ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes the river's water as a metaphor for the collective self and the fractional quantity of water as a representation for the ‘personal self.’ It is the relationship, the interdependence, and the simultaneous capacity for independence of the self that must be emphasized. These seemingly contradictory capacities are the source of knowing. This observation has greatest significance for comprehending ‘knowing’ as a consequence of relationships discerned by the self. Cultural relativity merely demonstrates the wholeness of consciousness, of self and knowing, when taken together - just as a unified mode of thought is conceivable when many modes of thought are entwined into one braid. Cuarto Spiralism predominates as the underlying mode of thought among the many cultures in the western hemisphere: it is recorded in their literature, stories, songs, dances, and symbols. The diversity of human cultures reflects the diversity of other peoples and shows how humans have learned.
