Standing tall: Posture, ethics and emotions in Dobu

The language of emotions can be revealing, especially when words and expressions relate directly to body imagery. In this chapter, the body is examined as a site of moral judgements. Moral conduct, when discursively framed in body imagery, maps out an individual’s options of acting and, perhaps more clearly among Austronesians, leads to almost permanent self-awareness. I argue in this chapter that ‘emotion words’—spatial expressions of internal processes—are not merely conventional metaphors, but also deeply embedded in local ethics, sense of place and the concept of personhood. For an emotional geography among Austronesians, language is a key (Bellwood