We were borned in the era of modernization, many images that come tu us are filtered by this way of thinking, even when we think in many native and indigenous people who still keep a language and different vision of the world, and is difficult to imagine. Well always the direct experience is the original source to realize that many ancient wisdom that create richer biocultural landscapes are still alive and waitng for people to value it. I encourage you to listen people who hasn´t much in common with western "civilization", take the risk to shatter your ideas and let your spirit lead you to understanding of that biocultural landscapes.

Dear Rhoda, just a tiny addition to the justification of your question: we currently only have 11 alphabets  - which give rise to the languages known, so far.

The ongoing crises do challenge our cultural biodiversity, and the perspective in the immediate future seem not to be too glad.. I'm afraid.

In Russian there is rather strong sense of speciecism. Say, there are two different verbs for dying of animate beings (meaning the ability to move by their own accord, thus excluding plants etc). No wonder that one is for humans and the other for all the rest. It's a wonder. though, that the first verb is also applied to one more species. To the bees.

Dear Vadim thank you very much for your contribution. As you know, in German we have two different words for a living body: one for humans (Leib), the other for all other creatures (Körper).

Along the same line, it goes without saying mentioning that the Greeks had one verb to name the life of all other creatures, and another for the life of human beings: zôe versus bios.

Dear Vadim and Carlos, it is so nice both of you point out and show directly one big problem: we today often experience only a small part of culture, even regarding the one we are living in. Why? - Because our present rather mechanical and materialistic worldview prevents us from believing and then experiencing, that there is still much more. So even we misunderstand words, as it is difficult to feel, experience, accept and understand other ways of perception.

But once you overcome the limitations forced upon you - in order to function well in a good controlled system of consuming without thinking too much - then you also can start to experience other cultural systems and can more easily communicate with those people from there, who are not yet trapped, or you can understand old literature better.

So the word you mentioned, which is describing the body in the German language "Körper" is for any body if you emphasize the mere biological and mechanical aspect.

But if you think of the energetical and spiritual component and want to include the metaphysical as well you speak of "Leib".

The same is with the breath: "Atem" and "Odem". So God did not use his "Atem" to be measured in bar and full of oxygen O2 but his "Odem" to give Adam the life.

In traditional Chinese medicine "qigong" is not the breathing therapy, but the therapy which is including all the energetical and as a consequence the spiritual growing aspects as well in order to make your health become more life fullfilling in all its components.

So even when we are born into a half blind modern society we still can by our efforts overcome these limitations in order to enrich our lives and the one of our families and friends. - The best way is to look out for curious things and don´t stop searching. Thus  instead of despair you will find love for the world (at least most of the time).

Take your behavior and supporting environment, and multiplies this by 7-10 billion people. What will be the world landscape? Will this give hints?

Dear Carlos,

The (der) Leib can be used also for other animals but not abiotic constructions. As to the (der) Körper (corpus), it can be used for abiotic structures but also for humans e.g. der menschliche Körper = the human body.

Dear Rhoda,

Dear All,

Events, notions, interactions, happenings but even simple descriptions can approach the human mind through signals = languages. Languages may have various opportunities, capacities to express state and change of environment. However, main trouble may be the result of alteration of expression ability of people, that is, the continual impoverishment of mainstream vocabulary of languages as well as the forced topic alteration by media and politics.

The Taiwanese "language-nature" landscape gets poorer every year under the influence of contemporary global economic demands, alas.  

Please, look at http://www.slideshare.net/aidenyeh/language-policy-in-taiwan 

Dear Rhoda,

this are the Yakut parodies for some international (now) music and subcultural trends. (Yakuts are the indigineous people of the Eastern Siberia). Their texts are full of jokes and ironic attitude toward the modern cultural "innovations":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95zh-Cgoutg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI5RqKeJKBE 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmSvPw_Qzj8

In Spain we have a nice sketch of wat is a conflict between language, culture and social organization (i.e. politics).

There is an intense preocupation in the administrations of areas were a language different to Castilian is spoken (Galicia, BAsque country and Catalonia) to prevent the local population from loosing their local language, this is done in two main ways:

The local is the language of choice for most of children education, specially in public schools.

All the public areas, roads and buildings and media are mostly in local language, with sometimes negative discrimination as for example the need of speaking the local language to opt to a public, and also private work possition.

This creates an intense national debate about, but from my point of view, the culture is not into it. I mean that nobody in the country reproach this areas to try to conserve their cultural heritage by this mean (much of the country wide known ancient histories come from this special areas actually)

The main disagreement is in the reduction of the freedom of Castilian speakers to use their language in most aspects of their daily lives, a think wich in reality is not true, as 99% of people in the country do understand and can speak Castilian, nevertheless they normaly use other languages in their normal life.

There is also a crossed problem that includes the political ideas that come from long ago, left and right, that are in the discussion, but in this case not homogeneously distributed (not all defenders of one political idea have same view about language and vice-versa) but that is also a thing to be balanced in a good analisys of the social reality of Spain.

For all this I think that there is a big ball of culture-politics-economy-local interest-individual interest that is, many times unconsciously, in the arena of the language and his relation with diversity vs. uniformity in states, nations and peoples.

The problem is much more deep, and if you want I can guide you through more specific stories that can help you to shed light to your investigation.

Regards

Rafael

Look to contemporary art - it affirms, problematises, politicises and critiques.

While it is widely acknowledged that the degradation of the natural environment, in particular traditional habitats, entails a loss of cultural and linguistic diversity, new studies suggest that language loss, in its turn, has a negative impact on biodiversity conservation.

There is a fundamental linkage between language and traditional knowledge (TK) related to biodiversity. Local and indigenous communities have elaborated complex classification systems for the natural world, reflecting a deep understanding of their local environment. This environmental knowledge is embedded in indigenous names, oral traditions and taxonomies, and can be lost when a community shifts to another language.

©Discovery

Traditional fisherman in Guatemala.

Ethnobotanists and ethnobiologists recognize the importance of indigenous names, folk taxonomies and oral traditions to the success of initiatives related to endangered species recovery and restoration activities.

For example, a study carried out among the Amuesha tribe of the Peruvian Upper Amazon, whose language is severely endangered, concluded that the loss of speakers and knowledge- keepers among the Amuesha has  directly and negatively impacted the diversity of crops.

Another study on ancestral sayings of Maori revealed new pertinent information concerning plant growth, soils and nutrients, ecological niches and ecological communities, as well as landscape processes.

These and many other case studies will be presented in a forthcoming UNESCO working paper entitled ‘Indigenous languages as tools for understanding and preserving biodiversity’.

Such studies demonstrate that efforts to preserve biodiversity can greatly benefit from engaging with local communities on one hand and anthropologists and linguists on the other hand, The former can share their unique traditional ecological knowledge, while the latter  can serve as bridges between TK and ecoscience. UNESCO considers the safeguarding of TK and the indigenous languages used to transmit such knowledge as a yet underused but promising tools for the conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity.

-----http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/biodiversity-and-linguistic-diversity/