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New analysis of the language and gesture of South America’s indigenous Aymara people indicates a reverse concept of time.
Contrary to what had been thought a cognitive universal among humans – a spatial metaphor for chronology, based partly on our bodies’ orientation and locomotion, that places the future ahead of oneself and the past behind – the Amerindian group locates this imaginary abstraction the other way around: with the past ahead and the future behind.
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The linguistic evidence seems, on the surface, clear: The Aymara language recruits “nayra,” the basic word for “eye,” “front” or “sight,” to mean “past” and recruits “qhipa,” the basic word for “back” or “behind,” to mean “future.” So, for example, the expression “nayra mara” – which translates in meaning to “last year” – can be literally glossed as “front year..."
The Aymara, especially the elderly who didn’t command a grammatically correct Spanish, indicated space behind themselves when speaking of the future – by thumbing or waving over their shoulders – and indicated space in front of themselves when speaking of the past – by sweeping forward with their hands and arms, close to their bodies for now or the near past and farther out, to the full extent of the arm, for ancient times. In other words, they used gestures identical to the familiar ones – only exactly in reverse.
“These findings suggest that cognition of such everyday abstractions as time is at least partly a cultural phenomenon,” (University of California, San Diego professor Rafael) Nunez said. “That we construe time on a front-back axis, treating future and past as though they were locations ahead and behind, is strongly influenced by the way we move, by our dorsoventral morphology, by our frontal binocular vision, etc. Ultimately, had we been blob-ish amoeba-like creatures, we wouldn’t have had the means to create and bring forth these concepts.
“But the Aymara counter-example makes plain that there is room for cultural variation. With the same bodies – the same neuroanatomy, neurotransmitters and all – here we have a basic concept that is utterly different,” he said.
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- CommentAuthorjennyology
- CommentTimeJun 14th 2006
Sometimes I worry that a lot of cultural anthropology follows the same academic trajectory as the bit you mentioned on the main page with autistic savants... we glamourize the 'freaks' rather than question the possibilities within ourselves from the getgo.
How 'strange' it is to be able to count really fast and play concert piano, but no one really envies an autistic kid who's only impressive method of communication is devoid of what most would consider meaningful social interactions.
How 'strange' also a differenct concept of time, but really time has only recently (in terms of human existence) been pinned down to equations and specific measurements. We can all recognize differences in our own perceptions of now, yesterday, and tomorrow and yet are all-too-willing to point fingers at some wacky mountain folk who just think it differently by habit.
Look for differences and there they'll be. It's far too easy for the west to look outwards for novel ideas with which to define itself. I wonder how much this trend in curiosity trully widens our perspectives. Does it just serve to categorize every thought and unique attribute into such small compartments that any definition of normalcy is ultimately unobtainable?
I remember reading an article about this anthropologist who had brought her daughter with her on a trip to a rural area in south-east Asia, I believe. The daugher had Down Syndrome and had been raised in the US in all the proper institutions, etc. for persons with mental disabilities. The anthropologist noticed another child in the village who had obvious signs of DS as well. She questioned the family about the child's condition only to find that the parents regarded the child as fully capable aside from "not being able to speak."
Then, there was this whole profound conclusion regarding perception and societal demands.
I guess I just wonder when we'll turn the lens on what is considered normal and modern. To break down the model of what we revere might be more telling afterall. -
I'm going to start pointing behind me when I talk about tomorrow. That'll really get the linguistically philosophical, neurologically inclined, cultural anthropologists baffled.
I wonder if researchers in the future will dig out and analyse the speeches of George Bush in an attempt to understand better the mind of the 21st century How does Bush perceive time? Sideways perhaps? -
Anally, or is it analy? I have a hangover....
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CommentAuthorDr. Orphusi
- CommentTimeJun 16th 2006
Was it the Greeks who saw Time as walking backwards along a road to a future destination. You can't see the future as you walk into it, but you can clearly see the past .... and as you venture further, the past becomes less distinct.
Seems similar. -
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Strange how we have truly failed to perceive time as a relative phenomenon. You'd have thought that nearly a century of Einstein might have shifted our time-psychologies somewhat.
Time is, quite possibly, the single scariest entity this universe has thrown at our consciousnesses. Although perhaps it's the other way around - perhaps time is the single scariest thing our consciousnesses have thrown at reality.
How much longer my life would have seemed without alcohol. Can you imagine a world in which hallucinogens were the most acceptable social lubricant? Human history would appear as an infinitely long cultural perception stretching off behind us (or in front of us depending which culturally attained time-metaphor you care to apply). All genres of music would be supersceded with the word 'psychadelic'; Wandering down to the local off licence would subsume you in a sea of mushroom inspired consumables; "20 pack of psilocybin-milds please."...
Suppressing the masses' capacities of thought with alcoholic substances since time immemorial. Has anyone ever found themselves enlightened in an acoholically induced mental state? Society would appear to be a symbolic result of the exact opposite effect.
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