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CHAPTER FIVE
communication
We can communicate with each other in many different ways.
Body stance, gestures, tone of voice, signs and symbols and even
through body temperatures and wetness and pressure we can communicate.
But the most important of them all is verbal communication or the
spoken language. The development of language has confounded scientists
very much. There are three basic observations for this:
1. Intuitively we might suppose that languages of nonliterary people,
which do not have any writing, would be less developed than those
languages that are used by advanced cultures where there are advanced
technologies art and crafts. But this is not true. All languages are
full blown with grammatical structure and are capable of expanding as
the need for new words arises. There are no primitive languages and
there never have been any.
2. Children in every society begins to learn their language at about
the same age. Children starts to learn to speak at are levels between
eighteen months and twenty four months. There are no known societies
where language acquisition begins earlier or later.
3. Children of all societies learn their languages at about the same
age. and at about the same rate.
These observations have led Noam Chomsky to postulate that language
ability is instinctive and it starts from the brain. The particular
language one learns is decided by the society. But the ability to
learn and synthesize the language is innate.
It also implies that man everywhere at all ages had the same
intelligence the ability to reason and to analyze. The amount of
information, knowledge and data may have been less. In other words the
intelligence of Adam, Abraham or Noah were not in any way less than
those of Newton or Einstein or Billy Graham even though they did not
have the same information available for analysis. The accumulated
knowledge of man through the ages enabled the latter group to achieve
additional things. In fact there is no evidence to show that there is
any race that is superior to any other in intelligence. The concept of
races has no scientific basis, though it can be used for convenience
of classification based on bodily characteristics like color and
shape.
Our ability to communicate and even think may be constrained by the
language we use. You cannot think of blue unless there is a word for
it. This problem is often faced by the evangelists and translators.
Many of the concepts in the Bible, like the only begotten son, logos,
grace etc. cannot be found in several languages. A missionary may have
to search out the right word to express the correct idea (though every
language can develop such words). Even the words for God itself needs
to be carefully found. In one Sudanese culture at least, the
missionaries were using the word for Satan in place of God in an
attempt to differentiate the local god from God. The method of
communicating by selection of the right word that express the idea
rather than a word for word translation is called dynamic EQUIVALENT
method. This is particularly relevant in Bible translations.
Rituals and sacrifices and symbols used are also susceptible to this
inconsistency when one translates or transplant it from the western
culture into the Sudanese culture.
Nonverbal Communications
Nonverbal communications may be intentional or unintentional, and
could be transmitted through one or. more or our channels of senses -
hearing, touch, smell, sight and taste. Gestures while talking and
giving speeches, nodding to express negation or affirmation, waving to
indicate approach or go away, kissing various parts of the body,
hugging. patting etc are all culturally determined patterns and
carries meaning depending on the culture. The same action may have
opposite meanings in different cultures.
Among the unconscious communications are shaking with fear.
trembling with emotion, crying for joy or sorrow, ecstatic utterances
as talking in tongues under spirit, perspiring under anxiety etc.
Those communications that involve muscle or body movement are called
kinesis communications. Eye contacts also communicate. Staring,
keeping eye contact continuously, looking down to avoid eye contact,
avoider: eye contact, smiling while looking, winking the eye,
twinkling the eye etc are all kinesis communications forms.
There are movements of the body which convey meaning. Where and what
part of the body may be moved in what fashion is conventional. Dancing
forms (permissible and non permissible and conditional forms), also
praying patterns, singing movements etc are also conventions.
Proxemic communications implies distance, territory and perception of
these on the part of the participants. Standing patterns can be
intimate, personal and public. How far a person may approach another
without violating their person? In intimacy of course a person may
move closer, but otherwise there is a conventional distance to be
maintained.
A boy and a girl may not stand too close facing each other in public,
but they may stand side by side touching each other. All these are
determined by the culture.
The arrangement within the house like, how close should the seats be
for comfortable conversation and mutual trust, how close should a
missionary approach a person, how far into the house of the host
should he venture in without arousing repulsion of suspicion, should
be talk with the children, could he talk with the lady of the house in
the absence of her husband etc. are all to be well understood.
In a prayer meeting and in the church, the seating arrangements, sex
separations, proper attire etc are to be determined by the norms of
the host culture and not by the norms of the missionary's culture.
Implementation of all these in the context of the Bible require
careful scrutiny to isolate the meaning of many of the biblical
commandments to separate them from from their cultural binding. For
example we have Paul's exhortations and the moral codes of behavior
and attire to be examined in the context of Sudanese cultures. How can
the injunctions regarding covering of the head be valid in a culture
where clothes are not worn? Thus all these need careful and prayerful
interpretation in terms of the culture into which you are entering. It
is the spirit that gives life. The written word kills.
QUESTIONS
1. What ability is innate?
2. Our ability to think is constrained by our language. Take the
example of the colors of the spectrum and compare it with the number
of colors identified in your language.
3. Take the example of family relations and show that Sudanese have
more names to denote various relations than Americans.
4. lf you know any other language in the Sudan other than your own.
Discuss some of the words in your language that cannot be expressed in
the other.
5. Discuss how far the Christian concepts of God, Son of God, Son of
Man, mercy, grace, redemption, sacrifice, sanctification,
justification, judgment etc. are expressed in your language and
culture. Are they adequate to express Christian concepts? Are there
alternatives?
6. Identify some of the characteristic nonverbal communications in
your culture.
7. Discuss the various methods of greeting between various groups in
various tribes. Husbands and wives may greet differently as compared
to brother and sister, a man and woman not related, father to
daughter, father to daughter in law etc.
8. Discuss the cultural norm regarding eye contact. Take various
cases. For example a man and an elder, a boy and a girl etc.
9. Discuss the evidences some of the nonverbal communication girls in
your tribe.
10. What are the conventions regarding dancing, dressing, singing,
movement of body etc in special situations?
11. What are some of the normal patterns in prayer, singing and
dancing?
12. Draw a rough in sketch of the plan if a typical household
showing the positions of various huts and their uses. Mark on it
the extent of penetration for a visitor, a friend and a relation.
13. What are some of the cultural limitations for a visitor in a home?
Make a list of dos and donuts.
14. What is the normal seating pattern or standing pattern in the clan
a) during a sacrificial feast
b) a marriage
c) a meeting of the elders
d) in a court of trial?
15. Discuss the following passages in the context of the culture of
various tribes.
a) 1. Cor. 7
b) 1 Cor 8
c) 1 Cor 10:11-33
d) 1 Cor 11:1-16
  
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