Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Clifford Geertz - We
[anthropologists] were the
first to insist on a number of
things: that the world does
not divide into the pious and
the superstitious; that there
are sculptures in jungles and
paintings in deserts; that
political order is possible
without centralized power
and principled justice without
codified rules; that the norms
of reason were not fixed in
Greece, the evolution of
morality not consummated in
England. Most important, we
were the first to insist that
we see the lives of others
through lenses of our own
grinding and that they look
back on ours through ones of
their own.
(1) the world does not divide into the pious and the superstitious;
(2) there are sculptures in jungles and paintings in deserts;
(3) political order is possible without centralized power and
principled justice without codified rules;
(6) we see the lives of others through lenses of our own grinding
and that they look back on ours through ones of their own.
Classroom
Conduct
No phones in class,
No messaging,
No facebook,
No instagram etc.
Evaluation
a. One test, one exam.
c. Midterm test will be on linguistic
anthropology. The final exam will be on socio-
cultural anthropology.
d. Anything covered in lecture, discussed in
the readings MAY be tested.
e. Missed test policy in syllabus
Readings
a. The required readings are available from
UTM bookstore.
b. We expect you to complete the
readings before the lecture for which they
are assigned.
Readings
a. The readings and lectures are meant to
complement rather than duplicate one
another the lecture will not include a
summary of the readings. In order to do
well in this class you will need to attend
lectures and do the readings.
Please consider
volunteering!!
Linguistic Anthropology
Language, communication and intention
What do animals communicate about?
Reference & joint attention
Action & inference
Duality of patterning & language structure
Language diversity
Linguistic relativity
Language & identity
Indexicality
Language & social relations
Linguistic Anthropology:
The role of language in
human social life
Language
consists of
signs / symbols
Image of fire
non-natural meaning
Non-natural meaning:
Humans get other humans
to recognize that they
intend to communicate by
means of signs
INTENTION
All animals blink without
communicative intention.
A wink is addressed to
someone.
To interviewer
Our fans arent gonna let us relax.
To fans
Yall not gonna let us relax. WINK
To interviewer
Our fans arent gonna let us relax.
To fans
Yall not gonna let us relax. WINK
(I) deliberately,
(2) to someone in particular,
(3) to impart a particular message,
(4) according to a socially established code,
(5) without cognizance of the rest of the
company.
She's a winker. She winks on rope lines and at rallies. She winked
at least six times at 70 million viewers on the vice presidential
debate platform opposite her rival, Sen. Joe Biden, who weighed in
on the nonverbal communication scale by grinning like a
nutcracker.
Vs.
Repeatedly winking, the very act of
winking
(context is the larger debate, i.e. a formal,
serious occasion etc.)
Tina Fey
as
Sarah Palin
So a tiny sign like a wink
can grow to become
something much bigger
and important.
Names and people mentioned
Ideas considered