on translation

[Chun Jimmy Huang]

How about teach them linguistics so that they would be able to 
perceive different worldviews in different cultures and then 
decide what they want to do/learn?


Chun (Jimmy) Huang
PhD candidate,
Linguistics, University of Florida
Special assistant,
Siraya Culture Association


On Mon Sep 29 09:53:21 EDT 2008, Daniel Kaufman 
<bahasawan at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Interesting discussion on religion and languages. I've often 
> thought  about this problem of linguists, indigenous peoples and 
> bible  translations. Secular linguists often criticize missionary 
> groups for  their exploitation of social and economical 
> asymmetries to spread  their particular worldview to groups which 
> may not be familiar with  life beyond their borders. The paradox 
> of course is that these  missionary linguists often facilitate 
> medical and social services  which are rarely provided by secular 
> linguists. It is a frustration of  mine that atheism and 
> secularism do not seem to be as conducive to  this type of 
> humanitarian work. Among secular linguists, this probably  stems 
> from the fact that our mission is to absorb and not to instruct,  
> to observe but not to alter. I, for instance, tend to think that 
> I  have far more to learn from others in the field than I have to 
> teach  them, especially in matters of "worldview". I happen to 
> find it ironic  and somewhat absurd that the same culture which 
> has been responsible  for so much war, genocide and environmental 
> destruction is the same  culture which has spread throughout all 
> corners of the globe with the  task of teaching morality to 
> indigenous communities, those very  communities which felt and 
> continue to feel the brunt of their  destructive actions in the 
> first place.
> In any case, I now think that the stance of aloof observation is  
> equally untenable in the present. Perhaps it is  incumbent on 
> secular  linguists to prepare "unreached peoples" (to use the 
> missionary term)  for the coming onslaught of modernity that will 
> inevitably transform  their lives. To that end, maybe there 
> really should be a common text  which can be translated and used 
> to put things in context, to at least  diffuse the illusion that 
> the wonders of anti-malaria pills and  airplanes come in a 
> package which includes mid-western evangelical  Christianity. How 
> about a text showing the consequences of Western  contact on 
> Native Americans from an indigenous perspective? That's  
> certainly a story which I doubt has ever been heard from a 
> missionary.
> 
> Dan
> 
>