20:00 – 22:00 Uhr: Vortrag an der  VHS Erlangen

Prof. Stephanie Homola

“To predict is to remember: divination and memorization in China” (Vortragssprache Englisch)

Memorizing through repeated recitation is often pointed as a major characteristic of Chinese education.  In particular, learning the Confucian Classics by heart has been considered as the main way to learn and internalize moral teachings. After examining how memorization skills are decisive in predicting the future, I will show how fate-calculation practitioners rely on body-based mnemonics to reduce the cognitive load and perform computation. These “Chinese arts of memory” show that reading and learning non-discursive knowledge imply another kind of memory than when reading and learning the Classics.

Prof. Dr. Homola arbeitet am Institut für Sprachen und Kulturen des Nahen Ostens und Ostasiens der FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg und leitet den kulturwissenschaftlich-interdisziplinären Elite-Masterstudiengang „Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures“.

Historischer Saal, VHS Erlangen