Language, Gender, Identity

Question 1

Anthropological interest in language

Answer 1

• Fieldwork is often oral – need for understanding
• The structure of language provides insight into a culture
• Language provides insight into people’s interpretations and perceptions of the world

Question 2

Aspects of language

Answer 2

• Definition of language vs. speech vs. communication
• Language as code
• Speech communities
• Vocabulary
• Grammar

Question 3

Denotative meanings

Answer 3

The dictionary definition

Question 4

Connotative meanings

Answer 4

Meaning based on context + culture

Question 5

How can language be ambiguous?

Answer 5

• Denotative vs. connotative meanings

- Use of metaphors

Question 6

Native speaker

Answer 6

A person who has spoken a particular language since early childhood

Question 7

Linguistic competence

Answer 7

Mastery of adult grammar

Question 8

Communicative competence

Answer 8

Mastery of adult rules for socially and culturally appropriate speech

Question 9

Language and context

Answer 9

• Difference between having linguistic vs. communicative competence
• Children learn when it is appropriate to say certain things or to keep quiet

Question 10

What 3 things did Dell Hymes argue a speaker considers?

Answer 10

1) his or her own social position
2) the position of person he or she is addressing
3) the social context of interaction before speaking

Question 11

How is human language different from other forms of animal communication?

Answer 11

• Openness: talking about the same thing in different ways
• Displacement: talking about abstract notions (e.g. unicorns)
• Prevarication: speaking falsely or nonsensically
• Arbitrariness: no function associated with a word
• Duality of patterning: sound (phonemes) + units of meaning (morphemes)
• Semanticity: we don’t use words in same ways (e.g. apes vs. monkeys)

Question 12

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Answer 12

• Aka “linguistic relativity principle”
• General idea that language influences a person’s view of the world
• But there are many challenges with linguistic determinism (“strong” hypothesis)
• So people use “weak” hypothesis

Question 13

What are the challenges to the “strong” Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

Answer 13

• Gender pronouns
• Language translation
• Speech communities uncontained and have different ways of describing the world
• Being multi-lingual

Question 14

Language components

Answer 14

• Phonology
• Morphology
• Semantics
• Pragmatics
• Syntax

Question 15

Phonology

Answer 15

Study of the sounds (phones and phonemes) of a language

Question 16

Morphology

Answer 16

Study of the smallest units of meaning (morphemes) in language

Question 17

Pragmatics

Answer 17

Study of language in the context of its use

Question 18

Semantics

Answer 18

Study of meaning

Question 19

Syntax

Answer 19

Study of sentence structure

Question 20

Research areas of linguistic anthropology

Answer 20

• Reconstructing ancient languages or helping to preserve languages
• Studying linguistic differences to understand patterns of thought in multiple cultures
• Examining dialects and styles in one language to show how speech reveals social differences
• Exploring the role of language in colonization

Question 21

Gender and language

Answer 21

• Language can be used to convey gender (sounds, grammar)
• Linguist Robin Lakoff’s work examining how women’s conversational style relates their relative powerlessness in society
• Anthropologist Deborah Tannen’s work examining speech patterns of men and women
  Men = report-talk (seeks to command attention, convey information, and win arguments)
  Women = rapport-talk (seeks to establish connection with others)

Question 22

What is a social construct?

Answer 22

A concept or practice that may appear to be natural, taken-for-granted, obvious, common-sense, to those who accept it, but in fact it is a product – a cultural artifact – of a particular culture or society

Question 23

Gender as a social construct

Answer 23

• Gender as a category is significant (to varying degrees) to all human cultures
• Anthropologists view sex as determined by biology, and gender as determined by culture

Question 24

Anthropological insights into gender

Answer 24

• First ethnographers (male) often did not pay attention to gender
• All societies conceptualize differences between men and women, but these differences vary from culture to culture
• Societies differ in the number of gender categories they recognize (e.g. Third gender, such as two-spirit)
• Gender can require effort and maintenance (e.g. Sambia men of Papua New Guinea)
• Gender hierarchies can become embedded in language (e.g. Emily Martin’s work on the Egg and the Sperm)

Question 25

Anthropological insights into sexuality

Answer 25

• Heteronormative ideals suggest sexuality is more static than it is
• Use of naturalizing discourses to see anything other than heteronormative as “unnatural”
• In some cultures, much more liberal views towards sexuality (e.g. Richard Lee’s work with Ju/’hoansi; Malinowski’s work with Trobriand Islanders; Mead’s work in Samoa)
• But also stricter views on sexuality are observed (e.g. Heider’s work with the Dani)

Question 26

Naturalizing discourse

Answer 26

Deliberate representation of particular identities (e.g. caste, class, race, ethnicity and nationality) as if they were a result of biology or nature rather than history or culture, making them appear eternal and unchanging.

Question 27

Self and subjectivity

Answer 27

• Self as taken for granted product of culture
• Importance of individual names
• Western concept of the self as autonomous, independent agent (ego-centric) vs. non-Western societies often more socially embedded (socio-centric)

Question 28

Why do anthropologist prefer the term “subjectivity” to personality?

Answer 28

1) It gives agency to individual

2) It acknowledges that our power to act is limited by our circumstances

Question 29

Subjectivity

Answer 29

An individual’s awareness of his or her own agency and position as a subject

Question 30

Social identty

Answer 30

• Concept of social identity speaks to the learned personal and social affiliations we have of our own and others’ position in society (including gender, sexuality, race, class, nationality, ethnicity)
• Social identity is confirmed and constructed in large part by others

Question 31

Identity as learned

Answer 31

• Learned through enculturation

- Can be political or collective: groups, cliques, social movements

Question 32

Enculturation

Answer 32

Process by which human beings living with one another must learn to come to terms with the ways of thinking and feeling that are considered appropriate in their respective cultures