Sunday, March 18, 2007

Zuni Worldview, Part II, Multireferentiality and Metaphor in Language

Andres Quandelacy, Bisbee Cobolt Azurite Buffalo

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Zuni Worldview, Part II, Multireferentiality and Metaphor in Language

Our use of language is “constrained by our knowledge of objective reality” and “naming is seen as a process which confers contextual significance on objective continuities and discontinuities in nature; and a properly contextual account of naming requires that we include connotative and metaphoric considerations in a description of the meaning of names” . This suggests that lexical variation corresponds to the importance and stability of constrictive contexts where names make distinctions where contexts require and reference becomes stable only when it is necessary that a particular discrimination be made; otherwise, referential distinction does not operate on the level of individual lexemes and may be used to do more than point . “Through metaphor men discover relevant resemblances between categories which are not ordinarily related to one another and men signify these resemblances in words” .

Rosaldo’s distinction between referential and metaphoric corresponds to Samarin’s distinction between the referential and expressive usage of language. Samarin also notes that the expressive use as distinct from the referential use transcends category boundaries . For example, in the English language the statement ‘You’re a skunk’ does more than point and is an expressive use of language. It would transcend certain categorical boundaries in ignoring the specific differences of two individual entities. In regard to the Zuni use of language, this statement would not transcend any category boundaries typifying any specific beings and would not be considered expressive or metaphoric in that sense, for in referential distinction all connotation and metaphor have been accounted for in contextual significance. What is a metaphoric or expressive statement in one language may not have a metaphoric or expressive counterpart in another language. As Rosaldo noted, lexical variation is dependent upon the stability of context and reference, and Samarin states that the inventory of expressive language is inverse to the referential use. The lack of category boundaries within the Zuni taxonomic structure of beings would imply a low inventory of expressive terms.

Consider the Navajo language where a single lexeme multireferentially includes all hues of blue and green and the principle signification of the word is the sacred stone (turquoise) *. The stone itself is appreciated for its aesthetic properties and has religious associations, thus, the lexical constraint, or the evident lack of the need to make further particular discriminations among the wide spectrum of blues and greens shows its importance and the stability of constructual contexts. To the outsider this lack of lexical variation to make particular distinctions may appear ambiguous and represent a lack of stability in context. Showing a turquoise stone, which may display any combination of blue and green, would evoke the same response time after time. Any further expected verbalization in color terms would be to ask the Navajo to disrupt the contextual stability of their lexical environment by creating categorical boundaries by means of expressive or metaphoric terms, that is, to operate on the level of individual lexemes that may do more than point. Thus, in all likelihood, further referential distinction would be expressed in the name of a mountain or some other specific geographic location from which the stone originated.

In a like manner, the Zuni terms for colors point to objects, but often by means of phrases using a comparative particle (ikna), which is a reference to a cultural norm. Color terms form a significant part of the Zuni lexicon, frequently occurring in texts (both myth and texts descriptive of daily life), and are pervasive in art and ritual. There is no general term for color in the Zuni lexicon and the only indication of an abstract term for color is where the color has changed or designated as an unnatural property of the thing (jeli or heli) . To the Zuni the power inherent in an image (assuming color to be an image) is its ability to depict vital aspects of the physical world in relation to their “specificity-their ability to represent living beings” . Thus, in the absence of a general term for color, color terms have no category sui generis, but will refer to objects belonging to a separate taxonomic structure, often referring with religious connotation to the wide category of beings, which is inclusive of humans, animals, ceremonial objects, spirits (Koko, Kachinas) , and possibly plants, insects, and natural concretions as well (corn maidens, kokopelli, or the twins of Towayalane). The similarities and dissimilarities in a contrast between the Zuni and Navajo, and their own inherent “continuities and discontinuities” show the cross-cultural implications for comparability of semantic categories where categories are culturally defined and a manifestation of a Weltsanschauung**. The problem of a Chomskyan analysis of the Zuni language has been noted and it is apparent that the best approach to the language is one with a modified relativistic attitude.

The Zuni perceive of no phenomenon that is exclusively physical. Their ontological taxonomic structure is permeated with animate matter and their language has no means of explicitly expressing the distinction between the animate and inanimate. As Cushing pointed out, and later Walker in his taxonomy of Zuni terms, the category of ‘beings’ has no distinct boundaries. There are no types of beings, but rather, degrees of being. Young also noted in the results of card sorting that figures with both human and animal characteristics were sometimes grouped as either, but were less specifiable as specific beings . In contrast to an ontology such as the Cartesian cogito where it can be assumed that everything external to the subject is physical, an ontology that admits of an interrelated sameness throughout animate matter would assume, a priori, universal subjectivity or other minds, however one wished to describe the intellectual and individuating function. Thus, objectivity, or more precisely, the resultant intersubjectivity which is evident in analysis of their usage of their semantic components seems to indicate that the distinction between the ontological and the epistemological is analogous to the confluence of their cosmology and aesthetics in the beautiful and the dangerous, and is for the most part logically imperceptible (non-distinct).

(*) The term for blue or green is dootł’izh. Turquoise is the same, except with emphasis and length on the last syllable (dootł’izhii). (Young, Robert W. and William Morgan. “The Navajo Language”. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1980). Attempts to describe turquoise in terms of blue and green refer to the same term conjunctively or disjunctively and will thus be described referentially in terms of things (per an informant who is an artist and jeweler and an informant who isn’t).

(**)From the showing of a stone the Navajo may not provide a color term but will refer to an object (location) corresponding to the hue. Conversely, the name of the location in conjunction with the stone will redundantly refer the name for the stone (color). Meaning, the color term in this case refers multireferentially from the stone. For the Zuni, the showing of the color will produce a term that is the name of an object or direction that belongs to a category other than color, meaning all colors refer back to an extensive category of religious association (being). There seems to be a distinction here corresponding to the Navajo as a centrifugal society and the Zuni as a centripetal society. The Navajo will begin a sandpainting from the center and proceed outward, whereas the Zuni will begin from the outside and work inward.

Copyright 2003, Chet Staley, Amerindian Arts
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