and wisdom — and the paper was supposed to be about language. There wasn't a whole lot in the book about language, per se… so what was I supposed to be writing about?

Read the rest of this entry »