[Buddha-l] "Western Self, Asian Other" / emic/etic

[Justin Whitaker]

Dear Richard, et al.,

I'm also a philosopher of sorts, so I don't know if I can be of too much help with emic/etic, but I use the nmemonic of ME/THEM to differentiate and emic/ME terms being the terms I'd use to attribute meaning to my activities: I might say I meditate to develop inner peace in order to be a better person. etic/THEM terms are those used by so-called objective observers (the validity of which is of course debated), who might say that the subject, Justin, meditates because it stimulates serotonin or dopamine which makes him happier. Etic/THEM descriptions can be most anything though: Justin meditates to increase his status in power relations between himself and fellow yuppies who might admire someone who meditates, etc.

From what I remember, etic language was used by Western scholars (reading texts) to first capture the essence of Buddhism and then tell Asian Buddhists what they were doing wrong (rituals, superstitions, etc). I'm not sure this is exactly right, but this may be one way of describing the problem with Spiro and King's early use of nibbanic/karmic forms of Buddhism.

Oh, I see Joanna's come through with an update, so I'll stop my rambling there.

Many thanks and happy holidays,

Justin W.

On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 5:17 PM, JKirkpatrick <jkirk at spro.net> wrote:
RH:
My impression is that if Western Buddhologists have a fault (an
outrageous thing to suggest!), it is that they tend to be as
excessively blind to possible shortcomings in Buddhism as Said
claims Islamicists are blind to the positive aspects of Islam. If
anything, Western Buddhologists (and I include here those who do
claim in any way to be Buddhist themselves) are the very opposite
of Saidian Orientalists.

I would appreciate some examples or refs here...thanks. Somehow,
I can't share this view, but then I'm not a Buddhologist either.
JK


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-- 
Justin Whitaker
PhD Candidate, Buddhist Ethics
Goldsmiths, University of London