pointing, not with finger

[Adrian Tanner]

Pointing with the lips is the approved form among James Bay Cree, as 
Dick has noted. At the time of my research in the late 60s and early 
70s, there were numerous places in particular you were told you should 
not point at, or the consequences will be bad. Young children are taught 
this, and in the one incident that I witnessed in the bush, an 
unexpected storm suddenly arose, because, I was told, a young child had 
pointed to a mountain which was subject to this taboo, although the 
child was too young to know the rule.

My question is, did the practice arise in animist ideas about offence to 
spirits, and extended to pointing in more mundane contexts, or the 
reverse, ie that pointing to people was either socially offensive or 
associated with sorcery, and the spirits, and places where spirits 
reside, were included under the same logic.

Adrian Tanner

On 13-03-06 10:24 AM, Amy Dahlstrom 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! :-)

-- 
Regards, Adrian Tanner

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