Proverbs

[rlarson at unlnotes01.unl.edu]

> Pamela wrote:
> But some non-European exotic languages are very rich in proverbs (the
best
> case I know of being Wolof).

I seem to recall running into an enormous body of proverbs a few years ago
when I was looking at Igbo.  Is West Africa in general an area particularly
rich in this genre?


> I hope more people will comment on this.

Here's my two cents (cheap at the price!):

I wonder if we shouldn't try to refine what we mean by a proverb?  Is a
proverb just any standard saying?  Is it an admonition?  Does it have to
be metaphorical?

If we find proverbs to be almost non-existent in some cultural regions, and
overpowering in others, then perhaps their presence or absence is an
indicator
of differences in the historical life circumstances of the people living in
these respective regions.

Suppose I live in a relatively egalitarian society where intra-group
conflict
is frowned upon, and where strong people will surely lose respect and power
if they assault their compatriots simply for disagreeing with them.  Here,
if I
have a disagreement with my neighbor, I can speak my mind plainly (if
politely),
without fear of serious consequences.  In this scenario, I don't need a
proverb; I just need to state my views about the concrete issue at hand.

On the other hand, suppose I live in a socially stratified society where
group solidarity takes a back seat to cutthroat competition for status and
power among its members.  Here we have a teeming mass of struggling
peasants
and social nobodies, dominated by castes of chieftains, warriors, clerics
and other social-climbing elites, who themselves live in constant terror of
falling back into the black hole of social nullity over which they rule.
To these elites, honor is of the essence.  Being bearded to their face is
an embarrassment, and embarrassment signals weakness and brings unwelcome
attention from ambitious rivals.  If I state my disagreement to a person in
this position, I force him either to be embarrassed or to squish me like a
bug, and I can easily guess which route he will be inclined to take.  So I
suffer my resentments in silence along with everyone else, until one day a
diabolically inspired raconteur tells us an amusing story he has made up
that metaphorically nails the very behavior we are all so frustrated with.
We listeners enjoy a catharsis of hysterical laughter, and pass the fable
along.  Soon our ruler is losing credibility by the bucketload, but can't
very well punish anybody without first acknowledging that the lampoon
applies
to him, which would bring him even greater embarrassment and dishonor.

Eventually the story is so well known that it doesn't bear repeating.  To
express devastating social criticism, we need only reference the title bar
of the appropriate story.  The party being criticized cannot easily
respond,
because doing so would require him to assert that he is being criticized,
which in turn would mean that he must assume the logic of the metaphor.
And it is not only tyrants that can be caught in this rhetorical Catch-22;
it can be quite effective in winning arguments within your family and local
neighborhood as well.  When it reaches this stage of usage, I think we have
a true proverb.

If this model for the origin of proverbs is valid, then we should predict
that they are a fairly recent development in human history, and that they
will be richly represented in chiefdom, feudal and state-form societies,
but rare or absent in band- or tribal-type societies, including most of
aboriginal North America.  I would expect them to be present in Mexico and
Central America, and likely in the societies of the Pacific Northwest
coast.
Can anyone shoot down this hypothesis?

Rory