Time Discipline and The Natural World
In societies based around agriculture, hunting, and other pursuits that involve human interaction with the natural world, time discipline is a matter governed by astronomical and biological factors. Specific times of day or seasons of the year are defined by reference to these factors, and measured, to the extent that they need measuring, by observation. Different peoples' needs with respect to these things mean sharply differing cultural perceptions of time. For example, it surprises many non-Muslims that the Islamic calendar is entirely lunar and makes no reference at all to the seasons; the desert-dwelling Arabs who devised it were nomads rather than agriculturalists, and a calendar that made no reference to the seasons was no inconvenience for most of them.
Read more about this topic: Time Discipline
Famous quotes containing the words natural world, time, discipline, natural and/or world:
“Surely knowledge of the natural world, knowledge of the human condition, knowledge of the nature and dynamics of society, knowledge of the past so that one may use it in experiencing the present and aspiring to the future—all of these, it would seem reasonable to suppose, are essential to an educated man. To these must be added another—knowledge of the products of our artistic heritage that mark the history of our esthetic wonder and delight.”
—Jerome S. Bruner (20th century)
“Who in the same given time can produce more than others has vigor; who can produce more and better, has talents; who can produce what none else can, has genius.”
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801)
“My child, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves the one he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Proverbs 3:11-12.
“Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ‘tis time to part.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“History repeats itself, but the special call of an art which has passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)