Without context, meaning does not exist.
ViHart (YouTube) - Twelve Tones [Quote at 18:25]
When is a table a table, and when isn’t it? The dictionary says “a piece of furniture with a flat top and one or more legs, providing a level surface on which objects may be placed” but what if we place a cup on a stool. Is that stool now a table? Throw in a level of cultural variation, for example in Japan, where traditionally one sits upon the floor. The tables are much lower, often sunk into the floor. Would we recognise the table immediately? And what about places where such furniture doesn’t exist, where objects are placed upon the floor or on mats. Do we say they have no tables or that they use the floors and mats as tables? Is the meaning ‘table’ attached more to the object or the usage? How can we be sure when we travel, that we are seeing other people’s tables, and not other people’s stools with cups on them…
Now while this could be seen as a very pedantic argument the thing to focus on is this; if the meaning of a clear, solid and simple object is subject to such questions, imagine the questions that could be asked of colour, emotions, poetry, art, religion, ethics, politics and family.
Meaning requires context, context is subject to social, cultural, political, and individual variations (and not only these…). Anthropology is one attempt at unpicking this context, to try to penetrate into a true meaning, rather than a poor translation.
Success is far off and potentially impossible, but the discoveries made on the journey are well worth it.
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