535
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_57
Chapter 57
The Geography of Contradiction
57.1 The Anthropology of the Sacred and Profane
David Berliner, professor of anthropology at Université Libre de Bruxelles, writes,
“Walt Whitman got it right when he wrote in ‘Song of Myself’ (1855): ‘Do I contradict myself? / Very well, then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes).’” Whitman was paraphrasing from Sir Thomas Browne, who, in turn, had
written, “We carry with us the wonders, we seek without us: There is all Africa, and
her prodigies in us; we are that bold and adventurous piece of nature, which he that
studies, wisely learns in a compendium, what others labour at in a divided piece and
endless volume.” And Berliner adds, “Humans live peacefully with contradictions
precisely because of their capacity to compartmentalize”
1
(The same cerebral “compartments” described in Chap. 43.) (Fig. 57.1).
This neural phenomenon is not restricted to vertebrates who have shown near
universal propensities for dialectics: joy and sorrow, mourning, and the re- acquisition
(or not) of some degree of normalcy after a period of time, particularly evident in
marine mammals, canids, and primates. But there are tomes of anecdotal evidence
for these same separated behaviors in invertebrates, most notably, among diverse
crustaceans. But within whole habitats we may reflect by any number of means
upon the obvious and great sorrow and holistic jubilation; systems of coherence and
incoherence; morbidity and revitalization that everywhere, and in every habitatteeming sentience, surround us.
Within the adventurous rubrics of the forces of life on one planet, the arbitrary
borders imposed by the conditions of human nation-states and sovereignties—
invariably having arisen through the course of great bouts of violence and attempts
at orderly reconciliation—highlight the nature of dyadic spaces, those sacred and
1 Religio Medici, by Sir Thomas Browne, 6
th Edition, Andrew Crook, London, 1669, p. 31. “How
Our Contradictions Make Us Human and Inspire Creativity,” Sapiens, December 14, 2016, https://
www.sapiens.org/culture/human-contradictions/. Accessed May 29 2020.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_57
Chapter 57
The Geography of Contradiction
57.1 The Anthropology of the Sacred and Profane
David Berliner, professor of anthropology at Université Libre de Bruxelles, writes,
“Walt Whitman got it right when he wrote in ‘Song of Myself’ (1855): ‘Do I contradict myself? / Very well, then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes).’” Whitman was paraphrasing from Sir Thomas Browne, who, in turn, had
written, “We carry with us the wonders, we seek without us: There is all Africa, and
her prodigies in us; we are that bold and adventurous piece of nature, which he that
studies, wisely learns in a compendium, what others labour at in a divided piece and
endless volume.” And Berliner adds, “Humans live peacefully with contradictions
precisely because of their capacity to compartmentalize”
1
(The same cerebral “compartments” described in Chap. 43.) (Fig. 57.1).
This neural phenomenon is not restricted to vertebrates who have shown near
universal propensities for dialectics: joy and sorrow, mourning, and the re- acquisition
(or not) of some degree of normalcy after a period of time, particularly evident in
marine mammals, canids, and primates. But there are tomes of anecdotal evidence
for these same separated behaviors in invertebrates, most notably, among diverse
crustaceans. But within whole habitats we may reflect by any number of means
upon the obvious and great sorrow and holistic jubilation; systems of coherence and
incoherence; morbidity and revitalization that everywhere, and in every habitatteeming sentience, surround us.
Within the adventurous rubrics of the forces of life on one planet, the arbitrary
borders imposed by the conditions of human nation-states and sovereignties—
invariably having arisen through the course of great bouts of violence and attempts
at orderly reconciliation—highlight the nature of dyadic spaces, those sacred and
1 Religio Medici, by Sir Thomas Browne, 6
th Edition, Andrew Crook, London, 1669, p. 31. “How
Our Contradictions Make Us Human and Inspire Creativity,” Sapiens, December 14, 2016, https://
www.sapiens.org/culture/human-contradictions/. Accessed May 29 2020.