首页
登录
职称英语
Like time, space is perceived differently in different cultures. Spatial con
Like time, space is perceived differently in different cultures. Spatial con
游客
2024-02-24
28
管理
问题
Like time, space is perceived differently in different cultures. Spatial consciousness in many Western cultures is based on a perception of objects in Space, rather than of space itself. Westerners perceive shapes and dimensions, in which space is a realm of light, color, sight, and touch. Benjamin L. Whorl, in his classic work Language, Thought and Reality, offers the following explanation as one reason why Westerners perceive space in this manner. Western thought and language mainly developed from the Roman, Latin-speaking, culture, which was a practical, experience-based system. Western culture has generally followed Roman thought patterns in viewing objective "reality" as the foundation for subjective or "inner" experience. It was only when the intellectually crude Roman culture became influenced by the abstract thinking of the Greek culture that the Latin language developed a significant vocabulary of abstract, nonspatial terms. But the early Roman-Latin element of spatial consciousness, of concreteness, has been maintained in Western thought and language patterns, even though the Greek capacity for abstract thinking and expression was also inherited.
However, some cultural-linguistic systems developed in the opposite direction, that is, from an abstract and subjective vocabulary to a more concrete one For example, Whorl tells us that in the Hopi language the word heart, a concrete term, can be shown to be a late formation from the abstract terms think or remember, Similarly, although it seems to Westerners, and especially to Americans, that objective, tangible "reality" must precede any subjective or inner experience, in fact, many Asian and other non-European cultures view inner experience as the basis for one’s perceptions of physical reality. Thus although Americans are taught to perceive and react to the arrangement of objects in space and to think of space as being "wasted" unless it is filled with objects, the Japanese are trained to give meaning to space itself and to value "empty" space.
It is not only the East and the West that are different in their patterning of space. We can also see cross-cultural varieties in spatial perception when we look at arrangements of urban space in different Western cultures. For instance, in the United States, cities are usually laid out along a grid, with the axes generally north/south and east/west. Streets and buildings are numbered sequentially. This arrangement, of course, makes perfect sense to Americans. When Americans walk in a city like Paris, which is laid out with the main streets radiating from centers, they often get lost. Furthermore, streets in Paris are named, not numbered, and the names often change after a few blocks. It .is amazing to Americans how anyone gets around, yet Parisians seem to do well. Edward Hall, in The Silent Language, suggests that the layout of space characteristic of French cities is only one aspect of the theme of centralization that characterizes French culture. Thus Paris is the center of France, French government and educational systems are highly centralized, and in French offices the most important person has his or her desk in the middle of the office.
Another aspect of the cultural patterning of space concerns the functions of spaces. In middle class America, specific spaces are designated for specific activities. Any intrusion of one activity into a space that it was not designed for is immediately felt as inappropriate. In contrast, in Japan, this case is not true: Walls are movable, and rooms are used for one purpose during the day and another purpose in the evening and at night. In India there is yet another culturally patterned use of space. The function of space in India, both in public and in private places, is connected with concepts of superiority and inferiority. In Indian cities, villages, and even within the home, certain spaces are designated as polluted, or inferior, because of the activities that take place there and the kinds of people who use such spaces. Spaces in India are segregated so that high caste and low caste, males and females, secular and sacred activities are kept apart. This pattern has been used for thousands of years, as demonstrated by the archaeological evidence uncovered in ancient Indian cities. It is a remarkably persistent pattern, even in modern India, where public transportation reserves a separate space for women. For example, Chandigarh is a modern Indian city designed by a French architect. The apartments were built according to European concepts, but the Indians living there found certain aspects inconsistent with their previous use of living space. Ruth Freed, an anthropologist who worked in India, found that Indian families living in Chandigarh modified their apartments by using curtains to separate the men’s and women’s spaces. The families also continued to eat in the kitchen, a traditional pattern, and the living room-dining room was only used when Western guests were present. Traditional Indian village living takes place in an area surrounded by a wall. The courtyard gives privacy to each residence group. Chandigarh apartments, however, were built with large windows, reflecting the European value of light and sun, so many Chandigarh families pasted paper over the windows to recreate the privacy of the traditional courtyard. Freed suggests that these traditional Indian patterns may represent an adaptation to a densely populated environment.
Anthropologists studying various cultures as a whole have seen a connection in the way they view both time and space. For example, as we have seen, Americans look on time without activity as "wasted" and space without objects as "wasted." Once again, the Hopi present an interesting contrast. In the English language, any noun for a location or a space may be used on its own and given its own characteristics without any reference being made to another location or space. For example, we can say in English: "The room is big" or "The north of the United States has cold winters." We do not need to indicate that "room" or "north" has a relationship to any other word of space or location. But in Hopi, locations or regions of space cannot function by themselves in a sentence. The Hopi cannot say "north" by itself; they must say "in the north," "from the north," or in some other way use a directional suffix with the word north. In the same way, the Hopi language does not have a single word that can be translated as room. The Hopi word for room is a stem, a portion of a word, that means "house," "room," or "enclosed chamber," but the stem cannot be used alone. It must be joined to a suffix that will make the word mean "in a house" or "from a chamber." Hollow spaces like room, chamber, or hall in Hopi are concepts that are meaningful only in relation to other spaces.
In some cultures a significant aspect of spatial perception is shown by the amount of "personal space" people need between them-selves and others to feel comfortable and not crowded. North Americans, for instance, seem to require about four feet of space between themselves and people near them to feel comfortable. On the other hand, people from Arab countries and Latin America feel comfortable when they are close to each other. People from different cultures, therefore, may unconsciously infringe on each other’s sense of space. Thus just as different perceptions of time may create cultural conflicts, so too may different perceptions of space. [br] European cultures generally value inner personal experience more than non-European cultures do.
选项
A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案
B
解析
文章首段提及西方文化的空间概念以a perception of objects in space为基础,具有practical和experience-based特点,将Objective reality作为inner experience的基础。而第二段以however开头,引出其他文化的特点。本段提到many Asian and other non-European cultures将inner experience作为基础。题干与原文相悖。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3478981.html
相关试题推荐
[originaltext]M:Hi,Iheardyou’relookingtbradifferentapartment.W:Yeah,
InstructorsatAmericancollegesanduniversitiesusemanydifferentteachin
InstructorsatAmericancollegesanduniversitiesusemanydifferentteachin
InstructorsatAmericancollegesanduniversitiesusemanydifferentteachin
InstructorsatAmericancollegesanduniversitiesusemanydifferentteachin
InstructorsatAmericancollegesanduniversitiesusemanydifferentteachin
InstructorsatAmericancollegesanduniversitiesusemanydifferentteachin
InstructorsatAmericancollegesanduniversitiesusemanydifferentteachin
YouwillfindthatteachingstylesintheUSaremuchdifferentthanthosei
YouwillfindthatteachingstylesintheUSaremuchdifferentthanthosei
随机试题
PASSAGETWO[br]Whatdoesthephrase"alevelplayingfield"inParagraph6mea
Itisrequestedthateverystudent______apaperonsustainabledevelopment.A、wri
[originaltext]W:Hmm,hi.M:Hi.I’mgoingdoortodoortonighttotellpeople
[A]decrease[B]directly[C]going[D]keep[E]less[F]main[G]mind[H
下列关于风机盘管加新风空调系统的表述,正确的是()。A.风机盘管系统存在水管
李小姐有存款100万元,打算做一笔为期3年的投资。现有两种方式待选,第一种是存入
期货投机与套期保值的区别在于()。A.套期保值交易主要在期货市场操作,期货投机
A.龟甲 B.人参 C.薄荷 D.琥珀 E.阿胶宜另煎的饮片是
根据规定,人民法院裁定受理破产申请,下列做法错误的是()。A.人民法院裁定受理破
当工程实际进度偏差影响到后续工作、总工期而需要调整进度计划时,可采用()等方法改
最新回复
(
0
)