Mary Catherine Bateson (1939–2021)
Forfatter af Composing a Life
Om forfatteren
Mary Catherine Bateson is a writer and cultural anthropologist. Bateson has written and co-authored many books and articles, and lectures across the country and abroad. She has taught at Harvard, Northeastern University, Amherst College, Spelman College and abroad in the Philippines and in Iran. In vis mere 2004 she retired from her position as Clarence J. Robinson Professor in Anthropology and English at George Mason University and is now Professor Emerita. She serves on multiple advisory boards including the National Center on Atmospheric Research and the NSF, dealing with climate change. Mary Catherine Bateson's books in print include Composing a Life, Our Own Metaphor, and Peripheral Visions, as well as a memoir, With a Daughter's Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. Her latest is Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom (Knopf September 2010). Bateson divides her time between New Hampshire and Massachusetts. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre
Image credit: Mary Catherine Bateson
Serier
Værker af Mary Catherine Bateson
Hvor engle ej tør træde : på vej mod en erkendelsesteori om det hellige (1987) — Forfatter — 196 eksemplarer
Arabic Language Handbook (Georgetown Classics in Arabic Language and Linguistics) (2003) 29 eksemplarer
Associated Works
Mentale systemers økologi : skridt i en udvikling (1972) — Forord, nogle udgaver — 1,231 eksemplarer
A World of Ideas : Conversations With Thoughtful Men and Women About American Life Today and the Ideas Shaping Our… (1989) — Interviewee — 550 eksemplarer
Sacred Stories: A Celebration of the Power of Story to Transform and Heal (1993) — Bidragyder — 103 eksemplarer
Satte nøgleord på
Almen Viden
- Juridisk navn
- Bateson, Mary Catherine
- Fødselsdato
- 1939-12-08
- Dødsdag
- 2021-01-02
- Køn
- female
- Nationalitet
- USA
- Fødested
- New York, New York, USA
- Dødssted
- Dartmouth, New Hampshire, USA
- Dødsårsag
- complications from a fall
- Bopæl
- The Philippines
Iran
Virginia, USA
Atlanta, Georgia, USA - Uddannelse
- Harvard University (PhD - Linguistics and Middle Eastern Languages)
Radcliffe College (BA)
Brearley School - Erhverv
- professor emerita (Anthropology and English)
cultural anthropologist
memoirist - Relationer
- Bateson, Gregory (father)
Mead, Margaret (mother) - Organisationer
- Institute for Intercultural Studies (President)
George Mason University
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Amherst College
Brandeis University (vis alle 8)
Spelman College
Boston College
Medlemmer
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Composing a life af Mary Catherine Bateson
This is the study of five artists engaged in the act of creation that engages us all -- the composition of our lives. Each of us has worked by improvisation, discovering the shape of our creation along the way, rather than pursuing a vision already defined. Thus Mary Catherine Bateson begins her extraordinary book, in which she uses the complex and varied lives of four women, as well as her own life, to explore the work in progress -- the life creatively lived.
Most learning is not linear. [30]
"Peripheral vision" serves Bateson as metaphor for a juxtaposition of ideas (from cultures, situations, languages, etc) prompting linkages and meaning otherwise unlikely to emerge. Contrast is key for learning, and rather than describing a linear path, learning typically is helical, layered, a "rising spiral". [82]
Participation precedes learning. [41]
In contrast to an increasingly predominant outlook, which insists upon knowing all the rules, and perhaps even a mastery of their application (acquired, for example, in private practise and exercise) before fully participating in the real thing, Bateson explores the ubiquity of social interactions which proceed in the opposite fashion: a person is dropped into a performance in medias res, immersed, a participant observer, and picks up how things are done precisely as they unfold around and against oneself.
Bateson makes a further point: formal learning, as in school or in professional training, often adopts the first outlook; informal learning, the second. While it is commonly held that informal learning occurs throughout life, formal learning frequently is expected to occur at certain times of life, and less frequently the older one gets. [74] Bateson suggests both approaches should remain options throughout life, and a key tactic is an appropriate conception of self: clinging to a belief in a fixed self turns out to be a barrier to learning. [64-65]
Because the self is the instrument of knowledge, different concepts of self offer different criteria for truth, whether social or private. [65]
In seeing juxtaposition of all sorts (cultures, personal roles, identities, experiences at different times, different experiences at one time) as an opportunity for recognising patterns or linkages, and therefore as a catalyst for insight and learning, Bateson suggests we cultivate such juxtaposition. This principle leads to some surprising conclusions: for one, that boredom is a learned behavior, and effectively countered by an attitude of learning. [Chapter 8] For another: specialization and efficiency are forms of toxicity, both because "by emphasizing a single thread of activity, we devalue the learning running throughout" multiple activities which overlap [108], as e.g. frequent interruptions or multi-tasking offer [97]; and because "those who will one thing are the most dangerous people around, even if that one thing is apparently something good." [104]
There is in Peripheral Visions some consideration of pedagogy but primarily Bateson's focus is upon learning, not teaching. Implications for teaching are plenty, of course, but typically not explicit. I remarked one exception: stating her intentional use of examples from at least three different cultures to avoid the human predilection for assuming one of just two examples is "superior" to the other. [24]
Knowledge is like the Biblical loaves and fishes, increasing when it is shared. [181]… (mere)
"Peripheral vision" serves Bateson as metaphor for a juxtaposition of ideas (from cultures, situations, languages, etc) prompting linkages and meaning otherwise unlikely to emerge. Contrast is key for learning, and rather than describing a linear path, learning typically is helical, layered, a "rising spiral". [82]
Participation precedes learning. [41]
In contrast to an increasingly predominant outlook, which insists upon knowing all the rules, and perhaps even a mastery of their application (acquired, for example, in private practise and exercise) before fully participating in the real thing, Bateson explores the ubiquity of social interactions which proceed in the opposite fashion: a person is dropped into a performance in medias res, immersed, a participant observer, and picks up how things are done precisely as they unfold around and against oneself.
Bateson makes a further point: formal learning, as in school or in professional training, often adopts the first outlook; informal learning, the second. While it is commonly held that informal learning occurs throughout life, formal learning frequently is expected to occur at certain times of life, and less frequently the older one gets. [74] Bateson suggests both approaches should remain options throughout life, and a key tactic is an appropriate conception of self: clinging to a belief in a fixed self turns out to be a barrier to learning. [64-65]
Because the self is the instrument of knowledge, different concepts of self offer different criteria for truth, whether social or private. [65]
In seeing juxtaposition of all sorts (cultures, personal roles, identities, experiences at different times, different experiences at one time) as an opportunity for recognising patterns or linkages, and therefore as a catalyst for insight and learning, Bateson suggests we cultivate such juxtaposition. This principle leads to some surprising conclusions: for one, that boredom is a learned behavior, and effectively countered by an attitude of learning. [Chapter 8] For another: specialization and efficiency are forms of toxicity, both because "by emphasizing a single thread of activity, we devalue the learning running throughout" multiple activities which overlap [108], as e.g. frequent interruptions or multi-tasking offer [97]; and because "those who will one thing are the most dangerous people around, even if that one thing is apparently something good." [104]
There is in Peripheral Visions some consideration of pedagogy but primarily Bateson's focus is upon learning, not teaching. Implications for teaching are plenty, of course, but typically not explicit. I remarked one exception: stating her intentional use of examples from at least three different cultures to avoid the human predilection for assuming one of just two examples is "superior" to the other. [24]
Knowledge is like the Biblical loaves and fishes, increasing when it is shared. [181]… (mere)
Liked the general premise but was hoping for more... Disappointed by the bitter and condescending tone.
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