Linguistic Anthropology

Taking a look at the smorgasbord of the many ways humans communicate while mostly focusing on language in a cultural context

Oct 20, 2023

“The emerging discipline of anthropology combined three long-existing streams of thought. The first was the study of what we have come to call cultural differences among societies. The second dealt with the struggle to explain the antiquity of humans and the artifacts left from these ancient lives. The final line of thought, closely related to the second, was the investigation of the biological origins of humans and other species. All of these areas have been the subject of investigation and speculation for much of the past millennium.”-Anthropological Theory, Seventh Edition

Communication.

Signals.

Looks.

These are the things we humans (and all primates, mammals, non-mammals) use to tell each other what’s going on in our very sapien lives.

There is a word for this. Everyone reading this knows this word. We humans tend to agree that it’s called

Language.

Since the dawn of our existence, every living thing on this planet has been communicating with some sort of language. Where humans are concerned, that language can be perceived in many, multiple ways. Good, bad, ugly, rude, fantastical, sexual, religious, secular, lovely, political, organizational, orgasmic (not always a sexual response you beautiful, dirty minded motherfuckers), spelling, exclamation, vocal, silent, internet, sign, and a whole shitton more words that I would need to google but am too fracken lazy to do so.

Aaanywaaayyysssz…what was I talkin’ about? Oooh yeeeaaah…

Language!

Speaking of communication: I intended for this article to come out last week. I was close to finishing, and then I hit a roadbloack with one or two sections, and my perfectionist mind wouldn’t let me write a conclusion until I took care of those sections. I apologize, Fellow Musers, and promise to try to do better with getting the Franz Boas Deep Dive out on time! Thank you for staying with me and I hope you enjoy the rest of this article! Huzzahonward!

I’m also going to do a quick plug here for the non-humanoids that we share this planet with. To some of us who don’t interact nor study animals, they can appear stupid, dumb, inconceivably unintelligent, only existing because we are amused by them. However, I daresay, growing up with animals and currently being owned by two cats, I type and speak from experience when I say they are not unintelligent. I know there’s alot of people who are also owned by sassy animals who are the true heads of households who can relate to this. They may do unintelligent things…like another species *cough Humans cough* tends to do a shitton of…but I wouldn’t necessarily say that they are unintelligent. They would be extinct by now (as would we) if they were unable to figure out ways to survive. Ever had a cat talk back to you? Dog? Squirrel-ugh, those fucking squirrels, man…I’ll tell y’all a squirrely story in another post. A peach tree was also involved (but not harmed). When I do tell it, you’ll find it in Artist’s Corner! That’s it for this plug. Moving onward!

What the fuck does Linguistic even mean?

A good majority of us probably hear the word Linguistic and know that it has something to do with language. For me, that was about it…until I asked the Almighty Google for a definition of linguistic…this is what Google gave me:

Linguistic:
Relating to language or linguistics

~~Very helpful, right?~~ Not really helpful on this try, Google!

However, always wanting to be helpful, the almighty search engine ~~aggressively suggested~~ encouraged me to scroll down more and in the scroll, I FINALLY found a definition that I believe is much more helpful. From the site, Linguistic Society of America, I found a more helpful definition taken directly from the website:

What is Linguistics?
In a nutshell: Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists apply the scientific method to conduct formal studies of speech sounds and gestures, grammatical structures, and meaning across the world’s 6,000+ languages.

Thanks Google! A hearty Huzzah to you!

You may be thinking, “Kimber, that’s fanfuckingtastic, but what the hell does that have to do with anthropology?!?”

Dearest Fellow Muser, I’m so excited that you decided to ask that question (regardless of if it was actually asked or just part of my very active imagination)!

Let’s dive into the anthropological field that is Linguistic Anthropology!

What the fuck is Linguistic Anthropology?

The definition that I’ve found is taken from the website, Sapiens.org-they have Linguistic Anthropology defined as follows:

Linguistic anthropology examines the relationships between language, culture, and society.

Aaaahhh, so THAT’S how linguistic fits into anthropology! Thanks Google and sapiens.org! Y’all really cleared that shit up for many of us! A hearty Huzzah to you both!

So what does a Linguistic Anthropologist do?

Linguistic anthropologists study language in context, revealing how people’s ways of communicating and expressing themselves interact with human culture, history, politics, identity, and much more. (Sapiens.org)

A Historical-ish Background on Linguistics and Language

Before diving into how linguistics was added to the field of anthropology, let’s take a quick historical look into the background of language.

For me, when I think of the origin of different languages, my mind travels back to my childhood and reading about the Tower of Babel from the Judeo-Christian bible (multiple versions). I’m assuming that the majority of people who read this article have also read/heard the story of the Tower of Babel. For those who haven’t, or might need a refresher, basically the story goes that early humans decided to build a huge-ass tower that reached Heaven so that they could have easier access to god.

God basically said hell no and decided to confuse the figurative shit out of these people. So he did a ~~magical~~ ~~evolutionary~~ mysterious supernatural being thing and made the people speak different languages, which also probably caused alot of not-so figurative shit to come out as well at first. Can you blame them, really? I mean, if I woke up one day not being able to speak English but able to speak absolute perfect Spanish and was not able to go back to speaking English, ¡Yo también perdería mi mierda!*

This linguistical conundrum caused the humans to un-unite and scatter across the globe. Thus, ushering in a new era where humans had to learn new skills to communicate with each other in addition to already leaving infrastructures unfinished-which is, of course, a win for archaeologists-while also exploring and populating the planet. Huzzah…maybe…unless the planet decides to release another pandioweurnk! *Feels hands pull my hands from the keyboard, more hands over my mouth, with a collective of voices saying: Don’t you say it! It’s too soon! Don’t you say that R word!* Okay! Okay! I won’t say It again…*eyes Physical/Biological Anthropology post and smirks mischievously* for now.

There are, of course, other myths of how humans became so diversified in their communications. The Norse, for example, believed that ~~Wednesday~~ Odin and his siblings gave them the ability to speak.

One could say that humans have always taken an interest in learning the origins of the things. Most people whom I’ve come into contact with tend to have some interest in etymology-a word that I wish I could always remember when I’m trying to think of how many meanings there can be for one word. So how did linguistics become a field unto itself?

According to one National Geographic article I skimmed over (yupperz, I admit-skimmed), the known ancient beginnings of linguistics study began in India with someone named Panini who “recorded the rules of Sanskrit grammer.” The Ancient Greeks also studied the structure of language to help them with their philosophies that have survived into today. As Papa Portokalos says in the video below:

Of course, what the well-intentioned Papa Portokalos forgot to mention is that for anyone living in Japan-or who knows things about Japanese and East Asian culture-a kimono is much more than a robe. In my humble opinion, it is a beautiful piece of art created by humans to wear in all seasons. For a general history of the kimono, please check out this helpful Wikipedia page! I will also say to give that National Geo link a peek as well!

There is also a fascinating article right here on Substack written by

Peter Nimitz

about several theories on the migration of Indo-European langages. I encourage y’all to either pause reading my article, and read this link, or come back to it after you finish reading my article!

Nemets

Proto-Indo-European Urheimat Debate

The Indo-European languages are spoken across most of Europe, Iran, and the northern two-thirds of the Indian subcontinent. Because of the huge number of speakers of Indo-European languages, there has been a great deal of interest in the origin of the language family. One early Indo-European theorist, the 18th century British judge William Jones, believ…

2 years ago · 58 likes · 19 comments · Peter Nimitz

So how did Linguistics become part of Anthropology?

The short, simple-ish answer is that Franz Boas (ya know, the guy that is called the Father of American Anthropology), brought linguistics into the field of anthropology, thus completing the Four-Field study that is U.S.A. Anthropology. I specify U.S.A. anthropology because I’m not too sure how the field of anthropology is structured throughout Central America and South America. If anyone knows, please

Soooo who are the Humans that made Linguistic Anthropology a field?

While Franz Boas brought the linguistic field to the newly budding anthropology field in America there were many who came after him who took it further. Edward Sapir, a student of Boas, and a student of Sapir’s who helped take it further twas…Worf! As in Benjamin L. Worf, the human, not the ~~*Spoiler: somewhat reformed*~~ son of Mogh played by Michael Dorn in Star Trek. We shall (for the purposes of this essay article) call the Earth Worf, Ben Worf, to belay confusion. Sound good, Mr. Worf? Great! We also have Bronislaw Malinowski to thank as well, but he will be discussed in a later post.

<Left to Right: Young Worf, son of Mogh (Star Trek: TNG), Benjamin L. Worf (Anthropologist), Edward Sapir (Anthropologist), Elder Worf (Star Trek: Picard)

I’m sure my student self would also ~~probably~~ definitely get yelled (or reprimanded) by multiple anthropologists and linguist enthusiasts (no specific country-state will be named) if I also don’t specifically mention David Stuart as well. He started his archaeology career at the ripe old age of 10ish years old (his parents-specifically his dad-just so happened to be an archaeologist) and he helped bring the pronunciation of ancient Mayan text into the modern world! Huzzah to David Stuart!

This super-micro teeny tiny mistake has been fixed!

Before we continue, Fellow Musers, I have some housekeeping: I was looking through my Cultural Anthropology post to put the top quote about anthropology on here…and I realized that over the picture of Edward Sapir I have written “Worf”. I apologize for that and I will change that eventually from Worf to Sapir. Thank you and carry on with the reading. Huzzah!

Edward Sapir and Ben Worf

Most of us have probably heard of the Sapir-Worf hypothesis. Some of us are probably more familiar with it than most of us. For the most who aren’t as familiar with it as some, the hypothesis goes a little somethin’ like this:

Humans speak different languages because different cultures perceive things differently from one another.

Makes total sense right? Um…sure.

This hypothesis was considered very controversial back in the day when it was proposed and is apparently still controversial today in some linguistic circles. After doing some late-nightowl reading about it, I can understand why.

Firstly, even though Ben Worf was Sapir’s student, they came up with different ideas about language. Secondly, apparently there was NO collaboration between the two-in fact, the term Sapir-Worf Hypothesis itself was invented by a student of Ben’s. The term was eventually changed and is now known today as Linguistic Relativity. However, if you say <the name of the previous term> some people will probably know what you’re talking about.

From what I’ve read, if you use the term Sapir-Wolf, you should also be prepared to dodge various foods, writing utensils, and sharp thingamajigs as well if you say ~~Sapir-Worf~~ the name of the previous term instead of Linguistic Relativity. To paraphrase Young Worf son of Mogh, it might be a good day to die…in utter humility. I would write more, but I’m planning on doing a Deep Dive on Sapir and Ben, so we’ll explore the hypothesis then.

David Stuart

David Stuart is currently alive as well as a professor at the University of Texas in Austin, TX (Austin, TX…please stay weird and progressive and—mutters: this is not the post for a political rant…).

*Clears throat*

Why is Stuart so famous in the field of anthropology? Should I call him Professor Stuart since he’s still alive? Welp, ~~David~~ Professor Stuart is one of the top experts in Maya history. He helped push reading the Maya texts forward…like so far forward that the texts are actually decipherable! Here is a little bioblurb from the University of Texas website:

David Stuart is the David and Linda Schele Professor of Mesoamerican Art and Writing at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his PhD in Anthropology from Vanderbilt University in 1995, and taught at Harvard University for eleven years before arriving at UT Austin in 2004, where he now teaches in the Department of Art and Art History. His interests in the traditional cultures of Mesoamerica are wide-ranging, but his primary research focuses is the archaeology and epigraphy of ancient Maya civilization, and for the past three decades he has been very active in the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing.

You can read the rest of his bioblurb here, and you can also read about how he helped repatriate a Mayan incense burner here. I will talk more about repatriation in the archaeology article. Here’s a pic of him as well!

Stuart’s decipherment of Maya text “demonstrated that signs could have a great many variants and forms, all visually distinct yet functionally equivalent. The recognition of the principles behind graphic variation and structure helped lead to a number of breakthroughs. Stuart proposed the decipherments of many new syllables and logograms in the 1980s and 1990s, which in turn provided a more firm basis for a new wave of linguistic analyses of Maya texts during the 1990s and early 2000s.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Logograms…WTF?

Respectfully, you might be asking what the fuck is a logogram? A helpful Google search gave this definition:

Logo+Gram
a sign or character representing a word or phrase, such as those used in shorthand and some writing systems

There is another well-known, ~~partially~~ equally ~~more~~ famous ancient culture that also has logograms. If you guessed Ancient Egypt hieroglyphs, you are very much correct! Other cultures that also have logograms are Chinese characters (called Hànzì), Japanese characters (called Kanji), Korean characters (called Hanja), Vietnamese characters (called chữ Hán), as well as cuniform writings. Modern day versions would be thi$ sign, as well as possibly a picture of historical figures used on the moneys and ancient and modern coin$.

Now, I feel that it’s important to note that Stuart was not the first non-Maya* to work on deciphering logograms. The credit for this goes to Yuri Knorozov. He was born in what use to be a part of Russia, but is now part of Ukraine (Slava Ukraine!). He had a cat named Aysa whom he rightfully gave co-credit on his papers.

Aysa: I am Siamese and it’s me that you should please! (By putting my name on all your papers that you write Human!) Yuri: As you wish, Aysa!

May we all aspire to include our furkids and non-mammalian kids as co-authors on our future works, both professional and non-professional! I found an article that dives into Yuri’s Maya text discoveries, as well as a few other people involved with translating the Maya texts. It was written last year in 2022. Clickety-clicky or tappity-tappy right here for an interesting read!

Speaking of clickety-tappity, if you’re not subscribed yet, but are enjoying my writing, I ~~selfishly and not-so~~ humbly ask that you click, hit or samash that subscribe button right below! (Doing all three at once is also acceptable!)

*Note: I say non-Maya because it is important to remember that the ancient Maya culture was not wiped out and that their descendants are still alive today. Sadly, due to certain groups of humans who wanted to take over the area for Spain, the Maya lost much of their texts and culture. However, thanks to the advances in deciphering the logograms, the Maya living today are in the process of taking back their culture while teaching the next generation of Maya about their culture. Many Huzzahs to them!

Yoooooh! I’m still confused! What does a Linguistic Anthropologist actually do? The cats of the world demand to know!

Well kitty cats and Fellow Musers, in my research into this fantasimal field, I found that Linguistic Anthropologist tend to work closely with Cultural Anthropologists-which honestly makes a fuckton of sense. Some linguistic anthropologists are also cultural anthropologists. According to the Sapiens.org article that I’m ~~very clearly, heavily~~ drawing from, Linguistic Anthropologists look at:

~the socialization of language over time (i.e. sign/spoken/homesigns)
~virtual worlds and digital spaces (shoutout to all you gamers!)
~looking at how media of all types impact the way that people use language for communicating (i.e. social media platforms, smartphones, virtual meeting platforms like Zoom and Discord <I presume>, etc.)
~folklore, myths, humor, gossip, oratory (includes narratives)
~Language’s relationship to identity (the Ukrainian-Russian conflict comes to mind for me on this one)
~Multilingual contexts of how language changes when looking at colonialism, globalism, migrations, etc.
~How nations use languages to convey a sense of nationalism
~Communities both major and minor to help them describe and analyze experiences of belonging and how it shifts each generation
~and so much more!

Speaking of identity, they also look at look at how language can establish categories of identity-like say male, female, non-binary, etc. I did put a Musings# spoiler in the DD’s intro for this topic, and I’m very excited to explore it!

Looking at Words Simultaneously From a Linguistic and Anthropological View Point
(We got them Foodways, what if-hear me out-we had Wordways?)

Let’s briefly venture out and take a look at some specific words/phrases that may (or may not be but they’re being included anyways) be of interest to humans who enjoy looking into this ~~shit~~ beautiful, wondrous, lovely etymology, and also add some cultural context to it!

Russian blue cat wearing yellow sunglasses — Photo by Raoul Droog on Unsplash

Carpe Diem:
Original Language—>Roman
Human who invented it (by historic measure)—>Horace, a poet
Meaning—>“Seize the day” or “Pluck the day” (Source: Britannica)
Cultural Context—> This term has gone through multiple connotations since its inception. In good ‘ole Horace’s time, it could be used interchangeably as a means to harvest food and as a sexual metaphor (specifically the “pluck” part). The modern day meaning of “Seize the day” is believed to have been inspired by people wanting to take a chance at a new job, finding a different scene, telling someone how you feel about them, etc. In popular culture, it’s been used in various ways by the great Robin Williams (may he rest peacefully after telling some inspiring supernatural jokes), Dame Judie Dench (May she be forever blessed in her classy ways), and the American heavy metal band Metallica. It can also be associated with the hashtag YOLO (You Only Live Once), meaning seize that moment! Hmmm, I wonder what it will be associated with 100 years from now? If only we had a Tardis to go look! Oh well, Carpe Diem!

Huzzah:
Original Language—> Unknown
Human who invented it (by historic measure)—> Unknown
Meaning—> an expression or shout of acclaim (Merriam-Webster)
Cultural Context—> According to Merriam-Webster, the first known use of Huzzah was in 1573. According to Dictionary.com, it was first used in the late 1500’s by sailors while hoisting things (presumably those big-ass sails and boxes of supplies). The word may have been influenced by the German word ‘Hurra' which has a similar connotation. It’s always been used as a form of celebration. The first recorded use for Huzzah (as well as Hurrah, Hooray, and Hurray) are from the 1700s and 1800’s. Huzzah!

Let’s look at ~~some~~ two specific words that have been used in my previous posts:

Etic:
Original Language—> Latin and Greek
Human who invented it (by historic measure)—> Kenneth L. Pike
Meaning—> Looking at something through an outsider’s point of view

Emic:
Original Language—> Unknown
Human who invented it (by historic measure)—> Kenneth L. Pike in 1952
Meaning—> Looking at something through an insider’s point of view

Cultural Context of Etic and Emic—> I’m just going to put this abstract from anthroencyclopedia.com here otherwise I would probably write it word for word!

Abstract
The emic/etic distinction originated in linguistics in the 1950s to designate two complementary standpoints for the analysis of human language and behaviour. It has been subject to debates in the humanities and social sciences ever since. Imported into anthropology in the 1960s, etic came to stand for ambitions to establish an objective, scientific approach to the study of culture, whereas emic refers to the goal of grasping the world according to one’s interlocutors’ particular points of view. While the distinction lost traction as an analytical instrument in anthropology in the 1990s, emic and etic have become concepts used by various other disciplines and subfields in the humanities and social sciences. In these contexts, they continue to be used to address a range of different epistemological and methodological issues, such as the relationship between researcher and research subject or the question of how to legitimately interpret social practices. For this reason, the emic/etic distinction remains relevant. It draws attention to fundamental differences in the way scholars and students of various disciplines approach and discuss research, data, and comparison.

Also, I want to apologize: When I was writing my Cultural Anthropology post, I realized that I got these two terms mixed up.

This mistake has now been corrected on the Cultural Anthropology post!

Conclusion

All species-human and non human-have various ways to communicate with each other, even if we don’t always understand one another. Although it’s difficult to determine the precise moment that verbal language for homo-sapiens (that be us humans yo!) and our ancestors happened, we’re curious enough about each other to make attempts to get to know one another by participating in various cultures, regardless of where we originated from.

Thank you so much for coming on this journey with me as we did a somewhat brief untanglement of Linguistic Anthropology. I’m not sure if I did it the justice it deserves, but I will admit that it was fun diving into and learning about another part of anthropology-particularly one that I’m not very familiar with! It’s comforting to know that even though we don’t always understand each other on a cultural and linguistic term that most of us are willing to find ways to get along, despite attempts by other fellow humans to divide us.

I’m going to end on a note of sending well-meaning thoughts to the people of Israel and Palestine as well as Ukraine and Russia. The everyday people-the ones who are tired of war, of fighting, and being used as pawns because their leaders can’t get tell their asses from their two many heads. And no, I’m not including Zelenskyy and his gov’t in that tirade. If you’re able to, please donate to a site that you trust, and that you absolutely know will get your donation to the right people who will distribute it to those in/from the affected areas who are being displaced or choosing to stay because they literally believe that no one will care enough to take them in, or they just don’t want to leave their home. Even though we may be different culturally, we are ALL still humans and of the same species. We may throw sass at one another, we may piss each other off, but that doesn’t mean that we have to horrible to each other.

As always Carpe Diem, Fellow Musers, however you feel most comfortable (within reason-as long as it doesn’t get you into trouble with law enforcement) and don’t forget to give yourselves a hearty Huzzah!

~Kimber, Nalia, and Salem