Page 62 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

RETHINKING THE FOUNDATIONS OF CULTURE

(nouns, pronouns, verbs), Malherbe (1983: 135) also indicates that the subject
determines the conjugation of the verb; the complement plays no role in defining
the verbal form. The subject is essential; the predicate will follow it.
6 Refusing to acknowledge that links between language and thought can be reduced
to a mere set of superficial distinctions, such as the claim that thought is universal and
language particular, Emile Benveniste (1971: 55–64) examined the interaction of
language and philosophy. In the Aristotelian system of categories, for instance, the
term ousia means substance or essence, but it is applicable also to linguistic names
signifying a class of objects. Not only essences but all the other Aristotelian cate-
gories arise from language itself. Benveniste’s point is clear: linguistic categories
conduct cognitive assumptions, at least in the case of classical philosophy. The
appropriateness of linguistic categories comes mainly from the familiarity of lin-
guistic expressions. Therefore, ‘no matter how much validity Aristotelian categories
may have as categories of thought, they turn out to be transposed from categories of
language’ (Benveniste 1971: 61). Earlier on, in Twilight of Idols (1990: 48), Friedrich
Nietzsche saw that the categories of reason are projections of language. After
noticing the influence of philosophical reasoning on theological assumptions, he
observed sarcastically: ‘I fear we are not getting rid of God because we still believe in
grammar.’
7 Wickler (1968) discusses in detail the mechanics of mimetic attack and defense
both in the animal world and among plants.
8 Williams’s (1964) experiments on the consociation of fish concludes that group
formation is an alternative even for fish that, in their original niches, do not
exercise this kind of behavior.
9 Many countries including Canada, Israel, China, and France have laws limiting the
amount of foreign cultural material, such as music on the radio or movies, that can
be presented. For a heated discussion of the French legislation concerning movies,
for instance, see L’ARP (1995).

References
Benveniste, E. (1971). Problems in General Linguistics. Coral Gables: University of Miami
Press.
Brown, D. E. (1991). Human Universals. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Darwin, C. (1979). The Origin of Species. New York: Gramercy.
—— (1987). Charles Darwin’s Notebooks, 1836–1844: Geology, Transmutation of Species,
Metaphysical Enquiries. Edited by P. H. Barret, P. J. Gautrey, S. Herbert, D. Kohn, and
S. Smith. Ithaca and New York: British Museum (Natural History) and Cornell
University Press.
—— (1998). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Dawkins, R. (1996). Climbing Mount Improbable. New York: Norton.
Dumont, L. (1967). ‘Caste: A phenomenon of social structure or an aspect of Indian
culture.’ In A. de Rueck and J. Knights (eds), Caste and Race: Comparative Approaches.
Boston: Little, Brown.
—— (1970). Homo Hierarchicus: An Essay on the Caste System. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press.
Gass, W. H. (1989). Habitations of the Word. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Haig, D. (1993). Genetic conflicts in human pregnancy. The Quarterly Review of Biology,
68: 495–532.

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