http://youtu.be/mSByjqMGtaU
Monday, August 6, 2012
Body Language : Part 2
More about Body Language. Here is an incredible video to watch. What do you see in the body language of the musicians and the audience? This video comes to you via my very cool Niece--Hannah, who is also a cello player. Thanks, Hannah!
http://youtu.be/mSByjqMGtaU
http://youtu.be/mSByjqMGtaU
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Body Language
Oh boy. I could go several places with this one. (On a previous post I had fun looking at somatic idioms)...In this post I want to consider how we use language. Does it really matter? OH YES!!!! (I can hear my sister who has a PhD in linguistics practically standing up on her desk and shouting at the top of her lungs---"AMEN SISTER!!!!" (She has never really done that--but I bet she would on this one! :) Anyway, English is one of the few languages that does not assign gender to nouns. But this is not the case in other languages.
According to researcher Lera Boroditsky, grammatical genders can shape how people think (a hypothesis called "linguistic relativity"). For example, when speakers of German and Spanish were asked to describe everyday objects in English, she found that they were more likely to use attributes conventionally associated with the genders of the objects in their native languages. German-speakers more often described "bridge" (in German, Brücke, a feminine noun) with words like 'beautiful', 'elegant', 'fragile', 'peaceful', 'pretty', and 'slender', whereas Spanish-speakers more often described "bridge" (in Spanish, puente (masculine noun) with terms like 'big', 'dangerous', 'long', 'strong', 'sturdy', and 'towering'. Art is impacted by linguistic relativity as well. In Boroditsy's research, in 85% of all cases, the grammatical gender of the concept in the artist's language impacts its portrayal. Therefore, in German art, "death" ( Tod (masculine) is generally portrayed as male, but in Russian, "death" (Смерть (feminine) is generally portrayed as a female.(see the link: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender) for MUCH more detail :)
So, of course, my burning question is...how does our use of language impact our concepts of ourselves, and our concept of God? Most depictions of God in the Western World are male. God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit (usually considered male in our minds, an "it" at worst). So, as I made a comment before (See Body Theology), the the Hebrew language (in which the OT of the Bible was written), the word for "spirit/Spirit" is "ruach"(feminine). In the Greek (in which the NT of the Bible was written) the word for "spirit/Spirit" is "pneuma"(neuter). Hmmm. Worth noting?
When people say, it's not a big deal, all you have to do is imagine that if the members of the Trinity were all 'female' and we used "She" instead of "He" it would make a HUGE impact on how we would all experience God. For example, if this was the case, how would MEN view themselves? They would experience what women have for centuries--what it is like to not have any "representation"...or a concrete example of what it means to be made in the image of God. Let me tell you...that effects your self-concept and sense of having value as a woman. God help us.
According to researcher Lera Boroditsky, grammatical genders can shape how people think (a hypothesis called "linguistic relativity"). For example, when speakers of German and Spanish were asked to describe everyday objects in English, she found that they were more likely to use attributes conventionally associated with the genders of the objects in their native languages. German-speakers more often described "bridge" (in German, Brücke, a feminine noun) with words like 'beautiful', 'elegant', 'fragile', 'peaceful', 'pretty', and 'slender', whereas Spanish-speakers more often described "bridge" (in Spanish, puente (masculine noun) with terms like 'big', 'dangerous', 'long', 'strong', 'sturdy', and 'towering'. Art is impacted by linguistic relativity as well. In Boroditsy's research, in 85% of all cases, the grammatical gender of the concept in the artist's language impacts its portrayal. Therefore, in German art, "death" ( Tod (masculine) is generally portrayed as male, but in Russian, "death" (Смерть (feminine) is generally portrayed as a female.(see the link: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender) for MUCH more detail :)
So, of course, my burning question is...how does our use of language impact our concepts of ourselves, and our concept of God? Most depictions of God in the Western World are male. God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit (usually considered male in our minds, an "it" at worst). So, as I made a comment before (See Body Theology), the the Hebrew language (in which the OT of the Bible was written), the word for "spirit/Spirit" is "ruach"(feminine). In the Greek (in which the NT of the Bible was written) the word for "spirit/Spirit" is "pneuma"(neuter). Hmmm. Worth noting?
When people say, it's not a big deal, all you have to do is imagine that if the members of the Trinity were all 'female' and we used "She" instead of "He" it would make a HUGE impact on how we would all experience God. For example, if this was the case, how would MEN view themselves? They would experience what women have for centuries--what it is like to not have any "representation"...or a concrete example of what it means to be made in the image of God. Let me tell you...that effects your self-concept and sense of having value as a woman. God help us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)