Sleep culture in the West, and elsewhere

Sleep culture in the West, and elsewhere: “sleepysleep.jpg

Science journalist Jessa Gamble has a new book coming out that’s going to be about the cultural differences that determine how humans perceive time. Awesome! In a post at the Last Word on Nothing blog, Gamble talks about how these differences affect the way we sleep.

Perhaps you’d prefer somewhere with a concept of time that fits human activities, rather than a soulless number on a digital clock. In Sudan, the Nuer people are cow herds and tell the time according to the day’s work schedule. The clock might read milking time, pasturing time or cattle-moving time. According to anthropologist Wade Davis, Borneo’s Penan people measure time using subjective perception. If a hunting trip reaped a lot of meat, it’s understood to have taken a shorter time, even though it could have lasted several days.

I also assume you’d like to be somewhere you can consistently enjoy a good night’s rest. Cultural conceptions of a good night’s rest are wildly variable. For example, my earliest immersion in a non-Western culture was as part of Canada World Youth, a program that pairs a group of Canadian teens with, in our case, an Egyptian counterpart. Beyond the obvious mismatch between Canadian teen culture and the priorities of Islam, there were countless small divergences. For the Canadians, a common theme, unexpectedly, was the sanctity of sleep. Once asleep, a North American adult is likely to be, if not tiptoed around, at least left undisturbed unless there is some type of emergency. In contrast, if I retired at 10 in Egypt, I might be woken at midnight by someone asking where I put the spatula. I started to wonder why I had ever thought sleep was a state deserving of respect. Perhaps it is only when a society becomes chronically sleep-deprived that hours of it are horded and jealously guarded from disruption.

This bears out in the research. Solitary sleep on a softly cushioned surface, between four walls and under a roof–it’s hardly typical. Anthropologist Carol Worthman has spent many years in the field studying nighttime in traditional societies. In contrast with the Western sleep model–a regular bedtime followed by continuous sleep until morning–the Eje of Congo have some level of social activity persisting through all hours. The sleeping area of a family will see coming and going as some members retire, grooming each other for parasites that might disturb their sleep, and others hear the familiar strains of a thumb piano and get up to dance.

Via Ed Yong

Image: Sleeping with Bo, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from joi’s photostream


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Top Shelf Jazz’s video for "Gentlemen in Squalor" — smutty Prohibition jazz

Top Shelf Jazz’s video for “Gentlemen in Squalor” — smutty Prohibition jazz: “

Gonz sez, ‘The filthy swingers, Top Shelf Jazz, have released a new video for their song ‘Gentlemen In Squalor.” See my review of their last CD: Top Shelf Jazz’s ‘Fast and Louche’ — part Cab Calloway, part Atomic Fireballs, all good smutty Prohibition jazz

‘Gentlemen in Squalor’ Top Shelf Jazz

(Thanks, Gonz!)


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Raising a kid without disclosing its sex

[Yay yay yay YAY for these folks. -egg]

Raising a kid without disclosing its sex: “Kathy Witterick and David Stocker are raising a kid in Toronto without disclosing its sex to anyone except its older siblings and grandparents. Its siblings are boys, but choose whether they wear ‘girl’s’ clothes or ‘boy’s’ clothes and get to pick their own toys. The parents attribute their childrearing notions to being reared on Free to Be… You and Me. I like the section in the article about bullying: ‘When faced with inevitable judgment by others, which child stands tall (and sticks up for others) — the one facing teasing despite desperately trying to fit in, or the one with a strong sense of self and at least two ‘go-to’ adults who love them unconditionally? Well, I guess you know which one we choose.’


‘When the baby comes out, even the people who love you the most and know you so intimately, the first question they ask is, ‘Is it a girl or a boy?” says Witterick, bouncing Storm, dressed in a red-fleece jumper, on her lap at the kitchen table.

‘If you really want to get to know someone, you don’t ask what’s between their legs,’ says Stocker.

The moment a child’s sex is announced, so begins the parade of pink and barrage of blue. Tutus and toy trucks aren’t far behind. The couple says it only intensifies with age.

‘In fact, in not telling the gender of my precious baby, I am saying to the world, ‘Please can you just let Storm discover for him/herself what s (he) wants to be?!.’ Witterick writes in an email.

Parents keep child’s gender secret

(Thanks, Mom!)


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