The tempting, yet not applicable exhibit

So, as per group discussion, that exhibit in the MOA doesn't quite fit what we're talking about. It's more interested in creating interesting art than it is discussing written knowledge or anything along those lines. However, this makes sense, considering it is an art exhibit after all.
Let's keep our eyes open for something else that could enhance our group's learning in the area of written knowledge! Post suggestions here in the comments, or let's talk in class.

Maya Stela 5: Mormon Myths, Misconceptions, and Methodology

Izapa Stela 5

Today my post is a response to a presentation by Dr. Mark Wright that I attended yesterday at the Religion Symposium regarding Izapa Stela 5 (pictured to the right). As I reflected on his presentation, what I learned helped tie together written knowledge and the misconceptions that can occur when one misinterprets the written word of another culture or worse, takes it out of its cultural context. If these misinterpretations are then spread through both modern oral folklore and written knowledge, it becomes especially difficult to learn the truth as one's judgement's becomes trained to see what they want to believe.  
Dr. Wright is an expert in the Maya Hieroglyphs and has spent many field studies studying the Maya. He is particularly interested in correlations between the ancient Maya people and the Book of Mormon. 


Many experts have their theory about Stela 5. Some LDS scholars think that it depicts Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life as found in the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi Ch 8.  I have heard this Mormon myth before and was excited to learn if it had any validity.


Wright's objective was to demonstrate the importance of having good data and good methodology in order to have the most accurate conclusions that are not biased by one's assumptions regarding the interpretation of Maya hieroglyphs. 

Cursive? Old-fashioned or worth reviving? (A Response to Alex's Post)

Alex's post (In the Know(ledge): Miscellaneous Mesopotamia) got me thinking about different forms of handwriting and the devolution of handwriting in the United States. Our letters haven't changed, but the style in which we write them has changed. Think back to the formality of the calligraphy used to write the Declaration of Independence and John Hancock's classic, lavish signature. . . Now think of your own signature. . . Are they of the same quality? Probably not, but does it matter?

Miscellaneous Mesopotamia

While Sumerians wrote many things down, I couldn’t find anything to suggest that there have been journals, personal narratives, or philosophical musings recovered from this very early civilization. This suggests to me that writing was utilized at first in this society for necessities, and only be those wealthy and educated. This video, apparently from the Discovery Channel, addresses a lot of very interesting things about Sumerians and writing. It’s worth watching!

If Discovery Channel can be trusted, the stylus is actually a convenient and effective writing instrument. It has the necessary sharpness to be accurate in the soft clay, and is commonly and cheaply available. 

And this video just kind of caught my eye…

Now that we write, we can draw horribly inaccurate pictures!

As I mentioned in my post about the transition from an oral culture to a written culture in Rome, the Empire itself had a very important use for writing, especially as Rome tried to manage its empire. One thing that helped Rome not only manage its empire but also expand it was Roman cartography, which was very much related to writing.

Can Learning from History Actually Cause it to Repeat Itself?

I would like to continue our group discussion we had today, and develop this idea of whether or not learning from history actually stops us from repeating it.

To recap, someone mentioned that it is important that we have all of this history written down so that we can learn from the past and not repeat it. I agree. I think that it is important. However, I have worked with a lot of teens who have anger management and severe emotional issues, and it doesn't take long to figure out that they are unable to foresee the consequences of their actions. They live in a different world where everything is distorted, but this world is very REAL to them. Because they internalize things so differently than most, you have to be very careful what you teach them. For example, you may think that by showing a picture of an anorexic girl to another girl with anorexia, would help them see how unhealthy they are becoming. But because they live in an alternate reality, that picture might actually be presenting competition which aggravates their issue.  Instead of seeing an unhealthy person, and learning from their past (aka history), they see glory in the fact that someone was "successful" in disciplining and controlling themselves enough to reach new lows. This causes them to explore the tactics that others have used, often taking things to new extremes. Because they are unable to process the consequences, they wind up expounding upon the horrible ideas of those of the past.

Lets look a little bit deeper. Perhaps you do not understand the reality of these kinds of peoples' thoughts, because they seem so far away from your own. But let me introduce you to Eric Harris, an 18 year old boy at Columbine High School. Looking at his picture to the right, he seems like a normal kid, right? Wrong. After reading a lot of Eric's writings, it's obvious to see that he suffered from a great deal of emotional and mental issues; however, the thing that stood out to me the most was how he connected to those horrific historical events, and instead of wanting to avoid them, he sought to repeat it. And not only to repeat it, but to take it one step further. For example, instead of feeling disconcerted or troubled by the tragic Jewish Holocaust, he seemed to feel connected with Hitler's hatred, and took it one step further. He said, “If you recall your history, the Nazis came up with a ‘final solution’ to the Jewish problem: kill them all. Well in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I say ‘Kill mankind.’ No one should survive.” This illustrates my point that when history falls into the wrong hands, thoughts, feelings, and ideas from the past spark ideas that others may carry out into the future. Of course, I am not trying to say that this is the norm, but more and more studies are reporting a rapid increase in the number of children with anger and depression issues, etc. Which seems to imply that we may be seeing an increase risk due to too much information.

If so, should we control which parts of history to make available to the public? I know this seems unfair, but think about it. Some people are truly unhealthy and should not have access to this knowledge. Because knowledge is power. But if this power is put into the wrong hands, history will most certainly be repeated. Think about it in terms of technology. We keep building off of our previous knowledge, and develop more advanced technology. Just like this, for those who are unhealthy, the horrors of the past give rise to ideas to carry out in the future. Whereas, if the gruesome details of history was kept in a book that is unavailable to the public (in order to preserve history) perhaps these ideas would be less likely to be cultivated.

Dr. Peterson brought up a very interesting idea. She mentioned that n Alma 33, Alma says not to record the details of history, but to only include the consequences. Perhaps he foresaw this very issue?

Also, Nephi's historical record was not included in the B.O.M., because God did not see it relevant.

However, if we have too little knowledge, it might increase uneducated opinions and conspiracy theories and society could resort to a state of disarray.

...TO BE EXPOUNDED UPON TOMORROW.....

Community ?'s and Answers

I was exploring gadgets to enhance our blog and came across Community Answers. We can use this as another medium for discussion to ask and discuss thought-provoking questions related to our class and specific unit. Who wants to give it a try?

From the Mouth of Historians

"Chance, as Conrad liked to call it---luck, or even fate, as others prefer to think---plays its part as much in shaping the destinies of races as of individuals, dispensing vicissitudes or boons alike upon the lone figure and the composite group.  Of the vicissitudes the saddest, though assuredly not the most dire, is that by which the dead are relegated to oblivion.  It is perhaps a subconscious awareness of this hazard that so often directs the steps of an indolent walker to an old churchyard, leading him to pause by a decayed tombstone, to wonder as he gazes at its perished and illegible inscription as to what manner of man was laid beneath the enigmatic slab, to speculate upon his way of life, and to regret that all traces of this once vital and alert being---even to the record of his name and life span---have now forever faded from the notice of mankind."
-Introduction to 'The Scythians' by Tamara Talbot Rice

Maya Codices: The Pros and Cons of Paper Preservation

Tuesday's class sparked my interest on how Mayas made paper and if they have a substantial paper written history. Mayas carved in stone, painted, etc. Did the content differ based on if it were a book or was carved in to stone? Are there multiple symbols for one word? These are just some questions I had regarding the Maya writing system.

I have seen many carvings of Maya Hieroglyphs, but few using paper. However, I learned they did use paper, called Huun paper that was made out of a certain plant. The video below demonstrates a modernized version of the Maya ancient paper making techniques.

The Maya people used paper to form books called codices (or singular: codex.) They made long sheets of paper that were folded up to make books of approximately 39 leaves, with writing on both sides.

Unfortunately, only four major books are known to have survived today. The picture is from the Dreysex Codice, which is the largest codex found to date. Remains of disintegrated pages have been found from other codices, but most are unfortunately illegible. Thus, we do not know much about what they wrote on paper as compared to the plethora of information we know regarding their stone carvings. The Mayas are evidence that stone survives better than paper. I wonder what Maya secrets were lost in burnt or disintegrated codices? We will never know. 

I don't know what brought about the creation of these books, but they were made before the Spanish conquest in 1540 (Source).  Thus, they were created long before a Western world could influence their systems.

It's interesting how separate civilizations have created similar ways to make resources such as paper in order to record important information regarding their civilization. Is paper universal? Has every civilization ever created some form of writing system? How do these hieroglyphs evolve? I see some similarity to Egyptian hieroglyphs in writing; however, they can't be connected, can they? What are the correlations? How do such separate civilizations develop similar similar systems? These are some questions I want to investigate as I study writing systems.

Changed My Mind

I had previously stated that the Sumerians must have done some serious prioritization about what they wrote since writing was clumsy and time consuming. However, last class period changed my mind. The lecture illuminated the fact that they kept detailed records of all their business transactions, and the tablet she showed us was small and intricate. This makes it seem like writing actually wasn't the obnoxious process I was making it sound like. So it looks to me like my theory falls short. This leaves me with the question, why then did they write down some things, and not other things seemingly so well-suited to recording?

Roman Plates

I really enjoyed going to the Special Collections yesterday. Seeing all the items there was really cool, especially the hand-made illustrated book (I don't remember whether it was actually a Bible or not) from France. Out of all the things we looked at, there was one that stood out to me as very different: the Roman military/citizenship document. As Rome is my focus civilization, I figured I'd write a short post on the plates.

A little something extra

I encourage everybody to check out this link and see if you can make some time to go and see the exhibit. It's that one that Brenda was telling us about earlier. A nice short post about your experience would be lovely!

Laying Down the Law

When found in 1901, Hammurabi’s code was celebrated as the earliest set of written laws. We now know that the Sumerians are responsible for the first set of written codes or laws. Known as the code of Ur-Nammu, these laws are very interesting to examine. They connect us with the Sumerians by illuminating common societal problems and humanizing an extinct civilization.

The code

Ur-Nammu

1. If a man commits a murder, that man must be killed.


2. If a man commits a robbery, he will be killed.


3. If a man commits a kidnapping, he is to be imprisoned and pay 15 shekels of silver.


4. If a slave marries a slave, and that slave is set free, he does not leave the household.


5. If a slave marries a native (i.e. free) person, he/she is to hand the firstborn son over to his owner.


6. If a man violates the right of another and deflowers the virgin wife of a young man, they shall kill that male.


7. If the wife of a man followed after another man and he slept with her, they shall slay that woman, but that male shall be set free. 


8. If a man proceeded by force, and deflowered the virgin slavewoman of another man, that man must pay five shekels of silver. 


9. If a man divorces his first-time wife, he shall pay her one mina of silver. 


10. If it is a (former) widow whom he divorces, he shall pay her half a mina of silver. 


From Podium to Pen in Rome

So, we had a nice little break with King Benjamin and his teaching charity, one of the most important ideas of Christianity. Now... back to bloodthirsty and pagan Romans!

The Roman Empire serves as an excellent example of how a culture can change from being oral to being written. In a previous post, I mentioned how Virgil's Aeneid, published in 19 BC, showed how Roman culture was still principally oral. In his day, there would have been Romans who could tell the entire story of the Aeneas's journey in the Aeneid much like bards would have told stories such as Beowulf. Within half a century, however, this had changed. When Ovid published his Metamorphoses in 8 AD, there were still people who could orally tell the stories that he had published. Very few people, however, (if any other than Ovid himself) could tell all of these stories. Within the decade(s) after Metamorphoses was published, Rome had a very much written culture. (While Ovid's works, Metamorphoses in particular, played a role in this shift, I should clarify that I do not mean Ovid himself was solely responsible, for that would be a very generous assertion on his behalf.)

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

The Ancient Egyptian written language is mostly comprised hieroglyphics, which I see as a form of art. However, this form is unlike other genres of art such as Picasso or Monet; these pictures make up an actual language in which people communicated and preserved knowledge.

But the Egyptians explored art in many ways other than just hieroglyphics; they had murals covering their temples intermixed with hieroglyphics that told stories of their culture, beliefs, religious practices, history, and their every day life. Because this art tells a story, I see this too as a form of written language. Just because it may not be written like a modern day novel, they wrote it in a storybook form instead.

I know that a lot of historians might feel frustrated that the Egyptians chose to preserve their writing this way, because so much of their history is left to personal interpretation; however, I feel like this was a blessing. The reason I feel this way is because the written language that we DO have is still so often misinterpreted. Take this picture for example…I found it in a book I was reading in the library. I have a slight inkling that it wasn't translated correctly…

Because a lot of the Egyptian written language is misinterpreted anyways, I am very grateful that we have a visual idea of what Egyptian culture was like then. Of course, this too, can be misinterpreted--but at least it aids in our understanding of their time.

I find it brilliant that they used art as a form of written language because art can illustrate things that are not usually expressed through text. For example, body language makes up a huge portion of communication, but often writers have a hard time capturing body language and putting it into words. However, with the use of pictures, the Egyptians were are to illustrate these things, which helps us to have a greater understanding of their culture, which would have been otherwise lost.

Think of the minute details they depicted in their murals. For example, they often drew people with two left hands. Of course this could easily be interpreted as a drawing style, but with a little help from interpreted text, we know that the left hand signified giving, whereas the right hand meant receiving.  Now taking this knowledge and inspecting their art, we can see how important it was that they use both their hands to serve and not one to receive. Hopefully you can see that this art is an aid to their text.

Other great examples are shown in the documentary below. This documentary really emphasizes the matriarchal and patriarchal differences shown in their art:

After watching this documentary, I would like to bring up a very interesting idea that Carmen Boulter speaks of (at 3:15). She mentions how we view ancient cultures through our own cultural paradigm. It is an interesting psychological phenomenon, and it makes sense that we would do this. I mean, we have only experienced the world in the present; so it can be hard to think outside of the box and recognize that perhaps other cultures functioned differently and had a completely opposite cultural perspective.

Unfortunately, this causes us to misinterpret the past, which inhibits us to understanding the truth. For example, during the matriarchic rule in Ancient Egypt, women were the educators, the ones whom the priesthood was passed on through, and the source of life. But because of how our society portrays men and women today, we interpret this woman in the statue to be submissive to her husband, whereas in reality, it was her actually showing ownership of her husband. And the list goes on.

My point is that so many historical facts would have been lost if the Egyptians would have solely relied on a written language comprised of only words. Thankfully, because art was a huge part of their culture, those little details of life were preserved through illustration; another form of written language.

This documented story book of stone and papyrus has given us a greater perspective into their word.

After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Intro to Maya glyphs

This serpent is a hieroglyph at the Maya ruin Uxmal. I took this picture during a light show,
Thus, it's lit up and easy to see the snake on the Maya ruin wall.

When I went to Mexico,  I saw their hieroglyphs first hand, preserved after thousands of years. . There are hundreds of hieroglyphs. The Maya can write anything that they can say. Hieroglyphs consist of logograms (to express meaning) or syllabograms (to denote sound values), and are used to write words, phrases, and sentences (Source).



I found this fantastic reference online that goes through the different Maya glyphs. It's interesting that their structure of writing was so advanced that they have slightly varying hieroglyphs to represent different tenses of verbs.

Class Recitation of King Benjamin's Speech

Great job group 1, and great job class! This was a really cool experience, once we overcame intense levels of anxiety and stress.

Writing and Education

           We have thoroughly explored the idea that writing is necessary for the preservation of knowledge, particularly oral knowledge. Our group focus of language provided ample examples of knowledge dying out due to the lack of proper documentation or preservation thereof.

            Class discussions have enlightened us on various oral-learning techniques that have appeared throughout history. “Miss Karen” (Professor Burton's talented wife) showed us an effective teaching technique called choral responding, and Professor Burton taught us about the methods of Ancient Greek Education including the Socratic method.

The King's Conference

As Dr. Burton mentioned in the instructor post Monday, we're kind of developing our own subject for our posts this week. I had an idea come to mind earlier today while listening to the class's performance of King Benjamin's speech regarding how the text is the way it is because of its oral nature despite the fact that we have a textual record of it. I am going to focus mainly on the verses that I had to recite/perform because these are the ones I am most familiar with and I think these will be sufficient enough to get my point across.

Transition from Oral to Written Knowledge

Looking back, my first blog for the Oral Language unit was a frustrated one; one where I had not yet grasped the beauty and importance of oral language. I thought it was pointless without the written, and saw things with a very narrow minded perspective. I struggled and struggled. I could not find anything online, I tried contacting three professors, and I just could not get the understanding I needed. Gradually, very gradually, through all of your blog posts and class discussions have I become passionate about what oral knowledge holds and the importance of preserving it.

Oral language, a free flowing dialogue, has qualities unlike any other form of communication. It is like the ebb and flow of an ocean tide, able to move freely and change, and return to the same conversation over and over again; because nothing is set in stone. It is not confined to words on a page. It is malleable and amendable. Like Dr. Burton mentions in his post about syllabi, the absence of a syllabus is beneficial because it allows the course to be adaptable and cater to the student's true learning, by giving them the autonomy to take learning into their own hands. This is all because we do not have to follow the strict instructions that often cause us to view our learning as an item on our agenda instead of the innumerable worlds waiting to be explored.

Another benefit to oral knowledge is illustrated by the rare occasion when professors ask us to stop taking notes and we actually listen (imagine that!). We take in what they are saying. We break free of the robotic transfer of information going in our ears and out on paper without it entering our brains, and are given the chance to think and to process it. To understand it. To own it. And of course we may not remember everything we hear, but at least we remember something.

Oral knowledge also has a heightened ability to enhance communication with those around us; there is something remarkable about hearing the intonations in peoples' voices and seeing the expressions on their faces that helps us truly listen, understand, and communicate better. Think of texting. I am sure there have been plenty of times where you have second guessed the sender's intentions, and it may have possibly caused a conflict. Of course this miscommuincation is still possible with oral language, but not as likely, seeing as over 50% of communication is through body language.

Now onto the more spiritual aspect; like Brianne has mentioned in her blog(s) about reenacting scenes from the New Testament, and like our class reciting of King Benjamin's speech, there is power and spirit behind words when they are spoken out loud. We have the ability to feel because we can sense the emotion through the intonations annd expressions like previously mentioned. I am sure everyone in the room today felt the power of the Spirit that was delivered through the spoken word.

Now, as you can see, oral language has its unique benefits, but like most civilizations have discovered, oral is not complete without the written component. It is like the Yin and the Yang, both needing each other to be balanced, and yet having a part of the other. To me, this statement holds true because of the patterns I have noticed civilizations repeat in all parts of the world and in all different centuries: almost all civilizations have written records of their language. You can see how their writing style has changed over the course of the years, and even the material that was written on. Take the Egyptian for example: (Click here for source)

• Old Egyptian - up to about 2100BC
• Old Egyptian was spoken and written during the time of the pyramids. 
• The writings inside the pyramids- the Pyramid Texts - are in this language. 

• Middle Egyptian- 2100-1550BC 
• This is the classical Egyptian writing. 
• Most Egyptian literature was written in this language (it's quite similar to Old Egyptian). 
• Even after people stopped speaking it around 1550BC, it was still used on monuments and temple inscriptions and writings by priests.

• Late Egyptian - 1550-700BC 
  • In the New Kingdom people started talking a new version of Egyptian, although Middle Egyptian was still used  in writing until about 1350BC (just before the time of Tutankhamun). So Tut would have spoken Late Egyptian. Writing on temple walls was still Middle Egyptian, though.

• Demotic - 700BC - AD250 
  • Demotic began to be written and spoken about 700BC, when the people of Kush (Ethiopia) briefly ruled Egypt. 
  • After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332BC, some people also started to speak spoken Greek.
• Coptic - After AD 250 
  • The Copts were the Christian descendents of the ancient Egyptians. 
  • Coptic has some similarities to the ancient Egyptian language, and today scholars get clues to the meaning of hieroglyphic words by looking at Coptic. 
  • Nowadays Coptic is only used in some churches, and though it is read out it is not understood
• Arabic - after AD 640 
  • After the Arabs conquered Egypt in AD 640, Arabic became the official language - and it still is today. 
  • The following place names are all Arabic: Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Deir el Bahari, Giza, Amarna, and Karnak .
   

You can see that their language has changed greatly over the years; once Egyptian, now Arabic. How could we have known today what language was spoken thousands of years ago if it were not written down? How would we have known that the Egyptians often wrote in two line prose? How would would we have any window of insight without the aid of the written language? Like the Rosetta Stone, written language is like a key to understand the oral. One should not exist without the other.

The Power of Religious Dialogue

I have my interview with Dr. Allen Christenson set for early next week, so this post is related to another topic related to oral knowledge.

As I've previously mentioned, I've been working as an extra in the church's New Testament movie. The scriptures are coming to life for me as I get to witness the dialogue and and different rhetoric techniques the actors use. I missed class on Tuesday to shoot the scene where apostles Peter and John preach to a multitude of people after Christ's death. They are interrupted mid speech by Roman guards who then arrest them. However, I could feel of their urgency as they finished preaching to the people the message they had prepared. There is power in dialogue, especially in religious speeches/sermons.  I got to hear the dialogue 20+ times as I was standing right behind the apostles and it took hours of repeating the same scene to get everything in the scene to the director's desired perfection of expression. This experience has increased my desire to visualize the setting of the scriptures and truly place myself in their day as I study them. Memorizing King Benjamin's speech, provides another opportunity to begin to place my self in the scriptures, giving my understanding another dimension as I fervently recite my verses out-loud.

While filming our group discussion after class yesterday, I began to think about the process of preserving King Benjamin's speech. Someone literally had to record every word as he spoke it with a booming voice across the crowd. They did not have digital recorders back then. I imagine paper was limited too, and the listeners would have to pay fervent attention in order to learn and remember this sacred speech. I have taken this speech for granted as I have read it so many times in the scriptures. However, it really took place as a speech first, and then was written down to share with the people present and preserve for thousands of years for our dispensation to study and learn from today.  Amazing.

Memorization My Dears

Interesting technique...just thought I'd share.

Early Mesopotamia and Sumerian Language Interview

The following transcription is an abridgement of the interview I conducted with instructor Ed Stratford whose area of expertise is Ancient Near East studies. Stratford earned his B.A. at Brigham Young University in 2000, his M.A. at the University of Chicago in 2002, and his Ph.D. also at the University of Chicago in 2010.

I read on an online article that another researcher wrote, that Sumerians essentially taught themselves how to speak or invented an oral language system for their civilization. Is that a valid statement?

Well, taught themselves how to speak is a pretty strong claim…it’s probably too extensive a claim. On the other hand, as far as written language goes, somebody like Glassner who is a French scholar, he argues that between about or around 3500 BC the Sumerians, or some group of Sumerians, absolutely invent writing as a dramatic revolution in communication. Not every scholar agrees with that, some would like to see it as a slow accumulation of written tokens that come together and then finally start working together as a system….that’s harder to defend than a sudden revolution, an invention. I think that’s a reasonable stance…But as far as speaking, I can’t agree with that.

It lives! - The Latin language

So I had a little difficulty scheduling an interview for this week's post... I did, however, come up with a (slightly alternate) solution. Since the main reason for getting an interview was so that we would learn whatever we used for this post orally, I am using a different oral learning source for information for my post: mon professeur francais, Professeur Flood. In this post, I will focus on combining the elements of language preservation and acquisition and Latin by going into more detail about the ways that the Latin language has influenced the English that we speak today, especially through the French language (because really, how much cooler is it to talk about three or four languages instead of two?!).

In my last post, I had two maps that I really liked which showed the expansion of Latin-derived languages and the Latin alphabet across the globe. These maps really showed the extent to which Latin has spread. But how has it spread for us English speakers specifically?

The Loneliest Whale in the World

My interview with an expert is scheduled for later this week, so I am going to post a teaser for today's blog. I have been thinking a lot about Oral Knowledge, trying to grasp my mind around this concept, and something caught my attention, which helped me to understand this unit better--without considering ancient civilizations or even humans at all (gasp!).

Today's post has to do with a whale. A whale unlike any other whale; a whale who swims alone, never knowing a family, a friend, or a lover. She does not belong to a tribe, and never has. She was discovered in 1989, due to curiosity of this strange behavior. In 1992, NOAA started to track her using a "classified array of hydrophones employed by the Navy to monitor enemy submarines." (Source).

Her songs came in groups of two to six calls, lasting for five to six seconds each. For a while, the researchers could not understand what it was that was isolating her. But after analyzing her song frequency, they found that she has a voice unlike any other--she sings at a frequency of 52 Hz, whereas most Baleen whales sing at a frequency of 15 to 25 Hz! She desperately calls out and pleas for a response, but no one can hear her! She is all alone.

•  To listen to her frequency in comparison to a normal whale's frequency, click here.

Because she is unable to communicate, she is unable to recognize any known migration routes of the other Baleen whales, so her encounters with them are seldom, if she has any at all.

Scientists are trying to figure out why she is the way she is. "The best guess of researchers is that this lonely whale is either a "hybrid between two species of whale, or the last surviving member of an unknown species" (Source).

This really stood out to me that this mammal is could be the only one left on this earth, its language never to be heard again; never to be preserved or passed down. Once her life is over, her songs will be gone with her. This preservation is important. Like I mentioned in one of my comments about how important it is to preserve a language, and not just translate it into the most "useful" language of the day and age.

To quote, I said, "It is like an art that is dead, to never come alive again. It is not always the best thing to move forward without looking back, because we need our history for our survival. We need to learn from our past. You say, 'What is the loss? Because it is preserved in translation," but think of your scripture study. Your comprehension is limited to your language. But then, in our religion classes, our professors who are also experts in Hebrew (for example), teach us the direct translation of a word, and suddenly the verse takes on a whole new meaning and testimony. Just having this one translation of the Bible, does not completely preserve its original completeness. This is why there will never be a true, complete unification process that encompasses all languages. Additionally, there are words in some languages that just do not exist in the same way in other languages. If you have ever tried listening to a song in one language and then a translation of it in another language, it is just not the same, and much beauty is lost"

Again, this is just a teaser, until I am able to interview and post later again this week. Adios!