BP 2

The Medium is the Message

“Today when we want to get our bearings of our own culture, and have need to stand aside from the bias and pressure exerted by any technical form of human expression, we have only to visit a society where that particular form has not been felt, or a historical period in which it was unknown.”

Literally: Defining culture or the concept of culture comes from being told what the mechanics to practice inside of that culture. There are many different cultures inside of many different societies that it’s hard to know what culture means to each person. Because of this, we might have to look back in history and stir away from what prejudice others have projected onto that specific culture.
Intellectually: Culture is widespread and it occurs around the world, not matter if someone practices or not; but to know what your culture entails and how it’s practiced is entirely up to the individual. They could be told that you must practice culture like you have to practice reading and writing. Without human interference, culture becomes obsolete and thus creating a endless cycle of boring and misrepresentation of one’s self.
Emotionally: I think culture is very important because it creates a sense of identity among yourself. It allows you to identify your beliefs, morals, and values when coming to terms with the kind of person that you want to be in society. It’s the behaviors that you show to demonstrate the character build that you want to express to yourself and others around you.
Connection: I connected this quote to Gee’s message about literacy among a society. He says that literacy and language in different societies are seen different and can influence their views and thoughts and this is what I agree with. Not everyone can speak the same language and different words have different meanings in those languages. It can either be the dialect, the accent, or the meaning of the word entirely as it can be something positive or negative depending on the country or language someone is speaking. Gee also says that because of this, this can cause for the change in the identity of one’s self.

Arts of the Contact Zone

“Language were seen as living in “speech communities,” and these tended to be theorized as discrete, self-defined, coherent entities held together by a homogenous competence or grammar shared identically and equally among all the member.”

Literally: Because language was so simplistic in the early days, the only way language was transcribed was through oral communication whether that be for instruction or story telling. Nothing was ever written down because before the invention of actual writing, there was images but even those images never could be understood. Whatever was spoken amongst the community could never be challenged as false information because there was no actual proof of it otherwise. Whatever was spoken was all agreed too and everyone in that community shared a single brain.
Intellectually: In these “speech communities,” language could only be taught those who knew it well, for example, an elder who has not only the experience but sometimes the memory. These oral communication would be past down from generation to generation, but also could be unreliable as information could be altered, added, or missing. But because the community is connected on a single brain, the idea can never be challenged. Plus the kind of language that is spoken is one kind and shared amongst the community.
Emotionally: I think that this is true is a lot of ways as sometimes when telling stories whether it be to family or friends, details can get left out. Telling stories now is different than telling stories or communicating in the early times as most of the time communicating now can be researched and challenged because someone on the Internet there could be evidence that could change the opinion or shift the conversation to a different perspective.
Connection: This relates to Gee’s section about the primitive and the civilized in his article. Primitive beings weren’t as advanced as we the civilized are now because of the lack of resources and technological advancement. But because they were lacking in evolution, I think that the idea of language and communication was very important to them and there community. Oral communication became their way of keeping traditions, culture, and stories alive.