pointing, not with finger

[Goddard, Ives]

No one has pointed out that in many Alg. languages the word for 'seven' is derived from 'point at' and related to words for index finger (Rhodes and Costa, "Number words," #24-25).  So finger-pointing was old and must have had a stable and recognized cultural presence, even though lip-pursing is universal in normal use.

Ives

-----Original Message-----
From: ALGONQUIANA [mailto:ALGONQUIANA at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Amy Dahlstrom
Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2013 8:55 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 list! :-)