NATIVE LANGUAGES AS ETHNOGRAPHIC TOOLS

NATIVE LANGUAGES AS ETHNOGRAPHIC TOOLS DR admirably clarifies article conception of Anthropologist, 41: 189sq., to 1939) MEAD'S recent (American her the linguistic approach ab­ By ROBERT H. LOWIE origina~ cultures. She effectively disposes of at least one grave misunder­ standing. I had supposed that using the native language for participation in the speaker's community meant, mutatis mutandis, what it means for a would-be authority on any advanced contemporary civilization, viz., a fluent command of the vernacular, coupled with ready comprehension of the natives' speech among themselves. Such control, however, Dr Mead vehemently deprecates-almost contemptuously-as linguistic virtuos­ ity (the pejorative term appears at least half a dozen times in as many pages). Her use of native languages bears a Pickwickian sense, involving claims so moderate that they disarm skepticism, let alone, wholesale doubt. Nevertheless, the article raises other issues. Is it historically accurate in defining the indicated revolution in field technique? What are broken or decayed cultures? Does Pickwickian use suffice for the goals set? And what is the true value of virtuosity ? In the following remarks I am not trying to lay down the law, but to give testimony. Nor is it my purpose to engage in controversy, but to make my position clear. Emphasis is solely in the interests of clarity: my previous comments on the subject l were misinterpreted into the exact reverse of their intended meaning by at least two readers, the late Dr Truman Michelson and a British colleague whose reactions reached me second-hand. I repeat what I have often said before: it is not important to me whether others agree or disagree; but it is all-important that the real points of both agreement and disagreement should stand out in relief. HISTORICAL FACTS Although second to none in my appreciation of Professor Malinowski's field researches, I cannot regard him as an innovator in learning the speech of his people twenty-odd years ago. Even if we eliminate as special cases Knud Rasmussen, whose Nye Mennesker appearod in 1905, and William Jones.. whose Fox Texts date back to 1907, there remain a respectable number of investigators who freely employed the vernacular in daily contact with the peoples they studied. This holds for Mrs Gudmund Hatt (Emilie Demant), who learnt Lapp before 1912, the date of the German R. H. Lowie, The Crow Indians (New York, 1935), p. XVIIIsq.