“Monumental Connections” in the works

It’s getting exponentially difficult to locate the point where all the information I’ve been absorbing from my own researching (regarding the natures of identity, collective identity (culture), embeddedness, and globalization) intersect. On the other side of the spectrum, I’m becoming infatuated with communication technology and how it relates to the aforementioned concepts. I’m slowly realizing just WHAT all of these things have to do with each other, but I haven’t arrived there yet. All I can do is keep researching and reflecting, connecting the new information with the old.

How are cultural items transferred and spread?

How might the relative comparison of artifacts used in archaeology (I still haven’t remembered the name) apply to our understanding of popular culture?

Why does our society understand culture in terms of ownership?

How does this inform identity politics?

Is borrowing the same as cultural appropriation?

How are ideas borrowed or appropriated in academia?

How can I be critical of my own positionality when I investigate these concepts?

As you can see, my brain is overflowing with questions, despite how much I’ve read and continue to read this quarter. Perhaps this is a sign that I’m driving myself crazy. But at the same time, there’s always the sense that I’m getting somewhere with all of this. I aspire to be like Socrates, to “know nothing,” so that my mind is always open to new possibilities. So that I never close it off to new perspectives.

I feel like understanding how all of these parts work in the system that is life would cause a monumental paradigm shift, one that hasn’t happened for millennia. Or perhaps this shift is already in the works, and I’m getting closer to realizing and observing it. Wouldn’t that be a discovery, aye? Until I have this amazing realization, I’ll be doing what I’ve been doing since this quarter started: hitting the books and reflecting back on it. That’s why you’ll find this week’s posts a bit shorter than normal. Hope you don’t mind!

See what your friends think!

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