Fw: Re: Proverbs

[Koontz John E]

> On Fri, 21 Dec 2001, Jimm G GoodTracks wrote:
> > admonitions along the same line ...

> > Dont play ball in the house (where there is a Sacred Bundle), because
> > ..... (some negative consequence).
> > Dont sing at the dinner table, or you will marry a crazy person.
> > Cover the mirrors in the house, during a thunder storm, to avoid
> > lightning being attracted to the house.
> > Dont whistle in the night, as it will attract spirits (thinking you want
> > something of them).

We might follow Jimm's implicit suggestion and call some of these things
and examples like them already cited "admonitions," especially if they are
presented as warnings in conditional form, have a formulaic content, but
no fixed wording (or are known only in translation), and lack a
metaphorical formulation or application.

The admonition concerning mirrors is probably post-Contact, but needn't be
especially recent in origin.  Were there mirrors pre-contact?  I wonder
about mica maybe being used in this way.  I know it was a pre-Contact
trade item, but not why!

> > I do recall what appears to me as possible proverbs.  Several that came to
> > mind are:

These definitely qualify as proverbs, to my mind.  The one about making
one's own bed is so close to a traditional English formulation that I'd
wonder if it might be a case of diffusion.  I don't recall any parallels
for the others, though the thoughts are fairly universal!

> > Wa'ng-e wahi'sje iyan' tun'sge (e?e) ihun' inu'ha tun' ke.
> > Wa'ng-e wahi'sje iyan' tun'sge ihun' inu'ha tun' ke.
> > If a man possesses a sister, he has a second mother
> >
> > Ayan' regra'?un ke; Gashun' uyan' ne.
> > You made your own bed, Now lie in it.
> > (You created your own predicament/ crisis, so take the consequences).
> >
> > Waye're?sun wori'giragesge nanke'rida uki'ruhda re.  Tan'dare wama'nyi je.
> > If someone tells you something, notice behind him.  From where does he walk?
> > (When one gives you advise, See if he follows it himself).  (Walk your talk).

This is metaphorically, though not necessarily intentionally obscurely
phrased, but doesn't seem to have a metaphorical application.  I'd
interpret it as meaning that one should consider the motives or
friendships of somebody who offers advice.

> > Also, noone has mentioned the Saying & Expressions from LaFlesche's Osage
> > Dictionary, pp. 399-403.  This volume dates the existance of what can be
> > considered proverbs, it seems.

I'd forgotten this set, but I recall seeing in some materials Carolyn
Quintero showed me a versions of these sayings that I took to be the
original.  As I recall they were presented there as a coherent monologue.
I think the monologue was of Christian missionary origin, but I'm not
certain I recall the provenance properly, and I don't know that this would
necessily mean that all of the sentiments were of European origin.
Certainly there are some clear New Testament parallels, cf., e.g., "No
sparrow falls ..."

I think that the material simply appealed to LaFlesche philosophically
when he encountered it, and,as it was in Osage, that he made use of it as
sample Osage sentences.  Proverbs, as everyone knows, are contagious.
This is what I meant by saying that the genre may be easier for a cultural
tradition to acquire than to lose.  There's a parallel with computer
viruses.  (But not with worms, which spread themselves actively.)  You
might also compare simple, memorable, catchy tunes that stick in your head
and go round and round all day - what a computer scientist friend of mine
called "song viruses."

In effect, proverbs and sayings and admonistions can be thought of as
self-perpetuating texts that survive in the environment of human memory,
propagated when some one trots one out, and someone else immediately
comits it to memory.  Like other parasites, some are coincidentally
useful, some are not.  I suppose some, uncritically applied, might
actually be dangerous, though I haven't any particular candidates in mind.
("Have another for the road!"?)  Having enough of the right kind
inhabiting your mental processes might be a survival trait, just like
having the right bacteria in your gut or mitochondria in all your cells.
I hope to God this isn't the only real function of intelligence!  Aiee!