Editing Proverb (section)

==Applications==
[[File:Blood chit3.jpg|thumb|left|[[Blood chit]] used by WWII US pilots fighting in China, in case they were shot down by the Japanese. This leaflet to the Chinese depicts an American aviator being carried by two Chinese civilians. Text is "Plant melons and harvest melons, plant peas and harvest peas," a Chinese proverb equivalent to "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reap_what_one_sows|As You Sow, So Shall You Reap]".]]
[[File:Oak Ridge Wise Monkeys.jpg|thumb|right|Billboard outside defense plant during WWII, invoking the proverb of the [[three wise monkeys]] to urge security.]]
[[File:Buenos Aires Graffiti.jpg|thumb|Wordless depiction of "Big fish eat little fish", Buenos Aires, urging, "Don't panic, organize."]]

There is a growing interest in deliberately using proverbs to achieve goals, usually to support and promote changes in society. Proverbs have also been used for public health promotion, such as promoting breast feeding with a shawl bearing a Swahili proverb "Mother's milk is sweet".<ref>{{cite web |url= http://massbreastfeeding.org/aboutKanga.html |title= About the "Mothers Milk is Sweet" poster|website=massbreastfeeding.org |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130724213805/http://massbreastfeeding.org/aboutKanga.html |archive-date=July 24, 2013}}</ref> Proverbs have also been applied for helping people manage diabetes,<ref>Hendricks, Leo and Rosetta Hendricks. 1994. Efficacy of a day treatment program in management of diabetes for aging African Americans. In Vera Jackson, ed., ''Aging Families and the Use of Proverbs'', 41–52. New York: The Haworth Press.</ref> to combat prostitution,<ref>Grady, Sandra. 2006. Hidden in decorative sight: Textile lore as proverbial communication among East African women. ''Proverbium'' 23: 169–190.</ref> and for community development,<ref>Chindogo, M. 1997. Grassroot development facilitators and traditional local wisdom: the case of Malawi. ''Embracing the Baobab Tree: The African proverb in the 21st century'', ed. by Willem Saayman, 125–135. (African Proverbs Series.) Pretoria: Unisa Press.</ref>  to resolve conflicts,<ref>Aden Muktar Barre. 2010. ''Proverbs as artistic discourse strategy in conflict resolution among Kenya Somali''. Doctoral thesis, Kenyatta University.</ref><ref>Mele, Mohammed Laminu. 2007. Nigerian languages and conflict resolution: The case for proverbs and figurative expressions. ''Nigerian Languages, Literatures, Cultures & Policy Reforms. Festschrift for Ayo Bamgbose'', ed. Ozomekuri Ndimele, p. 245–256. Port Harcourt, Nigeria: M &J Grand Orbit Communications.</ref>  and to slow the transmission of HIV.<ref>Malinga-Musamba, Tumani and Poloko N. Ntshwarang. 2014. The Role of Cultural Proverbs and Myths in Shaping Sexual Worldviews of Adolescents in Botswana. ''Social Work in Public Health'' 29: 232–239.</ref>

The most active field deliberately using proverbs is Christian ministry, where [[Joseph G. Healey]] and others have deliberately worked to catalyze the [[Paremiography|collection of proverbs]] from smaller languages and the application of them in a wide variety of church-related ministries, resulting in publications of collections<ref>Atido, George Pirwoth. 2011. Insights from Proverbs of the Alur in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Collaboration with African Proverb Saying and Stories, www.afriprov.org. Nairobi, Kenya.</ref> and applications.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.afriprov.org/ |title=African Proverbs, Sayings and Stories |publisher=Afriprov.org |access-date=2012-09-20}}</ref><ref>Moon, Jay. 2009. ''African Proverbs Reveal Christianity in Culture'' (American Society of Missiology Monograph, 5). Pickwick Publications.</ref> This attention to proverbs by those in Christian ministries is not new, many pioneering proverb collections having been collected and published by Christian workers.<ref>Christaller, Johann. 1879. ''Twi mmebuse̲m, mpensã-ahansĩa mmoaano: A collection of three thousand and six hundred Tshi proverbs, in use among the Negroes of the Gold coast speaking the Asante and Fante language, collected, together with their variations, and alphabetically arranged''. Basel: The Basel German Evangelical Missionary Society.</ref><ref>Bailleul, Charles. 2005. ''Sagesse Bambara – Proverbes et sentences''. Bamako, Mali: Editions Donniya.</ref><ref>Johnson, William F. 1892. ''Hindi Arrows for the Preacher's Bow''. (Dharma Dowali) Allahabad, India: Christian Literature Society.</ref><ref>Houlder, J[ohn]. A[lden] (1885–1960). 1960. ''Ohabolana ou proverbes malgaches''. Antananarivo: Imprimerie Luthérienne.</ref>

U.S. Navy Captain [[Edward Zellem]] pioneered the use of [[Afghan proverbs]] as a positive relationship-building tool during the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|war in Afghanistan]], and in 2012 he published two bilingual collections<ref>Zellem, Edward. 2012. {{cite web|url= http://www.afghanproverbs.com|title=''Zarbul Masalha: 151 Afghan Dari Proverbs''|publisher=Charleston: CreateSpace}}</ref><ref>Zellem, Edward. 2012. {{cite web|url= http://www.afghanproverbs.com|title=''Afghan Proverbs Illustrated''|publisher=Charleston: CreateSpace}}, now also available with translations into German, French, and Russian.</ref> of Afghan proverbs in [[Dari Persian|Dari]] and English, part of an effort of nationbuilding, followed by a volume of [[Pashto]] proverbs in 2014.<ref>Edward Zellem. 2014. ''Mataluna: 151 Afghan Pashto Proverbs.'' Tampa: Cultures Direct Press.</ref>

===Cultural values===
[[File:Study proverb.PNG|thumb|Chinese proverb. It says, "Learn till old, live till old, and there is still three-tenths not learned," meaning that no matter how old you are, there is still more learning or studying left to do.]]
[[File:Better a monk.JPG|thumb|Thai proverb depicted visually at a temple, "Better a monk"]]
There is a longstanding debate among proverb scholars as to whether the cultural values of specific language communities are reflected (to varying degree) in their proverbs. Many claim that the proverbs of a particular culture reflect the values of that specific culture, at least to some degree. Many writers have asserted that the proverbs of their cultures reflect their culture and values; this can be seen in such titles as the following: ''An introduction to Kasena society and culture through their proverbs'',<ref>Albert Kanlisi Awedoba. 2000. ''An Introduction to Kasena Society and Culture Through Their Proverbs''. University Press Of America</ref> Prejudice, power, and poverty in Haiti: a study of a nation's culture as seen through its proverbs,<ref>Linda Tavernier-Almada. 1999. Prejudice, power, and poverty in Haiti: a study of a nation's culture as seen through its proverbs. ''Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship'' 16:325–350.</ref> Proverbiality and worldview in Maltese and Arabic proverbs,<ref>Ġorġ Mifsud-Chircop. 2001. Proverbiality and Worldview in Maltese and Arabic Proverbs. ''Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship'' 18:247–255.</ref> Fatalistic traits in Finnish proverbs,<ref>Maati Kuusi. 1994. Fatalistic Traits in Finnish Proverbs. ''The Wisdom of Many. Essays on the Proverb'', Eds. Wolfgang Mieder and Alan Dundes, 275–283. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. (Originally in ''Fatalistic Beliefs in Religion, Folklore and Literature'', Ed. Helmer Ringgren. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1967. 89–96.</ref> ''Vietnamese cultural patterns and values as expressed in proverbs'',<ref>Huynh Dinh Te. 1962. ''Vietnamese cultural patterns and values as expressed in proverbs''. Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University.</ref> ''The Wisdom and Philosophy of the Gikuyu proverbs: The Kihooto worldview'',<ref>Gerald J. Wanjohi. 1997. ''The Wisdom and Philosophy of the Gikuyu Proverbs: The Kihooto Worldview''. Nairobi, Paulines.</ref> ''Spanish Grammar and Culture through Proverbs,''<ref>Woods, Richard, ed. 1988. ''Spanish Grammar and Culture through Proverbs.'' Potomac, MD: Scripta Humanistica.</ref> and "How Russian Proverbs Present the Russian National Character".<ref>Gibian, George. How Russian Proverbs Present the Russian National Character. ''Russianness: Studies on a Nation's Identity''. Ed. Robert L. Belknap. Ann Arbor (1990): 38–43.</ref> Kohistani has written a thesis to show how understanding Afghan Dari proverbs will help Europeans understand Afghan culture.<ref>Kohistani, Zahra. 2011. Understanding culture through proverbs. University of Amsterdam MA thesis. [http://dare.uva.nl/cgi/arno/show.cgi?fid=346423 Online access]</ref>

However, a number of scholars argue that such claims are not valid. They have used a variety of arguments. Grauberg argues that since many proverbs are so widely circulated they are reflections of broad human experience, not any one culture's unique viewpoint.<ref>Walter Grauberg. 1989. Proverbs and idioms: mirrors of national experience? ''Lexicographers and their works'', ed. by Gregory James, 94–99. Exeter: University of Exeter.</ref> Related to this line of argument, from a collection of 199 American proverbs, Jente showed that only 10 were coined in the USA, so that most of these proverbs would not reflect uniquely American values.<ref name="Richard Jente 1932">Richard Jente. 1931–1932. The American Proverb. ''American Speech'' 7:342–348.</ref> Giving another line of reasoning that proverbs should not be trusted as a simplistic guide to cultural values, Mieder once observed "proverbs come and go, that is, antiquated proverbs with messages and images we no longer relate to are dropped from our proverb repertoire, while new proverbs are created to reflect the mores and values of our time",<ref>Wolfgang Mieder. 1993. ''Proverbs are never out of season: Popular wisdom in the modern age''. New York: Oxford University Press.</ref> so old proverbs still in circulation might reflect past values of a culture more than its current values. Also, within any language's proverb repertoire, there may be "counter proverbs", proverbs that contradict each other on the surface<ref name="Charles Clay Doyle 2012"/> (see section above). When examining such counter proverbs, it is difficult to discern an underlying cultural value. With so many barriers to a simple calculation of values directly from proverbs, some feel "one cannot draw conclusions about values of speakers simply from the texts of proverbs".<ref>p. 261. Sw. Anand Prahlad. 1996. ''African American Proverbs in Context''. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.</ref>

Many outsiders have studied proverbs to discern and understand cultural values and world view of cultural communities.<ref>Niemeyer, Larry L., "Proverbs : tools for world view studies : an exploratory comparison of the Bemba of Zambia and the Shona of Zimbabwe" (1982). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 886. http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/886</ref> These outsider scholars are confident that they have gained insights into the local cultures by studying proverbs, but this is not universally accepted.<ref name="Richard Jente 1932"/><ref>Grauberg, Walter. 1989. Proverbs and idioms: mirrors of national experience? In ''Lexicographers and their works'', ed. by Gregory James, 94–99. Exeter: University of Exeter.</ref><ref>Whiting, Bartlett J. 1994. ''When evensong and morrowsong accord: Three essays on the proverb'', edited by Joseph Harris and Wolfgang Mieder. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.</ref><ref>p. xv. Mieder, Wolfgang. 2004b. ''Proverbs: A Handbook''. (Greenwood Folklore Handbooks). Greenwood Press.</ref><ref>p. 146. Mieder, Wolfgang. 2008. ''Proverbs speak louder than words: Folk wisdom in art, culture, folklore, history, literature, and mass media''. New York: Peter Lang.</ref><ref>p. 124. Wolkomir, Richard. 2006. "Gold nuggets or fool's gold?" ''Magazine and newspaper articles on the (ir)relevance of proverbs and proverbial phrases'', Wolfgang Mieder and Janet Sobieski, eds., 117–125. (Supplement Series of Proverbium, 22.) Burlington, VT: University of Vermont.</ref>

Seeking empirical evidence to evaluate the question of whether proverbs reflect a culture's values, some have counted the proverbs that support various values. For example, Moon lists what he sees as the top ten core cultural values of the [[Builsa]] society of Ghana, as exemplified by proverbs. He found that 18% of the proverbs he analyzed supported the value of being a member of the community, rather than being independent.<ref>p. 134. W. Jay Moon. 2009. ''African Proverbs Reveal Christianity in Culture: A Narrative Portrayal of Builsa Proverbs''. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications.</ref> This was corroboration to other evidence that collective community membership is an important value among the Builsa. In studying Tajik proverbs, Bell notes that the proverbs in his corpus "Consistently illustrate Tajik values" and "The most often observed proverbs reflect the focal and specific values" discerned in the thesis.<ref>p. 139 & 157. Evan Bell. 2009. ''An analysis of Tajik proverbs''. Masters thesis, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics.</ref>

A study of English proverbs created since 1900 showed in the 1960s a sudden and significant increase in proverbs that reflected more casual attitudes toward sex.<ref>p. 120. Peter Unseth. Review of ''Dictionary of Modern Proverbs''. ''American Speech'' 90.1:117–121.</ref> Since the 1960s was also the decade of the [[Sexual revolution]], this shows a strong statistical link between the changed values of the decades and a change in the proverbs coined and used. Another study mining the same volume counted Anglo-American proverbs about religion to show that proverbs indicate attitudes toward religion are going downhill.<ref>Petrova, Roumyana. 2016. How Religious Are The Modern Anglo-American Proverbs: A Linguocultural Study. ''Proceedings of the world congress of the IASS/AIS'', Editor in Chief: Kristian Bankov. {{ISSN|2414-6862}}. [http://www.iass-ais.org/proceedings2014/view_lesson.php?id=81 Web access]</ref>

There are many examples where cultural values have been explained and illustrated by proverbs. For example, from India, the concept that birth determines one's nature "is illustrated in the oft-repeated proverb: there can be no friendship between grass-eaters and meat-eaters, between a food and its eater".<ref>p. 22, [[Patrick Olivelle]]. 2013. Talking Animals: Explorations in an Indian Literary Genre. ''Religions of South Asia'' 7.14–26.</ref> Proverbs have been used to explain and illustrate the [[Fula people|Fulani]] cultural value of ''pulaaku''.<ref>Rudolf Leger and Abubakar B. Mohammad. 2000. The concept of pulaaku mirrored in Fulfulde proverbs of the Gombe dialect. ''Berichte des Sonderforschungsbereichs'' 268, Band 14, Frankfurt a.M. 2000: 299–306.</ref> But using proverbs to ''illustrate'' a cultural value is not the same as using a collection of proverbs to ''discern'' cultural values. In a comparative study between Spanish and Jordanian proverbs it is defined the social imagination for the mother as an archetype in the context of role transformation and in contrast with the roles of husband, son and brother, in two societies which might be occasionally associated with sexist and /or rural ideologies.<ref>Sbaihat, Ahlam (2012). La imagen de la madre en el refranero español y jordano. Estudio de Paremiología comparada. España: Sociedad Española de Estudios Literarios de Cultura Popular, Oceanide, 5.</ref>

Some scholars have adopted a cautious approach, acknowledging at least a genuine, though limited, link between cultural values and proverbs: "The cultural portrait painted by proverbs may be fragmented, contradictory, or otherwise at variance with reality... but must be regarded not as accurate renderings but rather as tantalizing shadows of the culture which spawned them."<ref>p. 173.Sheila K. Webster. 1982. Women, Sex, and Marriage in Moroccan Proverbs. ''International Journal of Middle East Studies'' 14:173–184.</ref> There is not yet agreement on the issue of whether, and how much, cultural values are reflected in a culture's proverbs.

It is clear that the Soviet Union believed that proverbs had a direct link to the values of a culture, as they used them to try to create changes in the values of cultures within their sphere of domination. Sometimes they took old Russian proverbs and altered them into socialist forms.<ref>p. 84ff. Andrey Reznikov. 2009. ''Old wine in new bottles: Modern Russian anti-proverbs.'' (Supplement Series of ''Proverbium'', 27.) Burlington, VT: University of Vermont</ref> These new proverbs promoted Socialism and its attendant values, such as atheism and collectivism, e.g. "Bread is given to us not by Christ, but by machines and collective farms" and "A good harvest is had only by a collective farm." They did not limit their efforts to Russian, but also produced "newly coined proverbs that conformed to socialist thought" in Tajik and other languages of the USSR.<ref>Evan Bell. 2009. ''An analysis of Tajik proverbs''. Masters thesis, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics.</ref>
[[File:Proverb scroll.PNG|thumb|left|Scroll of the Biblical [[Book of Proverbs]]]]

===Religion===
Many proverbs from around the world address matters of ethics and expected of behavior. Therefore, it is not surprising that proverbs are often important texts in religions. The most obvious example is the [[Book of Proverbs]] in the Bible. Additional proverbs have also been coined to support religious values, such as the following from [[Dari Persian|Dari]] of Afghanistan:<ref>p. 54, J. Christy Wilson, Jr. 2004. ''One hundred Afghan Persian proverbs'' 3rd, edition. Peshawar, Pakistan: InterLit Foundation.</ref> "In childhood you're playful, In youth you're lustful, In old age you're feeble, So when will you before God be worshipful?"

Clearly proverbs in religion are not limited to monotheists; among the [[Badagas]] of India ([[Shaivism|Sahivite]] Hindus), there is a traditional proverb "Catch hold of and join with the man who has placed sacred ash [on himself]."<ref>p. 601, Paul Hockings. 1988. ''Counsel from the Ancients: A study of Badaga proverbs, prayers, omens and curses''. Berlin: de Gruyter.</ref>  Proverbs are widely associated with large religions that draw from sacred books, but they are also used for religious purposes among groups with their own traditional religions, such as the Guji Oromo.<ref name="Tadesse Jaleta Jirata 2009"/> The broadest comparative study of proverbs across religions is ''The eleven religions and their proverbial lore, a comparative study. A reference book to the eleven surviving major religions of the world'' by Selwyn Gurney Champion, from 1945. Some sayings from sacred books also become proverbs, even if they were not obviously proverbs in the original passage of the sacred book.<ref>Ziyad Mohammad Gogazeh and Ahmad Husein Al-Afif. 2007. Los proverbios árabes extraidos del ''Corán'': recopilación, traducción, y estudio. ''Paremia'' 16: 129–138.</ref> For example, many quote "Be sure your sin will find you out" as a proverb from the Bible, but there is no evidence it was proverbial in its original usage ([[Book of Numbers|Numbers]] 32:23).

Not all religious references in proverbs are positive. Some are cynical, such as the Tajik and Uzbek proverb, "Do as the mullah says, not as he does."<ref>p. 130, Evan Bell. 2009. ''The wit and wisdom of the Tajiks: An analysis of Tajik proverbs''. Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, MA thesis.</ref><ref>p. 18. Ergashev, Moujrodkhon and Issokhon Niyozov. ''Proverbes et dictons d'Ouzbékistan.'' Paris: Editions Géorama, 2006.</ref> An Indian proverb is cynical about devotees of Hinduism: "[Only] When in distress, a man calls on Rama".<ref>p. 16, P. R. Gurdon. 1895. ''Some Assamese proverbs.'' Shillong, India: Assam Secretariat Printing Office.</ref> In the context of Tibetan Buddhism, some Ladakhi proverbs mock the lamas, e.g. "If the lama's own head does not come out cleanly, how will he do the drawing upwards of the dead?... used for deriding the immoral life of the lamas."<ref>p. 142. August Francke. 1901. A collection of Ladakhi proverbs. ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'' 2: 135–148.</ref> There is an Italian proverb that mocks churches, "One barrel of wine can work more miracles than a church full of saints". There are so many Spanish proverbs mocking Catholic clergy that there is even a book of them, ''Refranero Anticlerical''.<ref>Esteban, José. 2010. Reino de Cordelia.</ref> Armenians have a proverb that mocks priests, "Outside a priest, inside a beast."<ref>p. 284. Sakayan, Dora. ''Armenian Proverbs: A Paremiological Study with an Anthology of 2,500 Armenian Folk Sayings''. Academic Resources Corp, 1994.</ref>

Proverbs do not have to explicitly mention religion or religious figures to be used to mock a religion, seen in the fact that in a collection of 555 proverbs from the [[Lur people|Lur]], a Muslim group in Iran, the explanations for 15 of them use illustrations that mock Muslim clerics.<ref>Peter Unseth (2017). Review of ''Warm Hearts and Sharp Tongues: Life in 555 Proverbs from the Zagros Mountains of Iran''. ''Iranian Studies'' 50:1, 163–167, {{doi|10.1080/00210862.2017.1269451}}</ref>

Dammann wrote, "In the [[Traditional African religions|[African] traditional religions]], specific religious ideas recede into the background... The influence of Islam manifests itself in African proverbs... Christian influences, on the contrary, are rare."<ref>p. 46. Ernst Dammann. 1972. Die Religion in Afrikanischen Sprichwörter und Rätseln. ''Anthropos'' 67:36–48. Quotation in English, from summary at end of article.</ref>  If widely true in Africa, this is likely due to the longer presence of Islam in many parts of Africa. Reflection of Christian values is common in Amharic proverbs of Ethiopia, an area that has had a presence of Christianity for well over 1,000 years. The Islamic proverbial reproduction may also be shown in the image of some animals such as the dog. Although dog is portrayed in many European proverbs as the most faithful friend of man, it is represented in some Islamic countries as impure, dirty, vile, cowardly, ungrateful and treacherous, in addition to links to negative human superstitions such as loneliness, indifference and bad luck.<ref>Sharab, Moayad; Sbaihat, Ahlam; Al Duweiri, Hussein (2013). La imagen del perro en la paremiología jordana: traducción y contraste con el español. University of Granada: Language Design, Journal of Theoretical and Experimental Linguistics, vol. 14, n. 1.</ref>

===Psychology===
Though much proverb scholarship is done by literary scholars, those studying the human mind have used proverbs in a variety of studies.<ref>Mieder, Wolfgang. "The use of proverbs in psychological testing." ''Journal of the Folklore Institute'' 15.1 (1978): 45–55.</ref> One of the earliest studies in this field is the ''Proverbs Test'' by Gorham, developed in 1956. A similar test is being prepared in German.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/neuropsy/testsE/sprichwort.html |title=Institut für Kognitive Neurowissenschaft |publisher=Ruhr-uni-bochum.de |date=2011-03-22 |access-date=2012-09-20}}</ref> Proverbs have been used to evaluate [[dementia]],<ref>Yamaguchi, Haruyasu; Yohko Maki, Tomoharu Yamaguchi. 2011. A figurative proverb test for dementia: rapid detection of disinhibition, excuse and [[confabulation]], causing discommunication. ''Psychogeriatrics'' Vol. 11.4: pp. 205–211.</ref><ref>Natalie C. Kaiser. 2013. What dementia reveals about proverb interpretation and its neuroanatomical correlates. ''Neuropsychologia'' 51:1726–1733.</ref><ref>Kempler, Daniel, Diana Van Lancker, and Stephen Read. 1988. Proverb and idiom comprehension in Alzheimers disease. ''Alzheimers Disease and Associated Disorders'' 2.1:38–49.</ref> study the [[cognitive development]] of children,<ref name="Richard P. Honeck 1997">Richard P. Honeck. A proverb in mind: the cognitive science of proverbial wit and wisdom. Routledge, 1997.</ref> measure the results of [[brain injuries]],<ref>Pp. 123ff, C. Thomas Gualtieri. 2002. ''Brain Injury and Mental Retardation: Psychopharmacology and Neuropsychiatry''. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.</ref> and study how the mind processes [[figurative language]].<ref name="Michael Kiang 2007"/><ref>Ulatowska, Hanna K., and Gloria S. Olness. "Reflections on the Nature of Proverbs: Evidence from Aphasia." ''Proverbium'' 15 (1998), 329–346. Schizophrenia has also been shown to affect the way people interpret proverbs.</ref><ref>Yi, You Gyoung, Dae Youl Kim, Woo Hyun Shim, Joo Young Oh, Sung Hyun Kim, Ho Sung Kim. (2017). Neural correlates of Korean proverb processing: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''Brain and behavior'' 7(10).</ref>