Hi and welcome to ‘a handful of history’, my fortnightly sharing of real-life stories from around the world. All the narratives I pick are rooted in history one way or another, yet I feel that most of them carry themes and happenings that seem very present day-like. I create this blog out of love and curiosity for the field of human history and culture, and I’m happy that you find it interesting too. My blog and newsletters are free; if you want to help me keep it going, please join my newsletter. THANK YOU. Thanks for being here - let's dive in. Enjoy! Majken xx
How do you know what’s true?
In 1950 the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa released his film “Rashomon” which became a classic. The movie - which is based on two short stories by the Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa - tells us the tale of the murder of a man and the rape of his wife from the perspective of four different people: the wife herself, a bandit, a samurai, and a woodcutter. Each character’s testimony, all very different from each other, takes on a truthful quality, so once the film is over, the audience can’t tell which one to trust. Who ended the samurai’s life? And was the wife actually raped?
From the film, the phenomenon ‘The Rashomon effect’ was introduced. The Rashomon effect is when an event is given contradictory interpretations or descriptions by the individuals involved. The Rashomon effect, in other words, undermines the very idea of a singular, objective truth. And this particular phenomenon has been investigated by scientists in different areas.
In the TED talk How do you know what’s true? we are told that neuroscientists have found that when we form a memory, our interpretation of what we see and hear (and smell and feel) is influenced by experiences we’ve had previously. And also, it is based on internal biases.
We add new layers to the memory, so to speak, but still, in our own view, we see it as ‘exactly how it happened’, just like the characters in the Rashomon movie.
One example of a personally added layer is egocentric bias. Egocentric bias can influence people to subconsciously reshape their memories in ways that positively reflect their actions - no matter what ‘really’ happened.
The Rashomon effect can pop up anywhere, the TED video explains. In biology, for instance, it is seen that scientists starting from the same dataset and applying the same analytical methods frequently publish different results. And in the field of anthropology, the personal backgrounds of the experts can have an impact on their perception.
In one famous case, two anthropologists visited the Mexican village of Tepoztlan. The first researcher described life in the town as happy and contented, while the second recorded residents as paranoid and disgruntled.
So how do you know what’s true? Does objective truth exist? And what can different versions of the same event tell us about the time, place and people involved? There are no definitive answers, and as the TED talk points out, perhaps it is not so important.
Mapping
“We live in the Age of Maps: more than 99.9 per cent of all the maps that have ever existed have been made in the last 100 years”, it says in the podcast Mapping from This American Life. I didn’t know that. But it makes sense when you think about it. You see maps everywhere. On a daily basis, like on the news. Often they are traditional maps showing a geographical spot. But there are many things you can map if you like. In this podcast, the hosts introduce us to a mapping of the five senses: Sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste.
There’s a guy who maps his neighbourhood in alternative ways - he creates a map of how light falls on the ground through the leaves of trees (I’m curious to see that). There’s a woman who maps her own body over and over again (she is, it turns out, afraid that she has a dangerous disease).
One of the most surprising episodes for me was when the host visited a science centre in which they were developing an electronic nose. - An electronic nose! - Wow. We are told it is to be used in industries, e.g., for detecting dangerous gasses. And in the medical world so that doctors can get help diagnosing - mapping - certain diseases that have a distinctive smell. That’s pretty cool.
Illustration: Map of phone, cable, and power lines in Boylan Heights by Denis Wood. Denis Wood, whose work is part of the 'Mapping' podcast, is a geographer and independent scholar. His most well-known book is The Power of Maps which began as an exhibition Wood curated for the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in 1992 (and remounted the following year at the Smithsonian). Wood has since written numerous books that critique and investigate the political and social implications of mapmaking.
Between Strangers
I’m sure you know the situation: you have a daily commute routine and soon you start meeting the same people. And somehow, it’s as if you begin to know these people, although you don’t know them at all. Perhaps you even start to care for them at some level, or at least you get curious about who they are, where they live, what they do for a living, their families, their hobbies, and perhaps you even wonder if they are happy in their lives.
In the poetic short movie “Between Strangers,” a guy takes the train from Poughkeepsie train station to NYC every morning and returns in the afternoon. And so does another guy, he notices. For some 15 years, the two men moved in the same lane only parallel. They never speak. But somehow, they are still part of each other's life. The narrator reflects not only on his fellow commuter but on the paradox of how we crowd in trains, subways, and city streets and yet still have decided to remain strangers on some intuitive level.
"Between Strangers" by filmmakers Jimmy Ferguson and Catherine Gubernick.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments I'd love to hear from you! Just go here and send me your message. Thank you - Majken xx
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