pointing, not with finger

[John Long]

I have always thought of a hunter with both hands busy - bow and arrow -
and not wanting to spook the game. It's also less interfering or directive,
more subtle and economical in other contexts.


On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 8:54 AM, Amy Dahlstrom <a-dahlstrom at uchicago.edu>wrote:

> Hello Algonquianists,
>
> I'm a discussant at an upcoming conference on gesture, and one thing I
> thought I would mention to the (extremely diverse) audience is the practice
> among at least some of the Algonquian peoples of pointing with the lips or
> with the chin, rather than pointing with the finger.
>
> I would like to ask you all how widespread this practice is.  And for
> native speakers (native pointers? :-) ), do you have any intuitions about
> why pointing with the finger is avoided?  Would it seem rude to point with
> the finger?  Or inappropriate in some other way?
>
> thanks in advance for any thoughts you can share!
>
> Amy
>
> P.S.  if you hit "reply" remember that you are replying to the whole list!
> :-)
>



-- 
John S. Long, EdD
Professor
Schulich School of Education
Nipissing University


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