ANTHRO 104 Study Guide - Conceptual System, Dani People, Headhunting
Document Summary
Because concepts don"t exist apart from the signs that express them . Sound image (or signifier) example the color red. The relationship between the sound image and the concept is arbitrary and conventional. Different languages carve up the world different ways. Can a concept travel across linguistic cultural boundaries. Llongot notion of liget in headhunting (studied by anthropologist michelle rosaldo) liget = passion/anger (male emotion) like a weight. Can also feel it when in mourning we don"t have this feeling in our culture. Took a sample of 110 languages and looked at color categories in each. Found out that not every language has the same color categories. Interesting because scientifically we all observe color the same way. Some languages only have 2 color categories (light/dark) When languages only had 3 color categories the third color was always red. Some languages have as many as 11 categories. If concepts were dictated by nature or the brain.
