Top Rated Posts
-
Recent Comments
Follow SelfAwarePatterns
Tag Archives: Culture
Sex laws over the millenia
Last week I listened to an episode of Fresh Air on NPR, where Terry Gross interviewed Eric Berkowitz on his new book, ‘The Boundaries of Desire‘, about sex laws over the last century. But what interested me more in the interview was … Continue reading
Posted in Society
Tagged adultery laws, ancient sex laws, Anthropology, Culture, Eric Berkowitz, History, Law, LGBT, sex, sex laws
13 Comments
SMBC: The curse of knowledge
Click through for full sized version. via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. This strip reminds me of something I heard someone say in a presentation on communication strategies several years ago. It was a concept the speaker referred to as “the curse of … Continue reading
How did our legends really begin?
Steve Conner looks at a new book by Peter Witzel that argues that the world’s myths have common origins: How did our legends really begin? – Features – Books – The Independent. The similarity of the narratives could be just coincidence. Each … Continue reading
Posted in Zeitgeist
Tagged Anthropology, Classical Greece, Culture, Egypt, Harvard University, History, India, Mesopotamia, Mythology, Pleistocene, Witzel
5 Comments
Kwame Anthony Appiah: Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question)
The other day, I did a post asking what religion is. This TED talk by Kwame Anthony Appiah seems to be in much the same theme, pointing out that making accurate generalizations about religion is difficult since there is no … Continue reading
Posted in Zeitgeist
Tagged Anthropology, Atheism, Culture, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Society
10 Comments
The ages of communication
I think I’ve mentioned before that I only recently came the realization that the scientific revolution was more a matter of increased communication than necessarily a breakthrough in method. Along the lines of this realization, I have a few thoughts about … Continue reading
Posted in History
Tagged Anthropology, Axial Age, Culture, History, Humanity, Internet, language, Philosophy, Printing Press, Science, Scientific Revolution, Society
11 Comments
The psychology of your future self
Somewhat related to Zach Weiner’s cartoon on our continuing death, this TED talk looks at how transitory the self actually is. We seem to have no problem recognizing our transitory our self from ten years ago was, but not how … Continue reading
