[Lingtyp] Two terminological quandaries for the price of one: 'traditional' and 'non-Western' cultures (Juergen Bohnemeyer)

[Jane Simpson]

Let's ditch the terms Western' and ''non-Western', They are too imprecise
to be at all useful.  This has long been recognised with respect to science
, e.g.

3*. We avoid the phrase “Western science.” Many of the Eastern **countries,
such as Japan, now have more than a passing familiarity with “Western”
science, while much of the culture of Latin American countries such as
Honduras is of Western European (Spanish) origin. One could write of
“Northern” science, but it makes more **sense to omit the geographic
stereotyping. *p.287  Bentley, Jeffery W.  and Rodríguez, Gonzalo (2001).
Honduran Folk Entomology. *Current Anthropology,* 42 (2), 285-300.


And now, when so many science papers are produced in China and Japan it
seems quite offensive to use the phrase 'Western science'. Or even talking
of 'European origins' given the important contributions to science from the
Middle East and beyond (the Babylonians, the Arabs, Indians, the Chinese..)
.  Perhaps we could refer to global science, or world science.


Another use of  'Western' means 'Western liberal democracy"  which is then
linked with putative 'Western values'.  But when I taught students
and asked them which countries were  'Western', they prototypically listed
Britain and Anglophone settler countries.  Not Greece, not Finland. And
certainly not Indonesia or Japan.  Do Indonesians, Russians or Japanese
consider themselves 'Western'?


When talking about endangered speech communities,  there are many
distinctions that could be made  - small-scale versus large-scale
societies, totalitarian versus democratic, rich versus poor.
Hunter-gatherer or fishing or  subsistence farming/gardening or
slash-and-burn or piracy/banditry or trading.... Nation-states versus
non-dominant/non-mainstream groups within nation-states. Non-dominant
speech communities that might cross several nation-state boundaries. And so
on.  So I don't think it is possible to find a label -  other than perhaps
'endangered' vs 'non-endangered' speech communities.

-- 
Jane Simpson
Private e-mail
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