Re: Wade's hammer

From: Jeremy Bradley (jeremyb@nor.com.au)
Date: Tue Jan 08 2002 - 20:16:18 GMT

  • Next message: Jeremy Bradley: "Re: Wade's hammer"

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    Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 07:16:18 +1100
    From: Jeremy Bradley <jeremyb@nor.com.au>
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    Subject: Re: Wade's hammer
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    Hi all
    Unfortunately due to illness in my family I don't have a lot of time to chat so
    this breif explaination will have to do for a little while. I hope that it will
    answer your questions.

    My field is narratology Wade. This is, I admit, not just the study of stories.
    The
    distinction is that whilst a story is a narrative, a narrative is more than a
    story, it is a
    fundamental element of culture.

    The narrative within a story is subtle. We are aculturated even as pre
    linguistic infants
    by the events that surround us; even more so by the tales of our early
    childhood. These
    stories carry codes that normalize our world and the events that happen within
    it. As an
    example I offer this short tale:
    Once upon a time there lived a poor Prince. He left his father’s Kingdom in
    search of his
    fortune and, after many difficulties, married the daughter of a wealthy Emperor.
    They
    lived happily ever after. The End.

    Beneath this simple story lies the linear/progressive narrative form which
    encodes
    ‘Western’ cultural values into every story from Gen. 1.1 to the latest news
    bulletin. It has
    enabled a version of human culture to pretend superiority over those who have
    not
    ‘progressed’ (i.e.. under developed, uncivilized, backward, primitive, etc.). To
    explain
    further I will break the story into its memetic, or culturally normative,
    elements.

    ‘Once upon a time’ normalizes the concept of linear time within our culture. It
    assumes
    that there was a beginning to time and that there will be an end to time.
    Events,
    whether real or imagined, occur on that ‘time-line’. There are cultures that
    perceive
    eternity as an interaction of greater and lesser cycles as evidences by day and
    night,
    moon cycles, fertility and seasonal cycles, tides and so forth.

     ‘Poor’ and ‘Prince’ recognize that it is normal for us to accept the existence
    of hierarchical
    social structures based on inherited social and material privilege. His
    discontent at being
    ‘poor’ recognizes that these hierarchies operate on a good/bad scale with
    material wealth
    and power at the good end and poor commoners on the bad end.

    Journeys to other lands in such fundamental tales normalize expansion of
    territory and
    hence colonization, (see ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ for example). Our hero
    typically
    overcomes difficulties which challenge his courage, intelligence and integrity.
    These
    elements, whatever they may be, cement in place his culturally specific values
    as being
    superior to those which he overcomes and hence propagates notions cultural
    superiority
    in the recipients of the tale; mostly impressionable children.

    His marriage to the Emperor’s daughter is proof of his superiority. And
    ‘happily ever
    after’ raises the expectation that we too can improve our material and social
    lot, thereby
    achieving lasting happiness, by emulating the behaviors of the hero. I observe
    here that
    some of these behaviors involve trickery, deceit and theft, (see ‘Jack’ again).

    The commonality in this type of story is that they are patriarchal, they must
    work
    towards a point and they ideally have an outcome, (from the pointy end), which
    is
    beneficial to the hero. In short they are structured in the image of man
    himself.

    So how else can a story-code function? My study has revealed a range of
    indigenous
    forms which differ widely from our own, and I suggest that you read Knudson and
    Suzuki’s ‘Wisdom of the Elders’ for a better understanding of this. The example
    that I
    will sketch for you, though much simplified, is typical of an Australian
    Aboriginal
    pedagogical tale.

    These tales usually have four parts. They begin with the establishment of a
    ‘status-quo’.
    This is a stability arising from a ‘land’, its People and their language.
    Typically a crisis
    arises either from ‘bad’ behavior by a member of the group or from the
    intervention of an
    outside agent/s. There are usually three challenges to the group. The first
    results in some
    damage to the group. The second is resisted unsuccessfully. The spiritual guide
    or
    protector/s then offer to help or are invoked by the ‘medicine’ person and with
    their
    assistance the ‘evil’ is defeated and the status-quo is restored. A further
    conclusion is
    provided by the formation of a permanent reminder in the physical world, often a

    prominent landmark, to the people not to stray from the stability of the
    status-quo.

    The ‘form’ of the story is therefore cyclical, it moves from stability, to
    crisis, to a
    resolution which restores stability and onto the formation of a visual reminder
    that
    stability and harmony are the paramount values within the culture.

    The cyclical narrative form is, I believe, the core element in some of the
    longest surviving
    cultures on God’s Earth; the many Nations of Australia. It is because of this
    cyclical form
    that these cultural systems have resisted the predation of colonization.

    As you can see, I am not so much concerned with memetic 'mutation', or low-rider
    jeans.

    Sorry all but that's all from me for a few days
    Jeremy

    Wade T. Smith wrote:

    > Hi Jeremy Bradley -
    >
    > >What I do is
    > >use memetics as a 'tool' to find evidence for cultural manipulation in our
    > >storyscape.
    >
    > So, you might think of a meme as a mathematical formula derived from the
    > patterns of cultural, uh, what? Propagation? Mutation?
    >
    > How do you determine what is mutated, and how?
    >
    > In what sense are, say, low-rider jeans a mutation from pantaloons?
    >
    > How do we speciate culture? And are we justified in doing so, when
    > culture itself is a product of only one species?
    >
    > - Wade
    >
    > ===============================================================
    > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit

    ===============================================================
    This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit



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