Info session on Anthropology Honours (Go through “visitors’ entrance” from Regent Walk, tell receptionist where you’re going, and she will buzz you through. Go up stairs to first floor. Room is in that corner above reception.) Wednesday, March 14, 1pm Committee Rm. 3 in U-Office
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Info session on Anthropology Honours (Go through visitors entrance from Regent Walk, tell receptionist where youre going, and she will buzz you through.
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Info session on Anthropology Honours
(Go through “visitors’ entrance” from Regent Walk, tell receptionist where you’re going, and she will buzz you through. Go up stairs to first floor. Room is in that corner above reception.)
Wednesday, March 14, 1pm Committee Rm. 3 in
U-Office
Phonemes
Minimal meaningful contrast in sound.
Smallest meaningful difference in sounds.
“The units which we call ‘phonemes’ are in themselves of no importance: it is the differences among them that count.”
Phonetics
Description of all the sounds in a language
Phonology is the study and theory of sounds in Language
The speech accent archive presents speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed.
seda “to count” se:da “strong”pam “night” pa:m “chestnut”
German: die Stadt, der Staat
More examples of phonemic contrasts
etics
System-external description and analysis
Victor Turner’s first stage of ritual analysis (observe behaviour)
Biological genealogies in kinship (parents & children)
emics
System-internal description and analysis
Explains social or cultural elements according to indigenous definitions/categories
Victor Turner’s third stage of ritual analysis (interpretation following internal logic of the culture)
Kinship terms (how the natives classify their relatives)
Etic Kin terms
Ego
MZF
B ZMBD MBS
M MBFZ FB
MZD MZS
S
FZD FZS FBD FBS
DD DS SD SD
DMBDD MBDDFZSD FZSS
Emic Kin terms (English)
Ego
auntfather
brother sistercousin cousin
mother uncleaunt uncle
cousincousin
son
cousincousincousin cousin
grand-daughter
grand-son
grand-daughter
grand-son
daughtercousin cousincousin cousin
Emic categories of kinship(Hawaiian)
Etic distinctions
External frameworks or universal classificatory grids
• Linguistic typologies (e.g., analytic, inflecting, agglutinating, polysynthetic)
• Linnaean classification of plants & animals (genus, species)
• Disease (medical pathology)
But are these just our (Western) emic categories, deployed universally?
emics
Not the natives’ model Boas’s secondary rationalization, Turner’s exegetical models
Emic models, like phonemes, are constructions formalized by the analyst on the basis of distinctive features present in indigenous usage
Hanunoo pronouns
Etic distinctions inelegant and inaccurate
(person, number, gender, inclusive vs. exclusive)
I - 1st, sing we-1st, pl
you - 2nd, sing & pl.
s/h/it - 3rd, sing (fem/masc/neut) they-3rd, pl.
Emic categories are Minimal membership, nonminimal membership
Inclusion of speaker, exclusion of speaker
Inclusions of hearer, exclusion of hearer
Categories not overt in native consciousness
Emic paradigms
/t/ and /d/ are in meaningful contrast, so are /p/ - /t/ - /k/
Morphological paradigm: ljublju, ljubish, ljubit
An analogy to cultural paradigms is age grades.
In Maasai culture: child, junior, warrior, junior elder, elder
Info session on Anthropology Honours
(Go through “visitors’ entrance” from Regent Walk, tell receptionist where you’re going, and she will buzz you through. Go up stairs to first floor. Room is in that corner above reception.)