a Laboratory: Anthr'opological; Awareness; ethnic; rhythmo-pedagogy; maternal
!rcse:lfch ol"icntalionllrcscllrch melhodologyl Imicroscopicl
JOIIsse dl,wnguishes between d!lforenl kinds of lahoralorie ... Jor Ihe sll/dy of Ihe Anthropology ofGesle and Rhylhm:
JOlIS!;e regarded Ihe peopled world as an m,thropolo/:ical laboratory, and every indiVidual was therefore a pOlenllal subject of research. regardless of temporal, geographical. social or cllllllral situation. HIs interest was focI/sed on the rhythms of Ihe human mechanism, 711e imernal man{fe,Halions of rhythm - the microscopic gel'te - was {he 'anlhropological' expression. while {he external mani/eslOtlons of rhYlhm - the macroscopic geSle - were bOlh 'anthropological' and 'ethnic' expression.
Part of Ihe researcher's respol1slhtlllY was to he able 10 difjerenliale between the 'anthropological' and Ihe 'cthmc',
• ''The Palestinian- lInd especially Ihe Cali/ean-miliells o..ffer liS an ul1Ihropologiclll amI etlmic laboratory m which we can observe memory. which is an exprel'sion of mlelligenl and Sllbhmated I~re at play, 1 will refer 10 memory as an anthropological principle from the perspeclive of Ihe memOl'lsers, In these memOl'lsers, I will inevitably find Ihe omnipresenl twin e/emems: Ihe amhropological and the ethniC, " (Jollsse 2000:26)
• 71,e 'Iubomtory of tire maternal Irearth' (Jollsse 2000: 193): that of Ihe traditioning paysanne mother:
• The Laboratory of Awarelle~~ (Jollsse 2000:25) o/Ihe self;
• The Etlmic Laboratory: "The source of my amhropological research is a hllge ethnic laboratory, a privileged milielt where pays and payson, cOllntry and peasant, still have common reflections and echoes. " (./oltsse 2000: 163)
• ';LaboralOry of lire mallulIl amI oral style" (Jollsse 1990:xii), also referred to as the Laborlllory of
"mimismologicol and rhJ'llmro-pedagogical anthropology" (Jousse 2000: 187): the formal experimental'aboralory attached 10 the Sorhonne from 1937-1957, in which the Aramaic Oral-style recitatives were recreated by a series o/recilers. including GahrieJ/e Desgn!es du Loft and Gahrielle Baron, and where experimental work in Ihe Oral-style recitatives oJ other ethniC milieus was conducted. JOllsse describes his work in Ihis Laboratory asfollows:
• "I have been repeating Ihis every year Jor IWenty-five years. During these twenty-five years, I have
rrained an appreciable number o.f young scholars, The cl!mral problem with which J have challenged them is the same one I have grappled with myse({ that of human mechanics,
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I1 has given me great joy. scient(fical!y. to see how. immediate!y they were familiarized with anthropo!ogical methods. all Ihose yOllng people sel {lbOUI researchinf!, and jitrlhering my own discoveries. Some Ihirty-odd docroraltheses and lechnica! repor/s leslW' 10 Ihis.
Bill I should nOI delude myse{( abollt my sllccess. With some rare exceptions. Ihe old philologis/.';
remain imnllt/ably faithful la bookish philology's 'hypercrilical' melhods. They persist in applying Ihem themselves. and they teach them 10 their stl/dents.
There is tl11ls. nOI only be/ore w; bill wilhin liS. a bookish philologism which continlles. and will cOnlinlle for an undeterminable lime. 10 be viscerally opposed 10 Palestinism. the explanalion of the creation of anthropological Civilisation. The strategies of this philologism may not vary. but they are redoubtable: I have called it 'scorched eanh' criticism.
When 'scorched earth' criticism is applied. nothing authentic ml/st be left standing. no author must rewin anything of what was traditionally his. nothing belongs to anyone any more. From this emerges the typically modern formula
0/
the Gospel artribllled 10 S, John, ,he ';:I'isrles artribllled la Peter. elC. No-one quite knows for sI/re any more 'who is who'. In my leclllres, J have predicted. and have warned again.'>:, the consequences of this flagrant 'scorched eanh . criticism.I believe Ihal my professorial role has ended. methodologically.
if
not pedagogically. In my lectures. J have endeavoured to share wilh the younger generations the great anthropological laws which explain why and how great civilisations can end. " (Joltsse 2000:44)See also JOlIsse 2000: 24, 153, /83. 187. 191. 207-208. 426, 437, inter alia.
o Laws of the Anthropology (ifGeste and Rhythm -laws of human expression
(The Anthropolog~' of Geste and Rhythm) [mnemonic lawsIIMcchanicsllmemor~'1
Jowise idenlUied a series of 'laws' or 'operaling principles'
0/
hI/man expression Ihat informed and operated the Al1thropolog,' 0/ Geste amI Rhythm.Examples of Usage
• "The following is a sununarised list of the fundamental Laws ofdle Anthropology of the logical human Geste:
The Law of Human Minimislll The Law of Rhythmo-Minimism TIle Law ofCinemimism
The Law of Phonomimism The Law of Mimographism 111e Law of Propositional Geste 111e Law of Double Parallelism The Law of Fonnulism
The Law of Rhythmo-pedagogy
TIle Laws of Mimism and Mimismiatry." (Jousse 2000: 147)
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• "To move from the concrete to the 'algebraic' without passing through 'algebrosis' is an anthropologist's dream! I do not use the word 'abstraction' since, as we have already seen, everything in human expression is abstract from beginning to cnd, It is impossible to play any conscious human expression which is not abstract! Educators and psychiatrists have much to leam about the two amphibiological questions of Concrete Abslraclion and Algebrosed Ahslraclion, Precisely because
educators are largely unaware of the laws of anthropology, tlley use teaching metlHxis which are
inappropriate for tile child. Consequently, psychiatrists have to deal with the after-effects of these mappropriacies, for the spontaneity of any child will suffer under tile infliction of algebrosis, l1lere are very few children who naturally cannot express tllcmselves Ilomlally. There are a great many more children who can.llot express tllemselves nonnally because of tile present algebrising system of education," (Jollsse 2000: 154)
• "In the course of my studies in grammatical linguistics, I was told repeatedly that lndo-European, Semitic, or Chinese roots all had concrele meanings, IIIOW know the reason - it is the Anthropology of Language that tells me why, and Ilot philological linguistics, \Vhen I view the famous 'problem of the origins of language' in the light of the law of Human Mimism and of its constraining play, the origin of language becomes no more than a 'pseudo-problem' caused by the ignorance of the fundamenral anthropological L(I"'!i of Human Expression, Endowed with his essential and intelligizing Mimism, the first anthropos expressed himself with mimismological Propositional Gestes as spontaneously as he walked on his legs,
But who will explain to me why, of all the animals of the creation, the anthropos alone is endowed with Mimism?" (Jollsse 2000:90)
• "The analysis of all these great laws of human expression proved to me that the only true pedagogies are global pedagogies, those which allow memory to be disconcertingly durable and precise," (Jollsse 2000: 130)
See aho JOllsse 2000:253, 260.·J.l5. inter alia,
o learning-by-rote - 'Iearning-by-heart'- Ienrning in the 'memory-heart' - memorisation
IJlcdagogyllmcmoryl (intussusccJltionllincarnationllimbricationllOral St)'lcllncfcshl
"All the dramas. large or small, aCll/ally visible;n Ihe world:from-below or Ihe present world. would ,hlls be re-played jormlllaict/!/y in the slIpple global mead (mllsclllatllre)
0/
the Mimo-catechisl or RhYlhmo- calec/lIst. as well as 111 his Ntb (hearl-memory), and in his n~fesh (reciting-throat). ,. (Jollsse 2000:229) Following Ihis, JOl/sse based his understanding of 'learning· on the Aramaic word 'Ieb', meaning 'the memorJ'·!reart' and Iherefore 'learning by !reart', and on Ihe understanding that the throaf - (he 'nelesh·- rewnated (he 'heart' fO the 'world': ;;How right were those Paleslinian paysans 10 make the heart the organ and receptacle
0/
memory and ollovel /:'xamined at the extremify0/
their natflres, memory and love are bill one, 7his IInion or this unification allows liS to understand the profound meaning o/Ihe following Palestinian rhyJhmo-catechisl Pearl-o/-/earning, which / have slighJly midriishised in order 10make if accessible 10 our present-day reader. for Aramaean semantism is essentially untranslatable and organic:
b c
rOil will/earn and YOII will replay
d
and tlills you 1I'illlol'e
159
e IIIe Lord
h
Ifllh your whole reclfmg IliroaJ
f
.\'01/" Teacher
~
11,;,11 your Ifhole memory-llearl
and 11'1(11 your whole miming
IIII/sell/mIlTe
How exceptional il is 10 discover 'his fecund centuries-old insight Ol/tlmed again recently by Mr RaDII!
HIIsson who maintains rhol the larynx is {he acting, feeling and thinking resonator oJ 01/ 'he fibres of the human being? ,. (Jo/lsse 2000:20-1)
Learning in 'he 'memory-heart". viz. 'memorising' is central 10 JOlIsse's Ihesis of learning and IInderswnding. MII110risalion IS memorisation' he says, meaning Ihal any/lung that has been 'mimismed' - un-pressed by the universe - is automatIcally embedded in /he viscera. and IS therefore learned. and therefore known. and Ihere/ore paten/fally understood. Bill il must be remembered (hOl 'mimismmg' Implies, simu/ram!Olll'/Y t/ie jit(filmenr of alllhe prinCiples of Ihe Anthropoloj?J1 ofCesle and RhYlhm, viz.:
a 'mirroring of meaning' and rhyrhming in a balanced and formulaic farmOl AND repeated re- Impression in order Ih(ll it rise into consciousness.
SI/ch Cl process appears to conslilllle 'learning-by-rote' - a learning-leaching prinCiple brollghl
11110 disrepute because of its Impoverished applicallon. Proper rehabtlllallon of the process in terms of the Anlhropology of CeSle and Rhythm realises Jousse 's imemion and understanding of learning in lite memory-hearl- 'memorisation',
Examl>lcs of Usage
• "We memorize in order to comprehend, llle more you memorize, the better you will comprehend
because everything will be embedded within you for immediate and automatic recall, Memory is comprehension from within of the gestes that are repeated and re-played. Memorization that endures demands re-memorization repeated tirelessly," (Jousse 2000:580)
• "Memorisation is manducation in order to become communion." (Jousse 2000:580)
• "A magnificent study could be undertaken, to show that all the words of Ieshoua in the Gospel are
biased towards memorisation." (Jousse 2000:580)
• "Bookish man has said: "To know by heart is not to know", not realising that this means wiping out ninety percent of the knowledge of all human beings,
As a rejoinder to the bookish law, 'Scienlia cum libro', the Anthropologist of Mimism answers with another maxim, 'Scienfia in vivo'. We must study and understand man as a living being. All my observations foclls and concentrate on this living and gestual element. I will thus endeavour to restrict the present study to the as yet un-studied area of living memory, tlle acting, thinking and knowing mechanisms which I will thoroughly analyse and examine." (Jousse 2000:26)
• "Something else that amazed me in the course of my classical studies was what I found in Homer's compositions. TIle practice of learning by heart enabled me to feel in my mouth, as I recited, that I was constantly coming across the same fonnulations," (Jousse 2000:22)
• "We on the contrary, have proclaimed pedantically that 'to know by heart is not to know', not realising perhaps that in so saying we are denying the existence of the very real corpus of scientific
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