Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Living With A Bully

 Oedipus 

Or Living With A Bullying Brother

“Some of the most poisonous people
come disguised as friends and family.”
~ Gerald Sinclair  ~

“The only way I’ve been able to survive the betrayal
of lovers, family members, and society
is to be able to create as an artist.”
~ Madonna Ciccone ~

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."
~ William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun ~

The Greek story about Oedipus
was about a curse --
that Oedipus was fated to kill his father
and marry his mother

However, the drama was really about two curses
the second curse 
was that Oedipus would be driven to discover the truth
and when he did
it would destroy him

We often feel we must find the truth
no matter what the cost
we might believe 
that "the truth will set you free"

but truth has a life of its own
it can free you
or imprison you

The blind Oedipus with his children at the end of this life.

* * * * *
I was born four years
after my brother
who was tall and strong for his age
I was, however, small and not athletic

As a child I naturally 
looked up to my older brother
my only sibling
we were often left alone together
since my parents were divorced
and he was put in charge of me

We shared many good times 
like flying kites on the beach
but there was something wrong
with him and we all knew it --
he had violent mood swings
that came with no warning


My parents both told me
to just live with it
he was a bit difficult
but making a fuss 
would only make things worse
"Don't rock the boat"
they said
and since my father lived next to a pond 
and I spent many hours rowing our boat
I knew I didn't want to tip
the boat over 
and drown

Yet as I grew older
I began to distance myself --
I cared for him as my brother,
but I wanted to be free of his moods

So when we were over 60 years old
I was talking to him on the phone 
because of matters 
concerning my father's estate
-- after years of not communicating --

and for some reason I blurted out
"You know I could have been your best friend."

There was a slight silence 
and then he said four words
that he had never said before
that explained everything
and that neither my father or mother 
would let themselves believe

"I never liked you," he said

Suddenly
it was like a lightning bolt
that ignited memories of times 
when he had put me in danger

Once I almost drowned 
when he goaded me to swim too far
to a raft in the middle of a pond 
where he was sitting
even though I was only eight years old 
and I had to be rescued by a lifeguard





He often chose holidays 
when the family came together
to vent his anger

At Christmas when I was 25 and married 
he told me to hurry up
as he had done when we were young
I said, "I'll be there in a minute"
next thing I knew he had packed his bags
screamed at my wife, my mother and me
and left
ruining Christmas for all of us

My tolerance of his moods
finally ended 
when I was in the passenger seat of his car
and he suddenly became angry
at a remark 
my wife said to him 
from the back seat

he floored the idling engine 
capturing us
as he barreled 
down a quiet neighborhood
where kids were playing in the street

at 50 miles an hour
he ran stop signs and stop lights
without looking or pausing

After that I settled
on a catchphrase
to describe him and his behavior:
he was 'mentally ill'

While this was not wrong
it let him off the hook:
he was not responsible
it was the fault of the illness

in any case it allowed me 
to distance myself

but now 
what he said on the phone
opened a wound 
into a chasm,
finally admitting
what he'd been thinking
all the time I'd been alive

from the moment I was born
he wanted me gone

and he was responsible
for what he'd done

So like Oedipus 
I had found the truth
but the warm family times 
I remembered with him
were shattered --
I now saw them as
part of his strategy
to get me to trust him
before he made his next move
to rid me from his life

The story of "Leave Her To Heaven" is quite similar to what my brother had in mind for me. A trusted loving wife goes out in a row boat on a lake with the beloved brother of her husband who has been crippled by polio. When he swims away from the boat and then starts to founder, she does nothing and lets him drown. She is consumed by an overwhelming jealousy of anyone or anything that takes her husband's attention away from her. But at the same time, she manages to avoid responsibility claiming it was an accident. 


But there was even more --
in that same moment
anger toward my parents 
bubbled over
and I felt a deep sense 
of betrayal

They could not admit 
my brother was unstable and abusive

And so they had put me in danger
to avoid another 
of my brother's tantrums --
and when I did start to complain
they said it was childish
I would grow out of it
"boys will be boys"

For some reason during that same phone call
he did not soften what he just said
"I wish you had never been born.
I was very happy with my parents all to myself,"
this 60-year-old man moaned

* * * * *
In the classic movie, Casablanca,
Humphrey Bogart tells Ingrid Bergman
"We'll always have Paris." 

meaning that they will always
have the memory of being together in Paris
and nothing could change that

but now my brother had 
changed the past
and my good memories of him
were poisoned

* * * * *
When I was 10 years old
I read about the Wright Brothers
and how they designed kites
before they flew a plane

At that time, when I loved my brother,
I imaged the two of us designing 
a spaceship or a large telescope
working together as the 
Wright Brothers

One of the Wright Brothers' kites they used to test their ideas about flight.


But now I had to revise my memories

and what I came up with
was a kind of solution
for living with the truth

I would think of him 
as two different people

I remembered the times
when we went out 
to the beach at Cape Cop 
to fly kites --
in a cold stiff wind
him holding the line
me holding the kite

he held up his hand 
to find the wind
while I walked the kite out 
until the line was taut

then when a gust came along
he flashed me the signal
and I let go

it shot straight up
high into the sky
with its tail flapping
like a rocket taking flight
and together we laughed 
a big full laugh

then he was the big brother 
I looked up to

And so I decided 
I would allow myself 
to remember those times
fondly
without the shadow 
of his other self

but never again
have anything more 
to do with him 
for the rest of my life






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Sunday, July 24, 2022

Be A Man! (What Does That Mean?)

The Big Country
OR
Are You Man Enough?


This is the blog I write every year on my birthday
when I think about aging and time.

I was born around 11 PM on July 24, 1944.
About four hours later during WW II, Operation Cobra began in Normandy, France. This breakout from the Normandy foothold by the Allies was a key moment that led to the defeat of the Nazis.

The other night, I was surfing the TV channels and came across a western movie, The Big Country. With nothing else worth looking at I decided to watch it, and, when I did, a flood of memories came back to me -- I had forgotten about this movie and the effect it had on me.

In 1958, when I was fourteen years old, I saw this film when it came out. This was a western like no other because the macho gun-toting way of life was being questioned, but more than that it was the first movie I can remember that dealt with what it meant to be a "man." 

As a boy at the age of 14, I was wrestling with just that question. Gregory Peck consistently refused to be bullied into a display of male strength. He was not going to prove his masculinity in front of a crowd. But he was going to prove it to himself. So time and again he turned down challenges and was seen as weak. He refused to retaliate against a group of drunken young men who harassed him and his fiancee on their way to her home. And he refused to ride a wild horse, they called "Old Thunder" that no one could ride, but trying to ride him was seen as a kind of masculine test.

Yet in private Peck did ride the horse and got thrown. Nevertheless, he finally tamed him and was the only person who could. But he made the man who managed the stables promise to tell no one. 

Opposite Peck was Charlton Heston who represented the western tough no-nonsense male who never backed down from a challenge. Later in the movie when Peck refused to fight Heston, he was seen as a coward, and as a result, his fiancee broke off their engagement. But again, in private, he and Heston had it out in a slugfest, yet promised to keep it to themselves.

And while rejecting being bullied into a fight, Peck had been quite open about showing his emotions for his fiancee. In one scene he kissed her passionately, so much so his future father-in-law, a retired major, felt the need to turn away so that he would not see their shows of affection. In this subtle way, the movie showed that the father was more comfortable with violence and killing than with expressions of love.

Carroll Baker tries to get Peck back after rejecting him for being a coward.
But Peck refuses her.

But the movie went one step further. When Peck's fiancee changed her mind and wanted him back, Peck refused. She had made the one unforgivable mistake; she had not trusted him and instead had sided with Heston who said Peck was a coward
This was not just another western role for Peck. He co-produced this film. 
"Throughout his career, he often portrayed protagonists with 'fiber' within a moral setting."
Grimes, William. "Gregory Peck Is Dead at 87; Film Roles Had Moral Fiber" The New York Times, June 13, 2003.
The message of the film was simple, at least for a 14-year-old boy. You need to prove to yourself what you can and cannot do, but not feel pressured into proving it to others. Your worth does not depend on what others think of you, it depends on your own sense of self. Furthermore, you get to choose what is important instead of being told by others what you should value. So Peck consistently rejected violence even though his fiancee's father and ranch hands assumed violence was necessary.

Recently I was reading reviews of this movie when it came out and none of them understood Peck's character. It was critiqued as merely one of hundreds of westerns, but without an awareness that Peck represented a different kind of man. One review even said that while it was a well-made movie, fighting and killing were much more interesting than a man refusing to fight. Oddly, the movie seems to be better understood today than in 1958. As one recent reviewer wrote, "The Big Country is a thoughtful film that explores anger, resentment and power in a western setting." 

I am not suggesting that this movie was a watershed moment for me, but it opened the door to questioning what a man should do and how he should think about himself. And, just as important, how much value should he attach to the opinions of others. So for various reasons, this movie struck a chord. Later in school, I would read the works of Nietzsche who mapped out in detail how to be your own man.

I went to an all-male boarding school where my father had gone and where the pressure to be a 'regular guy' was intense. A regular guy never showed his emotions, but he was tough and strong. Anything less was seen as weakness which meant that you were often shunned if you did not fall into line. 

After two years of trying to fit in, I realized that courage and bravery had various shades, that it took courage to be different, and that many boys who appeared to be regular guys were afraid to be different. I also noticed that a number of regular guys were awkward when they were around girls.

For some reason, by my senior year, I had reached a point when I no longer cared if I was accepted or not. As a result, I gained this wonderful sense of freedom. Then an odd thing happened. When I no longer worried about acceptance, I suddenly had lots of friends and a girlfriend as well. 

As an aspiring writer (who later in college got a B.A. in English with an Honors in Creative Writing), I was studying American literature and movies and theater on my own. It became apparent that the male role was in flux, and it was a consistent theme. Yet no authors seemed to know where it was going. Many stories were about the loss of a time when "men were men." But few stories were about what happens next.

The role of men was changing, in part, because the role of women had changed. After two World Wars in which the women were left alone while the men were off fighting, women had become independent and self-reliant. In addition, they had taken on difficult jobs such as welding and building tanks which were crucial for the war effort. At the same time, men had been asked to fight and die for their country. But when the wars were over, the women were different. They had tasted independence and difficult work and did not want to go back to previous notions of what a woman should be or was supposed to be. Nevertheless, many marriage vows still contained the pledge that a woman would obey her husband. Clearly, this was confusing for both men and women. But there it was and there was no turning back. 

Even as a teenager in an all-male boarding school, I was surprised that there was virtually no emphasis on relationships. We learned math and English and history but nothing about the most important thing in our lives, i.e., relationships and especially the relationships between men and women. I did manage to find my own solution which was to go out with a girl from a boarding school thirty miles away, even though it required lots of permission slips and many hours of train rides to get to her school where we were not allowed to hold hands or be close and were under the watchful eyes of her teachers. Phone calls were too expensive then, so we sent each other letters almost every day.

Now, today, I see male and female roles continuing to change. I have done my best to feel and express love and affection with a full range of emotions while at the same time having a Gregory Peck independent sense of myself. And just as important, I wanted to have a clear understanding of my own feelings and to be honest about how I felt. 

My wife and I have been together for 43 years and we are as close today as we were when our relationship began.

I don't pretend to have the answer or answers, but I have made a stab :) at it. The following is a poem I wrote about my time at boarding school.

A POEM
BE A MAN! (WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?)

Age 14-17, Phillips Exeter Academy 
Exeter, New Hampshire, 1958-1962

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
~ e.e. cummings ~

Manliness is not all swagger and mountain climbing. It's also tenderness.
Robert Anderson, Tea and Sympathy, [about Phillips Exeter Academy]

Hazers are themselves victims, wounded souls
who are acting out their own unfinished business.
Jayson Gaddis, Men and Hazing

Standing up to pain
became a badge
boys don't cry
take it like a man
be tough
is that all you got?
give me more

as a male it was your fate
to suck it up
never let it get to you
as said in Tea and Sympathy
to be a "regular guy"

and not just physical pain
but also emotional
such as humiliation by a teacher

only there was more to it
we thought we were just hiding our feelings
instead we were learning not to feel

like all boys, I paid lip service
to this show of manliness
later I realized it was like playing
5 notes in a 12-note octave
we were denied the full range,
confined to the sounds those few notes could play
as the depth of emotional chords and complexity
were not available

we were allowed to yell at sports
or to be angry 
-- perhaps the easiest emotions --
but sorrow or joy, hurt and affection
were off limits

and then I saw the results:
teachers whose dead-end lives
meant they took their anger out
on boys they were mentoring,
their cruelty masked as a rite of passage

a Latin teacher was noted
for taking a chalkboard eraser
and slamming it against the back of a student
when he did not give a correct answer
or took too long;
often the instructor picked on the same boys
who emerged from class
with their coats covered in white
-- like a mark of shame --
and the boys had to pretend 
to not  care

by my senior year I had found the truth:
what they wanted
was a kind of spiritual death,
it meant that my life would be one of shadows
where emotions became so disguised
I could never reach them

so I let some of my classmates think less of me
because as an aspiring artist I knew that
what I felt was at the heart of who I was

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader,"
Robert Frost told us
when I had heard him speak at Exeter;
revered like a saint,
that was all the permission I needed


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Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Timeline of Human Time Concepts

A Historic Timeline 
About Human Concepts of Time 
That Includes Basket Weaving Technology
And the Development of Language
Based on the ideas of Rick Doble
--- Links to 40+ articles listed in chronological order ---
-- About 700 illustrated pages written during the last ten years --

Copyright 2022 Rick Doble
All articles that are linked to this document and written by Rick Doble
are licensed under the Creative Commons license: CC BY 4.0



BLOG-ARTICLE AVAILABILITY AND PAST READERSHIP
All of these blog-articles listed below are available online at my blog and most are available as separate PDF documents on academic sites that you can read online or download. All my work is copyrighted under a Creative Commons Copyright, meaning that you can reprint any of my work as long as I am credited.
I converted most of my later blogs to PDF documents which I then posted on three academic sites, Academia.edu. Figshare.com, and ResearchGate.net. 
I have recorded over 100,000 views total from these three academic sites. At Academia.edu, in particular, I am in the top 1% of document views, with 695 followers, and over 25,000 views plus about 5000 downloads. My work has been read in about 80% of the countries in the world and 1479 readers of my work are 'highly engaged' meaning they have read and/or downloaded multiple documents. I have one co-author and 32 other papers have mentioned and referenced my work. In addition to the academic sites, my blog has recorded more than 124,000 views over the last ten years.

ABOUT AUTHOR/RESEARCHER/THEORIST: RICK DOBLE
I have a Master of Arts in Communication with a minor in Anthropology. And I have a B.A. in English with an Honors in Creative Writer, along with the equivalent of a minor in the Social Sciences. Both degrees are from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE READ MORE ABOUT 
-- About Author/Researcher/Theorist: Rick Doble
Read about Rick Doble's background
-- The Point Of This Blog And Its History
-- The Reasons For Focusing On Basketry And Its Relation To Time

“When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.”
Attributed to Albert Einstein 

When I told friends that I was going to write a blog about the human experience of time, most said that there was very little to say. Time always flows forward and the sun will rise each day and set each night no matter what we humans do. As Geoffrey Chaucer wrote over 600 years ago "Time and tide wait for no man."  But, as the above Einstein quote shows, our understanding of time and our perception of time is often very human. And, as I will argue, the way we perceive time and relate to time has changed considerably during our evolution. Furthermore, I believe that it is our modern ability to work with time, to plan, for example, and to coordinate with others that has made us the dominant specie on the planet because no other animal can do this. And because we have been so successful we are in danger of damaging the Earth's environment with the by-products of our technology.

After reading and researching I began to realize that time is not just simply time, as is often stated. Instead, time was probably quite different for human creatures a million years ago, for example. For example, I believe the experience of time was different for early hominins who were just emerging from the immediacy of animal existence. And it was also different for early Neolithic farmers who saw time as being primarily cyclical season after season and year after year and not totally linear as we do today. 


ABOUT BASKET WEAVING AND WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY
For the last two and a half years, I have concentrated on basket weaving technology, which I believe started several million years ago with early Hominins such as Homo habilis. If this technology started that early it affected human evolution by providing more food and materials with baskets and containers. Basketry would also have had cognitive implications because making a basket required imagining the final product before starting and then constructing the basket in a certain order. And these considerations were all related to a sense of time.
Until about 30 years ago, basketry was not considered an important technology that developed only recently in the Neolithic era. This thinking occurred for two reasons. One reason was that the oldest known baskets were from the late Neolithic time period. The second, and I believe more important reason, was that there were a number of incorrect assumptions that prevented research into the possibility that basketry was a key technology even though virtually all experts agreed that there must have been a plant-based technology in addition to the stone tool technology, a technology that went back millions of years. However, because plant material decays very quickly there was no direct evidence. But now, in the last thirty years, a discovery of basket weaving impressions in clay was found that dated back to 27,000 years ago and recently a completely intact large basket was found in Israel that is at least 10,000 years old.


_______________________________________
QUICK OVERVIEW
_______________________________________

-- Millions of years ago:
Some early hominins acquired a unique part of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex, which no other animal had with its capabilities. It allowed rudimentary decision-making about future actions thus bringing a sense of time into play. I have argued that because of this unique part of the brain, hominins had the early stages of a sense of time -- a sense like touch and smell. As the size of the hominin brain increased the ability to imagine future outcomes and to remember past events increased, both critical elements of sensing the passage of time. For example, the size of the hominin brain tripled when comparing Australopithecus afarensis of three million years ago to contemporary Homo sapiens. However, it is important to note that science is not yet certain which came first, the larger brain or the pre-frontal cortex.



LEFT: Weaverbird nests are well designed and strong. Abandoned ones fell down from Baobab tree limbs which early hominins could have collected. "Weaverbird (Southern Masked Weaver) nest of dry grass, near Pretoria, South Africa"
RIGHT: A random weave basket made from vines by Nan Bowles. It was constructed with green flexible vines that later dried to make a light, stiff, strong basket.  (Basket/Photo by Nan Bowles)

-- About 2 million years ago:
According to fossil evidence, stone-tool-making hominins (perhaps Homo habilis) lived at the same time and in close association with weaverbirds who made intricate woven sturdy nests which may have served as a model for early containers. These early containers were probably made with a random weave structure that can be light and strong. They would have allowed hominins to gather more food and materials, thus enhancing their ability to survive. This may have been the beginning of basket making and weaving. Basket making was related to time because designing a basket required an initial idea of the basket's shape and purpose and then it required planning and a duration of time to make one.



A museum recreation of a building (Terra Amata, Nice, France) 
 probably made by Homo erectus and considered the oldest known human building.

-- About 300 thousand years ago (just a guess):
The structure of the building at Terra Amata (above) suggests that these hominins could have developed basketry so that it was constructed with a regular right angle or opposing structure, i.e., the horizontal and vertical strands created the basket form. Because this basket making required an idea of a final completed basket before starting plus the process of making a basket was accomplished in regular increments, basketry could have become a symbol and metaphor for time. In addition, basket making could have been taught and communicated via mimicry learning without language. The right angle innovation meant that strong, light, durable sophisticated baskets in a wide variety of configurations were now possible, made out of plants found in any environment in the world. This technology was also scalable so that large structures could be made in addition to smaller items. The regular shape and structure of a woven item plus the process of making them may have led, in part, to a more regular sense of time.



Known as burden baskets, these were used by nomadic hunter-gatherers on a daily basis and probably during the Neolithic time period as well for harvesting crops.

-- About 30 thousand years ago:
Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens may have begun to develop an early short-term sense of linear time that could be expressed in language. This sense of time was probably immediate and not unlike the Amazon tribe, the Piraha, who think of time only in terms of a couple of days. According to my theory, Upper Paleolithic tribes had by then developed basket-making and woven-fiber structures into a highly sophisticated technology. Based on evidence from Native American Indian nomadic hunter-gathers, large and small waterproof baskets were used to carry water, other baskets were used for cooking, and small boats were made from reeds. Large back-carrying burden baskets were used every day for gathering food or firewood. Most agree that language was well developed by this time. But it is my contention that this Upper Paleolithic language was based on short-term immediate time.


The Newgrange passage tomb Ireland.
"A photograph of the entrance to the Newgrange Monument."
Many large structures such as Newgrange in Ireland and wooden circular enclosures in Northern Europe were built to indicate when the winter solstice occurred. Most experts agree that they also indicated the importance of time in the Neolithic era.

-- About 10 thousand years ago:
The Neolithic way of life began with sedentary villages and agriculture. This was when modern long-term linear time was developed for agriculture and for complex processes. And basket technology continued to be developed. For example, for most of the early part of the Neolithic era, large back-carrying baskets must have been used to bring the harvest in from the fields since pottery was not invented until late in the Neolithic time period. And other large baskets were specially made to store grain for long periods. Even woven-fiber large boats and houses were possible at this time. A major part of the Neolithic revolution was about a new sense of time that was very different from the immediacy of the Upper Paleolithic. I believe that at this point Neolithic societies were able to conceive of long-term linear time that occurred within the yearly cycles of repeating time. This allowed them to develop very sophisticated processes, some of which were used until recently, and to plan agriculture from year to year. 


This painting depicts a large ship made of reeds in early Mesopotamia. The existence of such large reed boats has been well documented. <LINK>

-- About 5 thousand years ago:
The great civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt took hold. Baskets and woven-fiber items were a central part of their economies which included water-sealed baskets for irrigating the fields, reed and papyrus boats, a variety of woven items for processing grains, and woven sacks for carrying grain. The mythologies of Mesopotamia made clear that basketry was considered a key technology that had led to the rise of civilization. Dividing time into manageable segments such as hours and minutes became necessary for the smooth functioning of these large societies. It is possible that basketry served as a model for the divisions of time as the Babylonian map for the night sky with horizontal and vertical lines was similar to an upside-down basket.


Middle Ages Clock: Prague Astronomical Clock, installed in 1410..
Medieval clocks were built using the epicycle gearing of Ptolemy's geocentric astronomy. Ptolemy's astronomy and geography also used a vertical and horizontal 'grid' system probably inherited from the Babylonians. Ptolemy's gearing geometry would lead directly to the construction of machines and the Industrial Revolution. 
(University of Minnesota Libraries, 

-- Modern Time: 
Starting with Isaac Newton, cosmological time was seen as linear. Today modern science puts the beginning of the Universe at 13.8 billion years ago when the Big Bang occurred. In industrial and consumer societies, time is seen as a commodity, so "time is money." Because of linear thinking people are encouraged to build a career or find a profession where they can advance. Public schools and widespread higher education are a fairly recent part of most societies. A major reason for this requirement is that a sense of modern industrial time has to be learned. It is my contention that thinking in terms of linear time has to be taught. A principal task of education from first grade on is to teach students about working with and working within the modern time frame of scheduling, planning, meeting deadlines, and being on time. Nevertheless, much of daily time is still cyclical, day to day, week to week, New Year to New Year. 

-- Future Time: 
If humans are to survive, they/we will need to come to terms with very long-term planning and thinking. The short-term consequences of the industrial revolution with CO2 and other by-products have put the global climate at risk, at least as far as Homo sapiens are concerned. A new kind of thinking, in which the planners may not live long enough to see the results of their planning is essential. Some have called this Cathedral Thinking, referring to cathedrals that often took 300 years to build so that most designers and workers never saw their buildings completed in their lifetime. This requires a new conception of time, to work for the sake of future generations and not immediate needs. 


MY MOST POPULAR AND/OR WELL-RECEIVED ESSAYS
-- Animal Senses Compared to the Human Sense of Time
-- Evidence for a Basket Weaving And Woven-Fiber Technology in the Paleolithic Era
-- How Language Began and the Human Understanding of Time: Daniel Everett's New Theories About The Evolution of Language
-- Computing the Winter Solstice at Newgrange: Was Neolithic Science Equal To Or Better Than Ancient Greek Or Roman Science?
-- Mesopotamian Ancient Basket Weaving Technology
and the Sumerian Reed Industry


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EARLY HOMININS
________________________________________


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ANIMAL SENSES COMPARED TO THE HUMAN SENSE OF TIME

PDF VERSIONS


Many millions of years ago, the human sense of time began with the human brain and a unique part of the brain that only we Homo sapiens have, i.e., the pre-frontal cortex. This part of the brain allows decision-making, which means that possible moves can be contemplated and then enacted. The analogy that is often used is that of a chess player thinking about his or her next move. I was one of the first people to write about this aspect of the human brain and its relationship to time.
In my article, I suggest that we humans have an actual sense of time, just like touch or smell is a sense. And that we are the only animal that has the ability to understand 'when', when in the past, the present, and the future along with an understanding of duration. Scientific studies back me up.
It is my belief that a simple short-term ability to plan in early humans, such as Homo habilis, eventually evolved into an understanding of time on a larger scale. This probably took millions of years and required a larger brain, a brain that could also recall many memories, as memory is a crucial element to an understanding of the passage of time.
This is my most popular blog-article which has recorded 9,400 pageviews on the blog online and over 2000 views and downloads at my academic sites.


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TIME & CONSCIOUSNESS

PDF VERSIONS


Related to how the human brain functions is our unique ability to be conscious. Time perception appears to be a major element of conscious awareness.


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PATTERNS & MEMORY

The human ability to perceive patterns must have developed over a long period of time, Before we could perceive patterns, we must have had a clear memory and a detailed understanding of what we had seen and experienced so we could connect the dots. 


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THE LOWER PALEOLITHIC ERA
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PALEOLITHIC EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT HOMO HABILIS COULD HAVE LEARNED WEAVING FROM WEAVERBIRDS (PLOCEIDAE)

PDF VERSIONS


Around 2 million years ago at the famous Olduvai Gorge in Africa, the first stone tools made by hominins, known as Oldowan stone tools, were discovered in what has been designated as Bed I which is the oldest layer at the Gorge. And in addition, fossilized remains of weaverbirds (Ploceidae) were found in Bed I. Weaverbirds are known for their elaborate and well-engineered nests which they placed in the open, so they were clearly visible. This means that Homo habilis (and probably other hominins) could have been aware of the nest constructions of these birds and could have used both the shapes and the weaving techniques as models for their own woven objects such as baskets. Baskets would have given them a survival advantage allowing them to gather more food, different food from further away, and also to gather materials.


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EVIDENCE THAT PALEOLITHIC HOMININS LIVED IN CLOSE ASSOCIATION WITH WEAVERBIRDS AND THEIR BASKET-MAKING SKILLS

PDF VERSIONS


I argue that early hominins, almost two million years ago, lived in close proximity to Weaverbirds. In this article, I cite specific scientific evidence, current mainstream thought, and expert opinions to make my case. And because of this, it is probable that hominins learned initial weaving and knot-making skills along with basket-making, derived from the complex and well-constructed nests of these birds.


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NEW EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT BASKET MAKING MAY HAVE BEGUN 2 MILLION YEARS AGO

PDF VERSIONS


In one study it was found that early humans walked 12 km or 7.5 miles to gather specific stones that they used for making Oldowan stone tools and for putting together a toolkit. And these specific stones made up the majority of stones found.
I argue that to do this, they probably had containers or early baskets to help them carry a large collection of stones back to their settlements, since walking that far would have been counterproductive if they only gathered a few stones. 


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THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC ERA
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TERRA AMATA: DOES THE OLDEST PALEOLITHIC BUILDING SITE INDICATE THE USE OF ADVANCED BASKET WEAVING TECHNOLOGY?

PDF VERSIONS

The Middle Paleolithic site at Terra Amata in Nice France provides ample evidence that suggests the transition from random weave basket technology to modern regular basket weaving had occurred by 300 ka with hominins such as Homo erectus.


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THE INVENTION OF RIGHT-ANGLE CONSTRUCTION IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA

PDF VERSIONS


Right-angle construction is a human invention and not natural. Nevertheless, there has been virtually nothing written about this important discovery. When early humans began to understand the power of this concept, it was a major advance in their technology. When applied to basket weaving and related crafts, it led to the development of hundreds of products. It gave humankind a powerful tool that helped them survive and prevail and eventually build civilizations.


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A NATURE JOURNAL ARTICLE VALIDATES
RICK DOBLE'S HYPOTHESIS
ABOUT PALEO WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY

PDF VERSIONS


A recent article in the highly respected scientific journal, Nature, states that the authors have found direct evidence of Neanderthal woven-fiber technology in the form of cordage attached to a stone tool. 


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GENERAL IDEAS ABOUT 
THE PALEOLITHIC ERA
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THE IMPORTANCE OF PROCESSES IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA

PDF VERSIONS


Understanding processes is key to understanding early human development. Processes operate sequentially in time and require planning. The ability to implement processes and then expand and develop those processes to more sophisticated levels is one of the principal characteristics of human culture.


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THE TRIBAL-WIDE USE OF PROCESSES IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA

PDF VERSIONS


The use of processes was shared by the entire tribe. So it was not just men making stone tools, but women gathering food in baskets and children learning the language of processes.


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EVIDENCE FOR A BASKET WEAVING AND WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA

PDF VERSIONS


Starting with basket weaving, basketry and weaving developed into a powerful and diverse technology that would be used to make a wide range of items including shoes, clothes, hats, mats, fences, roofs, houses, boats, and even bridges.


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BASKET-WEAVING EDUCATION & ITS COGNITIVE ASPECTS

PDF VERSIONS


Basket-weaving classes, programs, and instruction books for ages 3 to 18 may provide insights into the cognitive demands of basket-weaving and the development of those skills.


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THE UPPER PALEOLITHIC ERA
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA::
INSIGHTS FROM PALEO-INDIAN ARTIFACTS AND ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY

PDF VERSIONS


It is my contention that by the Upper Paleolithic, many technologies were quite advanced. In particular, basket weaving or woven-fiber technology had reached a high point of development. A variety of basket weaving techniques had been mastered along with the manufacture of cordage and the beginnings of textiles.


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THE GENIUS OF CAVEMEN

The accurate and technically sophisticated paintings of bison in the Cave of Altamira in Spain by 'cave men' show that not only were they skilled but they had remarkable memories and powers of observation.


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HOW LANGUAGE BEGAN AND THE HUMAN UNDERSTANDING OF TIME: DANIEL EVERETT'S NEW THEORIES ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE

PDF VERSIONS


Daniel Everett has proposed a revolutionary new theory about how language began. He believes it started more than a million years ago not with Homo sapiens, but with Homo erectus and then slowly evolved. I believe his theory works well with my ideas about time.


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THE NEOLITHIC ERA
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COMPUTING THE WINTER SOLSTICE AT NEWGRANGE: WAS NEOLITHIC SCIENCE EQUAL TO OR BETTER THAN ANCIENT GREEK OR ROMAN SCIENCE?

PDF VERSIONS


This blog has been reprinted 
at the Newgrange website in Ireland 


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STONE-AGE SCIENTIFIC & ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS: 
NEWGRANGE & PORTUGUESE BURIAL TOMBS COMPARED

PDF VERSIONS


The passageways in Portuguese burial tombs were designed to enhance the view of a portion of the sky. This made it much easier to see the first appearance of a particular star just before dawn or just after sunset. 


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NEOLITHIC SCIENCE:
A STUDENT HANDS-ON PROJECT
HOW TO BUILD A LARGE PORTABLE PINHOLE CAMERA OR CAMERA OBSCURA TO EXPLORE HOW NEOLITHIC OPTICS AT NEWGRANGE WERE ABLE TO ACCURATELY DETERMINE THE TIME OF THE WINTER SOLSTICE

PDF VERSIONS


The title explains this article's purpose.


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BASKET WEAVING AND WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY IN THE PRE-POTTERY NEOLITHIC (PPN)

PDF VERSIONS


It is clear from the fact that pottery had not been invented until late in the Neolithic era, that other tools and implements must have been fabricated during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN).


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THE NEOLITHIC COGNITIVE LEAP:
MORE THAN A REVOLUTION THE NEW STONE AGE INVOLVED A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF Time

PDF VERSIONS


While all agree that the Neolithic era was a revolution, the change was even more monumental. While I believe Upper Paleolithic people could work with and plan short-term projects and processes, their way of life was generally one of immediacy. They did not store and save food for times of scarcity, for example. But in the Neolithic era, an understanding of long-term linear time allowed the societies to radically change their way of life by planning their farming over a year's time and then developing a large number of processes that required long-term conceptions. It was this ability that allowed the Neolithic cultures to flourish.


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NEOLITHIC FERTILITY SYMBOLISM DURING THE WINTER SOLSTICE AT THE NEWGRANGE PASSAGE TOMB IN IRELAND

PDF VERSIONS ONLY:


A number of researchers have suggested that the winter solstice alignment at the Newgrange Passage Tomb in Ireland had a fertility purpose. In this article, I build on the knowledge of many experts to arrive at a possible reason for the monument and its meaning to these Neolithic people.


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THE ANCIENT MANIPULATION OF TIME: PART 1

PDF VERSIONS


This combined article explores the growth of human understanding about the nature of time, along with methods for measuring and controlling time. This article covers Neolithic methods from about 5000 BCE and ancient Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek methods which led to the development of the clock in medieval times.


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ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
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THE ANCIENT MANIPULATION OF TIME: PART 2

PDF VERSIONS - Combined


This combined article explores the growth of human understanding about the nature of time, along with methods for measuring and controlling time. This article covers Neolithic methods from about 5000 BCE and ancient Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek methods which led to the development of the clock in medieval times.


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THE IMPORTANCE OF BASKET WEAVING TECHNOLOGY FOR THE WORLD'S FIRST CIVILIZATIONS

PDF VERSIONS


The rise of the world's first civilization, that of Sumer in Mesopotamia, could not have occurred without a fully developed basket weaving technology that was available from the beginning.


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MESOPOTAMIAN ANCIENT BASKET WEAVING TECHNOLOGY AND THE SUMERIAN REED INDUSTRY 

PDF VERSIONS ONLY


There was an extensive and important reed industry that existed from Neolithic times and continued with the Sumerian civilizations but this industry has not been properly identified.


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MESOPOTAMIAN MISCONCEPTIONS: INCORRECT ASSUMPTIONS AND
MISINTERPRETATIONS OF SUMERIAN TECHNOLOGY

A large reed industry was crucial to the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia. Housing made of reeds, for example, may have been much more widespread than previously thought and a huge fleet of reed boats and coracles made with reeds may have been just as important.


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ANCIENT BABYLONIAN SCIENCE GUIDED THE MARS ROVER TO ITS LANDING

PDF VERSION

The Babylonian map of the sky became the model for a grid on the Earth and on Mars and was used to navigate the Mars Rover.


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THE CLASSICAL ERA
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HOW THE DISCREDITED GEOCENTRIC COSMOS WAS A CRITICAL COMPONENT OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
OR 
HOW PTOLEMY'S GEOCENTRIC ASTRONOMY HELPED BUILD THE MODERN WORLD

PDF VERSIONS


The clock became important during the Middle Ages. The gearing mechanism was based on Ptolemy's geocentric astronomy which later developed into modern machines in the Industrial Age.


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THE MODERN ERA
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A REVOLUTION IN TIME

In the industrial age time went through a major change. Time was now geared to railroads and modern machines.


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SCHOOL'S MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECT: TIME
WHAT DID YOU LEARN IN SCHOOL TODAY?

PDF VERSION

While learning basic skills is essential, education from the first grade teaches an even more critical subject -- the subject of time. This illustrated paper examines the subtle and persistent ways that students from elementary school to graduate school are taught a conception of time.


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THE PROTECTIVE BUBBLE OF CIVILIZATION

Living in buildings and driving air-conditioned cars has shielded us from the outside world.


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MODERN TIME: TIME AS A COMMODITY

Time is money.


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HOW PHOTOGRAPHY CHANGED TIME: PART 1

PDF VERSIONS


Before photography, there were only written records, which were often subjective, along with paintings and drawings -- plus memories that were often flawed or that faded within a few years' time. Photography freezes time. Photography can record reality, objects, and details in the real world, independent of our memories. This objective ability can allow us to view the past without the mist of emotions, the rose-colored glasses that often tint our recollection of the past. But it also completely changed the perception of time.


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HOW PHOTOGRAPHY CHANGED TIME: PART 2

PDF VERSIONS


See the description above.


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THE FUTURE
Short articles about the environment
and thinking and planning for the future.
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THE HISTORY OF THE FUTURE

It is interesting to view how the future was conceived in the past and what the future became in reality.


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THE WORK OF THE IMAGINATION
A CRISIS OF IMAGINATION: 
WE MUST IMAGINE THE FUTURE TO SURVIVE

PDF VERSIONS


This paper examines works of the imagination in the past that have led to the ideas and technology of today. 


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WHY WE DON'T OR WON'T DEAL WITH CLIMATE CHANGE

PDF VERSIONS


We, humans, are adapting to our own man-made environment and not considering the larger effect that our overall civilized environment has on the Earth's climate. 


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GLOBAL WARMING & THE FUTURE: PARTS 1 & 2
 

The irony is that while technology has caused these problems, technology can provide the solution by helping us design with the environment in mind.


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CLIMATE CHANGE & OUR AGE OF DENIAL

Since politicians do not often think beyond their four or eight-year terms, they feel no urgency to risk their political future to forge a fifty or hundred-year policy that may be required.


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HUMAN NATURE, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND MODERN TECHNOLOGY

PDF VERSION

Recent research concludes that changing the environment is part of our human nature and has been a core trait for as long as humans have existed. Can we tame this aspect of our own nature to prevent damage to the Earth's environment?


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MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE PAST
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THE MODERNCENTRIC BIAS AGAINST PREHISTORIC CULTURES: PARTS 1 & 2


Paleolithic people were very smart. Given their brain size, they did the best with the technology they had. But their abilities have often been dismissed by scientists.


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OVERCOMING GENDER BIAS IN PALEOLITHIC RESEARCH:
GENDER BIAS MAY HAVE PREVENTED PALEOLITHIC BASKET-WEAVING TECHNOLOGY FROM BEING RECOGNIZED AND ACCEPTED https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2020/12/overcoming-gender-bias-in-paleolithic.html

PDF VERSIONS


A 60-page exploration of gender bias that affected research into 'women's arts' in the Paleolithic era. The blog focuses on Native American Indian basketry, made by women, that often was quite similar to Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures in Europe but was discounted because it was 'women's work'.


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THE HISTORY AND FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF A REJECTED IDEA:
BASKET-WEAVING IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA

PDF VERSIONS


This article outlines ideas about the history of viewing basket-weaving as a technology, ideas that were rejected for almost 100 years, and then finally accepted after irrefutable evidence was found. It then outlines my new ideas that take the origins of this technology much further back into the past.


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REPLACE THE TERM 'BASKET WEAVING'
WITH THE TERM 'WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY'

PDF VERSIONS


Basket weaving "can't get no respect." It is a joke on college campuses. Replace this term with 'woven-fiber technology' that will cover a variety of woven-fiber constructions.


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HOW PRECONCEPTIONS INTERFERED WITH DISCOVERY: UNDERSTANDING THE FIRST COMPUTER, THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM OF ANCIENT GREECE

PDF VERSIONS


Because authorities did not believe Ancient Greeks could have made a sophisticated geared device that could calculate celestial movements, the Antikythera Mechanism, found in a sunken Roman shipwreck, was ignored for 50 years. 


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AFTERWORD
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR/RESEARCHER/THEORIST: RICK DOBLE

I am the writer/researcher/theorist of these blog-articles on this page. I have an M.A. in Communication, with a minor in Anthropology, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I also have a B.A. in English from UNC-CH with an Honors in Creative Writing. As an undergraduate at UNC, I had to take 6-8 courses that were not related to my major, and most of the ones I chose were in Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, and Political Science -- i.e., the social sciences. Nevertheless, I am not a professional Anthropologist just a person with a lifelong interest in the human condition. From the age of ten, I put together what I called my 'museum' which included Paleolithic stone tools, Neolithic stone tools, and Native American Indian arrowheads. When I attended Phillips Exeter Academy prep school, I took two courses in experimental physics and chemistry where, for example, we duplicated Galileo's experiments with gravity and an inclined plane. In college, I worked as a research assistant to a professor and I was always able to locate more than enough documents for his research. Later as a professional photographer in the pre-digital film era, I spent almost 15 years doing my own darkroom work, which gave me an in-depth understanding of processes. Process development is a key idea in this timeline of hominid/hominin evolution. As a digital photographer, my experimental ideas were published by one of the largest photographic publishers, Lark Books, in a book entitled "Experimental Digital Photography." I was also the team leader of a historic photographic project in Durham North Carolina which created a photo archive for the Durham library and we also created a timeline exhibit of photographs of Durham.
Nevertheless, I do not have the normal academic credentials for the kinds of ideas I have put forth. However, at the age of 78, I decided it was now or never. I would like to think that at the very least I have asked some worthwhile questions which could be useful in the ongoing conversation about human development, culture, and technology.
 

WHY DID I FOCUS ON BASKET WEAVING TECHNOLOGY?

My wife has a small but varied collection of baskets, from very small to very large, and from different parts of the world and different cultures. These baskets are strong, light, and durable, and are still in good shape after forty years. In addition, my Dad gave me some Mexican furniture that had woven straw seats and backs that are over 70 years old. This furniture is as sturdy today as it was when my Dad tied them to the top of his old Ford and drove from Mexico City to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In other words, I knew that baskets in general are light, strong, and durable, making them a very useful technology.
When I started to write this blog, I discovered from my research that basket technology was present in virtually all cultures in the world, from 'primitive' to modern, using a wide variety of local materials. In addition, two Anthropological researchers compiled aspects that were common to all cultures, new and old, which included containers, cordage, and weaving. 

Then again in my research, I found that many people believed that early humans may have gotten the idea for baskets from bird nests. And that is when things started to happen for me. With the incredible research ability of the Internet, I was able to show that Oldowan tools were found in the same Bed at Olduvai Gorge in Africa where fossilized weaverbird skeletons had also been found -- dating back almost two million years. And weaverbird nests are woven, incredibly well-made containers. Next, I was able to show that most experts believed that early Hominins spent much of their time around Baobab trees because the Baobab fruit was an important part of their diet. And Baobab trees were also the preferred habitat of weaverbirds. This means I could show that early Hominins lived in close association with weaverbirds and that logically they could have learned basket-making skills although it would take another two million years to develop basketry into a sophisticated technology that would eventually lead to building large houses and boats in Mesopotamia and also waterproof vessels to irrigate their fields.

As luck would have it, I also knew a local woman (Nan Bowles) who lived in the marshes with her husband and who often made things from natural materials. She, on her own, had made a number of random weave baskets which is what I believe early humans would have made initially. She was able to show me their construction and strength. I was amazed to find how light and strong they were, easily holding five kilograms. So with all these ideas about how basketry could have started, I was off and running. This would lead me to investigate ideas about the development of weaving in the Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic, the Neolithic, the Ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia, and the Classical thinking of Rome and Greece, right up to the modern-day.


ABOUT THIS BLOG
DECONSTRUCTING TIME
ABOUT THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF TIME

I have been writing this blog for ten years now. When I began, I only planned on exploring our contemporary human relationship to time, which has been ignored or not recognized as important. 

Yet nothing happens, nothing exists outside of time -- time is ever-present. And nothing happens that did not happen in a moment of time: the passage of time only happens in the immediacy of the moment. Time is the most used word in the English language (and presumably other languages) showing how vital it is to our existence.

I believe our understanding of time and our relationship to time is not only crucial, it shaped our evolution and our development from early Hominins to modern Homo sapiens (us) of today. For example, an understanding of the times when animals migrated or plants flowered allowed early humans to hunt better and gather more food.

When I began this blog, I had no idea that I would be delving into such weighty matters, but inevitably one step led to another and after ten years I had mapped out one scenario of human evolution that included the developing technology of basket making (or woven-fiber technology) and its relationship to time, along with ideas about the development of language.

So in this blog-article, I lay out what I have written in chronological order, showing how the ideas I have discussed in this blog follow a fairly logical progression up to the present day.

However, when I began these articles, I had no idea that they would connect to each other and that a coherent timeline was possible. I wrote each one as the ideas came to me -- ideas that did not come in a logical order. It was only six months ago that I realized I had mapped out the beginnings of a chronology and at that point, I began to fill in the blanks to complete the overall picture.

WHY BOTHER?: Is this just an academic exercise or does it matter? I maintain that our understanding of linear time, with a past, present, future and a sense of duration, has made us the dominant species on the planet, since no other animal has this capability. So it could be very useful to gain a better understanding of how we evolved. And studying how this sense of time developed may offer insights into our current way of thinking. Working with horizontal and vertical strands to make baskets and woven structures, for example, maybe one of the reasons we developed the concept of the 'grid' which is everywhere in modern culture. But even more importantly is the fact that we will need to develop a new sense of long-term linear time because that is what it will take to come to terms with climate change. What some have called 'cathedral thinking' means that each generation must now plan and develop technologies whose outcomes they will never see in their lifetime. Short-term thinking of the past is what brought us to this crisis point with the environment. It is only with long-term thinking that we can come to terms with the effect our technology has on the Earth. 
A Personal Note: I had written about five of these articles when the COVID pandemic hit. Since my wife and I stayed at home for about a year and a half, I used this time to research and write about this topic. 
But I do not know if any of my ideas will become part of mainstream thinking in my lifetime. Of course, I would love it if they were, but that is not the point. In a sense, I have engaged in 'cathedral thinking' because my ideas might be accepted long after I am gone. 
Nevertheless, I am confident that a discussion about the development of time concepts will become a major theme in the study of prehistory and later time periods.




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