Glenn Dixon has been attacked by wild dogs in the mountains of Spain. Hes heard jaguars roar in the jungles of Guatemala. And once, in the calm blue waters above a coral reef off Belize, a shark veered dangerously toward him.
Humans, of course, are even more dangerous. We tend to section off our lands with borders and guns and barbed wire. But these are only surface markers. In reality we claim our territory with a much more powerful and ancient tool. We mark our place in the world, and even ourselves, with language.
As one philosopher said, languages are the Houses of Being. After doing graduate work in linguistics, Dixon wanted to visit these houses or palaces himself. He wanted to strut up their sidewalks. He wanted to knock on their doors and peek in their windows. He wanted to see what they were hiding in their basements even if it meant a little bit of trouble. A whole lot of trouble.
