The Civilization of Illiteracy Part 56

The writings of the various religions (Koran, Torah, New Testament) contain strictures and ceremonial rules concerning food. For cooking and eating restrictions in various cultures, see Nourritures, Socits et Religions: Commensalits (introduction by Solange Thierry). Paris: L'Harmattan, 1990.

On the microwave revolution in cooking, see:

Lori Longbotham. Better by Microwave. New York: Dutton, 1990.

Maria Luisa Scott. Mastering Microwave Cooking. Mount Vernon NY: Consumers Union, 1988.

Eric Quayle. Old Cook Books: An Ill.u.s.trated History. New York: Dutton. 1978; and Daniel S. Cutler. The Bible Cookbook. New York: Morrow, 1985, offer a good retrospective of what people used to eat.

In World Hunger. A Reference Handbook (Patricia L. Kutzner, Santa Barbara CA: ABC-Clio, 1991), the author gives a stark description of the problem of hunger in today's world:

"With more than enough food in the world to feed everyone, hundreds of millions of men, women, and children still go hungry" (p. ix).

It is not the first time in history that starvation and famine affect people all over the world. What is new is the scale of the problem, affecting well over one billion human beings. In June, 1974, in the a.s.sessment of the World Food Situation, commissioned by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the situation was described in terms still unchanged: "The causes of inadequate nutrition are many and closely interrelated, including ecological, sanitary, and cultural constraints, but the princ.i.p.al cause is poverty. This in turn results from socioeconomic development patterns that in most of the poorer countries have been characterized by a high degree of concentration of power, wealth, and incomes in the hands of relatively small elites of national and foreign individuals or groups. [...] The percentage of undernourished is highest in Africa, the Far East, and Latin America; the hunger distribution is highest in the Far East (in the range of 60%). Of the hungry, the majority (up to 90%) is in rural areas.

Data is collected and managed by the World Food Council. The Bellagio Declaration, Overcoming hunger in the 1990's, adopted by a group of 23 prominent development and food policy planners, development pract.i.tioners, and scientists noticed that 14 million children under the age of five years die annually from hunger related causes.

Among the organizations created to help feed the world are CARE, Food for Peace, OXFAM, Action Hunger, The Hunger Project, Save the Children, World Vision, the Heifer Project. This list does not include the many national and local organizations that feed the hungry in their respective countries and cities.

Science and Philosophy: More Questions than Answers

T.S. Elliot. Burnt Norton, in V. Four Quartets. London: Faber & Faber, 1936.

For information on the development of science and philosophy in early civilizations, see:

Shigeru Nakayama and Nathan Sivin, Editors. Chinese Science: Exploration of an Ancient Tradition. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1973.

Karl W. Butzer. Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt: a Study in Cultural Ecology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.

Heinrich von Staden. Herophilus: The Art of Medicine in Early Alexandria. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

The Cultural Heritage of India, (in 6 volumes). Calcutta: Ramakrishna Mission, Inst.i.tute of Culture, 1953.

James H. MacLachlan. Children of Prometheus: A History of Science and Technology. Toronto: Wall & Thompson, 1989.

Isaac Asimov. Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. The Lives and Achievements of 1195 Great Scientists from Ancient Times to the Present. Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1972. Fritz Kraft. Geschichte der Naturwissenschaft. Freiberg: Romback, 1971.

G.E.R. Lloyd. Methods and Problems in Greek Science Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Robert K.G. Temple. China, Land of Discovery. London: Patrick Stephens, 1986.

Temple doc.u.ments discoveries and techniques such as row cultivation and hoeing ("There are 3 inches of moisture at the end of a hoe,"), the iron plow, the horse harness, cast iron, the crank handle, lacquer ("the first plastic"), the decimal system, the suspension bridge as originating from China. In the Introduction, Joseph Needham writes: "Chauvinistic Westerners, of course, always try to minimize the indebtedness of Europe to China in Antiquity and the Middle Ages" (p.7).

What is of interest in the story is the fact that all these discoveries occur in a context of configurational focus, of synthesis, not in the sequential horizon of a.n.a.lytic Western languages. In some cases, the initial non-linear thought is linearized. This is best exemplified by comparing Chinese printing methods, intent on letters seen as images, with those following Gutenberg's movable type. Obviously, a text perceived as a holistic ent.i.ty, such as the Buddhist charm scroll (printed in 704-751) or the Buddhist Diamond Sutra of 868 (cf. p. 112) are different from the Bibles printed by Gutenberg and his followers. Contributions to the history of science from India and the Middle East also reveal that many discoveries celebrated as accomplishments of Western a.n.a.lytical science were antic.i.p.ated in non-a.n.a.lytical cultures.

Satya Prakash. Founders of Science in Ancient India. Dehli: Govindram Hasanand, 1986.

G. Kuppuram and K. k.u.mudamani, Editors. History of Science and Technology in India. Dehli: Sundeep Prakashan, 1990.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Islamic Science. Persia. Tihran: Surush, 1987.

Charles Finch. The African Background to Medical Science: Essays in African History, Science, and Civilization. London: Karnak House, 1990.

Magic, myth, and science influence each other in many ways.

Writings on the subject refer to specific aspects (magic and science, myth as a form of rational discourse) or to the broader issues of their respective epistemological condition.

Richard Cavendish. A History of Magic. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1977.

Gareth Knight. Magic and the Western Mind: Ancient Knowledge and the Transformation of Consciousness. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1991.

Umberto Eco. Foucault's Pendulum. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1989.

In this novel, Umberto Eco deals, in a light vein, with the occult considered as the true science.

Jean Malbec de Tresfel. Abrge de la Thorie et des vritables principes de l'art appel chymie, qui est la troisime partie ou colonne de la vraye medecine hermetique. Paris: Chez l'auteur,1671.

Adam McLean. The Alchemical Mandala. A Survey of the Mandala in the Western Esoteric Traditions. Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1989.

t.i.tus Burckhardt. Alchemie, Sinn und Weltbild. London: Stuart & Watkins, 1967. Translated as Alchemy. Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul, by William Stoddart.

Longmead/Shaftesbury/Dorest: Element Books, 1986.

Marie Louise von Franz. Alchemy. An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1980.

Neil Powell. Alchemy. The Ancient Science. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.

Stanislas Klossowski de Rola. Alchemy. The Secret Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 1973.

J.C. Cooper. Chinese Alchemy. The Taoist Quest for Immortality.

Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Aquarian Press, 1984.

Robert Zoller. The Arabic Parts in Astrology. The Lost Key to Prediction. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International (distributed by Harper & Row), 1989.

Dane Rudhyar. An Astrological Mandala. The Cycle of Transformation and Its 360 Symbolic Phases. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 1973.

Cyril f.a.gan. Astrological Origins. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1971.

Percy Seymour. Astrology. The Evidence of Science. Luton, Bedfordshire: Lennard, 1988.

Rodney Davies. Fortune-Telling by Astrology. The History and Practice of Divination by the Stars. Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Aquarian Press, 1988.

"Astrological herbalism distinguished seven planetary plants, twelve herbs a.s.sociated with signs of the zodiac and thirty-six plants a.s.signed to decantates and to horoscopes" cf.

Lvi-Strauss, Le cru et le cuit, p. 42. Ruth Drayer.

Numerology. The Language of Life. El Paso, TX: Skidmore-Roth Publications, 1990.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) n.o.bel prize laureate, 1921.