0001 Read this first / Leame primero

Collaborative research & education - Minka(Quechua)pedia(Cl.Greek)

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(Provenance: from [Paracas] page). These pages are part of a series of open-text [1] journals in the overall field of Latin American Studies. These open-text journals have been proposed as a parallel platform to those fulfilling the role of "traditional academic or scholarly" journals. For a list of journals in similar fields to those of, for example, the Bulletin of Latin American Research (BLAR) see List of Latin American Studies journals. It will be approximately thirty years since we began work on proposals for what became BLAR and it would seem appropriate if the anniversary was marked with the launch of a new "knowledge-sharing platform", given the advances in what has become known as 'Web2.0 technology'. These pages could be seen as a pilot run. Using some of the same software as Wikipedia, this academic publishing wiki-domain encourages open collaborative editing for the writing of academic (hypothesis-testing) articles, exploring ideas, and developing new methodologies and critical analyses. (These journals do not aim to be encyclopedias nor dictionaries. For an online encylopaedic approach to knowledge-sharing see Wikipedia which does have the intent to be encyclopaedic.)

Read about the following by clicking on the link / word: Opentext Journal of Peruvian Studies, Correspoding discussion page for Journal, Minkapedia collaborative education, Opentext Journal of Latin American Studies. The pages so far have been developed on the wikia.com platform. The same software could be installed on our (the network or community of scholars and specialists) own site and used without advertising and with greater protection from 'vandals'. Alternatively other collaboratively edited sites could be trialled, for example <http://latinoamericanistas.wikispaces.com/> or the new google site <http://sites.google.com/site/latinoamericanistas/>

(Following the opening description of the exhibition, please add to or expand upon the themes, ideas, concepts, threads, (leitmotivs) or hypotheses which could be explored - (delete)- from Paracas page.)

Annexe. Read me first (old to Sept/08)

Joint research projects

Please read document 080812 PERN regarding the "collaborative research system" of the Peru Earthquake Research Network Please read document Prehistory of the Andes regarding a collaborative platform for the study of Andean / Peruvian early history.

For readers of Minkanews and participants in the knowledge-sharing and learning schemes

The 9 April 2008 edition of Minkanews reached out to Portuguese as well as Spanish speakers and not just in the UK or London. This section of Minkapedia is concerned with education in the community and in very general terms with the question ‘How can we hand down to our children a knowledge of the cultural heritage which our Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese ‘diaspora’ (expatriate, émigré and migrant) communities brought over from their home territories?’ This aspect of what some call a ‘process of globalisation’ is complex because – for Latin Americans in the world – the roots of cultural heritage are particularly diverse, hybrid, multi-sourced.

Minkapedia offers a way in which we – even at the micro-level of the family – can develop a family-diaspora knowledge-sharing scheme. You can start this off quite simply by writing on this screen (click on the tab 'edit this page' above) – and by so doing ‘enrich the cultural experience of your friends, family and peers’.

The Minkapedia five-point plan

1 Share the piece of music, which for you is most nostalgic or representative of the country, department or province you, your parents or your wider family came from. The example is given by a reader who came from the Arequipa department in the south of Peru. Minkanews readers overall, of course, have family roots in hundreds of such departments through Latin America, Spain, Portugal and other countries. Choose a piece of music, if possible, for which a free-access copy exists (on a website such as YouTube: as in the example).

2 Compare the origins of the civilisation (Las primeras sociedades complejas: las pequeñas ciudades y lugares ceremoniales / The first complex societies: small cities and ceremonial sites) of the country you have migrated from with that you or your family have migrated to. The example is of what is currently regarded as the site of the earliest complex society in Peru – and compared with those in the UK and France (Caral, Stonehenge, Carnac).

3 The history in common: look at the history of the involvement of the country where you and your family are now with your country of origin. Example: Sweden and Peru; UK and Peru. The examples emphasize the history in common and the common history.

4 Language, communication and writing - Lenguaje, la comunicación y la escritura. Of critical importance in the study of cultural heritage. Linguistic history provides important clues to the development of societies.

5 El contexto (entorno) de la historia familiar / The context of family history. Everything builds up from here. Work initially on the past and on context so as not to infringe the personal privacy of family members and to capture memories (reminiscences) of elderly relatives.

References

If the links in the text do not work consult the following references:

Before starting. http://academia.wikia.com/wiki/0001_Read_this_first_/_Leame_primero (You may be reading this now!)

Arequipa - A través de su música / through its music. Veanse http://academia.wikia.com/wiki/Arequipa_Peru:_nostalgia_y_m%C3%BAsica

Las primeras sociedades complejas: las pequeñas ciudades y lugares ceremoniales / The first complex societies: small cities and ceremonial sites http://academia.wikia.com/wiki/Caral

Any questions or comments. Write them on the discussion page http://academia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Talk:0001_Read_this_first_/_Leame_primero&action=edit