Moreover, I think that the women were called doves by the people of Dodona for the reason that they were Barbarians and because it seemed to them that they uttered voice like birds; but after a time (they say) the dove spoke with human voice, that is when the woman began to speak so that they could understand; but so long as she spoke a Barbarian tongue she seemed to them to be uttering voice like a bird: for had it been really a dove, how could it speak with human voice?
Herodotus, Histories, c. 430 BCE # 5
Birdlike voices of women
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- Bacteria, fungus, whale, sequoia - we do not know any life of which we cannot say that it emits information, receives it, stores it and processes it. For universal rules so incontrovertible that, by them, we are tempted to define life but we are unable to do so, because of the following countexampl …
What if we tell a different history
History has specific languages, the language of those who are in power tell history not only from their point of view, but also in their own native language. Those who are dominated are deprived of their own story and their language. The Greeks called stangers "Barbarians" simply because their language sounded like "blah blah" to them or – like in the source by Herodotus – twitter of birds. This excludes certain voices and postions from the narration of history. Thus, in order to narrate an inclusive history that respects everyone and everything in the narration of history, we need to learn more languages. Yet, how can the stories of those whose language we do not understand or of those who do not seem to have a language like fauna and flora be told? How can we tell a history that includes not only the points of view of displaced people but also of the planet, plants, animals?
of our Imagination
