We Can’t See What We Can’t Name

One of my favorite anthropological themes is that we can’t see what we can’t name. In other words, we look at our surroundings through the lens of our experiences. Once we’re familiar enough with it to give it a name we can see it every time. Take Ezekiel and the wheel. He didn’t know what was up there in the sky, but he knew what it resembled. He lived in a culture that had invented the wheel and used it daily. Old Ezekiel looked up, rubbed his eyes, then said to himself, ‘Hmmm. It’s a circle with something that looks like a hub in the middle, and I see spokes going from the hub to the outer rim. I see what looks like eyes around the outside of the rim, and they’re all different colors! It doesn’t roll like a wheel, but just goes off into the distance on a straight line, pretty darn fast, too. Wait. There are two outer rims, so it looks like a wheel inside a wheel. Way up in the middle of the air! There’s a song for it! The Charioteers tell the story of Ezekiel with music and amazing harmonies.