Tuesday, July 19, 2016
What's Up With North?
Let's end our work this summer by rethinking our place on the planet. More exactly, we will examine the ways we subjectively orient ourselves, their bases, and their consequences. First, please read this short article. Next, contextualize it for yourself by considering a specific way that your perception of the orientation of the earth affects your understanding of countries, relationships, culture, etc. In your writing, examine the ways of knowing at work. Does your language reflect your conceptualization? Do you have emotional responses based on geographic orientation? Finally, pose and answer a knowledge question based on your musings. This is due Sunday 24 July and is your last TOK work for the summer. See you on campus.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
After reading the article, I went to search the South-up maps, and they shocked me on some extent. I have never seen Australia at the top of a map, also China, it did not look like a hen on this map, but just a normal land. The statement said "It is not any particular way up and there is no good reason other than a historical superiority complex to think of north as being the top of the world." made me think if I always have stereotypes, as I think directions are north 'up' and south 'down'. Based on my sense perceptions, I realized my bias toward certain natural science events. This also led me to think how does sense perception explains natural science and let learners eliminate their bias? Personally speaking, I think sense perception has led me to emotional responses on the geographic orientation. Now I understand what I see may not be the truth, especially in natural science, because except scientists (and not always) can prove us on time data, and those should be more trustworthy than my own eyes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the author that people’s impression of a country or a place depends on its orientation. However, I disagree with her opinion that north=up=positive. Most Japanese people have negative emotion against the north. Because in Japan, a dead body’s head always towards the north in the coffin. Japanese people never sleep their heads toward the north. Sleeping head toward the north is called “kitamakura”, and we believe that it can cause an ominous event in our lives. As we also can see from the example of Chinese emperor the author mentioned, the superior orientation depends on a country’s culture.
ReplyDeleteWhen I contextualized my thought, I used my emotion, reason, faith, and language as the ways of knowing. After I read this article, I used my emotion to determine how I think of the north and used reason to discover why I felt so. My negative emotion against the north is strongly related to the faith Japanese people have. Additionally, I used my language to convey my thought which I think reflected my conceptualization well.
KQ: To what extent can one’s impression of knowledge be affected by his/her faith?
I think subconsciously some people think of the more northern countries as more positive and desirable due to the orientation of the countries on maps. In the Christian religion, there are two locations for the afterlife. Heaven is for all of the people who have not sinned or have been forgiven, and hell is for the people who's sins are unforgivable, and they burn there for all eternity. Heaven is located in the sky (north) and hell is located underground (south). These may have subtle subconscious implications and biases for a knower if they are looking at a map and judging the countries. I have used several ways of knowing; however, sense perception, and faith are the most prominent. I used sense perception to understand and respond to the question. While discussing Heaven and Hell, faith is used because it is discussing religion. This could pose the question, how does the existence of faith and religion influence a knowers bias towards specific countries? As previously stated, a knower who believes in the Christian religion could have a negative bias towards southern countries because of the subconscious relation to Hell. However, if a knower does not believe in the Christian religion then they could not have any bias towards the locations of specific countries.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, it has become human nature to class ourselves in different hierarchies. To solidify these, many have developed the bad habit of validating their ranks through any means possible; in this case, it is geographically. In reading this article, my perspective was altered in the sense that geographical locations in this world, reflect the on going struggle of equality. It is one thing to identify the 4 latitudes of our world, but it is much more harmful to put a label on them, as we have on many things, resulting in unequal values. As I have never before acknowledged the fact that there is no factual evidence to support these 4 latitudes, it makes me uncomfortbale and uneasy, for I question how countries view themselves in the culture wars simply based on their geographical locations in regards to this. These false labels have caused far more problems in the world than we think, for our supiarity and segregation has been influenced, whether it be consciously or subconsciously.
ReplyDeleteAs I digested this article, I wondered how a knower's ethical background affects their sense perception. Regarding this issue, it adds a bias aspect on their sense of perception because people inherintley gravitate towards something inwhich they associate as safer, more comfortable or easier, as based on previous experience.
I am a person with no sense of direction so I have always avoided thinking of things in a sense of north and south but rather up and down from wherever I am. One significant example of better being higher is heaven and hell. In Christianity heaven is considered to be "above" the earth and it is where God is and where good people go where as hell which is considered bad is down beneath the earth and it is where sinners go. In ancient Greece the Gods were thought to live on mount olympus which was high above the earth where the less "good" humans lived. Emotion is a major way of knowing in this sense because people are trained to have a sense of happiness with heaven and fear with knowledge along with religious knowledge that what is up is better than what is down.
ReplyDeleteKQ: To what extent does religious knowledge affect the way knowers understand the world?
Many northern countries are considered to be better than many southern counties. Many first world countries have a northern orientation to many third world countries. This could very well be due to the fact that because of how we orient the world according to that in religion heaven is up and hell is down.
After reading the article, I wanted to find someone else to discuss what I had just learned. I absolutely agree with what the author was saying, but also think that my personal biasis might have dictated some of my opinions. One example of this is that, because I'm from the Northern United States, I am more used to seeing were I'm from at the top of the world. It would be very odd for me to see Massachusetts at the 'bottom' of the map. Another example of personal bias that I thought about while reading the article was the way the US always seems to want to save everyone else in the world. While reading the article, I wondered if that mentality would change or shift if the US was positioned differently on the map. While reading the article, I used emotion, reason and sense perception as ways of knowing. I really liked the article since it not only made me imploy different ways of knowing, but also made me think and want to share the knowledge I'd learned with other people.
ReplyDeleteKQ: To what extent does personal bias interfere with or change a knower's interpretation and application of shared knowledge?
Personal bias changes a knower's interpretation and application of shared knowledge to a great extent since it dictates how much the knower is affected by the knowledge learned. Combined with emotion, reason or other ways of knowing, personal bias plays a large factor in the way shared knowledge is interpreted and shared by the knower.
From when I was very young, I was told that north is up, south is down, west is left and east is right. For a very long time, I thought that no matter where I stand, and no matter where I am facing, north is always the direction I’m facing and east is on my right side. I use “front, back, left, right” in my life more, and the concept of north, south, east and west is very vague for me. Before reading this article, I’ve never thought about why we look at maps like we do now. This is a really interesting thought but I think I will not be able to recognize any of the countries on the map and will be miserable. I kind of resisted this idea because I can’t even find the place I want to go using the map we have now, therefore I don’t think if it will be easier for me to use an up-side-down map. When I contextualized my thoughts, I used reasoning and memory to figure out what would happen to me if direction of the countries are changed on the map. I also used my imagination.
ReplyDeleteKQ: To what extent can one’s own experiences affect how he/she accept other knowledge that’s related to his or her experiences?
A person’s own experience can affect how he or she accept other knowledge that’s related to his or her experience to a big extent. If a person had a negative experience, he or she would most likely react somewhat negatively to the knowledge that is related to the experience.
My perception of the orientation of the earth affects the way I look at the world. Everything I know about where I am in the world, I do so because of my perception that north is up, and south is down. So I know that I was originally born in the Southern Hemisphere, in Argentina. And later on moved north. I remember learning these directions from a young age. Never eat soggy waffles, they would tell me. Naughty elephants spit water would also work. We used these mnemonic devices to learn where the north south east and west were in the general map. My orientation of the earth has shaped my understanding of my culture, knowing that my home will always be south in the map. I use memory to remember what I have learned and apply the fact that north is up and south is down. I also use emotion to interpret these. I know that usually when people use the word “south” in a conversation, it could mean things are not going as planned, for example “things went south from there”, means that things got worse after that. I use reason to understand where I am positioned in the world, in the terms of north, south, east, or west. I do not understand how my standing in the world affects how I feel about where I am. For example, although I am in the south of the world when I come to Argentina, I feel no lesser about it than when I am in the north in Massachusetts.
ReplyDeleteKQ: How does a knowers emotion affect its feelings about locations in the world?
I have always associated North and South with temperature. Coming from a, what I had considered, Northern part of the world, we had always had seasons. Hot summers, colorful autumn, freezing winters, and wet, dismal spring. However I was also brought up in a Southern part of the world that had cold winters, rather than freezing, and sweltering summers, rather than just hot. Growing up this way I have always noted that people in 'northern' regions are less happy than those who are in 'southern' regions. I found that often cultures in southern regions are happier and much more vibrant than those in the north. Due to this, I associated levels happiness with the temperature. I also noticed that languages in warmer climates are soft and melodic much like the surrounding culture and weather, where as those in colder 'northern' or nordic climates I found harsh and sharp, similar to both weather and culture. In the article something that jumped out at me was the positioning of the wealthy and the poor in the experiments. I have always associated happiness with the south, and warmth with the south, and never linked wealth with location. This makes me wonder how do sense perception and personal knowledge impact bias when determining shared knowledge?
ReplyDeleteSense perception is key in shaping our personal knowledge, without it we would not be able to have experiences to contribute to create shared knowledge. If enough people have a similar experience, the shared knowledge created is bias in favor of that particular experience. In this context the way that I grew up changed the way that I thought of emotions and material value; hence, shifting my bias, and creating a new version of shared knowledge (similar to the way that North was thought to be up, and South down as mentioned in the article).
While reading the article, I did not realize my bias towards other countries based on where they are placed on North- up map. The article also posed the idea that North= good/ rich and South= bad/ poor. So, as the article recommended, I looked up a South- up map and almost instantly, my ideas of countries shifted. The United States is higher on the map than Canada and to me means that The U.S. is richer and better than Canada, which would not have been true to me if the map was North- up. South Africa was also the top of Africa, so with the author’s theory in place that would mean that it was richer and better that the other African countries. The media makes this seem not to be true as it publicizes their faults and poverty. I also noticed that most of the first world countries are on the bottom of the map. With the author’s theory, this would mean that countries such as England, Italy, Russia, and the United States are worse and poorer than Cuba, Libya, Sudan, and North Korea. Based on sense perception, I concluded that where I see a country on a North- up map, affects the way I consider the country's economical and social stance in society.
ReplyDeleteKQ: This leads to the question, to what extent does indigenous knowledge systems affect a knower’s understanding of the world?
Answer: The answer to this is that based on the way knower sees a map oriented in a South- up or North- up position and the way their country publicizes other countries around the world through social media. Through media, third world countries are only seen in a negative light, but shown as if it were in the North makes it seen to be better/richer than (same can be said for first world countries).
After reading the article, I searched for the south-up map, and I realized that the orientation of a map really affects readers’ emotion towards the country I feel that with sense perception, people tend to think that the objects that’s on the top of the page is more important. Therefore, when I was reading a map that’s north-up, I focus mostly on the countries on the top, if not necessary, I won’t look done to Africa or south America. However, when I read the south-up map, I would look close to Australia, Africa, or South American countries, and I feel they are more important than the countries down below. In this process, I used sense perception, emotion, memory.
ReplyDeleteKQ: Is the knowledge gained from sense perception always valid?
Answer: No. Normally we believe that scenes perception is a valid way of knowing cause that’s something that knower see and hear in person. However, in this case, the knowledge I got from the two kinds of maps are different because of the orientation of the map and my sense perception. But the material in the maps are the same. If the knowledge gain from sense perception is valid, the knowledge I gain from these two maps should be the same.
From the article, the north=good and south=poor analyzation caught my attention. The first thing I thought of was the underlying conceptions of the North vs. South in America. Relatively, in the North people tend to make more money than citizens residing in the South. However, living does tend to cost more in the North. Also, regarding relationships, politics is another factor in America that is shaped by the way we understand direction. Northerners, who may regard themselves as better to Southerns, demean them by titling them as "red necks" for example. This is evident through language as we hear common misconceptions about other people because of where they live especially when we review how historical events have heavily affected one's understanding of that region.
ReplyDeleteExamining the earth as a whole, there is a full horizon up north of the worlds strongest countries. As you move south, the power of those countries lying around and below the equator become limited. This understanding fully supports the idea of the north being understood as good and powerful, and the south as poor and vunerable. I searched for a map that highlights all the third world countries in the world and most if not all are in the south with the exception of Australia. All first world countries share a strip like a horizon up north. Sense perception is also aWOK that I used when analyzing these discoveries. As I understand the relationship between north/south and their connotations, it is evident when assessing the power of many countries based on their location.
In regards to emotion, I don't have any but I believe that helping to break that hierarchy will help in developing a safer and exceptional environment for everyone.
Knowledge Question:
How can language and reasoning play a big role and changing a perspective exceedingly divergent from your own?
If looking at a South-Up map, how can we use the north/south analyzation to observe different characteristics of countries besides money and power (with the new map)?
I found this article intriguing as I wondered how far this unconscious bias had already influenced cultural development and history. For instance, it discussed how when people were faced with the map of a hypothetical city they always chose to live in a location oriented near the top of the map, closer to north because up is ‘better’ - richer, stronger, more powerful, overall superior. However, what would it feel like to be living lower down in the map of the world or a city? Would there be an unconscious feeling of inferiority always present? Furthermore, I find it interesting that if you look at the grand scheme of things, it is on average the ‘lower’ continents, like South America and Africa, that are comprised of mainly third world countries and that have been pushed around and bullied by northern continents, like North America and Europe. Weather this is purely accidental or is in some part due to this unconscious bias is hard to say, but either way it is an interesting coincidence. Which finally raises the question, how great of a role do unconscious biases play in our everyday decisions as knowers? This is a difficult question to answer, but obviously far more than we realize as we can see by this one article. People would make decisions about where they live based on this unconscious bias of north being better, and surely it pervades their thinking and evaluation of the world and its people in other spheres as well. Unconscious biases are the most dangerous type, because we don't know they are there, making them the hardest to address.
ReplyDelete