Talking Stick - Use in Talking Circles

Use in Talking Circles

Further information: Talking circle

Interest in native tribal culture has seen a revival of talking stick and its application spread widely. The use of the talking stick, organized as a talking circle, is a means of decision and discussion-making for the popular Rainbow Gathering movement where the talking stick's effectiveness has been proved in a current context. Groups of school children are said to also commonly use talking sticks in circles, as well as adult and corporate groups across many cultures.

Rainbow Gatherings use talking circles to resolve disputes, where all are given the benefit of the talking stick (or feather, or other chosen object). An especially useful feature of the talking stick strategy for dispute resolution is that it can be used to forestall dangerous decisions in the way a filibuster can be used in some modern law-making bodies; conversation can be continued until one party gives up or, in some cases, falls asleep. This was used at the 2010 Rainbow Gathering, when there was an attempt by a renegade "pro-alcohol" faction to burn a large cross.

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Famous quotes containing the words talking and/or circles:

    If I tell you that I would be disobeying the god and on that account it is impossible for me to keep quiet, you won’t be persuaded by me, taking it that I am ironizing. And if I tell you that it is the greatest good for a human being to have discussions every day about virtue and the other things you hear me talking about, examining myself and others, and that the unexamined life is not livable for a human being, you will be even less persuaded.
    Socrates (469–399 B.C.)

    Think of the wonderful circles in which our whole being moves and from which we cannot escape no matter how we try. The circler circles in these circles....
    —E.T.A.W. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Wilhelm)