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#Cultural Preservation and Heritage
sarkarijobnet21 · 1 year
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What Is The Power of Education?
What Is The Power of Education?   Power of Education Meaning: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Communities, and Shaping a Brighter Future Introduction About Power of Education As my Information, Education is like a guiding light that shows us the way to grow as individuals, make society better, and develop the world as a whole. It’s not just about learning facts and skills, but it has the…
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The (open) web is good, actually
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I'll be at the Studio City branch of the LA Public Library tonight (Monday, November 13) at 1830hPT to launch my new novel, The Lost Cause. There'll be a reading, a talk, a surprise guest (!!) and a signing, with books on sale. Tell your friends! Come on down!
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The great irony of the platformization of the internet is that platforms are intermediaries, and the original promise of the internet that got so many of us excited about it was disintermediation – getting rid of the middlemen that act as gatekeepers between community members, creators and audiences, buyers and sellers, etc.
The platformized internet is ripe for rent seeking: where the platform captures an ever-larger share of the value generated by its users, making the service worst for both, while lock-in stops people from looking elsewhere. Every sector of the modern economy is less competitive, thanks to monopolistic tactics like mergers and acquisitions and predatory pricing. But with tech, the options for making things worse are infinitely divisible, thanks to the flexibility of digital systems, which means that product managers can keep subdividing the Jenga blocks they pulling out of the services we rely on. Combine platforms with monopolies with digital flexibility and you get enshittification:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys
An enshittified, platformized internet is bad for lots of reasons – it concentrates decisions about who may speak and what may be said into just a few hands; it creates a rich-get-richer dynamic that creates a new oligarchy, with all the corruption and instability that comes with elite capture; it makes life materially worse for workers, users, and communities.
But there are many other ways in which the enshitternet is worse than the old good internet. Today, I want to talk about how the enshitternet affects openness and all that entails. An open internet is one whose workings are transparent (think of "open source"), but it's also an internet founded on access – the ability to know what has gone before, to recall what has been said, and to revisit the context in which it was said.
At last week's Museum Computer Network conference, Aaron Straup Cope gave a talk on museums and technology called "Wishful Thinking – A critical discussion of 'extended reality' technologies in the cultural heritage sector" that beautifully addressed these questions of recall and revisiting:
https://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2023/11/11/therapy/#wishful
Cope is a museums technologist who's worked on lots of critical digital projects over the years, and in this talk, he addresses himself to the difference between the excitement of the galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) sector over the possibilities of the web, and why he doesn't feel the same excitement over the metaverse, and its various guises – XR, VR, MR and AR.
The biggest reason to be excited about the web was – and is – the openness of disintermediation. The internet was inspired by the end-to-end principle, the idea that the network's first duty was to transmit data from willing senders to willing receivers, as efficiently and reliably as possible. That principle made it possible for whole swathes of people to connect with one another. As Cope writes, openness "was not, and has never been, a guarantee of a receptive audience or even any audience at all." But because it was "easy and cheap enough to put something on the web," you could "leave it there long enough for others to find it."
That dynamic nurtured an environment where people could have "time to warm up to ideas." This is in sharp contrast to the social media world, where "[anything] not immediately successful or viral … was a waste of time and effort… not worth doing." The social media bias towards a river of content that can't be easily reversed is one in which the only ideas that get to spread are those the algorithm boosts.
This is an important way to understand the role of algorithms in the context of the spread of ideas – that without recall or revisiting, we just don't see stuff, including stuff that might challenge our thinking and change our minds. This is a much more materialistic and grounded way to talk about algorithms and ideas than the idea that Big Data and AI make algorithms so persuasive that they can control our minds:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens
As bad as this is in the social media context, it's even worse in the context of apps, which can't be linked into, bookmarked, or archived. All of this made apps an ominous sign right from the beginning:
https://memex.craphound.com/2010/04/01/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-and-think-you-shouldnt-either/
Apps interact with law in precisely the way that web-pages don't. "An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a crime to defend yourself against corporate predation":
https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/27/an-audacious-plan-to-halt-the-internets-enshittification-and-throw-it-into-reverse/
Apps are "closed" in every sense. You can't see what's on an app without installing the app and "agreeing" to its terms of service. You can't reverse-engineer an app (to add a privacy blocker, or to change how it presents information) without risking criminal and civil liability. You can't bookmark anything the app won't let you bookmark, and you can't preserve anything the app won't let you preserve.
Despite being built on the same underlying open frameworks – HTTP, HTML, etc – as the web, apps have the opposite technological viewpoint to the web. Apps' technopolitics are at war with the web's technopolitics. The web is built around recall – the ability to see things, go back to things, save things. The web has the technopolitics of a museum:
https://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2014/09/11/brand/#dconstruct
By comparison, apps have the politics of a product, and most often, that product is a rent-seeking, lock-in-hunting product that wants to take you hostage by holding something you love hostage – your data, perhaps, or your friends:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs
When Anil Dash described "The Web We Lost" in 2012, he was describing a web with the technopolitics of a museum:
where tagging was combined with permissive licenses to make it easy for people to find and reuse each others' stuff;
where it was easy to find out who linked to you in realtime even though most of us were posting to our own sites, which they controlled;
where a link from one site to another meant one person found another person's contribution worthy;
where privacy-invasive bids to capture the web were greeted with outright hostility;
where every service that helped you post things that mattered to you was expected to make it easy for you take that data back if you changed services;
where inlining or referencing material from someone else's site meant following a technical standard, not inking a business-development deal;
https://www.anildash.com/2012/12/13/the_web_we_lost/
Ten years later, Dash's "broken tech/content culture cycle" described the web we live on now:
https://www.anildash.com/2022/02/09/the-stupid-tech-content-culture-cycle/
found your platform by promising to facilitate your users' growth;
order your technologists and designers to prioritize growth above all other factors and fire anyone who doesn't deliver;
grow without regard to the norms of your platform's users;
plaster over the growth-driven influx of abusive and vile material by assigning it to your "most marginalized, least resourced team";
deliver a half-assed moderation scheme that drives good users off the service and leaves no one behind but griefers, edgelords and trolls;
steadfastly refuse to contemplate why the marginalized users who made your platform attractive before being chased away have all left;
flail about in a panic over illegal content, do deals with large media brands, seize control over your most popular users' output;
"surface great content" by algorithmically promoting things that look like whatever's successful, guaranteeing that nothing new will take hold;
overpay your top performers for exclusivity deals, utterly neglect any pipeline for nurturing new performers;
abuse your creators the same ways that big media companies have for decades, but insist that it's different because you're a tech company;
ignore workers who warn that your product is a danger to society, dismiss them as "millennials" (defined as "anyone born after 1970 or who has a student loan")
when your platform is (inevitably) implicated in a murder, have a "town hall" overseen by a crisis communications firm;
pay the creator who inspired the murder to go exclusive on your platform;
dismiss the murder and fascist rhetoric as "growing pains";
when truly ghastly stuff happens on your platform, give your Trust and Safety team a 5% budget increase;
chase growth based on "emotionally engaging content" without specifying whether the emotions should be positive;
respond to ex-employees' call-outs with transient feelings of guilt followed by dismissals of "cancel culture":
fund your platforms' most toxic users and call it "free speech";
whenever anyone disagrees with any of your decisions, dismiss them as being "anti-free speech";
start increasing how much your platform takes out of your creators' paychecks;
force out internal dissenters, dismiss external critics as being in conspiracy with your corporate rivals;
once regulation becomes inevitable, form a cartel with the other large firms in your sector and insist that the problem is a "bad algorithm";
"claim full victim status," and quit your job, complaining about the toll that running a big platform took on your mental wellbeing.
https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/18/broken-records/#dashes
The web wasn't inevitable – indeed, it was wildly improbable. Tim Berners Lee's decision to make a new platform that was patent-free, open and transparent was a complete opposite approach to the strategy of the media companies of the day. They were building walled gardens and silos – the dialup equivalent to apps – organized as "branded communities." The way I experienced it, the web succeeded because it was so antithetical to the dominant vision for the future of the internet that the big companies couldn't even be bothered to try to kill it until it was too late.
Companies have been trying to correct that mistake ever since. After three or four attempts to replace the web with various garbage systems all called "MSN," Microsoft moved on to trying to lock the internet inside a proprietary browser. Years later, Facebook had far more success in an attempt to kill HTML with React. And of course, apps have gobbled up so much of the old, good internet.
Which brings us to Cope's views on museums and the metaverse. There's nothing intrinsically proprietary about virtual worlds and all their permutations. VRML is a quarter of a century old – just five years younger than Snow Crash:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VRML
But the current enthusiasm for virtual worlds isn't merely a function of the interesting, cool and fun experiences you can have in them. Rather, it's a bid to kill off whatever is left of the old, good web and put everything inside a walled garden. Facebook's metaverse "is more of the same but with a technical footprint so expensive and so demanding that it all but ensures it will only be within the means of a very few companies to operate."
Facebook's VR headsets have forward-facing cameras, turning every users into a walking surveillance camera. Facebook put those cameras there for "pass through" – so they can paint the screens inside the headset with the scene around you – but "who here believes that Facebook doesn't have other motives for enabling an always-on camera capturing the world around you?"
Apple's VisionPro VR headset is "a near-perfect surveillance device," and "the only thing to save this device is the trust that Apple has marketed its brand on over the last few years." Cope notes that "a brand promise is about as fleeting a guarantee as you can get." I'll go further: Apple is already a surveillance company:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar
The technopolitics of the metaverse are the opposite of the technopolitics of the museum – even moreso than apps. Museums that shift their scarce technology budgets to virtual worlds stand a good chance of making something no one wants to use, and that's the best case scenario. The worst case is that museums make a successful project inside a walled garden, one where recall is subject to corporate whim, and help lure their patrons away from the recall-friendly internet to the captured, intermediated metaverse.
It's true that the early web benefited from a lot of hype, just as the metaverse is enjoying today. But the similarity ends there: the metaverse is designed for enclosure, the web for openness. Recall is a historical force for "the right to assembly… access to basic literacy… a public library." The web was "an unexpected gift with the ability to change the order of things; a gift that merits being protected, preserved and promoted both internally and externally." Museums were right to jump on the web bandwagon, because of its technopolitics. The metaverse, with its very different technopolitics, is hostile to the very idea of museums.
In joining forces with metaverse companies, museums strike a Faustian bargain, "because we believe that these places are where our audiences have gone."
The GLAM sector is devoted to access, to recall, and to revisiting. Unlike the self-style free speech warriors whom Dash calls out for self-serving neglect of their communities, the GLAM sector is about preservation and access, the true heart of free expression. When a handful of giant companies organize all our discourse, the ability to be heard is contingent on pleasing the ever-shifting tastes of the algorithm. This is the problem with the idea that "freedom of speech isn't freedom of reach" – if a platform won't let people who want to hear from you see what you have to say, they are indeed compromising freedom of speech:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen
Likewise, "censorship" is not limited to "things that governments do." As Ada Palmer so wonderfully describes it in her brilliant "Why We Censor: from the Inquisition to the Internet" speech, censorship is like arsenic, with trace elements of it all around us:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMMJb3AxA0s
A community's decision to ban certain offensive conduct or words on pain of expulsion or sanction is censorship – but not to the same degree that, say, a government ban on expressing certain points of view is. However, there are many kinds of private censorship that rise to the same level as state censorship in their impact on public discourse (think of Moms For Liberty and their book-bannings).
It's not a coincidence that Palmer – a historian – would have views on censorship and free speech that intersect with Cope, a museum worker. One of the most brilliant moments in Palmer's speech is where she describes how censorship under the Inquistion was not state censorship – the Inquisition was a multinational, nongovernmental body that was often in conflict with state power.
Not all intermediaries are bad for speech or access. The "disintermediation" that excited early web boosters was about escaping from otherwise inescapable middlemen – the people who figured out how to control and charge for the things we did with one another.
When I was a kid, I loved the writing of Crad Kilodney, a short story writer who sold his own self-published books on Toronto street-corners while wearing a sign that said "VERY FAMOUS CANADIAN AUTHOR, BUY MY BOOKS" (he also had a sign that read, simply, "MARGARET ATWOOD"). Kilodney was a force of nature, who wrote, edited, typeset, printed, bound, and sold his own books:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-late-street-poet-and-publishing-scourge-crad-kilodney-left-behind-a/
But there are plenty of writers out there that I want to hear from who lack the skill or the will to do all of that. Editors, publishers, distributors, booksellers – all the intermediaries who sit between a writer and their readers – are not bad. They're good, actually. The problem isn't intermediation – it's capture.
For generations, hucksters have conned would-be writers by telling them that publishing won't buy their books because "the gatekeepers" lack the discernment to publish "quality" work. Friends of mine in publishing laughed at the idea that they would deliberately sideline a book they could figure out how to sell – that's just not how it worked.
But today, monopolized film studios are literally annihilating beloved, high-priced, commercially viable works because they are worth slightly more as tax writeoffs than they are as movies:
https://deadline.com/2023/11/coyote-vs-acme-shelved-warner-bros-discovery-writeoff-david-zaslav-1235598676/
There's four giant studios and five giant publishers. Maybe "five" is the magic number and publishing isn't concentrated enough to drop whole novels down the memory hole for a tax deduction, but even so, publishing is trying like hell to shrink to four:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/07/random-penguins/#if-you-wanted-to-get-there-i-wouldnt-start-from-here
Even as the entertainment sector is working to both literally and figuratively destroy our libraries, the cultural heritage sector is grappling with preserving these libraries, with shrinking budgets and increased legal threats:
https://blog.archive.org/2023/03/25/the-fight-continues/
I keep meeting artists of all description who have been conditioned to be suspicious of anything with the word "open" in its name. One colleague has repeatedly told me that fighting for the "open internet" is a self-defeating rhetorical move that will scare off artists who hear "open" and think "Big Tech ripoff."
But "openness" is a necessary precondition for preservation and access, which are the necessary preconditions for recall and revisiting. Here on the last, melting fragment of the open internet, as tech- and entertainment-barons are seizing control over our attention and charging rent on our ability to talk and think together, openness is our best hope of a new, good internet. T
he cultural heritage sector wants to save our creative works. The entertainment and tech industry want to delete them and take a tax writeoff.
As a working artist, I know which side I'm on.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/13/this-is-for-everyone/#revisiting
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Image: Diego Delso (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museo_Mimara,_Zagreb,_Croacia,_2014-04-20,_DD_01.JPG
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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covenawhite66 · 7 months
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There are 2,900 languages that are endangered. This means they have fewer than 10,000 speakers, and most of them are not being passed on to younger generations.
What Causes Language Extinction?
1. Colonization and oppression
2. Globalization and urbanization
3. Education and media
4. Attitudes and prestige
Why Does Language Extinction Matter?
1. Cultural heritage
2. Scientific knowledge
3. Linguistic diversity
How Can We Save Endangered Languages?
1. Documentation and revitalization
2. Policy and legislation
3. Awareness and advocacy
Places ranked by Endangered Languages
1. Africa with 619 languages
2. Asia with 613 languages
3. South America with 448 languages
4. North America with 182 languages
5. Pacific with 592 languages
6. Europe with 238 languages
7. Australia with 108 languages
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ancientorigins · 3 months
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Discover how wasabi is revolutionizing the preservation of ancient texts. A groundbreaking study reveals its unexpected effects.
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conservallama · 5 months
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And when the visitors finally come, you need to figure out how to make them stop.
Painting: French Master - Allegory of the Vanity of Earthly Things. Wikimedia Commons.
___ Follow for more memes from the GLAM world 🖼📙🗄🏛
GLAM - 🖼Galleries📙Libraries🗄Archives🏛Museums . . .
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sefarad-haami · 6 days
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Learning Ladino
Ladino, also referred to as Judeo-Spanish or Judezmo, serves as the linguistic heritage of Sephardic Jews, or Sepharadim, descending from the Iberian Peninsula, which encompasses present-day Spain and Portugal. Following their expulsion from Spain in 1492, Sepharadim dispersed throughout the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and beyond, predominantly finding refuge in the Ottoman Empire. It was within this diverse cultural milieu that Ladino emerged, blending Spanish and other Iberian languages with a robust infusion of Hebrew-Aramaic elements, while also incorporating linguistic influences from the surrounding Mediterranean regions such as Turkish, Greek, Italian, French, and Arabic. Embracing versatility, Ladino became the language of everyday life, spanning from domestic settings to public spaces like markets and synagogues, and encompassing various aspects of culture including humor, politics, and literature.
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my-deer-friend · 8 months
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Distraught and devastated - the Oslo Viking Museum is closed until 2026/27!?
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dougielombax · 6 months
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Just leaving this here.
Feel free to reblog.
It’s a month or two late but still.
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direwombat · 1 year
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which art motif are you(r ocs)
tagged by beloved @adelaidedrubman to do this uquiz for some of the kids (thank you so much~)
and tagging @socially-awkward-skeleton, @purplehairsecretlair, @strangefable, @strafethesesinners, @fourlittleseedlings, @detectivelokis, @sstewyhosseini, @confidentandgood, @kittiofdoom, @deputyash, @poetikat, @sukoshimikan, @inafieldofdaisies, @vampireninjabunnies-blog, @aceghosts, @baldurrs, and anyone else wanting to do this quiz for their kids!
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HANDS. is your love language touch? i suppose it might not be, but i also suppose you might just like being held. you might see the art in human bodies. art reference: loneliness of night by kaye donachie
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SNOWY TOWNS. you have the ability to see the greatness in the mundane, and it's beautiful. you would just like to live your life, and love all its things. art reference: it snows oh it snows by grandma moses
BROTHER OSWIN (D&D)
BLOOD IN RELIGIOUS DEPICTIONS. you think in violence, but not necessarily antagonism or hatred. it is more just in the physicality, the vulnerability of it all. art reference: prometheus bound by peter paul rubens
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saintartemis · 1 year
Link
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blueheartbookclub · 3 months
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"Exploring the Rich Tapestry of Sioux Culture: A Review of Myths and Legends of the Sioux by Mrs. Marie L. McLaughlin"
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Myths and Legends of the Sioux, as compiled by Mrs. Marie L. McLaughlin, presents readers with a captivating journey into the rich cultural heritage of the Sioux people. Through a collection of traditional stories passed down through generations, McLaughlin provides invaluable insights into the spiritual beliefs, customs, and values of this indigenous community.
At the heart of the book lies a deep reverence for storytelling as a means of preserving and transmitting cultural knowledge. McLaughlin's meticulous retelling of these myths and legends not only preserves the oral tradition of the Sioux but also offers readers a window into their worldview, spirituality, and collective identity. From creation myths and tales of heroism to legends of nature spirits and animal guides, each story is imbued with symbolism, wisdom, and a profound connection to the natural world.
One of the most striking aspects of Myths and Legends of the Sioux is its portrayal of the interconnectedness between humanity and the natural environment. Through stories of animal spirits and sacred landscapes, McLaughlin highlights the Sioux people's deep respect for the earth and its inhabitants. These narratives serve as reminders of the importance of living in harmony with nature and honoring the sacredness of all life—a message that resonates now more than ever in an era of environmental crisis.
Moreover, the book offers readers a glimpse into the spiritual beliefs and rituals of the Sioux people, shedding light on their understanding of the divine and the supernatural. From the veneration of ancestral spirits to the significance of vision quests and sacred ceremonies, McLaughlin paints a vivid picture of a culture steeped in reverence for the spiritual realm. Through these stories, readers gain insight into the Sioux people's deep sense of connection to the cosmos and their belief in the power of the unseen forces that shape their lives.
In addition to its cultural and spiritual significance, Myths and Legends of the Sioux serves as a testament to the resilience and strength of indigenous storytelling traditions. Despite centuries of colonization, displacement, and cultural assimilation, the oral traditions of the Sioux people have endured, serving as a source of resilience, empowerment, and cultural pride. Through McLaughlin's careful retelling, these stories continue to inspire and educate readers of all backgrounds, fostering a deeper appreciation for the richness and diversity of indigenous cultures.
In conclusion, Myths and Legends of the Sioux is a captivating exploration of Sioux culture, spirituality, and storytelling traditions. Through its collection of traditional myths and legends, Mrs. Marie L. McLaughlin invites readers on a journey of discovery and reflection, offering invaluable insights into the timeless wisdom and enduring resilience of the Sioux people. With its rich tapestry of stories and profound insights, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in indigenous cultures, folklore, and the power of storytelling to preserve and celebrate cultural heritage.
Myths and Legends of the Sioux, by Mrs. Marie L. McLaughlin, is available in Amazon in paperback 12.99$ and hardcover 20.99$ editions.
Number of pages: 242
Language: English
Rating: 10/10                                           
Link of the book!
Review By: King's Cat
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slpytired · 5 months
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3, 8, 10 ( ˙꒳​˙ )
3. too many, you can have a look at my spotify if you want though i’ll dm it to you :3
8. i’m fluent in english (obviously), sorta passable in chinese, and learning japanese and hokkien (which is actually my native dialect, i’m trying to catch up on learning it because i feel like it’s important for me to be able to speak my own dialect)
10. answered this earlier :3 but i will add that my favourite series growing up was Wings of Fire by Tui T Sutherland, i first picked it up because it had a dragon on the cover and i was obsessed with dragons at the age of 10
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a little late, but Happy Seollal!
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Lunar New Year family photo! Big thank you to @onlywhump for helping me get the hanbok details right 😁
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mybrainproblems · 1 year
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sorry but i am going to be very american and selfish and navel gaze-y for a moment but this is on my mind a lot as we approach february. just... ignore me.
i'm of ukrainian heritage. i'm also completely disconnected from my heritage because my great-great/great-grandparents fully assimilated as americans.
with the exception of my great-uncle (who lives far away and i rarely see), i have no living relatives who know much about our heritage (or are willing to talk about it in any detail beyond the romanticized ~*immigrant experience*~). everything i know about our family comes from my uncle because everyone else is dead; either died elderly and comfortable in the US or likely died in the holodomor. trying to research my family is useless bc my great-grandpa changed his last name to something completely made up so he could find work when he was in his early teens. this has always been a "fun" legend in our family; the choice to disconnect. it's a story our family has always told like it was some sort of wacky hijinks and as a kid was very funny but now, in my 30s and watching a cultural genocide unfold in ukraine, it feels devastating.
there are a small handful of things my family has held onto while also losing. there's the lost recipe for my great-grandma's holubsti (a word i didn't know how to spell until recently) that my family mourns every time we get together. i used to make pysanky for easter with my parents, which was passed down from my great-great aunt. my dad inherited her pysanky dyes after she passed away and we had them for years before most of the jars broke in a move. we have one remaining unbroken pysanka from her that i think she made in the 70s. i cannot imagine having hands so steady to make those intricate designs. mine always came out looking like shit.
i've always been curious about this part of my heritage but never felt any great need to seek it out until now. it feels fake and disingenuous to be interested in learning about this part of my heritage as a result of a war. that i didn't seek it out sooner. what is wrong with me that i care now.
i'm not sure where i'm going with this. i'm not sure what or how i'm supposed to feel. what i do feel is lost and angry and sad and selfish for feeling this way.
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afrodytis · 1 year
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Unveiling the Timeless Craft: Native Berber Women of Morocco Preserving the Essence of Argan Oil
Deep in the heart of Morocco, a remarkable tradition lives on. For centuries, Berber indigenous women have meticulously crafted argan oil using age-old techniques, ensuring its purity and authenticity. They hold the key to unlocking the secrets of this precious elixir, passed down through generations.
Picture a scene where the argan nuts gracefully fall from the mighty argan trees, only to be gathered by these skilled artisans. With utmost precision, they crack open the nuts, revealing the coveted argan kernels within. In a mesmerizing display of dedication, they grind and cold-press these kernels using stone grinders or semi-mechanical cold-pressing machines.
It is through this laborious process that the culinary-grade argan oil, renowned for its distinct flavor and culinary delights, is born. Meanwhile, the cosmetic-grade argan oil takes shape, brimming with natural wonders to nourish and enhance the beauty of the skin, hair, and body.
The Berber women passionately explain that their time-honored method maintains the oil's integrity. No heated machines, no shortcuts. Every drop of argan oil is meticulously cold-pressed, preserving its organic essence and unleashing its full potential.
This stands in stark contrast to commercial manufacturers who prioritize mass production over quality. Their heated machines strip away the oil's healing properties and vital nutrients. Cheap alternatives flood the market, compromised by heat processing, resulting in less effective moisturization, softening, protection, and healing for your skin, hair, and body. Their origins remain a mystery, as they are often stored in colossal drums, their pressing dates lost to time. These oils embark on lengthy sea voyages, enduring months before reaching their final destination.
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sefarad-haami · 7 days
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Sephardic Studies Program
🇺🇸 The Sephardic Studies Program at the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies has rapidly become a global hub for delving into Sephardic history, culture, and the Ladino language. Situated in Seattle, home to a vibrant Sephardic community for over a century, the program aims to preserve and rejuvenate the rich heritage of Sephardic Jews. Partnering with local institutions, it has curated the Sephardic Studies Digital Collection, a treasure trove of over 2,000 items including Ladino books and archival materials. Through research, teaching, and community engagement, the program fosters a deep understanding of Sephardic traditions. The annual International Ladino Day, a highlight of campus activities, brings together diverse voices to celebrate Ladino's past, present, and future.
🇪🇸 El Programa de Estudios Sefardíes en el Centro Stroum para Estudios Judíos se ha convertido rápidamente en un centro global para explorar la historia, cultura y el idioma ladino de los sefardíes. Ubicado en Seattle, hogar de una vibrante comunidad sefardí por más de un siglo, el programa tiene como objetivo preservar y revitalizar el rico patrimonio de los judíos sefardíes. En colaboración con instituciones locales, ha curado la Colección Digital de Estudios Sefardíes, un tesoro de más de 2,000 elementos que incluyen libros en ladino y materiales de archivo. A través de la investigación, la enseñanza y la participación comunitaria, el programa fomenta una comprensión profunda de las tradiciones sefardíes. El Día Internacional del Ladino, un punto destacado de las actividades en el campus, reúne voces diversas para celebrar el pasado, presente y futuro del ladino.
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