Continental Drift

I’m constantly reminded in the course how deep things can go if you care to follow them. There is bedrock of ideas, experience, biology and culture that some of our most basic assumptions about how the world works are built upon. In some ways there are universals, but in many ways in class I noticed how difficult it was to get rough agreement on the edges of many topics. I was struck by something when trying to present my research: there are thoughts and modes of thinking that are by degrees inaccessible to me because of my experience. I think this is an important way to think about the course and the content are the imperceptible changes in how we are able to think about the world as we become more experienced and embedded in it.

We float on continents built of ideology. After this course I think much more about how we conform and evolve within that space and I think it shapes us far more than we shape it, at least when we fail to notice. I think part of the reason we have such a difficult time figuring out these science and culture issues, both in class and in the culture at large, is that we often don’t notice or can’t acknowledge how we are being shaped by our surroundings and the events taking place too broadly and too subtly to announce themselves to us. I want to keep reminding myself that the ground underneath us is moving, that tectonic changes are always taking places, and we are along for the ride whether we like it or not.

A new form of life

The introduction of the concept of seeing devices provided a new lens through which to view their codependent relationship of science and culture. My pregnancy provided a perfect example of a synergistic learning experience.

I know what it means to be pregnant.

So do you. Not that you necessarily have been pregnant, but you can define it. You can guess on the broad strokes of the experience and probably even sum up general expectations of the experience. I made an effort to get pregnant (in fact, it took more effort than just sleeping naked.) I knew all the things to expect that you probably would, and I knew there would be aspects I couldn't imagine. I was prepared to be unprepared. Anthropology defines a rite of passage as a ritual that moves an individual from one status to another performed at an important life event, and the liminal stage is defined as a time when a person has passed out of an old status but not yet entered a new one. Pregnancy was full of liminal stages, with technology, specifically in the form of seeing devices, being the gateway to the new status.


The first seeing devices may be obvious: the home pregnancy test. My reactions, to both negative and positive results, were not unlike that of those scripted for a movie. Before taking my own test, I view the technology as my allergy education had taught me – an ELISA to detect the pregnancy hormone hCG. (If you don’t know what ELISA and/or hCG is, here is a cool animation for you http://www.whfreeman.com/catalog/static/whf/kuby/content/anm/kb07an01.htm.) When it comes time to take it myself, the technology transforms into its own mini rite of passage. During this stage of waiting for the results, I think of that brief three minutes of anticipation, and how much longer it would be without the convenient technology. The availability of the home pregnancy test has created a new form of life: the woman who doesn't have to wait, doesn't have to seek answers from a doctor, doesn't have to share the possibility of the baby with anyone other than the Walgreens clerk. And, of course, the positive result marks the end of the first mini liminal stage by passing into a new status: pregnant.


The next: it had been four weeks and five days since conception (and the only reason I knew that so specifically was also thanks to technology.) At my (healthy childbearing) age, ultrasounds aren't usually performed so early in the pregnancy. This ultrasound was ordered to "confirm viability" (I'd rather not say why this was necessary.) It served to do that in more ways than one. I knew what to expect to see if things were normal. I knew about how big an image I would see including the level of detail. I can't say I knew what it would "mean" because that's so unspecific. It could mean so many things on so many levels, not even for the future but for that very moment. With the advances in technology today, the ones used for my ultrasound were simplistic. The image was the basic two-dimensional black-and-white, simple undetailed contrast and what I saw was what I expected visually. None of that really "meant" anything. It was the visually-unimpressive blinking light that marked a new form of life. That blinking light was a tiny heart beating inside of me 165 times a minute, and that new form of life was me. Another mini liminal stage was complete; I had gone from "being pregnant" to "having a baby."
Since she's been born more technology has allowed me to be more than just a mother. I can imagine any technology allowing me to be anything first other than a mother, but I've been able to continue something resembling a normal life a bit easier than it would without technology, from breast pumps which cut feeding time from 45 to 15 minutes, to washing machines for all the spills and leaks, to the sounds of the car rides and their instant soporific effect. Even as I am being both Mommy and student while typing this blog, the technology of voice recognition software allows me to create this blog while keeping my baby calm with the sound of my voice, since I can’t calm her by holding her and type simultaneously. I am eager to start classes again this fall and make mental notes of how technology and seeing devices allow me to continue as my Mommy-student hybrid life form.

On a funny note, when you forget to turn off your microphone before talking baby talk, it’s interpreted by the software like this: “But a silly pants in party already all I recall I would go on drawing up dry dry ENI now the PM. Neither of that ye ye year that we really care he era”

where did all the posts go?

Many of the #10 posts that were here yesterday are gone and one is just blank. What's up with Google? I will try to repost mine. I wanted to read them all!

Final Post [Black Boxes]

Though it was first introduced early on in the semester, the concept of the black box has continued to draw my interest throughout its various appearances in class discussions. The concept that we simplify, and wholly disregard things that have become commonplace to the point that we take them for granted, and, in doing so, lose sight of their physical/figurative composition, is so commonplace in itself that in the past I've overlooked it, placing it in a black box of human nature. Whoa. But really, the fact that black boxes are everywhere is both interesting and somewhat concerning. I think. Maybe it's concerning, maybe it isn't, but it's at least interesting. Regardless, the sheer number of overlooked black boxes in everyday life is daunting, and that's what draws me to it. Uncovering the previously unnoticed black boxes in my own life has kept me on my toes about what I think I know and what I know I know, and how to look out for the distinction.

Goodbye, Beloved Sugar

As I mentioned in class, I was raised on a very meat-reduced diet, and have tried to be conscious of the impact that goes into what I eat. After re-reading Omnivore's Dilemma for this course, my eating style changed, reflecting some of Hannah's sentiments below. While in the past I have always tried to think about where the food I eat comes from, and whether it is ethical to eat it, I am proud to say that I am now trying to take a much more active stance on eating local, and severely limiting my meat consumption. I am so grateful that we did the food logs in this class, because they inspired me to track different meal plans over a few month's time. As my physician, and mother, have always said, being mindful of how much water, protein, caffeine and sugar I consume in a day can really improve my quality of life. I realized through our food log that when I extremely limit my intake of processed sugar, my acne disappears, as does my intense cravings for excessive amounts of said sugar! Limiting the sugar also allows me to control my weight so much easier- I just wish these epiphanies came about eight years earlier, by c'est la vie... Also, I realized that according to current scientific research, adults need 0.8g of protein/ kg body weight per day. Before I realized this, I was getting about 20 g protein a day. Since I weigh about 115 lbs, I need 41 g protein a day, and usually a bit more, since I run 4-8 mi most days. All in all, thank you very much CSCL for motivating me to look a little more closely at my health- I feel a lot better :)

http://www.clinicalnutritionjournal.com/article/S0261-5614(08)00117-9/abstract