A Study of Jargons Used by Anthropology Course and its Meanings and Usage When Viewed Under the Context of BACA, BAE, and BSA in UP Mindanao ALGIN V. GULTIA 2011-58662 BA Communication Arts
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
A Study of Jargons Used by Anthropology Courseand its Meanings and Usage When Viewed Under the Context of
BACA, BAE, and BSA in UP Mindanao
ALGIN V. GULTIA
2011-58662
BA Communication Arts
Table of Contents
Pages
Title Page I
CHAPTER 1: Research Problem
Rationale 1-2
Review of Related Literature 3-5
Statement of the Problem 6
Objectives
7
Significance of the Study 8
Theoretical Framework 9
Conceptual Framework 10-11
Scope and Delimitation 12
CHAPTER 2: Methodology
Research Design 13
Data Collection 13-14
Data Analysis 14-16
CHAPTER 3: Results and Discussion 17-26
CHAPTER 4: Summary and Conclusion 27-29
REFERENCES 30
APPENDICE 31-33
Chapter I
RESEARCH PROBLEM
RATIONALE
According to the website of University of the Philippines
Mindanao, anthropology is a social science that explores society and humanity from
a bio-cultural and cross-cultural approach. The program is designed to provide
students with training, field experience and hands-on exposure to methods of
anthropological research and visual documentation of different cultural life ways, both
local and globally. In short, anthropology is the study of humans,
past and present. To understand the full sweep and complexity of
cultures across all of human history, anthropology draws and
builds upon knowledge from the social and biological sciences as
1
well as the humanities and physical sciences. A central concern
of anthropologists is the application of knowledge to the
solution of human problems.
Unlike what most people have thought, every field or even
every group has its own jargons. The special terms of language
used by certain group is called jargon. Webster’s Dictionary
defines jargon as “the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special
activity or group…obscure and often pretentious language marked by circumlocutions
and long words.” Jargon can therefore be both a tool for effective
and efficient communication, as well as a significant barrier to
understanding.
Anthropology students in UP Mindanao have used technical
terms to make their communication easier within their group. They
use jargon in order to differentiate their own identity with
other groups. For those who use jargon, Anthropologists for
instance, it is a language which describes the world in which we
live (Ives, 1999). Jargon is an aspect of everyone’s life in some
2
way be it a job, a hobby, or a sport (Green, 1987). Jargon is a
way for anthropology students to have their own specific
language. Anthropology students use jargon not to impress their
audiences with their importance, but to communicate.
The language used by anthropology students is distinctive.
The jargons used in their field are unique so the researcher is
interested in studying it. The aims of this study were to
identify the jargon in BA Anthropology and their meaning. It is
because the researcher has found these terms so difficult to use
clearly and unequivocally that the researcher felt bound to
examine them, and this paper simply represents the researcher’s
own attempt at clarification of the meaning of these slippery
terms.
Review of Related Literature
This part of the research presented the related literature
to support the study. Various sources from the internet and books
were chosen to give the necessary information to serve as a basis
for better understanding of the problem.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather
scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean-
neither more nor less.”(Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking
Glass).
“To know requires exertion, it is intellectually easiest to
shirk effort altogether by accepting phrases which cloak the
unknown in the undefinable.” (Karl Pearson, The Grammar of
Science, 1899).
One of the most important of all the activities of man is
language. Language constitutes the process of communication of
3
meanings in order to produce some form of action upon those
capable of understanding the meanings employed. When words
produce acts, they do so through the agency of the meanings they
possess for the actors upon whom they act. All words, even
when they are not understood in the dictionary sense,
possess some active power. The active or activating power
may be very little, as when some utterly strange word is
offered to our ears (Montagu, 1938). The meaning of a word lies
in the action it produces. Meaning represents an attempt to
understand a thing, the emergent of a struggle between the thing
and the whole body of meanings which control us or we control.
Many scientists are, unfortunately, unaware of the
important role which words play in regulating and
conditioning their observations, their inferences, and their
conclusions. Some
fall into the use of terms the meaning of which has never been
clearly defined, and which they use in a vague and loose
manner, sometimes meaning one thing and sometimes another;
sometimes thinking one thing yet writing another, in
4
Flousman’s phrase “calling in ambiguity of Language to promote
confusion of thought.” From the scientific viewpoint terms
possessing such unanalyzed versatility are worse than useless,
they are confusing, and should not be used until they have
received a definition which agrees with the facts so far as
it is possible to determine them (Montagu, 1938).
In the field of physical anthropology which deals with
the phylogeny, ancestry, and classification of man such
loose terms are particularly abundant, and perennially
confusing. Some of these terms, and others suffering from similar
defects, occur also in the field of cultural anthropology. In
both fields many of these terms are nothing more than pseudo-
logical rationalizations based on unanalyzed concepts. I
examined critically the most hard-worked of these terms,
discuss the senses in which they have been used, show how they
have contributed to confused thinking, and see what can be done
about rescuing some of them for use with a clear
conscience and a steady meaning. Unclear terms are the bane of
a science and can do more to befog thinking upon important issues
than any other single thing. In anthropology there are quite a
few such ‘fuzzy” terms. It may serve a useful purpose to take an
objective and critical look at them (Montagu, 1938).
Definition of Terms
The following terms used in this study were defined
conceptually and operationally.
Ancestry. It refers to one's family or ethnic descent.
Anthropologist. Is defined as a social scientist who specializes
in anthropology.
Anthropology. It is defined as a study of humankind, in
particular. It is also the comparative study of human societies
and cultures and their development
Jargon. It refers to special words or expressions that are used
by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others
to understand.
5
Language. It is defined as the method of human communication,
either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a
structured and conventional way. It is any nonverbal method of
expression or communication: "a language of gesture and facial
expression".
Meaning. It refers to the thing one intends to convey especially
by language; the thing that is conveyed especially by language
Misunderstanding. Is defined as a failure to understand something
correctly. It is also a disagreement or quarrel.
Phylogeny. It is defined as the historical development of a tribe
or racial group.
Technical terms. It refers to the specialized vocabulary of any
field, not just technical fields.
Variation. It is defined as a change or slight difference in
condition, amount, or level.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
People in BA Anthropology may use jargon to leave an
impression of intelligence or to confuse a person. Jargon is a
language of familiarity. It can be a useful tool when everyone
has a common understanding of the terms at hand—it is verbal
shorthand (Lutz, 1996). Anthropologists who use jargon may find
a sense of belonging to a special group. They are easy to make
friends in this group, and easy to communicate with each other
using comparatively short sentences instead of long and
explanatory sentences. However, for those who do not understand
the special language, jargon is like a barrier that keeps them
from getting into that area.
The problems arise when anthropology students let jargon
creep into their every day communications with people who don’t
belong to their group. The use of jargon might cause
misunderstandings even disability of communication for outsiders
or people who newly enter the field. The four main disadvantages
of jargons are to make the outsider feel excluded, confuse the
outsider or the green hand, complicate the simplest message, and
6
lead to misunderstandings. In order for them to make one person
do not feel excluded from their group, people should be aware
what are those technical terms which anthropology students and
teachers have used in their field. This will enable them to make
conversing within the group of the anthropology students easier,
as they don’t have to explain in detail what they are talking
about. This study aims to know and identify the different
jargons and their meanings used by anthropology students in
University of the Philippines Mindanao. Moreover, this study
wishes to answer if there are variations in meanings and usage
of the jargon used in Anthropology among the different courses in
University of the Philippines Mindanao.
OBJECTIVES
The study aims to know and identify the different jargons
and its meanings used by anthropology students in University of
the Philippines Mindanao.
7
More specifically, it sought to answer the following
questions:
1. What are the five (5) technical terms commonly used by
anthropology students?
2. What are the meanings of those technical terms used within
their group?
3. How these technical terms relate to other courses in UP
Mindanao such as BA Communication Arts, BA English, and BS
Architecture? Are there variations in meanings of the jargon
used by anthropology students when compared and relate to
these courses in University of the Philippines Mindanao
namely BA Communication Arts, BA English, and BS
Architecture?
SIGNIFICANCE
This study will enable the people who don’t belong to
anthropology to understand some technical terms used by
anthropology students and to make conversing within the group of
the anthropology students easier. This will allow everyone to
know, identify, and use the different technical terms used by
anthropologists correctly.
This study will help us to determine if the meanings of the
jargons used by anthropology students have variations when
compared to the usage of other courses in UP Mindanao. This will
enable us to avoid miscommunication among different courses in UP
Mindanao.
Indeed, for Sociolinguistics, this research can give more
contribution to the development of language, especially jargons.
8
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
In linguistics, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis states that there
are certain thoughts of an individual in one language that cannot
be understood by those who live in another language. The
hypothesis states that the way people think is strongly affected
by their native languages. It is a controversial theory
championed by linguist Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin
Whorf (Kempton, 1984).
Em Griffin (2009) in his Sapir–Whorf hypothesis discusses on
linguistic relativity. It states that the structure of a
9
culture’s language shapes what people think and do. In short,
different languages produce different ways of thinking. “The
‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously built upon the
language habits of the group.” Their theory of linguistic
relativity counters the assumption that words merely act as
neutral vehicles to carry meaning. Language actually structures
our perception of reality. In other words, our view of reality is
strongly shaped by the language we’ve used since we were infants.
Contemporary socio-cultural theorists grant even more power
to language. They claim that it is through the process of
communication that “reality is produced, maintained, repaired,
and transformed.” Or, stated in the active voice, persons-in-
conversation co-construct their own social worlds. When these
worlds collide, the socio-cultural tradition offers help in
bridging the culture gap that exists between “us” and “them”
(Griffin, 2009).
To be precise, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic
relativity claims that the structure of a language shapes what
people think and do. And also, it is the social construction of
reality (Griffin, 2009).
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
= Indicates communication impairment
Figure 1: A Schematic Diagram of the Study
The illustration above shows that the Anthropology students
have their own jargon. In other words, they have their personally
10
Anthropology Students
JargonOutsider Individ
Insider Individual
Insider Individual
Non-Anthropology
Students
Jargon
subjective vocabulary. Meanwhile, the non-anthropology people
don’t understand their jargon. It indicates that the outsider
(non-anthropologist) have communication impairment with the
Anthropology students. Thus, it results to miscommunication.
By using the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, the researcher wants to
show in the Figure 1 that there are certain thoughts of an
individual in one language such as the jargons used in
Anthropology that cannot be understood by those who live in
another language like those non-Anthropology students. They have
their own jargons that don’t understand by other people from
different fields.
Through Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, it will be proved that the
way people think is strongly affected by their native languages.
In Anthropology, for instance, the way anthropology students and
teachers think, act, and explain their thoughts depend on the
jargons they used. It is because they used these technical terms
to describe their field, the Anthropology. In other words, each
11
field has its own jargons, and each jargon represents and
describes what’s on that field and what do people in that field
think and do.
To Anthropology students and teachers, they used technical
terms to describe the Anthropology. These technical terms
represent what the words they used while studying their field;
words that they used in communicating other Anthropologists.
In Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, it discusses that the structure
of a culture’s language shapes what people think and do. What
have learned by Anthropology students in school shapes how they
analyze a thing and respond to a certain action.
Through Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, the researcher would know if
the jargons used by Anthropology students differ of how other
people from different fields used and applied the same term in
their field.
Scope and Limitation
12
This study focused on the technical terms or jargons
used by anthropology students. The respondents are the 4th year
regular students of BA Anthropology of University of the
Philippines Mindanao who are officially enrolled on the academic
year of 2012-2013.
The technical terms that the researcher focused on are
those frequently used by anthropology students of University of
the Philippines Mindanao.
Researcher gathered the list of the technical terms used in
anthropology based on the interviews on eleven (11) anthropology
students of UP Mindanao.
The researcher will focus only on the five (5) jargons
commonly used and encountered by Anthropology students in UP
Mindanao.
Moreover, the research covered the technical terms used in
anthropology and has no control on the given technical terms and
meanings of the anthropology students. The researcher has
determined the variations of meanings of technical terms in
anthropology when compared to the courses exclusively in
University of the Philippines Mindanao namely BA Communication
Arts, BA English, and BS Architecture.
This study cannot be applied to other schools and course
because the respondent focused to a certain population only.
Chapter II
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The aims of this study were to identify the jargon and
their meaning used by anthropology students of University of the
Philippines Mindanao, and also to know if the meanings of these
technical terms have variations when compared the same technical
terms to other fields in University of the Philippines Mindanao
such as in BA Communication Arts, BA English, and BS
13
Architecture. In accordance to this research the researcher used
the case study approach as a research design in determining the
different jargons used in Anthropology. In applying this method,
the researcher basically used the technique of observation,
unstructured interviews, and note taking to have a valid data.
Some content of this study was from the internet. The object of
this study was the jargon used in Anthropology.
As a case study, the researcher observed, interviewed, and
searched the list and the definitions and interpretations of
jargons used by Anthropology students in UP Mindanao.
Data Collection
The following steps were done by the researcher in
conducting this study:
First, after carefully reviewing the respondents in the
Scope and Limitation to be included in the research, the
14
researcher had eleven (11) respondents from 4th year regular
anthropology students who are officially enrolled SY 2012-2013.
In acquiring the meanings of jargons used in Anthropology,
the researcher had interviewed the selected anthropology students
in University of the Philippines Mindanao. The researcher had
interviewed at least five (5) jargons commonly used by these
selected anthropology students, and asked the said students what
the definitions and how they used the technical terms they gave
to the researcher. The researcher also searched the meanings of
these technical terms in the internet.
The researcher had observed Anthropology students how they
communicate to each other or what technical terms they have been
using both communicating in school and in chatting with their co-
Anthropology students.
The researcher then identified and defined the jargons used
in anthropology. The researcher compared the definitions of the
technical terms used in anthropology to other courses in UP
Mindanao namely BA Communication Arts, BA English, and BS
Architecture. The researcher had analyzed if there were
variations in terms of the definitions of the same technical
terms used in anthropology when compared to other fields in UP
Mindanao by interviewing people from other fields and searching
from the internet.
After all the data have been gathered, the data were
analyzed and interpreted by the researcher.
Data Analysis
The interviews, observations, and research done by the
researcher have been analyzed and interpreted by the researcher.
Using Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, the researcher analyzed if the
jargons given by the Anthropology students really depends on how
the Anthropology students think and do. It depends on what have
learned by Anthropology students in school. These jargons used
in Anthropology reflect what the Anthropology students and
teachers discuss during their class. Their field is Anthropology
that is why they used technical terms related to their field. The
technical terms commonly used by Anthropology students in UP
Mindanao show how often these particular Anthropology students
15
encounter such jargons in Anthropology. It reflects how the
Anthropology students understand and use certain jargons in
Anthropology. It depicts how the Anthropology students analyze
and explain things in Anthropology using on the different jargons
they have learned in their course. These jargons used in
Anthropology are a way for Anthropologists to have their own
specific language, and this is the way of how they express their
thoughts and ideas.
According to Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, different languages
produce different ways of thinking. Through analyzing the
gathered data, the researcher would know if different courses in
UP Mindanao have variations in terms of jargons. Each course in
UP Mindanao has its own jargon. It implies that these courses
have different jargons and therefore, it produces different ways
of thinking. For instance, a particular word has its definition
in Anthropology while in Communication arts, the same technical
term has been used the term differently. These courses have
different thinking and perceptions on a thing especially in terms
of jargons. The same technical terms in Communication Arts and
Anthropology may have different ways of how these two courses use
and define the said technical term. It is just shows that
different definitions and
ways of how to use and explain such technical terms producedifferent ways of how a certain field think and do.
16
Chapter III
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Language community is a group of people who regard
themselves as using the same language. A particular group of
people may use particular vocabulary when they are interacting
with each other. The particular language is usually called
jargon. Jargon is one of the language varieties used based on a
certain purpose. In this case, Anthropology students and teachers
used jargons to communicate with each other.
After the data have been gathered, the eleven (11)
respondents enumerated different jargons used in Anthropology.
These are ethnography, participant observation, acculturation, social stratification,
fieldwork, habitus, culture, dialectics, structuralism, ethnocentrism, cultural relativism,
participant observation, epic, ethnography, holistic, status quo, praxis, nuances,
17
swidden agriculture, post-modernism, racism, synoptic illusion, emic-etic division,
Marxist, reciprocity, semi-periphery, chauvinism, capitalism, panopticon view, agent,
structure, systematic violence, and interface.
The researcher will only focused on the five (5) jargons
most commonly enumerated by the randomly selected 4th year
regular students of BA Anthropology in UP Mindanao. These
technical terms were acculturation, ethnography, dialectics, habitus, and
fieldwork.
In Anthropology, acculturation is the processes of change in
artifacts, customs, and beliefs that result from the contact of
two or more cultures. The term is also used to refer to the
results of such changes. Two major types of acculturation,
incorporation and directed change, may be distinguished on the
basis of the conditions under which cultural contact and change
take
place. It explains the process of cultural and psychological
change that results following meeting between cultures. The
effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both
interacting cultures. At the group level, acculturation often
18
results in changes to culture, customs, and social institutions.
Noticeable group level effects of acculturation often include
changes in food, clothing, and language. At the individual level,
differences in the way individuals acculturate have been shown to
be associated not just with changes in daily behaviour, but with
numerous measures of psychological and physical well-being
(Lewis, Anthropology Made Simple, 1969).
Habitus, on the other hand, is a concept denoting the
totality of learned, bodily skills, habits, style, taste etc.
Habitus may be understood as a variant of culture that is
anchored in the body. "Hexis" is that part of habitus, where
communication between people takes place through fine-grained
body-language: tiny movements, micro-mimicking etc. Researchers
like Hall have, from a completely different point of view, done
work on similar problems (Peoples & Bailey, Humanity: An Introduction
to Cultural Anthropology, 1994).
Habitus is the set of socially learned dispositions, skills
and ways of acting that are often taken for granted, and which
are acquired through the activities and experiences of everyday
life James Peoples & G Bailey, Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural
Anthropology, 1994). Perhaps in more basic terms, the habitus could
be understood as a structure of the mind characterized by a set
of acquired schemata, sensibilities, dispositions and taste. The
particular contents of the habitus are the result of the
objectification of social structure at the level of individual
subjectivity.
The other technical term will be ethnography. In
Anthropology, it is the documenting and analysis of a particular
culture through field research. Ethnography is the scientific
study of human social phenomena and communities, through means
such as fieldwork. It is considered a
branch of cultural anthropology, the branch of anthropology which
focuses on the study of human societies (Kottack, Cultural
anthropology, 1982).
Dialectics, which is commonly used by Anthropology students,
is the method of reasoning which aims to understand
things concretely in all their movement, change and
interconnection, with their opposite and contradictory sides in
unity. (Barnouw, Anthropology: A General Introduction, 1979).
19
Lastly, the term which you always hear from the Anthropology
students is the term fieldwork. In Anthropology, fieldwork can take
many different forms, shaped by factors such as: the topic of
investigation, questions guiding the research, where the research
will be carried out, who is funding it, external political or
economic factors, the age, sex or ethnicity of the
anthropologist, the technological facilities available. Newer
formats for research, such as use of multiple sites and the study
of large-scale centres of power such as intergovernmental
organisations, are becoming increasingly common; as is the use of
visual technologies and methods of presentation such as film,
photography and digital media (Barnouw, Anthropology: A General
Introduction, 1979).
The technical terms that will compare and relate by the
researcher to other courses in UP Mindanao such as BA
Communication Arts, BA English, and BS Architecture are the terms
fieldwork, dialectics, and ethnography.
In Anthropology, fieldwork is a broad term for research in
which social/cultural anthropologists engage, involving close
study and partial participation in the life of a community or
group (characteristically in a setting that contrasts culturally
with that in which the observer
normally lives.) So what types of fieldwork do anthropologists
undertake? As this study mentioned in the earlier page, fieldwork
can take many different forms, shaped by factors such as: the
topic of investigation, questions guiding the research, where the
research will be carried out, who is funding it, external
political or economic factors, the age, sex or ethnicity of the
anthropologist, the technological facilities available.
Anthropologists may also assemble data in numerous ways.
They may gather quantitative information by conducting surveys or
analyzing records such as historical archives, government reports
and censuses. Quantitative data is often useful for biological
anthropologists in mapping physical traits within a population,
or making cross-population comparisons. Quantitative information
is also useful and often necessary when anthropologists work on
interdisciplinary projects with other specialists. However, for
the most part social anthropologists concentrate on gathering
20
qualitative data. They do so by conducting individual and group
interviews, by undertaking oral histories, through online
discussion forums and, most importantly, through the Malinowskian
tradition of ‘participant observation’.
For Architecture students, on the other hand, fieldwork is
done through collecting, ordering, and interpreting data,
establishing parameters, frameworks, contexts, and outlines for
design work. Fieldwork material in Architecture has been
collected over a time-span of almost two years through
ethnographic observation of work combined with in-depth
interviews. It may covers a variety of building and urban
planning projects in their different stages. The architects or
architecture students produced, modified, and arranged visual and
graphical material in their physical and digital workspaces,
collecting examples of it, including the stories of use
surrounding them in order to achieve their
In BA Communication Arts, especially for Media Arts
students, their fieldwork is done through writing scripts and/or
21
reports that they observed during in the field, audio or visual
recording that will support their reports, and taking creative
photography in the field that consists of different elements in
photography which is needed in their certain major subjects.
Shooting films or making a visual presentaton or documentary may
also be considered as fieldworks in communication arts. Often
fieldwork in communication arts results in a presentation of some
kind, such as a publication, exhibit, performance, CD, film, or
Website.
For BA Engish students, on the other hand, their fieldwork
depends on the subject and topic of their thesis. They may
conduct their fieldwork through collecting information about
their subjects and observing situations that will help and
inspire them while making their thesis or book. However,
according to a BA English student, the term fieldwork is not
commonly used in their field. It is only conducted by those BA
English students whose data collected in the fieldwork is needed
and significant on their ceratin thesis.
The next technical term that will be compared is the term
dialectics. In Anthropology, dialectics is the method of reasoning
which aims to understand things concretely in all their movement,
change and interconnection, with their opposite and contradictory
sides in unity. Dialectics is opposed to
the formal, metaphysical mode of thought of ordinary
understanding which begins with a fixed definition of a thing
according to its various attributes. For example formal thought
would explain: ‘a fish is something with no legs which lives in
the water’. For dialectics, things can be contradictory not just
in appearance, but in essence. For formal thinking, light must be
either a wave or a particle; but the truth turned out to be
dialectical – light is both wave and particle. For dialectics the
truth is the whole picture, of which each view is a more or less
one-sided, partial aspect. At times, people complain in
frustration that they lack the Means to
achieve their Ends, or alternatively, that they can justify their
corrupt methods of work by the lofty aims they pursue. For
dialectics, Means and Ends are a unity of opposites and in the
final analysis, there can be no contradiction between means and
ends – when the objective is rightly understood, "the material
conditions for its solution are already present or at least in
22
the course of formation" (Marx, Preface of Contribution to a
Political Economy).
For communication majors in UP Mindanao, dialectics or
relational dialectics is a concept within communication theory.
This concept could be interpreted as "a knot of contradictions in
personal relationships or an unceasing interplay between contrary
or opposing tendencies." The theory, first proposed respectively
by Leslie Baxter and W. K. Rawlinsin 1988, defines communication
patterns between relationship partners as the result of endemic
dialectical tensions. In their description of Relational Dialectics,
Leslie A. Baxter and Barbara M. Montgomery simplify the concept
by posing “opposites attract”, but “birds of a feather flock
together”. Also, “Two’s company; three’s a crowd” but “the more
the merrier.” These contradictions experienced within common folk
proverbs are similar to those we experience within our
relationships as individuals. When making decisions, we give
voice to multiple viewpoints and desires that often contradict
each other.
The Relational Dialectic is an elaboration on Mikhail
Bakhtin’s idea that life is an open monologue and humans
experience collisions between opposing desires and needs within
relational communications.
In Architecture, on the other hand, architects have always
worked with dialectics - analysing and synthetizing - exactly as
all our eyes work with opposite concepts meeting around none.
Dialectic architecture is about always searching and finding to
try to cure blindness and insensitiveness - to let both side live
- finding what unit them - finding something good for us all.
What is architecture trying to express? There are someone wanting
to create what they call eternal values with the help of
architecture. And there are those who like the opposite - trying
to get architecture to express the un-eternal - everything is
destruction/chaos. There are many wanting to use architecture to
express different ideas - ideas of opposite kinds. But the
material is importance but it also about how we see the material
and forms. It is about both material and form a pair of opposites
- a neither nor - a sounding silence expressing itself in rooms
23
and walls as a meeting between what we have separated - being a
meeting - a one out of a non-duality from a duality made out of
one-sidedness.
For BA English students, dialectical writing or dialectic
essay is an essay that examines a question from two points of
view and concludes by choosing one point of view or an
alternative point of view based on the data evidence examined.
The word ethnography has also different interpretations in
different fields such as in BA Anthropology, BA Communication
Arts, BA English, and BS Architecture. First and foremost, in
Anthropology, ethnography is an anthropological research in which
one learns about the culture of another society through fieldwork
and first hand observation in that society. Ethnography is the
scientific study of human social phenomena and communities,
through means such as fieldwork. It is considered a branch of
cultural anthropology, the branch of anthropology which focuses
on the study of human societies. The practice of ethnography
usually involves fieldwork in which the ethnographer lives among
the population being studied. While trying to retain objectivity,
the ethnographer lives an ordinary life among the people, working
with informants who are particularly knowledgeable or well placed
to collect information ( Kottack, Cultural anthropology, 1982).
Ethnography is also the term used to refer to books or monographs
describing what were learned about the culture of a society.
In BA Communication Arts, on the other hand, ethnography of
communication relates ethnography, the description and
structural-functional analysis of society and culture, with the
language a cultural behaviour that navigates and helps to share
knowledge, arts, morals, beliefs and everything acquired by man
as a member of society (Ray, 2011). Ethnography of communication
is an approach to understand society & culture and its
reconstruction of an ethnic group in particular and nation in
general. To do it language, designed and structured by pattern of
culture, acts as a communicative tool. Language carries and
transmits social/cultural traits through generations. The role of
speech behaviour, one of the aspects of language, has always been
significant in cultural anthropological research. Ethnography of
Communication, the concept introduced by Del Hymes in late
sixties, is an active action of human way of life. He and his
24
associates constructed a model of speaking model while tried to
understand society and culture of an ethnic group through
communication process. And this is how the BA Communication Arts
understand the term ethnography.
In ethnographic novel, for BA English students, it is an
ethnographic description written as a story that may be about an
ethnographer's experience or about some event or problem.
The researcher read some researcher papers on Architecture.
There was a research about ethnographic-architecture. The purpose
of ethnographic-architecture is to discover thought hidden behind
the symbol (Geertz, 1973). Culture and architecture are
inseparable in which learning both matters will deliver us to the
science of symbol referring to certain thought. Thus, researcher
of that research paper should uphold great appreciation toward
space as the product of culture built on the basis of social
convention. Space here refers to the space having unique and
specific pattern with certain structural system (Geertz, 1973).
Ethnography-architecture research
on space also limits social problem of single space and explores
architectural space in detail. It includes sociocultural life of
the community, the real terms of the space, the elements of space
tools, the arrangement of space structure and the relation among
elements of space that constructs the meaning of space.
The researcher had enumerated and defined the five (5)
commonly used and encountered jargons in Anthropology. The
researcher also interpreted and compared the terms fieldwork,
dialectics, and ethnography to four (4) fields namely BA Anthropology,
BA Communication Arst, BA English, and BS Architecture.
By using the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, the researcherfound out
that there are certain thoughts of an individual in one language
such as the jargons used in Anthropology that cannot be
understood by those who live in another language like those non-
Anthropology students such those students from BA Communication
Arts, BA English, and BS Architecture. Anthropology students have
their own jargons that don’t understand by other people from
different fields. For instance, the words that only Anthropology
25
students could understand and interpreted were habitus, culture,
dialectics, praxis, swidden agriculture and many more.
After all the words have been defined and compared by the
researcher, the result is that there are variations of meanings
among the courses in UP Mindanao. It implies that a certain word
has different meanings and uses to the different fields. However,
even if there are variations in meanings, the definitions still
related to one another. They are using the same term with the
same definition in the dictionary, but different uses,
applications, and understanding of that particular term on their
field. For instance, the dialectic writing or essay and ethnographic novel in
BA English, which is a course for writing, is also used and
applied in BA Anthropology.
It is because in Anthropology, they are not only conducting
fieldworks, analyzing data and examining results, but they are
also a good writer.
Indeed, there are variations of meanings of the jargon used
by anthropology students when compared and relate to other
courses in University of the Philippines Mindanao such as BA
26
Communication Arts, BA English, and BS Architecture. However,
there are technical terms that still have the same meaning when
compare to other fields; but the way each field used, applied,
and understand that certain technical terms differs. A good
example of this was the term fieldwork. It has the same definition
to all fields. However, what makes it different to others is that
how the technical term is used, applied, and interpreted in
Anthropology, Communication Arts, in English, and Architecture.
Obviously, it is because these fields have different methodology
in achieving their data and conducting their fieldworks.
Chapter IV
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The language used in communication that occurs in an
environment tends to be different from others. The special terms
of language used by certain group is called jargon. They use
jargon in order to differentiate their own identity with other
groups. The language used by Anthropology students is also
distinctive. The aims of this study were to identify the jargon
and their meaning used in Anthropology and also to know if there
were variations in meanings of the jargon used in Anthropology
among the different courses in University of the Philippines
Mindanao namely BA Communication Arts, BA English, and BS
Architecture.
The researcher used the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis to achieve the
goals of this study. Through Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, it has been
proven in this study that the way people think is strongly
affected by their native languages. In Anthropology, for
instance, the way anthropology students and teachers think, act,
27
and explain their thoughts depend on the jargons they used. It is
because they used these technical terms to describe their field,
the Anthropology. In other words, each field has its own jargons,
and each jargon represents and describes what’s on that field and
what do people in that field think and do.
In this study, the method used by the researcher was the
case study approach. In applying this method, the writer
basically used the technique of observation, unstructured
interviews, and note taking to have a valid data. The object of
this study was the jargon used by the Anthropology students in UP
Mindanao. By using the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, the researcher
found out that there are certain thoughts of an individual in one
language such as the jargons used in Anthropology that cannot be
understood by those who live in another language like those
non-Anthropology students such those students from BA
Communication Arts, BA English, and BS Architecture. Anthropology
students have their own jargons that don’t understand by other
people from different fields. For instance, the words that only
28
Anthropology students could understand and interpreted were
habitus, culture, dialectics, praxis, swidden agriculture and many more.
Based on the result of this study, there were five (5)
jargons commonly used by the Anthropology students in UP
Mindanao: acculturation, ethnography, dialectics, habitus, and fieldwork.
Acculturation refers to the process by which a culture is
transformed due to the massive adoption of cultural traits from
another society--it is what happens to a culture when alien
traits diffuse in on a large scale and substantially replace
traditional cultural pattern; ethnography is defined as an
anthropological research in which one learns about the culture of
another society through fieldwork and first hand observation in
that society; and dialectics is the method of reasoning which aims
to understand things concretely in all their movement, change and
interconnection, with their opposite and contradictory sides in
unity. Habitus, on the other hand, is a concept denoting the
totality of learned, bodily skills, habits, style, taste etc.
Lastly, fieldwork is a broad term for research in which
social/cultural anthropologists engage, involving close study and
partial participation in the life of a community or group.
Indeed, there are variations of meanings of the jargon used
by anthropology students when compared and relate to other
courses in University of the Philippines Mindanao such as BA
Communication Arts, BA English, and BS Architecture. However,
there are technical terms that still have the same meaning when
compare to other fields; but the way each field used, applied,
and understand that certain technical terms differs. A good
example of this was the term
fieldwork. It has the same definition to all fields. However, what
makes it different to others is that how the technical term is
used, applied, and interpreted in Anthropology, Communication
Arts, in English, and Architecture. Obviously, it is because
these fields have different methodology in achieving their data
and conducting their fieldworks. And also, the dialectic writing or
essay and ethnographic novel in BA English, which is a course for
writing, is also used and applied in BA Anthropology. It is
because in Anthropology, they are not only conducting fieldworks,
analyzing data and examining results; they are not just
researcher but are also a good writer.
29
Undeniably, for Sociolinguistics, this research can give
more contribution to the development of language, especially
jargons.
References:
F. H. Hankins, “Atavism,” in Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, NewYork, Vol. 2, 1932, pp. 290-291
M. F. Ashley Montagu, The Concept of Atavism (Science, Vol. 87,19\38), pp. 462-463.
30
Em Griffin, “A First Look at Communication Theory,” New York,2009, pp. 43-44.
Latour B (1986) Visualization and cognition: thinking with eyesand hands. Knowledge andSociety: Studies in the Sociology of Culture Past and Present: 1-40
Professor Nobi Mohammed Hasan /published research in engineeringScience Magazine, College of engineering, Asyouot University,Egypt, edit 35 May 2007.
Victor Barnouw, Anthropology : A General Introduction (1979)
Carol and Melvin Ember, Cultural Anthropology (2nd edn., 1977)
Michael Howard and P. McKim, Contemporary Cultural anthropology (1983)
Conrad P. Kottack, Cultural anthropology (3rd edn., 1982)
Roger M. Keesing, Cultural Anthropology, A Contemporary Perspective (2ndedn., 1981)
John Lewis, Anthropology Made Simple (1969)
James L.Peacock and A.Thomas Kirsch, The Human Direction: An EvolutionaryApproach toSocial and Cultural Anthropology (3rd edn., 1980)
James Peoples & G Bailey, Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology(3rd edn.,1994).
James P.Spradley and David W.McCurdy, Anthropology; the CulturalPerspective (2nd edn.,
1980).
APPENDICES
#1 Respondent: 2009-33253 JARGON StructuralismEthnocentrismPost-modernismParticipant ObservationRacism
#2 Respondent: 2009-36326JARGON Synoptic illusionFieldworkEmic-etic divisionEthnographyDialectics
#3 Respondent: 2009: 55704JARGON ReciprocityEthnographySemi-peripheryAcculturationChauvinism
31
#4 Respondent: 2009-33258JARGON FieldworkHabitusMarxistCapitalismPanopticon view
#5 Respondent: 2009-26972
JARGON StructuralismEthnocentrismPost-modernismParticipant ObservationRacism
#6 Respondent: 2009-58404JARGON EthnographyParticipant observationAcculturationSocial stratificationFieldwork
#7 Respondent: 2009-58408JARGON Status quoHabitus
32
PraxisInterfaceDialectics
#8 Respondent: Melanie LanitJARGON HabitusCultureFieldworkAcculturationEpic
#9 Respondent: Laarnie Callos
JARGON HabitusEthnographyFieldworkParticipant observationAcculturation
#10 Respondent: Melody GeolagonJARGON DialecticsFieldworkStructuralismEmicAcculturation
33
#11 Respondent: Isiah ThomasJARGON NuancesHabitusEthnographySwidden agricultureDialectics
SUMMARY:Structuralism- 2 Capitalism-1Ethnocentrism- 1 Panopticonview-1Post-modernism-1 Marxist-1Participant observation-3
Capitalism-1Racism-1 systematic violence-1Synoptic illusion-1 status quo-1Fieldwork-5 Praxis-1Ethnography-6 interface-1Dialectics-4 Socialstratification-1Reciprocity-1 Emic-1
Semi-perophery-1 Nuances-1Acculturation-4 SwiddenAgriculture-1Habitus-5 Marxist-1