A Linguistic Perspective on Credible Empirical Data Gathering and Analysis for Deciphering Cultural Ideologies of Gender, Sexuality and Ecology in Local Communities

Abstract

Eco-studies in the global village involve “telling the stories we live by” (Stanlaw, 2020). Unfortunately, these stories in African settings have been told mainly from an English language background. This often leads to misrepresentation of local realities and hence wrong diagnosis of local community problems for which the wrong remediation efforts are proposed. It also fails to recognise the values which need to be upheld. The overall effect is a loss in touch with vital potential local contribution in the global village and encourages resistance to ecosophy (commitment to ecological equilibrium) (Stibbe, 2015). This paper proposes a contribution from a linguistic perspective on how cultural knowledge can be uncovered from local languages. This is because “Languages do have life, purpose, and form, each of which can be studied and analysed as soon as we strip them of their metaphorical or mystical content and look upon them as aspects of human behaviour. (Haugen 2001 [1972]: 58; Stanlaw, 2020). The paper begins by sizing up the role of empirical community literary data and the need for such data to represent the reality of the community. It then briefly discusses cultural knowledge as mainly unconscious and that it is hardly gotten through the traditional mostly used surveys, interviews and observations. Then it looks at some apparent strategies of collecting and analysing such data before turning to ethical considerations in such a framework.