Language

Speaking to others as humans comes naturally, I cannot imagine how we would work as a society without any type of language. Wether it is with our hands, written, expressions, and most importantly, by vocals meaning that we talk to one another through words that our ancestors made up and that we now are educated with to live our everyday life.

 1.-    The first part of this assignment required me to engage in a conversation but not use any type of language as in speaking, writing, or sign language. I decided to take the opportunity to engage in our daily lunch at work at the salon and try the experiment with co workers. I explained to them that it was an experiment for class and that i just needed them to act normal like if it were any other day. So me and the girls had a full conversation for about twenty minutes on what they did over the weekend. It was hard to not speak with words for I am a fairly talkative person and wanted to talk but could not. Instead, I went ahead and nodded, used facial expressions, and my hands as well- not to make sign language but actually thumbs up and thumbs down. I found this experiment difficult but in a way that at many times i wanted to speak out loud to give my opinion on what we were talking about but could not since I had to remain quiet at all times. The impressions of my co workers were surprised for some did not think i could manage to stay quiet past five minutes. Others, wanted to laugh at the fact that i was not speaking and made such funny faces at times. They did not alter the way of communicating, on the other hand, most of them got the hang of what i would try to say or express even though there were a few giggles since it felt like we were playing pictionary.  The culture i think that would have more advantages would be the speaking culture rather than a symbolic culture because they can use hands, words, expressions while symbolic culture cannot communicate with words.
     There are individuals in our culture who do not get the chance to speak for they had complications in their lives that made them not be able to communicate speaking languages. However, thanks to American Sign Language they have the ability to communicate with an alphabet made with hand gestures. This affects those who do speak because they may not know that the other person cannot speak but in an effort to make the non speakers feel comfortable, they try to find a way to communicate even with simple gestures. I think in our society people who do have the privilege to speak find it a bit awkward when interacting with someone who cannot communicate with words. Personally, i treat everyone the same, and when i encounter someone who does not speak but uses ASL instead, i take the extra time to understand what they are trying to explain as best and courteous as possible.


 2.-   In the second part, i was asked to talk but not use my hands, gestures, any facial expressions, or any difference in my tone of voice. This was HARD! I can be quiet for a while, but to talk and not express in my tone how excited i may be or sad, was tough, as well as not using my hands! I tend to express or do some kind of movement with my hands at almost all times when I'm talking it just comes naturally. I was able to last the fifteen minutes but like i said, it was hard to do so, i wanted to quit and just use my hands but i didn't. It was so boring to talk monotone and not be able to express how i really felt and that was what i found most difficult for me. I did the experiment with my co workers again and this time, they could not help but laugh on how serious i was being since I'm not much of a serious person at times, i think this definitely did make a difference in how they would communicate with me since half of them left the room because of how serious the look on my face was.
    I think what this experiment said about how we use signs in our language is that it plays a huge role in our everyday life and it is a very important factor to communicate effectively with others. If we all did not express how we felt by using our hands, raising our voices, or facial expressions, we would be boring! Not only that, but the way we communicate would not be the same and would definitely not mean the same to us as it does today.There are people who have difficulties reading body language, take for example people who cannot see.  There are advantages to that being that sometimes its better not to see what people are doing and disadvantages being that for that same reason, the other person can be doing something mean and you are not aware of it. It definitely makes quite the difference and i believe that we should all just treat one another with nothing but respect.

Piltdown Hoax

The Piltdown hoax is one of the most known scientific hoaxes of all time. In 1912, Charles Dawson, a paleontologist had contacted Arthur Woodward about findings of what could be human ancestor skull bones that Dawson had dug up. Other countries had their own skull structures and when the Piltdown Man was discovered was right after these countries already had theirs. In that same year, 1912, was when the rest of the parts were found that formed a skull for the Piltdown Man. However, years later it was discovered that the Piltdown Man was a fraud. It was actually the skull of a female orangutan whose skull was broken apart, and teeth were filed down. Forty years later the truth was found out but no one knows exactly who is responsible for the hoax itself. There are many suspects but no one knows exactly who is fully responsible for falsification of the so called "piltdown man". The remains were only about 100 years old and not even human related. The human faults that came into place in this situation would be self pride, and the fact that these people truly thought no one would notice that it was a fraud. Self pride i believe was the human fault that played the biggest role because other countries had found skulls and bones and i feel that the paleontologists of England felt like this was a race and that they needed to prove they too found remains of ancestors in their country as well to not be left behind and to look smart as well. Also, i think that whoever is fully responsible for the hoax, truly thought no one would find out the truth about the situation, when in fact people did find out the truth. Positive aspects of the scientific process that helped reveal the skull was a fraud would be the technology improvements that were made. The fact that the microscopes could detect that the teeth were filed down was a big help. As well as the chemical improvements such as being able to check the skull remains and examine them carefully with the lab materials. I think people don't have to necessarily remove the "human" factor to reduce chances of errors instead i think people should be honest and do their work able to be supported by facts, tested, and proven  that they are true. What I learned from this historical event regarding taking information from unverified sources is that as humans, we are gullible. Sometimes not intentionally but we do believe what people say and do without facts and i think we need to start to have facts and test what people tell us is correct and prove it for ourselves in order to not be as gullible.