ANTHRO 2D Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Noam Chomsky, Universal Grammar, Franz Boas
Document Summary
What is language: medium of communication, organized collections of sounds and symbols. What is culture: deals with beliefs and symbols, shapes how we view the world, normalized ways of doing things, spoken and unspoken rules of behavior, organized collection of meanings. Good english/bad english : how language has shaped our culture, e. g. use of commas. Reading scientific articles: read intro and conclusion, skim for key terms. Cultural relativism: beliefs and practices must be understood through lens of one particular culture: should not be judged according to european standards. Historical particularism: rejection of evolutionary model of how societies and cultures progressed over time and rejects the idea of evolution. Studied native americans, the kwakiutl: learning their language and practices. No natural association between people and their language. Native languages are not inferior to western ones. Four subfields: sociocultural, linguistic, biological, archeological. Language and culture constative of each other.
