EYE JUGGLING
A Method of Interpretation
Eye Juggling (Cheyenne Coyote story about ways of seeing the world) entails an appreciation of four components and processes: story, symbol, value and engagement. Consider the metaphor of "landscape," such as the Palouse landscape.
1. "story" is analogous to a specific landscape, its particular and unique characteristics and boundaries - for example, the Palouse.
2. "symbol" is analogous to the visual, natural surface features of that landscape, for example, the rich soils of rolling hills.
3. "values" is analogous to the underlying climatic and geological processes and events that formed the natural features and gave the landscape its character, such as wind erosion and the Missoula Flood of some 15,000 BP
4. "engage" is analogous to traveling the Palouse landscape, entailing your full engagement - being very observant and participatory, and applying the tools of "story," "symbol," and "values" to your travels.
As the symbols/natural features of a story/landscape are influenced by their values/geological processes, to interpret and acquire a sense of the meaning of a story, focus on the symbols of that story, as they will point the way to the underlying values and meaning of the story. To do such is to Interpret the stories of others.
A - STORY (the landscape) - We are the stories we tell. We carry forth our stories into virtually every aspect of our lives, creating our institutions of family, church, school, recreation, art, government, economy, science, technology, work. From our aesthetic as well as pragmatic views of a sunset on a landscape, to our social as well as spiritual relations with kinsmen, with gods, or with a stone - all are animated, structured and given meaning through the stories we tell. To appreciate the stories we tell one another to to appreciate who we are. e.g., a feather.
B - SYMBOL (the surface features) - A story is made up of a clustering of symbols.
A symbol can be defined as a specific unit of reference that refers to a particular referent. The unit of reference can be an object, a behavior, or a sign. The referent can consist of a concept, phenomenon or process. Simply put, a symbol is something that stands for something else. e.g., what constitutes a "rainbow"?
1. Symbols presuppose displacement. e.g., phonetic pronunciation of word, rānbō, refers, in displace/separate time and space, to a particular phenomena.
2. Symbols entail meaning. e.g., what are some of the meanings of "rainbow"?
3. Symbols can be transmitted in time and through space, i.e., they can be learned and shared. e.g. how have you come to learn the meaning of "rainbow"?
4. The meaning attached to the symbol is autonomous of and not bound by the unit of reference, i.e., any given symbol can refer to anything. The meaning of a symbol is arbitrary. e.g., Olmec Figurine
5. Symbols define the parameters of and assign the meaning to the phenomenal world of objects and of images, i.e., that which symbols refer to is brought forth and created. e.g., what is it that constitutes a "rainbow"?
C - VALUES (the underlying forces) - Values (what Clifford Geertz calls, a "model for" one's actions or "ethos") significantly contribute to the make-up and disposition of the specific symbols of a story. Or re-phrased, the symbols of a story are expressive of the underlying values of a story.
Values can be defines as learned, relatively enduring, emotionally charged, epistemologically grounded and represented, moral conceptualizations, that assist us in making judgments and in preparing us to act.
1. All values are learned values.
2. Values are relatively enduring.
3. Values are not necessarily consciously known by either the individual or the society.
4. Values enshrine and impart a society's concepts of the morally desirable. Values are the road maps that guide our choices in life.
5. Values are inundated with emotional feelings and are held with strong conviction.
6. Values establish a disposition to act.
7. Any given value is based upon and expressed in terms of certain epistemological criteria.
Literal-denotative: values are those which are promulgated on the physical senses and have explicit, literal meanings. e.g., scientific empiricism as well as religious fundamentalism
Metaphoric-connotative: values are those based on mental conceptualization and have implicit, metaphoric meanings. e.g., philosophical rationalism, literary criticism, as well as racial prejudice
Anagogic-implicative: values are those which are derived from intuitive or mystical experiences and have implicit, metaphoric meanings. e.g., artistic and religious intuition and inspiration
D - INTERPRETATION (engaging and travel a landscape)
Our goal is to interpret the values from the perspective of the other, and avoid the indiscriminate imposition of your own perspective on that which is "the other," to avoid being biased and ethnocentric.
In seeking an appreciate of the perspective of the other, attempt to understand how the values were meaningful as originally constructed, i.e., seek the "cannons of construction," as well as how, though time and circumstances, subsequent interpretations, embellishments, and additions may have been layered onto the original values. Rendering these distinctions is particularly insightful when attempting to interpret values "closer to home," those associated with one's own cultural heritage.
In addition, seek to appreciate the multiple and varied meanings associated with a given value, as that value attempts to address critical issues relating to aesthetic, economic, historical, religious, philosophical, political, psychological, and/or social sensibilities, dilemmas, and/or challenges.
What can be some of the benefits in seeking to appreciate the world as seen through the eyes of someone else?
While focusing on symbols and values embedded in a "story text," but also consider the "texture" and the "context" of the story text itself, as well as what you bring to the entire process.
1. The text refers to the symbolic meanings of the actual text, e.g., what is being said, what are the world view themes or moral lessons of the story, what is referred to by the key symbols?
Look for dominant units of reference, such as repetitions, e.g., "act, renouncing the fruits of your action" in the Bhagavad Gita, and paired contrasts - binary opposites, e.g., good and evil, one rendered meaningful in juxtaposition to other.
Texts include oral and written narratives, as well as song traditions, visual arts, clothing worn, and architectural structures. Texts also include ceremonial expressions, such as rites of passage, pilgrimages, and world renewal ceremonies, e.g., Crow Indian Sundance or Islamic Hajj to Mecca. Table manners are certainly a text. And story texts can also include the scientific theory of evolution.
Identity your key symbols and values into a Coding System; build a coding list. As you apply the coding labels to additional related story texts for interpretation, be willing to modify your labels to better reveal the meaning of the texts.
2. The texture refers to how the text is being presented, e.g., what is the style of the writing or the techniques of the telling, what are the interactions with the readers or the listeners, what are the linguistic components and structures?
3. The context refers to when and where the text is being presented, e.g., to whom, when, where, in what social situation and for what cultural purpose is the story directed? What is the historical background of the story text? In considering the context of a given text pay attention to how that text is embedded within a larger aesthetic, economic, geographic, historical, religious, philosophical, political, psychological, and/or social association of influences.
4. In the interpretative process, can and should be be a neutral, objective observer?
Consider your own reflexivity - what you bring to the interpretative process. You are not a passive observer. e.g., Tepoztlan: Robert Redfield 1920s and Oscar Lewis 1950s, and e.g., the Nuer: E. E. Evans-Pritchard 1930s and 1950s
Acknowledge and use your own experiences and perspectives, your own reflexivity; but don't let it blind you.
Ironically, a great way to clarify your own is in the juxtaposing of your own veiled self along side the contours of the "other," i.e., the process of doing a little "eye juggling"
5. Interpretation is ultimately a process of creating symbolic meanings. Interpretation is a construction, a dialectic, a coming together of something new. It is the resulting culmination of the predominate voices of the other, in consort with and acknowledgment of your own voice.
6. Eye juggling is done with great effort, and best done as a social activity - dialogue with others. Bounce off your ideas with others.
E - Examples of story texts, 1. Burnt Face and 2. Genesis, and possible interpretations of Burnt Face, of Genesis.
But Also . . . Have Some Fun!