ANTH 2110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Standard Average European, Benjamin Lee Whorf, Linguistic Relativity
21 Nov 2017
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Anthropologists communicate with their participants: affects your ability to observe/ understand the nuances of every life, might limit your choice of methods. Built rapport by speaking the local language: can make your more approachable (e. g. bourgeois in east harlem, can convey your investment/ interest in understanding the people and culture you study. Allows us to formulate and express thoughts, engage in dialogue and reproduce messages. Humans and some hominids (apes) use language. Can share specific information but there is no dialogue or reproduction of messages. Many animals (e. g. bees can communicate with one another) The meaning of a symbol depends on the culture, perspective of the reader: sign = specific meaning = symbol. Words are an example of a symbol: name and thing is not a word, concept and the meaning is a word. The theory that different languages create different ways of thinking: although language is heavily influenced by our culture, we are also heavily influences by our language.
