Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

1. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn Key concepts: • Mother Culture • Domination • Evolution • Freedom & Captivity • Social Darwinism • “Takers” and “Leavers.”

2. ISHMAEL Worksheet • Ishmael pages 1-46 • 1. “With man gone will there be hope for gorilla?” What are the possible meanings of this? • 2. Why is the teacher a gorilla? (What is the author’s purpose? What does this allow him to do?) • 3. What could the tiger pacing in his cage represent? • 4. What is the significance of “Goliath” leaving Africa to become “civilized”? • 5. What are the different meanings of “captivity” in Ishmael? • 6. Why is his name Ishmael? • 7. “Nazi Germany was held captive by its myths.” What does this mean? • 8. “Takers”, “Leavers”, “Mother Culture” These are key terms in the book. Think about what they mean to “Nature and Society”. • 9. Think about the last sentence on page 46: “We have no creation myth. That’s a certainty.”

3. Myths • What is a “myth” according to Ishmael? • In the student’s creation story, what is fact and what is myth?

4. Dominant Cultural Myths • Insinuate themselves into our thinking before we’re aware of them. • Bind us together, and selectively blind. • Limit our ability to understand complexity. • Reduce the complexity of our reading and thinking.

5. Jellyfish Creation Myth • Anthropologist interview with a jellyfish: • What is your creation myth? • “Certainly we have an account of creation, but it is definitely not a myth!” • “We are a strictly rational people, who accept nothing that is not based on observation, logic, and the scientific method.”

7. Jellyfish interview • Anthropologist – When life appeared, did this happen on land or sea? • Jellyfish – “Land?” “What is land?” • “The dirt and rocks over there are simply the lip of the vast bowl that holds the sea.”

8. Jellyfish origin story • “For many millions of centuries the life of the world was merely microorganisms floating helplessly in a chemical broth. But little by little, more complex forms appeared: single celled creatures, slimes, algae, polyps, and so on.”

9. End of the story • “But finally,” the creature said, turning quite pink with pride as he came to the climax of his story, “but finally jellyfish appeared!”

11. Egocentric thinking • Humans do not naturally consider other points of view • As humans we live with the unrealistic but confident sense that we have fundamentally figured out the way things actually are, and that we have done this objectively. • MOTHER CULTURE

12. What is the point of the jellyfish story? • To see things from another perspective very different from your own • To recognize that you have a “world view” • To recognize that others take the same information you have and interpret it quite differently • To recognize that any viewpoint is limited or constrained by 1. the information available and 2. the limits to cognitive ability

13. Interest Blooms in Growing Jellyfish Boom David Malakoff SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA--Populations of some jellyfish appear to be exploding in several parts of the world, scientists reported at a marine science meeting here last week, raising fears that they are taking over ecosystems that nurture key commercial fish stocks. The Gulf of Mexico and the Bering and Black seas have been particularly hard hit. In some cases, however, researchers don't know whether the blooms are unusual or just natural population fluctuations.

14. Jellyfish Take Over an Over-Fished Area A medusa floats in the sea near the Adriatic town of Split, Croatia. Medusae are one of the species of jellyfish responsible for the bloom on the Namibian coast. July 21, 2006 · Critics of the fishing industry have long predicted that if over-fishing continues for much longer, "junk species" like jellyfish will start filling up the vacancies. Until recently, there was no evidence that the prediction would come true. But along the coast of Southern Africa, famously productive fisheries have crashed in recent years. In a new paper, English scientists say the spot on the food chain long occupied by these fish has now been filled by the largest jellyfish boom ever measured. These jellyfish are said to be so dense that they cause trawling nets to burst at the seams.

15. How would a jellyfish interpret these news stories?

16. Class Exercise for Today • Write and perform in class a “creation myth” from the point of view of another species. • For example: Update the jellyfish creation myth

17. Thinking critically • All our thoughts and perceptions are mediated through our • 1. physical sensory organs (think about a walk in the woods with your dog) • 2. Mother Culture • BUT this does not mean that all truth is relative, that one belief is as good as any other

18. Critical wisdom • The scientific method – allows us to get closer to the truth • No uncaused cause – arriving at truth is always a work in progress • The purpose of “wisdom” is to make you a better human being. More comfortable and confident with your own values and the ability to empathize with others. • [empathy does not necessarily mean acceptance of ideas]

19. The jellyfish story • Can be related to any discipline • Economics – “rational economic man” leads to a certain worldview as to the role of markets • Biology - gradualism versus punctuated equilibrium • Geology – plate tectonics

20. The Anthropic Principle • Observation – The universe appears surprisingly hospitable to the emergence of life in at least one particular place and time, namely the Earth now. • On one hand this seems like an unlikely series of occurrences • On the other hand if it hadn’t happened we wouldn’t be here to see it