"In her article “Wearing proverbs , ” Susan Domowitz recounts an incident of equivocal communication from the Anyi (Côte d’Ivoire ) :
After divorcing his first wife, this man began seeing another woman. He noticed that she often wore a cloth in which the wild spider figured in the design [. . .], and suspected that she was trying to say something to him. Then he remembered a proverb that says, ‘What one does to cendaa (a small harmless spider), one does not do to bokohulu (a large spider considered dangerous).’ The man interpreted this to mean that he should not mistreat this woman as she supposed he had mistreated his first wife. At this point in his story I asked him if he knew there was a cloth with this specific proverb name. He replied, “No . . . but I knew that pagnes [cloths] have their names.’ His familiarity with this popular proverb prompted him to ask the woman what she was trying to say, and she confirmed that the message of that very proverb was indeed intended for him. "
KT
1 comment:
I am experimenting with coded language (and mapping and patterns) that can hold many different perceptions and paradoxes using a structure taken from of myths, proverbs, lies, and metaphor. (and create a whole/hole?) I keep thinking of a vast array of tributaries, swamps, and gulleys of interpretation, all dredged to make a "monolithic" river.
Which begs the question, who or what is the Army Corp of Engineers (or its British counterpart)?
KT
Post a Comment