anthropology lesson 2-5

8/18/2019 Anthropology Lesson 2-5

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2/4/2016 eConcordia - Introduction to Culture - Lesson 2: What is Anthropology? (Print Version)

http://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/print.aspx?lesson=2&courseName=introduction_culture 1

Lesson Highlights

Interviews with Anthropologists:

Dr. Deborah Gewertz and Dr.

Frederick Erringtontell us how theybecame anthropologists and why theydecided to carry out research in Papua

New Guinea

Dr. Regna Darnell tells us about

linguistic anthropology

Dr. Sally Cole discusses Franz Boas

and cultural relativism

Dr. Homa Hoofar explains the linkbetween cultural relativism and human

rights

Special Feature:

Timeline of Human Evolution - Look forthe Australopithecus (Lucy) in thetimeline of human evolution

- indicates a video clip

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Lesson 2: What is Anthropology? - Study Materials

Slide 1:

Lesson Topics

Part 1: What is Anthropology?

Anthropologists atWork

ContemporaryAnthropology: TheFour Subfields of Anthropology

PhysicalAnthropology: First

Subfield

Archaeology:

Second Subfield

LinguisticAnthropology: Third

Subfield

Linguistic

Anthropology: Third Subfield (cont'd)

Cultural or Social Anthropology: Fourth Subfield

Anthropology is Holistic

Where does Your Professor Fit?

Myth of Origin Story from the Solomon Islands

Part 2: History of the Discipline

Cultural Relativism

Cultural Relativism (cont'd)

Part 3: How does Anthropology Work?

Participant Observation in Honiara

Fieldwork

Ethics

http://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/045.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/045.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/045.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/045.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/130.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/130.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/130.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/130.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/020.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/020.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/120.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/110.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/100.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/090.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/080.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/070.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/060.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/020.aspxhttp://window.print%28%29/http://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/170.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/160.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/150.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/140.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/130.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/120.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/110.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/100.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/090.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/080.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/070.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/060.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/050.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/040.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/030.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/020.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/010.aspxhttp://window.print%28%29/http://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/045.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/130.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/130.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/065.aspxhttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/_lib/020.aspx


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Slide 2:

Part 1: What is Anthropology?

A humanistic discipline that studies thediversity of human kind in its culturalmanifestations (focuses on meaningsrather than measurements, texture of everyday life rather thangeneralizations)

Started with a focus on small-scalesocieties, uncovering details of peopleslives though sustained contact knownas participant observation, which isconducted during fieldwork.

Going to faraway places is linked to thediscipline's history and intellectualpremises as well as to the

anthropologists' own history andinterests.

Many anthropologists now study closerto home or at home as the reasons forchoosing a field site have changed andthe site itself may feed into the topicand theoretical questions that oneselects.

Slide 3:

Part 1: What is Anthropology? (cont'd)

Anthropologists at Work

Let's listen to Dr. Deborah Gewertz, professor of Anthropology, Amherst College

and Dr. Frederic Errington,

professor of anthropology, Trinity College, Connecticut, tell us how they became anthropologists, and whythey decided to carry out research in Papua New Guinea, a country located in the Southwest Pacific, north of Australia.

(From our archives)

Watch the video (Length 05:21)

Left: Map location of Papua New Guinea(Source: Wikipedia) (Click on map to enlarge)

http://mm_openbrwindow%28%27../home/video_popup.aspx?videoSize=full&id=899%27,%27Video%27,%27scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,width=400,height=320%27)http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/LocationWestPapua.svg


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Bottom left: Resident of Bago-bago, an island in the southeast of Papua New Guinea (Source: Jon Radoff, Wikipedia)Bottom right: Scenes of celebration as Papua New Guinea defeats New Zealand in the 2008 Australian Football International CupGrand Final (Source: Wikipedia)

Slide 4:


Contemporary Anthropology: The Four Subfields of Anthropology

Anthropology as we practice it in North America is a large discipline comprised of four main

branches:

Slide 5:



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Click on Play to listen to the MP3.

Physical Anthropology: First Subfield

Physical anthropologists(first subfield) study thephysical dimension of human beings; dividedinto paleontologists andprimatologists.

1. Paleontologists study human evolution (paleontology) => how pre-human creaturesbecame human beings, the ancestry of Homo Sapiens. A famous example is thediscovery in Ethiopia in 1974 of Lucy,; a young female whose fossil remains date back3.2 million years, classified as an Australopithecus Afarensis.

2. Primatologists study the social life and behaviour of non-human primates, likechimpanzees (with whom we share 99% of our body chemistry) and gorillas, in the wildand captive, and experiment in animal psychology and ape language. An example of awell-known case is that of Jane Goodall and her studies of chimpanzees in east Africa.

Some physical anthropologists also study the genome of social groups in the hopes of providingclues on origins, migration and group identity of populations.

We will talk about animal communicationlater in the course, but in the meantimeyou can read more on big apes andlanguage in this article " Great ApeLanguage" from Science Daily.

Right: A reconstruction of a female AustralopithecusAfarensis; Far right: Skeleton of Lucy (AustralopithecusAfarensis), Museum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris(Source for both: Wikipedia)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/g/great_ape_language.htm


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Slide 6:


Physical Anthropology: First Subfield (cont'd)

Look for the Australopithecus (Lucy) in the timeline of human evolution.

(click on the image below to access the timeline)

Slide 7:


Archaeology: Second Subfield

Archaeologists (second subfield) are interested in finding objects (bones, fire) and artifacts(pottery, ornaments, etc.) because of what they can tell about the social life that once existed -revealing ways of life, presence of sacred rituals, etc., and not just housing layouts.

Pre-historic vs.HistoricArchaeology:Pre-historicarchaeologystudies societiesthat never leftwritten records,whereas historicarchaeologystudies societiesthat did leave awritten record.

http://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/flash/timeline.html


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Archaeologist Ariane Burke from Université de Montréal

Starting to dig on a lower paleolithic site in the Alentejoprovince of Portugal, 2007.

Preparing a dig at Mina do Paços, Portugal 2007.(Images courtesy of Ariane Burke)

Slide 8:


Linguistic Anthropology: Third Subfield

Linguistic anthropologists(third subfield) aretrained in linguistics and

anthropology and studythe relationship betweenlanguage and the rest of culture => how speechand language are used to signal identity or status, express thoughts and knowledge, label theworld around them, etc.

Through comparative methods, this can provide information on migration and howpeople without writing systems were related in the past.

Also interested in birth and death of languages, language andgender/nationalism/ethnicity/social class, ethnography of communication, how thecontext of communication affects the choice of language in any speech community =>what is said to who, when it is said and how it is said.


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(Click on map to enlarge)

Above: Anthropologist Roger Keesing recording children playing music in Kwaio, Solomon Islands, 1989(Photo by C. Jourdan). Map: Solomon Islands as of 1989 (Source: U.S. Central Intelligence Agency)

Slide 9:


Linguistic Anthropology: Third Subfield (cont'd)

Let’s listen toDr. Regna Darnell tell usmore about linguisticanthropology.

(From our archives)


When you listen to Dr. Darnell’s interview pay attention to the following:

1. The role of Franz Boas in establishing Linguistic Anthropology as a part of anthropology

2. The focus of linguists on philology and of linguistic anthropologist on Amerindianlanguages

3. The formal properties of language and how useful they are to track the effect of time onlanguage change and language contact

Slide 10:


Cultural or Social Anthropology: Fourth Subfield

Cultural and social anthropologists (called ethnology in Europe) (fourth subfield) often study

http://mm_openbrwindow%28%27../home/video_popup.aspx?videoSize=full&id=897%27,%27Video%27,%27scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,width=400,height=320%27)http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Solomon_Islands_1989.jpg


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contemporary societies anywhere in the world and the specialization in particular dimensions of social life (arts, economy, political life, religion) has caused fragmentation.

Topics vary greatly, evenat Concordia University,and all can be studiedfrom different theoreticalperspectives, but allcultural anthropologists obtain their data firsthand through research in the field.

Anthropologist Kevin Tuite with the shrine priestSiko Tadiauri in the village of Matura, Georgia, March

2005 (Courtesy Kevin Tuite)

Communal meal during the village feast in Vaillac,south of France, Summer 2011

(Photo by C. Jourdan)

Slide 11:


Anthropology is Holistic


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Listen to your professor explain how she fits intoanthropology.

(Video Length 01:24)

Click on Play to view the video.

Anthropology’s interest in the whole of the human condition lends to its four sub-disciplines,studying the diversity and transformations of human beings and their cultures. Each is aninterpretive subfield aiming to understand human life from a holistic perspective and are thustaught in many anthropology departments in North America.

This is not however, standard in all anthropology traditions– British anthropology is essentially social anthropology, while French anthropology is divided intothree forms:

physical anthropology (referred to as anthropology)

archaeology

ethnology (social and linguistic anthropology). They are taught autonomously.

Top: Huli Wigman from the Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea (Source: Nomadtales, Wikipedia)Bottom left: Australopithecus Afarensis skull in the Museum of Natural History in NYC (Source: Flickr photo by LeKriz)

Bottom right: Peruvian indigenous people learning to read (Source: Wikipedia)

Slide 12:


Where does Your Professor Fit In?


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Anthropologist Christine Jourdan in Kwaio, Solomon Islands, weaving a basket,1995 (Courtesy Dr. David Akin).

Slide 13:


Myth of Origin Story from the Solomon Islands

Here is an excerpt of the creole language of the Solomon Islands. It is called Pijin and is nowspoken throughout the country. The grammar is very similar to that of the local languages, but

80% the vocabulary comes from English.

Listen to a local myth of origin told to me by Cecilia Saako, a 57-year-old womanfrom the Solomon Islands. Cecilia is from one of the Polynesian outliers in theSolomons. Pijin is a second language for her. She can neither read nor write.

Cecilia is a widow: those of us who know her culture can tell that she is a widowbecause her hair is short and her clothes are old and dirty, as is required bytradition. In brief, she is in mourning.

As you listen to Cecilia, read the text of the story and see if you can understandsome of it before looking at the translation.

Transcription and translation of Cecilia's story.

Students interested in Ontong Java, and on the effect of climate change on Ontong Java, can visitthe following websites:

Ontong Java: The sinking reality of climate change in the Pacific, DW.com

Ontong Java Atoll, Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontong_Java_Atollhttp://www.dw.com/en/ontong-java-the-sinking-reality-of-climate-change-in-the-pacific/a-18734276http://www.econcordia.com/my2/coursedocument.aspx?course=introduction_culture&lesson=true&document=L2-Pidgin_Transcription


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Slide 14:

Part 2: History of the Discipline



Listen to your professorexplain the

"history of the discipline".

Chapter 1 in thetextbook provides a

brief summary of howanthropologyappeared andevolved, founded in19th-century Europewhen evolutionarysocial theory was animportant scientificparadigm.

It was believed thatsocieties developed ineasily observedstages; this false

assumption putWestern societiesahead of all others–serving as justificationfor many acts of decimation or forcedsocial transformationsand the colonizationof much of the worldby Europeancountries.

Ethnocentrism: thebelief that the moralstandards, belief systems, arts, etc. of one's own society aresuperior to those of other societies.

Common to someextent, a measure of ethnocentrism can beproof of successfulsocialization andenculturation of theindividual and

contentment. Anextreme presence isrejected byanthropology andleads to intolerance.

Slide 15:

Part 2: History of the Discipline (cont'd)

Cultural Relativism


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Franz Boas'swork bestrepresents thebeginning of Americananthropologyand the reaction to evolutionary anthropology at the beginning of the 20th century.

Due to colonialism's destruction of many societies, Boas and students like MargaretMead and Ruth Benedict thought to record human cultures before they disappeared. Thisbecame known as salvage anthropology.

Cultural relativism understands societies in terms of their own logic rather than rankingor judging them by outside standards, but this idea must be examined carefully.

Left: Franz Boas, one of the pioneers of modern anthropology, often called the "Father of American Anthropology" (circa 1915)(Source: the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Wikipedia)Centre: Margaret Mead in the field Pacific islands (Copyright: Library of Congress, Human Nature and the Power of Culture)Right: Ruth Benedict in 1937, American anthropologist (Source: Library of Congress. New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,World Telegram staff photographer, Wikipedia)

Slide 16:

Part 2: History of the Discipline (cont'd)

Cultural Relativism (cont'd)

Let's listen to Dr. Sally Cole, Department

of Sociology and Anthropology, ConcordiaUniversity, discuss Franz Boas andcultural relativism.

(From our archives)


Next listen toDr. HomaHoofar,

Department of Sociology andAnthropology, Concordia University, explain the link betweencultural relativism and human rights.

http://mm_openbrwindow%28%27../home/video_popup.aspx?videoSize=full&id=898%27,%27Video%27,%27scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,width=400,height=320%27)


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Slide 17:

Part 3: How does Anthropology Work?



Listen to your professorexplain

"how anthropology works."

Participantobservation: Livingalongside yourparticipants (thepeople you arestudying) is a crucialpart of your fieldworkas well as takingnotes of all yourobservations.

Interviews are also animportant part of theresearch process,allowing furtherunderstandingthrough in-depthquestions withindividuals and arethus an important toolfor elicitinginformation.

Archives can also behelpful for findinginformation on thehistory and

background of thearea as well asdemographics andstatistics.

Use of tools such asrecorders, camcordersand cameras in theprocess of gatheringaudio and visualmaterial allowsinterviews to be easilycaptured andtransferred.

Check out this excerpt onlanguage use in a particularfamily from your professor's

fieldnotes .

Slide 18:

Part 3: How does Anthropology Work? (cont'd)

http://www.econcordia.com/my2/coursedocument.aspx?course=introduction_culture&lesson=true&document=fieldNotes_april_2007_2


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Participant Observation in Honiara

Because part of the research involves thetransmission of linguistic knowledge in families,it is important that I live with families and seehow this is done.

During my last two field trips in Honiara in 2007-2008, I lived with two different families: theFurau and the Wame. In the case of the Furau,

three generations lived in the household, plusother members of the extended families.

All told we were 14 people. You can see picturesof some members of this family. While living withthem, I shared their life, helping them withcooking, shopping, taking care of the children,cleaning, participating in family activities on theweekend and in the evenings, and attendingchurch or other events.

Calvina reads a story to her grandmother Cecilia who is notliterate, Honiara, 2007 (Photo: C. Jourdan)

Janet Fifi'i and her children, May 2015, Honiara, SolomonIslands (Photo: C. Jourdan)

Dr. Jourdan, then M.A student Johanne Angeli, and their

friends, Netti Fifi'i and Tassie Furau (Photo: C. Jourdan)

Slide 19:


Fieldwork

Fieldwork is not an easy process and success depends on the acumen (insight/wisdom)and industriousness of the researcher, the soundness of the research project and onpersonal qualities.

Fieldwork often takes anthropologists away from loved ones and/or in to culturalcontexts that require adjustment to new ways of being, talking and etiquette and newtimetables, forcing them out of their comfort zones.

When researchers are brought into worlds so different from their own they canexperience culture shock accompanied by frustration and difficulties adjusting. It isimportant to be able to recognize this as it can occur unexpectedly.

As fellow humans and as scientists, anthropologists have moral and professionalobligations towards the people they work with. These are laid out in a code of ethics. InCanada, researchers are required to respect the following Code of Conduct : EthicalConduct for Research Involving Humans.

Chapter 2 explains that many anthropologists now work at home or in Western societies.

http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/archives/tcps-eptc/docs/TCPS%20October%202005_E.pdf


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Conversation in Komuvaolu village, Solomon Islands(Photo by C. Jourdan, 1997)

Serafina, Calvina and Andrea reading the traditionalstories from my book in Honiara, 2007

(Photo: C. Jourdan)

Slide 20:


Ethics

The relationship created with thepeople anthropologists work with(establishing rapport) is important.A relationship of mutual respectand trust aids in productiveresearch.

The relationship depends on the

anthropologists’ people skills andtraits (intellectual honesty,patience, tact, humour,independence, care).

Anthropologists have moralobligations towards the people theystudy and these are detailed in acode of ethics; we have obligationsas both fellow humans and asscientists.

As fellow humans and as scientists,anthropologists have moral and professional obligations towards the people they work


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with. These are laid out in a code of ethics. In Canada, researchers are required torespect the following Code of Conduct:http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/archives/tcpseptc/docs/TCPS%20October%202005_E.pdf

A third obligation (less mentioned) is the return of data and results of the research topeople who have participated (by sending copies of interviews, transcriptions andpictures to individuals, groups, archives and museums or sending copies of the articlesor books published).

http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/archives/tcpseptc/docs/TCPS%20October%202005_E.pdf


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2/4/2016 eConcordia - Introduction to Culture - Lesson 3: Culture, Cultural Change and Globalization (Print Version)


Lesson Highlights


Dr. Bambi Schieffelin and Dr. Elinor

Ochs tell us what they mean by

language socialization

Dr. Vered Amit explains what she

means by youth culture

Dr. Pierre Beaucage explains cultural

change

Dr. Deborah Gewertz and Dr.

Frederic Errington explain the impactthat colonization and urbanization havehad on the people of Papua New Guinea

Dr. Foster explains why many post-colonial states are politically and

economically weak

Dr. Pierre Beaucage explains

colonialism and modernity

Dr. Jonathan Friedman and Dr.Robert Foster explain what they mean

by globalization

Special Feature:

Dancing in a Polynesian settlement- video taken at the Lord Howe

settlement in Honiara



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Print

Lesson 3: Culture, Cultural Change and Globalization - Study Materials

Slide 1:

Lesson Topics

Part 1: The Concept of Culture

Definitions of Culture

Various Approaches

How did Culture

Begin?

Culture is Learned

Culture is Symbolic

Culture is Shared

One Society,Different Values

Social CulturalDiversity

Subcultures

Youth Culture

Part 2: Culture Change

What is Changing?

Core CulturalElements andCultural Change

Changes NotLinked to

Technology

Case Study:Dancing in aPolynesianSettlement

Issues of Identity

Amidst Change

Four Models of Cultural Interaction

Colonization

European Colonization

Colonization and People’s Lives

Post-Colonial Politics

Colonialism and Modernity

Part 3: Globalization

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Listen to your professor explain theconcept of culture.



A classic definition was

proposed by Edward Tylor, a19th-century British anthropologidy,who wrote in 1871 that:

Globalization and Social Change

Final Thoughts

Slide 2:

Part 1: The Concept of Culture

Above: Graffiti artist (Source: Andy Ciordia, Flickr)Below: Classical orchestra of musicians, 9-18 years of age(Source: S'mee, Flickr)

Slide 3:

Part 1: The Concept of Culture (cont'd)

Definitions of Culture

What do anthropologists mean by culture?

Let’s note that early definitions of culture focused on the aggregationof events, things and systems of thoughts that encompassed andguided human behaviour.

Needless to say, not all segments

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‘Culture or civilization… is thatcomplex whole which includesknowledge, belief, art, law, morals,customs, and any other capabilitiesand habits acquired by man as amember of a society.’

Left: Edward Burnett Tylor (Source:Encyclopaedia Britannica online)

of Edward Tylor's definition havewithstood the test of time.Anthropologists today are stillconsidering cultures as complexwholes, but they would probablynot refer to ‘man’ but to ‘humans’,they would probably not equate

‘culture’ with ‘civilization’ as thisword connotes particular culturaltraits (such as writing systems,

centralized states, etc) that are notfound in all societies.

It is fair to say that the dominant definition of culture has changed throughout the history of anthropology and that not all anthropologists agree on what it is. There are many ways of understanding this concept.

Various definitions of ‘culture’ by different scholars:

‘The learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups. The primarymeans by which humans adapt to their environments. The way of life characteristic of aparticular human society.’ (Serena Nanda and Richard Warms, 2002: 412)

‘The learned system of beliefs, feelings, and rules for living around which a group of people organize their life.’ (Richley Crapo, 2002: 492)

‘Distinctively human; transmitted through learning; traditions and customs that governbehavior and belief. (Conrad Kottak, 2002: 501)

‘The system of knowledge more or less shared by members of a society.’ (RogerKeesing, 1981: 509)

Slide 4:


Various Approaches

The range that exists in the definitions of culture is obviously large. But do not be mistaken. It isnot that anthropologists disagree fundamentally on what culture is. Far from it. But their ‘take’ on

it varies with the theoretical approaches they prefer. For instance, those anthropologists called ‘interpretive’ will focus on the symbols and thoughts of a cultural group. Others, such those called ‘materialists’ will focus on the learned behaviours and lifestyles of peoples. However different theirapproaches may be, all anthropologists agree that culture refers to learned (and somewhatshared) patterns of behaviour and thought.

Review the differentschools of thought thathave existed throughoutthe history of anthropology. Each islinked to a particular wayof understanding thefundamentals of culture.


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(Source: Cultural Anthropology , Figure 1.2 Key Figures in Cultural Anthropology)

Slide 5:


How did Culture Begin?

Cultureemergedthrough groupformationsand thedevelopmentof languageand the abilityto usesymbols.

Culture as a means of addressing natural/social needs through a system of rules.

Human needs are diverse and complex and accordingly, so is culture.


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Listen to your professor explain

how culture is learned.



Left: Camel traders in front of the PyramidsRight: Native Americans performing a ritual dance(Source for both: Microsoft Clip Art)

Slide 6:


Culture is Learned


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Listen to your professor explain how

culture is symbolic.

Above: Bowing, a traditional greeting in Japanese society(Source: Microsoft Clip Art)Below: Convention dictates that two players shake handsat the end of a match (Source: Wikipedia)

Slide 7:

Part 1: The Concept of Culture (cont'd)Culture is Learned (cont'd)

Conceptionsabout

genderroles aresymbolic,they can

vary fromsociety to

society andthey changeover time.

For more information, listen to Dr. Bambi Schieffelin from NewYork University and Dr. Elinor Ochs from UCLA. Both Schieffelin

and Ochs are world-renowned anthropologists who pioneered thefield of language socialization. In this excerpt, they tell us what

they mean by socialization.

(From our archives)


Slide 8:


Culture is Symbolic



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Above: Churchill waves a peace sign to crowds on theday he broadcast to the nation that the war with

Germany had been won, May 8, 1945 (Source: BritishGovernment, Wikipedia)Below: Anti-War protester, Washington, DC, 2005(Source: danny.hammontree, Flickr)

Slide 9:


Culture is Shared

Sharing of culturereflected inthesocializationof membersin ways thatcontribute to understanding of common rules, meanings and behaviours.

Culture as shared allows for mutual interpretations, symbolic meanings, messages andintentions to flow.

Examples of Shared Cultures


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To learn more about the debate over religious culture coursesin Quebec primary schools, check out these suggested links.

Children in a classroom

The Ethics andReligious CultureCourse: AsCompulsory asSchool Attendance?

(Source: Éducaloiwebsite)

Quebec Parents TakeSchool Board to

Court OverCompulsoryRelativistic Ethicsand Religion Course

(Source: ThaddeusM. Baklinski,LifeSiteNews.com)

Quebec's Parentshave Lost theFreedom to ChooseReligious Education

(Source: John

Female graffiti artists(Source: Microsoft Clip Art)

Street kids, Phnom Penh(Source: Flickr photo by nimboo)

Young women in the Caribbean(Source: Flickr photo by mrcharly)

Slide 10:


One Society, Different Values

People in the same cultural group can have very different opinions and ways of understanding theworld. People have different tastes, different expectations, different outlooks on things. Within thesame cultural group, people will have different values, goals and systems of meanings.

For example:

For the longesttime in Quebec,religion wastaught in schooland wasmandatory inprimary schools.When thegovernmentopted to makethe courseoptional and tooffer a course in

ethics and moralsfor the childrenwho did not wantto take thereligion course,many peoplewere outraged,while othersapplauded.

In the wake of the ‘reasonableaccommodation’ debate that took

http://www.econcordia.com/my2/coursedocument.aspx?course=introduction_culture&lesson=true&document=quebecs-parents-hhttp://www.econcordia.com/my2/coursedocument.aspx?course=introduction_culture&lesson=true&document=lifesitenewshttp://www.econcordia.com/my2/coursedocument.aspx?course=introduction_culture&lesson=true&document=ethics_course


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(Source: Microsoft clips) Carpay, GlobeCampus,The Globe and Mail

website)

over the provincein 2007-2008, theQuebecgovernmentopted to replacethe course onethics andreligion with a course on comparative religious culture.

Some parents objected that the course gives the same importance to all religions and thereforeundermines their own in the minds of the children.

Something to think about

How can you explain that this would happen in the same province with only 6 million people whoshare the same space, go through the same education system, have the same government, speakthe same languages, and so on?

Slide 11:


Social Cultural Diversity

Class, gender, race, ethnicity and indigenous peoples

In all societies, basic distinctions exist betweenindividuals in terms of age and gender.

Often, what people can or cannot do, may ormay not do, may or may not say, is linked totheir memberships into social groups defined bytheir gender and their age.

Left: African American couple in a cafe(Source: Microsoft Clip Art)

In multicultural societies, other factors such asrace, ethnicity and indigeneity have providedadditional ways of ‘classifying’ people accordingto their skin colour, ethnic origin and nativestatus.

We shall cover these issues in detail in a laterlesson.

Right: Japanese businessmen taking a train(Source: Flickr photo by Théo La Photo)

Slide 12:


Subcultures


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Clearly, when people are part of a cultural groupthey are not passive recipients of prepackagedsystems of meanings, behaviour and thought.

As individuals, they develop their own opinionsand ideas. Individuals in a culture engage thedominant culture according to gender, class,experience, age, etc. And this process is oftenwhat leads them to have different visions of whattheir culture is.

Right: Female break dancers(Source: Flickr photo by Delmo-Baggins)

Some fully approve of the dominant model andembrace it while others reject it. It is theengagement with culture that leads to socio-cultural change.

When groups of people recognize themselves ashaving different ways of engaging the culturalworld in which they live, we talk of subcultures.

Left: Montreal street kids coping with everyday realities(Source: Flickr photo by caribb)

Slide 13:


Youth Culture

In some societies, young people have modes of expressions, behaviour and values that may besignificantly different from those of their adult counterparts: they dress differently from theirparents, they listen to different kinds of music, they use different words, and so on. Thisobservation has led anthropologists such as Vered Amit to talk about youth culture. Yet howeverdifferent some youth wish to be, they also engage with the rest of society.

This is true of many of the subcultures that comprise societies: subcultures organized around age,around leisure activities, around religions, around economic means, and so on.

Listen to Dr. Vered Amit from ConcordiaUniversity explain what she means by

youth culture and how youth cultureintersects with the rest of the society,legally, socially and culturally.

(From our archives)

Watch the video

(Length 06:28)

A Subculture Example: Hip Hop Music

Funk, disco, soul, dub,



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Listen to your professor explain

culture change.



Stylisticorigins

toasting, performancepoetry, spoken word,signifying, the dozens,scat singing, talkingblues

Culturalorigins

1970s, the Bronx, NewYork City

Typicalinstruments

Turntable, synthesizer,vocals, drum machine,

sampler, guitar, pianoMainstreampopularity

High worldwide sincethe late 1980s

(Table source: Wikipedia, approved by Dr. C.Jourdan)

Youths break-dancing to the sound of hip-hop music(Source: Flickr photo by Jano De Cesare)

Slide 14:

Part 2: Culture Change


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Above: A case of cast metal type pieces and typesetmatter in a composing stick (Source: Wikipedia)Below: The Tesla Roadster, an electric sports car whosechassis was developed from the Lotus Elise (Source:Wikipedia)

Slide 15:

Part 2: Culture Change (cont'd)

What is Changing?

Ford Model T, 1927, regarded as the first affordableAmerican automobile

(Source: rmhermen, Wikipedia)

Woman receiving rubella vaccination, School of PublicHealth of the State of Minas Gerais (ESP-MG), Brazil

(Source: Sandra Rugio, Wikipedia)

Slide 16:


Core Cultural Elements and Cultural Change

Change in themid-1940s:anthropologistsstudyingculturalchange,particularly


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Indian youth, left using traditional transportation, right going to a modernschool (Source: Microsoft Clip Art)

Read what Professor PierreBeaucage has to say aboutcultural change (preceded by

your professor's question tohim).

Transcription .

from the pointof view of acculturationstudies, positedthat not allareas of culturechanged at thesame pace.

Americanscholars such

as Herskovitzor Linton, forexample,proposed thatthere werecore elementsin all culturesthat were moreresistant tochange thanothers.

Slide 17:


Changes Not Linked to Technology

British suffragette with a poster, An Afghan woman getting her voter identification card at avoter registration centre in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 18, 2004

Nelson Mandela inPennsylvania, United States,

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Click on map to enlarge.

Solomon Islands, including Ontong Java [Map].In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/61661

giving out newspapers 1900-1919(Source: Chusseau-Flaviens, Flickr)

(Source: Encyclopædia Britannica Online, Retrieved Sept. 16,2009)

July 1993. (Source: WhiteHouse Photograph Office)

Slide 18:


Case Study: Dancing in a Polynesian Settlement

On Easter Sunday 2007, your professor wasinvited to spend the day at the Lord Howesettlement in Honiara andwitness/participate in the celebrations. Therewas to be music, food and a competition of dances. Your professor took her moviecamera along.

On that day, a dance competition took place:groups of women and young boys belongingto different associations presented theirdances. It was a long-drawn-out affairlasting many hours.

As you watch some segments of the video

that your professor shot that day, payattention to the dances of the women, theirattire, the music they dance to, the use of perfume and the flower decorations theywear. Contrast that with the dances of theyoung boys and their attire.

Dancing in a

Polynesian

Settlement

(From our archives)


The Lord Howe settlement is located at the mouth of the Mataniko River, by the seaside. Itis inhabited exclusively by people from the Lord Howe Islands, a Polynesian outlier locatednorth of the Solomon Islands, also known as Otong Java. In the settlement, people haverunning water but no sewage facilities, and housing runs from makeshift shelters to concretehouses.

Slide 19:


Issues of Identity Amidst Change

Whenexternalculturalmarkers arechangeddrastically, isthe cultural

http://mm_openbrwindow%28%27../home/video_popup.aspx?videoSize=full&id=925%27,%27Video%27,%27scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,width=400,height=320%27)http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/61661http://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/lesson3_sm/images/Solomon-island-including-On.jpg


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group or individual identity any less authentic?

Opposing concepts such as "traditional" and "modern" tend to oversimplify thecomplexities of cultural change.

A night dance by women in Hapaee, 1784(Source: National Library of Australia's Pictures Collection)

Break-dancer at Columbus Circle(Source: kptyson, Flickr)

Slide 20:



The most important forms of change are often associated with contact with outsidegroups.

Anthropologists have identified four models of cultural interaction: clash of civilizations;McDonaldization; Hybridization; and Localization. You can read the description of each inthe textbook.

Amongst the various forms that contact has taken, colonialism (part of the clash of civilizations model), has brought about the biggest changes.


1 Clash of civilizations Conflict model

2 McDonaldization Takeover and homogenization model

3 Hybridization Blending model

4 Localization Local cultural remaking and transformation of global culture

(Source: Miller and Van Esterik, 2007: 19)

Slide 21:


Colonization

The word ‘colonization’ usually refers to European expansion into the non-Western world (from the17th to 20th centuries), but has existed throughout history in various forms.

European


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Listen to your professor discussEuropean colonization.



Let’s listen to Dr.Deborah Gewertzand Dr. FredericErrington explainsome of theimpacts thatcolonization and

subsequenturbanization hadon the people of

colonization has produced the most dramatic social changes in recent human history.

Most empires had an agricultural mode of subsistence.

Check out these mapsEgyptian Empire Alexander's Empire Mongol Empire Aztec Empire

(click on maps to enlarge)

All of the empires above existed through colonization and subjugation of neighbours or of farawaylands for the benefit of the state that launched the expansion. Except for the Mongols, who werepastoralist nomads, all of these empires were established by populations whose main mode of subsistence was a strong agriculture.

Map of Egyptian Empire (Source: Flickr photo by Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the BPL)Maps of Alexander the Great's Empire, Mongol Empire and Aztec Empire (Source: Encyclopædia Britannica)

Slide 22:


European Colonization

http://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/lesson3_sm/images/Aztec-Empire.jpghttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/lesson3_sm/images/Mongol-Empire.jpghttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/lesson3_sm/images/Alexander-the-Great-Empire.jpghttp://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/lesson3_sm/images/Egyptian-Empire.jpg


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Chambri, PapuaNew Guinea.

(From our archives)


Papua New Guinea is a country in the WesternPacific that comprises the eastern part of the large

Island of New Guinea, the Bismark Archipelago, andthe Island of Bougainville. Part of it was colonizedby the Germans at the end of the 19th century, andsubsequently by the Australians under aprotectorate. It became independent in 1975.

Listen to your professor discuss

colonization and people’s lives.



Slide 23:


Colonization and People’s Lives

Above: Two portraits of Moruka, left taken in 1985, right in1995 (Source: C. Jourdan)



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Below: Moruka’s house in East Kwaio, Island of Malaita,Solomon Islands (Source: C. Jourdan)

Slide 24:


Post-Colonial Politics

Click on map to enlarge.

Colonization has not onlyaffected individual groupslocated within formerstates, but it has alsocreated new countries byamalgamating differentethnic groups and culturalgroups into onegeopolitical entity.

Think, for instance, of thecountries of West Africa,such as Ivory Coast,

Nigeria, the Congo,Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Sudan, etc., which werecreated by the Briitish, the Belgians and the French,and are now, after independence, fraught with ethnictensions. Again, the political crises that are shakingthe Melanesian countries of Papua New Guinea, theSolomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji, are cases in point.

Left: Map of Africa (Source: Courtesy of the University of TexasLibraries, Austin);Right: Slave auction poster (Source: Wikimedia)

A general characteristic of post-colonialstates is that they are politically andeconomically weak. Let's listen to Dr.Robert Foster, University of Rochester inthe United States, explain why theseweaknesses occur.

(From our archives)

Watch the video

(Length 01:13)

Slide 25:


Colonialism and Modernity

For quite some time after they became independent, post-colonial states throughout the worldhave also been economically weak, and very often remained dependent on the economies of theformer colonial powers. Even after independence, many former colonies had retained a form of economy that supplied raw commodities to the former colonial powers (coffee, sugar, cocoa,minerals, etc.) and served as a market for the sale of manufactured goods.

This observation led economists such as André Gunder-Frank to propose that under-developmentwas maintained by the former colonial powers, and was in fact necessary for their own economic

http://mm_openbrwindow%28%27../home/video_popup.aspx?videoSize=full&id=901%27,%27Video%27,%27scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,width=400,height=320%27)http://www.econcordia.com/courses/introduction_culture/lesson3_sm/images/map-of-Africa_large.jpg


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Listen to your professor explainglobalization and social change.


Brazil coast line (Source: Microsoft Clip Art)

Brazil coast line (Source: Microsoft Clip Art)

development. This thesis is questioned,particularly in light of the economic successstories of Brazil and South Korea, as wellas other countries. Your professor asksPierre Beaucage to clarify this point.

Read what Professor PierreBeaucage has to say about

colonialism and modernity(preceded by your professor's question

to him) - Transcription .

Slide 26:

Part 3: Globalization

Professor Beaucage’s view (from the previous slide) is very political and not all people will agreewith it. Yet, as anthropologists have observed, dramatic types of change take place when, in thecontext of economic globalization, powerful international corporations, with the help of advertising

campaigns, aim at changing people’s lifestyles and consumption patterns so as to market theirware.

But globalizationinvolves morethan the simpleeconomicdimension of social relations.

Let’s listen to Dr.JonathanFriedman fromLund University inSweden and Dr.Robert Fosterfrom theUniversity of Rochester in theUnited States,who explain whatthey mean byglobalization.

(From our archives)

Watch the video

(Length 01:23)

Dr. Jonathan Friedman

Watch the video

(Length 01:07)

Dr. Robert Foster

Slide 27:

Part 3: Globalization (cont'd)

Globalization and Social Change

http://mm_openbrwindow%28%27../home/video_popup.aspx?videoSize=full&id=927%27,%27Video%27,%27scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,width=400,height=320%27)http://mm_openbrwindow%28%27../home/video_popup.aspx?videoSize=full&id=926%27,%27Video%27,%27scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,width=400,height=320%27)http://www.econcordia.com/my2/coursedocument.aspx?course=introduction_culture&lesson=true&document=L3-Beaucage_lesson3_2


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Above: Watching television for the first time in 1997, thesechildren in Komuvaolu are transfixed by the images. Thechildren live in a very isolated area of the island of Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands) where there is noelectricity or running water, no books, no moderntechnology of any kind.(Source: C. Jourdan)

Slide 28:

Final Thoughts

Food for Thought on this Lesson

"Technological progress is a conquering despotthat does not stop. Any slowing down is seen as aretreat, and thus humanity is condemned toprogress for life."

Alfred Sauvy, from Théorie générale de la population, 1952-1954

Right: Alfred Sauvy (Source: INED)

To Sum Up

Culture is best understood as a way of life and a way of thinking about the world that ischanging with the passage of time and through contact with other cultural groups.

Cultures are the product of the interaction between individuals and social groups. In theprocess, they keep changing: through invention by individuals; through contact withother cultural groups; and through social transformations that cultural groups go

through during their history.Some changes are incremental, while others are so dramatic that it is possible to thinkof them in terms of a revolution.


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2/4/2016 eConcordia - Introduction to Culture - Lesson 4: Language and Communication (Print Version)


Lesson Highlights


Dr. Regna Darnell discusses howlanguage plays a role in social

relationships

Dr. Regna Darnell explains what is so

special about language

Dr. Bambi Schieffelin and Dr. Elinor

Ochs explain how culture shapes the

way socialization takes place

Dr. Kevin Tuite explains how the

method of lexicostatistics functions

Dr. Regna Darnell discusses the Sapir-

Whorf hypothesis

Special Feature:

Dr. Christine Jourdan explains thestudy of language (PowerPoint and

Audio)



Print

Lesson 4: Language and Communication - Study Materials

Slide 1:

Lesson Topics

Part 1: The Origin of Language

What is Language?

Language as a Toolfor Communication

How did Language

Begin?

The Origin of

Language

The Development of Communications

Part 2: What is Language?

What do We KnowWhen We Know aLanguage?

What do We Know

about Language?

The MainCharacteristics of

Human Language

Part 3: Language and Culture

Why do Languages

Change?

Language Families

Language Families: Austronesian Languages

Why do We Need to Know How Languages are Related?

Origins of Pacific Islanders

How Language Changes

The Genesis of Melanesian Pidgin

Language and Identity

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Language as a Mirror

Final Thoughts

Slide 2:

Part 1: The Origin of Language

What is Language?

Language is a code for communication consisting of a set of symbols and a set of rules forconstructing messages => these symbols are arbitrary and conventional, used by peoples in

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Maroccan women chatting by the road.Marrakesh, 2006 (Photo by C. Jourdan)

societies and passed from generation to generation,and they can be oral, written or signed (like signlanguage).


It is through the study of speech that we canknow language and the role it plays in socialrelationships. Let’s listen to Dr. Regna Darnelltell us what this relationship is.

(From our archives)


Slide 3:

Part 1: The Origin of Language (cont'd)

Language as a Tool for Communication

As a tool forcommunication, language iscentral to culture. Think of

everyday activities thatneed language to beaccomplished.

The importance of languagein anthropology wasbrought about by the worksof Franz Boas and led to thecreation of linguistics as asubfield (focusing on therelationship of languageand culture.)

Linguistic anthropologistslook at social interactions



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Listen to your professor explain howlanguage began.



and meanings through thestudy of discourse andspeech.

Speech is language inaction (different fromlanguage), and by studyingspeech, we can knowlanguage and the role itplays in social relationships.

Above: Anthropologist Kevin Tuite (left), from Université de Montréal, in conversation with participants inhis research project in Georgia, 2005 (Courtesy of Kevin Tuite)

Slide 4:


How did Language Begin?

Language began as:

(1) The result of divine or supernatural intervention

(God gave people language, i.e. Adam and Eve).

(2)

Language is part of the ontology of the world =>language exists because humans exist.(particular conception/theory of the relationshipof language to things in particular and to theworld in general).

(3)

Language is an inherent part of the humanspecies and is part of its evolution (languagedeveloped in relation to human evolution). This isthe accepted belief.

Suggested reading: Tracking the Evolution of Language and Speech: Comparing Vocal Tracts to

Identify Speech Capabilities

By Philp Lieberman and Robert McCarthy

Slide 5:


How did Language Begin? (cont'd)

(1)

The result of divine or supernatural intervention.Biblical story of the Tower of Babel.

(2)

Language is part of the ontology of the world.The relationship of language to particular

things.

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The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1563)(Source: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Austria)

Mae’eadi and Anthropolgist Roger Keesing in Honiara,Solomon Islands, 1991 (Source: C. Jourdan)

(3)

Language is an inherent part of the human species and is part of its evolution.The development of language in relation to human evolution.

All anthropologists believe that this third point is correct as it puts the development of language inrelation to human evolution. Let’s see how in the next slide.

Human lineage (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/275670/human-evolution)

Slide 6:


The Origin of Language

Physicalanthropologistsandpaleontologistslooking atevolution canhelp inuncovering theorigin of language. Thekey tounderstanding

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/275670/human-evolution


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how languageappeared is toexamine itsfunctions:communicationbetweenpeople, storeknowledge,think, andexpressemotions.

If language is linked toevolution, then:

1. What point in thehistory of humanevolution werephysical (humanphysical traits likecognitive abilities andlarynx) and social

(communicationthrough languageadvantageous)conditions favourablefor the developmentof language?

2. How important is thedevelopment of language for humanevolution? Languagewas such an adaptiveadvantage that it puthumans ahead onthe evolution track,more distant thanother humanoids likeNeanderthalians.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Paleontological records show that the combination appeared 1.6 million years ago at thetime of the Homo Erectus. However, language took a long time to develop, and isbelieved to have only appeared in the last 100,000 years. It is associated with thephysical and neurological characteristics of the modern Homo Sapiens.

Review the timeline of human evolution from Lesson 2.

Image: Functionalities of human brain (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica,http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/77269/brain)

Slide 7:


The Development of Communications

The commucations diagram below explains the relationship between the development of language, needsfor precise communication, development of the brain, and socialization (Source: S. Nanda)

Language did not just appear with Homo Sapiens, although the how and why will never beknown for certain. Nor is it known why vocal-based symbols were chosen over visual ones.

Language was most likely the last step in human biological evolution, separating us from animals=> Scupin remarked that human history began with cultural evolution (Scupin, 2000: 96).

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However simplistic this diagram is, it has the merit of proposing a theory of communicationthat seeks to integrate purely physical considerations with cognitive and social ones. Itexplains that language did not appear once Homo Sapiens appeared and physical evolutionwas over. We will never know how language began for sure, and we will never know thetime at which it became more beneficial to communicate through a voice-based system of symbols rather than through a visual system of symbols and signs.

But one thing is certain: the capacity for language, which distinguishes humans from allother animals, was probably the last step in our biological evolution, and as Scupinremarks, since that time human history has been marked by cultural rather than biologicalevolution (Scupin, 2000: 96). In any case, explorations from several directions have greatlyreduced the dimensions of our ignorance.

Diagram source: Nanda, S. and Warms, R. (2002). Cultural Anthropology (7th ed.). Belmont, Ca: WadsworthPublishing.Images: Small canine teeth (Source: Wikipedia), Throwing weapons (Source: Wikipedia), Walking upright (Source:Wikipedia), Making tools (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica), Hunting for food (Source: Wikipedia), Bigger morecomplex brain (Source: Wikipedia), Increasing complexity of communications (Source: C. Jourdan), Hadzabe tribe,Africa (Source: Flickr, hadzabe)

Slide 8:Part 2: What is Language?

Let's leave the topic of the origin of language and move on to the study of language itself. Theeasiest way to start this study is to ask ourselves the following question:

What do We Know When we Know a Language?

1. We know the sounds that belong to our language and those that do not.

2. We also know the place of some combinations of sounds.

3. Finally, we know how to combine sounds in the right order in order to producemeaning.


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Listen to Dr. ChristineJourdan explain thestudy of language.

(From our archives)

Watch the video

(Length 02:22)

Image right: Cuneiform script tablet from the Kirkor Minassian collection in the Library of Congress. From Year 6 inthe reign from Amar-Suena/Amar-Sin between 2041 and 2040 BC. (Source: Library of Congress, Wikipedia)

(Click on image to enlarge)

Slide 9:

Part 2: What is Language? (cont'd)

What Do We Know about Language?

Building blocks of language:

Phonology:

sound systems

Morphology:how words areput together

Lexicon: the vocabulary

Syntax: the grammar

We are socialized to use languageefficiently by respecting socialconventions – the most importantaspect for linguistic anthropology.

http://mm_openbrwindow%28%27../home/video_popup.aspx?videoSize=full&id=952%27,%27Video%27,%27scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,width=400,height=320%27)http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Cuneiform_script2.jpg


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Listen to your professor explain the fourmain characteristics of human language.



Let’s listen to Dr. Regna

Darnell explain what is sospecial about language.

(From our archives)

Watch the video

(Length 01:07)

Slide 10:

Part 2: What is Language? (cont'd)

The Main Characteristics of Human LanguageHuman language displays four maincharacteristics: arbitrariness,conventionality, productivity anddisplacement (the first two weshare with non-human primates).

Arbitrariness meansthat the relationship between sound and meaning is irrelevant (all languages would usethe same words otherwise) => words are symbols: their meanings are defined byculture, not label.

Conventionality and arbitrariness combined allow us to create new words, assign themmeaning, change meaning as needed, and so on.

Productivity allows us to communicate different messages by combining variouselements of language. Thus we can modify and refine the meanings of sentences to fitthe context (situation) in which they are spoken (tone, volume used to indicate urgency,etc.)

Displacement allows us, through language, to talk about the past or future; permittingus to enter a world of abstraction since we cannot see the past or future.

Human language is thus a communication system that is open while those of animals are closed.

Slide 11:

Part 3: Language and Culture



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Language Socialization

Language is the repository (bank) of meaning and is a toolused to communicate meaning. How it is used and what theuse signals about human relationships is what is important toanthropologists.

American linguist Noam Chomsky has shown that humans arepredisposed for language learning. For example, children canunderstand and produce complex sentences without havingbeen exposed to the data necessary for the production of suchsentences.

The key to language acquisition is in socialization (the socialprocess associated with learning how to become a member of one’s own society), just like culture.

Bambi Schieffelin and Elinor Ochs show in their research thatlanguage socialization involves two different activities:socialization to use language (language acquisition by childrenin the context of family life) and socialization through language(socialization of children into culture through language).



Let’s listen to Dr. Bambi Schieffelin and Dr. ElinorOchs explain how culture shapes the way

socialization takes place.

Image above: A group of young children is under the watch of Maria, 11 years old, while the mothers are in thegarden. She is learning how to look after them. Komuvaolu, Solomon Islands, 1997. (Photo C. Jourdan)

Slide 12:

Part 3: Language and Culture (cont'd)

Why do Languages Change?

Schieffelin and Ochs (from theprevious slide) make it clear thatlanguage socialization is the key tocultural socialization, and that language is central to culture and is fed by culture. In anthropology,the debate is whether language is the motor of culture or a mirror of it.

Languages change (like culture):

1. Passage of time: each generation influences language in the ways they use it.Expressions change, along with grammar.

2. Cultural contact and borrowing from other languages (sometimes this is forgottenthrough history).

3. Migration and subsequent isolation and development of local culture (Quebec FrenchVs. France French).

4. Identity creation.

Visit the KryssTal website and review many of theEnglish words that have come from contact with otherlanguages: http://www.krysstal.com/borrow.html.

These lists are not complete, but they will provide youwith a good indicatio

anthropology lesson 2-5

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