Roots: Source code, Anthropology & Counterculture

Countercultural Roots

Harbin Hot Springs, the Rainbow Gathering and the Internet (like reading) all 'generate' source code, metaphorically, and especially vis-a-vis counterculture.

Hippies are creative and can be very amusing and clever in responding to Modernity. Harbin is one such example. Wavy Gravy is another {wavygravy.net}. There are a lot of these ;)


Field Sites

I'm interested in the anthropology of counterculture, information technology {cyberspace & TCP/IP}, in California and the west coast of the U.S., India (esp. Kerala and the Malayalam language), Switzerland (German, Italian, French and Romansh languages), Greece, Turkey, and Scotland (Scots' Gaelic), - as field sites.


Rainbow Gathering

I didn't see any money changing hands at Rainbow. It was also free to attend the Rainbow Gathering, and the kitchens and camps gave away good food, so food is free there. There were also trading circles, where people exchange things about which value they agreed upon. These are interesting ways of doing things differently in contemporary America.

At Rainbow I heard people talk about the end of Babylon (which, for me, means Modernity, but is Rastafarian meaning corrupt and decadent society) and the envisioning of a new age. It was particularly Rainbow people from northern California – Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties - that I heard express this. I haven't heard this language much at Harbin.


Blogging

And we can all generate 'source code' to the Internet for free with blogs, - here: blogger.com (one of the easiest and best) to participate in this conversation.