There have been so many emails on the "mythic heros of connectivity" that I
can't resist putting on the list the comment that I sent directly to the
original requester:
Everyone so far has been drawing from the Western classics, but the East is
really the home of network thinking. Indra, the Indian Vedic Hindu chief
god, is the god of cosmis order. The concept of "Indra's Net" signifies the
interconnectedness of all phenomena in the cosmos. Philosophically, thus,
it supports ideas such as the "Butterfly effect" of chaos theory. Another
Eastern concept is the Buddhist "Twelvefold Chain of Interdependent
Origination," in all phenomena arise by distinction from each other, out of
an undifferentiated primary whole. In this perspective, there are no
independent units, either selves or entities of any kind. All is both
relational and changing.
Best
Jeff
Jeffrey Broadbent
Department of Sociology
909 Social Science Building
University of Minnesota
267 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota
USA 55455-0412
Telephone: 612-624-1828
Fax: 612-624-7020
Email: [log in to unmask]
Webpage: www.soc.umn.edu/people/broadben.htm
Multilingual webpage: www.soc.umn.edu/~broadbnt
Paper online -- "The Japanese Network State . .":
www.soc.umn.edu/research/broadnet.pdf
Japanese Womens' Status and Identity Workshop: summaries in Japanese
http://www.soc.umn.edu/~broadbnt/Sum.htm
-----Original Message-----
From: Social Network Researchers [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf
Of Ronald E. Rice
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 7:39 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mythic Heroes of Connection
It's no longer politically correct to point this out, though I guess from
the perspective of respecting native culture it might regain respectability,
but from the classical mythology the title of mas tof connections would have
to go to Zeus. He sired so many of the secondary gods (from pairings with
mostly mortals), who went on to be central players in other myths, that we
could say Zeus was most central, managed the most relations, and lay on the
most geodesics.
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Ronald E. Rice
Professor, Chair of Department of Communication
School of Communication, Information & Library Studies
Rutgers University
4 Huntington St., New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1071
w: 732-932-7381; f: 732-932-6916; e: [log in to unmask]
home page: http://scils.rutgers.edu/~rrice
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