Posted by James Allen on November 24, 1998 at 08:30:04:
In Reply to: Miss Montesquieu and the Weavers of Ur posted by Alan Nagel on November 24, 1998 at 08:11:25:
: : Sorry, folks. I just can't buy this entire thread. ....
: : I know brain chemistry is pretty complex, but I'll bet $10,000 right now that this theory is never substantiated and that there is no "ur-weaver."
: : -Jerry-
: If there are too many claimants, Jerry, I'll join in with your bet. (details to be negotiated)
: Again, are we missing what the facts of making a weaving with warp and weft constrains us--ur- and now-weavers--to do as simple exploitations of a limited repertoire of design possibilities?
: The "ur-weavers" can [must?!] come up with some simple regularities according to what designs get made out of--the material--and with--the tools, like our fingers, tensioning devices, ways of spinning, joining, and abutting yarns, etc.
: We can always speculate, and sometimes with truth values, that cultures use memory to pick up certain basics and to repeat, elaborate, and privilege them. But the place of ur is always also a condition of material constraints. And good ol' Occam offers enough for us to argue that the simplest explanations of the simplest phenomena aren't to be discarded without great care.
: Memory is, after all, not an origin so much as the way we locate, stake out, and value origins.
: AFN
:Memory is, after all, not an origin so much as the way we locate, stake out, and value origins. As Vico liked to say the ending of a thing is carried forth through expression from the first instant of its creation, as it was in the beginning so shall it be in the ending. The Navajo may have crossed over into North America in the 13th century A.D. Some guy named Anderson has published that thought on the net. Imagine being part og Ghenghis Khans buriel party. Some party all doomed to die. Having traveled possibly through Mongolia I can see a group of the most hardy men on Earth possbly making their way to Alaska. Don't laugh there is no way to disprove the theory. It would sure clear up all the mysteries I have elaborated concerning their "fit" for nomadic raiders. The inner guard of the Khan were Turkomen picked up in the Kizil Kum campaign. They might not have seen in future in returning and they were of course quite right. Interesting possibility. Jim Allen