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Linguistic Anthropology

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Anthropology

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Vernacular Names For Tubers In Irian Jaya, Terence E. Hays Nov 2012

Vernacular Names For Tubers In Irian Jaya, Terence E. Hays

Terence Hays

In this ethnobiographic study Terence Hays continues in the vein of Dutton's cultural vocabulary study of the Papua New Guinea languages. Hays specifically looks at the vernacular terms for tuberous food crops which are the "staple foods of contemporary Irian Jaya societies." Hays utilizes the research method of an ethnobiologist to gain prehistorical cultural knowledge by bringing to light information that was once unrecoverable. Hays also looks at different issues that can ffect the procedures and looks into the variables that affected and contributed to the people's language evolution and diffusion.


Interest, Use, And Interest In Uses In Folk Biology, Terence E. Hays Nov 2012

Interest, Use, And Interest In Uses In Folk Biology, Terence E. Hays

Terence Hays

In this work on folk biological taxonomy, Terence Hays the author, calls upon various works of previous field studies conducted over a long-term period including those by Bulmer, Everyman, Hunn, Brown, and Hymes. Hays looks back to works by Ralph Bulmer and his co-workers where taxonomies of five or six levels deep were not surprising. Hays points out that this is a stark contrast to Everyman, Alexander Portnoy's study regarding the simplicity of Westerners folk systems and then posits why "the folk" classify their environment in great detail. Hays brings to light that it has much to do with the …


If You Cannot Whisper: The Performative Language Of Magical Spells, Denice J. Szafran Feb 2009

If You Cannot Whisper: The Performative Language Of Magical Spells, Denice J. Szafran

Denice J Szafran, Ph.D.

Meaning is not primarily what a word has; it is something a word does. The basis of much Slavic folk wisdom is a belief in the inherent power of words: some utterances are taboo, others sacred. Still more words are the province of magic, a culturally contextual conceptual system within which spells, curses, and oaths are the primary vehicles utilized by a practitioner seeking to affect the world around him/her. An analysis of Austin’s and Levinson’s theories of the performative aspects of linguistic utterances can provide an explanation of how folkloric practitioners empowered their spells with conjoined magical words and …