"We learn to live the particular psychic experience
that arises through configuration of emotioning
that arises through configuration of emotioning
that we live a s babies and children.
It is the emotioning entailed in what we
hear, see, touch, smell, or say,
or in what is said to us that
constitutes our
psychic existence."
It is the emotioning entailed in what we
hear, see, touch, smell, or say,
or in what is said to us that
constitutes our
psychic existence."
-Humberto Maturana
Okay, when I read this I must have been in a bad mood because alarm bells went off within the first page. In my initial mind (prior to our group discussion) I increasingly questioned many of the underlying assumptions Humberto was making in his article. Luckily, Jennifer advised me wisely to just "let the questions lie" and that is what I did. But they are still there.
First we need a little background. Earlier that day we heard an interesting speech by Maturana entitled "Our Genome Does Not Define Us." The speech was quite interesting. As he discussed the traditional mechanistic viewpoint that everything is determined by genes and invited us to think from a different viewpoint. Well that is what we did. While having studied genetics in some detail in college, additional questions arose from his speech about variability in genomic expression, overall, I tend to agree with many of his statements.
While his article on the origin of humanness in the biology of love article was equally interesting, there are many areas that I believe Maturana needs to examine in more detail. I enjoyed his thoughts on evolutionary biology and early human history though I do have additional questions.
Most of my questions revolve around his critique of the patriarchy as something that is undoubtedly bad for most societies. While I too have issues with patriarchal systems as well, I would not be willing to write them off as completely destructive as Maturana has. There are elements of patriarchy that are probably beneficial for our species and the environment just as there are examples where matriarchal systems occasionally overstep their bounds (much more rare as there are more patriarchal systems than matriarchal ones. I would wonder if we should strive to find the good in both systems and strike an ecological, gender, and cultural harmony rather than supplant one for the other.
Another area I would like to discuss is the reproductive history of women that Maturana discusses. Given the lack of reliable and safe birth control that really only became widely available to women in the developed world in the sixties, what was reproductive life like for women prior to that. Maturana writes, "As sexual intercourse must have been lived by our early ancestors as a source of pleasure and not procreation, pregnancy and birth must have appeared to them as a spontaneous manifestation of life through the female in its continuous changing, present..." (p. 113). Given the high rates of miscarriages, abortions, and premature deaths of women from difficulties in childbirth and the sheer challenge of raising many mouths (even in communal societies). I would think that experienced and older women might be more cautious as they got older and saw peers die from the complications associated with childbirth prior to the advent of modern day prenatal care and delivery.
I wonder if Maturana's thoughts in this regard are a byproduct of sexual revolution and the practice of free love in the sixties and seventies. These trends would mature and evolve as the growing AIDs epidemics of the eighties would appear forcing some measure of more conscious thought and careful consideration that might have been absent one or two decades earlier. As an educator it is extremely sad to see teens needlessly becoming pregnant or infected with a STD because we have failed to provide them with the information they need to make informed decisions. All children should be wanted children and one day I hope this is a dream that is achievable around the world.
While his article on the origin of humanness in the biology of love article was equally interesting, there are many areas that I believe Maturana needs to examine in more detail. I enjoyed his thoughts on evolutionary biology and early human history though I do have additional questions.
Most of my questions revolve around his critique of the patriarchy as something that is undoubtedly bad for most societies. While I too have issues with patriarchal systems as well, I would not be willing to write them off as completely destructive as Maturana has. There are elements of patriarchy that are probably beneficial for our species and the environment just as there are examples where matriarchal systems occasionally overstep their bounds (much more rare as there are more patriarchal systems than matriarchal ones. I would wonder if we should strive to find the good in both systems and strike an ecological, gender, and cultural harmony rather than supplant one for the other.
Another area I would like to discuss is the reproductive history of women that Maturana discusses. Given the lack of reliable and safe birth control that really only became widely available to women in the developed world in the sixties, what was reproductive life like for women prior to that. Maturana writes, "As sexual intercourse must have been lived by our early ancestors as a source of pleasure and not procreation, pregnancy and birth must have appeared to them as a spontaneous manifestation of life through the female in its continuous changing, present..." (p. 113). Given the high rates of miscarriages, abortions, and premature deaths of women from difficulties in childbirth and the sheer challenge of raising many mouths (even in communal societies). I would think that experienced and older women might be more cautious as they got older and saw peers die from the complications associated with childbirth prior to the advent of modern day prenatal care and delivery.
I wonder if Maturana's thoughts in this regard are a byproduct of sexual revolution and the practice of free love in the sixties and seventies. These trends would mature and evolve as the growing AIDs epidemics of the eighties would appear forcing some measure of more conscious thought and careful consideration that might have been absent one or two decades earlier. As an educator it is extremely sad to see teens needlessly becoming pregnant or infected with a STD because we have failed to provide them with the information they need to make informed decisions. All children should be wanted children and one day I hope this is a dream that is achievable around the world.
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