Human Ecology Essays - Amy Hoffmaster

Human Ecology Essays - Amy Hoffmaster: "patterns"

In "The Patterns Which Connect,” Bateson(1) describes three orders of connections: first, the relationship within objects. There is a second order connection that describes the relationship between two objects. Third, there are "meta-patterns,” those that relate the contexts of the objects to each other. Bateson illustrates his levels of patterns with phylogenic homology, or similarities in the limbs of humans and horses, compared to lobsters and crabs. He continues to explain that the crab's anatomy contains patterns within the individual itself; this is the first order of pattern. When you compare the crab and the lobster there are similarities, or phylogenic homologies between the parts of the legs and claws. Each of the organisms has segmented legs and similarly shaped claws. These comparisons are second order patterns. The third order pattern, or meta-pattern, is more abstract. You can compare the relationship of the lobster and the crab to the relationship of the human and horse. That is, relating the patterns to each other. Bateson considers the appreciation of the "meta-pattern that connects” an aesthetic.

I map Bateson's theory of "the pattern which connects” on to my understanding of the human ecology of questions. There is meaning at each of the three levels. There are patterns within the ideas of a question, there are patterns between the questions, but there are also patterns that describe the patterns between questions. This third order pattern creates what I would like to call the question space. Robbie and I understood each other's thoughts when we engaged in the space that was created by the patterns of relationships between our questions.