Time Talks: Anthropocentrism of Time across Russian and American Cultures

Abstract

My primary goal in this article has been to study the concept of time, its perception and anthropocentric attitude towards time, the way it talks. I argue that anthropocentrism characterizes not only language, but also nonverbal communication. Systems of teaching about time and temporalism in various epochs have been formed within the frames of cultural and historical conditions. In other words, temporal consciousness, temporal orientation and conceptualization depend on collective experience, on the collective social life of society. Time and perception are predetermined by culture. What is essential, is that perception, cognitive activity and reality come together and converge. Temporalism is universal for all cultures, which means that it is represented in all languages and cultures. The comparison of Russian and American attitudes towards time manifests both general and culture specific signs, reflecting the asymmetry of Russian and American temporal, cognitive systems.

Keywords

Time / time perception / temporalism / conceptualization / anthropocentrism / verbal / nonverbal communication

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