Mimicry - not in the avian world
I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about how much humans mimic. The rumination started as I was plowing at top speed through Queen of the South by Arturo Perez-Reverte and realized all of the sudden that my new favorite word was pinche, which is Spanish for something. Maybe I'll just go check that now... Oh yeaaaahhhh. It means bloody. Like bloody hell. keswindhover, maybe you can start working this one in.
But I digress. I found myself saying things in my head like pinche cabrón and hijo de las puta because of the novel, because of the time I was spending in that world. Arturo Perez-Reverte is such a brilliant writer (*I* think, anyway) that his novels always give me something like that that I take away. This time I started wondering, though, what is this urge to imitate? To pick up sounds or phrases from our surroundings? When I was on the dearly departed site Band of Buggered, we all began using each other's phrasing, ways of typing things out (e.g. ::kisses::, etc). Whenever I spend large amounts of time around my friend Keisha I begin sounding like a south Texas black woman. In college I was nominated an Honorary Sistah because I spent so much time with all the African-American women in my dorm that I knew how to use a real curling iron, how to straighten hair, the trials of keeping black skin moisturized, and could sing the lyrics to almost any gospel song you threw at me.
I talk to my cats in English, but frequently I meow at them instead, imitating whatever sound they're making. They always get very excited and talk back even more, but I've noticed never in English. Dogs? I speak, bark, whatever works when I'm playing with them or taking them to the park. I'll imitate their body language, or use body language I've been told tells canines certain things. I whistle, click, cluck, hum, purse my lips to make certain sounds, and flap my arms like a madwoman when communicating with my birds. Obviously I speak English, too (sometimes German if I'm in the mood), but this never sparks a mimic from them. Clearly there are examples of animals that will mimic humans or other sounds - my favorite is the story of a scientist hiking what he thought was Amazon forrest "untouched by man" only to hear a cell phone ringing 30 feet in the air. He looked up and there's a bird, watching his group, ringing at him.
Is the reason we humans mimic animals because we know they don't understand human speech? And if so, is that why we are allegedly superior to animals? Because they cannot make the connection that we don't understand their language, but we do make that connection? And if our motivation for resorting to immitation is in an effort to make others understand us more clearly, why then do we imitate the mannerisms, speech and patterns of the other humans around us? What does it accomplish for me to sound more like clevermynnie or just_Eunice? Is there a higher reason, is it socialization or ingrained behavior to make humans settle in groups better? These are questions that plague me, I say. PLAGUE ME.
At least this week.
And now I must bow to James Joyce when I read over what I've just written and laugh at myself. "Remember your epiphanies on green oval leaves [Stephen], deeply deep, copies to be sent if you died to all the great libraries of the world, including Alexandria?" Ulysses -- Life is such a glorious combination of silliness and poignancy. In case I don't say it enough, I love you all.
Except when you don't use turn signals on the roads. Then I'm peeved. But still loving.
But I digress. I found myself saying things in my head like pinche cabrón and hijo de las puta because of the novel, because of the time I was spending in that world. Arturo Perez-Reverte is such a brilliant writer (*I* think, anyway) that his novels always give me something like that that I take away. This time I started wondering, though, what is this urge to imitate? To pick up sounds or phrases from our surroundings? When I was on the dearly departed site Band of Buggered, we all began using each other's phrasing, ways of typing things out (e.g. ::kisses::, etc). Whenever I spend large amounts of time around my friend Keisha I begin sounding like a south Texas black woman. In college I was nominated an Honorary Sistah because I spent so much time with all the African-American women in my dorm that I knew how to use a real curling iron, how to straighten hair, the trials of keeping black skin moisturized, and could sing the lyrics to almost any gospel song you threw at me.
I talk to my cats in English, but frequently I meow at them instead, imitating whatever sound they're making. They always get very excited and talk back even more, but I've noticed never in English. Dogs? I speak, bark, whatever works when I'm playing with them or taking them to the park. I'll imitate their body language, or use body language I've been told tells canines certain things. I whistle, click, cluck, hum, purse my lips to make certain sounds, and flap my arms like a madwoman when communicating with my birds. Obviously I speak English, too (sometimes German if I'm in the mood), but this never sparks a mimic from them. Clearly there are examples of animals that will mimic humans or other sounds - my favorite is the story of a scientist hiking what he thought was Amazon forrest "untouched by man" only to hear a cell phone ringing 30 feet in the air. He looked up and there's a bird, watching his group, ringing at him.
Is the reason we humans mimic animals because we know they don't understand human speech? And if so, is that why we are allegedly superior to animals? Because they cannot make the connection that we don't understand their language, but we do make that connection? And if our motivation for resorting to immitation is in an effort to make others understand us more clearly, why then do we imitate the mannerisms, speech and patterns of the other humans around us? What does it accomplish for me to sound more like clevermynnie or just_Eunice? Is there a higher reason, is it socialization or ingrained behavior to make humans settle in groups better? These are questions that plague me, I say. PLAGUE ME.
At least this week.
And now I must bow to James Joyce when I read over what I've just written and laugh at myself. "Remember your epiphanies on green oval leaves [Stephen], deeply deep, copies to be sent if you died to all the great libraries of the world, including Alexandria?" Ulysses -- Life is such a glorious combination of silliness and poignancy. In case I don't say it enough, I love you all.
Except when you don't use turn signals on the roads. Then I'm peeved. But still loving.