Learning by How Words and Sounds are Organized and Classified

    Ethno-linguistics, the study of the relationship between language and culture, has shown that languages provide categories through which people think.  Languages mirror culture at every point.  They emphasize and systematize what is important to the culture and filter out what is not important.  For example, Eskimo tribes have as many as seven distinct labels to distinguish between types of snow ("falling snow, snow on the ground, fluffy snow, wet snow, and so forth"), while English has one all-inclusive word for the concept.  Equatorial African languages have no term at all for snow (Brown 1987, 138) but typically expand the word "hail" to include the idea of snow.  The Kipsigis of Kenya have hundreds of words defining different aspects of circumcision and the circumcision ceremony.  The emphasis upon this rite of passage into adulthood is reflected in the language.  However, the Kipsigis learning English has difficulty understanding the Western pattern of becoming adults as reflected in the terms "adolescents," "teenagers," and "young adults."  They typically grasp the denotated meanings without understanding the underlying connotated meanings of these terms.  They understand that teenagers are people aged 13-19 (denotated meaning) without understanding that teenagers are young people struggling with their identities of selfhood who desire to prove themselves as adults (connotated meaning).

    Many languages have more precise verb forms than English.  Hopi forms indicate not only the action occurring but also the knowledge of the speaker about the action and the validity of the statement.  The English statement "he is running" could be translated "I know that he is running at this very moment," "I know that is running at this moment even though I cannot see him," "I remember that I saw him running and I presume he is still running," or "I am told that he is running."  While European languages specifically delineate time limitations of any action, the Hopi view time not in terms of length but "in terms of events, sequences, and development" (Brown 1987, 139).  The length of time from planting to harvesting is not as significant as the development of events through stages of "planting, germination, growth, blossoming, and bearing fruit" (Brown 1987, 139).  The Kipsigis have three specific past tenses-today's past, yesterday's past, and the distant past.  The Japanese and Chinese infix respect relationships into their verb forms.

    The cultural categorization of colors is the most discussed illustration in the study of ethno-linguistics.  Americans see six colors in the rainbow:  red, orange, yellow, green, violet, and blue.  Some cultures see eight, others four, others three.  Kipsigis classify blue and black together and consider the sky tue, the word that I initially translated literally as "black."  Tue, however, has a broader color range than simply black.  The Malagasy speaker of Madagascar distinguishes over 100 basic categories of color (Nida 1952).  The Shona of Zimbabwe and Bassa of Liberia both have fewer color categories than English speakers, and they break up the spectrum at different points (Gleason 1961, 4).  The following color scheme compares the color categories of these three cultures.

Fig. 1:  Color Categories in Three Cultures

From H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall 1980), 142.  Used by permission.

    Participants of an East African hunting and gathering society would classify the same nouns in vastly different categories.  One such participant classified (1) God, angels, demons, viruses, and germs together as "things that can kill," (2) man, lion, and whale as "things that rule their environments," (3) women and cows as "things that are ruled and are convertible for bride price," (4) rocks, bushes, fish, trees, grass, rabbit, deer, and sand as "things of the habitat free for the getting" (Hiebert 1983).  A Haitian student classified tree and woman together as "fruit bearers," rocks and angels as "message bearers," and man and lion as "creatures of bravery and strength."

    In similar creative ways missionaries must determine how animistic beliefs are categorized within their host cultures.  "Culture-specific world views are reflected in the language" (Brown 1987, 138).  These animistic categories are seldom similar to Western categories.  The Mazateco Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico, traditionally felt that God's word was transmitted to them when they were under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug derived from a mushroom.  They therefore classified both the hallucinogenic mushroom and the scriptures in one category known as "God's word" (Pike and Cowen 1959, 145150).  One missionary to East Africa classified the Swahili terms mganga ("a shaman or witchdoctor") and mchawi ("a witch") in the same category, calling these practitioners "peas out of the same pod."  From a Christian perspective this was justified since both of these animistic practitioners use magical powers which a follower of God would classify in the realm of Satan.  Yet this analysis overlooks the differentiation that the language makes by using two terms for these practitioners.  The mganga uses spiritual power for benevolent purposes, and the mchawi uses the same power for malevolent purposes.  From the perspective of the African traditionalist the two types of practitioners belong in different categories.

    As missionaries evangelize in animistic contexts, they must realize that they are outsiders to the cultures who must learn the categories of animistic thought as formulated by cultural insiders.  They must learn how insiders classify animistic practitioners, how these practitioners determine the will of spiritual powers, what personal and impersonal spiritual powers are thought to impact the animist, and what conceptions of sin and salvation already exit in the animistic context.  Missionaries enter cultures which have already existing animistic categories.  These categories must not only be understood by the missionary but he must also learn to communicate God's eternal message within the contexts where animistic worldviews are present.

Works Cited

Brown, H. Douglas. 1980. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

________. 1987. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. 2d ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Gleason, Henry A. 1961. An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics. Rev. ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Hiebert, Paul G. 1983. Phenomenology and institutions of animism. Classroom notes from M620 at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA.

________. 1985. Anthropological Insights for Missionaries. Grand Rapids: Baker.

Nida, Eugene A. 1952. God's Word in Man's Language. New York: Harper & Row.

Pike, Eunice, and Florence Cowan. 1959. Mushroom ritual versus Christianity. Practical Anthropology 6: 145-50.

Copyright ©2000 by Gailyn Van Rheenen -- excerpt from Communicating Christ in Animistic Contexts (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1996)

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