ABSTRACT
The relationship between language and culture is not fixed but dynamic. Languages are important markers of the continuity of cultural difference, and this means that there are always problems of effective translation between them. It is pertinent to note further how issues that are classic in language and culture studies, notably the arguments about universal versus particular features, are today increasingly transposed into contexts of globalization, with particular reference to the dominance of English as an international language. The global dominance of English, itself now challenged by the spread of Chinese, does not, as we have noted, remove the long-term problems of translation. Studies of shamanistic practices and other religious practices generally from around the world also point us to complex ecological perceptions that relate space and time in highly varying ways. Another ecological feature is how language acts a bridge between perceived worlds, enabling communication with spirit entities in the wider cosmos.
