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Forces Of Society (2023)
In his latest book Forces of Society, Ivan Tucakov explores the process through which matter builds the world of biological life, further pushing the emergence of cultural societies, each with their own unique forces.
Ivan examines where our personality traits and temperaments come from, how we learn and how we get conditioned. The volume unveils what our judgments, opinions and free-will ultimately grant us and how our own rules and laws shape our individual core values and roles in society, all the while creating clear distinction between worlds of energetics, genetics and memetics.
In this volume, Ivan coins two terms for socio-cultural groups: propoliteia (from pro and politeia, that means before governance, or before governing bodies) which defines "egalitarian" societies, and eupoliteia (from Greek words eu and politeia, which mean good/true governance) which defines hierarchical societies.
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Forces of Society Book Overview (YouTube):
Cultura Rasa (2019)
Cultura Rasa explores the emergence and replicative nature of socio-cultural societies. It presents an integrated picture of all animal cultures, built from the bottom-up: starting from the world of atomic matter, over biological systems that they create, which further emerge into neural networks that ultimately build cultural systems. Cultura Rasa also offers a dozen original hypotheses within the disciplines of science and philosophy, whilst also proposing a preliminary structure of the tree of culture.
Ivan's intent with this primer is to create accuracy and consistency in concept definition, to offer a deeper understanding and tolerance of varying cultural worldviews.
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Mindful Connection Method (2010)
Mindful Connection Method is a practical, strategically organized and easy to implement guide that enables us to know where to focus our attention and how to choose actions in order to build and maintain nurturing relationships with others and ourselves.
Supported by an illustrated, thorough example throughout and a full practice section at the back, this book offers guidance in areas of personal growth, family dynamics, work settings, conflict resolution, counseling, education, community building, social issues and beyond.
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About Author
Ivan Tucakov grew up in a melting pot of cultures and was exposed to a diverse range of societal worldviews throughout his life. He was born in former Yugoslavia and spent his childhood in mountain regions of southern Turkey, teenage years in the politically turbulent Balkans and his adult years in Canada, where he finished the Honors program in Physics and Computer Science at the University of British Columbia.
Ivan ardently studied music forms from all around the globe and composed half a dozen records that explored and mixed different musical genres. As a music producer, artistic director and manager, Ivan has had first hand experience in organizing and working with teams of people, which peaked his curiosity about the functioning of social groups and cultural systems in general, and as a visual artist, he has also used his digital design skills to describe his conceptual ideas through imagery.
Ivan’s work ultimately aims to connect cultures, bridge divides and work toward better understanding of the world around us, and especially, toward further understanding ourselves.
Exploring cultural phenomena has always been my interest and it has come to me in various forms. I spent my early childhood in the mountains of southern Turkey, mere couple hours drive from the infamous archaeological site Göbekli Tepe, surrounded by traditional Turkish Muslim culture as astounding ancient artifacts lay everywhere one turned. At school I interacted with Turkish children in their language, while speaking Serbo-Croatian in the household, with the presence of both Orthodox and Catholic Cristian values. Apparently I even shared an extra separate language with my twin brother when we were very young. As it also happens, one of my grandfathers was born by Nikola Tesla’s village, a knowledge of which created both high-critical-thinking atmosphere in the family, as well as a hard-working ethos.
I was properly drawn into the world and language of music as a teenager, in my years living in then still socialist Jugoslavija, a melting pot of southern Balkan-brass music, with “south-eastern” Ottoman influence, as well as the world of “tamburicas” north of Danube with softer, classical, wooden-instrument sounds of “north-west” Austro-Hungarian influences, all mixed with native folk music. In all this, my actual first “hands-on” musical experience was playing hard-rock, alternative and metal in a high-school band, which was very popular in what by then became a war-torn country. This is also when I got my first experiences in live show production, management and community building. Upon moving to Western America, the diversity of my musical exposure exploded as I had first-hand explorations with artists from all corners of the world, whether Indian Classical, bluegrass, African, Middle-Eastern or flamenco.
In the years before finalizing my computer science and physics honors degree, I started analyzing all the styles of music I had been exposed to and realized it was all one large cultural “branch” of different worlds of music, each existing and emerging in the name of fulfilling a core human need. I became very curious to expand my methodical analytics out into the larger world, onto all living needs, in search for insights about our place in this big world of existence. As a teenager I had read Alexander S. Neil’s book on Summerhill, which sparked my curiosity about the development of the human mind and its education. With Marshall’s NVC as one of my main“staples” and helpers in understanding and analyzing the world of sociality, I started putting together this grand puzzle of all cultural systems, which are light-years beyond the mere world of music. Culture is in every and any possible imaginable endeavor of a socio-cultural animal, where there’s nothing that one can’t do that can’t be done.
Through event production and management, I ventured into yet another pragmatic interplay with cultural worlds. I have ran countless of intimate and exclusive events, with the aim to craft community and bring people together, all the while socially engineering the environment to best suit everyone’s needs and create the ultimate social, as well as musical experience. Whether it is a family, a band, an office or a gang, human core existence and meaning rests in the genetically-coded instinct to form “sacred bands” and “tribes”. No matter how “multi-level” our societies become and how much AI influence and support we receive, the ultimate trait that humans and many other animals possess is precisely this millenia-old circuitry of “inner-bonding” and social attachment in a direct, real-world community, together with bonding with and staying connected to oneself while always striving to keep a healthy balance in between.
With this, I conclude my most recent understanding and hypothesized model of this fascinating world of cultural systems. Thank you for taking the climb with me and see you on our next adventure!
Ivan Tucakov
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