A revelation I had this evening

[Fast Eddie]

We had the Scottish Walk in Alexandria yesterday, and after the very wet parade, a few of the folks in the pipe band retired to Murphy's (a local pub) for a celebration. There were quite a lot of kilties there, but more than that - there were dozens of people in all sorts of clothing, just having fun! Some were in ren-faire garb, others in WW2 uniforms, various color guards in Scottish and Irish attire, pipers, drummers, etc. Plenty of non-kilted people as well, and the music was all over the map.

As I looked around at the crowd, which changed quite a bit during my stay at the pub, I noticed one thing that stood out amongst all these celebrants - they were there having fun, and it didn't matter what you wore, or what your heritage was. It was an atmosphere of enjoyment, and in spite of the weather, they were certainly having fun. Were they of Scottish descent? I don't know... and more to the point, neither I or anyone else seemed to care.

I vote for inclusion, rather than exclusion, when it comes to cultural festivities like this one - it's a chance for more folks to learn about something outside their own "neighborhood", and that, in turn, can only be a beneficial thing...

[Detroitpete]

String theory, medical anthropology and the tribal expressions of new world celts:

I remember learning something very important about cultural expression amidst the intellectual buzz-saw that was a medical anthropology course (yes, I am a geek)...I interpret it as follows:

There is nothing more stringent and at the same time so elastic as the expression of culture. Constantly evolving and at the same time harkening back to bring forward whispers of the past--creating a brand new expression in the almalgam.

The only time it is static or unchanging, is in the moments between it's breaths, as it pauses before moving forward with the ghosts of the past.

There will be those who are uncomfortable and feel the desire to anchor themselves at either end of the continuum. They believe that this process is linear. They fail to see that the expansion and contraction is constant and their 'point' on the line is always changing as well.

So, I agree there is an evolving expression which is not so focused on replicating (wannabe) the past/existing culture of the source, and yet so distinctively echoes the source that it can not be seen as consumed by the new. It is something special, different and on it's own path of evolution and harkening, ie., New World Celts

A new tribe born of a new time carrying the ghosts and shadows of the past while being forged of new stuff?

Ok--I'll go have some coffee now--that is FAR too strange a connection to make regarding kilts, so early in the day!

[Bugbear]

Let us not forget Complex Emergent Adaptive Systems. Adam Smith echoed to the Santa Fe Instatute and beyond.

I'll go get my coffee now...

[Detroitpete]

Let us not forget Complex Emergent Adaptive Systems. Adam Smith echoed to the Santa Fe Instatute and beyond.

I'll go get my coffee now...

Not to detract or distract from the intention in this thread--but it appears as though Ted and I are about to weave Callahan's Law, Kantian Ethics, Economic change theory, Haferkamp's (et al) descriptons of social change and modernity, added to a sprinkling of Ronfeldt's 'Tribes, Institutions, Market, Networks; A Framework about Societal Evolution' --into something related to wearing kilts and listening to modern celtic music!

We are in desperate need of professional help!

[Bugbear]

You forgot C. G. Jung and Joseph Campbell, et al, et al, et al... EEEK!

* Edit:

Done Dirt Cheap!

[Old Hippie]

And for those of us from the Cultural Studies and Critical Communication Theory side of the house:

Don't forget Stuart Hall, Arjun Appadurai, Ferdinand Toennies, Frederic Jameson, John Thompson, Anthony Giddens and Howard Rheingold.

Oooh! And Ross Fuglsang!

All it takes to have a "culture" or "sodality" or "group of interested people" is, well, enough people to form the group. That's the uncomplicated part. For people who feel themselves excluded because they belong to an other, older, different group it's the red flag and they'll spend all day chasing it.

It's interesting what happens inside any culture -- how the rules get made and followed. The real interesting part to me -- and that's where Fuglsang comes in -- is in that boundary state between "in" and "out," between "our group" and "their group" because those boundaries are never some microscopically thin line drawn in the cultural sand. There's always fuzziness, negotiation, situationality, redefinition and state-changing happening in that liminal space.

It just so happens that our ways of creating cultural groups now includes the (as it if were a singularity) media.




Ooh, ooh...I love this stuff!

:ootd:

[wildrover]

Done Dirt Cheap!

having fun, and it didn't matter what you wore, or what your heritage was.

...Since 1776 .

The party was great ...met a bunch of people, including the girl who was singing during the second set...what a voice, and energy! Hopefully she'll bring out the opera training and the blues with them in the future. Reminded me of Nightwish one moment, and Sean Booker the next.

It really is its own culture...ceilidh was a description that passed through my mind several times. There was a similar sort of energy at the later events at the Long's Peak Highland Festival.

The only response I can think of, to anyone who would say we're a bunch of tryhards, is "bring me my broadsword"

It just so happens that our ways of creating cultural groups now includes the (as it if were a singularity) media.

I'm sorta curious, if you were referring to The Media aka the MSM aka the Fourth Estate, what's your opinion on conscious rejection of media-created cultural groups or labels...similar to the thought that a mainstream magazine writeup signifies the end of a trend, not its emergence?

-Sean

[Detroitpete]

Dr. Hays,

You sir are obviously as deeply disturbed as the rest of usint:

Now does this make us a tribe, network, social collaborative, autonomous collective...

Oh...we haven't yet applied systemic dynamics yet! Think of the permutations of the effects of stratification, differentiation, intensification, adaptaion, interwoven network complexity---OR how about the negative impacts of reification, teleology, functionalism and ethnocentricity...



I just hurt my head.

[Bugbear]

Or is it that there is a super-consciousness generated by a culture, tribe, or what have you, functioning through intuitive and subconscious communication,, but only briefly waking from it's dreams...

[Nighthawk]

Some good thoughts, Nighthawk. And thank you for introducing me to a b#tchin' band! They sound great!

You're welcome!

Wow! I thought I was a geek! You guys make me need painkillers.