tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post4215847949890425038..comments2024-02-26T00:59:26.907-08:00Comments on Ana the Imp: The Witch Camps of Ghana Anastasia F-Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-81504018885764993682012-09-27T15:51:30.042-07:002012-09-27T15:51:30.042-07:00OK, it goes like this. My grandfather was on a bu...OK, it goes like this. My grandfather was on a business trip to the Far East in the 1960s, which, amongst other places, took him to New Guinea. While there he stayed in a hotel in Port Moresby. I have no idea what the place is like now but then it wasn’t unusual to see tribesmen in the streets, obviously down from the hills, trying to make sense of the modern world. On one particular day he saw a group standing close to the elevator in his hotel. Guests would come, the doors opened, they got in, the doors closing behind them, the group staring intently all the while. The lift would come back, the doors opened. Empty! A great commotion then went up from the group. He later found out that they referred to the lift in their own language as “the box that eats people.” This is true, in every regard. Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-63878638141146877352012-09-26T18:34:57.860-07:002012-09-26T18:34:57.860-07:00Hi Ana, I wouldn't bother with Bloch, he's...Hi Ana, I wouldn't bother with Bloch, he's like Walter Benjamin--thought provoking from time to time but a hell of a slog almost all the time!<br /><br />I haven't heard your Port Moresby story, but would love to do so--I've had various PNG-related projects over the years, but none of them required me to personally set foot there . . . do tell!Chris Coffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16599801901347194290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-60589854919229427922012-09-24T16:28:25.082-07:002012-09-24T16:28:25.082-07:00Chris, I'm not familiar with the work of Bloch...Chris, I'm not familiar with the work of Bloch, something else I shall have to make good. Did I ever tell you my Port Moresby story, about tribesmen coming into contact with modern technology? If not, let me know and I will. It's a true one, I assure you. :-) Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-59461511350716507502012-09-24T00:37:17.999-07:002012-09-24T00:37:17.999-07:00Ana and Calvin, you're discussing the truth of...Ana and Calvin, you're discussing the truth of the philosopher Ernst Bloch’s concept of “Ungleichzeitigkeit”, the existence in a country of social, economic and cultural structures of the past flourishing in the present alongside contemporary modern structures and those early, newly formed structures that are pregnant with the future. <br /><br />This co-existence and even flourishing of the products of different eras simultaneously in a society is true within a nation and true across nations--it's one of the most prominent features of our rapidly-evolving national cultures and global culture. <br /><br />In so many respects, when we talk to our fellow citizens or to citizens of different nations, we are speaking across centuries--and of course we ourselves are personal palimpsests of many different epochs . . . tradition is by no means a bad thing, as I'm sure the two of you, particularly, would be the first to affirm . . . Best, ChrisChris Coffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16599801901347194290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-18919610883819161532012-09-23T16:00:56.306-07:002012-09-23T16:00:56.306-07:00Brilliantly put, Calvin. I travel quite extensive...Brilliantly put, Calvin. I travel quite extensively and I understand exactly what it is that you are saying, how pertinent your point is, really about fractures in time and experience. I remember reading a science fiction novel - it was a while ago but I think it was called <i>October the First is Too Late</i> - touching on this very theme, a disruption in time causing widely different periods to be thrust together. <br /><br />Our own modernity, our civilization, the comforts and illusions we surround ourselves with, is incredibly shallow. At root lies a fearful and primitive brain, that has hardly changed at all over time. If the curtains fell it's highly possible that we would return to a more atavistic state of being, looking fearfully out into the dark as our ancestors did thousands of years ago. Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-12876605134268766402012-09-23T15:50:43.213-07:002012-09-23T15:50:43.213-07:00Joe, an impossible question. Joe, an impossible question. Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-18850270546287862532012-09-23T15:49:58.321-07:002012-09-23T15:49:58.321-07:00Yes, indeed there are. Yes, indeed there are. Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-19965740532404957452012-09-21T15:51:37.572-07:002012-09-21T15:51:37.572-07:00The world we live in is a complex place. Those of...The world we live in is a complex place. Those of us in the West who have embraced the scientific method and employ the fruits of its child, technology, mostly live in brightly-lit surroundings where fears of the dark have been banished from day to day life. <br /><br />Elsewhere, people dwell in darker spaces, ill-lit by smoky fires that cast deep shadows - shadows alive, that dance and flicker at the edge of vision.<br /><br />It is not just the physical characteristics of living that vary from place to place. From our shining 21st century palaces, we fly our shining birds across the world to remote places where science is the magic of alien wizards, but reality is still exactly as it was long ago at the dawn of imagination and of reason. There are more people still living in some version of the past than we know. Billions are still in thrall to ancient gods and demons, and even when offered the magic of cell phones and AK47s, they are Stone Age in heart and mind.<br /><br />One need not travel to the remote Amazon jungle or New Guinea. Every individual wears his own personal past, and a great many choose the comfort of habits evolved long ago, inherited from ancestors out of deep time. I know many people, superficially modern, who still resort to incantations and ritual gestures without ever truly understanding their original significance. We note them, but mostly fail to recognize that such are a kind time travel - a connection to our own ancient past. <br /><br />When we travel far enough, to lands of different climate, different food, different clothes, different language, we note those changes as geographic, but just as often we are traveling as much in time as in space. Sometimes the journey is very far back indeed, to a time of first tools and first communities; sometimes not so far - a few decades or a few centuries. <br /><br />The whole story of humanity is available, once you know you are a time traveler. If you are a historian, too, knowing exactly how old ways of living gave way in succession to newer ideas, may make it possible to discretely nudge things in the direction of a better future.Calvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10640148105202971907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-25579971275471450122012-09-20T22:04:32.912-07:002012-09-20T22:04:32.912-07:00The huge inquiry process after the death of Victor...The huge inquiry process after the death of Victoria Climbié was supposedly so this sort of "exorcism" wouldn't happen again in the UK; then we had, as you say, Kristy Bamu. How many children must be sacrificed in the name of cultural sensitivity?Joe Danielshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13813771610543530480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-38822611521403179512012-09-20T18:53:43.043-07:002012-09-20T18:53:43.043-07:00African retirement community; there are always un...African retirement community; there are always underlying issues with allegations of witchcraft.anthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02931330128135957439noreply@blogger.com