ANT102 - Introduction to Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology

Introduction What distinguishes us from our closest primate is language Language is bound with key concepts in the social sciences; philosophy Language is communication and community building. Idea of the Unconscious is stimulated from language Linguistic anthropology focuses on little societies and primitives and the evolution of linguistics; the origins Linguistic anthropology originated in North America Why do we have language? Language is essential to our understanding of thought, communic

Anthropology: The study of humanity, including its prehistoric origins and contemporary human diversity. Biological (Physical) Anthropology: The study of humans as biological organisms, including evolution and contemporary variation. Archaeology: The study of past human cultures through their material remains. Linguistic Anthropology: The study of human communication, including its origins, history, and contemporary variation and change. Cultural Anthropology: The study of living peoples and the

Introduction Language is essential to understanding the formation of society Language studies have been important in anthropology How Anthropology is Different? Anthropology is a discipline that looks at small scale societies, and at society as a whole Rejected the idea of savages, hierarchy, etc. They are interested in things like kinship, magic, rituals, all these types of neglected subject matters in the 18th and 19th century Franz Boas First professional anthropologist Writing on Innuit lang

Changing Research Methods Fieldwork: Research in the field, which is any place where people and culture are found. From the Armchair to the Field Armchair Anthropology: Early cultural anthropologists conducted research by sitting at home in their library and reading reports about other cultures written by travelers, missionaries, and explorers. These early thinkers never visited the places they wrote about and had no direct experience with the people whose customs they discussed. Armchair anthro

Behaviour that affects the behaviour of others by the transmission of information" (Rowe & Levine) Universal among animals Adaptive significance (product of natural selection/communication is means of group and individuals survival) Different methods to transmit info Universal; plays important role of Darwinian evolution Basis of social life; social ordering mechanism Reduce aggression and likelihood of violence Allows people to establish predictability of behaviours; predict how others act/beha

Communication Is an action at a distance, through messages and information Could be vocal, verbal, gestural, postural, chemical Example Insects, choreographic It is a behaviour that affects the behaviour of others by the transmission of information It is universal among animals All animal species have at least one or more forms of communication Adaptive significance It is through communication, that group survival is guaranteed Needed to determine whether one group lives or dies Communication

Theories of Language Origins Theory Divine theory Onomatopoeia theory Natural cries theory Hominization theory The design features of language There’s very little evidence about the origins of language, but there are numerous theories Divine Theory Also known as miracle theory Based on idea that language is a gift from god, something supernatural Heroditis, a Greek historian, wrote about an Egyptian god named sumtik Had newborns isolated to see what language they would speak First word was “bre

Modes of Livelihood All modes of livelihood are sustainable as long as outside forces to do interfere Mode of Livelihood The dominant way of making a living in a culture. How we make a living, how we meet our needs and wants. All of these modes still exist today. In a culture, different modes could coexist.  Mode of Consumption The dominant pattern, in a culture, of using things up or spending resources to satisfy demands. Mode of Exchange The dominant pattern, in a culture, of transferring good

1. Divine Theory Miracle theory, oldest theory. Language is a gift from the gods, something supernatural. The Greek historian, he wrote about an Egyptian pharaoh. He had these newborns isolated to see what language they would speak. The language they first spoke was primordial language, and they thought that was the first language. Supposedly their first word was “bread” in Phrygian. This was false however since if you take “bekos” and remove “kos” it just becomes “be” which sounds like the nois

Learning how to communicate is more than just knowing the sounds and composition of a language Language Acquisition Theories Innateness hypothesis Are still born with some rules at birth Theory posits that language is a species-specific characteristic. Believed that even in environments which are not very stimulating, people will still learn the language that they observe. This supports that the ability for language acquisition is hard-wired within us. Language activates a learning module in th

Modes of Reproduction Fertility: The rate of births in a population or the rate of population increase in general. Mode of Reproduction: The predominant pattern, in a culture, of population change through the combined effect of fertility (birth rate) and mortality (death rate). Cultural anthropologists only have enough data to provide characteristics on three of five modes of livelihood. The Foraging Mode of Reproduction Birth Intervals: The time between a birth and the next birth. Moderate deat

Speaking Language acquisition theories Acquired components of language Laura Ahearn’s article on language acquisition and socialization Communicative competence: some conclusions Language Acquisition Theories Innateness hypothesis States that language is innate Learning is a way of triggering this module of learning Chomsky thought there was an innate system that all individuals are born with, called the universal grammar → ability to learn language Argue that it is species specific Significant

Speech Sounds McLean Identified that the Brain was Made of Three Main Components Nonmammalian (neo-cortex) Found in higher mammals Most developed in humans Divided into left and right hemispheres Humans cannot live without neo-cortex (2/3 of the mass of brain) Very complex in structure Most of it grows after birth Paleomammalian (limbic system) Consists of several components Seat of social motivation (social brain) Involved in organized fighting, sex/reproduction, parental Decides whether higher

Ethnomedicine  Ethnomedicine: The study of cross-cultural health systems. In the 1960s, the term first came to use where it only referred to non-Western health systems and was synonymous with the now abandoned terms primitive medicine. The early use of the term was ethnocentric. The current meaning of the word encompasses health systems everywhere.   Health System: Encompasses many areas: perceptions and classifications of health problems, prevention measures, diagnosis, healing (magical, religi

The Triune Brain: Model of Evolution of the Brain Edward Hall R-complex First part of brain to evolve Reptilian like, controls rage Breathing, heartbeat Aggression Immediate bodily defence Limbic system stored in the Paleomammalian part Consists of various subunits that manipulate significant components The “social brain” The brain that controls social life, motivation, emotion, etc Related to central survival behaviours such as feeding, fighting, mating, parenting The seat of value recognition

Kinship System: The predominant form kin relationships in culture and the kinds of behaviour involved. Like language, one's kinship system is so ingrained that is it taken for granted as something natural, rather than cultural -- predominant form of kin relationships and behaviours.   Kinship   Relatedness - continuity, support systems, etc.   Culturally determined  Cross-culture variation - who and how  Links all aspects of culture  How Cultures Create Kinship   Studying Kinship: From Formal An

Morphology Morpheme The basic units of meaningful speech Free morpheme (words) Terms that stand on their own Words that have meaning by themselves Bound morphemes (affixes) No meanings on their own But meaning when added to free morphemes Two types Derivational morphemes alter the meaning of words Example capable /incapable Example Box /boxer Inflectional morphemes alter grammatical sense of words Example quick / quickly [adjective → adverb] Example walk / walked [present → past tense] Exa

Morphology Morpheme - basic units of meaningful speech Words and speech Free morphemes (words): not problematic Words that have meaning by themselves (lexical categories or parts of speech) Nouns, Pronouns Adjectives Verbs Adverbs Prepositions Conjunctions Interjections Bound morphemes (affixes) - alter the basic meaning of words, used more frequently. no meaning on their own but have meaning when they are added to a free morpheme Derivational morphemes alter the basic meaning of words I.e. ca

Semantics - meaning of utterances in a strictly linguistic sense (internal) Lexical Semantics - deals specifically with the meaning of words in a narrow sense, in a sense the word has a referent The Meaning of Words 1. Referent can be tangible existence or not Entities that can be animate or inanimate (ppl, chair, table) States of mind, sadness, spirits, feelings, things that might not be directly observable Could be imaginary 2. Referential vs. grammatical meaning Referential means is that th

Overview Semantics - meaning of words Lexical semantics Structural semantics Pragmatics - meanings of words with context Social and affective meaning Speech arts Discourse analysis Deixis Semantics The meaning of utterances/words in a strictly linguistic sense Two basic areas: lexical and structural (1) Lexical deals with meanings of words Referent the thing that a word or phrase denotes or stands for Referential vs grammatical meaning Referential = action/state of being Grammatical = bound mo