pointing, not with finger

[Genee, Inge]

I have certainly seen Blackfoot people do it. Even when speaking English this is often accompanied by a Blackfoot demonstrative preceding the name when pointing to a person a little ways away: so there will be a lengthened /naaa/ or /maaa/ accompanied by a chin lift, if I can express it that way, which tilts the whole head. I am not sure now about the involvement of lips. 
Inge
________________________________________
From: ALGONQUIANA [ALGONQUIANA at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] on behalf of Amy Dahlstrom [a-dahlstrom at UCHICAGO.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2013 6:54 AM
To: ALGONQUIANA at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: pointing, not with finger

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
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