Translating the Indigenous. Carl Strehlow’s Word for God in Central Australia
The Lutheran missionary Carl Strehlow translated narratives of the Arrernte of Central Australia into German. In the first volume of his huge ethnographic study, published in 1907, he describes the Arrernte Altjira as a high god, arguing that the name should not be translated as “dreaming”, which is...
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University of Vienna
2023
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:11c63028e3284e208c15b57d4cb4bfae 2023-09-05T13:19:29+02:00 Translating the Indigenous. Carl Strehlow’s Word for God in Central Australia Anthony Pym 2023-08-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.25365/cts-2022-4-1-2 https://doaj.org/article/11c63028e3284e208c15b57d4cb4bfae DE EN FR ger eng fre University of Vienna https://chronotopos.eu/index.php/cts/article/view/6372 https://doaj.org/toc/2617-3441 doi:10.25365/cts-2022-4-1-2 2617-3441 https://doaj.org/article/11c63028e3284e208c15b57d4cb4bfae Chronotopos, Vol 4, Iss 1 (2023) cultural translation missionaries humanism religion Language and Literature P Translating and interpreting P306-310 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.25365/cts-2022-4-1-2 2023-08-20T00:35:55Z The Lutheran missionary Carl Strehlow translated narratives of the Arrernte of Central Australia into German. In the first volume of his huge ethnographic study, published in 1907, he describes the Arrernte Altjira as a high god, arguing that the name should not be translated as “dreaming”, which is how most Australians understand the mythological primal time of First Nations cultures. Strehlow also implicitly justified the appropriation of Altjira as the name of his Christian god. The split between these two translations of Altjira became a confrontation between two networks that distributed trust in translations in very different ways. Although Strehlow offered no theory for his translation practice from Arrernte into German, his discourse can be understood as drawing on a nineteenth-century tradition of pedagogical translation, on the theory of natural religion expounded by the Lutheran Max Müller, and on the linguistic humanism of Wilhelm von Humboldt, which saw a common human aspiration in language, demanding respect for the words and ideas of the other, but also provided secular justification for the imposition of supposedly advanced cultural forms. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
German English French |
topic |
cultural translation missionaries humanism religion Language and Literature P Translating and interpreting P306-310 |
spellingShingle |
cultural translation missionaries humanism religion Language and Literature P Translating and interpreting P306-310 Anthony Pym Translating the Indigenous. Carl Strehlow’s Word for God in Central Australia |
topic_facet |
cultural translation missionaries humanism religion Language and Literature P Translating and interpreting P306-310 |
description |
The Lutheran missionary Carl Strehlow translated narratives of the Arrernte of Central Australia into German. In the first volume of his huge ethnographic study, published in 1907, he describes the Arrernte Altjira as a high god, arguing that the name should not be translated as “dreaming”, which is how most Australians understand the mythological primal time of First Nations cultures. Strehlow also implicitly justified the appropriation of Altjira as the name of his Christian god. The split between these two translations of Altjira became a confrontation between two networks that distributed trust in translations in very different ways. Although Strehlow offered no theory for his translation practice from Arrernte into German, his discourse can be understood as drawing on a nineteenth-century tradition of pedagogical translation, on the theory of natural religion expounded by the Lutheran Max Müller, and on the linguistic humanism of Wilhelm von Humboldt, which saw a common human aspiration in language, demanding respect for the words and ideas of the other, but also provided secular justification for the imposition of supposedly advanced cultural forms. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Anthony Pym |
author_facet |
Anthony Pym |
author_sort |
Anthony Pym |
title |
Translating the Indigenous. Carl Strehlow’s Word for God in Central Australia |
title_short |
Translating the Indigenous. Carl Strehlow’s Word for God in Central Australia |
title_full |
Translating the Indigenous. Carl Strehlow’s Word for God in Central Australia |
title_fullStr |
Translating the Indigenous. Carl Strehlow’s Word for God in Central Australia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Translating the Indigenous. Carl Strehlow’s Word for God in Central Australia |
title_sort |
translating the indigenous. carl strehlow’s word for god in central australia |
publisher |
University of Vienna |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.25365/cts-2022-4-1-2 https://doaj.org/article/11c63028e3284e208c15b57d4cb4bfae |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
Chronotopos, Vol 4, Iss 1 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://chronotopos.eu/index.php/cts/article/view/6372 https://doaj.org/toc/2617-3441 doi:10.25365/cts-2022-4-1-2 2617-3441 https://doaj.org/article/11c63028e3284e208c15b57d4cb4bfae |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.25365/cts-2022-4-1-2 |
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1776200281582731264 |