In: Psychology
1.You've probably heard more than one of your peers sneer at someone speaking a foreign language in a public place. Perhaps you've done it yourself. "You're in America! Speak English!" Isn't that ironic. We're a nation of immigrants from around the globe, yet we insist on the dominance of English. What if their dreams (or yours) came true? What if overnight, everyone in the world spoke English. It would be great, wouldn't it? But what would humanity lose, according to Wade Davis?
2.How is reality different for the Tiv, and how does this influence their interpretation of Hamlet? How does Bohanan's account demonstrate the concept of naive realism in communication? Does language really shape our view of reality?
1.According to Wade Davis if everybody , everywhere spoke only English humanity would loose it's spiritual, social and intellectual legacy. Humanity would never be colorful and vibrant, all it would be left with is the faded monochromatic shade.
2. Author assumed that everybody in this world shared similar emotions and behavior,thus, exhibiting naive realism. This made author to present the story of Hamlet before the elders of Tiv because she thought interpretation of this story to be universal. While presenting the story author changed many of the words that she thought would be easily understood by the elders ,but this changed the interpretation for the story and much of it's meaning was lost. The story of Hamlet was about the family dynamics of European culture or English culture. The things that taboo was in English culture had acceptance in Tiv's culture. The elders of Tiv couldn't interpret for ghost as they didn't believed in after life. Thus,there was much confusion.
Thus, Bohanan's account demonstrates that the meanings of language changes with the culture,and so the acceptance of emotions and behaviors differs from culture to culture. We all see the world from the spectacles of our culture and language. Thus,for each one belonging to different culture reality may alter for the same phenomena.