Aymara forms of walking: a linguistic anthropological reflection on the relation between language and motion

► Cognitive linguists have enabled me to isolate the mechanics of walking in a most abstract way. ► Phenomenology has complemented what I have called the physics of walking with a semantics of space. ► The ethnographic case studies have forced me to add a third level of analysis that takes into consideration how the walker exploits and suffers the world. ► These distinctions are simply academic, the act of walking involves all levels (mechanics, semantics, and endurance) simultaneously.