pointing, not with finger

[Michael McCafferty]

Amy:

The Navajo point with their lips, as do a group of Navajo-Chiracahua 
Apache people on the Alamo Navajo Reservation in western New Mexico. My 
sense is that it comes from hunting culture, where pointing with a 
finger would give away the location of the hunter whereas pointing with 
the lips is subtle.

Michael McCafferty


Quoting Amy Dahlstrom <a-dahlstrom at UCHICAGO.EDU>:

> 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! :-)
>