But, he assured me, it was otherwise for “promise.” I was skeptical. How about “obligation?” We both had the same dictionary (English-Zulu, Zulu-English Dictionary, published by Witwatersrand University Press in 1958), and looked it up. The Zulu entry means “as if to bind one’s feet.” He said that was not indigenous but was added by the compilers. But if Zulu didn’t have the concept of obligation, how could it have the concept of a promise, since a promise is simply the oral undertaking of an obligation? I was interested in this, I said, because Africans often failed to keep promises and never apologized — as if this didn’t warrant an apology.
A light bulb seemed to go on in his mind. Yes, he said; in fact, the Zulu word for promise — isithembiso — is not the correct word. When a black person “promises” he means “maybe I will and maybe I won’t.” But, I said, this makes nonsense of promising, the very purpose of which is to bind one to a course of action. When one is not sure he can do something he may say, “I will try but I can’t promise.” He said he’d heard whites say that and had never understood it till now. As a young Romanian friend so aptly summed it up, when a black person “promises” he means “I’ll try.”
Make of it what you will. CPT is a real thing, though.
This is a perfect example of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. In all my Linguistics classes that deal with Sociolinguistics or language processing, there were no good examples. They were avoiding good ones like this one.
If you live in a culture where such commitments are a-typical it's not a weakness. If you were placed into a society which didn't have such a concept of hard obligations and acted as though they did, you would be at a disadvantage. There's not an inherent superiority or inferiority, just an "impedance mismatch"
The thing is, there's no evidence that either blacks, nor Africans, live in a culture where 'promises' don't exist. In fact, many live in an Honor Culture where such commitments and duties are held in extreme regard.
Most african cultures are fear-power based. We see this reflected in US urban communities and the code of silence. This is done out of fear of reprisal, not honor.
It is impossible for a judgement on the memes a group holds to be a commentary on their genes unless you accept the premise that memes have a genetic basis, and that is the foundation for everything you claim to hate.
If memes are genetic, then there are, objectively speaking, inferior genes. Since you argue vehemently against that conclusion whenever you weigh in on the topic, I have to assume that the rejection of genetic inferiority is a core part of your belief system.
No, you're saying that Africans never developed the concept of any sort of self-imposed duty. Considering that such a thing is a base level activity in all known human societies and peoples, your position is one that demarcates Africans as particularly inferior to all other humans.
It would be like saying "European societies never developed the concept of an offer. Asians had to introduce the concept of to them." The implication being that Europeans are a beastly population of uncivilized and sub-human savages who only have a history of theft and violence because the concepts of generosity are foreign to them.
European societies never developed the concept of an offer. Asians had to introduce the concept of to them.
If there's some sort of historical evidence of this, combined with observable behavior to this effect that goes on to this day, it would definitely be food for thought. There's not though. Trade is a bit different than abstract concepts like duty and honor. The adoption of the concept of private property could be interesting to explore, though.
I need a source for that, because it sounds too ridiculous to be true.
https://www.amren.com/archives/back-issues/february-2009/
Make of it what you will. CPT is a real thing, though.
This is a perfect example of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. In all my Linguistics classes that deal with Sociolinguistics or language processing, there were no good examples. They were avoiding good ones like this one.
I hadn't heard the name for it before. It looks like I can thank Chomsky for that. Thanks for the info.
We can link to AmRen on this site? Based.
It actually would be because it's still a genuine declaration of a race of people as innately inferior.
If you live in a culture where such commitments are a-typical it's not a weakness. If you were placed into a society which didn't have such a concept of hard obligations and acted as though they did, you would be at a disadvantage. There's not an inherent superiority or inferiority, just an "impedance mismatch"
The thing is, there's no evidence that either blacks, nor Africans, live in a culture where 'promises' don't exist. In fact, many live in an Honor Culture where such commitments and duties are held in extreme regard.
Most african cultures are fear-power based. We see this reflected in US urban communities and the code of silence. This is done out of fear of reprisal, not honor.
Race is a genetic concept; culture a memetic one.
It is impossible for a judgement on the memes a group holds to be a commentary on their genes unless you accept the premise that memes have a genetic basis, and that is the foundation for everything you claim to hate.
When did I claim that?
If memes are genetic, then there are, objectively speaking, inferior genes. Since you argue vehemently against that conclusion whenever you weigh in on the topic, I have to assume that the rejection of genetic inferiority is a core part of your belief system.
Only if you're making a moral judgement on the concept of obligation.
No, you're saying that Africans never developed the concept of any sort of self-imposed duty. Considering that such a thing is a base level activity in all known human societies and peoples, your position is one that demarcates Africans as particularly inferior to all other humans.
It would be like saying "European societies never developed the concept of an offer. Asians had to introduce the concept of to them." The implication being that Europeans are a beastly population of uncivilized and sub-human savages who only have a history of theft and violence because the concepts of generosity are foreign to them.
If there's some sort of historical evidence of this, combined with observable behavior to this effect that goes on to this day, it would definitely be food for thought. There's not though. Trade is a bit different than abstract concepts like duty and honor. The adoption of the concept of private property could be interesting to explore, though.