Download What is linguistic anthropology,

The Anthropology of Language: An
Introduction to Linguistic
Anthropology
Chapter 1
Linguistic Anthropology
Linguistic Anthropology
• One of the “four fields” of anthropology
• Drawing on theoretical or structural linguistics
• The linguistic sort of anthropology, rather than
the anthropological sort of linguistics
Anthropology –
the study of H. sapiens
• American Anthropology and Franz Boas
– Shaping Anthropology for over a century
• Holistic
• Comparative
• Fieldwork based
Holistic
• Nothing is “off limits”
• Anything human beings do can be studied
anthropologically
• Apparently irrelevant data may prove to be
central; everything the researcher experiences
is worthy of attention and may be recorded
Comparative – making the strange
familiar and the familiar strange
• Comparing to see the diversity of what it is to
be human
• Comparing to see potential underlying
patterns which link us as a species
• Requires cultural relativity
– The idea that other possible frames of reference
exist, which work just as well or as poorly as our
own, and which inform the behavior and
perception of others
Cultural relativity and ethnocentrism
• Frames of reference
–
–
–
–
Ways of seeing an interpreting the world
Necessary for us to function in human societies
Comparable
Diverse
• Cultural relativity—acknowledging the legitimacy of
different frames of reference
• Ethnocentrism—refusing to acknowledge the
legitimacy of any frame of reference other than your
own
• Cultural relativity is NOT moral relativism
– Personal ethical framework plays a key role in linguistic
anthropological research
Fieldwork based
• Doing what people are doing, when they are
doing it
• Closely associated with holistic nature of all
anthropology
• Researcher adjusts their own frames of
reference
• Researcher writes about their experience,
with explicit first-person narration, providing
what Clifford Geertz has referred to as the “I
witness”
Theoretical linguistics
•
•
•
•
Seeking universal principles
Focus on form and structure
Works to develop universal rules
Not concerned with the effects of social and
cultural behavior on linguistic behavior, nor
with the effects of social and cultural behavior
on linguistic behavior
Questions to consider
• How did a comparative, holistic, fieldwork
based approach influence Mitchell’s
understanding of the populations he
encountered?
• What do the ethical problems which Innes and
Manelis Klein describe have in common with
each other? How are they different? What
role does cultural relativity play in their
decisions?
What you’ll gain from this class
• In this class, you’ll learn to look at language
(or “languaging”) the way a linguistic
anthropologist does.
• The tools you will learn to use in this class will
help you to learn to communicate in other
languages, and may help you improve your
communications skills in languages you
already use.