Hidden Likeness: Avoidance and Iconicity in Batek

Abstract

In Batek, both iconic and avoidant speech forms only have the desired effect when their sounds are at the same time like, and different to, their referents. This necessary coexistence of likeness and difference in particular speech forms resonates with the sought for coexistence of alterity and affinity in Batek interpersonal relationships. Attention to how likeness and difference co-exist in moments when iconic and avoidant speech forms are uttered, thus challenges entrenched, binary notions of alterity and affinity in anthropological practice more broadly.