A History of Emotions: awe

Showing posts with label awe. Show all posts

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

a midnight moment on skye

the photo was shot by Alan MacAteer, the event was the NVA production, the Storr took place in August 2005 and was one of the most amazing things i ever went to. Sounds and lights rolled down the mountain at midnight as walkers trailed through a wonderland.

though it being skye, the night i went up the rain hammered down in biblical fashion and the return was somewhat heavy going....

Monday, 20 October 2008

skye is filled with light

not mine, i lack such talents. just an image that inspires awe. for those that don't know it's the old man of Storr on Skye. the photographer is the very , very good ian cameron

anyone know what the evolutionary value of awe is? if it was to inspire respect for the environment around us in those early days of first migrations out of africa, then we need some more of it. sadly that feels too neat though. answers most welcome...

Blogging on the History of Emotions - an introduction

I started this blog back in about October 2008 to record and develop some thoughts on a subject that had become increasingly fascinating to me.

The History of Emotions is a growing field that spans several academic disciplines, notably history, anthropology and cognitive psychology. However, I think it's something that can be enormously interesting to the rest of us...

What is it? In essence, I guess it's the study of how we may have felt and acted emotionally in different societies across times and place.

For example, it is said that romantic love began around the 12th Century AD in southern France, when the troubadours created stories of unrequited love, sowing the seed for a flower that still blooms today. And yet it was not always so, time was when love did not have the form it does now.

This to me is a source of wonder. As a thousand other examples come forward, some in subtle forms, others as alien as something from another world, so we can be astonished by ourselves. All however are human and offer us food for thought on how to live on this planet.

Not being an academic but a journalist by trade, it's immediately obvious that what I write is not of an academic, peer reviewed standard. These are largely my thoughts and opinions on a haphazard trawl through something I find interesting.

Much of what I write is speculative questioning - so all contributions are most welcome. I'm keen to learn more about the field as well as receive wider opinions on what I write.

I have started including some interviews and rudimentary research on the site. The people in question have very kindly taken time to answer a few simple questions on the subject that may provide anyone who's interested with a basic understanding of the field.

Sometimes the more academic stuff out there assumes a lot for the lay reader to take in and some of the debates require so much clarification of what is an emotion, or what is acceptable as methodology and sourcing etc as to be quite hard work.

Hopefully this site doesn't do that, though as I've mentioned before it's a bit haphazard. Such is the nature of whim upon an interest.

The idea ultimately is to make a documentary (I work in TV mostly) about the subject, but there's so much to learn about first that I'm just taking it one step at a time.

The photos are just because I love the Highlands and Islands of Scotland which I try and visit when I can - hence the user name scot in exile. My thanks to the photographers who let me post their work up here. God knows my own is pretty ropey and doesn't do that amazing place justice.

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Wednesday, 12 November 2008

a midnight moment on skye

Monday, 20 October 2008

skye is filled with light