Tomorrow was yesterday
It was yesterday and it will be tomorrow, because after all the past is behind you and the future is of course ahead of you - a linguistic pattern that is valid worldwide and is also reflected in the gestures of a speaker. Or maybe not? An Andean people prove otherwise.
"In three days I went to the market and I guess I had to sell my potatoes at a bad price, like I'm going to do last year." No, no journalist here has problems with chronological sequences and the associated grammatical regulations. Rather, a normal conversation among Aymara Indians from the highlands of the Peruvian, Chilean and Bolivian Andes could actually take place – at least the non-verbal one.
As in all other known languages on earth - from English to Chinese to Bantu or Polynesian - the speakers of Aymar can also assign a spatial position to the spoken word. But while a German, Indian, Arab or Inuit sees the future ahead and the past behind, the Aymara simply reverse this in their logic and gestures, as Rafael Núñez from the University of California in San Diego has now discovered.
Together with Eve Sweetster from the University of California at Berkeley, he interviewed thirty Aymara from northern Chile and discussed with them past and future events - depending on the language upbringing of the Indians purely in Aymaric, in Spanish or in the connection both idioms, the Castellano Andino. In addition to the linguistic terms for the times, the two researchers also hoped to elicit unconscious gestures from the speakers at the same time. Because gestures are often random during a conversation and underline what has been said.
Even a purely verbal exchange with an original Aymara can confuse an outsider: The expression "nayra mara" means "last year", although "nayra" is the basic word for eye, front and sight - and that's why should actually be used for something lying in front of it. The opposite is the case with the word "ghipa", which underlies things that are directed backwards. In terms of time, however, it will be used for future projects.
But the confusion of outsiders may become even greater: Above all, purely Aymaric-speaking older people who have never or hardly ever learned the Spanish native to the common global grammar wave and point over their shoulders when they talk about the future. If, on the other hand, it is about the present or the recent past, her gestures with folded arms always point forward. And if the stories go back even further, they even stretch out with their entire outstretched arms - while the rest of the world does it the other way round.
But this part of spatiotemporal perception as a fundamental biological principle anchored in all human brains and derived from our body structure is in question. It could also be, at least in part, a learned phenomenon, says Núñez.
The two researchers have not yet been able to elicit from the Indians why the Aymara deviate from the global standard. However, these Andean people attach great importance in their stories to whether someone actively attended the reported event or whether they only knew it from hearsay - this statement is a mandatory part of communication; Sentences without this communication are not possible in traditional Aymarian.
Since future events are naturally still uncertain, they move out of the field of vision and consequently spatially to the rear. This could also explain why older Aymara in particular often refuse to talk about the future: In their opinion, there is simply nothing tangible that is worth presenting - in contrast to the experienced past.
The days of this particular linguistic perspective could soon be numbered: at least in northern Chile, the young Aymara, who also speak fluent Spanish, are globalizing and using their dating gestures in accordance with the global zeitgeist. Even in their Native American language, they are now turning their backs on the past and looking ahead to the future.
