TY - JOUR
T1 - Beyond the Whorfs of Dover: A Study of Balinese Interpretive Practices
AU - Hobart, Peter (Mark)
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Scholars generally assume that current Euro-American theory is both necessary and sufficient to
understand other societies. Analyzing the presuppositions of linguistic and anthropological models indicates
however that they are fatally flawed. Examining Balinese practices of speaking and understanding others
shows they work with a consistently pragmatic approach with coherent modes of interrogating situated
utterances. Close study of examples highlights how far existing theories from truth-conditional semantics to
speech act theory not only fail to appreciate what is said and done, but insulate themselves from realizing this.
So the many studies of Balinese ‘symbolism’ are only possible by failing to listen to what people say. According
to Balinese, speech is inseparable from other acts, so meaning can only be judged from its consequences. If
other people have diverse ways of speaking, acting and understanding, should we not finally lay aside our
comfortable hegemony and inquire critically what is going on?
AB - Scholars generally assume that current Euro-American theory is both necessary and sufficient to
understand other societies. Analyzing the presuppositions of linguistic and anthropological models indicates
however that they are fatally flawed. Examining Balinese practices of speaking and understanding others
shows they work with a consistently pragmatic approach with coherent modes of interrogating situated
utterances. Close study of examples highlights how far existing theories from truth-conditional semantics to
speech act theory not only fail to appreciate what is said and done, but insulate themselves from realizing this.
So the many studies of Balinese ‘symbolism’ are only possible by failing to listen to what people say. According
to Balinese, speech is inseparable from other acts, so meaning can only be judged from its consequences. If
other people have diverse ways of speaking, acting and understanding, should we not finally lay aside our
comfortable hegemony and inquire critically what is going on?
U2 - 10.11588/hdethn.0.0.18998
DO - 10.11588/hdethn.0.0.18998
M3 - Article
SP - 1
EP - 20
JO - Heidelberg Ethnology
JF - Heidelberg Ethnology
ER -