tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1133819134801574505.post3034014034869577877..comments2023-10-06T06:16:18.099-04:00Comments on The Sought-After: Taxonomy and AdoptionAndreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03887189203551681403noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1133819134801574505.post-3908204347631403882009-08-29T00:39:53.177-04:002009-08-29T00:39:53.177-04:00I manage a database of 2008 different species obse...I manage a database of 2008 different species observations for one bay. I think about taxonomy all the time. We estimate there may be about 8,000 different organisms. Every now and then I add a new one to the list myself, simply because I happen to see it and happen to manage the database and look it up and add it. It feels like when I meet it and then learn its name, it goes from being a stranger to family and blurs a separateness to a joined. I do feel it become part of my cosmology and relationships adding it into my extended existence, and I feel connected to it. Then I think of the 1000 or so critters I've seen the name of and don't know (haven't encountered) and the possible 6,000 out there that are unknown and feel what Brian said about being on the threshold of starting. <br /><br />Naming is definitely an act of separating, of distinguishing. Taxonomy is the science of that separating, but is also about joining it into families of relationships and lineages.<br /><br />My favorite taxonomy is of place, where the fuzziness of where the threshold of its existence begins and ends, like a neighborhood, which is a good analogy of how one species begins and another ends, or how one ego does.coruscatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10609173774285686234noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1133819134801574505.post-87786931881949303872009-08-18T11:35:06.768-04:002009-08-18T11:35:06.768-04:00Thanks, Suzanne and Brian for your comments.
Suza...Thanks, Suzanne and Brian for your comments. <br />Suzanne: seems like the Gestalt theory fits right in with what I'm writing about here--super interesting. Also, the idea of naming as a way of creating separation is interesting too--I'd love to know more about the Greek middle mode. Got any references I could check out.<br /><br />Brian: I agree that it's tempting to quit one's inquiry when we learn the name of a bird or plant; however, I think that adoptees rarely feel satisfied by just knowing a name of a birth family member, so I'm not sure the metaphor works there. <br />Thanks, both!<br />arAndreahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03887189203551681403noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1133819134801574505.post-75061188216259072112009-08-16T16:10:35.440-04:002009-08-16T16:10:35.440-04:00I have a middle response: naming something is bot...I have a middle response: naming something is both necessary and an obstacle.<br /><br />As another amateur science geek, for quite a few birds and wildflowers I will know their names and virtually nothing else about them. Until you learn something's name, it's virtually impossible to learn anything more about them, but it's also too easy to think you're done when you've learned the name. You haven't even started to learn what it's really about if all you know is the name.Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09301230860904555513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1133819134801574505.post-49009491289920522022009-08-15T14:43:17.246-04:002009-08-15T14:43:17.246-04:00Andrea, interesting blog. I was just reading about...Andrea, interesting blog. I was just reading about Gestalt therapy and how living creatures (not just human, but all of nature) seek wholeness. We are constantly restoring it, or trying to. There is a joke about a man who is sleeping at a hotel room and hears the person next door slam into his room, and the creek of his bed as he gets into it. Then he hears a shoe drop onto the floor. He waits 20 unbearable minutes and finally gets up to knock on the neighbor's door to ask: what happened to the other shoe?<br /><br />It illustrates how unfinished unresolved events can haunt us. At the same time, naming can create overabundance of separateness, as naming often requires opposites (hot-cold, light-dark, family-friend)<br />I hear that the greek language has a concept of middle mode, blending separateness with connectedness in a way that feels more true to life, at least to me. Maybe that offers a way for us all to heal. Thanks for the thought-provoking post. Suzannereluctantscorpiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04079383065828231640noreply@blogger.com