What is Worldview? Orville Boyd Jenkins March 2004 Copyright © 2004 Orville Boyd Jenkins

What is Worldview?  Worldview may be described as The shared sense of reality of a group of people  The basis of culture is Shared Significant Experiences  Common experiences of life lead to a communal understanding of the world

What is Worldview?  Common sense understanding that develops within the community of all who share those significant life experiences  As humans we are limited to a finite set of experiences  Thus sets of experience vary from family to family, group to group

What is Worldview?  The Shared Sense of Reality is a Worldview – or Cognitive Culture  Worldview exists only in the head of those who share it  It IS reality to them – that community’s reality  They shape their common life according to how they view reality in that worldview

What is Worldview?  Worldview (Cognitive Culture) involves –Values, Preferences, Beliefs, Right and Wrong –The unseen world, death, afterlife –What higher spirit powers exist, God, gods –Self-identity - Significant shared experiences –Expectations, Possibilities

What is Worldview?  Shared Experiences: Previous Experiences affect Expectations  Language is a primary shared significant experience  Language is integrally related to Worldview

What is Worldview?  Language is integrally related to Thought- formation –Some languages are better suited for some thoughts – those thoughts related to the worldview to which that language is related  Thus the Hidden Mental World shows through in the language

What is Worldview?  The real cognitive aspect of language is in our use of the language to think  The Cognitive Culture, woven into the fabric of the language, is what we call Worldview  Worldview in Language: Language and Thought Worldview in Language: Language and Thought

What is Worldview?  How Society is Organized is an expression of Worldview (Cognitive Culture)  The Cognitive Culture determines patterns of relationship, decision-making, interdependence, obligation, restitution  Cognitive Culture is the basis for: Cognitive Culture –Social Role Development –Social Roles and Obligations

What is Worldview?  Social Interaction Patterns are the Social Culture  The Cognitive Culture, or World View, is the basis of the Social Culture  Language is also part of the Social Culture  Language is a social medium, and thus a social skill

What is Worldview?  Language is a medium of interaction in social relationships  Thus Language is critical in both Cognitive Culture (Worldview) and Social Culture  Worldview is thus a critical component of the Ethnic Identity  Worldview in Language: Identity and Relationship Worldview in Language: Identity and Relationship

What is Worldview?  The complex factors in “Culture” (Worldview) are tied up in language  Thus our concept of Ethnolinguistic peoples.  Language is a primary characteristic of human identity and culture.  Worldview thus exists in the mental concepts dealt with in the mother tongue  Deepest concepts and decision-making processes

What is Worldview?  This Shared Sense of Reality is at the core of Ethnic Identity  Access through –Sharing significant experiences within the group (culture learning and adaptation) –Language expressions and formats reveal worldview concepts

What is Worldview?  The shared sense of reality of a group of people  Unseen, in the heads of the members of that community

What is Worldview?  Accessible through –clues in language, social culture, –cultural informants, –Acculturation experiences living with the people –formal research from other researchers (vicarious experience of the culture)

Click for Worldview Perspectives -- A Short Course end What is Worldview? Copyright © 2004 Orville Boyd Jenkins Orville Boyd Jenkins March 2004