The Culture of Science

In many ways, science has its own culture separate from other subjects of academia. This is especially true in the area of disagreements. Disagreements are abundant in areas history, anthropology, political science, law, and elsewhere. Science, however, is seen by everyone outside the profession to be constant and universally agreed upon. That could not be further from the truth.

In the 1920's through the 1940's Albert Einstein worked on an idea that was contrary to the popularly held ideas. Most scientist at the time agreed that there was some substance in the universe (an ether) that light traveled through. Light was seen as a wave and waves worked by disturbing a material and moving as the energy was transferred, much like a wave travels through water. Einstein saw a problem. There was no material in space. Space, by definition, was empty, so how did light travel?

His theory sounded absurd to almost everyone listening. He was ridiculed, and shunned but a few others saw what he did. They began teaching this to their students and researching the possibilities on their own. As time passed, more and more people began to agree. As those students became professors and the "Old Men" died off or became obsolete, the idea began to take hold in the scientific community. This is how science changes. Not by leaps and bounds to experimentation but by the slow influx of new ideas and the slow ousting of those to hold onto the old ways.

This has happened throughout history with people like Capernicus, Galileo, Newton, and many others. One modern example is evolution. No matter your religious stance, science sees things its own way, and it is often a "my way or the highway" approach. The modern theory of evolution, an extrapolation of the general theory first proposed by Charles Darwin, is thought by many scientists to be lacking. Their most powerful argument is that the statistics make it impossible. There is a point in statistical mathematics where something is so statistically improbable that in the real universe it is believed to be impossible. Like when I asked Tiffany out in high school and she said I had a "snowball's chance." Mathematically speaking, there must be some small chance that a snowball could survive given the right conditions but we all know, I was not going to be taking her out on a date, ever.

There are many scientists that believe in the current theory of evolution with and almost religious fervor but many of the younger generation can see that the evidence to the contrary is impressive. It is possible, if function follows form, that as the younger scientists gain more acclaim and move into more powerful positions, this idea could eventually be ousted for a more conservative one. If it does, they will be following the format that science has used since the beginning of the scientific method (scientific method, bah!).

The Value of Shock

It was an emotionally dark and stormy night in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I was in a parking lot that served the largest student union building ever built. I sat on the bed of James' 87 Ford pick-up, the love of his life, while quickly drinking the last of a six-pack of Corona Extra. As I finished I took a breath, waiting for the burning in the back of my throat to dissipate. After a few seconds I sat the last bottle back into its cardboard carrier and said, "James, say something funny." Without missing a beat he looked up at me from his standing position on the ground, put on his best Sam Elliot impression and said,

"I like my women like I like my scotch, twelve years old and mixed up with coke."

I broke out in tears and fits of laughter. I never expected him so say something so vulgar, yet perfectly hidden in prose. Inside of a joke originally meant to be charming he had placed the soul of a demon. This is shock value.

Shock permeates American culture. From comedy (http://youtu.be/xSHBvwnOARQ) to political maneuvers (http://youtu.be/s_4rw2trTtM) we can see it everywhere. "Shock value is the potential of and image, text, or other form of communication to provoke a reaction of disgust, shock, anger, fear, or similar negative emotion." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_value 6-3-2011 23:15 MST) With these negative emotions come an enhanced response, either positive or negative, that presenter of the media was (hopefully) searching for in return.

This can be a highly effective tool in the right hands. In the above comedy-related video, the makers used shock value to exaggerate reality and enhance the viewers response to the video in a way that would be funny (read: absolutely hilarious!). In the above politically-related video one can see in the first few seconds that the makers were using emotion-filled words to try to demonize a political figure to reinforce their own political standing. On the other hand these videos could have a galvanizing effect on the viewer. For this reason shock value is rarely used in more serious and mainstream areas, such as mainstream news or true diplomacy.

Internet-Based Counterculture

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Language Acquisition

According to Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck’s textbook, Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction (2010), first language acquisition varies but that all children tend to go through five stages. The first stage, babbling tends to take place when the infant is five to nine months old. Children enter the one-word stage when they are nine to nineteen months old. They begin to be able to say two words when they are eighteen to twenty-four months old. Children usually enter the early multiword stage when they are twenty-four to thirty months old. Finally, children enter the fifth stage, the later multiword stage which takes place once they are thirty months old, and they stay in this stage for the remainder of their lives (Denhem and Lobeck 2010:35 – 40). However, despite western notions that children’s first language acquisition is universal, Don Kulick and Ochs and Schieffelin’s studies of children’s first language acquisition show that this is not the case.

According to Don Kulick’s book, Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction: Socialization, Self, and Syncretism in a Papua New Guinean Village, first language acquisition varies more so than Denham and Lobeck state. Kulick writes, “A large number of village children do not being constructing simple three-word sentences until they are nearly 3 years old” (Kulick 1992:101). The simple three-word sentences that Kulick talks about would fall under the Denham and Lobeck’s definition of the early multiword stage. However, Denham and Lobeck say that the early multiword stage ends when a child is thirty months old, and Kulick says that the children in the Papua New Guinean village do not enter the multiword stage until they are nearly three, nearly thirty-six months old. This is well past the age of Denham and Lobeck specify for the early multiword stage.

In addition, all caregivers do not have to interact with an infant in the same exact way, in a western way in order for the child to learn language as was preciously assumed. In their essay, “Language Acquisition and Socialization: Three Developmental Stories and their Implications” (1984), Elinor Ochs and Bambi B. Schieffelin compare and contrast the ways in which Anglo-American white middle-class, Kaluli, and Samoan caregivers interact with infants. Ochs and Scheffelin argue, “the biological predispositions constraining and shaping social behavior of infants and caregivers must be broader than thus far conceived in that the use of eye gaze, vocalization, and body alignment are orchestrated differently in the social groups we have observed” (Ochs and Schieffelin 1984:299). Unlike Anglo-American mothers, Kaluli mothers do not make eye contact with infants because they are scared of witchcraft, and Kalui and Samoan children participate in triadic and multiparty social interaction instead of just the didactic social interactions that Anglo-American children are expected to participate in in order to become socialized. In addition, a Kaluli mother does not respond to her child unless the child speaks correctly. Anglo-American mothers, on the other hand, respond to incorrect speech (Ochs and Schieffelin 1984:299 – 301). In other words, there are different practices of child rearing which lead to differences in first language acquisition.

Essentially, many aspects of language acquisition that are assumed to be universal are in fact highly culturally variable. Ochs and Schieffelin write, “What caregivers say and how they interact with young children are motivated in part by concerns and beliefs held by many members of the local community” (Ochs and Schieffelin 1984:302). In other words, the way in which caregivers interact with children is often determinant through culture.

Denham, Kristin and Lobeck, Anne. 2010 The Human Capacity for Language. Linguistics for Everyone: an Introduction. 29 – 63. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Kulick, Dan. 1992 Having Hed. In Language Shift and Culturla Reproduction: Socialization, Self and Syncretism in a Papua New Guinea Village. 92 – 117. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ochs, Elinor and Schieffelin, Bambi. 1984 Language Acquisition and Socialization: Three

Developmental Stories and Their Implications. In R. A. Shweder and R. A. LeVine, eds. Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self and Emotion. 276 – 320. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lack of Incentive, Lack of Action

In “The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future” (2004), Elizabeth C. Economy looks at how China’s environment has suffered greatly at the hands of modernization, urbanization, and population growth. While China has tried to address its environmental problems, environmental improvement for certain plans may only be seen in the first few years of its implementation before the previous downward environmental trends resume. Based on the information presented in this article, I think that that one of the reasons these plans are not effective over long periods of time is because most of the action responsibility of environmental “solutions” are laid on rural farmers who do not see any incentive to implement these solutions.

Rural Chinese citizens believe it is their best interest to focus on industrial development instead of agricultural development. Liu Chuxin, Jiangxi Province’s Director of Agriculture, said, “it is now the universal view in all localities that they see slow returns from agricultural investment or no returns within a short time” (qtd. in Economy 2004: 82). As a result, while it may be better in the long run if rural citizens focused on agricultural in environmental terms, rural citizens do not think it is their best interest to focus on agriculture in terms of immediate return.

Finally, Rural citizens view environmental initiates as “backwards,” and since the initiatives are “backwards,” there is no social incentive for them to pursue these initiatives. For example, the head of Xishan said, “not even a single villager grows grain now. We’re not country bumpkins here” (qtd. in Economy 2004: 82). The villagers do not want to be seen as “country bumpkins.” They want to be modernized. Modernization is much more important to rural citizens than environmentalist issues. Knowing this, officials cater to this mentality. Zhang Weiqing, the head of the Naitonal Population and Family Planning Commission, said, “Given such a large population base, there would be major fluctuations in population growth if we abandoned the one-child rule now…It would cause serious problems and add extra pressure on social and economic development” (qtd. in Economy 2004: 79). In other words, Zhang Weiqing connects the problem of population to social and economic development, not environmental development.

Essentially, rural citizens have no incentive to act on environmental initiatives. This is problematic because a lot of the environmental initiatives turn towards rural citizens as primary agents. As a result, if the environmental initiatives that rely on rural citizens are to be succeed over a prolonged period of time as opposed to just a few years, rural citizens need to be given immediate and continuous incentive.

Economy, Elizabeth C. 2004. The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Comedy and Atypical Language’s Corrective Dispositions and Powers

In “The Return of the Prodigal Daughter” (2009), Tianlian Zheng writes about, as the title implies, hostess’ return from the city to their rural hometowns and the identity complications they encounter as the transverse between locations. Interlaced into this chapter is a discussion of comedy’s corrective disposition. Here, Zheng downplays comedy’s corrective power and makes it secondary to atypical language’s corrective power. However, both of these corrective powers accomplish the same end; one corrective should not diminish the other because they work in tangent.

Zehng dismisses comedy’s corrective power for atypical language’s corrective power. Zheng writes, “You may recall the language used by Fragrance in her conversation with Jun. As foul as the langue was, it was as least used in the context of joking banter, but as often it was used as a weapon in serious arguments, and against people whom village culture required be respected” (2009: 158). Zheng goes on to write about Fragrance challenging the elderly through phrases such as “Fuck you mother” (2009: 159). In other words, Fragrance’s comic corrective challenge to Jun is not as serious as her foul language corrective challenge to the elderly because her corrective challenge to Jun was under a “joking” context; it was mere “banter.” However, comic challenges are just as potent as language challenges, and they often act as seamless corrective unit.

More specifically, the “joking banter” polices Jun’s actions successfully. Fragrance makes a fool of Jun when he attacks her profession by saying, “if you were a woman, you would sell yourself so much that you would not even be able to walk” (Zheng 1992: 155) and by supplementing her words by spreading her legs apart which made it hard for her to walk. In other words, Fragrance turns Jun into the joke and marginalizes his attack on her.

This same idea can be seen when Cheng tells the other hostess about the migrant who mimicked a western film when trying to get her to sleep with him. A hostess responded by making an obscene jester of her own and turned the migrant into the joke, turned him into an outsider (Zheng 1992: 153). Zheng writes, “the male migrants are seldom successful in making the transition to urban status and often merely become the laughingstock of the hostesses” (1992: 153 – 154). In other words, the migrants’ incapability to adjust, their rural rigidity locks them into the subject position of comic exertion. Their rigidity is unacceptable, and the hostesses challenge the rigidity by laughing at the migrants. Laughter becomes a corrective action.

Essentially, comedy’s corrective power is no less than atypical language’s corrective power as Zheng argues in “The Return of the Prodigal Daughter.” Comedy successfully polices even if comedy seems not be as direct as atypical language. In addition, comedy and atypical language often work together to police.

Zheng, Tiatian. 2009. “The Return of the Prodigal Daughter” in Red Lights: The Lives of Sex Workers in Postsocialist China. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.