Metaphors:
A Figure of Speech or a
Fundamental Category
of Human Language and Thought?
Metaphors are Widespread
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Lakoff and Johnson have found that
metaphors are basic building blocks of human
language and thought.
Not just figures of speech to make language
more colourful.
No difference between metaphors and similes
in anthropology.
Definition of metaphor: a comparison of
domains of experience.
Synecdoches: the part stands for the
whole.
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Metaphors are a Universal Way
of Thinking, but their Content
Varies
from
Culture
to
Culture
Our worldviews are grounded in key metaphors, e.g. Time is (like)
Money.
Metaphors are Grounded in Bodily Orientations: Up/Down,
Front/Back, Left/Right, Inside/Outside.
Example: Happiness is up, High Status is up, High Income is up,
Mind is Up,
High Morality is Up, Penthouses are Up, Productivity is UP.
Therefore, the phrase ‘smart high income earners are moral,
productive, and live happily ever after in penthouses’ appears to
make sense, i.e. it has coherence. Conversely, the phrase ‘stupid
low-income earners are lazy, live in basement suites and are
depressed,’ also has coherence and appears to make sense. (Mind
you, I am NOT saying that these connections are necessarily true,
just that in Euro-North American culture, we might be surprised if
someone who lived in poverty also lived in a penthouse, had a high
status, and was happy. I’m saying that in a general way, these
metaphors reflect our societal values).
The Coherence of Key Metaphors is Due to the Orientations of our
Bodies.
Universal Ways of Thinking and
Cultural Differences
• Different cultures attach different values to domains of
experience.
• Examples:
– ‘Twins are birds’ a key metaphor of Azande religion. What does
it mean?
– the role of hunting metaphors in various foraging societies: in
!Kung society hunters and their prey as ‘namesakes’: reflecting a
dual creation of humans and animals who are paired.
– Nayaka of South India and the Batek of Malaysia, ‘nature’ and
the forest are referred to as parents. The relationship between
‘parents’ and ‘children’ is seen as custodial. Believe that the
forests will provide for them, while they will also take care of the
forest.
Metaphors Often Change as
Societies Change
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Conventional and Key Metaphors Compared.
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Examples of conventional metaphors: ‘hen-pecked’, or ‘randy as a
goat’, or ‘horse-sense’ derive from an agricultural history. They do
not possess the same vividness today.
The Difficulty of Translating Key Metaphors Across Cultures: due
to the fact that different cultures place different values on
domains of experience.
New Metaphors in the Industrial and post-industrial age.
Exercise: Think of Some of the Ways in Which Computer
Terminology is applied today to different Domains of Meaning,
e.g. the term ‘user-friendly’.
A study of metaphors can provide indications of how cultural
values are changing.
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For example, ecological anthropologists involved in the whaling
controversy in Iceland or the seal controversy in Canada studied the
ways that certain animals—whales and seals---were portrayed by
Greenpeace. Whales=sea-born mammals and nearly human, baby
seals were presented as being baby-like.