| eohippus all contents copyright 2007 max carmichael | why eohippus? bio contact | |||||
| pictures of knowledge: work in progress | back next | |||||
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Seasonal Round for a Farming Community Our primary experience of the passage of time is not the ticking of a clock or our body's aging; we know change through the observation of repeated cycles of day and night, flowering, seasons, marriage, pregnancy and birth. We know that the baby's body will age just like ours, and others will be born, to explore our world and absorb the foundation of our shared belief system. I show all natural, cultural, or social processes, all temporal phenomena, in the context of one or more observable cycles or rounds: the daily round, the lunar cycle, the seasonal round, the generational round or reproductive cycle, ecological succession, the cycles of environmental creation and destruction from catastrophic events. All cycles start at right, the direction of the rising sun, and proceed sunwise: what we call clockwise. The seasonal round suggests in overview how the human community integrates with the rest of the natural community in response to environmental changes throughout the year. It shows how important food production is. It shows how crafts such as building shelter and making clothing are also part of the natural cycle. And it shows how cultural events such as harvest festivals arise as the community's response to natural abundance, and how cultural activities such as dance, theater, and storytelling serve to strengthen the community's sense of being a key player in the game. |
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