A Culture's Vocabulary Comes Full Circle: Monosyllables to Acronyms

Culture in the 21rst century has come full circle in terms of daily vocabulary. Agrarian societies operated with a set of basically monosyllabic words: fruit, bean, soy, corn, wheat, rake, hoe, weed, plant, seed, reap, eat. Advances in agribusiness technology marked an increase in syllables: partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, high fructose corn syrup, emulsifying soy lecithin, farm-based intelligent default software, satellite radio implement guidance systems, Smartstax, etc. etc.

The syllables pile up faster than a fresh load of hay to the point where acronyms are needed to digest the significance of each agribusiness tool or activity. Genetically modified foods become GMs, seeds and chemicals are applied according to prompts from satellites in the form of RTKs. But only the industry giants hold dominion over the new vocabulary, and thus, daily activity of farmers. To understand the acronym, you must submit to the instructions of the "club".

The response is the slowfood movement. The movement not only sticks to one and two syllable words to describe daily activity, it empowers those wishing to work the land to break away from agribusiness giants. Good food. Slow. Fresh. Yum.

International Conflict Resolution Program at Kennesaw State U.

Kennesaw State University, one of the largest in Georgia , is offering a new doctoral degree in the fall of 2010 that specializes in international conflict management. The program addresses a growing need for understanding the political and economic roots of conflict as well as the intercultural dynamics that lead to resolution and the maintenance of peace.

Using Clay to Bridge Cultural Divides in 13th Century American Southwest

13th century Salado pottery reveals how indigenous women utilized a household craft to spread a message of cultural accord throughout the violent American Southwest. The particular style and design of pottery is found within three separate and often conflicting ethnic groups - a pattern that University of Missouri researchers say represents the infiltration of a unifying religion based on peace and accord between tribal nations.

“Conflict was defused through the direct action of women who sought to decrease the tensions that threatened to destroy their communities,” VanPool said. “The rise of the Salado tradition allowed threatened communities to stabilize over much of modern-day Arizona and new Mexico, altering the course of Southwestern prehistory. Given that the Salado system lasted from 1275 to around 1450, it was most certainly successful.”

Source: Kansas City Infozine, Wed. March 10, 2010

Rosier Book on Native American Culture's Contibutions to U.S.Politics

Paul C. Rosier's "Serving Their Country - American Indian Politics and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century" (Harvard University Press) makes the case for cultural accord. Indigenous people were utilized as "cultural ambassadors" during different conflicts throughout the 20th century. As part of a "cultural offensive" in Vietnam, indigenous people showed the face of patriotism to the South Vietnamese. To promote the idea of patriotic solidarity within the United States, indigenous soldiers represented a "hybrid American", blending tribal values with a duty to serve the country as a whole. But most of all, American Indians were vital to the effort to connect indigenous tribes of other countries to similarities found in the U.S. tribal cultures.

For excellent review see Washington Post.

Cultural Conflict Hardens Opposing Sides

Anna Haynes presents an argument that cultural conflict mars the climate change debate.

How Culture Affects The Choices We Make

Columbia psychology prof Sheena  S. Iyengar explores how culture is implicit in the choices we make each day in her book, The Art of Choosing (Twelve, 25.95). She explains the motivations behind the choices we make, and how those choices cannot be made devoid of a cultural or social context.

Great read for global organizations and companies that need to draw people of diverse cultures together to resolve problems or create products. Iyengar urges the practice of finding shared values within a diverse climate of people and focus on reaching a common ground to make decisions and choices.

A clear and concise breakdown of the process of choice.

A New Culture of Love: Economic Parity

Seventeen years ago, our then six year old son handed my husband and me a list of seven qualities he felt his future wife should have. Intelligence ranked among the top three along with a sense of humor and a refusal to smoke.

"This is good," I told my boy, "The key to a successful marriage? You should marry someone smarter than you are."

Little did I  know a new cultural trend had already begun.  According to a Jan. 19, 2010 Pew Research Center report on social and demographic trends, women have closed the gap in economic parity between themselves and their husbands in less than four decades. The trend may not be directly related to intelligence, but it is definitely related to education.

In 1970, for instance, just over half (52%) of American couples born and raised in the States shared an equal amount of education by the time they'd reached their prime (30-44yrs), while in 28% of American households, husbands held more diplomas and degrees than their wives.

By the time 2007 rolled around,  53% of marriages had couples of the same age on equal educational footing; but by then, 28% of the marriages had flipped the scale, with the wife holding more degrees than the husband.

The trend continued to flip in terms of employment and careers. In 1970, only 4% of marriages had wives out-earning their spouses. By 2007 this had jumped to 22%. And women brought home 44% more of the bacon in 2007 than they did in 1970, while their husband's earning potential increased by only 6%.

Statistically speaking, marriage is good for the pocketbook, as the majority of high earners in the country are currently married. So love in the time of recession and war remains a vital component of economic survival, if not economic parity. With women now outnumbering men on college campuses across the nation, it shouldn't be too  difficult for men of the Millennial generation like my son to find smart, funny women as mates.

Being married is also associated with a lower incidence of smoking, according to another Pew report (Apr 8 2009) especially in the Millennial group, where 60% of people under thirty have never or hardly ever smoked. Non-smokers now count nearly 6 in 10 women to nearly half of all men. However, more men are kicking the habit than women, a cultural trend that associates smoking with work related stress. Women continue to take on higher paying yet more stressful positions.

Finding a mate with a better education, a better job and better health habits may seem like a tall order for a man in his twenties today, but the cultural stigma is lifting against the effort to try. My son and I both know there is no magic formula to a successful marriage, but finding a smart woman is a good start. If he doesn't believe me - he can always ask his father.