On Thu, 9 May 1996, Quetzil Castaneda wrote:
> At 10:49 AM 5/9/96 +0100, you wrote:
> >
> >'''London''' contains the word London and two sets of inverted commas;
> >''London'' contains the word London and one set of inverted commas;
> >'London' contains the word London; and London contains about 6 million
> >people.
> >
> and the London in your sentence is a word., which refers to a legally
> constituted entity (a practice forged in history through various debates,
> struggles, investment of wealth, construction...)
Well, yes, but also a physically constructed conglomeration of houses and
buildings. The point is that from whatever viewpoint you look at London,
it still won't be the same as the word 'London', which gets used in
different ways according to the context.
> >Well, the !Kung for example call anyone with the same name as their
> >mother 'mother', and call her brothers 'uncles' and enter the same joking
> >or avoidance relations with them as they would with their biological
> >mother. This doesn't stop them knowing who gave birth to them.
> >
> thank you. you provided nice ethnographic data to see the point i was if not
> making at least trying to allude: they know who gave birth to themselves,
> but its not a biological issue is it! its a question of kinship.
>
Not entirely. The !Kung kinship system isn't based on reproduction alone,
because in terms of kinship someone who has the same name as your mother
is considered to be in an analogous relationship. But it isn't an issue
determined by the Western discourse of 'biology' either. It would be hard
to delimit a particular discourse which it was centred in, because the
!kung don't have such self-enclosed discursive formations as we do (nor
the institutions to support them). I suppose it would be the !Kung
version of "common sense".
Dave Hugh-Jones
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
'Yes, that's my mother all right, but my mother's the Virgin Mary, you know.'
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
dash2@xxxxxxxxx
> At 10:49 AM 5/9/96 +0100, you wrote:
> >
> >'''London''' contains the word London and two sets of inverted commas;
> >''London'' contains the word London and one set of inverted commas;
> >'London' contains the word London; and London contains about 6 million
> >people.
> >
> and the London in your sentence is a word., which refers to a legally
> constituted entity (a practice forged in history through various debates,
> struggles, investment of wealth, construction...)
Well, yes, but also a physically constructed conglomeration of houses and
buildings. The point is that from whatever viewpoint you look at London,
it still won't be the same as the word 'London', which gets used in
different ways according to the context.
> >Well, the !Kung for example call anyone with the same name as their
> >mother 'mother', and call her brothers 'uncles' and enter the same joking
> >or avoidance relations with them as they would with their biological
> >mother. This doesn't stop them knowing who gave birth to them.
> >
> thank you. you provided nice ethnographic data to see the point i was if not
> making at least trying to allude: they know who gave birth to themselves,
> but its not a biological issue is it! its a question of kinship.
>
Not entirely. The !Kung kinship system isn't based on reproduction alone,
because in terms of kinship someone who has the same name as your mother
is considered to be in an analogous relationship. But it isn't an issue
determined by the Western discourse of 'biology' either. It would be hard
to delimit a particular discourse which it was centred in, because the
!kung don't have such self-enclosed discursive formations as we do (nor
the institutions to support them). I suppose it would be the !Kung
version of "common sense".
Dave Hugh-Jones
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
'Yes, that's my mother all right, but my mother's the Virgin Mary, you know.'
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
dash2@xxxxxxxxx