Anthropology Commons^™

A Comparison Of Automated Object Extraction Methods For Mound And Shell-Ring Identification In Coastal South Carolina, Dylan S. Davis, Carl P. Lipo, Matthew Sanger

Carl Lipo

One persistent archaeological challenge is the generation of systematic documentation for the extant archaeological record at the scale of landscapes. Often our information for landscapes is the result of haphazard and patchy surveys that stem from opportunistic and historic efforts. Consequently, overall knowledge of some regions is the product of ad hocsurvey area delineation, degree of accessibility, effective ground visibility, and the fraction of areas that have survived destruction from development. These factors subsequently contribute unknown biases to our understanding of chronology, settlements patterns, interaction, and exchange. Aerial remote sensing offers one potential solution for improving our knowledge of …

Toward A New Theory Of Waste: From "Matter Out Of Place" To Signs Of Life , Joshua Reno

Joshua Reno

This paper offers a counterpoint to the prevailing account of waste in the human sciences. This account identifies waste, firstly, as the anomalous product of arbitrary social categorizations, or ‘matter out of place’, and, secondly, as a distinctly human way of leaving behind and interpreting traces, or a mirror of culture. Together, these positions reflect a more or less constructivist and anthropocentric approach. Most commonly, waste is placed within a framework that privileges considerations of meaning over materiality and the threat of death over the perpetuity of life processes. For an alternative I turn to bio-semiotics and cross-species scholarship around …

Technically Speaking: On Equipping And Evaluating “Unnatural” Language Learners , Joshua Reno

Joshua Reno

This article compares different communicative trials for apes in captivity and children with autism in order to investigate how ideological assumptions about linguistic agency and impairment are constructed and challenged in practice. To the extent that Euro-American techniques of “unnatural” language instruction developed during the Cold War era have been successful, it is because communicative interactions are broken down into basic components, and would-be language learners are equipped with materials, devices, and habits that make up for their distinct bio/social deficits. Such linguistic equipment can present a challenge to the ideological presumption of a subject inherently gifted with the rudiments …

Speech And Gesture In Classroom Interaction: A Case Study Of Angola And Portugal, Kerwin A. Livingstone

Kerwin A. Livingstone

Glocal English: The Changing Face And Forms Of Nigerian English In A Global World, Farooq A. Kperogi

Farooq A. Kperogi

Glocal English compares the usage patterns and stylistic conventions of the world’s two dominant native varieties of English (British and American English) with Nigerian English, which ranks as the English world’s fastest-growing non-native variety courtesy of the unrelenting ubiquity of the Nigerian (English-language) movie industry in Africa and the Black Atlantic Diaspora. Using contemporary examples from the mass media and the author’s rich experiential data, the book isolates the peculiar structural, grammatical, and stylistic characteristics of Nigerian English and shows its similarities as well as its often humorous differences with British and American English. Although Nigerian English forms the backdrop …

Linguistic Identity Among New Speakers Of Basque, Ane Ortega, Jacqueline Urla, Estibalitz Amorrortu

Jacqueline L. Urla

The increase in Basque speakers in the last 30 years has been due in large part to ‘new speakers’ or euskaldunberri, a term that will be used here to refer to those who have learned the language by means other than family transmission. While very significant in numbers, to date this group has not been the object of much study. Little is known about their attitudes and motivations, how they perceive themselves as Basque speakers, or their language use and transmission patterns. Acquiring answers to these questions is of strategic importance for developing an effective evidence-based language policy for the …

Review Of Reclaiming Basque By Kathryn Woolard, Jacqueline Urla

Jacqueline L. Urla

Book Review of Reclaiming Basque by Kathryn Woolard. American Ethnologist February 2014.

Cultural Discourse Of Dwelling: Environmental Comunication As A Place-Based Practice, Donal Carbaugh

Donal Carbaugh

In this essay we contribute a response to intellectual and practical problems by using and developing a perspective on environmental communication that is reflexively grounded in place and that explores human relations with nature, while embracing cultural and linguistic variability in these processes. Our goals are to introduce a way to think through communication to places, and further to link that understanding to issues of engaged environmental action, to deeply seated notions of identity, and to the affective dimension of belonging that place-based communication often brings with it. Our way of doing this is to theorize and study cultural discourses …

“100% Authentic Pittsburgh”: Sociolinguistic Authenticity And The Linguistics Of Particularity, Barbara Johnstone

Barbara Johnstone

As Bucholtz (2003), Coupland (2007, pp. 25-26), and others have pointed out, what counts as an authentic linguistic variety or an authentic speaker depends on who is counting and why. Sociolinguists have often unthinkingly privileged as their object of study the most unselfconsious, “vernacular” speech in relatively closed, homogeneous communities like traditional working-class neighborhoods, with their dense, multiplex social networks, and in the relatively self-contained symbolic economies of schools. This has allowed us to explore social correlates of variation and processes of change in communities where these things appear least muddied by outside influences, and doing so has given us …

The Generic U.S. Presidential War Narrative: Justifying Military Force And Imagining The Nation, Adam Hodges

Adam Hodges

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

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 …

Sound Symbolism, Onomatopoeia, And New Guinea Frog Names, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

Brent Berlin has recently proposed the use of r sounds as a substantive universal in the names given to frogs and toads, a tendency that he attributes to onomatopoeia. A data set from over 200 New Guinea languages is analyzed. Berlin's proposal regarding r sounds recieves strong support, but an even more significant pattern is found with respect to g sounds. Onomatopoeia is a possible motivation for both of these patterns.

Delineating Regions With Permeable Boundaries In New Guinea., Terence Hays

Terence Hays

Hays sets out the linkages among communities and societies as they form networks and regions in New Guinea. Hays reminds us of the long standing concern within the recent literature from New Guinea that supports the "primitive isolates" notion that is still with us. The "my people" syndrome still plagues the legions of researchers who seek to study a small distinct population that is largely uncontaminated by outside influences and remains primitive. He paints the picture of this primitive society by describing New Guinea topographically as a land of inaccessible mountain valleys, impenetrable swamps, and remote rain forests which make …

Introduction To Encyclopedia Of World Cultures Volume 2, Oceania, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

No abstract provided.

Phonetic Variation And Speaker Agency: Mexicana Identity In A North Carolina Middle School, Phillip Carter

Phillip M. Carter

No abstract provided.

“He Loves Drinking Old Wine From The Jug”: Some Remarks On Alcoholic Beverages In Syriac Literature Based On Secular And Religious Texts, Adam C. Mccollum

Adam C McCollum

The history of alcoholic beverages in various cultures, including our own, has often been written. These investigations have looked at viticulture, brewing, distillation, and the economic and religious uses and effects of alcoholic beverages. Syriac literature, being somewhat of an arcane area of interest, has rarely—if ever!—entered into any of the discussions. It is, nevertheless, a corpus with a breadth wide both in size and subject matter, and there is no dearth of references to alcoholic beverages, their preparation, and use. This paper, based on both secular and religious texts in Syriac, most of them composed in a Muslim-majority culture, …

Semantics (Prospective Syllabus), Adam Hodges

Adam Hodges

A primary reason for using language is, of course, to convey meaning from one interlocutor to another. But how does language convey meaning? How does language structure contribute to meaning? How does context shape meaning? How do linguists talk about and analyze meaning? In this course, we will examine basic concepts, theories, and analytical techniques used by contemporary linguists in the study of meaning in natural language. Students will gain practice with different types of semantic analyses through assignments and problem sets. The goals of the course are (1) to provide a grounding in semantics as a sub-field of linguistics, …

Narrative Analysis (Prospective Syllabus), Adam Hodges

Adam Hodges

Narrative is central to human interaction. As we interact with one another, we share stories and make sense of the world through narrative. Given the importance of narrative in human lives, it is no surprise that it has been studied across a wide range of disciplines, from literary studies to psychology, folklore, anthropology, sociology and linguistics. In this course, we will examine narrative from a sociocultural linguistic perspective which takes into account the interdisciplinary nature of narrative studies. We will place particular emphasis on the way narrative constructs the social world in which we live and creates the identities that …

Language In The Usa (Prospective Syllabus), Adam Hodges

Adam Hodges

Americans grapple with a number of issues related to language in the areas of education, civil rights, and government policy. In this course, we will explore some of the language issues that have arisen in American society with emphasis placed on the way language itself has become the object of focus in social and political debates. One such case is the decision by the Oakland School Board in 1996 to recognize Ebonics as the primary language of its African American students. This decision created intense nationwide controversy, and illustrates the way race and socioeconomic issues intersect with language attitudes. Another …

Introduction To Linguistics (Prospective Syllabus), Adam Hodges

Adam Hodges

Linguistics is the study of the various dimensions of language structure and language use. In this course, we will provide a basic overview of the field of linguistics by focusing on the three dimensions of language structure—the sound system (phonetics, phonology), vocabulary (lexicon, morphology), and grammar (syntax)—and the way linguistic structure and context give rise to meaning (semantics, pragmatics). In addition, we will consider how social practices shape and are shaped by language use (sociolinguistics), how children acquire language (language acquisition), and how we learn second languages (language learning). Students will gain practice with different types of linguistic analyses through …

Language, Race And Ethnicity (Prospective Syllabus), Adam Hodges

Adam Hodges

What is race? What is ethnicity? How is racial identity assigned, assumed, constructed and performed? How does race explicitly as well as implicitly order social life? How does racism manifest itself in our discourse—not just overtly but covertly? What is a “color blind” society? What is a “post-racial” society? A focus on language is central to answering these and many related questions. In this course, we will explore the work done by sociocultural linguists within the American context on the way language intersects with issues pertaining to race and ethnicity. Primary emphasis will be placed on the way ethnoracial identities …

Dressing The Lumad Body: Indigenous Peoples And The Development Discourse In Mindanao, Cherubim A. Quizon

Cherubim A Quizon

Review Of Ruth Wodak's (2011) The Discourse Of Politics As Usual, Adam Hodges

Adam Hodges

No abstract provided.

Iniciação À Língua Yanomamł, Hapa Të Pë Rë Kuonowei: Mitologia Yanomamł, And Le Parler Yanomami Des Xamatauteri, Gale Goodwin Gomez

Gale Goodwin Gomez

It is perhaps useful to call attention to the work of Henri Ramirez, one of the most active linguists in Amazonia, since his publications have remained somewhat obscure, especially for those living outside of South America. This rather unusual scholar essentially only publishes books (18 monographs to date, including practical works for the native population), not articles, and rarely attends conferences. His principal published works are being reviewed in UAL to make them more known to the linguistic community. He is currently a professor in Letters and Linguistics at the Federal University of Rond'nia in the town of Guajar-Mirim, on …

Language And Cultural Description, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

Beginning in the late 1950s, Charles Frake was among those (including Harold Conklin and Ward Goodenough) who founded the blend of cognitive psychology, descriptive linguistics, and cultural anthropology which came to be known as “the New Ethnography” or “cognitive anthropology.”

Growth And Structure Of The Lexicon Of New Guinea Pidgin / Book Review, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

New Guinea Pidgin (NGP) is the language of politics and the most widely used lingua franca in Papua New Guinea. It may also provide a crucial test case for theories of pidgin and creole languages and, more broadly, "for statements about the relationship between the internal and external history of language and that between linguistic variation and social stratification."

Una Reflexión Entorno A “El Espíritu De La Ilustración” De Tzvetan Todorov., Mariado Hinojosa

Mariado Hinojosa

Tomando como referencia la obra de Tzvetan Todorov, el presente artículo reflexiona brevemente sobre algunos de los presupuestos heredados de la Ilustración y que marcaron profundamente el horizonte social, cultural y político del pasado siglo XX.

Dialect Enregisterment In Performance, Barbara Johnstone

Barbara Johnstone

In recent work I have been exploring how one set of linguistic forms has become enregistered as the dialect known as “Pittsburghese” ( Johnstone 2007a; 2007b; 2009; Johnstone, Andrus, and Danielson 2006). In this paper I analyze dialect enregistration in highly self-conscious performances of Pittsburgh speech and social identity. My data consists of three comedy sketches performed by the cast of WDVE radio’s “’DVE Morning Show.” One, called “Mother”, alternates lines of a somewhat parodically sentimental song about the singer’s mother with spoken-word illustrations by a “mother” character who uses elements of Pittsburgh-sounding speech. The second is an advertisement for …

Language And Culture (Spring 2011 Syllabus), Adam Hodges

Adam Hodges

In this course, we will take an ethnographic approach to examine language as a form of action through which social, cultural and political relations are constituted. Topics will explore language as it intersects with thought, ideology, identity, race and racism, ethnicity, gender, power, and linguistic diversity. In addition to articles, we will read several full-length ethnographies that focus on language practices within particular communities. The goals of the course are to (1) provide an introduction to key ideas in the study of language and culture, including the concepts of ideology, dialogism, identity, and indexicality; (2) equip students with a critical …