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Thanks, Mary Ann, your comments are very valuable and most welcome!
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/6/2013 5:28 PM, Mary Ann Corbiere
wrote:<br>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif">Like Rhodes, I too </font><span
style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">wouldn't
read too much into differences in pointing mechanisms, at
least for purposes of interacting with this Nishnaabe-kwe.</span></div>
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<div>The various reasons posited for the apparent discouragement
of pointing with the finger were perhaps culture-specific but
many of "us" in the Nishnaabe-land of today also likely simply
consider it rude. I've never heard any explicit rationale from
my family or other community members for not pointing with the
finger. I can't pinpoint when -- likely during my gradual
acculturation (maybe during high school in a non-native town)
-- when I just got the message that it's rude to point with the
finger. </div>
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<div>Among those of "us" who don't behave in ways considered
"traditionally Native", etc., I suspect it remains simply a
matter of not being rude or obvious. Given the occasional need
to point and to do so in a manner that's not rude or as obvious,
it seems to be simply a practical matter of what we use if not
the finger, the only other option being the lips or the head.
(This master gesticulator --me -- has at times used the latter
too. Even over the old-fashioned phone, I gesticulate madly as I
explain directions etc. to someone.)</div>
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<div>If my comments aren't all that enlightening, bear in mind
that I'm not an anthropologist and that the Native culture I
know is that of a 5,000-member plus First Nation most of whose
members accepted Catholicism in the mid-1800s. </div>
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<div><font size="3">:) M. Naokwegijig-Corbiere</font></div>
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