ANTHROPOLOGY AND TRANSLATIONBy Chiara GrassilliIn InterviewsJun 3rd, 20132 Comments2738 Views

INTERVIEW WITH LINEIMAR MARTINS (FRENCH)by Chiara Grassilli

What’s Anthropology? It’s the “science of humanity”. This science examines

cultures in depth, and tries to explain a culture to another culture. It aims to make

cultures understandable to each other.

How is translation connected with anthropology?

When you translate a text, you want to make a concept clear to another language,

and thus to another culture. You don’t only want to translate a text, but you want to

make a culture understandable to another culture. This is the invaluable help

anthropology provides. Because cultural and linguistic differences are not a barrier

when you know how to deal with them.

“IT IS NOT OUR DIFFERENCES THAT DIVIDE US. IT IS OUR

INABILITY TO RECOGNIZE, ACCEPT, AND CELEBRATE THOSE

DIFFERENCES.”

AUDRE LORDE

Lineimar Martins is an anthropologist and a translator.

Exactly like me, she comes from an anthropological background and she has

moved to translation. In this interview (in French, but the English translation is

below in this copy) she explains how her anthropological background makes her a

better translator today, because she can handle each translation with deeper

cultural awareness.

You can find more information about her on her blog http://lineimar.eklablog.com or

on herLinkedin profile

ENGLISH

Chiara: Hi everyone, I’m Chiara and you are on Translator Thoughts. Today I’m

speaking French because I’m with a French guest. She’s calling me from France

and her name is Lineimar Martins. Welcome Lineimar.

Lineimar: Thanks.

Chiara: Thank you very much for being with me today, it’s a pleasure. As I always

do I would like to start with a little introduction, and I will ask you to tell us a little bit

about what you are doing now, what are the projects you’re working on and what’s

your job.

Lineimar: I’m a Doctor in Anthropology. I introduce myself this way because this

has a very close connection with what I’m doing now, because I translate scientific

texts. I specialized in human science and social science translation.

It’s a way for me to work on everything I’m passionate about, namely social

science, languages (I was born in Brazil and I’ve lived in France for twenty years

now) so this gathers everything I love in life: civilizations, cultures, big theories of

social and human sciences. This is why I introduce myself as Doctor in

Anthropology first and only secondly as a translator.

Currently I translate books at home. I organize my time according to the extension

of time given by the printing house.

It’s not a long time since I started this new activity, it’s one year only, but I’ve

already translated two books, so I’m very happy because in one year I’ve already

completed two good projects.

For the near future I’d like to continue doing this and to translate even more books.

Chiara: What’s the relation between anthropology and translation in your opinion?

Do you find elements in common with translation?

Lineimar: Yes, absolutely. To resume, I like to say that anthropology is the

translation of a culture towards another culture.

Because finally this is what we do when we study another culture or a social group,

we take words that are understandable to another group or another society if we’re

studying another culture.

I think that (when we translate) we do more or less the same thing. For the subject

of my translations itself, I think that if I didn’t know all the concepts, all the authors,

all the theories that I’m translating I could do my job it but it would take much more

time and there would be the risk of misunderstanding the terms.

For example I just translated a text about feminism by Lévi Strauss talking about a

group that he studied in Brazil. If I didn’t know that Lévi Strauss used the theories

of a linguist, I would have translated some terms in a completely different way.

This is to say how important it is to know the subject we’re translating in order to

make a good translation with a good theoretical background knowledge.

Chiara: Yes, this is really important also because you translate anthropological

texts, but I think there is another important aspect, namely the ability to understand

that translation doesn’t mean only linguistic translation but cultural translation as

well.

And I think your studies in anthropology helped you a lot. I studied anthropology as

well and I’ve seen how much that helped me.

Lineimar: Yes, that is really important. I think that anthropology is more than a

simple job, it’s a specific kind of world view that we adopt.

Once we study anthropology we cannot think the way we used to think before, our

mental scheme is broken, if we really understand what anthropology is. This is to

say that anthropology is more a choice of life than a profession.

Chiara: Do you think it’s correct to say that anthropology is the ability to put

yourself in someone else’s shoes? And this is in fact what one needs to do in order

to translate correctly?

Lineimar: Yes, putting yourself in the other’s place is important but you don’t have

to do it completely. It’s important to look from a distance as Lévi Strauss said.

It’s fine to put yourself in someone else’s shoes but you must not put yourself

completely in his place. You need an analytical distance; otherwise we simply

transfer our feelings and the feelings of our society into the other society.

If you put yourself completely in somebody else’s shoes you will not have the

necessary distance to produce a critical analysis. This is my personal opinion at

least.

Chiara: During your career you did several jobs. You did academic research, you

worked within anthropology, in teaching and now in translation. Which activity did

you enjoy most?

Lineimar: I loved teaching, but what I really liked about teaching was to be in

contact with students.

I’m still in touch with some students I taught fifteen years ago. I still speak with

some of them. This means I left a sign in their lives and I’m flattered. This was my

goal.

On the other hand I’ve been disappointed by teaching because I had many

colleagues who were more interested in their books and their researches than their

students. But the main role of a teacher has to be teaching.

This is the aspect of teaching that disappointed me, while what I really miss is the

contact with students, youth, learning.

However, from the point of view of personal and intellectual fulfilment, in translation

I feel completely fulfilled. I loved teaching, but translation is a more solitary task,

and I’m a very solitary person.

In the house where I live now from my window I see a chain of mountains called

Les Vosges. So I’m there and when I’m translating I’m happily lost in my

translations.

I think that translation fits more my personality and the life I choose to have now. I

managed to balance of all my social roles. I think that I feel at home in translation.

Chiara: OK. Currently you’re translating from French into what language?

Lineimar: into Brazilian Portuguese, because I was born in Brazil so it’s my mother

tongue. I couldn’t translate into Portuguese of Portugal, for obvious linguistic

reasons.

Chiara: So you can speak both French and Portuguese to mother tongue level. Is

there a language that you speak more instinctively than the other?

Lineimar: Yes, the Portuguese. Those who are French speaking will hear my

accent…

Chiara: OK, brilliant, thank you very much, it was a pleasure to talk with you, thank

you so much for spending some time with me and until the next time!

Lineimar: Bye, thank you very much for your interest, I’m flattered that you got

interested in my professional story and see you soon.