DOCSLIB.ORG

AN ETHNOLINGUISTIC STUDY of NIITSITAPI PERSONAL NAMES By

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
AN ETHNOLINGUISTIC STUDY of NIITSITAPI PERSONAL NAMES By AN ETHNOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF NIITSITAPI PERSONAL NAMES by CAROL GAYE LOMBARD submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS – WITH SPECIALISATION IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: PROF LA BARNES JOINT SUPERVISOR: MR R HEAVY HEAD NOVEMBER 2008 Summary This dissertation examines the uses, functions, and meaningfulness of traditional personal names and naming practices in Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Indian) culture. The current study indicates that Niitsitapi personal names appear to play a major role in capturing and conveying various aspects of traditional Niitsitapi sociocultural knowledge. Niitsitapi personal names thus appear to form an integral part of Niitsitapi oral tradition, and also seem to play a powerful role in establishing and maintaining Niitsitapi conceptualisations of individual, as well as social and cultural, identity. This dissertation supports the position that, in addition to their nominative function, names contain and communicate sociocultural meaning, based on their associations with a wide range of non-linguistic factors which form part of the sociocultural environment within which they are used. The methodological approach stresses the importance of studying personal names in cultural context and strongly emphasises the use of indigenous knowledge as a means of explaining personal naming phenomena from a native cultural perspective. Key terms Onomastics; Personal names; Naming practices; Native American; Niitsitapi; Blackfoot; Ethnoscience; Ethnolinguistics; Names in cultural context; Indigenous knowledge. ii Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 1.0 Overview ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The nature, scope, and objectives, of the research ...................................................... 1 1.2 The Niitsitapi people: a brief historical background ................................................... 3 1.2.1 The residential school era .................................................................................... 5 1.3 Niitsitapi oral tradition and the importance of story ................................................... 8 1.4 The story behind the study ........................................................................................ 10 1.5 Clarification of terminology use ............................................................................... 12 1.5.1 ‘Niitsitapi’, ‘Kainai’, and ‘Blackfoot’ ............................................................... 12 1.5.2 ‘Niitsitapi personal names’ ................................................................................ 13 1.5.3 ‘Elders’ ............................................................................................................... 14 1.6 Outline of the dissertation structure .......................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 2: Literature review .............................................................................................. 16 2.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 16 2.1 Theoretical perspectives on the meanings and functions of names .......................... 16 2.2 The sociocultural significance of names ................................................................... 20 2.2.1 Communicating social and cultural norms through names ................................ 20 2.2.2 Personal naming and sociocultural/ethnic identity ............................................ 22 2.3 Accounting for cultural context in names research ................................................... 23 2.3.1 An ethnolinguistic approach to names research ................................................. 23 2.3.2 From description to explanation: applying indigenous knowledge in names research ........................................................................................................................ 25 2.3.3 Indigenous knowledge recovery and decolonisation ......................................... 29 2.4 Research in Native American personal names .......................................................... 30 2.4.1 Research in Niitsitapi personal names and naming practices ............................ 31 iii 2.4.2 Niitsitapi oral literature on personal names and naming practices .................... 33 2.5 Summary ................................................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 3: Methodology .................................................................................................... 37 3.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 37 3.1 Ethnolinguistics and participant observation methodology ...................................... 38 3.1.1 Participant observation and the ‘problem’ of local knowledge ......................... 39 3.2 Towards an alternative approach: using local knowledge as an interpretative framework ............................................................................................................................ 41 3.3 Researcher’s participation as ‘learner’: a lesson in Niitsitapi epistemology ............ 42 3.4 Location and duration of field work .......................................................................... 44 3.4.1 Field work location ............................................................................................ 44 3.4.2 Duration of field work ....................................................................................... 46 3.5 Collecting information .............................................................................................. 47 3.5.1 Personal interviews ............................................................................................ 47 3.5.2 Involvement in social activities ......................................................................... 50 3.5.3 Use of library materials and museum archives .................................................. 51 3.6 Interpretative/explanatory methods ........................................................................... 51 3.7 Evaluating the methodology ...................................................................................... 52 3.7.1 Weaknesses ........................................................................................................ 52 3.7.2 Advantages of the methodology ........................................................................ 54 3.8 Summary ................................................................................................................... 55 CHAPTER 4: Names tell us stories: learning about Niitsitapi personal names ..................... 57 4.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 57 4.1 Names tell us stories: learning about Niitsitapi personal names ............................... 58 4.2 Summary ................................................................................................................... 82 CHAPTER 5: Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 86 5.0 Overview ................................................................................................................... 86 iv 5.1 The sociocultural significance of Niitsitapi personal names ..................................... 86 5.2 Contribution to onomastics research ......................................................................... 91 5.3 How the research serves local interests ..................................................................... 93 5.4 Fostering cross-cultural dialogue in social science research ..................................... 95 5.5 Sociopolitical aspects of the study ............................................................................ 96 5.6 Accounting for the spiritual dimensions of Niitsitapi personal names: some wider implications .......................................................................................................................... 97 5.7 Limitations of the study and recommendations for further research ........................ 99 5.8 Summary ................................................................................................................. 101 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 104 APPENDIX 1: Glossary of terms ......................................................................................... 113 APPENDIX 2: A description of my own Niitsitapi naming ceremony ................................ 116 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Financial assistance for the research that is presented in this dissertation has come in the form of a three year bursary that was awarded to me by The University of South Africa and a grant given by The American Philosophical Society’s Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Research. I thank both of these institutions for lending their support to this research project. I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Niitsitapi
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Instructional Design of Ethnoscience-Based Inquiry
    Journal for the Education of Gifted Young Scientists, 8(4), 1493-1507, Dec 2020 e-ISSN: 2149- 360X youngwisepub.com jegys.org © 2020 Research Article The instructional design of ethnoscience-based inquiry learning for scientific explanation about Taxus sumatrana as cancer medication Sudarmin S.1, Diliarosta Skunda2, Sri Endang Pujiastuti3, Sri Jumini4*, Agung Tri Prasetya5 Departement of Physics Education Program, Universitas Sains Al-Qur’an, Indonesia Article Info Abstract Received: 09 August 2020 The ethnoscience approach is carried out by integrating local wisdom culture in science Revised: 23 November 2020 learning. The Minang community believes that the Taxus sumatrana plant is a cancer drug. Accepted: 07 December 2020 But they have not been able to explain its benefits conceptually based on scientific inquiry Available online: 15 December 2020 with relevant references. This study aims to solve these problems through (1) designing Keywords: ethnoscience-based inquiry learning to study the bioactivity of Taxus sumatrana; and (2) Cancer medication describe scientific experiments on plants as cancer drugs. This research includes Ethnoscience-based inquiry learning qualitative research to reconstruct scientific explanations based on local wisdom. The Instructional design data were obtained through observations at the research location regarding community Scientific explanation local wisdom and laboratory activities including isolation, phytochemical identification, Taxus sumatrana and chemical structure testing using Perkin Elmer 100
    [Show full text]
  • Defining Ethnomusicology
    10 1. THE HARMLESS DRUDGE : DEFINING ETHNOMUSICOLOGY DEFINITIONS. For years, people have been asking me the question: "You're an ethnomusicologist?" Shortly after 1950 it was likely to be accompanied by expressions of wonder and of the belief that I was somehow involved with "folk" music, with "primitive music," and particularly with "ancient music," and also that I must have a great deal of companionship with a tape recorder. By 1960 the questioner would likely bring up participation in an Indonesian gamelan, or perhaps an ability to "play" many of the world's odd instruments. In the 1970s, the conversation might well include the term "ethnic" music or even the etymologically outrageous "ethnomusic," and in the eighties and nineties, free association might lead to “diversity” and “world music.” I have always found it difficult to come to a precise, concise, and readily intelligible definition. Dictionaries differ considerably but espouse limited views. In the 120 years in which modern ethnomusicology can be said to have existed, since pioneer works such as those of Ellis (1885), Baker (1882), and Stumpf (1886), attitudes and orientations have changed greatly, and so has the name, from something very briefly called “Musikologie” (in the 1880s), to “comparative musicology” (through about 1950), then to “ethno- musicology” (1950–ca. 1956), quickly to “ethnomusicology” (removing the hyphen actually was an ideological move trying to signal disciplinary independence), with suggestions such as “cultural musicology” (Kerman 1985) and “socio-musicology” (Feld 1984) occasionally thrown in. The changes in name paralleled changes in intellectual orientation and emphasis. It is difficult to find a single, simple definition, to which most people in this field would subscribe, and thus ethnomusicologists have been perhaps excessively concerned with defining themselves.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Organization of Crop Genetic Diversity. the G × E × S Interaction Model
    Diversity 2012, 4, 1-32; doi:10.3390/d4010001 OPEN ACCESS diversity ISSN 1424-2818 www.mdpi.com/journal/diversity Article Social Organization of Crop Genetic Diversity. The G × E × S Interaction Model Christian Leclerc 1,* and Geo Coppens d’Eeckenbrugge 2 1 CIRAD, UMR AGAP, Avenue Agropolis, TA A 96/03, Montpellier 34398, France 2 CIRAD, UMR 5175 CEFE, 1919 Route de Mende, Montpellier 34293, France; E-Mail: [email protected] * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: [email protected]; Tel.: +33-467-61-71-16; Fax: +33-467-61-56-05. Received: 25 October 2011; in revised form: 28 November 2011 / Accepted: 12 December 2011 / Published: 21 December 2011 Abstract: A better knowledge of factors organizing crop genetic diversity in situ increases the efficiency of diversity analyses and conservation strategies, and requires collaboration between social and biological disciplines. Four areas of anthropology may contribute to our understanding of the impact of social factors on crop diversity: ethnobotany, cultural, cognitive and social anthropology. So far, most collaborative studies have been based on ethnobotanical methods, focusing on farmers’ individual motivations and actions, and overlooking the effects of farmer’s social organization per se. After reviewing common shortcomings in studies on sorghum and maize, this article analyzes how social anthropology, through the analysis of intermarriage, residence and seed inheritance practices, can contribute to studies on crop genetic diversity in situ. Crop varieties are thus considered social objects and socially based sampling strategies can be developed. Such an approach is justified because seed exchange is built upon trust and as such seed systems are embedded in a pre-existing social structure and centripetally oriented as a function of farmers’ social identity.
    [Show full text]
  • Shadows in the Field Second Edition This Page Intentionally Left Blank Shadows in the Field
    Shadows in the Field Second Edition This page intentionally left blank Shadows in the Field New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology Second Edition Edited by Gregory Barz & Timothy J. Cooley 1 2008 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright # 2008 by Oxford University Press Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shadows in the field : new perspectives for fieldwork in ethnomusicology / edited by Gregory Barz & Timothy J. Cooley. — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-532495-2; 978-0-19-532496-9 (pbk.) 1. Ethnomusicology—Fieldwork. I. Barz, Gregory F., 1960– II. Cooley, Timothy J., 1962– ML3799.S5 2008 780.89—dc22 2008023530 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper bruno nettl Foreword Fieldworker’s Progress Shadows in the Field, in its first edition a varied collection of interesting, insightful essays about fieldwork, has now been significantly expanded and revised, becoming the first comprehensive book about fieldwork in ethnomusicology.
    [Show full text]
  • UNGEGN Information Bulletin 35
    UNITED NATIONS GROUP OF EXPERTS ON GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES IInnffoorrmmaattiioonn BBuulllleettiinn NUMBER 35 August 2008 Inside this issue: Preface Impressum No. 35, August 2008 Message from the Chairperson 3 United Nations Group of Experts on Geo- graphical Names Information Bulletin News from Headquarters (formerly Newsletter) (ISSN 1014-798) is Message from the Secretariat 6 published by United Nations Statistics Di- The UNGEGN Geographical Names Database 7 vision, Department of Economic and So- cial Affairs. From the Divisions East Central and South-East Europe Division 9 The designations employed and the presen- Dutch- and German-speaking Division 10 tation of the material in this publication do Norden Division 14 not imply the expression of any opinion Portuguese-speaking Division 15 whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of Division francophone 16 the United Nations concerning the legal Asia South-West Division (other than Arabic) 17 status of any country, territory, city or area, Latin America Division 18 or of its authorities or concerning the de- Arabic Division 19 limitation of its frontiers or boundaries. From the Working Groups Working Group on Exonyms 22 Working Group on Toponymic Terminology 24 Working Group on Evaluation and Implementation 25 Working Group on Publicity and Funding 26 From the Countries Indonesia 28 UNGEGN website: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo U N G E G N The Information Bulletin of the United should be sent to the follow- Nations Group of Experts on Geographi- ing address: nformation cal Names (formerly UNGEGN II Newsletter) is issued approximately Secretariat of the Group of Experts on twice a year by the Secretariat of the Geographical Names BBulletin Group.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Definitions of Culture Language and Culture in the Deaf Community
    Some Definitions Of Culture Language and Culture in the Deaf Community [C]ulture, that is,... the socially inherited assemblage of practices and beliefs that determines the texture of our lives. (Sapir, Language, 1921) An organization of conventional understandings manifest in act and artifact, which, persisting through tradition, characterizes a human group. (Redfield, quoted in Ogburn & Nimkoff, Sociology, 1940) Culture is essentially a construct that describes the total body of belief, behavior, knowledge, sanctions, values, and goals that mark the way of life of any people. That is, though a culture may be treated by the student as capable of objective description, in the final analysis it comprises the things that people have, the things they do, and what they think. (Herskovits, Man and His Works, 1948) [Culture is] the various standards for perceiving, evaluating, believing, and doing that... [a person] attributes to other persons as a result of his experience of their actions and admonitions.... Insofar as a person finds he must attribute different standards to different sets of others, he perceives these sets as having different cultures. (Ward Goodenough, Culture, Language, and Society, 1981) A society’s culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members.... Culture Is not a material phenomenon; it does not consist of things, people, behavior, or emotions. It is rather an organization of these things. It is the forms of things that people have in mind, their models for perceiving, relating, and otherwise interpreting them.” (Goodenough, Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics, 1957) ..
    [Show full text]
  • Contribution to the UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) 6.20B.10.3
    Contribution to the UNESCO encyclopedia of life support systems (EOLSS) 6.20B.10.3 DOCUMENTING ENDANGERED LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE Matthias Brenzinger Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan Tjeerd de Graaf Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, Japan and Frisian Academy, the Netherlands Keywords: endangered languages, ethnolinguistics, language documentation, language endangerment, language maintenance, language policy, language revitalization, language shift, mother tongue education Contents 1. Introduction 2. Language Endangerment and Endangered Languages 2.1 Extent and Types of Language Endangerment 2.2 Selected Case Studies of Endangered Languages 2.2.1 /Xam, a Physical and Cultural Genocide in South Africa 2.2.2 Ainu in Japan 2.2.3 Nivkh in the Russian Federation 2.2.4 North Frisian in Germany 2.2.5 Amazigh (Berber) Languages in Northern Africa 3. Language Documentation 3.1 Why study Endangered Languages 3.2 Documenting Endangered Languages 3.3 Assessing Language Vitality and Endangerment 3.4 Language Maintenance and Revitalization 4 Concluding Remarks Acknowledgments Bibliography Biographical Sketches Summary Several scholars predict that up to 90% of the world’s languages may well be replaced by dominant languages by the end of the 21st century, which would reduce the present number of almost 7,000 languages to less than 700. This review article attempts to describe processes that are underlying this severe threat to the majority of the languages currently spoken. However, the central focus of discussion will be on aspects related to the documentation and maintenance of the world’s linguistic diversity. The main causes of language endangerment are presented here in a brief overview of the world’s language situation.
    [Show full text]
  • Applied Linguistics to Identify and Contrast Racist 'Hate Speech'
    Applied Linguistics Research Journal Original Research ALR Journal 2018;2(3):1–16 doi: 10.14744/alrj.2018.36855 Applied Linguistics to Identify and Contrast Racist ‘Hate Speech’: Cases from the English and Italian Language Gabriella B. Klein ABSTRACT University of Perugia, Perugia, Applied linguistics makes use of analytical tools from many not only language-related disciplines. Purpose of the research was to show how Italy the methodological choices of analysis are driven by the nature of the object of analysis itself. The ‘hate speech’ phenomenon is particularly interesting for this, due to its complexity which is reflected in a series of definitions, none of which really grasps completely its multifaceted nature. Indeed, one needs to use a variety of analytical tools originating from different social and human disciplines to support and integrate an ‘applied linguistics’ approach. Current ‘hate speech’ research focuses mainly on a lexical-semantic level (verbal communication), adding in some cases also visual aspects (visual communication), but neglecting body language (non-verbal communication) and the use of the voice (paraverbal communication). The same restricted understanding of hate speech emerged from the analysis of legal texts and their language use talking about hate crime and hate speech. The empirical case studies presented here stem from a two-year European project named RADAR - Regulating AntiDiscrimination and AntiRacism (JUST/2013/FRAC/ AG/6271) and include the analysis of two advertising images from UK and one talk show extract from Italy. Given their different communicational configuration, the materials needed to be analyzed by means of different tools ranging, in our case, from Language Critique (Sprachkritik), Critical Discourse Analysis, Ethnomethodology, Ethnographic Conversation Analysis, Psychology of Color and Forms.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnolinguistics in the Year 2016∗
    Ethnolinguistic 28 Lublin 2017 I. Research articles DOI: 10.17951/et.2016.28.7 Jerzy B a r t m i ń s k i (UMCS, Lublin, Poland) Ethnolinguistics in the Year 2016∗ This article is the voice of Etnolingwistyka’s Editor-in-Chief on the current tasks of ethnolinguistics as a scholarly subdiscipline, as well as those of the journal. According to the author, of the two foundations of Slavic ethnolin- guistics mentioned by Nikita Tolstoy (i.e., its pan-Slavic character and the unity of language and culture) it is mainly the latter that has preserved its topicality: language is the source of knowledge about people and human com- munities, as well as the basis for building one’s identity (individual, national, regional, professional). The agenda of cultural linguistics has been followed by the contributors to the present journal and its editorial team with a focus on various genres of folklore, the problems of the linguistic worldview, and in recent issues with studies on the semantics of selected cultural concepts (FAMILY, DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, OTVETSTVENNOST’, etc.). An ethnolinguistics that thus seeks “culture in language” (i.e. in the semantic layer of linguistic forms) is close – especially in its cognitivist variant – to Western cultural or anthropological linguistics. When Slavic ethnolinguistics focuses on the semantics of value terms, it stands a good chance of engaging in a dialogue with Western anthropological linguistics and contribute original insights to the common body of research on values. A specific proposal in this direction is the international project EUROJOS. Key words: cultural linguistics, culture in language, Etnolingwistyka, EUROJOS, Axiological Lexicon of Slavs and their Neighbours, cultural concepts ∗ This is a revised and extended version of the paper presented at the conference Slawische Ethnolinguistik: Methoden, Ergebnisse, Perspektive (17–19 December, 2015), organized by the Department of Slavonic Studies at the University of Vienna.
    [Show full text]
  • And 'Father': Overcoming the Eurocentrism of Kinship
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by The Australian National University 408 Current Anthropology Volume 57, Number 4, August 2016 Back to ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ Overcoming the Eurocentrism of Kinship Studies through Eight Lexical Universals by Anna Wierzbicka CA1 Online-Only Material: Supplement A This paper addresses one of the most controversial issues in cultural anthropology: the conceptual foundations of kinship and the apparent inevitability of ethnocentrism in kinship studies. The field of kinship studies has been in turmoil over the past few decades, repeatedly pronounced dead and then again rising from the ashes and being declared central to human affairs. As this paper argues, the conceptual confusion surrounding ‘kinship’ is to a large extent due to the lack of a clear and rigorous methodology for discovering how speakers of the world’s different languages actually navigate their kinship systems. Building on the author’s earlier work on kinship but taking the analysis much further, this paper seeks to demonstrate that such a methodology can be found in natural semantic metalanguage theory (developed by the author and colleagues), which relies on 65 universal semantic primes and on a small number of universal “semantic molecules,” including ‘mother’ and ‘father’. The paper offers a new model for the interpretation of kinship terminologies and opens new perspectives for the investigation of kinship systems across languages and cultures. Introduction: ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ as a Conceptual born in the great majority of cases, and their first words are Basis for Kinship Studies often kinship terms.
    [Show full text]
  • Applied Ethnolinguistics Is Cultural Linguistics, but Is It Cultural Linguistics?
    Applied ethnolinguistics is cultural linguistics, but is it cultural linguistics? Author Peeters, Bert Published 2016 Journal Title International Journal of Language and Culture Version Accepted Manuscript (AM) DOI https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.3.2.01pee Copyright Statement © 2016 John Benjamins Publishing Co. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/348408 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au Final pre-publication version Accepted for publication in: International Journal of Language and Culture APPLIED ETHNOLINGUISTICS is cultural linguistics, but is it CULTURAL LINGUISTICS? Bert Peeters Australian National University, Griffith University [email protected], [email protected] Abstract Recent years have witnessed a steady increase in occurrences of the label cultural linguistics, used to refer either to a broad field of scientific endeavor--which I suggest to call cultural linguistics (in lowercase)--or to a more narrowly defined framework within that field--which I suggest to call CULTURAL LINGUISTICS (in small capitals). The latter saw the light of day in 1996 but has become better known since Farzad Sharifian provided it with its current interdisciplinary base, replacing Gary Palmer’s term imagery with a more fitting alternative. Cultural conceptualizations are the tools CULTURAL LINGUISTICS uses to study aspects of cultural cognition and its instantiation in language; they include cultural categories, cultural metaphors, cultural schemas, and cultural models. Instances of these exist in all the languages of the world.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Linguistic Anthropology - Alessandro Duranti
    LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY - History of Linguistic Anthropology - Alessandro Duranti HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Alessandro Duranti Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles Keywords: Language as culture, history of anthropology in the U.S., American Indian languages, linguistic diversity, linguistic relativity, the ethnography of communication, language socialization, indexicality, heteroglossia. Contents 1. Introduction 2. The First Paradigm: The Boasian Tradition 3. The Second Paradigm: The Ethnography of Communication and the Birth of Sociolinguistics 4. New Directions of Research: Language Socialization, Indexicality, and Heteroglossia 5. A Third Paradigm: Language as a Flux of Indexical Values 6. Conclusion Glossary Bibliography Biographical Sketch Summary The field of linguistic anthropology was born in the United States and Canada at the beginning of the twentieth century as one of the four fields of North American anthropology. At first it was mainly focused on the documentation of aboriginal languages (especially in North America) and grammatical structures. Later it became more concerned with language-mediated activities and the relationship between language and context. The chapter uses Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shift framework to discuss how goals, key concepts, units of analysis, issues, and methods have changed over the last one hundred years without necessarily replacing older paradigms. The first paradigm emerged with the pioneering work of Franz Boas on American Indian languages and continues today in the descriptive work of so-called “field linguists,” who are committedUNESCO to writing grammars – of previouslyEOLSS undocumented aboriginal languages around the world. This paradigm persists today in much of so-called cognitively oriented linguistics (and cognitive oriented anthropologists) especially with regard to their interest in language as a resource for the encoding of experience.
    [Show full text]