Etic ways of saying

I chatted with various people over the festive season. Conversation with British people normally included the topic of the weather. The 60 something crowd often mentioned looking after aging parents and the over 70 crowd mentioned their medication. There was virtually no mention of sex, politics or religion nor of money – taboos. Given the present Scottish situation I was expecting more on politics – but it did not feature much amongst the people I was with.

I have long realised that I am not good with social chit chat. I look on it as the cognate equivalent of grunting, and picking fleas off each other. Language is a sophisticated cultural tool and it seems a waste to use it in such basic ways. I operate the principle that ‘if you do not have anything to say then don’t say anything’. My non verbals can be enough to let the other know that I am not dangerous.

There is a pair of anthropological perspective which, if I remember them while communicating, can ease the situation:

“Emic knowledge and interpretations are those existing within a culture that are ‘determined by local custom, meaning, and belief’ and are best described by a 'native' of the culture.

Etic knowledge refers to generalizations about human behaviour that are considered universally true, and commonly links cultural practices to factors of interest to the researcher, such as economic or ecological conditions, that cultural insiders may not consider very relevant.” (Ref Wikipedia).

I have formally studied Anthropology several times and I have lived and worked for many years in five different countries and cultures. I am heavily etic when I first get there and gradually become more emic as I get to feel at home.

In theory I should be fully emic in the UK, Scotland, the NE and Portsoy. But I often find myself lapsing into the dispassionate etic. And, when the ‘as if witness’ is active the etic is the scientist looking down the microscope at his own brain.

In short, I become etically aware in emic situations, feel this is wrong, and this ties my tongue.

Rather than deal with people as objects of a field study, I feel that the right thing is to treat them as subjective characters with their own points of view; even when I have little interest in what they go on about.

But also, when in emic mode, I feel that it is rude to ask too many questions; but anyway, the taboos kick in and paralyse my larnyx. So many feelings. Language is a complex cultural construct.  Here are a few relevant aphorisms.

• “Hud yer wheest”
• “If yi dinnae spear yi winnae fin oot”
• “A tongue that wid clip cloots”
• “Little children should be seen but not heard”
• "Please engage brain before opening mouth”
• “If you don’t have anything to say then don’t say anything”
• “He who knows does not speak”