ANTHONY PYM INCULTURATION AND ITS ALTERNATIVES. © Intercultural Studies Group A trainer of translators and interpreters In societies that need them for.

anthony pym

INCULTURATION AND its alternatives

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bull A trainer of translators and interpretersbull In societies that need them for governance bull And you might need them we you bull Are arrested abroad bull Are assessing the qualifications of foreignersbull Want to know what Orhan Pamuk is writing about

WHERE I speak from

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bull From attempts to do the sociology of translators (Renn Latour Callon Law)bull From social contexts for which we train

(immigrant contexts and postcolonial discourse) bull From cultural studies as a catch-all frame for

critical discoursebull From occasional consultations

New uses OF ldquoTRANSLATIONrdquo

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The social contract is only a particular instance of the more general phenomenon known as translation By ldquotranslationrdquo we mean the set of negotiations intrigues acts of persuasion calculations acts of violence by which an actor or a force accords or allows itself to be accorded the authority to speak or to act in the name of another actor or force ldquoyour interests are our interestsrdquo ldquodo what I wantrdquo ldquoyou cannot succeed without merdquo As soon as an actor says ldquowerdquo he or she translates other actors into a single aspiration [volonteacute] of which she or he becomes the master or spokesperson (Callon and Latour 19812006 12-13 my translation)

Callon and latourrsquos sociology

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Bruno Latour (19841988 167) ldquo[n]othing is by itself either knowable or unknowable sayable or unsayable near or far Everything is translatedrdquo

Everything is everything

Callon and latourrsquos sociology

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bull Beck Ulrich 20042006 The cosmopolitan vision bull Against the national fallacybull zombie sociologybull Non-interventionism

bull

ULRICH BECKrsquos cosmopolitanism

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bull ldquoThe desire for a quiet life is justified with the argument that the chasms between cultures are too wide to be bridged This may be tendentious and false as regards the motivation for relativism But the incommensurability assumption amounts to a non-intervention pact between cultures that can easily degenerate into violence is a world where non-intervention is impossible because intervention has always been the norm (20042006 55

ULRICH BECKrsquos cosmopolitanism

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bull Cosmopolitan competence as a fact of everyday and scientific experience forces us to develop the art of translation and bridge-building This involves two things on the one hand situating and revitalizing onersquos own form of life with other horizons of possibility on the other the capacity to see oneself from the perspective of cultural others and to give this practical effect in onersquos own experience through the exercise of boundary-transcending imagination (20042006 89)

bull Cf Ricoeur

ULRICH BECKrsquos cosmopolitanism

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bull Who has this competence bull How did they get it bull Do whole societies have it Is everyone a

translatorbull Policymakers at the top and illegal immigrants at

the bottomhellip bull Why so much incompetent intervention

ULRICH BECKrsquos cosmopolitanism

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bull this is discussed along the lines of the logic of translation here understood as cultural translation It is the nature of translation that the very terms of the translation are altered in the process of translation and something new is created

bull Delanty Gerard The cosmopolitan imagination The renewal of critical Social Theory (2006)

Gerard delanty

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Translation was once a means to communication and to render another culture intelligible but with the advent of modernity translation became a cultural form in itself and can be understood as a paradigmatic third culture With the principle that every culture can translate itself and others came the possibility of incorporating the perspective of the Other into onersquos own culture (13)

Gerard delanty

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Cultural translation is a process of mutations transferences innovations appropriations borrowings re-combinations and substitution It concerns the symbolic and cognitive processes by which cultural aspects of a given collective identity are appropriated by a different one which will variously adapt transfigure it subvert it (196)

Gerard delanty

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bull ldquoTranslationrdquo is being used to transcend the national boundary even while recognizing it bull Like ldquoiterationrdquo in the cosmopolitan vision of

Seyla Benhabib (Another Cosmopolitanism 2006) bull Who does all these things Who controls it bull In the theories it just happensrdquo (even when they

say they are doing sociologyhellip devoid of people)

PROLEMS WITH THIS

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And thus every translator is to be considered a middle-man (Vermittler) in this universal spiritual commerce and as making it his business to promote this exchange for say what we may about the insufficiency of translation yet the work is and will always be one of the weightiest and worthiest affairs in the general concerns of the world The Koran says ldquoGod has given to each people a prophet in his own tonguerdquo Thus each translator is a prophet to his people [hellip] What indeed is the whole enormous business (das ganze ungeheure Geschaumlfft) of the Bible Society but to make known the Gospel to all people in their own tongue (Letter to Carlyle July 20 18271887 19 26)

GOETHE 1827

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And when I had preached to the Mexicans in their language (which is the most generally known) he entered dressed in rochet or surplice and preached to the barbarians [Amerindians who speak another language] in their language saying what I had said to the Mexicans and doing so with such authority energy exclamation and spirit that I became quite jealous of the divine assistance that God had communicated to him

Fray geroacutenimo Mendieta C 1550

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INCULTURATION 1570-1602

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INCULTURATION 1570-1602

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ldquothe incarnation of the Gospel in autonomous cultures and at the same time the introduction of these cultures into the life of the Churchrdquo (John Paul II Slavorum Apostoli 1985)

ldquoThrough inculturation the Church makes the Gospel incarnate in different cultures and at the same time introduces peoples together with their cultures into her own communityrdquo (John Paul II Redemptoris Missio 1990)

Inculturation 1985-1990

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The people of Israel throughout its history preserved the certain knowledge that it was the chosen people of God the witness of his action and love in the midst of the nations It took from neighboring peoples certain forms of worship but its faith in the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob subjected these borrowings to profound modifications []The encounter between the Jewish world and Greek wisdom gave rise to a new form of inculturation the translation of the Bible into Greek introduced the word of God into a world that had been closed to it and caused under divine inspiration an enrichment of the Scriptures (Varietates Legitimae 1994)

Inculturation 1994

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ldquoThe work of inculturation of which the translation into vernacular languages is a part is not therefore to be considered an avenue for the creation of new varieties or families of rites on the contrary it should be recognized that any adaptations introduced out of cultural or pastoral necessity thereby become part of the Roman Rite and are to be inserted into it in a harmonious wayrdquo

(Liturgiam authenticam 2001 5)

Inculturation 2001

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- Learns from Mao- Influence the common people

- Learns from Saul of Tarsis (Philippians 47) - And the peace of God which passes all understanding

shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (King James 2000)

- (Φρουρησει Shall keep them as in a strong place or castle)

Counterinsurgency

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- Once the unit settles into the AO its next task is to build trusted networks This is the true meaning of the phrase ldquohearts and mindsrdquo which comprises two separate components ldquoHeartsrdquo means persuading people that their best interests are served by COIN [counterinsurgency] success ldquoMindsrdquo means convincing them that the force can protect them and that resisting it is pointless

- Note that neither concerns whether people like Soldiers and Marines Calculated self-interest not emotion is what counts Over time successful trusted networks grow like roots into the populace They displace enemy networks which forces enemies into the open letting military forces seize the initiative and destroy the insurgents (2006 A5)

-

Counterinsurgency

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bull Cultural knowledge is essential to waging a successful counterinsurgency American ideas of what is ldquonormalrdquo or ldquorationalrdquo are not universal To the contrary members of other societies often have different notions of rationality appropriate behavior level of religious devotion and norms concerning gender Thus what may appear abnormal or strange to an external observer may appear as self-evidently normal to a group member For this reason counterinsurgentsmdashespecially commanders planners and small-unit leadersmdashshould strive to avoid imposing their ideals of normalcy on a foreign cultural problem (1-80)

-

Counterinsurgency

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bull insurgents hold a distinct advantage in their level of local knowledge They speak the language move easily within the society and are more likely to understand the populationrsquos interests Thus effective COIN operations require a greater emphasis on certain skills such as language and cultural understanding than does conventional warfare (1-125)

Counterinsurgency

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bull In order to evaluate the people the following six sociocultural factors should be analyzedbull Societybull Social structurebull Culturebull Languagebull Power and authoritybull Interests

Counterinsurgency

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bull When dealing with Home Nationbull Experience with the HN language the ability to learn languages or

support of reliable translatorsbull Patience and tolerance when dealing with language and translation

barriers

Counterinsurgency

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bull Category I linguists usually are hired locally and require vetting They do not have a security clearance They are the most abundant resource pool however their skill level is limited

bull Category II linguists are US citizens with a secret clearance Often they possess good oral and written communication skills They should be managed carefully due to limited availability Category II linguists interpret for battalion and higher

bull Category III linguists are US citizens with a top secret clearance They are a scarce commodity and often retained at division and higher levels of command They have excellent oral and written communications skills

Counterinsurgency

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bull In traditional societies women are hugely influential informing the social networks that insurgents use for support When women support COIN efforts families support COIN efforts Getting the support of families is a big step toward mobilizing the local populace against the insurgency Co-opting neutral or friendly women through targeted social and economic programs builds networks of enlightened self-interest that eventually undermine insurgents Female counterinsurgents including interagency people are required to do this effectively (A-35)

-

Counterinsurgency

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- ldquoLost in Translationrdquo as a rational encounter of conflicting interests

- The theory of mutual interests must apply to the mediator as well

- The fact of irritation need not lead to non-communication ndash inculturation exists

Counterinsurgency

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- Literature as institution- Capitalist economies - IT (Microsoft)- Political modernity - Universities- Liberal humanism - Translation Studies

More inculturation

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-- Multiple communication spaces-- Personal contact

Conditions for aspiration

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bull Mexican culturebull Science fiction (Gouanvic)bull The gay novel (Harvey) bull Translation Studies

Out-culturation

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bull The European Courtbull European bureaucratic prosebull (Agent-principle reversal) bull Translation Studies

Meta-culturation

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bull MTV culturebull You Tube culturebull Translation Studies (Leipzig from Prague and

Bratislava from Petersburg and Moscow from Paris and Berlinhellip these are not wholly foreign languages)

Sub-culturation

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bull These days everyone can indeed translate

Translation is everything