Hebrew Hyperbole

[gcdonner]

I wouldn't be surprised to find cultures that do not use it.

I would be surprised to find cultures that don't use it.

Well, if someone had real evidence one way or another, at least one of us would be surprised. Until then, your guess is as good as mine.

I'm often surprised how many things are not cultural universals. Fewer than 1/2 of cultures kiss, for instance.

What evidence do you have for that?

[MaxPC]

Spot on, Robert. Hyperbole is a literary tool as well as an emotional verbal expression.

All people experience the same emotions regardless of their culture: joy & sadness; laughter & anger; fear & fearlessness; etc.

We are all children of God who created us with emotions as well as brains in every culture. Even psychopaths and sociopaths experience some emotion.

[Bootstrap]

All people experience the same emotions regardless of their culture: joy & sadness; laughter & anger; fear & fearlessness; etc.

This is a really hotly debated question among psychologists and anthropologists. Darwin agreed with you. I don't know if it is true or not. I'm convinced that there are at least significant differences in the way we experience and express our emotions.

[MaxPC]

What evidence do you have for that?

[Neto]

The tribe with whom we lived in the Brazilian Amazon used very little symbolic language of any kind, and I can pretty confidently say that they do not use hyperbole. They do have a sentence final clitic that means something like 'almost', so they more than once came running up, saying that so-and-so was bitten by a snake - almost. And if you stopped listening before that final single syllable 'na', then you were going ballistic, getting the anti-venom kit out, etc.

I did extend their one use of symbolic language sometimes in Scripture, like Jesus calling Herod a fox. They actually only use this type of symbolism with a single animal, the Tayra (Portuguese: irara; a type of weasel). Monkeys will sometimes pick fruit green, and put it in the crook of a branch to ripen. The Tayra is known to raid these food caches, so in confessing that he's taken fruit from someone else's field, a man might call himself by this animal's name.

If anyone is interested in linguistic controversies, there is a big one going on as to whether all languages use recursion or not. Chomsky has it in his list of language universals, but Everett makes the claim that the Mura-Piraha (a language group in the Brazilian Amazon) do not use it in any freely composed sentence. (That is, they will repeat it back if you give it to them, but they would never use it in conversation or in story telling. Thus language data elicited in a list, or working from a foreign language, must be regarded with some suspicion until it can be confirmed in natural speech.)

[Bootstrap]

I'm often surprised how many things are not cultural universals. Fewer than 1/2 of cultures kiss, for instance.

What evidence do you have for that?

http://hraf.yale.edu/romantic-or-disgus ... universal/
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... #aman12286

[gcdonner]

I'm often surprised how many things are not cultural universals. Fewer than 1/2 of cultures kiss, for instance.

What evidence do you have for that?

http://hraf.yale.edu/romantic-or-disgus ... universal/
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... #aman12286

These articles only address "romantic" kissing, which is different than saying, "Fewer than 1/2 of cultures kiss...".
There is definitely more than just romantic kissing, such as a greeting, for instance.

[MaxPC]

These articles only address "romantic" kissing, which is different than saying, "Fewer than 1/2 of cultures kiss...".
There is definitely more than just romantic kissing, such as a greeting, for instance.

Further, physical expressions will vary culturally while the core emotions of the individuals do not.

Hyperbole is comparable to humor: both are expressed uniquely in every culture and those outside of the culture will have difficulty understanding it, and recognizing it, even after years of living within the cultural context.

[Bootstrap]

These articles only address "romantic" kissing, which is different than saying, "Fewer than 1/2 of cultures kiss...".
There is definitely more than just romantic kissing, such as a greeting, for instance.

Sure, but it's just one more indication that cultures really differ on things we might think are shared by all human beings.

Further, physical expressions will vary culturally while the core emotions of the individuals do not.

You don't know that. And you're just repeating yourself.

You make these absolute statements as though they were scientifically proven. When I point out that scientists hotly debate them, you just repeat the same statement without addressing what I said. I think it's important to ask ourselves "Is this true? How can I find out?" I also think it's important to realize that sometimes we just don't know and can't easily know. That's what basic humility looks like when discussing facts.

Hyperbole is comparable to humor: both are expressed uniquely in every culture and those outside of the culture will have difficulty understanding it, and recognizing it, even after years of living within the cultural context.

If you change "every culture" to "many cultures" I would agree with you. I'd be surprised to learn that you are an expert on every culture.

[Bootstrap]

As one who loves to study and watch other cultures, I do find this in many and I can not think of a major culture that does not use it. I am sure there may be a few minor cultures that do/did not use it. I suspect they would be the exception, not the rule.

I suspect you're right. And perhaps they would be cultures further from our own.