"Observing Your World" Week 1

Science is the process of trying to make sense of the world around us. Every culture has its own way of making sense of how the world works. Modern science follows a tradition of asking questions, forming hypothesese, testing the hypothesese through experimentation and recording observations. These observations are compared against the observations of others to see if the results are varifiable or reliable. Most of what we accept as factual in science was ascertained by this process. There are limitations to this world view and there are other ways of coming at the same information or at the very least recognizing patterns in the environment etc. without necessarily knowing why.What are your cultural ways of understanding the world? How do you do science? What conflicts have you faced or contradictions?


There are many explanations and reasons to how people observe their world. However, from my perspective and cultural background as a chamorro, I will share one interesting belief that has and is still being practiced from the good old days to modern society. The "chamorro culture" strongly believes that there are certain plant life that must not be disturb. Some are considered off limits, meaning not bothered, disturbed, or removed. For an example the "Banyan Tree" also known as "Trongkon Nunu" in chamorro, is believed to be the dwelling place of the ancient spirit called or known as the "TaoTao Mona". In english, taotao mona is called the people ahead of us or our ancestors. Moreover, the banyan tree MUST or SHOULD be respected and not disturbed, otherwise, those who disturbs the banyan tree will suffer from some form of illness or bad luck from the ancient spirits.