Difference between revisions of "Tem"

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==APR 5: 21 ==
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==11: OCT 6==
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===Montgomery, Chapter 4, "Graveyards of Empires"===
 
  
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:*Thesis: Soil degradation doesn't directly cause declines in civilization, but makes civilizations more vulnerable to "hostile neighbors, internal sociopolitical disruption, and harsh winters or droughts."
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===Assigned===
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:*Tikal (Guatamala) - Meso-American (Mayan, in this case) civilization reclaimed by the jungle. 1840s re-discovery. (returns to this at the end).
 
  
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:*Ancient Greece
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:*Haidt, Chapter 5, "Beyond WEIRD Morality" (17)
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::*(In this section, he implies that we tell "false histories" of ancient agriculturalists when we imagine that they took care of their soil.)
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:*Writing exercise: How WEIRD is Morality?
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::*As land degraded, needed more slaves to feed owners.  Sporadic use of fertilizers.  Hills around Athens bare by 570 BC (before Plato).
 
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::*Evidence of knowledge of erosion (from hillsides) as public policy, but failure to address it. 
 
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::*By time of Peloponnesian War (431-404), Egypt & Sicilian provide 1/3 to 3/4 of food to Greece. (In news this am (2017), Yemen imports 80% of food.)
 
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::*(Comments by Plato and Aristotle on soil degradation.)
 
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::*Greeks repeat pattern of Mesopotamia -- intensified cultivation as population grows.  Plow a significant step.  p. 54: 1,000 year cycle of soil erosion / pop density decline.
 
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::*Evidence of movement from small diversified farming to large plantations with fewer crops.
 
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::*We associate Greece with olive trees and grapes, but that's partly because they do well in the thin rocky soil left from millennia of soil erosion.
 
  
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:*Rome
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===Brief Survey on Student Engagement in Hybrid course delivery===
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::*146bc, conquest of Corinth, incorporate of Greece into Empire
 
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::*Research of Vita-Finzi, mid-60s: Was soil erosion (in Libya) from climate change or mismanagement?  Found two major periods of hillside erosion: one ancient,attributable to climate, the other dated to late Roman era.  Climate also involved when you mismanage soil because land is more vulnerable to climate variation.  (Note: In light of climate change, food security (or price stability) might become a greater concern.)
 
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::*Roughly 5,000 to 4,000 bc.:  agriculture introduced to Italian pennisula by immigrants.
 
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::*Significance of Bronze Age (2,000bc to 800bc) and Iron Age (500 bc on):  depth of plowing and deforestation. 
 
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::*500bc -- highpoint of productivity - 1-5 acres / family.  "farmers" had social status. 
 
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::*Erosion in south (Campagna) also produced malaria from pooling of water on eroded land.
 
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::*Cato's ''De Agri Cultura'' - p.59  Cato brought plump figs from Carthage to the Senate floor, arguing that Carthage was a threat to Rome because of its food productivity.  Ended all his speeches with "Carthage must be destroyed."  Third Punic War took care of that.  Roman model become colonial system of agriculture around N. Africa and Sicily.  Pliny the Elder (23-79ad)
 
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::*Varo, De re Rustica, 117bc, focused on intensive high yield ag for the times.
 
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::*Like Greece, Romans in Empire Period relied heavily on slaves to feed them. 
 
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::*Difference in Roman case: extensive knowledge of hubandry.  1960s studies of erosion around Rome: 1" a year before the Via Cassia was built, 1"per 200 years after. 
 
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::*substory: emergence of the latifundia system of agriculture in 2nd cent bc due, in part to post-war availability of cheap land, lots of slaves.  63
 
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::*by 300 ad, productivity of central Italy dramatically declined.  Campagna.
 
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::*Empire needed to annex parts of N. Africa to secure food.  Mid-80s UNESCO research moved us away from climate explanation for decline. 
 
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::*30bc - Egypt becomes a colonial food source.  after Cleopatra dies.  Emperor Augustus (1st cent ad) forbade senators and nobles from entering Egypt due to fear of its ag power.67 
 
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::*story of 19th American, George Perkins March, research in Italy on soil erosion.  early hypothesis of Roman land misuse. '''land doesn't always recover'''.
 
  
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:*North Africa - Mideast
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:*Please take the following anonymous [https://gonzaga.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3I98g1ecsTe59ZP survey].
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::*Lowdermilk in Tunisia, Algieria. Then on to Levant. Lebanon and Israel.
 
  
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:*Back to Tikal and the Mayan case
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===Final Stage of Sapolsky Writing Assignment===
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::*Maize domestication about 2000bc.  greatest erosion around 600-900ad, along with evidence steep population decline.  from 1million in 3rd c. ad. to 1/2 that 200 years later.
 
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::*mechanisms: slash and burn agriculture.  fertility declines.  but worked at low population levels. 
 
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::*lots of studies of silting and erosion. p. 75ff.
 
  
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:*General points:  
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:*'''Stage 4''': Back-evaluation: After you receive your peer comments and my evaluation, take a few minutes to fill out this quick "back evaluation" rating form: [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdgKCYITDTSOOHcvC3TAVNK-EZDsP4jiiyPj-7jdpRoNUsLPA/viewform?usp=sf_link].  '''Fill out the form for each reviewer, but not Alfino.'''  Up to 10 points, in Points.
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::*Soil degradation characteristic of major civilizations. 
 
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:::*Reflected in commitments to slavery, expansion, and exploitation.
 
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:::*Happens regardless of knowledge of good practices.
 
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:::*Often in connection with development of a food export industry.  
 
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::*Civilizations which left records often assigned blame to climate change, disappearance of water sources.  (Remarkable exceptions include famous intellectuals like Pliny the Elder, Tertulian, Plato, Aristotle.)
 
  
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::*Back evaluations are due '''Thursday, October 8, 11:59pm'''.
 +
 +
===Some samples from Henrich's, "The Weirdest People on Earth"===
 +
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:*p. 25: "Who Am I?" task.  Show charts
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:*p. 28: sociocentric vs. individualistic
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:*p. 34: guilt vs. shame
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:*p. 44: impersonal honesty research (recall Ariely). 
 +
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===Haidt, Chapter 5, "Beyond WEIRD Morality"===
 +
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====WEIRD Morality====
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:*WEIRD morality is the morality of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic cultures
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::*just as likely to be bothered by taboo violations, but more likely to set aside feelings of disgust and allow violations
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::*only group with majority allowing chicken story violation.
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::*"the weirder you are the more likely you are to see the world in terms of separate objects, rather than relationships"  "sociocentric" moralities vs. individualistic moralities; Enlightenment moralities of Kant and Mill are rationalist, individualist, and universalist. 
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::*survey data on East/West differences in sentence completion: "I am..."
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::*framed-line task 97
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:*Kantian and Millian ethical thought is rationalist, rule based, and universalist.  Just the ethical theory you would expect from the culture. 
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====A 3 channel moral matrix====
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:*Schweder's anthropology: ethics of autonomy, community, divinity 99-100 - gloss each...
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::*claims Schweder's theory predicts responses on taboo violation tests, is descriptively accurate.
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::*ethic of divinity: body as temple vs. playground
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::*vertical dimension to values.  explains reactions to flag desecration, piss Christ, thought exp: desecration of liberal icons.  (Note connection to contemporary conflicts, such as the Charlie Hebdot massacre.)
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====Making Sense of Moral/Cultural Difference====
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:*'''Haidt's Bhubaneswar experience''': diverse (intense) continua of moral values related to purity. (opposite of disgust). Confusing at first, but notice that he started to like his hosts (elephant) and then started to think about how their values might work.  Stop and think about how a mind might create this.  Detail about airline passenger.
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:*Theorizing with Paul Rozin on the right model for thinking about moral foundations: "Our theory, in brief" (103)
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:*American politics often about sense of "sacrilege", not just about defining rights (autonomy).  Not just harm, but types of moral disgust.
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:*'''Stepping out of the Matrix''':  H's metaphor for seeing his own cultural moral values as more "contingent" than before, when it felt like the natural advocacy of what seem true and right.  Reports growing self awareness of liberal orientation of intellectual culture in relation to Shweder's view.  Social conservatives made more sense to him after studying in India.
  
 
===Small Group Discussion===
 
===Small Group Discussion===
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:*Discussion questions:
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:*How is the Montgomery's narrative about soil and civilizations similar to or different fromthe story of agriculture you grew up with?
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::*Does it make sense to talk about "stepping out of a matrix"?  Is this a temporary thing?  What value might it have in your experience?
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:*Is it useful to inform a philosophy of food with a view about soil management?  Why or why not?
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::*Do you have a parallel story to Haidt's?  (Mention travel experiences.)

Latest revision as of 19:51, 6 October 2020

11: OCT 6

Assigned

  • Haidt, Chapter 5, "Beyond WEIRD Morality" (17)
  • Writing exercise: How WEIRD is Morality?

Brief Survey on Student Engagement in Hybrid course delivery

  • Please take the following anonymous survey.

Final Stage of Sapolsky Writing Assignment

  • Stage 4: Back-evaluation: After you receive your peer comments and my evaluation, take a few minutes to fill out this quick "back evaluation" rating form: [1]. Fill out the form for each reviewer, but not Alfino. Up to 10 points, in Points.
  • Back evaluations are due Thursday, October 8, 11:59pm.

Some samples from Henrich's, "The Weirdest People on Earth"

  • p. 25: "Who Am I?" task. Show charts
  • p. 28: sociocentric vs. individualistic
  • p. 34: guilt vs. shame
  • p. 44: impersonal honesty research (recall Ariely).

Haidt, Chapter 5, "Beyond WEIRD Morality"

WEIRD Morality

  • WEIRD morality is the morality of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic cultures
  • just as likely to be bothered by taboo violations, but more likely to set aside feelings of disgust and allow violations
  • only group with majority allowing chicken story violation.
  • "the weirder you are the more likely you are to see the world in terms of separate objects, rather than relationships" "sociocentric" moralities vs. individualistic moralities; Enlightenment moralities of Kant and Mill are rationalist, individualist, and universalist.
  • survey data on East/West differences in sentence completion: "I am..."
  • framed-line task 97
  • Kantian and Millian ethical thought is rationalist, rule based, and universalist. Just the ethical theory you would expect from the culture.

A 3 channel moral matrix

  • Schweder's anthropology: ethics of autonomy, community, divinity 99-100 - gloss each...
  • claims Schweder's theory predicts responses on taboo violation tests, is descriptively accurate.
  • ethic of divinity: body as temple vs. playground
  • vertical dimension to values. explains reactions to flag desecration, piss Christ, thought exp: desecration of liberal icons. (Note connection to contemporary conflicts, such as the Charlie Hebdot massacre.)

Making Sense of Moral/Cultural Difference

  • Haidt's Bhubaneswar experience: diverse (intense) continua of moral values related to purity. (opposite of disgust). Confusing at first, but notice that he started to like his hosts (elephant) and then started to think about how their values might work. Stop and think about how a mind might create this. Detail about airline passenger.
  • Theorizing with Paul Rozin on the right model for thinking about moral foundations: "Our theory, in brief" (103)
  • American politics often about sense of "sacrilege", not just about defining rights (autonomy). Not just harm, but types of moral disgust.
  • Stepping out of the Matrix: H's metaphor for seeing his own cultural moral values as more "contingent" than before, when it felt like the natural advocacy of what seem true and right. Reports growing self awareness of liberal orientation of intellectual culture in relation to Shweder's view. Social conservatives made more sense to him after studying in India.

Small Group Discussion

  • Discussion questions:
  • Does it make sense to talk about "stepping out of a matrix"? Is this a temporary thing? What value might it have in your experience?
  • Do you have a parallel story to Haidt's? (Mention travel experiences.)
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