The river and the ship
posted by rr on 16 March 2010

There´s a common phrase in occidental cultural that associates the time with a river. A line that goes from the past to the present and then the future. It´s interesting that Sami relates time with a ship. If it´s a ship it can go in different directions, go back and forth and that´s open new ideas for the concept of time itself. Beside that, when you´re nomad the culture is what you carry with you, your language, your habits, is what allows you to keep in time. The culture is the past that has it´s place in the present and projects to the future. The river takes the ship in a trip that never ends (at least according to the Sami), therefore the present and the future always carry the past. Seems phenomenologist in a way and I still have many questions about it, but I´ll have them answered (or expanded) in the next days...