Xirtam 

A word coined by practicing Anthropologist D.E.R. Scott, to describe an new movement in Applied Anthropology. Xirtam is the mirror image of the word matrix. As in the movie, the matrix describes an alternate reality, lived inside computer code, and constructed by aliens. One named eno, the one, must decode the matrix(xirtam)in order to free himself. D.E.R. Scott says the matrix represents the way anthropologists used look at culture. "We used only to describe it. Along with many social scientists we assumed culture was fairly static and there was little we could, or should do to try and change it. We particularly assumed we had no business to question the order, matrix, of cultures other than our own." With today's new urgencies many have felt that a change toward global peace will be necessary for our species' survival, Ms.Scott says this change is not only possible it is already begun: "We are drawing on new ideas from all the social and physical sciences and we are "paying it forward." Ms Scott says that change is not slow but exponential, and her ideas were inspired, in part by the movie "pay it forward<" featuring Halley Joel Osment.

Joel was so confused all last semester, he couldn't concentrate on his studies. He tried to understand the war, why his girlfriend left him, and mostly why he just didn't fit into society. This semester he seems fine. He must have experienced the xirtam.

Xirtam by Reba Mass May 12, 2004