About the Yew1

[Stanley Friesen]

At 11:18 PM 6/5/01 -0400, PolTexCW at aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 6/5/1 3:55:01 AM, acnasvers at hotmail.com writes:

><< I don't see that Polaroid cameras are necessary. If you and I belong to the
>same tribe, and we don't agree on what to call trees in the next valley,
>then our use of language is dysfunctional. Do you really believe that
>prehistoric humans were linguistically incompetent? >>

>George Gordon Meade, victor of the battle of Gettysburg, was born, raised and
>flourished in a culture largely dependant on the horse.  He spent his entire
>career as a professional officer profondly involved with horses. In reading
>his writings, it is obvious that he was far from "linguistically incompetent".
>It is just as obvious that  George didn't know squat about horses.

I am not sure this is really cogent.  There is a big difference between
citified societies and tribal societies.  In citified societies, extreme
specialization is the norm, and individuals are often relatively uninformed
outside of their functional area.  On the other hand, in tribal societies
everyone has to be relatively less specialized, and able to perform most
functions required in that culture.

Me, I know squat about automobile mechanics, and I have never been harmed
by that lack.  But if I lived in a tribal society, I had better have been
able to hunt, and make basic tools, and live off the land at need.  And the
latter, at least, requires one know the identities of the various plants in
the area (and hunting really is more efficient if you can recognize the
different habitats, and know where to look for the prey).

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at friesen.net