The animal-morality nexus in Malawian Chewa, ethnic Zhuang and French proverbs

Abstract

Metaphoricity in the world’s oral literature thrives through human interaction with nature. From this interaction emerges the aspect of animality, which is vital in our moral interpretation of proverbs. The paper explores how the Chewa in Malawi, the ethnic Zhuang of China and the French deploy animal metaphors in proverbs to navigate morality in the society. Through metaphors, certain animals in selected proverbs represent diverse moral experiences, such as unity of purpose, courage and bravery, virtue and life’s fluctuating seasons. These experiences emerge as common themes in the proverbs under study from across the three societies. In the article, the proverbs are generated from multiple sources. The Chewa proverbs are sourced from the author’s own knowledge as a native Chichewa speaker. The ethnic Zhuang proverbs are entirely drawn from Zhou’s (2016) publication on Zhuang proverbs. For the French proverbs, the author relies on both his knowledge in French/francophone studies and other oral sources. With the aid of Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the paper discusses the possible interpretation of the animal metaphors in the proverbs and their applicability within the context of human morality.