APG 203 Lecture Notes - Enculturation, Sign Language, Cultural Learning
Document Summary
Language and communication: what is language, primary means of communication (spoken/ written, transmitted through learning as a part of enculturation. Babies try to imitate peoples words/ mouth movements: based on arbitrary, learned associations between words and the things they represent, allows humans to: Conjure up elaborate images: more complex than any other animal. Discuss past and future: only animal to discuss all tenses (past, present, and future) Learn from others mistakes: take advice, anthropologists study language in its social and cultural context. Non human communication: call systems, limited number of sounds that are produced in response to specific stimuli, automatic and cannot be combined. Does not need to be learned unlike language. Need to choose which call to use if two situations arise at the same time (ex: food or danger: at some point in human development, ancestors began to combine calls and to understand combinations. Washoe and lucy exhibited several human traits.
