Watching Birds and People

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-176
Author(s):  
Mikael Rothstein
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Personal Knowledge ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Good Working ◽  
Anthropological Field Work ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Way

This article explores ornithology as a hidden resource in anthropological field work. Relating experiences among the Penan forest nomads of Sarawak, Borneo, the author describes how his personal knowledge of bird life paved the way for good working relations, and even friendship, with the Penan. Representing two very different cultures simple communication between the scholar on duty and the Penan community was difficult indeed, but the birds provided a common ground that enabled the two parties to exchange experiences, knowledge and skills. In certain ways the author's fieldwork-based project relates to the Penan’s religious interpretation of birds, but the article is primarily concerned with the fact that a mutual understanding was created from this common ground, and that our thoughts on fieldwork preparations may be taken further by such experiences.

scholarly journals How Packaging of Information in Conversation Is Impacted by Communication Medium and Restrictions

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Bibyk ◽  
Leslie M. Blaha ◽  
Christopher W. Myers
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Communication Medium ◽  
Team Coordination ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Way

In team-based tasks, successful communication and mutual understanding are essential to facilitate team coordination and performance. It is well-established that an important component of human conversation (whether in speech, text, or any medium) is the maintenance of common ground. Maintaining common ground has a number of associated processes in which conversational participants engage. Many of these processes are lacking in current synthetic teammates, and it is unknown to what extent this lack of capabilities affects their ability to contribute during team-based tasks. We focused our research on how teams package information within a conversation, by which we mean specifically (1) whether information is explicitly mentioned or implied, and (2) how multiple pieces of information are ordered both within single communications and across multiple communications. We re-analyzed data collected from a simulated remotely-piloted aerial system (RPAS) task in which team members had to specify speed, altitude, and radius restrictions. The data came from three experiments: the “speech” experiment, the “text” experiment, and the “evaluation” experiment (which had a condition that included a synthetic teammate). We asked first whether teams settled on a specific routine for communicating the speed, altitude, and radius restrictions, and whether this process was different if the teams communicated in speech compared to text. We then asked how receiving special communication instructions in the evaluation experiment impacted the way the human teammates package information. We found that teams communicating in either speech or text tended to use a particular order for mentioning the speed, altitude, and radius. Different teams also chose different orders from one another. The teams in the evaluation experiment, however, showed unnaturally little variability in their information ordering and were also more likely to explicitly mention all restrictions even when they did not apply. Teams in the speech and text experiments were more likely to leave unnecessary restrictions unmentioned, and were also more likely to convey the restrictions across multiple communications. The option to converge on different packaging routines may have contributed to improved performance in the text experiment compared some of the conditions in the evaluation experiment.

scholarly journals Niematerialny świat Dul-dul at. O procesie zanurzania w świat Innych, o relacjach, ludziach i innych bytach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylwia Pietrowiak
Keyword(s):  
Field Work ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Material World ◽  
The World ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Anthropological Field Work ◽  
A Site ◽  
Ritual Site ◽  
Rela Tions ◽  
The Way

This essay is a non-linear record of memories from the author’s anthropological field- work in southern Kyrgyzstan. The research concerns a place called Dul-dul at, a site of petroglyphs with a dominant motif of animals interpreted as a pair of horses. The area at the foot of the rock with petroglyphs is also a pilgrimage and ritual site for healing and spiritual practices. The narrative of memories shows the transformation not only of the place of research, but also of the researcher: between the first stay (in 2006) to the last (in 2019). Subsequent studies reveal the dependencies of people involved in social rela- tions on the material and non-material world of Dul-dul at. Consecutive memories reveal layers of knowledge and ignorance, and how the researcher penetrates the community of the Others and the way they perceive the world.

International Trade and Protection of the Environment: The Continuing Search for Reconciliation

1997 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Schoenbaum
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Environmental Measures ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Relationship

Before 1991, the relationship between the protection of the environment and international trade was an arcane specialty that attracted little attention. In 1971 the GATT Council established a Working Group on Environmental Measures and International Trade. This group did not even meet for over twenty years.Everything changed with the decision in the Tuna/Dolphin I case, in which a GATT dispute resolution panel declared a United States embargo on tuna caught by fishing methods causing high dolphin mortality to be illegal. The Tuna/Dolphin I decision produced an explosion of rhetoric in both learned journals and the popular press. It was also a very interesting clash of very different “cultures,” trade specialists versus environmentalists. At die outset, neither group knew much about the other. Now, however, the legal and political issues have been identified and ventilated, mutual understanding has increased, and the process has begun to reconcile two values that are absolutely essential to the well-being of mankind: protection of the environment and international free trade.

Cultural Functions of Translation: Sustainable Development in the Context of Globalization

2011 ◽  
Vol 347-353 ◽  
pp. 426-430
Author(s):  
Da Lai Wang
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Cultural Information ◽  
Foreign Culture ◽  
Cultural Functions ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Target Culture

This paper aims to account for sustainable development of different cultures in the context of globalization from the perspective of cultural functions of translation, which wield enormous power in constructing representations of the foreign culture and have far reaching effects in the target culture. According to cultural communication of translation, the major task of translation is to turn the cultural information in one language into another. Therefore, in the process of translating, the translator should try his utmost to allow his target language reader to acquire cultural information of the source text in order to promote mutual understanding between Western people and Eastern people and make different cultures co-exist peacefully and achieve sustainable development.

scholarly journals The metalanguage of translation

Target ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Tang
Keyword(s):  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Academic Communities ◽  
Uncritical Acceptance ◽  
Different Cultures

This paper provides a brief introduction to the metalanguage of translation in China. It also gives an account of the recent domestic anxiety about the uncritical acceptance of Western metalanguages and the discontinuity of traditional metadiscourses. The author contends that mutual understanding between scholars from different academic backgrounds will contribute to a new global academic order that accommodates and incorporates local knowledge of different cultures and marginal metalanguages of various academic communities.

scholarly journals Lost in Translation? Ethics and Ethnography in Design Research

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Z. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Design Research ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Naturalistic Inquiry ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Anthropological Field Work ◽  
Lost In Translation ◽  
Translation Ethics ◽  
Over Time

It has long been the case that ethnographic techniques have been appropriated by other disciplines. In particular, designers have employed ethnography and naturalistic inquiry in research for private and public sector client projects. As ethnographic methods have diffused to other fields questions have been raised about whether the ethical concerns that have become engrained over time in anthropological field work have carried over along with the methodology. This article explores how ethical considerations are addressed (or not) in ethnographic-style research, specifically within the field of design. A review of secondary sources and interviews with three practicing designers provide insight as to the shifts that have occurred over time within design and how these changes have impacted design research and practice, specifically in relation to ethical issues.

scholarly journals Aesthetics and Creativity. Identity Configurations

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Livia Durac ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Human Attitude ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
The Way

Reflecting on human attitude towards reality, together with deciphering the emotional code that accompanies it, has configured - in time – the aesthetic universe, open to human reflection, creation, and evaluation. Aesthetics appears through the way in which consciousness reacts and capitalises upon things in nature and society, or which belong to human subjectivity, including on artistic work, which have an effect on sensitiveness due to their harmony, balance and grandeur. As a fundamental attribute of the human being, creativity is the engine of cultural evolution, meaning the degree of novelty that man brings in his ideas, actions, and creations. Aesthetical values, together with the other types of values, contribute to what society represents and to what it can become, hence motivating human action and creation. Their role is to create a state of mind that encourages the cohesion, cooperation, and mutual understanding of the society. Integrating a chronological succession of the evolution of the concepts that objectify its structure, its aesthetics and creativity, this article stresses the synergetic nature of the two dimensions of human personality, paving the way to beauty, as a form of enchantment of the human spirit.

scholarly journals Theology and culture in dialogue towards harmonious multi-religious and multi-cultural South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelebogile T. Resane
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Historical Legacy ◽  
Religious Context ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Diverse Society ◽  
Different Cultures

South Africa is the country of many cultures and many religions. This diversity had not created or led to significant internal strife, especially after 1994 when South Africa entered the era of democracy from the shackles of colonialism and apartheid. The previous regimes marginalised cultures as tools of unity, but preferred to use them as tools of separation, segregation, and isolation. This context calls for some dialogue between theology and cultures within South African multi-cultural and multi-religious context. Social divisions perpetuate discrimination based on culture and religion. The scope of this article is to demonstrate that when theology and culture have a dialogue with each other, an understanding of each other is heightened and harmony becomes inevitable. Through literature on history, sociology, theology, and current events, the hypothesis was made that there is a gap between culture and theology. This has created divisions in societies. Conclusions are based on theological findings that when dialogue is used, people of different cultures and religions come to understand each other. Dialogue is a biblical and theological tool to unite diverse people. It brings mutual understanding and promote cooperation and coexistence. South Africa can be a united diversified society living in peace if dialogue is given a chance. As much as there can be understanding and acceptance of people of other cultures and religions, there can be some resistance due to the historical legacy of separateness and societal isolation. Openness to others and dialoguing with them, however, breaks down walls of hostility.Contribution: This article demonstrates the importance of theo-cultural interaction within a multi-cultural and multi-religious society. It points out the importance of the theology of dialogue engaging culture and theology to build a harmonious coexistence in a diverse society such as South Africa.

scholarly journals The Role of Culture, Values and Trauma in Shaping Abnormal Bodily Experience in Migrants

2020 ◽  
pp. 37-44
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Aragona
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Bodily Experiences ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Somatization Disorders ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe way somatization is expressed—including the actual somatoform symptoms experienced—varies in different persons and in different cultures. Traumatic experiences are intertwined with cultural and social values in shaping the resulting psychopathological phenomena, including bodily experiences. Four ideal-typical cases are presented to show the different levels involved. The effects of trauma, culture and values may be pathofacilitating (creating a social context which is necessary for the experience to take place), pathogenetic (taking a causal role in the onset of the psychopathological reaction), pathoplastic (shaping the form such a psychopathological reaction takes) or pathointerpretive (different interpretation of the same symptoms depending on the patient’s beliefs). While the roles of trauma and culture were already well recognized in previous accounts, this chapter adds an exploration of the importance of values, including cultural values, in the aetiology, presentation and management of somatization disorders. As a consequence, the therapeutic approach has to be adjusted depending on the way these factors intervene in the patient’s construction of mental distress.

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