Culture - Heritage - Traditions

Culture is the attitudes and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization. A way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time in history. That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. The tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group. All the knowledge and values shared by a society. A highly developed state of perfection and having a flawless or impeccable quality. Cultured is characterized by refined taste and manners and good education.

Ethnic Groups - Diversity - Conservation - Sacred Knowledge - Fossils



Culture Types - Cultural Studies - Celebrations - Assimilation - Conformity - Genealogy

Heritage is the practices that are handed down from the past by tradition. Any attribute or immaterial possession that is inherited from ancestors. That which is inherited; a title or property or estate that passes by law to the heir on the death of the owner. Hereditary succession to a title or an office or property.

Customs are accepted or habitual practice. A specific practice of long standing. Habitual patronage. An action or way of behaving that is usual and traditional among the people in a particular group or place. Something that is done regularly by a person.

Symbols - Clothing - Music - Knowledge

Traditions are an inherited pattern of thought or action. A specific practice of long standing.

Traditional Values or social conservatism, is a group of political ideologies centered on preserving traditional beliefs, attitudes and philosophy, which are not clearly defined, or have such beliefs been debated openly and clearly, and if the reasoning behind the tradition is fully understood by everyone. Religious beliefs should not contradict federal laws or state laws. If a law or a belief is unconstitutional, then the law or the belief needs to be repealed. The aims of social conservatism varies from person to person, and varies from country to country. Thus, there are really no policies or positions that could be considered universal among social conservatives. When you're being vague, and when cannot prove your point, then you should  learn how to prove a point, and stop being vague, and stop pretending to understand life on planet earth. We need to focus on human values, and we need to define all the things that we have in common, because there are more things that we have in common than we have not in common.

"Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay." Jiddu Krishnamurti (May 11, 1895 – February 17, 1986).

"Just because you have always done it this way, it doesn't mean that it's not incredibly stupid."

Status Quo Ante is the previously existing state of affairs. The way things were before. (Going back is different for everyone. Just because something worked good before, it doesn't mean that it was good for everyone, or that it will still be good or even be better than the options and choices available today).

Status Quo Ante Bellum is the state existing before the war and that no side gains or loses territory or economic and political rights. This contrasts with uti possidetis, where each side retains whatever territory and other property it holds at the end of the war.

Practice is a customary way of operation or behavior. Translating an idea into action. The exercise of a profession. Knowledge of how something is usually done. Engage in or perform.

Knowledge Passed On - Training (self directed learning).

Rituals are any customary observance or practice. The prescribed procedure for conducting religious ceremonies.

Mythology - Myths (folklore)

Habits are an established custom. In psychology habits are automatic patterns of behavior in reaction to a specific situation; may be inherited or acquired through frequent repetition. Routines.

Patterns are a customary way of operation or behavior. Something regarded as a normative example.

Tribalism is the state of being organized in or an advocate for a tribe or tribes. In terms of conformity, tribalism may also refer in popular cultural terms to a way of thinking or behaving in which people are loyal to their own tribe or social group. Tribalism has been defined in as a 'way of being' based upon variable combinations of kinship-based organization, reciprocal exchange, manual production, oral communication and analogical enquiry. Ontologically, tribalism is oriented around the valences of analogy, genealogy and mythology. That means that customary tribes have their social foundations in some variation of these tribal orientations, while often taking on traditional practices (e.g. Abrahamic religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), and modern practices, including monetary exchange, mobile communications, and modern education. The social structure of a tribe can vary greatly from case to case, but the relatively small size of customary tribes makes social life in such of tribes usually involve a relatively undifferentiated role structure, with few significant political or economic distinctions between individuals. Tribalism implies the possession of a strong cultural or ethnic identity that separates one member of a group from the members of another group. Based on strong relations of proximity and kinship, members of a tribe tend to possess a strong feeling of identity. Objectively, for a customary tribal society to form there needs to be ongoing customary organization, enquiry and exchange. However, intense feelings of common identity can lead people to feel tribally connected. The distinction between these two definitions for tribalism, objective and subjective, is an important one because while tribal societies have been pushed to the edges of the Western world, tribalism, by the second definition, is arguably undiminished. A few writers have postulated that the human brain is hard-wired towards tribalism by its evolutionary advantages, but that claim is usually linked to equating original questions of sociality with tribalism. Many tribes refer to themselves with their language's word for "people" and referring to other, neighboring tribes with various epithets. For example, the term "Inuit" translates as "people," but they were known to the Ojibwe by a name 'Eskimo' translating roughly as "eaters of raw meat".

Tribe is viewed, developmentally or historically, as a social group existing before the development of, or outside, states. A tribe is a group of distinct people, dependent on their land for their livelihood, who are largely self-sufficient, and not integrated into the national society.

Civilization is a society in an advanced state of social development with complex legal, political, moral or religious organizations. The social process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization. A particular society at a particular time and place. The quality of excellence in thought and manners and taste.

Civilized is having a high state of culture and development both social and technological. To teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment.

Virtual Heritage is the body of works dealing with information and communication technologies (ICT) and their application to cultural heritage, such as virtual archaeology. Virtual heritage and cultural heritage have independent meanings: cultural heritage refers to sites, monuments, buildings and objects "with historical, aesthetic, archaeological, scientific, ethnological or anthropological value", whereas virtual heritage refers to instances of these within a technological domain, usually involving computer visualization of artifacts or Virtual Reality environments.

Cultural Framework is a term used in social science to describe traditions, value systems, myths and symbols that are common in a given society. International Culture and Cognition Institute.

Cultural Celebrations - Festivals - Remembrance

Holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tradition of cultural or religious significance. Holidays may be designated by governments, religious institutions, or other groups or organizations. The degree to which normal activities are reduced by a holiday may depend on local laws, customs, the type of job held or personal choices. Knowledge Preservation - Ancient Knowledge.

Public Holiday is a day in a year that coincides with a significant event in history, an anniversary to mark a day of celebration and remembrance. Holidays mean different things to different people. List of Holidays by Country (wiki).

Holidays are about family, food, art, creativity and tradition, and the things that help bring us all together. The smells, tastes, and decorations help to bring memories flooding back. But a Holiday is not just about remembering something important, it's also about what you have learned because of this memory. To remember is to question something again, and not just to remember something. When a year or years have past, you have to acknowledge and say, "This is what I think I know now, and I will never forget this memory, because this memory is connected to so many things. To forget you would be like forgetting that I have memories, which is something I can not do. So thank you, thank you for the memories"

Gratitude - Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Remembrance is the action of remembering something. The ability to recall past occurrences. Remembrance Day (wiki).

Culture of Remembrance is the interaction of an individual or a society with their past and history. Remembrance Culture is all the behavioral configurations and socially approved or acquired manners of a society or group used to keep parts of the past in their consciousness and thus deliberately make it present. The central theme is not the display of historical and objective knowledge but primarily collective and subjective perceptions of historical connections to the past from a current perspective. One can distinguish between private and public Remembrance Culture as well as their respective regular and event-based elements. The striking thing about a Culture of Remembrance is the fact that collective perceptions shape subjective ones. Social conflicts, relationships and problems influence a Remembrance Culture. In a pronounced Culture of Remembrance, less emphasized elements are likely to be forgotten. Family albums, genealogical research or anniversaries with personal or familial significance are examples of private or subjective forms of Remembrance Culture. Works from a Remembrance Culture can officially be designated as cultural artifacts or cultural monuments if there is a long-standing public interest.

Birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person or the beginning of something important. Birthdays of people are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with birthday gifts, birthday cards, a birthday party, or a Rite of Passage. Many religions celebrate the birth of their founders or religious figures with special holidays. A person's golden or grand birthday, also referred to as their "lucky birthday", "champagne birthday", or "star birthday", occurs when they turn the age of their birth day, like when someone born on the 25th of the month turns 25 or when someone born on the ninth turns nine. Birthday - By The Beatles (youtube) - List of Birthday Songs (wiki) - Happy Birthday to You is a song traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth. The song is the most recognized song in the English language, followed by "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". The song's base lyrics have been translated into at least 18 languages. The melody of "Happy Birthday to You" comes from the song "Good Morning to All", which has traditionally been attributed to American sisters Patty and Mildred J. Hill in 1893, although the claim that the sisters composed the tune is disputed. Lyrics: Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear [the persons name], Happy birthday to you.

Anniversary is the date on which an event occurred in some previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event.

Death Anniversary is the anniversary of the death of a person.

Memorialization refers to the process of preserving memories of people or events. It can be a form of address or petition, or a ceremony of remembrance or commemoration

Memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person (who has died) or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains and parks.

Memorandum is honoring the memory of a person who died in the past.

Commemorative is an object made to memorialize something.

Commemorate is a call to remembrance or to keep alive the memory of someone or something, usually marked by some ceremony or observation.

Ceremony is a formal religious or public occasion, typically one celebrating a particular event or anniversary. The ritual observances and procedures performed at grand and formal occasions. Weddings.

Ceremonial Ship Launching is the process of transferring a vessel to the water after being built. The most widely used method is the end-on launch, in which the vessel slides down an inclined slipway, usually stern first. With the side launch, the ship enters the water broadside. The process also involves many traditions intended to invite good luck, such as christening by breaking a sacrificial bottle of champagne over the bow as the ship is named aloud and launched. The third method is float-out, used for ships that are built in basins or dry docks and then floated by admitting water into the dock. If launched in a restrictive waterway drag chains are used to slow the ship speed to prevent it striking the opposite bank.

Haka is a ceremonial dance or challenge in Māori culture. It is a posture dance performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment. Māori is indigenous to New Zealand and originated from, and is still part of, Eastern Polynesian culture. Māori culture also forms a distinctive part of New Zealand culture and is found throughout the world, due to a large diaspora and incorporation of motifs into popular culture.

Vacation is an extended period of recreation, especially one spent away from home or in traveling. Vacation is a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday. Vacation is a leave of absence from a regular occupation, or a specific trip or journey, usually for the purpose of recreation or tourism. People often take a vacation during specific holiday observances, or for specific festivals or celebrations. Vacations are often spent with friends or family.

Summer Vacation is a school break in summer months between school years or a break in the school academic year. Periods during which schools are closed or no classes or other mandatory activities are held. The dates and periods of school holidays vary considerably throughout the world, Students are typically off between eight and nine weeks, but not staff, depending on the country and district. Summer vacation is also called summer holiday or summer break. School holidays are also referred to as vacations, breaks, and recess.

Festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. Next to religion and folklore, a significant origin is agricultural. Food is such a vital resource that many festivals are associated with harvest time. Religious commemoration and thanksgiving for good harvests are blended in events that take place in autumn, such as Halloween in the northern hemisphere and Easter in the southern. Festivals often serve to fulfill specific communal purposes, especially in regard to commemoration or thanksgiving. The celebrations offer a sense of belonging for religious, social, or geographical groups, contributing to group cohesiveness. They may also provide entertainment, which was particularly important to local communities before the advent of mass-produced entertainment. Festivals that focus on cultural or ethnic topics also seek to inform community members of their traditions; the involvement of elders sharing stories and experience provides a means for unity among families. Festival Types (wiki) - Lists of Festivals (wiki).

Kumbh Mela festival is The Largest Peaceful Gathering in the World and a mass Hindu pilgrimage of faith in which Hindus gather to bathe in a sacred or holy river. The main festival site is located on the banks of a river: the Ganges (Ganga) at Haridwar; the confluence (Sangam) of the Ganges and the Yamuna and the invisible Sarasvati at Allahabad; the Godavari at Nashik; and the Shipra at Ujjain. Bathing in these rivers is thought to cleanse a person of all their sins. Religious pilgrimage, rituals, social practices and festive events. An estimated 120 million people visited Maha Kumbh Mela in 2013 in Allahabad over a two-month period, including over 30 million on a single day, on 10 February 2013 (the day of Mauni Amavasya). It has been inscribed on the UNESCO's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (wiki).

Burning Man is a 2 week long art festival held in the Nevada Black rock desert once a year in the month of August. The festival brings thousands of skilled artists together to collaborate and express themselves in unique and profound ways using incredible imaginative designs that are a celebration of life, creativity and technological advancements. A week before the festival begins a temporary city is mapped out on a dry flat lake bed and designed in a half circle arc shape with a grid street structure that represents the numbers of a clock face to create an easy to use system of location which also helps to organize the 70,000 plus city inhabitants sustainably for 2 weeks. Artists build large and small temporary art structures throughout the city. Everyone in the city rides bicycles and a few people ride electric and other powered vehicles that are usually incredible works of art in themselves. The festival explores the potential of human creativity the seemingly endless amount of possibilities that life offers people here on planet earth. People experience the festival in many different ways. Most people are inspired and emotionally effected by the harmony of people existing together, which can awaken a persons mind to how life can be or how life should be. Making it more than just a festival, but an exploration of the mind and spirit. The 10 Principles of Burning Man: Radical Inclusion, anyone may be a part of Burning Man. Gifting, Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. Decommodification, protect the culture from such exploitation. Radical Self-reliance, rely on his or her inner resources. Radical Self-expression, no one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. Communal Effort, creative cooperation and collaboration. Civic Responsibility, responsibility for public welfare. Leaving No Trace, respects the environment by cleaning up after ourselves. Participation, everyone is invited to work and play. Immediacy, overcoming barriers. The festival is a $63 million annual economic boost for Nevada.

Wicker Man was a large wicker statue reportedly used by the ancient Druids and priests of Celtic paganism in the 18 hundreds for sacrifice by burning it in effigy, which is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure..

Kumbh Mela Religious Festival (temporary city design)

Celebration is a joyful occasion for special festivities to mark some happy event. Any joyous diversion. The public performance of a sacrament or solemn ceremony with all appropriate ritual.

I Just Want to Celebrate - Rare Earth (youtube)

Parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind. The most elaborate parade in the world is the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Rio Carnival is a festival held every year before Lent and considered the biggest carnival in the world with two million people per day on the streets. The first Carnival festival in Rio occurred in 1723. Rio Carnival 2019 [HD] - Floats & Dancers | Brazilian Carnival | The Samba Schools Parade (youtube).

Carnival is a period of public revelry at a regular time each year, typically during the week before Lent in Roman Catholic countries, involving processions, music, dancing, and the use of masquerade. A traveling amusement show or circus. Carnival typically involves public celebrations, including events such as parades, public street parties and other entertainments, combining some elements of a circus. Elaborate costumes and masks allow people to set aside their everyday individuality and experience a heightened sense of social unity.

Helen Marriage - Mephistomania (youtube) - vimeo - Friches Théâtre Urbain: Accueil - Royal de Luxe - London International Festival of Theatre.

Circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, unicyclists, as well as other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists. The term circus also describes the performance which has followed various formats through its 250-year modern history. Circus is a travelling company of performance entertainers who sometimes work in an arena consisting of an oval or circular area enclosed by tiers of seats and usually covered by a tent, or an open-air stadium for races and games. Circus can also mean a frenetic disorganized and often comic disturbance suggestive of a large public entertainment.

Party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration of a special occasion. A party will typically feature food and beverages, and often music and dancing or other forms of entertainment. In many Western countries, parties for teens and adults are associated with drinking alcohol such as beer, wine, or distilled spirits.

Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience, or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousands of years specifically for the purpose of keeping an audience's attention. Although people's attention is held by different things, because individuals have different preferences in entertainment, most forms are recognisable and familiar. Storytelling, music, drama, dance, and different kinds of performance exist in all cultures, were supported in royal courts, developed into sophisticated forms and over time became available to all citizens. The process has been accelerated in modern times by an entertainment industry that records and sells entertainment products. Entertainment evolves and can be adapted to suit any scale, ranging from an individual who chooses a private entertainment from a now enormous array of pre-recorded products; to a banquet adapted for two; to any size or type of party, with appropriate music and dance; to performances intended for thousands; and even for a global audience.

Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or animal actively maintains the experience, and is associated with enjoyment, happiness, laughter and pleasure. It is an emotion with positive valence and high physiological arousal.

Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense it can also signify a transformation in which the initiate is 'reborn' into a new role.

Hazing refers to the practice of rituals, challenges, and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group including a new fraternity, sorority, team, or club. Hazing is seen in many different types of social groups, including gangs, sports teams, schools, military units, and fraternities and sororities. The initiation rites can range from relatively benign pranks to protracted patterns of behavior that rise to the level of abuse or criminal misconduct. Hazing is often prohibited by law or prohibited by institutions such as colleges and universities because it may include either physical or psychological abuse.

Line-Crossing Ceremony s an initiation rite that commemorates a person's first crossing of the Equator. The tradition may have originated with ceremonies when passing headlands, and become a "folly" sanctioned as a boost to morale, or have been created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea. Equator-crossing ceremonies, typically featuring King Neptune, are common in the navy and are also sometimes carried out for passengers' entertainment on civilian ocean liners and cruise ships. They are also performed in the merchant navy and aboard sail training ships. Throughout history, line-crossing ceremonies have sometimes become dangerous hazing rituals. Most modern navies have instituted regulations that prohibit physical attacks on sailors undergoing the line-crossing ceremony.

Types of Culture

Counterculture is a subculture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, often in opposition to mainstream cultural mores.

Subculture is a social group within a national culture that has distinctive patterns of behavior and beliefs.

Cultural Bias occurs when people of a culture make assumptions about conventions, including conventions of language, notation, proof and evidence. They are then accused of mistaking these assumptions for laws of logic or nature. Numerous such biases exist, concerning cultural norms for color, location of body parts, mate selection, concepts of justice, linguistic and logical validity, acceptability of evidence, and taboos.

Cultural Communication - 1960's

Multiculturalism describes the existence, acceptance, and/or promotion of multiple cultural traditions within a single jurisdiction, usually considered in terms of the culture associated with an aboriginal ethnic group and foreigner ethnic groups. Diversity.

Cultural Imperialism refers to the creation and maintenance of unequal relationships between civilizations, favoring the more powerful civilization. Thus, cultural imperialism is the practice of promoting and imposing a culture, usually that of a politically powerful nation, over a less powerful society; in other words, the cultural hegemony of industrialized or economically influential countries which determine general cultural values and standardize civilizations throughout the world.

Cultural Anthropology is the study of cultural variation among humans and is in contrast to social anthropology which perceives cultural variation as a subset of the anthropological constant.

Cross-Cultural a comparative tendency in various fields of cultural analysis.

Popular Culture is the entirety of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, images, and other phenomena that are within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Popular Culture is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of the practices, beliefs, and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a society at a given point in time. Popular culture also encompasses the activities and feelings produced as a result of interaction with these dominant objects. Heavily influenced in modern times by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of people in a given society. Therefore, popular culture has a way of influencing an individual's attitudes towards certain topics. However, there are various ways to define pop culture. Because of this, popular culture is something that can be defined in a variety of conflicting ways by different people across different contexts. It is generally viewed in contrast to other forms of culture such as folk culture, working-class culture, or high culture, and also through different theoretical perspectives such as psychoanalysis, structuralism, postmodernism, and more. The most common pop-culture categories are: entertainment (such as movies, music, television and video games), sports, news (as in people/places in the news), politics, fashion, technology, and slang. Popular culture is sometimes viewed by many people as being trivial and "dumbed down" in order to find consensual acceptance from (or to attract attention amongst) the mainstream. As a result, it comes under heavy criticism from various non-mainstream sources (most notably from religious groups and from countercultural groups) which deem it superficial, consumerist, sensationalist, or corrupt. Main Stream Culture is not defined. Just because something is perceived to be popular, this does not mean that something is good or right. Socialism is also not defined, yet people pretend to know what it means.

Media Culture refers to the current Western capitalist society that emerged and developed from the 20th century, under the influence of mass media. The term alludes to the overall impact and intellectual guidance exerted by the media (primarily TV, but also the press, radio and cinema), not only on public opinion but also on tastes and values. The alternative term mass culture conveys the idea that such culture emerges spontaneously from the masses themselves, like popular art did before the 20th century. The expression media culture, on the other hand, conveys the idea that such culture is the product of the mass media. Another alternative term for media culture is "image culture."

Culture Industry proposed that popular culture is akin to a factory producing standardized cultural goods—films, radio programmes, magazines, etc.—that are used to manipulate mass society into passivity. Consumption of the easy pleasures of popular culture, made available by the mass communications media, renders people docile and content, no matter how difficult their economic circumstances. The inherent danger of the culture industry is the cultivation of false psychological needs that can only be met and satisfied by the products of capitalism; thus Adorno and Horkheimer especially perceived mass-produced culture as dangerous to the more technically and intellectually difficult high arts. In contrast, true psychological needs are freedom, creativity, and genuine happiness, which refer to an earlier demarcation of human needs, established by Herbert Marcuse.

Primitive Culture refers to a society believed to lack cultural, technological, or economic sophistication or development. Is a Primitive Culture Really Primitive?

Eastern Culture is an umbrella term for various cultures or social structures, nations and philosophical systems, which vary depending on the context. It most often includes at least part of Asia or, geographically, the countries and cultures east of Europe, the Mediterranean region and Arab world, specifically in historical (pre-modern) contexts, and in modern times in the context of Orientalism. Africa may rarely be included. It is often seen as a counterpart to the Western world, and correlates strongly to the southern half of the North–South divide.

Western Culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies that originated in or are associated with Europe. The term also applies beyond Europe to countries and cultures whose histories are strongly connected to Europe by immigration, colonization, or influence. For example, Western culture includes countries in the Americas and Australasia, whose language and demographic ethnicity majorities are of European descent. Western culture is most strongly influenced by the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman cultures.

Assimilation - Indoctrination - Integration 

Assimilate is to make something similar or cause something to resemble or be like something. To become similar to one's environment. To assimilate in phonetics is to become similar in sound. Assimilate is to take in information, ideas, or culture and to understand the perceived meaning of certain things. Education Reform.

Assimilation is the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another. The process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive structure. When people of different backgrounds come to see themselves as part of a larger national family. Assimilation can also mean a linguistic process by which a sound becomes similar to an adjacent sound. The process of absorbing nutrients into the body after digestion. Cultural Assimilation.

Forced Assimilation is a process of cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups that is forced into an established and generally larger community. Also enforcement of a new language in legislation, education, literature, worshiping counts as forced assimilation. Unlike ethnic cleansing, the local population is not forced to leave a certain area. Instead the population becomes assimilated by force. It has often been used after an area has changed nationality, often in the aftermath of war. Some examples are both the German and French forced assimilation in the provinces Alsace and (at least a part of) Lorraine, and some decades after the Swedish conquests of the Danish provinces Scania, Blekinge and Halland the local population was submitted to forced assimilation. Marriage - Forced Marriage - Domestication.

Integration is the action of incorporating a racial or religious group into a community. The act of combining into an integral whole.

Integrate is to make into a whole or make part of a whole. Open a place to members of all races and ethnic groups.

Social Integration is the process during which newcomers or minorities are incorporated into the social structure of the host society. Transitions.

Doctrine is a belief or system of beliefs that have been accepted or believed to be authoritative by some group or school.

Indoctrination is the subtle process of forcibly teaching ideas, beliefs and attitudes to a person or a group of people by coercion and by frequent repetitions, often using conspiring indoctrinators such as schools, governments, police and mental health institutions. Creating mindless consumers, usually without consent.

Passive Learning is an ineffective method of learning where students receive information from the instructor without receiving any useful feedback from the instructor. So most students never fully understand what has been learned, or know why they are learning, except to pass a test. Passive learners tend to quietly absorb information and knowledge without engaging with the information that has been received. Passive learners may also have a tendency not to interact with others, or share insights, or contribute to a dialogue, and they are not always involved with the learning experience. This can result in surface processing instead of deeper learning. And the student may also have less ability to use what has been learned. And students may also perceive the study as being irrelevant. Passive learning allows limited opportunity to assess how well students are learning content. They also have very little time for questions, clarification, or discussion. Passive learning's standard model is lecture-format with one-way communication which does not engage the listener. Emphasis is placed on repeating information without reflecting or demonstrating an understanding. Students may be hesitant or uncomfortable about letting instructors know they do not understand key information and they may be reluctant to ask questions in class. With no opportunity for application, it does not consistently engage students use of higher-level cognitive skills. Passive learning forces the student to internalize the information without fully understanding what has been learned. Passive learning is a traditional method utilized in factory model schools and modern schools, as well as historic and contemporary religious sermons in churches, mosques, and synagogues. Passive learning is sometimes like not saving your work before you turn off the computer. They don't call it volatile memory for nothing. Television is also a form of passive learning where the person just sits there. Passive learning is mostly teacher-centered and not so much student-centered. Student centered learning is where students take an active learning approach and take a participatory role in the learning process. Student centered learning can also utilize the Socratic method where students and instructors engage in cooperative argumentative dialogue.

Dictation is an authoritative direction, command or an instruction to do something. Speech intended for reproduction in writing.

How do you know when you're in a cult? How do you know if you're not in the allegory of the cave? What happens when you watch the same TV shows and visit the same websites, but you never do your own research or verify facts? How do you know the person you're following is the person they say they are? Don't be docile, gullible, passive or too trusting, because you may hurt more than just yourself.

Collateral Damage - Cultural Genocide - Education Reform

Radicalization - Conformity - Brainwashing - TV Dictation - Social Experiments - George Orwell - Standards

Carlisle Indian Industrial School is where all American Indian children who attended were subjected to "militaristic regimentation and disciplines," such as cutting of their hair, changing their dress, diets, names, and learning unfamiliar conceptions of space and time. They were also forced to let go of their cultural gender roles, and assimilate to what white men believed they should do in society. Native women traditionally held important political, social and economic power within their communities, as most Native cultures promoted gender equality, and this was disrupted at Carlisle. Genocide.

"Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it." (Thomas Paine 1736-1809)

People are learning things, but they're not becoming less ignorant. Sometimes people can become more ignorant when learning. This is because the information that they are receiving is not the information that will make them less ignorant about themselves and the world around them. Learning needs to be deliberate and learning needs to have clear goals in mind. Passive learning is the illusion of learning, especially when it's not deliberate and relevant.

Formal Learning is education normally delivered by trained teachers in a systematic intentional way within a school, higher education or university. It is one of three forms of learning as defined by the OECD, the others being informal learning, which typically takes place naturally as part of some other activity, and non-formal learning, which includes everything else, such as sports instruction provided by non-trained educators without a formal curriculum.

Informal Learning is any learning that is not formal learning or non-formal learning, such as self-directed learning or learning from experience. Informal learning is organized differently than formal and non-formal learning because it has no set objective in terms of learning outcomes and is never intentional from the learner's standpoint. For all learners this includes heuristic language building, socialization, enculturation, and play. Informal learning is a pervasive ongoing phenomenon of learning via participation or learning via knowledge creation, in contrast with the traditional view of teacher-centered learning via knowledge acquisition.

Implicit Learning is the learning of complex information in an incidental manner, without awareness of what has been learned. If you're not aware of what you're learning, then how do you know if its harmful or beneficial? Implicit Memory.

Many scientific concepts, such as Newton's laws of motion, directly conflict a "working" and immediate understanding of the world. Where this is the case, such conceptual conflicts can give rise to serious obstacles to students' acceptance and understanding of scientific ideas. In contrast, a wide range of other scientific ideas, assumptions, and concepts are not obviously related to practical experience. Students misconceptions about these more abstract scientific ideas, for example, the atomic theory, the wave–particle nature of light, the cell theory of biological organization, and the theory of evolution are often grounded in past instruction. In analogy to physician-induced (iatrogenic) disease (iatrogenesis), didaskologenic (or didaktikogenic) (from the Greek dáskalos for "teacher") ideas (and misconceptions) arise from and are reinforced during the course of instruction. Particularly in the more abstract sciences, where many ideas are inherently counter-intuitive, didaskologenic scientific misconceptions often arise through the use of inappropriate analogies in the course of instruction. As examples, there are the ideas that the breaking of a bond can release energy (when all bonds require energy to break), the depiction of molecular processes using non-random molecular motions, the depiction of electron orbitals, and the molecular level effects of mutations on organismic phenotypes. A number of such errors are found in textbooks and various instructional animations.

Cultural Assimilation is the process by which a person or a group's language and/or culture come to resemble those of another group. Cultural Assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a dominant group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group.

Cultural Appropriation is the adoption of elements of a minority culture by members of the dominant culture. Because of the presence of power imbalances that are a byproduct of colonialism and oppression, cultural appropriation is distinct from equal cultural exchange. Cultural appropriation is often considered harmful, and to be a violation of the collective intellectual property rights of the originating, minority cultures, notably indigenous cultures and those living under colonial rule. Often unavoidable when multiple cultures come together, cultural appropriation can include using other cultures' cultural and religious traditions, fashion, symbols, language, and songs.

Why independent cultures think alike when it comes to categories. Experiment shows that people are not born with category systems already in their brains.

Cultural Hybridization is the process by which a cultural element blends into another culture by modifying the element to fit cultural norms.

Americanization is the influence American culture and business has on other countries outside the United States, including their media, cuisine, business practices, popular culture, technology or political techniques. The term has been used since at least 1907.

Westernization is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, politics, economics, lifestyle, law, norms, mores, customs, traditions, values, mentality, perceptions, diet, clothing, language, alphabet, religion, and philosophy. During colonialism it often involved spread of Christianity.

Acculturation is a process of social, psychological, and cultural change that stems from the balancing of two cultures while adapting to the prevailing culture of the society. Acculturation is a process in which an individual adopts, acquires and adjust to a new cultural environment. Individuals of a differing culture try to incorporate themselves into the new more prevalent culture by participating in aspects of the more prevalent culture, such as their traditions, but still hold onto their original cultural values and traditions. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both the devotee of the prevailing culture and those who are assimilating into the culture.

Transformation of Culture is the dynamic process whereby the living cultures of the world are changing and adapting to external or internal forces. This process is occurring within Western culture as well as non-Western and indigenous cultures and cultures of the world. Forces which contribute to the cultural change described in this article include: colonization, globalization, advances in communication, transport and infrastructure improvements. When Religions Change or Split from other Religions.

Culture Shock is an experience a person may have when one moves to a cultural environment which is different from one's own; it is also the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country, a move between social environments, or simply transition to another type of life. One of the most common causes of culture shock involves individuals in a foreign environment. Culture shock can be described as consisting of at least one of four distinct phases: honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment, and adaptation. Common problems include: information overload, language barrier, generation gap, technology gap, skill interdependence, formulation dependency, homesickness (cultural), infinite regress (homesickness), boredom (job dependency), response ability (cultural skill set). There is no true way to entirely prevent culture shock, as individuals in any society are personally affected by cultural contrasts differently.

Trans-Cultural Diffusion Five major types of cultural diffusion have been defined: Expansion diffusion: an innovation or idea that develops in a source area and remains strong there, while also spreading outward to other areas. This can include hierarchical, stimulus, and contagious diffusion. Relocation diffusion: an idea or innovation that migrates into new areas, leaving behind its origin or source of the cultural trait. Hierarchical diffusion: an idea or innovation that spreads by moving from larger to smaller places, often with little regard to the distance between places, and often influenced by social elites. Contagious diffusion: an idea or innovation that spreads based on person-to-person contact within a given population. Stimulus diffusion: an idea or innovation that spreads based on its attachment to another concept.

Community - Diversity - Adaptation

Cultural Hegemony is the domination of a culturally diverse society, by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society—the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores—so that their imposed, ruling-class worldview becomes the accepted cultural norm; the universally valid dominant ideology, which justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class. Cumulative Culture.

Conserving Cultures

Cultural Preservation includes documenting and studying languages. Preserving and restoring historic relics significant to a culture or heritage and encouraging the preservation and use of indigenous or tribal languages and rituals.

Cultural Heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. Cultural heritage includes tangible culture (such as buildings, monuments, landscapes, books, works of art, and artifacts), intangible culture (such as folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge), and natural heritage (including culturally significant landscapes, and biodiversity).

Cultural Heritage Management is the moulder and practice of managing cultural heritage. It is a branch of cultural resources management, although it also draws on the practices of cultural conservation, restoration, museology, archaeology, history and architecture.

Conservator-Restorer is a professional responsible for the preservation of artistic and cultural artifacts, also known as cultural heritage. Conservators possess the expertise to preserve cultural heritage in a way that retains the integrity of the object, building or site, including its historical significance, context and aesthetic or visual aspects. This kind of preservation is done by analyzing and assessing the condition of cultural property, understanding processes and evidence of deterioration, planning collections care or site management strategies that prevent damage, carrying out conservation treatments, and conducting research. A conservators job is to ensure that art object's cultural heritage in a museum's collection are kept in the best possible condition, while at the same time, serving the museum's mission to bring art before the public.

Cultural Conservation - Knowledge Preservation - Language Conservation

Architectural Conservation describes the process through which the material, historical, and design integrity of humanity's built heritage are prolonged through carefully planned interventions. The individual engaged in this pursuit is known as an architectural conservator-restorer. Decisions of when and how to engage in an intervention are critical to the ultimate conservation-restoration of cultural heritage. Ultimately, the decision is value based: a combination of artistic, contextual, and informational values is normally considered. In some cases, a decision to not intervene may be the most appropriate choice.

Salvage Ethnography is the recording of the practices and folklore of cultures threatened with extinction, including as a result of modernization.

We need to Conserve our Roots, Conserve our Cultures, Conserve our Languages and Conserve our knowledge.

Cultural Industry combines the creation, production, and distribution of goods and services that are cultural in nature and usually protected by intellectual property rights.

Cultural Center is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run.

Cognitive-Cultural Economy is characterized by digital technologies combined with high levels of cognitive and cultural labor.

Pachamama Alliance
Indigenous Environmental Network - IEN
Alliance of Small Island States - AOSIS

Intercultural Competence is the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately with people of other cultures.

Cultural Diversity - Documentaries (films)

Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group. It is part of a person's self-conception and self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture. In this way, cultural identity is both characteristic of the individual but also of the culturally identical group of members sharing the same cultural identity.

"Everyone should have one foot in the old world and one foot in the new world, and live in the middle."

Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development
Honour Indigenous Sovereignty
Generation One

Stolen Generations were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Federal and State government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments. The removals of those referred to as "half-caste" children were conducted in the period between approximately 1900 and 1969, although in some places mixed-race children were still being taken into the 1970s. Documentary evidence, such as newspaper articles and reports to parliamentary committees, suggest a range of rationales. Apparent motivations include child protection, the belief that the Aboriginal people would die out, given their catastrophic population decline after white contact, and the belief that full-blooded Aboriginal people resented miscegenation and the mixed-race children fathered and abandoned by white men.

Sacred Knowledge - Ancient Wisdom - Indigenous Knowledge

Tribal Knowledge is any information or knowledge that is known within a tribe but often unknown outside of it. A tribe may be a group or subgroup of people that share a common knowledge. With a corporate perspective, "Tribal Knowledge or know-how is the collective wisdom of the organization. It is the sum of all the knowledge and capabilities of all the people". Story Telling.

Base Knowledge - Collective Knowledge - Ancient Knowledge (religion)

Vedas "knowledge", are a large body of texts originating in the ancient Indian subcontinent.

Sacred Texts - Ancient Wisdom - Knowledge Preservation - Gate Keeper

Traditional Knowledge, indigenous knowledge and local knowledge generally refer to knowledge systems embedded in the cultural traditions of regional, indigenous, or local communities. Traditional knowledge includes types of knowledge about traditional technologies of subsistence, like tools and techniques for hunting or agriculture, midwifery, ethnobotany and ecological knowledge, traditional medicine, celestial navigation, ethnoastronomy, the climate, and others. These kinds of knowledge, crucial for subsistence and survival, are generally based on accumulations of empirical observation and on interaction with the environment. In many cases, traditional knowledge has been orally passed for generations from person to person. Some forms of traditional knowledge find expression in stories, legends, folklore, rituals, songs, and laws. Other forms of traditional knowledge are expressed through different means. Ancestral Knowledge.

Oral Tradition is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved and transmitted orally from one generation to another. The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or verses. In this way, it is possible for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law and other knowledge across generations without a writing system, or in parallel to a writing system. Religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, for example, have used an oral tradition, in parallel to a writing system, to transmit their canonical scriptures, secular knowledge such as Sushruta Samhita, hymns and mythologies from one generation to the next. Oral tradition is information, memories and knowledge held in common by a group of people, over many generations, and it is not the same as testimony or oral history. In a general sense, "oral tradition" refers to the recall and transmission of a specific, preserved textual and cultural knowledge through vocal utterance. As an academic discipline, it refers both to a set of objects of study and a method by which they are studied. The study of oral tradition is distinct from the academic discipline of oral history, which is the recording of personal memories and histories of those who experienced historical eras or events. Oral tradition is also distinct from the study of orality defined as thought and its verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population. A folklore is a type of oral tradition, but knowledge other than folklore has been orally transmitted and thus preserved in human history.

Oral History is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who participated in or observed past events and whose memories and perceptions of these are to be preserved as an aural record for future generations. Oral history strives to obtain information from different perspectives and most of these cannot be found in written sources. Oral history also refers to information gathered in this manner and to a written work (published or unpublished) based on such data, often preserved in archives and large libraries. Knowledge presented by Oral History (OH) is unique in that it shares the tacit perspective, thoughts, opinions and understanding of the interviewee in its primary form. The term is sometimes used in a more general sense to refer to any information about past events that people who experienced them tell anybody else, but professional historians usually consider this to be oral tradition. However, as the Columbia Encyclopedia explains: Primitive societies have long relied on oral tradition to preserve a record of the past in the absence of written histories. In Western society, the use of oral material goes back to the early Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, both of whom made extensive use of oral reports from witnesses. The modern concept of oral history was developed in the 1940s by Allan Nevins and his associates at Columbia University.

Indigenous Education focuses on teaching indigenous knowledge, models, methods, and content within formal or non-formal educational systems. The growing recognition and use of indigenous education methods can be a response to the erosion and loss of indigenous knowledge through the processes of colonialism, globalization, and modernity. Indigenous communities are able to “reclaim and revalue their languages and [traditions], and in so doing, improve the educational success of indigenous students,” thus ensuring their survival as a culture. Indigenous Peoples.

Navajo Traditional Teachings. Preserving Our Culture with Free Teachings, Products That Tell a Story, and the Producer program. Our Mission “Without Identity, There is no power”. Preserving Navajo (Diné) Culture is our mission. We do that by sharing it with you. Since the beginning, stories have been passed down from generation to generation. We share these stories with you... Hoping it will preserve our culture. Thank you for being a part of this movement. Youtube Channel.

Ancestral Puebloans were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. The Ancestral Puebloans are believed to have developed, at least in part, from the Oshara Tradition, who developed from the Picosa culture. In contemporary times, the people and their archaeological culture were referred to as Anasazi for historical purposes. The Navajo, who were not their descendants, called them by this term, which meant "ancient enemies". Contemporary Puebloans do not want this term to be used.

One of the most unselfish acts is to pass on knowledge. Here is my knowledge that took me a life time to learn. This will only benefit you, because most everything that I learned was too late for me, but it's not to late for you. My path is gone, so the most important path now is the one that you're on. To be part of your memory is the best that I can do, because I can't be there to remind you.

Why we should incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing into our education.

Value (personal and cultural) - Human Values - Chant - Mantra - Stories

Toltec tradition is a philosophy or way of life that taught me how to make choices that result in happiness. This philosophy is based on the key concept that we don't really see life at all; what we actually see is our filter system, which is composed of our beliefs, expectations, agreements, and assumptions.

Social Constructivism maintains that human development is socially situated and knowledge is constructed through interaction with others. It is a sociological theory of knowledge that applies the general philosophical constructivism into the social.

Abstraction is a conceptual process by which general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal (Real or Concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" is the product of this process — a concept that acts as a super-categorical noun for all subordinate concepts, and connects any related concepts as a group, field, or category.

Griot is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, or musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition and is often seen as a leader due to his or her position as an advisor to royal personages. As a result of the former of these two functions, they are sometimes called a bard, which was a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or noble), to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.

How Africa can use its Traditional Knowledge to make Progress (video and interactive text)

Homing Pigeons share our Human Ability to build Knowledge Across Generations. When people share and pass knowledge down through generations, it increases efficiency, progressively improves performance, and increases necessary innovations. (cross-generational knowledge, cumulative culture, collective intelligence, accumulation of knowledge over time).

Environmental ‘Memories’ Passed on for 14 Generations

Archaeoastronomy is the study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultures. (ethnoastronomy).

Ethnobotany is the scientific study of the traditional knowledge and customs of a people concerning plants and their medical, religious, and other uses. The relationships that exist between people and plants.

Book of Thoth is a name given to many ancient Egyptian texts supposed to have been written by Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing and knowledge. They include many texts that were claimed to exist by ancient authors, and a magical book that appears in an Egyptian work of fiction.

Heaven Earth (vimeo)

Wisdom Keepers Project - Earth Peoples United - Earth Alive

Anunnaki are a group of deities that appear in the mythological traditions of the ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. Anunnaki are the most powerful deities in the pantheon, descendants of An, the god of the heavens, and their primary function is to decree the fates of humanity.

Folklore - Fables - Myths

Folklore is traditional art, literature, knowledge, and practices that are passed on in large part through oral communication and example. The information thus transmitted expresses the shared ideas and values of a particular group.

Lore is a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth. Knowledge gained through tradition or anecdote. 

Mythology is a collection of myths, especially the ones that belong to a particular sacred, religious, or cultural tradition of a group of people. Myths are a collection of stories told to explain nature, history, and customs–or the study of such myths.

Myth is a traditional story accepted as history and serves to explain the world view of a people.

Those who tell the stories rule society. The accuracy of how history is told is extremely important.

Fable is a deliberately false or improbable account. A story about mythical or supernatural beings or events. A short moral story often with animal characters. To invent and speak of as true or real. Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying. A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind. Aesop's Fables (wiki).

Fairy Tale is an instance of a folklore genre that takes the form of a short story. Fairy Tale is a type of short story that typically features folkloric fantasy characters, such as dwarves, dragons, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins,  griffins, mermaids, unicorns, trolls, or witches, and usually magic or enchantments. In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale; all these together form the literature of preliterate societies. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described) and explicit moral tales, including beast fables Fantasy Films - Metaphors.

Grimms' Fairy Tales is a collection of fairy tales by the Grimm brothers or "Brothers Grimm", Jakob and Wilhelm, first published on 20 December 1812. The first edition contained 86 stories, and by the seventh edition in 1857, had 210 unique fairy tales. The brothers were German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers and authors who together collected and published folklore during the 19th century. They were among the first and best-known collectors of German and European folk tales, and popularized traditional oral tale types such as "Cinderella" ("Aschenputtel"), "The Frog Prince" ("Der Froschkönig"), "The Goose-Girl" ("Die Gänsemagd"), "Hansel and Gretel" ("Hänsel und Gretel"), "Rapunzel", "Beauty and the Beast", "Little Red Riding Hood", "The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats", "The Three Little Pigs", "Rumpelstiltskin" ("Rumpelstilzchen"), "Sleeping Beauty" ("Dornröschen"), and "Snow White" ("Schneewittchen"). Their classic collection, Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen), was published in two volumes—the first in 1812 and the second in 1815. (Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Carl Grimm (1786–1859)).

Squatter Man - Plasma Discharge. The "squatter" or "stickman" figure is a ubiquitous symbol found in nearly every culture. They are stylized derivations of a plasma discharge configuration seen in the ancient sky. Kanaga symbol is actually a very strangely recurring symbol found all over the world. The image of Kanaga is an archetype from the very ancient times. it is known also as squatter man. The word ”Kanaga” comes from the Dogon Tribe in Mali. It is a mask which have a secret meaning and only truly known by the group that wears them. The masks are worn during the Dama dancing ceremonies The Dogon believe that the Dama dance creates a bridge into the supernatural world. Dogon People are an ethnic group living in the central plateau region of Mali, in West Africa, south of the Niger bend, near the city of Bandiagara, in the Mopti region.

Human Intelligence is just beginning to be understood, which means that our greatest advancements are still to come. The human race is about to take it's greatest leap in human advancement, and not just with technology, but intellectually. Since the beginning we have been building on old knowledge and building on recent knowledge to create new and improved knowledge. Learning is in our DNA. Adapting is learning. Developing is learning. Without learning, life would not exist. Learning is about to become the new past time and a new viral sensation that will transform our existence far into the future. Learning is who we are. Learning is a gift from God, and the earth gives us all the tools that we need. Coincidence or not, we should not waste this opportunity or take for granted this gift of life that everyone has been given. Life is not an inheritance, life is a chance to make something worth inheriting, like valuable knowledge and information.

How to build a resilient future using ancient wisdom -Julia Watson - TED-2020 (video) - Khasi people hill tribe has evolved living root bridges that are created by guiding and growing tree roots into carefully woven scaffolding that take 50 years to grow. For 6,000 years, the Maʿdān in the southern wetlands of Iraq, have floated villages on man-made islands that are constructed from a single species of reed that grows around them. On the edges of Calcutta in India, indigenous technology of 300 fish ponds cleans its water while producing its food. And through a combination of sunshine and sewage and a symbiosis between algae and bacteria, the wastewater is broken down. Fish ponds continue this cleaning of the water in a process that takes around 30 days. The Tofinu tribe has developed the largest lake city in Africa. Ganvié, meaning "We survived," is built of stilted houses that are organized around a canal system that you can navigate by dugout canoe. And the royal square stands amongst 3,000 stilted buildings that include a post office, a bank, a mosque and even a couple of bars that are all surrounded by 12,000 individual fish paddocks, or mangrove acadjas. This chemical-free artificial reef covers almost half of the lagoon and feeds one million people that are living around it. The ancestral lands in Australia, where Indigenous fire-stick farming was practiced, were saved from massive wild fires that raged around them. And these ancient forests -- they survived because of seasonal, generational burning, which is an Aboriginal practice of lighting small, slow and cool fires.

One of the oldest geometric shapes found throughout the ancient world are spirals. Petroglyphs of spirals date back to around the Neolithic period. Yet, ancient cultures throughout the world carved the same symbol with little or no communication with each other. The spiral is fundamental to nature, appearing on animals such as the snail, seashells, and occurs in natural phenomena such as whirlpools, hurricanes, tornadoes and spinning galaxies. The spiral has become a powerful symbol for creation and growth, used by many ancient cultures and religious traditions.

LI is a Chinese word that refers to the underlying intelligence and order of nature as reflected in its organic forms. The myriad patterns of nature that are spontaneously generated in the physical world blurs the distinction between living and inanimate phenomena. Li is a concept found in neo-Confucian Chinese philosophy. It refers to the underlying reason and order of nature as reflected in its organic forms. It may be translated as "rational principle" "law" or " organisational rights". It was central to Zhu Xi's integration of Buddhism into Confucianism. Zhu Xi held that li, together with qi (?: vital, material force), depend on each other to create structures of nature and matter. The sum of li is the Taiji. This idea resembles the Buddhist notion of li, which also means "principle or ritual." Zhu Xi maintained, however, that his notion is found in I Ching (Book of Changes), a classic source of Chinese philosophy. Zhu Xi's school came to be known as the School of Li, which is comparable to rationalism. To an even greater extent than Confucius, Zhu Xi had a naturalistic world-view. His world-view contained two primary ideas: qi and li. Zhu Xi further believed that the conduct of the two of these took places according to the organisational principles of Yin and Yang. Holding to Confucius and Mencius' conception of humanity as innately good, Zhu Xi articulated an understanding of li as the basic pattern of the universe, stating that it was understood that one couldn't live without li and live an exemplary life. Wang Yangming, a philosopher who opposed Zhu Xi's ideas, held that li was to be found not in the world but within oneself. Wang Yangming was thus more of an idealist with a different epistemic approach. However In the practice of Traditional Chinese medicine the endogenous and exogenous interpretations of these two philosophical ideas are not seen as mutually exclusive.

The main reason why every human is alive is because of our ancestors took the time to learn things and to know things. So you can say that solving problems is Human Nature. Because without our ability to solve problems, we would not be here. Social Learning.

Cultural Studies - Humanities

Humanities are academic disciplines that study human culture. In the Middle Ages, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the time. Today, the humanities are more frequently contrasted with natural, physical and sometimes social sciences as well as professional training. Humanities is intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills rather than occupational or professional skills.

National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans' access to important resources in the humanities.

Classics is the study of classical antiquity, and in the Western world traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature in their original languages of Ancient Greek and Latin, respectively. It may also include Greco-Roman philosophy, history, and archaeology as secondary subjects. In Western civilization, the study of the Greek and Roman classics was traditionally considered to be the foundation of the humanities, and study of classics has therefore traditionally been the cornerstone of a typical elite European education.

Cross-Cultural Studies is a specialization in anthropology and sister sciences (sociology, psychology, economics, political science) that uses field data from many societies to examine the scope of human behavior and test hypotheses about human behavior and culture. Sometimes called holocultural studies or comparative studies. Cross Cultural Training and Intercultural Awareness.

Cultural Anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The umbrella term sociocultural anthropology includes both cultural and social anthropology traditions. Anthropologists have pointed out that through culture people can adapt to their environment in non-genetic ways, so people living in different environments will often have different cultures. Much of anthropological theory has originated in an appreciation of and interest in the tension between the local (particular cultures) and the global (a universal human nature, or the web of connections between people in distinct places/circumstances). Cultural anthropology has a rich methodology, including participant observation (often called fieldwork because it requires the anthropologist spending an extended period of time at the research location), interviews, and surveys.

Cultural Geography is a subfield within human geography. Geographers drawing on this tradition see cultures and societies as developing out of their local landscapes but also shaping those landscapes. This interaction between the natural landscape and humans creates the cultural landscape. This understanding is a foundation of cultural geography but has been augmented over the past forty years with more nuanced and complex concepts of culture, drawn from a wide range of disciplines including anthropology, sociology, literary theory, and feminism. No single definition of culture dominates within cultural geography. Regardless of their particular interpretation of culture, however, geographers wholeheartedly reject theories that treat culture as if it took place "on the head of a pin.

Intercultural Competence is a range of cognitive, affective, and behavioural skills that lead to effective and appropriate communication with people of other cultures. Effective intercultural communication relates to behaviors that culminate with the accomplishment of the desired goals of the interaction and all parties involved in the situation. Appropriate intercultural communication includes behaviors that suit the expectations of a specific culture, the characteristics of the situation, and the level of the relationship between the parties involved in the situation. It also takes into consideration one's own cultural norms and the best appropriate, comfortable compromise between the different cultural norms. Diplomacy.

Sociocultural Evolution are theories of cultural and social evolution that describe how cultures and societies change over time. Whereas sociocultural development traces processes that tend to increase the complexity of a society or culture, sociocultural evolution also considers process that can lead to decreases in complexity (degeneration) or that can produce variation or proliferation without any seemingly significant changes in complexity (cladogenesis). Sociocultural evolution is "the process by which structural reorganization is affected through time, eventually producing a form or structure which is qualitatively different from the ancestral form".

Ancient Human Activity - Fossils - Artifacts

Archaeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, and cultural landscapes. Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. Association in Archaeology is the close relationship between objects or contexts.

Earth Timeline - Evolution - "Making the Strange Familiar and the Familiar Strange"

Anthropology is the study of various aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology and cultural anthropology study the norms and values of societies. Linguistic anthropology studies how language affects social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the biological development of humans. Archaeology, which studies past human cultures through investigation of physical evidence, is thought of as a branch of anthropology in the United States, while in Europe, it is viewed as a discipline in its own right, or grouped under other related disciplines such as history.

Social Anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and Commonwealth and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In the United States, social anthropology is commonly subsumed within sociocultural anthropology or cultural anthropology. People Watching - Journalism.

UCLA Department of Anthropology - Ages

Paleoanthropology is the study of man or early humans. The combination and a sub-discipline of paleontology and biological anthropology, studies the formation and the development of the specific characteristics of humans (hominization) and the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship lines in the family Hominidae, by means of the study of fossils, such as petrified skeletal remains, bone fragments, footprints and associated evidence, stone tools, artifacts, and settlement localities. As technologies and methods advance, genetics plays an ever increasing role in paleoanthropology, in particular examining and comparing DNA structure as a vital tool of research of the evolutionary kinship lines of related species and genera. Human Body.

Neuroanthropology is the study of the relationship between culture and the brain. Neuroanthropology explores how the brain gives rise to culture, how culture influences brain development, structure and function, and the pathways followed by the co-evolution of brain and culture. Moreover, neuroanthropologists consider how new findings in the brain sciences help us understand the interactive effects of culture and biology on human development and behavior. In one way or another, neuroanthropologists ground their research and explanations in how the human brain develops, how it is structured and how it functions within the genetic and cultural limits of its biology.

Biological Anthropology is a scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their related non-human primates and their extinct hominin ancestors. It is a subfield of anthropology that provides a biological perspective to the systematic study of human beings.

Biomolecular Archaeology is the scientific analysis of ancient organic remains.

Bioarchaeology is the study of animal bones from archaeological sites.

Biocultural Anthropology is the scientific exploration of the relationships between human biology and culture. Instead of looking for the underlying biological roots of human behavior, biocultural anthropology attempts to understand how culture affects our biological capacities and limitations.

Ethnography is the systematic study of people and cultures. It is designed to explore cultural phenomena where the researcher observes society from the point of view of the subject of the study. An ethnography is a means to represent graphically and in writing the culture of a group.

Salvage Ethnography is the recording of the practices and folklore of cultures threatened with extinction, including as a result of modernization. Cultural Preservation.

Fossil is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood, oil, coal, and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the fossil record.

Paleoecology uses data from fossils and subfossils to reconstruct the ecosystems of the past.

Carbon Dating - Forensics

Paleontology is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene Epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments (their paleoecology). Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. Paleontologist is a scientist who studies fossils.

Comparative Anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny.

Phylogenetic Bracketing is a method of inference used in biological sciences. It is to infer the likelihood of unknown traits in organisms based on their position in a phylogenetic tree. One of the main applications of phylogenetic bracketing is on extinct organisms, known only from fossils, going all the way back to the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). The method is often used for understanding traits that do not fossilize well, such as soft tissue anatomy, physiology and behaviour. By considering the closest and second-closest well-known (usually extant) organisms, traits can be asserted with a fair degree of certainty, though the method is extremely sensitive to problems from convergent evolution.

Artifact is an object made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest. Artifact can also mean something observed in a scientific investigation or experiment that is not naturally present but occurs as a result of the preparative or investigative procedure. Artifact in archaeology is something made or given shape by humans, such as a tool or a work of art, especially an object of archaeological interest.

Cultural Artifact is anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users.

Antiquated is something so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period. to give an antique appearance to something and make obsolete or old-fashioned.

Antiquity is extreme oldness, the historic period preceding the Middle Ages in Europe. An artifact surviving from the past.

Relic is an antiquity that has survived from the distant past. Something of sentimental value. Relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon.

Material Culture is the physical aspect of culture in the objects and architecture that surround people. It includes usage, consumption, creation, and trade of objects as well as the behaviors, norms, and rituals that the objects create or take part in. Some scholars also include other intangible phenomena that include sound, smell and events, while some even consider language as part of it. The term is commonly used in archaeological and anthropological studies, specifically focusing on the material evidence that can be attributed to culture in the past or present. It is usually synonymous with artifacts, which humans use to cope with the physical world, facilitate social intercourse, and benefit man's state of mind.

Lithic Technology includes a broad array of techniques and styles in archaeology, which are used to produce usable tools from various types of stone. The earliest stone tools were recovered from modern Ethiopia and were dated to between two-million and three-million years old. The archaeological record of lithic technology is divided into three major time periods: the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), and Neolithic (New Stone Age). Not all cultures in all parts of the world exhibit the same pattern of lithic technological development, and stone tool technology continues to be used to this day, but these three time periods represent the span of the archaeological record when lithic technology was paramount. By analysing modern stone tool usage within an ethnoarchaeological context insight into the breadth of factors influencing lithic technologies in general may be studied. See: Stone tool. For example, for the Gamo of Southern Ethiopia, political, environmental, and social factors influence the patterns of technology variation in different subgroups of the Gamo culture; through understanding the relationship between these different factors in a modern context, archaeologists can better understand the ways that these factors could have shaped the technological variation that is present in the archaeological record.

Biofact in archaeology is organic material found at an archaeological site that carries archaeological significance. Biofacts are natural objects found alongside artifacts or features, such as animal bones, charcoal, plants, and pollen. Biofacts are passively consumed or handled by humans; as opposed to artefacts, which are purposefully manipulated. Biofacts reveal how people respond to their surroundings. A common type of biofact is a [plant] [seed]. Plant remains, often referred to as macrobotanicals, provide a variety of information ranging from diet to medicine to textile production. Pollen preserved on archaeological sites informs researchers about the ancient environment, and the foods processed and/or grown by prehistoric people. Pollen, when examined over time, also informs on environmental and dietary changes. A seed can be linked to the species of plant that produced it; if massive numbers of seeds of a cultivated species are found at a site, it may be inferred that the species may have been grown for food or other products that are useful to humans, such as clothing, bedding or building materials. Another type of biofact is wood. Wood is made up cellulose, carbohydrates, and lignin. Every year that passes, a new ring is added to the trunk of tree, allowing for dendrochronological dating. Charcoal is burned wood that archaeologist are able to extract. It can be dated using carbon-14, and through other methods, information such as local environment and human adaptation can be revealed from the charcoal. To help determine the date during which a site was occupied, dendrochronological analysis can be used on wood samples. Wood that has been altered by humans is properly an artifact, not a biofact.

Biofact in biology is dead material of a once-living organism.

Mentifact describes how cultural traits, such as "beliefs, values, ideas", take on a life of their own spanning over generations, and are conceivable as objects in themselves. This concept has been useful to anthropologists in refining the definition of culture.

Sociofact describes how cultural traits take on a life of their own, spanning over generations.

Memetics is the study of information and culture as an approach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer.

Global Xplorer is a citizen science project using satellite imagery, we can fight the loss of our cultural heritage. On any given day, it's estimated that 10,000+looted artifacts are for sale on the black market. Become a space archaeologist and document threats to ancient sites. Help authorities get there first.

Eyes in the Sky (drones)

Help Discover Ancient Ruins — before it's too late: Sarah Parcak (video and interactive text)

Desecration is the act of depriving something of its sacred character, or the disrespectful, contemptuous, or destructive treatment of that which is held to be sacred or holy by a group or individual.

Bad Behavior - Hazing

Space Archaeology is the research-based study of various human-made items found in space, their interpretation as clues to the adventures mankind has experienced in space, and their preservation as cultural heritage.

Liberal Arts are those subjects or skills that in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free person. To take an active part in civic life, included participating in public debate, defending oneself in court, serving on juries, and most importantly, military service.

Historical Places - Heritage - Cultural Websites

Articulation Sociology labels the process by which particular classes appropriate cultural forms and practices for their own use.

Genealogy - Family History

Genealogy also known as family history, is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. The pursuit of family history and origins tends to be shaped by several motives, including the desire to carve out a place for one's family in the larger historical picture, a sense of responsibility to preserve the past for future generations, and a sense of self-satisfaction in accurate storytelling.

Genetic Genealogy - Heredity - Blood Line - Generations - Timeline of the Universe

Legacy Family Tree is genealogy software for Windows that assists family historians in tracking, organizing, printing, and sharing family history. The standard edition is distributed as freeware, with no restrictions, only requiring registration on the company's web site to download the software. Users may pay a fee to do Product activation "unlock" the additional features in the deluxe edition. "A Family Tree is like backtracking a Chain Reaction".

Tips on Making a Family Tree Photo Album

Descendants are all of the offspring of a given progenitor. A person considered as descended from some ancestor or race.

Lineage are the inherited properties shared with others of your bloodline. The kinship relation between an individual and the individual's progenitors. The descendants of one individual.

Descent are properties attributable to your ancestry. The kinship relation between an individual and the individual's progenitors. The descendants of one individual. Descent can also mean a movement downward.

Progenitor is an ancestor in the direct line. Heirloom - Inherit - Beneficiary.

Posterity is all of the offspring of a given progenitor. All future generations.

It took two people to make you. But, it also took four people to make the two people that made you. Then it took 8 people to make the four people to make the two people that made you. Then it took 16 people to make the 8 people who made the four people who made the two people that made you. So your parents are the combination of thousands of people over thousands of generations. In the family tree, the roots of a family tree are bigger than the tree itself. Even when you see a real tree, the roots of that tree go back millions of years, though a single tree has about as much root material as it has shoot material. So remember, you just got here, like it's your first time. Imagine counting all your ancestors as you trace your family tree back in time. In the nth generation before the present, your family tree has 2n slots: two for parents, four for grandparents, eight for great-grandparents, and so on. The number of slots grows exponentially. By the 33rd generation—about 800 to 1,000 years ago—you have more than eight billion of them. That is more than the number of people alive today, and it is certainly a much larger figure than the world population a millennium ago. Humans left Africa and began dispersing throughout the world at least 120,000 years ago, but the genetic isopoint occurred much more recently—somewhere between 5300 and 2200 B.C.

Identical Ancestors Point or all common ancestors point, or genetic isopoint, is the most recent point in a given population's past where each individual then alive turned out to either be the ancestor of every individual alive now or have no currently living descendants. This point lies further in the past than the population's most recent common ancestor or MRCA for short. A set of full siblings has an IAP one generation back: their parents. Similarly, double first cousins have an IAP two generations back: the four grandparents. Considering all humans alive today and moving back in time, we eventually arrive at the MRCA to all humans. The MRCA had many contemporary companions. Many of these contemporaries had descendant lines to some people living today, but not to all people living today. Others did not have any children, or had descendants, but all descendant lines are now fully extinct. Going further back, all the ancestors of the MRCA are also common ancestors to all humans, just not the most recent. As we move further back in time, other common ancestors will be found on other lines, resulting in more and more of the ancient population being common ancestors. Eventually the point is reached where all people in the past population fall into one of two categories: they are common ancestors, with at least one line of descent to everyone living today, or, they are the ancestors of no one alive today, because their lines of descent are completely extinct on every branch. This point in time is termed the 'identical ancestors point'.

Kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of most humans in most societies.

Ancestor is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent, and so forth). Ancestor is "any person from whom one is descended. In law the person from whom an estate has been inherited. Scion is a descendent or heir. Connected by a relationship of blood. A person considered as descended from some ancestor or race.

Family Tree or pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. The more detailed family trees used in medicine and social work are known as genograms, which is a pictorial display of a person's family relationships and medical history. Priscilla Renea - Family Tree (youtube).

Bloodline - Genes - Genealogy - Family Tree

My Heritage is an online genealogy platform with web, mobile, and software products and services that was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company MyHeritage in 2003. Users of the platform can create family trees, upload and browse through photos, and search through over 9 billion historical records, among other features. As of 2018, the service supports 42 languages and has around 92 million users worldwide. In 2016, it launched a genetic testing service called MyHeritage DNA. In January 2017 it was reported that MyHeritage has 35 million family trees on its website. The company is headquartered in Or Yehuda, Israel with additional offices in Tel Aviv, Lehi, Utah, Kyiv, Ukraine and Burbank, California.

Crowd Sourced Personal Genomes Database slowly gains momentum with linked genealogical information from 13 million people into a single family tree.

Naturalist intelligence - Society Intelligence

Intelligence - Self Smart - People Smart - Relationships

Patrimony is an inheritance coming by right of birth.

Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Taxes.

Time Keeping

Expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing, as an immigrant, in a country other than that of their citizenship.

Ethnic - Ways Of Living by Affiliated Members

Sociology of Race and Ethnic Relations is the study of social, political, and economic relations between races and ethnicities at all levels of society. This area encompasses the study of racism, residential segregation, and other complex social processes between different racial and ethnic groups. The sociological analysis of race and ethnicity frequently interacts with other areas of sociology such as stratification and social psychology, as well as with postcolonial theory.

Ancestor - Genealogy (family history) - Race - Multiracial

Ethnic is the distinctive ways of living built up by a group of people. A person who is a member of an ethnic group.

Ethnicity is an ethnic quality or affiliation resulting from racial or cultural ties.

Ethnic Studies is the interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and nation, but also sexuality, gender, and other such markings—and power, as expressed by the state, by civil society, and by individuals. Ethnic studies was created to challenge the already existing curriculum and focus on the history of people of different minority ethnicity in the United States. Ethnic studies is an academic field that spans the humanities and the social sciences, Ethnic studies is an academic field that spans the humanities and the social sciences, it emerged as an academic field in the second half of the 20th century partly in response to charges that traditional social science and humanities disciplines such as anthropology, history, literature, sociology, political science, cultural studies, and area studies which were conceived from an inherently Eurocentric perspective.

Ethnic Group is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities such as common ancestry, language, history, society, culture or nation. Ethnicity is usually an inherited status based on the society in which one lives. Membership of an ethnic group tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland, language or dialect, symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art or physical appearance. Ethnic groups, derived from the same historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages and share a similar gene pool. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is sometimes possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group and become part of another (except for ethnic groups emphasizing homogeneity or racial purity as a key membership criterion). Ethnicity is often used synonymously with terms such as nation or people. In English, it can also have the connotation of something exotic (cf. "ethnic restaurant", etc.), generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, who arrived after the dominant population of an area was established. The largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals (Han Chinese being the largest), while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals (numerous indigenous peoples worldwide). Larger ethnic groups may be subdivided into smaller sub-groups known variously as tribes or clans, which over time may become separate ethnic groups themselves due to endogamy or physical isolation from the parent group. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity and may eventually merge into one single ethnicity. Whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis. Ethnic Groups is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common language, ancestral, social, cultural, or national experiences. Unlike other social groups (wealth, age, hobbies), ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which a person lives. In some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society. Membership of an ethnic group tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland, language or dialect, symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art, and physical appearance.

List of Contemporary Ethnic Groups (wiki)

Race and Ethnicity in the United States. The United States Census officially recognizes six racial categories: White American, Black or African American, Native American and Alaska Native, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and people of two or more races; a category called "some other race" is also used in the census and other surveys, but is not official.

Ethnic Groups in Europe has 87 distinct peoples of Europe, of which 33 form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54 constitute ethnic minorities, which refers to a category of people differentiated from the social majority, those who hold the majority of positions of social power in a society, and it may be defined by law.

Ethnogenesis is the formation and the development of an ethnic group. This can originate through a process of self-identification as well as come about as the result of outside identification.

International Studies are courses which are concerned with the study of ‘the major political, economic, social, and cultural issues that dominate the international agenda. Predominant topics are politics, economics and law on a global level. The term itself can be more specifically defined as ‘the contemporary and historical understanding of global societies, cultures, languages and systems of government and of the complex relationships between them that shape the world we live in.

Indigenous People are ethnic groups who are descended from and identify with the original inhabitants of a given region.
Indigenous people are also known in some regions as First peoples, First Nations, Aboriginal peoples or Native peoples or autochthonous peoples, are ethnic groups who are the original or earliest known inhabitants of an area, in contrast to groups that have settled, occupied or colonized the area more recently. Groups are usually described as indigenous when they maintain traditions or other aspects of an early culture that is associated with a given region. Not all indigenous peoples share this characteristic, as many have adopted substantial elements of a colonizing culture, such as dress, religion or language. Indigenous peoples may be settled in a given region (sedentary) or exhibit a nomadic lifestyle across a large territory, but they are generally historically associated with a specific territory on which they depend. Indigenous societies are found in every inhabited climate zone and continent of the world except Antarctica. Since indigenous peoples are often faced with threats to their sovereignty, economic well-being and access to the resources on which their cultures depend, political rights have been set forth in international law by international organizations such as the United Nations, the International Labour Organization and the World Bank. In 2007, the United Nations issued a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) to guide member-state national policies to the collective rights of indigenous peoples, such as culture, identity, language and access to employment, health, education and natural resources. Estimates put the total population of indigenous peoples from 220 million to 350 million. International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is celebrated on 9 August each year.

Traditional Society refers to a society characterized by an orientation to the past, not the future, with a predominant role for custom and habit. Such societies are marked by a lack of distinction between family and business, with the division of labor influenced primarily by age, gender, and status.

Race - Physical Qualities

Race is a grouping of humans based on their shared physical qualities or shared social qualities. While partially based on physical similarities within groups, race is not an inherent physical or biological quality. Race and Society regard the common categorizations of people into different races, often with biologist tagging of particular "racial" attributes beyond mere anatomy, as more socially and culturally determined than based upon biology. Some interpretations are often deconstructionist and poststructuralist in that they critically analyze the historical construction and development of racial categories. Racial Formation Theory is used to look at race as a socially constructed identity, where the content and importance of racial categories are determined by social, economic, and political forces. Racialization is the process of ascribing ethnic or racial identities to a relationship, social practice, or group that did not identify itself as such. Racialization or ethnicization is often borne out of the interaction of a group with a group that it dominates and ascribes identity for the purpose of continued domination. races was first used to refer to speakers of a common language and then to denote national affiliations, by the 17th century the term race began to refer to physical phenotypical traits.

Multiracial is defined as made up of or relating to people of many races, including multiracial, biracial, multiethnic, polyethnic, Métis, Creole, Muwallad, mulatto, Colored, Dougla, half-caste, mestizo, Melungeon, quadroon, Chindian, sambo/zambo, Eurasian, hapa, hafu, Garifuna, pardo and Guran. Individuals of multiracial backgrounds make up a significant portion of the population in many parts of the world. In North America, studies have found that the multiracial population is continuing to grow. In many countries of Latin America, mestizos make up the majority of the population. In the Caribbean, multiracial people officially make up the majority of the population in the Dominican Republic (73%) and Cuba (51%). Racism.

Multiracial Americans are Americans who have mixed ancestry of two or more races. The American people are mostly multi-ethnic descendants of various culturally distinct immigrant groups, many of which have now developed nations.

Mixed Twins are fraternal twins born to multiracial families which differ in skin color and other traits considered to be racial features.

Biracial Twins are twins who do not share the same skin color. They can be born when one parent or both parents are of a mixed race, allowing for different skin tone variations. They can also be born when the parents are different races, such as one black parent and one white parent. We are more alike than we are different.

One-Drop Rule asserted that any person with even one ancestor of black ancestry or one drop of black blood, is considered black or negro or colored in historical terms.

Heteropaternal Superfecundation is the fertilization of two or more ova from the same cycle by sperm from separate acts of sexual intercourse, which can lead to twin babies from two separate biological fathers.

Hypodescent refers to the automatic assignment by the dominant culture of children of a mixed union or sexual relations between members of different socioeconomic groups or ethnic groups to the subordinate group. The opposite practice is hyperdescent, in which children are assigned to the race that is considered dominant or superior.

Patrilineality is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through his or her father's lineage

Matrilineality is a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline, their mother's lineage.

Cognatic Kinship is a mode of descent calculated from an ancestor or ancestress counted through any combination of male and female links, or a system of bilateral kinship where relations are traced through both a father and mother. Such relatives may be known as cognates.

If one parent is white and the other parent is black, then why is the child more black than white? Why is the baby of a white mother and black father always more black than white? Why are biracial babies more black than white? Why do they feel more black but look white? Are black genes more dominant than white genes? We are not just talking about skin color, but all the differences between two people from two different races and from two different ancestral backgrounds. The best of both worlds.

American Indians

Dark Skin is a type of human skin color that are rich in melanin pigments, especially eumelanin. People with very dark skin are often referred to as "black people", although this usage can be ambiguous in some countries where it is also used to specifically refer to different ethnic groups or populations. The evolution of dark skin is believed to have begun around 1.2 million years ago, in light-skinned early hominid species after they moved from the equatorial rainforest to the sunny savannas. In the heat of the savannas, better cooling mechanisms were required, which were achieved through the loss of body hair and development of more efficient perspiration. The loss of body hair led to the development of dark skin pigmentation, which acted as a mechanism of natural selection against folate depletion, and to a lesser extent, DNA damage. The primary factor contributing to the evolution of dark skin pigmentation was the breakdown of folate in reaction to ultraviolet radiation; the relationship between folate breakdown induced by ultraviolet radiation and reduced fitness as a failure of normal embryogenesis and spermatogenesis led to the selection of dark skin pigmentation. By the time modern Homo sapiens evolved, all humans were dark-skinned. Humans with dark skin pigmentation have skin naturally rich in melanin (especially eumelanin), and have more melanosomes which provide superior protection against the deleterious effects of ultraviolet radiation. This helps the body to retain its folate reserves and protects against damage to DNA. Dark-skinned people who live in high latitudes with mild sunlight are at an increased risk—especially in the winter—of vitamin D deficiency. As a consequence of vitamin D deficiency, they are at a higher risk of developing rickets, numerous types of cancers, and possibly cardiovascular disease and low immune system activity. However, some recent studies have questioned if the thresholds indicating vitamin D deficiency in light-skinned individuals are relevant for dark-skinned individuals, as they found that, on average, dark-skinned individuals have higher bone density and lower risk of fractures than lighter-skinned individuals with the same levels of vitamin D. This is possibly attributed to lower presence of vitamin D binding agents (and thus its higher bioavailability) in dark-skinned individuals. The global distribution of generally dark-skinned populations is strongly correlated with the high ultraviolet radiation levels of the regions inhabited by them. These populations, with the exception of indigenous Tasmanians almost exclusively live near the equator, in tropical areas with intense sunlight: Australia, Melanesia, New Guinea, South Asia, and Africa. Studies into these populations indicates dark skin is a retention of the pre-existing high UVR-adapted state of modern humans before the out of Africa migration and not a later evolutionary adaptation. Due to mass migration and increased mobility of people between geographical regions in the recent past, dark-skinned populations today are found all over the world. From about 1.2 million years ago to less than 100,000 years ago, archaic humans, including archaic Homo sapiens, were dark-skinned. As Homo sapiens populations began to migrate, the evolutionary constraint keeping skin dark decreased proportionally to the distance north a population migrated, resulting in a range of skin tones within northern populations. At some point, some northern populations experienced positive selection for lighter skin due to the increased production of vitamin D from sunlight and the genes for darker skin disappeared from these populations. Subsequent migrations into different UV environments and admixture between populations have resulted in the varied range of skin pigmentations we see today.

Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic, or literary pursuits. In this context, Bohemians may be wanderers, adventurers, or vagabonds.

Conformity - Critical Thinking - Beliefs

Historical Race Concepts. The concept of race as a rough division of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) has a long and complicated history. The word race itself is modern and was used in the sense of "nation, ethnic group" during the 16th to 19th centuries and acquired its modern meaning in the field of physical anthropology only from the mid-19th century. With the rise of modern genetics, the concept of distinct human races in a biological sense has become obsolete. In 2019, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists stated: "The belief in “races” as natural aspects of human biology, and the structures of inequality (racism) that emerge from such beliefs, are among the most damaging elements in the human experience both today and in the past.

Art - Music - History - Religion - Politics

There’s a big difference between tradition and repression. Especially when a tradition violates human rights and civil liberties. We don’t want to end traditions or take away culture. We want to preserve traditions and preserve cultures. Adjusting to the 21st century world in which we all live does not mean that we need to reject our history. It just means that some of those old traditions that violate human rights and civil liberties need to be preserved in our archives and not preserved in our everyday lives. Celebrating old traditions in theatre or on a particular holiday will always be popular as they have always been. We want to learn from our mistakes, not live with our mistakes. This is not to say that traditional knowledge is not important, because it is extremely important. Indigenous people have valuable knowledge, so we need more social learning opportunities.

Paradigm is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitutes legitimate contributions to a field. A standard or typical example. Systematic arrangement of all the inflected forms of a word. The generally accepted perspective of a particular discipline at a given time.

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Manal Al-Sharif: A Saudi Woman who Dared to Drive (video) - US Institute of Peace.

Modernism is a philosophical movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the factors that shaped modernism were the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed then by the horror of World War I. Modernism also rejected the certainty of Enlightenment thinking, and many modernists rejected religious belief.

Diversity - Versatile - Variety

Diversity is when things are changeable and diverse. Showing a great deal of variety and having a range of different things.

Diverse is having many and different things that are distinctly dissimilar or unlike.

Diversify is to make something more diverse or varied.

Biodiversity - Balanced - System - Human Body - Choices - Opportunities - Second Opinion

Diversification is a technique that reduces risk by investing in different areas that would each react differently to the same event. It is the process of investing capital into a variety of assets in order to reduce risk or volatility. "Don't put all your eggs in one basket", because dropping that one basket will break all your eggs. If you place each egg in a different basket you will be more diversified and have less risk of losing all of your eggs. On the other hand, having a lot of baskets may increase the cost.

Variety is a collection containing dissimilar things or sorts of things that are different and unlike from the other things. A group of things that are very different from each other; diverse group of things.

Music Styles - Colors - Foods - Personalities

Versatile is having great diversity or variety. Changeable or inconstant. Competent in many areas and able to turn with ease from one thing to another. Able to move freely in all directions. A category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality. Differential Survival (resilience).

Multiplicity is having or involving or consisting of more than one part or entity or individual.

Plurality is composed of more than one member, set, or kind. Harmonies (music).

Medley is a varied mixture of people or things. A collection containing a variety of sorts of things. Medley can also mean a musical composition consisting of a series of songs or other musical pieces from various sources.

Melody is the perception of pleasant arrangements of musical notes. A succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence.

Cultural Diversity is the quality of diverse or different cultures, as opposed to monoculture, the global monoculture, or a homogenization of cultures, akin to cultural decay. The phrase cultural diversity can also refer to having different cultures respect each other's differences. The phrase "cultural diversity" is also sometimes used to mean the variety of human societies or cultures in a specific region, or in the world as a whole. Globalization is often said to have a negative effect on the world's cultural diversity.

Cultural Diversity Day - Cultural Appreciation (wiki)

Diversity Training can be defined as any program designed to facilitate positive intergroup interaction, reduce prejudice and discrimination, and generally teach individuals who are different from others how to work together effectively. From the broad corporate perspective, diversity training is defined as raising personal awareness about individual differences in the workplace and how those differences inhibit or enhance the way people work together and get work done. Collaboration.

Diversity in politics is used to describe political entities (neighborhoods, student bodies, etc.) with members who have identifiable differences in their cultural backgrounds or lifestyles. The term describes differences in racial or ethnic classifications, age, gender, religion, philosophy, physical abilities, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, gender identity, intelligence, mental health, physical health, genetic attributes, behavior, attractiveness, or other identifying features. In measuring human diversity, a diversity index measures the probability that any two residents, chosen at random, would be of different ethnicities. If all residents are of the same ethnic group it's zero. The diversity index does not take into account the willingness of individuals to cooperate with those of other ethnicities. If half are from one group and half from another, it's 50. Racism.

All Humans are 99% Genetically Similar - Similar but not Totally the Same.

Morris Milgram Multiracial Suburbs (Concord Park, Pennsylvania, in 1954) 55%-45% Ratio of whites to African Americans.

Arcosanti begun in 1970 and continues to be developed as an experiential learning center, walk-through demonstration of how to pursue efficient “lean” alternatives to urban sprawl. Cooperative Housing.

Gender Diversity is equitable or fair representation between genders. Gender diversity most commonly refers to an equitable ratio of men and women, but may also include non-binary gender categories.

Interracial - Desegregate

Genetic Diversity is the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It is distinguished from genetic variability, which describes the tendency of genetic characteristics to vary. Genetic diversity serves as a way for populations to adapt to changing environments. With more variation, it is more likely that some individuals in a population will possess variations of alleles that are suited for the environment. Those individuals are more likely to survive to produce offspring bearing that allele. The population will continue for more generations because of the success of these individuals.

Diversity is Life's Survival Mechanism. If everyone was the same, everyone would have the same vulnerabilities and our ability to survive would be greatly diminished, especially during a pandemic.

The greatest benefit of having other people and having other countries, is that you have a second opinion. Sometimes people can have a unique way of solving a problem. This does not necessarily mean that it's the best way, or that this particular way will work for you, but it can help you make a better decision or to adapt.

The color of your skin, the color of your thoughts, the color of your beliefs, the color of your personality. Everyone has different colors. Everyone is a Rainbow.

Heterogeneous is something diverse in character or content and consisting of elements that are not of the same kind or nature. Originating outside the body. Heterogeneous in chemistry is of or denoting a process involving substances in different phases (solid, liquid, or gaseous). Heterogeneous in mathematics is something incommensurable through being of different kinds, degrees, or dimensions.

Everyone can't be doing the same thing. Everyone has something different to offer life. Everyone has a particular job to do. We need more creativity and less conformity.

Diversity is Life. Several thousand languages, millions of different personalities, 100's of different religions, thousands of different types of food, thousands of different types of plants and animals, millions of different sizes of stars, planets and galaxies, many different ethnic groups from many different countries. We even have diversity in atoms. Without all the different types of atoms, there would be no life as we know it. There's a reason why monocultures are bad.

Diversity in a group of people does not say anything about the people themselves. It only says that some people are slightly different in appearance and that they may have beliefs that are unique to their particular culture. Diversity says nothing about the abilities or the intelligence of a particular group of people. Just having many different people doesn't guarantee good communication or community, or effectiveness or increased productivity. And having no diversity at all also does not guarantee good communication or community, or effectiveness or increased productivity. Diversity in skills would have to depend on the work involved. One of the good things about having many different people is it can help avoid herd mentality or conformity. And you certainly don't want any type of forced segregation, or prejudices or discriminations. But still, it all depends on that particular group of people. Can they communication effectively? Can they be a community and work together? Can they progress? Diversity in the minds of people is powerful. That is why diversity among people is powerful. Any place where you can have people sharing new ways of thinking, is a place where you will have the most potential and the most advancements. Just look at America. Diversity works. But our work is far from over and we have a lot of work to do. And we can't afford to be distracted by our own ignorance and let tiny differences divide us. We are all humans, so let's get on with this.

People need to understand why people don't think the same way as they do. The fact is, no one has the same information or knowledge as you, or do people process information or knowledge in the same way as you. People also don't experience the same things as you or learn from experiences in the same way as you. The reason why humans have lived and survived for this long is because we all have diverse minds. Humans would have never progressed or survived if everyone thought the same way or were stubborn and narrow minded in the same way.

I can't say that I have unique qualities, because I know for sure that other people have similar qualities as I do. I just use my qualities a little different sometimes. I live on a planet with many diverse life forms, I myself am made from many diverse life forms, the Universe is Diverse. Diversity is what the universe is. Diversity is what life is.

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At this time in Human History, there is no Society, we only have small social groups that have little or no coherence with themselves or other groups that are within their own town or immediate area. People are just beginning to realize that there is no reason or logic in trying to separate ourselves from each other. Either we learn to live together or we will continue to tragically die together. And for whatever the selfish reasons are, too many of us are choosing to unnecessarily die together then to live together. And the deaths are not always immediate. So most people are unaware that they are killing life and that they are also killing themselves. And that they are also passing on these deaths to future generations.