Evans-Pritchard’s paper is that it gives us the Azande point of view in their own words and actions, an does not romance about white is going on inside their minds.” – Hocart in “The Life Giving Myth” (pg.180) We could use symbolic nomenclature to describe ideas but it becomes so complex that any clarity it offers could be quickly overrun with confusion. If an author is seeking to neutrally convey a linguistically foreign idea (whether it be for kinship systems or other) which preserves the original meaning and is clear and differential to other potential meanings in the same language, there already exists a term for it: that foreign term. To say “wati” as opposed to a formula is not confusing. Wati has no connotations in the English language and so if one is diligent in its description it will preserve its meaning and, as opposed to any translations of it, will not carry any pre-existing linguistic biases. More than this, it removes confusion that arises from such formulas as exist in neutral nomenclature. Wati would simply mean Wati, and could be understood as such without converting it to formulas and needing to know each of its components to derive meaning from
Evans-Pritchard’s paper is that it gives us the Azande point of view in their own words and actions, an does not romance about white is going on inside their minds.” – Hocart in “The Life Giving Myth” (pg.180) We could use symbolic nomenclature to describe ideas but it becomes so complex that any clarity it offers could be quickly overrun with confusion. If an author is seeking to neutrally convey a linguistically foreign idea (whether it be for kinship systems or other) which preserves the original meaning and is clear and differential to other potential meanings in the same language, there already exists a term for it: that foreign term. To say “wati” as opposed to a formula is not confusing. Wati has no connotations in the English language and so if one is diligent in its description it will preserve its meaning and, as opposed to any translations of it, will not carry any pre-existing linguistic biases. More than this, it removes confusion that arises from such formulas as exist in neutral nomenclature. Wati would simply mean Wati, and could be understood as such without converting it to formulas and needing to know each of its components to derive meaning from