instead of another post about neurology....

[joculum]

...although I have written more than one unposted essay recently about the ways in which we actually are wired differently in terms of our default responses, something that should have been obvious just from the ways that animals purportedly given to instinctual reactions differ so much from one another in terms of how they react to identical stimuli.

But for all you folks who believe that culture trumps nature every time, and each region has its own distinct culture, in what country were the photographs below taken? Also, identify which of the people in the photographs are locals and which ones have recently showed up from...someplace else. (No fair getting answers from folks who already know who is who, or at least who claims to be who.) Second photo is to make the subtle clues easier to interpret.

Photos courtesy of Franz Pascher.

Comments

[anselmo-b.livejournal.com]

Beats me. I find it impossible to determine. The setting has a quasi German feeling to it. The chairs, the tables, the floor remind me of the kind of things you'd find in German schools in foreign countries -not quite the real Teutonic thing but close. The crowd again could gather in the US, Germany, somewhere in central Europe. But it feels too homogeneous for the US and too carelessly dressed for Europeans. If I were forced to guess, I'd go for Americans visiting the Czech Republic.

[joculum.livejournal.com]

I'll let another day or so go by before I report on where this is and why, but the unexpectedly generic look both of the room and of the people came as one of many surprises, appropriate for the theme of the symposium.

For reasons you will understand when I reveal the details, I had thought that if anyone would get the answer it would be you.

[10dimensions.livejournal.com]

It would be unfair for me to comment.

[joculum.livejournal.com]

But can you pick out the nationalities of the few people you don't already know?

[10dimensions.livejournal.com]

Well, I also knew where you were. And knew who Fortes was, and where he is from. So... I can't rule out that other unknowns in the audience were from places not-Brasil, but I had a better chance at guessing than I probably should have for the purposes of your exercise.

[utopyr.livejournal.com]

Cinque looks the most Brazilian to me.

[joculum.livejournal.com]

Which I suppose is the point. I thought Cinque looked more Brazilian than Hugo Fortes next to him, though Hugo is the only one wearing what might be thought of as Brazilian clothing...the other styles range from nondescript to well-tailored global, and I shan't comment on which person is which in that department.