52 Matching Annotations
  1. Aug 2023
    1. In general the professors of the humanities and the socialsciences and history, fascinated by the marvels of experi-mental natural science, were overpowered by the idea thatsimilar marvels could be produced in their own fields by theuse of the same methods. They also seemed convinced thatany results obtained in these fields by any other methods werenot worth achieving. This automatically ruled out writerspreviously thought great who had had the misfortune to livebefore the method of empirical natural science had reachedits present predominance and who had never thought ofapplying it to problems and subject matters outside the rangeof empirical natural science.

      Hutchins indicates that part of the fall of the humanities was the result of the rise of the scientific method and experimental science. In wanting fields from the humanities—like social sciences and history—to be a part of this new scientific paradigm, professors completely reframed their paradigms in a more scientific mode and thereby erased the progenitors and ideas in these fields for newer material which replaced the old which was now viewed as "less than" in the new paradigms. This same sort of erasure of Indigenous knowledges was also similarly effected as they were also seen as "less than" from the perspective of the new scientific regime.

      One might also suggest that some of it was the result of the acceleration of life brought on by the invention of writing, literacy, and the spread of the printing press making for larger swaths of knowledge to be more immediately available.

    1. Now, award-winning poet Nicole Sealey revisits the investigation in a book that redacts the report, an act of erasure that reimagines the original text as it strips it away. While the full document is visible in the background—weighing heavily on the language Sealey has preserved—it gives shape and disturbing context to what remains.
  2. Jan 2023
    1. Inother words, we have projected backward the idea that there was aself-contained “Western civilization” (a concept that didn’t even reallyexist until the early twentieth century)

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  3. Oct 2022
    1. Christopher Hill, used to pencil on the back endpaper of his books a list of the pages and topics which had caught his attention. He rubbed out his notes if he sold the book, but not always very thoroughly, so one can usually recognise a volume which belonged to him.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hill_(historian)

      Christopher Hill's practice of creating indices of topics of interest to him in the end papers of his books is similar to that of Mortimer J. Adler who attested this practice as well.

  4. Aug 2022
    1. The erasure principle would suggest that “Bill” isthe subject of “write,” although of course the sentence does not imply that Billwrote the book – rather John and Bill did, together.

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  5. Jun 2022
    1. For most of history, humanity’s challenge was how to acquire scarceinformation. There was hardly any good information to be foundanywhere. It was locked up in difficult-to-reproduce manuscripts orstuck in the heads of scholars. Access to information was limited, butthat wasn’t a problem for most people. Their lives and livelihoodsdidn’t require much information. Their main contribution was theirphysical labor, not their ideas.

      This is an overly painful Western cultural viewpoint and totally erases orality and oral cultures from the discussion. We can and should do better.

  6. May 2022
    1. Every bit of new information fills in the blanks of a time that has long since passed out of living memory.

      Our written records have increased incalculably because our living memory doesn't serve us or our society or culture the way it previously did in pre-literate times. The erasure of cruelties and tyrrany is all to easy when we rely only on literacy, particularly when book banning and erasure can easily become the norm.

    1. https://hardhistoriesjhu.substack.com/p/a-ritual-of-remembrance-on-the-jhu

      Dr. Martha S. Jones reflects on the recent Ritual of Remembrance at the Homewood Museum at Johns Hopkins University.

      Given the root word for museum, I'm reminded that the mother of the nine muses was Mnemosyne ("Memory"). I'm glad that there's a re-memory held there for those who history has conspired to erase.

  7. Apr 2022
    1. and of course the white fellas learned very quickly because they learned from the romans the british learned from iran and the first thing you attack other people from religious beliefs 00:46:28 that's the first thing you've done back in those days we didn't have towers communication so you didn't target your communication towers but you communicate you you attacked the way people transmitted 00:46:41 their knowledge

      The white fellas learned very quickly from the Romans that the first thing you attack is other people's religious beliefs, which are the modern day equivalent of communication towers. That's how oral societies communicate their knowledge and culture.

      via Uncle Ghillar Michael Anderson

  8. Mar 2022
    1. for tens of thousands of years Aboriginal people and tourists Islander people have paid incredibly close attention to the world around them and still do today have developed knowledge 00:09:51 systems that are more complex than we could ever imagine or as intellectually capable as anybody else if not much more and that their traditions have a very detailed scientific component that we can learn from if we just shut up and 00:10:04 listen

      For tens of thousands of years Aboriginal people and Torres Islander people have paid incredibly close attention to the world around them and still do today; have developed knowledge systems that are more complex than we could ever imagine; are as intellectually capable as anybody else if not much more, and that their traditions have a very detailed scientific component that we can learn from if we just shut up and listen. —Dr. Duane Hamacher

      AMEN! What a fantastic quote.

    1. Indigenous science has long been rejected without consideration,overlooked, or exploited without recognition by powerful Westerninterests. Bio-piracy sees Indigenous Knowledge of plants stolen andpatented for use in the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industrieswith little or no recognition or recompense. Indigenous starknowledge has been ignored, even when that knowledge clearlyexisted long before the ‘discoveries’ of Western science.

      Indigenous knowledge has been broadly ignored, rejected, and even exploited without any recognition by Western colonizers. Examples of appropriation include knowledge of plants patented for use in food, medicine, and cosmetics.

    2. Mostof the knowledge shared in this book is what might be consideredthe ‘lower levels’, meaning it is equivalent to primary school intraditional cultures. Star knowledge is far more complex and in-depththan we discuss in this book, but even this is a lot to absorb.

      This is a strong example of the sort of erasure that happens with colonial cultures invading indigenous spaces. The invading colonizers don't realize how in-depth the indigenous knowledge is, how it's structured, or how to earn it through initiation processes, so they discard it and dismiss it.

    3. Far fromcity lights, we joked about the Starlight Motel as we lay in our swagsnext to a small fire and watched the nightly show of the great river ofstars moving slowly over us. We watched the twinkling stars,shooting stars, and pointed out the Southern Cross and other greatconstellations.

      The fact that a city dweller must go out to the countryside to see the stars in the skies makes cities and their light pollution a direct form of cultural erasure for indigenous peoples who use the stars for cultural purposes like stories, storytelling, memory and other oral means.

  9. Feb 2022
    1. the telling of oppressive history can make people uncomfortable. One common argument against incorporating the history of enslaved people, she says, is that, due to the scarcity of primary sources, the history is difficult to tell meaningfully and accurately. But, Rose explains, "resistance to interpreting slavery is not about scarcity of documentation." Rather, using the supposed scarcity of documentation to excuse engagement is a form of resistance, as are denial, sarcasm, and apathy.

      The scarcity of primary sources making it difficult to tell meaningful and accurate history is a common argument against incorporating the history of enslaved people. These excuses as well as denial, sarcasm, and apathy are used to erase the value of these people and our shared history.

    1. Sam Dorsey

      I remember a Mr. Dorsey who worked for the financial aid office. I can't help but wonder at an historical link between these two people and how far things have come despite the work we still need to accomplish.

    2. When I did, I tried to see beyond the museum’s opulence to appreciate the nearly invisible hands of the Black laborers who made the Carroll family’s comfort and prosperity possible.

      It would be interesting to commission a sculpture of several human forms, perhaps fashioned in clear acrylic, glass, or some other translucent material, to represent the invisible nature of these slaves in an effort to make them visible in the present and while still making a dramatic and more visible statement about their (and millions of others') invisible nature with respect to the historical record.

  10. Jan 2022
    1. When I think back to the creation of that infographic, I wonder whether we had shown the care demanded of the data. Whether we had, in creating this abstraction, re-enacted — however inadvertently — some of the objectification of the slave trade.

      This sort of objectification seems very similar to the type of erasure that Poland is doing with the Holocaust as they begin honoring Poles who helped Jews while simultaneously ignoring Poland's part in collaborating with the Nazis in creating the Holocaust.

      How can we as a society and humanity add more care to these sorts of acts so as not to continue erasing the harm and better heal past wrongs?

      Cross reference: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/29/opinion/holocaust-poland-europe.html and https://hyp.is/hrsb9oIOEey8sEObTYhk0A/www.nytimes.com/2022/01/29/opinion/holocaust-poland-europe.html

    1. in Luhmann’s mind theprocess of writing things down enables disciplined thinking in the first place: “Underlying the filing tech-nique is the experience that without writing, there is no thinking.”22
      1. Luhmann, Zettelkasten II, index card no. 9/8g (my translation).

      The act of taking notes helps to focus the mind and one's concentration. This facilitates better and deeper thinking. While he erases oral cultures and those who used mnemonic techniques, Niklas Luhmann said, "without writing, there is no thinking."

    1. Or, in Lallemant’s words: ‘I can say in truth that, asregards intelligence, they are in no wise inferior to Europeans and tothose who dwell in France. I would never have believed that, withoutinstruction, nature could have supplied a most ready and vigorouseloquence, which I have admired in many Hurons; or more clear-sightedness in public affairs, or a more discreet management inthings to which they are accustomed.’25

      How do we go from such varied statements from Jesuits which entered the popular discourse to the complete erasure of this knowledge in subsequent generations. Was the greed for land and power so great?

    2. Interestingly, early French observers attached little importance tosuch economic distinctions, especially since foraging or farming was,in either case, largely women’s work

      Note the erasure of women's work by the hierarchical society.

  11. Dec 2021
    1. It is impossible to think without writing; at least it is impossible in any sophisticated or networked (anschlußfähig) fashion.

      The sentiment that it is impossible to think without writing is patently wrong. While it's an excellent tool, it takes an overly textual perspective and completely ignores the value of orality an memory in prehistory.

      Modern culture has lost so many of our valuable cultural resources that we have completely forgotten that they even existed.

      Oral cultures certainly had networked thought, Luhmann and others simply can't imagine how it may have worked. We're also blinded by the imagined size of societies in pre-agricultural contexts. The size and scope of cities and city networks makes the history of writing have an outsized appearance.

      Further, we don't have solid records of these older netowrks, a major drawback of oral cultures which aren't properly maintained, but this doesn't mean that they didn not exist.

    1. Are we really to insist that the advocacy of Chinese models ofstatecraft by Leibniz, his allies and followers really had nothing to dowith the fact that Europeans did, in fact, adopt something that looksvery much like Chinese models of statecraft?

      At the suggestion of Leibniz, parts of Europe began adopting Chinese models of statecraft which had not previously been known or used in Europe.

  12. Jun 2021
    1. it is not about the product

      it is not about the product, but about the process—Christopher R. Rogers

      In humanity there is no product. We're collectively about the process.

      Similar to the idea of human "being" not human "doing".

      Sadly corporations have been exerting power over people and turning us into products or inputs in their processes and dramatically devaluing and erasing our humanity.

  13. May 2021
    1. The foremost consideration with respect to teaching of the Australian Aboriginal memory technique is the cultural safety aspect and respect for the peoples who developed this approach. In our program, the teaching of this program was administered by an experienced Australian Aboriginal Educator, who was able to integrate the method into our teaching program, while simultaneously preventing several breaches of cultural etiquette and terminology which could easily have compromised the material had it been delivered by a non-Australian Aboriginal educator (TY), however well-intentioned. The need for a deep knowledge and understanding of the appropriate context for teaching and delivery of this material is probably the main factor which would preclude more widespread adoption of this technique.

      I really appreciate the respect given to indigenous knowledge here.

      The researchers could have gone much further in depth in describing it and the aspects of what they mean by cultural "safety". They've done a disservice here by downplaying widespread adoption. Why not? Why couldn't we accord the proper respect of traditions to actively help make these techniques more widespread? Shouldn't we be willing to do the actual work to accord respect and passing on of these knowledges?

      Given my reading in the area, there seems to be an inordinate amount of (Western) "mysticism" attributed to these techniques (here and in the broader anthropology literature) rather than approaching them head-on from a more indigenous perspective. Naturally the difficult part is being trusted enough by tribal elders to be taught these methods to be able to pass them on. (Link this idea to Tim Ingold's first chapter of Anthropology: Why It Matters.)

      All this being said, the general methods known from the West, could still be modified to facilitate in widespread adoption of those techniques we do know. Further work and refinement of them could continue apace while still maintaining the proper respect of other cultures and methods, which should be the modern culture default.

      If nothing else, the West could at least roll back the educational reforms which erased their own heritage to regain those pieces. The West showing a bit of respect for itself certainly wouldn't be out of line either.

    2. several differences were apparent between the two methods of loci.

      again, disappointing erasure here...

    3. Both methods of loci improved upon the already high level of recall among medical students relative to those who received no memory training.

      I'm saddened to see the erasure of the Australian Aboriginal approach (possibly better termed Songlines or Dreaming for specificity) here only to have it lumped into the Western method. This is worse when their general results show the Australian approach to be significantly better.

      This may be due to over-familiarity with the techniques which are broadly similar, but for rigor and respect they should remain separate in this paper.

    1. But, and this is a big but, replacing Welsh place names with English ones, just because some people can't pronounce them or they just don't like the sound of them, is not ok.It's deleting your cultural distinctiveness. Your heritage and the uniqueness of these British islands. It's getting rid of one of the oldest languages in Europe, one place name at a time.
    1. Article about the renaming of Welsh place names into English which erases culture and history.

    2. Australia's giant monolith Ayers Rock was renamed Uluru in 1993, switching from its colonial namesake, former South Australian Premier Sir Henry Ayers, to the language of its traditional owners, the Anangu people.In 2002, that dual name was officially reversed, making it Uluru/Ayers Rock. Almost all Australians now refer to it as Uluru.
    3. The highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, is not commonly known by its Tibetan name Chomolungma, meaning goddess mother of the world.Many Sherpas, a community indigenous to the Himalayan region, believe that the summit of Chomolungma is home to the Buddhist goddess Miyolangsangma.Its English name comes from Colonel Sir George Everest, who was born in Crickhowell, Powys, in 1790, who was a Surveyor General of India.
  14. Apr 2021
    1. “The whole point is that we want to take up space,” Ms. Obell said. “Take the time to say black, Latinx and Asian. Say our names. Take the time to learn. Show me that you know the difference.”

      It almost looks like BIPOC was invented to give all of these people space, but in making it an acronym, we've given them all the least amount of space possible.

      It's definitely worth considering something else.

    2. “It is lazy to lump us all together as if we all face the same problems,” said Sylvia Obell, a host of the Netflix podcast “Okay, Now Listen.” “When you blend us all together like this, it’s erasure. It allows people to get away with not knowing people of color and our separate set of issues that we all face. It allows people to play it safe and not leave anyone out, and it also allows you to not have to do the work.”
  15. Nov 2020
    1. Yellow Diamond begin with the eleventh century of the Christian era

      Forced periodization--obviously the narrator will depend on this convention for time his readers will understand, but it shows a systematic take over of the Moonstone's history.

  16. Sep 2020
  17. Jul 2018
  18. Feb 2017
    1. how any work that needed to be done day after day was meaningless, and that only creating new things was a worthwhile endeavor

      This is interesting.... not everything is meaningful? i never thought of this in that way. to me, the "meaningless" work is the work that matters more than the creating. because one couldn't happen without the other.

    1. There has been a blank around the lives of older women, who report feeling invisible as they age — which is, as it turns out, less feeling than fact.

      Erasure of elderly women

    2. To engage with the lives of others, white audiences would have to encounter something far more frightening: their irrelevance. They would have to reckon with the fact that the work will not always speak to them, orient them, flatter them with tales of their munificence or infamy, or comfort them with stereotypes.

      In order to stop the erasure of the other, white people would have to take themselves out of the spotlight and realize not everything is for them. they would also have to encounter black suffering or something similar amongst themselves.

    3. (Of the seven black actresses to ever win an Academy Award, two played slaves, and one played a maid.)

      teaching what is wanted to be shown and not equal depictions of people. Erasure of equal identity in media film and society.

    4. #OscarsSoWhite,

      SOcial media protest agianst the erasure of minorities

    5. Only last year, the Texas Board of Education issued new textbooks for some five million public-school students that omitted mentions of Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan and made slavery a side issue in the Civil War.

      The erasure of black history in education. taking it out of text books.

    6. women — who are still left out of history.

      Women are not put in history. not then and still not today.

    7. ‘‘I’m erasing myself from the narrative/Let future historians wonder/How Eliza reacted when you broke her heart.’’ It’s an acknowledgment of the stories this play cannot fully restore, and of a group — women — who are still left out of history.

      The erasure of some marginalized group.... In this case women. changing the story and changing the erasure

    8. #StopErasingBlackPeople and released a statement saying the exhibition ‘‘paints H.I.V. as an issue faced predominantly by white gay men, when in fact the most at-risk group are currently black trans women.’’

      erasure of the involvement of black women in social issues and protest. Black women protest using hashtags

    9. #SayHerName movement draws attention to black women believed to be victims of police brutality, like Alexia Christian and Meagan Hockaday, whose deaths received a small fraction of the attention given to Eric Garner or Michael Brown.

      Black women using technology to advocate for their erasure.

    10. black female journalists and activists have been spotlighting how crimes against black women are met by silence and seeming unconcern

      The Erasure of black women in government, but specifically in crime.

  19. Jan 2017
    1. invisible.

      ignoring a group. not seeing whats in front of you.

    2. destroying every trace of them from the city,

      literally erasing everything that belongs to an individual person or group of people. making it seem as if they never existed.