On Spirituality & Technology

Well, this week's readings focus on Aboriginals and indigenous peoples -- David McNab discusses the canoe's role in securing Aboriginal autonomy/survival, and Adam Lucas talks about the implementation of computer technology into preserving their cultures. What I find incredibly commendable with Aboriginals is that they have managed to preserve such a large chunk of their knowledge and traditions through such beautiful ways, such as folk stories and various types of art. These acts of preservation are in no way unique to Aboriginals, but they have managed to survive this many centuries in such a way that I wonder what the role of technology will bring to the preservation of their cultures and traditions. Computers, although incredibly advanced, are sort of like a "temporary permanence" in that yes, information can be preserved, but this information is enmeshed and integrated into a virtual web of computer space that is essentially nothing. CD-ROMS may provide a means to revisit information, but not everyone has immediate access to computer technologies, like Lucas indicates, and I even noticed a paragraph that was either laden with sarcasm or truth: "Because the CD was constructed in a template format, this will allow other Aboriginal communities to add their own information to the CD in the future. All that is required to do this is a fairly high-powered Macintosh computer, a laser-scanner, a video camera, and a digitizing board". Now I don't know if that listing of devices was meant to sound sarcastic, but that is the impression I got, unless I am underestimating the abundance of technological resources in Aboriginal communities. I also want to mention the threat of oral tradition being abolished with emerging technologies. While it may be beneficial in the long run to educate children about their cultures with the aid of technology, I wonder whether this will gradually eradicate the beautiful act of transmitting oral knowledge from generation to generation (not to idealize Native culture or anything).

Reading McNab's article on the canoe as a central point in Aboriginal life, I was reminded of a film I watched in Nutritional Anthropology about corn, beans, and squash also as a central point in Native American life. Just as the canoe is "central to the creation stories, to the cultures providing a balance practically and spiritually as a means of understanding the natural world...", these 3 vegetables are seen as the "Three Sisters" in Native American mythology. Traditions, rituals, and life basically revolve around the production and praise of these particular crops. I doubt that it was as important as the canoe in that it was used in "inter-tribal warfare", but it certainly plays an essential role in their lives. Anyways, back to the canoe. In relation to this course, this piece of transport is definitely a testament to the interconnectedness of spirituality and technology within a culture. The canoe is a "celestial craft of souls and a focal point for the four sacred directions", as well as being used for warfare, trade, and survival. In our North American society it is difficult to find such a simple piece of technology that evokes such senses of awe and praise. Perhaps one can read into Noble and argue that space travel and DNA technology is an example of this, but the sacredness of the canoe in Aboriginal culture, I believe, cannot be paralleled in any way.

Continuing with a similar theme from last week, we now turn to Subramaniam's article. Reading this article, I am reminded of India as portrayed in an episode of the TV show "30 Days". "Western science had been transplanted into India and subsequently embraced as a central force in Indian politics" -- the episode talks about the experience that an American, who has had his programming job outsourced to India, has while he lives in India with an Indian family that works outsourced American jobs. When talking about the Indian environment, the narrator notes the vast amount of buildings and skyscrapers present in urban India (particularly Bangalore), which portray it as a pretty technologically advanced and business-oriented place. Its people are adept at computer usage, among other things, as obvious from the amount of market researchers and customer service representatives jobs that are available.

One thing to note about these jobs is the hours that they spend at work; as can be recalled from the article, "most Hindus in Christian schools knew many Christian prayers, Christian carols, and blessings" -- well, the employees at the call centre in the episode may or may not have been familiar with Christian carols and prayers, but they most certainly took their holidays when their North American customers did -- during Christmas. That is their customers' time off, so they take their time off then. On a similar note, it was mentioned that they worked hours that accommodated the hours of their North American customers and participants. Call centre representatives said that they would work early into the morning, since that is when their customers were likely to be home -- during suppertime. Although call centres in India are a small niche in what India may call their technological industry, it certainly portrays an India that embraces Western culture in order to attain notions of modernity and progress.

This view of India, however, is the public portrayal of the country as scientific and "modern". As we go into the host family's living quarters, we see that traditional family and gender values are still being practiced. Religious ceremonies are still commonplace, and the female perpetuates 1950s gender stereotypes by taking care of the house, her husband, and being a subservient wife. What a juxtaposition. The public sphere is all about science and progress, while the private sphere still displays signs of religion and tradition. But it actually is not so clear-cut in the episode. What appears to be happening is that technology and its prospects for jobs is cutting into the traditional core of the family unit. Time is no longer spent with family at supper, spouses sleep at different times, and the woman has no time to prepare food or do many chores for the husband due to her new-found opportunity at having a career. "My feminism and politics were very linked to modernity, and modernity was linked with claims of reason, and reason was linked with the objectivity and rationality of science" -- perhaps Subramaniam would not have minded being a part of this transitioning society. India is "raining jobs", as the episode indicates, although the downside is that women probably are often placed into lower ranked positions. Despite this fact though, I am unsure of the amount of truth to her claim that "neither science nor religion after all has much of a place to offer women" in a society that is slowly changing and transitioning.

Roxanne Euben's article "A counternarrative of shared ambivalence", I thought, was very interesting in that it took into consideration the social context of our time and incorporated it into her article. The purpose of her writing this article is to inform her audience of the fact that us Westerners are not the only ones who hold ambivalence towards scientific paradigms and ideas such as scientism and rationalism -- Islamists, who are so often portrayed as irrational beings in the media, are shown in her article to be supporters of Islamic modernism. It is a shame that American media outlets play on dichotomies to instill fear into the general public: religion vs. science, Islam vs. the West. Euben realizes this and hopes that we will rethink our idea of these "foreign others".

It appears that Euben made an appearance in the documentary "The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear". I had made a point to see this documentary a long time ago, but never got around to it. I should get hold of a copy. I suppose this documentary is another instance of media that plays on the dichotomies I mentioned, but instead of doing so unknowingly, it informs us that such dichotomies exist.

I never thought about the fact that science was often associated with Western power, until reading this article. Actually, I disagree with this notion. What about Japan? They are far more technologically advanced than the West. It has been said that products similar to the iPhone, which has just been released in North America, have been in existence for a long time. What about India? They have tons of technological institutes and its educated population is incredibly technologically savvy. I suppose this notion of science & Western power is reflected in Noble's novel as well. After saying this then, I guess I must agree with the quote from Euben's article that "Men must be related to science, not science to men".

Science and individual pursuit is definitely characteristic of our society today. "Despite a rich variety of traditions latent in contemporary American culture, it is anemic forms of individualism ... that have come to define both public and private life". Technology just facilitates our search for identity and enlightenment. Take as example, all the different types of spirituality available for a person to embrace. Before our time, people were often born into a religion, but now with the advent of Internet sites such as Wikipedia and general informative websites, people have the flexibility and ability to choose their spirituality at will. In the celebrity world some years ago, to embrace Kabbalah was to take on a trendy fad more than anything.

With regards to the YouTube videos that were shown in class last week, both parties used problematic arguments to get their point across. The man attacks Evangelical Christians saying that they encourage not using the intellect, while the woman attacks all things irrational, period. The point though is that they raise interesting questions in relation to the article.

First post of the new year! Hope everyone had good holidays, and may I keep remembering to blog here on a regular basis.

Hayles -- I was not really sure what to make of her article. The content seemed to me, to be all over the place. However, there are some points that I feel I should comment on. "Yet already researchers are engaged in developing intelligent machines that can perform mind-like activities" (215) -- here, the operative here is LIKE. However much scientists and inventors attempt to replicate the complexities of the human mind with electronic machines and however much they may insist that certain machines are "alive", their attempts and claims are unconvincing. The term "artificial life" was brought up in relation to machines, but I refuse to believe that any "life" exists when the origin of this "life" is a machine. My stance changes if instead, we are talking about critical patients in palliative care or intensive care units at the hospital who are hooked up to artificial life-prolonging devices, because in such cases, life would have existed and originated with the human. I guess I am a member of the camp that believes human life exists with the presence of actual brain activity.

Taylor's article raises interesting questions as well. How different would the world be if there were no such concept of the "self" and things in the environment to reinforce this concept? Can you imagine a world with no reflections in water or shiny surfaces? A world with no mirrors, no cameras? It is objects like this that let us re-establish our identity to ourselves or others. The internet nowadays is swimming with websites that let us reaffirm our singular identity in the context of a large social network, so that we may be situated within a community, with connections to individuals that we know. It could be argued that the act of frequenting such websites is overly individualistic, but they also serve the purpose of keeping us in touch with those we know.

The discussion about human subjectivity in the article also reminds me of a quote that I came across recently: "we don't see things as they are, we see things as we are" - Anais Nin. This quote can be applied to the levels of thinking discussed in the article: cognition, reflection, and reflexion. How else would we perceive ideas and objects within our surroundings, if not with our subjective minds?

There is also the idea that "if man is time and time a trace, then 'the self of the living present is primordially a trace". In death, our bodies eventually decompose, and all that is left for our remaining friends and family is memories of ourselves. This idea reminds me of society's transition from burials to cremation. Our society is less and less reliant on aesthetics and an actual body to preserve one's identity, and memories are given a more important role.

This idea in the article about naming and being reminds me of a reading from last year's Religious Anthropology class about witch's books in Ecuador. This article by Peter Wogan states that indigenous people in Ecuador associate their name with their individual essence, so that "an individual's existence is only real to the state insofar as that person's name is located in the archives". Their belief of the power of the name as an indication of one's existence extends to the fact that Salasacans fear witch books because they think that these books, that contain people's names and the amount of money spent to cast a spell on them, correspond to state records where peoples' lives are recorded. Here, people place so much emphasis on the power of a name that they believe removing their names from a witch's book will relinquish any witchcraft that was cast on them.