ANTH 250 - Language, Culture, and Society

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

This course draws on a wide range of theoretical perspectives in exploring a particular problem, emphasizing the contribution of linguistics and linguistic anthropology to issues that bear on research in a number of disciplines. At issue in each selected course topic are the complex ways in which cultures, societies, and individuals are interrelated in the act of using language within and across particular speech communities.

May be repeated for credit if the topic has changed.

Topic for 2016/17b: Language, Culture, and Society. This course is an advanced introduction to the main theoretical paradigms within linguistic anthropology. It also trains students in the methodologies for recording, transcription, and analysis of naturally occurring speech. The course begins by introducing the theoretical foundations of the anthropological approach to language structure and use. It also presents methodological paradigms for studying language use as part of social and cultural practice, such as the ethnography of communication, poetics and performance, and conversation analysis. The third part introduces theoretical frameworks that connect language structure and use to broader social, political, and economic processes, focusing on language socialization and language ideologies. The final weeks examine the interventions of linguistic anthropology in the study of identity, social inequality, and mass media. Readings include three monographs in linguistic anthropology by Keith Basso (Wisdom Sits in Places), Bambi Schieffelin (The Give and Take of Everyday Life), and Norma Mendoza-Denton (Homegirls). This course provides the theoretical and methodological preparation for advanced courses in anthropology and other related areas. Louis Römer.

Topic for 2016/17b: Language and Power. (Same as AFRS 250 ) How can the study of language and its use advance our understanding of power and political action? This course analyzes how language and rhetorical prowess are essential for the distribution and exercise of power through the discussion of readings on political oratory, rumor and scandal, and satire. Readings on mass media and the public sphere illustrate the role of language in political mobilization, the formation of collective identities, and the enforcement of social inequalities and exclusion. Readings on campaigns and electoral politics explore the use of language for the performance of civility and moral virtue, as well as the covert mobilization of class, racial, gender, and ethnic stereotypes. Finally, readings on democracy promotion campaigns in post-colonial settings explore the use of language in the affirmation and contestation of ideals of secularism, liberal democracy, and modernity. Students apply methodological and theoretical tools of linguistic anthropology to analyze the structural features and the political effects of real world examples of political satire, scandal, and oratory. Louis Römer.

Two 75-minute periods.