Time in Different Cultures

[Devor]

Here's an interesting piece on a topic we might take for granted when we write about other cultures. It was in my news feed this morning.

How Different Cultures Understand Time - Business Insider

I think it's kind of fascinating to see how big the differences can be and why.

 

[Scribble]

I always enjoy this old Alan Watts discussion of time perception, western versus eastern (Buddhist).

Part 1:

Part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Q7llMbLLg

I recommend watching the entire series.

 

[Feo Takahari]

All I can say is, if you think Americans don't understand the idea of letting a conversation run long, you haven't met my mother.

 

[skip.knox]

My favorite discussion of time comes from Marc Bloch, the medieval historian. He, there were probably predecessors (there always are, with historians), but he was the first I read who pointed out that there were twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of night, but that each hour varied with the time of year. This bothered no one. Hours simply were not fixed units in the Middle Ages. To be more precise, the hours as marked by the church bells were flexible, even though one might time "an hour" with an hour glass. This too, was not regarded as problematic. Needless to say, minutes and seconds were scarcely ever used. Try writing a narrative without using the word "minute" or "second"!

The other time-related item I remember from him is his story about two men who were to fight a duel at a certain time. One man showed, waited a while, then left, claiming victory by default. The other guy showed up and claimed the same. Both alleged they had shown at the correct time. The matter was referred to a local monastery to settle the dispute.

That one really drove home for me the notion that people literally didn't know what time it was (feel free to quote Chicago here). I try to keep this vagueness in mind as I write, though I also have to keep in view modern sensibilities on the subject.

It seemed to me neither the article nor the good Dr. Watts really addressed this kind of different perception of time. Marc Bloch for the win.

 

[The Blue Lotus]

I deal with people from many cultures in my business and daily life.
I've found a few things to be true. Indians (dots not feathers) Run on IST- Indian Stretchable Time. This means they are always 20 mins away from doing whatever, however, it can take as long as 2 hrs for that action to actually occur. This drives me crazy.

Some people think it is highly rude to show up on time. Why, I don't know, but they do. Others Like myself find it rude to be more than 10 mins late. It took me forever to find a doctor who is not always making me wait for 30+ mins after my scheduled appointment time. I can't count the number of times I have got up and told the desk person to inform the doctor that I left because they were over 45 mins behind and my life runs on a schedule that forbids delays of that length.
This was true when I worked 3 or more jobs on any one day, not so much now because I make my own rules now.
Time is the one thing we have in spades, but never seem to have enough of. It is always running out, and we are nowadays in a hurry to get where we need to be, and everything is hurry up and wait.

Historically time was flexible and marked by unusual or seasonal events. Such as Harvest season, planting season, the rainy season etc.

 

[Devor]

To be clear, I couldn't care less about how the Spaniards, Indians, Germans and Japanese view time differently. I didn't post the article for real-world applications (doing business abroad), but for the implications it might have on writing about fictional peoples who might view time differently. It would be fun to write a character who says, "Why concern myself about the future? It is behind my back. I cannot see it, and I cannot worry about the unknown," as described about one of the groups in the article.

Different groups of people really do often see aspects of the world very differently, and we can end up with blinders on if we don't immerse ourselves in other perspectives. In the example of the future being unknown, we all might feel that way a bit once in a while, some more than others, but it would feel very different to live in a place where most people felt that way very strongly most of the time.

 

[Mythopoet]

My favorite discussion of time comes from Marc Bloch, the medieval historian. He, there were probably predecessors (there always are, with historians), but he was the first I read who pointed out that there were twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of night, but that each hour varied with the time of year.

This is also how it worked in Ancient Egypt.

 

[Jabrosky]

To add to the European and Asian examples offered in the OP article, I'll provide links to conceptions of time in different parts of Africa.

Of Time, Language, and Worldview (West and Central Africa)

The past and present merge into an enormous present among the Akan. Akan leaders sometimes speak of the past in the universal present, making accomplishments of past heroes their own (Adjaye, 1994:72). The Akan perception of the present subsumes the future. In Twi/Fante language two future tenses are recognized: First future, which marks action in the time to come and, the second future, future proximate, which marks action in the next future. The first future is expressed in Twi daakye or da bi (some day). Daa, that literally means every day, also means forever. To speak of the future in Twi, speakers use preverbal marking and specify the context of actual time of the expected future, i.e., next week, month, year (Adjaye, 1994:72).

The Akan also express Time ecologically, that is in terms of natural cyclical events, like seasons, and episodically in relation to some memorable human event, like the death of a great king or Ghanaian independence. Reference to the key stages of life also mark off time. Each stage serves as a time referent (Adjaye, 1994:59).

...

Fu-Kiau (1994) explains indigenous time concepts of the Kongo of West Central Africa as including cosmic, vital, natural and social time (1994:17). Kongo refers to a cultural, linguistic, and historical group of people that is descended from a larger body of Bantu-speaking communities who migrated from the Benue-Cross river region of present-day Nigeria into the equatorial forest of West Central Africa and beyond around the second millennium B.C. … This shared past of common origins and history and millennia of interrelationship gave rise to the affinity in cultural traditions, belief systems, and time concepts among the Kongo and other Bantu groups (Fu-Kiau, 1994:17)."

Cosmic time in the Kongo worldview represents the actual, on-going, active time line of spiritual (Kalunga), energy omnipresent throughout the universe, the agent of change and creation. All other time reflects the concept of cosmic time as endless, cyclical, and transformative. The circular Kongo cosmogram, is divided on the horizontal west-east axis into the physical world and the spiritual world, co-existing and interactive in the present. The cardinal points of Cosmic Time are replicated in Vital Time, the human life cycle time by Conception and creation of Ma (matter) in the spiritual world, Birth, Maturity and power, both in the physical world, Death and transformation in the spiritual world. The Cosmogram conceptualizes Life as a mountain surrounded by water. One passes through water entering and leaving the physical world. Natural Time and Social Time correspond with the other times. Natural time replicates the cosmic cycle so that cataclysmic forces that brought forth the planets recur. Through volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and floods the world is continually born again. Social time replicates the life cycle in smaller units of time so that people can also be born again (Fu-Kiau, 1994:17).

Ancient Egyptians and the Concept of Time

Many ancient societies, tied closely to their land, did possess notions of time, even if their ideas were not articulated or formalized in theories. The ancient Egyptians, for instance, were intimately familiar with the cycles of the seasons and the fluctuations in climate and tides; the mighty Nile River cut through their territory and it was the Nile upon which they depended for sustenance and commerce (Whitrow 24). “[E]verything,” wrote Whitrow, “depended on the Nile” (24), and he did mean everything. From making the determination of when to plant and harvest crops to scheduling the appropriate moment for installing a new pharaoh, the ancient Egyptians rendered their most important decisions by looking to such aspects of the environment as when the river rose and when its waters fell (Whitrow 24). There were patterns to be discerned in these environmental elements, and the ancient Egyptians began to develop a concept of time based on this “succession of recurring phases” (Whitrow 25), which today, of course, our culture refers to as the seasons. The recognition of seasons and the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth was the first element of time identified by the Egyptians, the largest unit of time, and one which would form the framework into which the other units of time could be set. The idea most fundamental to ancient Egyptians’ view of time was that it was cyclical, not linear, “made up of periods that renewed themselves….” (Dunand & Zivie-Coche 52). These periods were the “daily rising of the sun…, the annual return of the foundation and beginning of the year, and… the succession of the reigns of the pharaohs” (Dunand & Zivie-Coche 52). Thus, one sees how the observed world and the lived world coincided through the emergent ideas about time advanced by the ancient Egyptians.

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Before moving on to explain how the ancient Egyptians identified the other units of time, such as day, night, and hours, it is important to explain what function the view of life as a cycle of seasons played in Egyptian life (Dunand & Zivie Coche 42). As TenHouten explained, “A theory of time and society requires a model not only of time but also of society….” (x), thus it becomes critical to understand how societies shape concepts of time to fit their arbitrary social needs and how, over time, these concepts become integral to maintaining the social order and structure. For the Egyptians, the units of time they were developing served not only the purposes of farming and the ritualization of certain social celebrations, but also supported the fundamental beliefs of their culture (Meskell 423; Whitrow 25). Whitrow wrote that the ancient Egyptians had “very little sense of history or even past and future,” and that they thought of the world as “static and unchanging” (25). The seasons, then, predictably repeated in a never-ending cycle, affirmed “cosmic balance” and “inspired a sense of security from the menace of change and decay” (Whitrow 25). As Bochi remarked, time was both immutable and pervasive for the ancient Egyptians (51). This fact did not, however, preclude the ancient Egyptians for devising both the concepts and the words to explain time.​

The vibe I get from these African systems is that they're essentially cyclical like the Asian conceptions.
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[Terry Greer]

I'm currently writing a time travel story - the concept of handling time is therefore of interest - especially if the events spaced out in time can be reordered, moved about deleted or changed.

One interesting aspect is that what is urgent and life threatening for one individual can become something entirely different for another.