Thursday, February 26, 2009

David S. Thomson “The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Worlds shaped by Words”

Yuliya Sesina
February 26th, 2009
Anthropology 1001 TV24A/Gaunt

David S. Thomson “The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Worlds shaped by Words”

Through out our education, most of us have heard a teacher or Professor speak about the “power of language”. And it is no surprise that language is so powerful, because that is the way humans share ideas with each other. We often take for granted that when we say a certain word to a speaker of the same language, they usually understand it to mean exactly what we wanted them to. But imagine how hard it would be to tell a story to a friend, or give a speech to a room full of perspective investors if there was no system of language and meaning that allowed words to be mutually understood.
It is true that Sapir-Whorf’s theory is extremely difficult if not impossible to test scientifically. But we could see examples in every day life. Such as the German words that are discussed in the chapter. Since there is no equivalent in English for some of those words, the English speaker doesn’t have an understanding of the concept or belief described by them. He/she would only understand the three separate terms that are used to translate it into the English language. However, even with three terms some part of the meaning is bound to get lost in translation.
Looking at my own experience with a foreign language, Russian, I can see an example of a difference in perception due to language. When addressing a person who is a stranger or older than yourself you would refer to them with a word “vi” instead of “ti” (an equivalent for the English “you”). In English the closest equivalent I could think of is using the word “sir”. “Sir” is much more formal, not to mention that when using the word “vi” in Russian you are forced to change the conjugation of other words in the sentence. The practice of changing your entire way of speaking shows your respect for the person.

Bibliography
David S. Thomson. “The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Worlds shaped by Words”. In Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, 12 ed., ed. Spradley and McCurdy. Allyn & Bacon, 2008, 113 – 125.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Yuliya Sesina

Feberuary 23rd, 2009

Anthropology 1001 TV24A/Gaunt


Richard Borshay Lee. “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari”


When thinking about the work of anthropologists, I think of all the information that we gain through studying different cultures. I think of the different methods we use to collect that information and understand it. However, until I read “Eating Christmas in Kalahari”, I did not think of learning culture and values from the native people actively “teaching a lesson”. Although, what better way is there?

Anthropologists try their best to become as close to an emic of a culture as possible. Although it is perhaps not possible to reach that point a 100%, I believe that learning through personal experience is most effective. A person can tell you about a practice or belief hundreds of times but until you experience it, it will remain a concept. Many of us have heard the saying “give him/her a taste of their own medicine”. Even though it is usually used to teach a person a lesson about something bad they did, it is hard to argue that it could be very successful. Allowing a person to feel what you feel, adds a new dimension to the concept they were just told about making it all that more “real” for them.

Richard Borshay Lee’s example shows that through the “lesson in humility” presented to him by the Bushmen tribe, he was able to see his own shortcomings. I doubt that if someone were to tell him that the motif of his Christmas “gift” was anything short of generous he would agree with them. However, after the feelings he experienced from the Bushmen “lesson” and the explanation given to him, it became clear that what he considered a great gift was nothing more than a typical practice of the native people.

Reading Lee’s account made me see that there are countless things that we could learn and ways that we could learn it. It also made me think of Professor Gaunt’s “Agree to be Offended”, when Tomazo said that he did not explain the actions of the people before because Lee did not ask. Perhaps, if he did he would have gained the understanding earlier, and avoided feeling all the negative emotions.


Bibliography

Lee, Richard Borshay. “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari”. In Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, 12 ed., ed. Spradley and McCurdy. Allyn & Bacon, 2008, 11 – 18.