"to be" or belong

[Guest guest]

A forward from NDS, speaking eloguently and powerfully of the

importance of words to define or free us.

 

from an interview with Martin Prechtel in the April 2001 issue of "The

Sun" magazine:When I was a child, I spoke a Pueblo language called

Keres which doesn't have the verb "to be". It was basically a

language of adjectives. One of the secrets of my ability to survive

and thrive in Santiago Atitlan was that the Tzuttujil language, too

has no verb "to be". Tzutujil is a language of carrying and

belonging, not a language of being. Without "to be", there's no sense

that something is absolutely this or that. If two people argue, they

are said to be "split", like firewood, but both sides are still of

the same substance. Some of the rights and wrongs that nations have

fought and died to defend or obtain are not relevant concepts to

traditional Tzutujil. This isn't because the Tzutujil are somehow too

primitive to understand right and wrong, but because their lives

aren't based on absolute states or permanence. Mayans believe nothing

will last on its own. That's why their lives are oriented toward

maintenance rather than creation.

"Belonging to" is as close to "being" as the Tzutujil language gets.

One cannot say, "She is a mother," for instance. In Tzutujil, you can

only call someone a mother by saying whose mother she is, whom she

belongs to. Likewise, one cannot say, "He is a shaman. "One says

instead, "The way of tracking belongs to him".In a culture with the

verb "to be" one is always concerned with identity. To determine who

you are, you must also determine who you are not. In a culture based

on belonging, however, you must bond with others. You are defined by

where you stand and whom you stand with. The verb "to be" also

reduces a language, taking away its adornment and beauty. But the

language becomes more efficient. The verb "to be" allows you to build

things.Rather than build things the Mayans cultivate a climate that

allows for the possibility of their appearance, as for a fruit or a

vine. They take care of things.All are blessedjustthis

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