Continued from Introduction -- Part 1
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For Prof. Noam Chomsky's Review: A Late 2017 Update
RE Culture-analysis--Uncovering the Invisible Cement of Lived Culture:
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22 October 1971 -- Upscaled using A.I. machine learning algorithm.
a) Background emails
b) Introduction email to Prof. Chomsky -- and its 2 PS sections:
- PS 1: The Experienced Birth of Culture/Language
- PS 2: The Culture-analytic Definition of (Lived) Culture
c) Culture-analysis Institute Project -- Including curricular structure and course series:
- Background and purpose
- Project structure and the methodology of the introductory culture-analysis course
- List of culture-analysis courses examining specific areas of human discourse
********
From: Moji Agha [moji.agha@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 12:29 PM
Subject: For Prof. Noam Chomsky -- Re Culture-analysis
To: Noam Chomsky
Dear Prof. Chomsky,
2- In minutes 4 to 5 of this video clip you are expanding on how a human being acquires his/her moral values. In that context you asked (and then answered) this CRUCIAL question:
3- Specifically focusing on this crucial SOMEHOW, I am not sure if I have shared with you what I was doing at the University of Arizona between 2004-2008, in the Project on Culture and Conflict (and the Culture-analysis Institute dream) I was working on--Please see the below sections of this email packet for more info.
4- Anyhow, my explorations in the culture-analysis project/context had to do with trying to unpack the mystery to which you have referred above by the word "somehow."
5- Due to its ever continuing and ongoing relevance to science/knowledge, I would be delighted (and deeply honored) if you could be kind enough to take a look at the below-outlined synopsis of
this work, including the "phenomenological" definition I eventually developed (described as
"ground-breaking" by some colleagues) for LIVED "culture."
6- The full appreciation of this "lived culture" (i.e., the above-mentioned INVISIBLE CEMENT) consolidated in my mind as a result, in part, of a profound experience I had in a grassroots conflict resolution conference (in 1999--in Phoenix) in which I was awe-struck, because I "saw" (in one flashing moment of insight; within an otherwise ordinary conference workshop--please see the PS, below) the very "birth" of culture/language in everyday shared experience; i.e., the "somehow" you have wondered about in the above interview.
7- This "somehow" is SO "unobvious" (i.e., so profoundly "hidden in plain sight") that it seems
to (perhaps) be THE central mechanism that results in the "unconsciousness" of shared/lived
culture--and hence the many conflicts that such inevitable collective "ignorance" begets--per
the Project on Culture and Conflict--please see below.
engineering" that can bring (if done properly) to shared human "consciousness" (and hence history) this inevitably collectively "unconscious" SOMEHOW (making "visible" the above-mentioned "invisible cement") which seems to be a central mechanism that gives human organisms the ability to make the "great leap from scattered data to some [coherent integrated] outcome" -- per your profound words, above.
9- In other words, our organismic human ability to integrate "scattered" parts into a coherent whole (or wholes) is in part due the "lived culture" that leaves a necessarily "unconscious" imprint onto our continued shared experiences, causing us to experience them as meaningfully coherent--Please see my culture-analytic Definition of Culture, below.
10- NEEDLESS TO SAY, THIS WHOLE THING NEEDS TO BE UNPACKED MUCH
FURTHER BEYOND THIS HUMBLE SUMMARY E-MAIL. However, for the purpose of this
introductory packet, by offering for your review what you find above and below (including this
e-mail's two PS sections) I will eagerly cherish your feedback and guidance (and hopefully
further contacts, possibly leading to collaboration eventually--if you deem it appropriate) regarding how to continue from the preliminary framework I have suggested herein; the hard work that needs to be done in order to bring into actual manifestation my "Culture-analysis Institute" dream.
rare light to knowledge and humanity.
Peace and justice on a thriving (not threatened) Mother Earth,
- International Institute to Study Climate Change in the Islamic World (2007-9);
Intercultural Knowledge and Action NGO.
FINALLY "SEEING" THE INVISIBLE CEMENT OF CULTURE
It was in the context of this frustrating research exploration that I chose to go to the Spring of
1999 grassroots struggles conflict resolution conference mentioned in item # 6, above.
effect of what happened) the participants were divided into groups of 3 for an exercise. As
soon as I realized that the group I ended up in was the only one with four members, I said
jokingly: "We are the cool group, man." Another man immediately followed by adding: "Ya,
because we have an extra brain" -- and the other two members of the group nodded in agreement and all 4 of us chuckled--and we then went on to do the exercise of the workshop.
meaning of "an extra brain" (i.e., to us cool meant extra brain power), I was AWE-STRUCK by
the "Eureka" realization of the fact that language/culture was being born right then and there, in this incredibly ordinary moment of shared experience/interaction.
implications of this profoundly hidden in plain sight "ordinary" insight eventually resulted in the
Project on Culture and Conflict and it mother project, the Culture-analysis Institute.
I have borrowed the conceptual word "culture-analysis" (in part per item # 8 above) from "psychoanalysis" especially in its Jungian collective consciousness (and even
unconscious) incarnation, because in this case the uniquely situated meaning of "cool means an
extra brain" became immediately "unconscious" (or perhaps more accurately subconscious) in the SHARED EXPERIENCE of the group of four (above), as we moved on to further interactions, while unavoidably "internalizing" that meaning, i.e., aspect of lived culture.
Had the four of us continued interacting beyond the workshop, as we would have acquired (and become "unconscious" of) further shared experiences, interactions, and behaviors, the accumulation of such coherent-making taken-for-granted meanings, would have become our group's "culture" -- and thus (for example) deep in the "language" of our unique-to-our-shared-experience "culture" the meaning that "cool means having extra brain power" would have formed and then become "collectively subconsciously" embedded.
human experiences that leave distinct coherent-making meaning imprints on the continued
experiences and behaviors of their respective individual and collective entities.
PS 2: The Culture-analytic Definition of Lived Culture
world(s) within which the evolving movement of an entity, from immediate experience, through
intention, expression, and communication, all the way through action and consequence, is
lived as indigenously coherent (in modern Western societies, internally coherent) as the entity
moves from even one moment of its existence to the next.
The word "entity" in this unified interdisciplinary definition of lived culture refers to human
individuals, societies, organizations or systems. Entity here also refers to relationships or
conflicts that are considered to have evolved to a stage in their development as to have
formed "a life of their own." Also, periods of time in human history (the Iron Age, the Modern
Era, the Apartheid System, or The 1960s, for example) which are considered to have a
"distinct character" of their own (i.e., their own distinct “spirit-of-the-times”) may also be
considered as an entity in this unified definition of lived culture.
experiences and behaviors of their respective individual and collective entities.
being thought of as a static or fragmented phenomenon. Our definition resolves such
problems by recognizing the inherent fluidity and the integrated nature of culture (within and
across entities) even from one moment of the existence of such entities to the next.
However, what makes the culture(s) of an entity recognizable as distinct over time is the slow
pace of its evolution. Such change in and through time usually happens to the entity
gradually enough, so as to allow for certain identifying (lived) cultural characteristics of the entity to remain sufficiently similar (not "constant") thus making the distinctness of the entity’s culture(s) recognizable.
CONTEXTUAL NOTE:
The Project on Culture and Conflict (as a subset of the larger of my dream projects, the
Culture-analysis Institute--both described below) is what I gradually developed from 2004 to
2006 at the Africana Studies Program at the University of Arizona--where I was an unpaid
Visiting Scholar.
Kunnie, a seasoned South African anti-apartheid and social justice activist. Both of my
projects got cancelled (and I had to move on as a result--being deeply discouraged) upon the
termination of his tenure as Professor and Director of Africana Studies.
To: Prof. Julian Kunnie
Proposed by: Moji Agha
April 25, 2005
Tucson, Arizona
1- Proposed Curricular Structure for the Culture-analysis Project and Course Series.
2- Proposed Course Description (draft) for Culture-analysis I
Background and Purpose
The foundational courses proposed for the phase I of this project (total of 9 possible credits)
intend to provide a comprehensive understanding of the major themes, debates, and
experiences within the new field of culture-analysis. They provide the needed foundations for
in-depth theoretical and practical familiarity with diversity, both in its biological manifestations,
but especially in the way it is experienced and appears as “culture” in the lived discourses of
humans (conscious or not) individually and collectively.
Project Structure
PHASE I
Culture-analysis I is the introductory course of the herein proposed interdisciplinary three-course
series (3 credit hours each course) in a progressively rigorous process of acquiring theoretical and
practical knowledge and developing applied skill in understanding and dealing with diversity,
especially culturally, based on the definition of lived culture offered herein.
analysis. Whereas Culture-analysis I would be primarily didactic (in an interactive context), Culture-analysis II is a mixture of didactic instruction and “laboratory” field experience, while
supervised theoretically oriented case-study of Culture-analysis in applied settings.
we know anywhere), these 3 courses need to be offered in 3 successive semesters, because
Culture-analysis I (proposed to be offered for the first time in Fall 2005, if possible) would be a
REQUIRED pre-requisite for Culture-analysis II (proposed to be offered Winter/Spring 2006 in
addition to Culture-analysis I), while this second level course itself would be a REQUIRED
prerequisite for Advanced Culture-analysis (proposed to be offered Fall 2006 along with the
other two).
PHASE II
The three credit interdisciplinary in-depth Phase II courses listed below (half didactic/half
applied experience) are proposed hereby to be developed and offered in future semesters
(starting Winter/Spring 2007, if possible) based on the theoretical and applied foundations
built in the above-mentioned three PHASE I foundational courses.
The Phase II of this project could possibly constitute an interdisciplinary graduate program
(and/or be offered as a continuing education and training professional certificate program) in
understanding lived culture and managing cultural diversity.
Institute” within the University of Arizona’s College of Humanities (possibly in conjunction with
the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and other appropriate “Area Studies”
departments), to give masters and doctoral degrees in culture-analysis and diversity studies,
in addition to the above-mentioned professional certificate program.
Such capabilities would enhance the intellectual and academic capacity and prestige of the
University of Arizona locally, nationally, and internationally, provide it with needed revenue,
and open new doors for grants, including possible cross-institutional partnerships and project
development opportunities (to include revenue-generation and cost-sharing) within the U.S.
but especially internationally.
Other Horizons
Relatedly, given the recent quantum leap developments in Genetics and the Internet (and other
sciences and technologies), human society seems to be entering into a new phase, in which a
truly new human culture seems to be developing.
In part, the Culture-analysis project proposed herein, could contribute in a pioneering way, to
positive and negative consequences for our history and our imperiled planet.
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applied foundational preparation in the above-mentioned three courses, the courses listed
below are hereby proposed to be developed and offered in Phase II of this project.
A- Methodology of Culture-analysis
examine the core methodology by which culture-analysis is performed, namely the multi-
perspectival hermeneutic (exegesis-like) rigorous analyses of the texts (written, oral, visual, or
experiential) produced by the entities (see our definition of lived culture, herein) that live or embody their respective culture(s).
ii- An advanced second part to this methodology course (also 3 credits) would be developed
in time, especially if this project advances to the point of having a doctoral degree
component.
Each of these in-depth three credit (Phase II) courses will theoretically examine and develop
rigorous applied skill in the culture-analysis of the specific listed areas of human discourse.
The titles of these proposed courses (contents to be developed) are as follows:
2- Culture-analysis of Social reality, Identity, Ethnicity, and Race
3- Culture-analysis of Economics, Wealth, Poverty, and Need
4- Culture-analysis of Conflict, Peace, Nonviolence, and Inter-dependence
5- Culture-analysis of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Universality of application
6- Culture-analysis of Perspective, Knowledge, Teaching, and Learning
7- Culture-analysis of Certainty, Observation, Design, and Relativism
8- Culture-analysis of Law, Order, Justice, and Punishment
9- Culture-analysis of Force, Military, Discipline, and Social Control
10- Culture-analysis of Work, Labor, Leisure, and Rest
11- Culture-analysis of Organizations, Corporations, Systems, and Management
12- Culture-analysis of News, Media, Entertainment, and Advertising
13- Culture-analysis of Ideology, Revolutionary change, Social Engineering, and Propaganda
14- Culture-analysis of Authenticity, Trust, Doubt, and Anxiety
15- Culture-analysis of Consciousness, Experience, Inner reality, and Information
16- Culture-analysis of Desire, Love, Gender, and Sexuality
17- Culture-analysis of Biology, Genomics, Control of nature, and Natural law
18- Culture-analysis of Medicine, Health, Illness, and Death
19- Culture-analysis of Philosophy, Wisdom, Truth, and Happiness
20- Culture-analysis of Religion, Spirituality, Morality, and Transcendence
21- Culture-analysis of Beauty, Ugliness, Art, and Creativity
22- Culture-analysis of History, Temporality, Societal Evolution, and Change
23- Culture-analysis of Values, Civility, Ethics, and Proper behavior
24- Culture-analysis of Architecture, Artificial comfort, Geography, and Space
25- Culture-analysis of the Environment, Earth ethics, Sustainability, and Survival
Page 1- Introduction / Chomsky (Part One)
Please click on this link:
https://culture-analysis.
2- Introduction (Part Two)
Please click on this link:
https://culture-analysis.
3- Project on Culture and Conflict
Please click on this link:
https://culture-analysis.
4- Culture-analysis -- Course Syllabus
Please click on this link:
https://culture-analysis.
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A Somewhat Related Essay -- Also for a smile! 😉
The "OOHOOM" PREGNANCY
By: Moji Agha
https://www.poetrysoup.com/
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