Prof. G meets BG and many more at TED2009!

Last week was the most amazing week of my life. I fell in love not only with TED (Ideas Worth Spreading) but with the 40 other TED Fellows who, like me, were selected for our work as "polymaths" - people excelling in more than one field.

There was one person I really needed to meet. I came from a somewhat humble beginning but more than that I thought I could never hobnob with the big boys. Now that it's happened...well...it seems so...ordinary. Yes! I met Bill Gates. You may have heard he released mosquitos, live ones, into the conference during his talk about Malaria (they weren't infected).

BG and I talked. Even if only briefly. I wanted to feel like this man and I were two ordinary people up to two extraordinary paths. And I got that! It happened on Friday at 8:20am. Friday February 6. 4 days ago almost to the hour. OK. It was more than a normal moment, but ithe Wow of it was that I belonged. Being at TED was amazing for me. I fell in love with my purpose fully and wholeheartedly (the picture is of me giving my talk titled RACISM AS A RESOURCE). It was filmed and (fingers crossed) it WILL be on the TED.com site eventually. My mission: to empower and enable individuals and organizations to empower people's words not their difference. I am out to transform conflict in a single conversation rather than going to war years later. That was my unveiling.

This year's theme was THE GREAT UNVEILING and TED lived up to that and more in 4 non-stop days of talks, performances (HERBIE HANCOCK, REGINA SPEKTOR & JAMIE CALLUM!!!), and beauty of architecture and scientific breakthroughs. We were introduced to unbelievable things never heard of before. I am sure I have enough to share with you ALL SEMESTER LONG and there was as much humor as there was innovation.

MY HIGHLIGHTS: Meeting Hans Gosling and Jill Bolte Taylor. Hanging with Quincy Jones Friday night. I sang for him "You taught my heart to sing" at the Gala Party after the TED Prize Winners gave their talks. The MIT Media Lab unveilings (mind-blowing). The new 3-D film technology from 3eality that had Bono touching my face!!! And three remarkable winners of the 2009 TED Prize: deep-ocean explorer Sylvia Earle, astronomer Jill Tarter, and maestro Jose Antonio Abreu. Each of them is a leader in his/her chosen field of work, with an unconventional viewpoint and a vision to transform the world. Each wins $100,000 plus "One Wish to Change the World." Quincy and I bonded after Maestro Abreu's wish:

José Abreu’s Wish

“I wish you would help create and document a special training program for at least 50 gifted young musicians, passionate for their art and for social justice, and dedicated to developing El Sistema in the US and in other countries.”

I will share the AMAZING inventions and innovations I witnessed like Siftables from the MIT Media Lab.

Siftables aims to enable people to interact with information and media in physical, natural ways that approach interactions with physical objects in our everyday lives. ... Siftables are independent, compact devices with sensing, graphical display, and wireless communication capabilities. They can be physically manipulated as a group to interact with digital information and media.

There is SO MUCH TO SHARE that I was exposed to that BLEW MY MIND!! Here is the FAVORITE TALK OF TED2009. It's essentially about the social constructs of the way we talk about genius. It's given by author Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love fame. TED is amazing to have these talks online 2 days after they appeared!!

Chapter 2 : Ethics and Method

I invite you each week to post a comment about the readings or about questions that you find yourself asking about cultural anthropology or our class discussions. Anything is possible to discuss as long as you can make it relevant to the group. No talking to yourself out loud, so to speak. Speak to forwarding the action of our shared community of knowledge. Thanks, Prof. G

Some key ideas to discuss in Chapter 2: ethics, ethnographic practices, etc.

INTRODUCING TED TALKS: Anthropologist Wade Davis muses on the worldwide web of belief and ritual that makes us human. He shares breathtaking photos and stories of the Elder Brothers, a group of Sierra Nevada indians whose spiritual practice holds the world in balance.
A National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Wade Davis travels the globe to live alongside indigenous people, and document their cultural practices in books, photographs, and film.

Where do you notice Social Constructs today?

Bonus assignment: Give 1-2 examples of other social constructs you notice between now and next class.

On Day One of the Spring 09 Semester, I introduced the concept of SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS using a map upside down. How did you learn that north was up? North is not UP in the physical universe, is it? Read a previous post explaining social constructs.

The definition I shared in class was "an idea (time), a concept (masculinity) or an artifact (money) that seems natural or obvious to those who accept it but in fact is an invention of a particular culture or society."

The most well-known example is the "earth is flat". While the earth may appear to be flat to our everyday perceptions, in reality we cannot see the whole earth and its curvature. Thus, the social construct is not the condition of the flatness we see, but rather the view itself that people share. This view affects people's behaviors, thoughts, feelings and actions. It is a context from which people may live their lives.

A more common social construct that seems invisible to us is money. Money is not real in the way we view it. It is worth much more than the material it is printed on but by social agreement in any country we assign it certain values.

"Mathematics is a social construct. Numbers are words and ideas, not physical laws. Math is used to describe the physical universe, so it is shaped into a form that matches the universe as well as possible, giving it a framework. All things we would call math use this same framework. But describing a Law and being a Law are different things. Math measures things that exist, and it does this very well. It can also do things that the universe that it is describing cannot. The truth in numbers is not fundamental. It is built by humans." (http://everything2.com/node/163462).

Here are definitions from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_construction):

A social construction or social construct any phenomenon "invented" or "constructed" by participants in a particular culture or society, existing because people agree to behave as if it exists or follow certain conventional rules. One example of a social construct is social status. Another example of social construction is the use of fiat money, which is worth more than the paper it is printed on only because society has agreed to treat it as valuable.

Pinker (2002, p. 202) writes that "social constructions: they exist only because people tacitly agree to act as if they exist".

One of the main theses of gender theory is that genders and gender roles are mere social constructs, and that there is nothing natural about being a man or a woman, a heterosexual or a homosexual, or even a transsexual, since genders are mere social appearances and built-in ideas, not unlike men's clothes or women's clothes.

USED BOOKS FOR SALE from Previous Students

I am invited former ANT1001 students who have used books to sell to post to this item. Stay tuned. The outlines of each chapter are available at http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073405248/student_view0/index.html

Check out the comments section below this post

REQUIRED TEXTS
Should acquire by no later than 2nd week of classes; see me if you have any problem doing this. The books may be in late at the bookstore and of course check online for used copies but make a special request of any seller that you need that ASAP!! Give them a date. Let them know you need it urgently. They may honor your request. They can't if they don't know. ;-)

• Kottak, Conrad P. Mirror for Humanity: A Concise Introduction for Cultural Anthropology, 6th edition (not the 5th) (McGraw-Hill, 2008)
• Spradley and McCurdy. Conformity and Conflict. (Boston: Pearson, 2008). [sample professional ethnographies]

Thanks for OLPC for our 2008 Contribution

January 13, 2009

Thank you for your contribution of $597 to the One Laptop per Child Foundation. Further we confirm that no tangible benefits were received by you, the donor, in exchange for the gift referenced above. Your order number is 13PSPJ55814IM1IOEJFCR32FGAB8Q6VHHGA.

The mission of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) movement is to ensure that every school-aged child in the lesser-developed parts of the world is able to engage effectively with their own personal laptop, networked to the world, so that they, their families and their communities can openly collaborate as they learn and learn about learning together.

The OLPC Foundation is focused on enhancing and sustaining learning among those children, their families and communities in lesser developed communities by ensuring rich, diverse and open access to innovative learning materials and by encouraging interactive learning, communication and exploration with their XO laptops. For this purpose, the Foundation provides grants and other support for the development and use of collaborative learning resources and other initiatives that enrich children’s learning.

Your contribution will help us move forward with these important programs for children. Please tell your friends and colleagues about the One Laptop per Child program (www.laptop.org) and encourage them also to support our mission.

Sincerely,
Robert D. Fadel
One Laptop per Child Foundation