Comments on: For an Isolated Tribe, Time Follows the Terrain, and the Future is Uphill

By: ururu

ururu — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 08:28:52 +0000

What about “planning ahead”? and “before” which is also used to define “in front” spatially.

The English language views the past as behind you and the future as ahead, but in terms of chronological order, doesn’t it view the relatively past events as being in front of latter ones?

I wonder if that’s universal, and if not, how other languages and cultures perceive it.

Speaking of which, I think the Indonesian language does not have any concept of spatial – time association. I might be wrong.

By: Iain

Iain — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 01:24:17 +0000

TYPO also worth nothing that western
noting?

By: jimbo

jimbo — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 21:36:41 +0000

In some ways their way of looking at how time flows makes sense. It is harder to go up hill then down or stay in place. Like wise as you grow older it is harder on you, so I can see how that works.

By: Bruce Cox

Bruce Cox — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 15:34:32 +0000

The more we learn, the more ignorant we realize we are/have been. Which gives me great pleasure to see our arrogance falter.

By: RICHARD D. STACY

RICHARD D. STACY — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 14:38:26 +0000

Is there a psychological connection to the custom of thinking that “heaven is up” and “hell is down” ?

By: Nic Scroggs

Nic Scroggs — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 04:48:58 +0000

Thanks for adding the “may” to the sentence about mandarin speakers. Although ‘up’ and ‘down’ are common ways to refer to time, they are by no means the only ‘directional’ words mandarin speakers will use to refer to time. 上个月 shang ge yue – last month – uses ‘above’ to mean last, and 下个月 xia ge yue – next month – uses ‘below’ to mean next.

However, 以后 (yi hou) uses ‘BEHIND’ to mean ‘after’ and 以前 (yi qian) used ‘IN FRONT’ to mean ‘before’. While this is a horizontal progression, it is still different than English. I like to think of it like this; just as you cannot see what’s behind you, you also cannot see the future.