ANT100Y1 Study Guide - Final Guide: Dental Caries, Migraine, General Order
Final Exam 2016
ANT100 Final Exam (Textbook Notes)
1. Kalmar, Ch. 1
a) Language
• Linguists and anthropologists study language ultimately as a universal phenomenon
the "language faculty"
• They are interested in particular languages (such as English, Vietnamese, or Swahili),
which are products of that universal "faculty"
• There are many universal features in language
Ex. all languages appear to have nouns and verbs (this may be because we are
programmed as humans to easily process only certain kind of language rules; it is
easy for us to understand noun and verb placement)
• It is difficult for us to make negatives by reversing the word order in a sentence
("negative rule") because our minds have not been programmed to process such rules
easily
• Do not confuse language with its "channel"
Language need not be spoken (deaf-mutes have language, but express it other
than vocally)
Language is the language "faculty"; an innate ability possessed by humans
It has a structure (such as "nouns come before words") that is independent of
the way we express it (not altered through speech, through writing, or through
sign language—which are simply channels by which we can send messages to
others)
Traditional education privileges writing above other channels. Linguists and
anthropologists do not
• Do not confuse language with communication
Language need not be communicated; internal "speech" exists, too
The internal narratives through which we describe to ourselves what happens
help us to make sense of our relationships with other humans and the
environment
Greeks understood this, through their idea of communicating with God
Mikhail Bakhtin argued that internal speech is secondary to dialogue between
different individuals; monologue happens only after dialogue is internalized
• One meaning of culture is "a shared understanding of the world" (when we internalize
language we also internalize culture)
b) Systems of Signs
• Language is not the only tool to make and to internalize interpretations of the world
• Words, which are justifiably thought of as building blocks of language, are only one
kind of sign
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Final Exam 2016
• Signs are items that stand for other items
Ex. The word dog stands for a certain kind of animal, but so does a picture of a dog,
or a photograph
• Certain facts are true of words that are not necessarily true of other signs
Language is arbitrary and conventional (symbolic)
Natural language is arbitrary; this means there is no necessary connection
between the sign and what it stands for
Ex. “dog”, “chien”, “sobaka”,are the English, French, and Russian ways of
referring to the same animal—but obviously, one is not a more natural way of
referring to canines than any other (so there is no necessary connection
between these words and the animal, these words exist by convention only)
• Signs that are arbitrary and entirely conventional are called symbols (by Charles
Pierce)
Most words are symbols, and language is therefore for the most part a
symbolic system
Arguably, the "language" of color does not work in this way
Ex. If a light green color comes across as soothing, it is probably not because
of some culture-specific convention, but because of a universal human
propensity to react to it in this way
• Only a small part, if any, of language is iconic
Signs that do reproduce some aspect of their referent are called iconic
Ex. A picture or a photograph of a dog is iconic, as is a recording of its
barking; so is a dog paw depicted on a bag of dog food
There are a few words in every language that resemble what they stand for
through the way they sound; these iconic words are called onomatopoeia
Ex. “meouw-meouw”, woof-woof”“splash”, “bang”
c) Indexes
• Much of language is indexical
• In addition to arbitrary and iconic signs, Charles Pierce recognized indexical ones
(indices or indexes)
• An index does not reproduce any aspect of what it stands for, yet it has an existential
relationship with its referent
Ex. smoke is an index of fire; the relationship between smoke and fire is neither
arbitrary (totally determined by convention) nor iconic (smoke does not look like fire)
• The meanings of indexical words (such as “I”) are NOT fixed by convention; we need
to know the spatio-temporal context in order to understand what or whom they refer
to
• What is important to linguistics anthropologists is that indexical terms encode a
reality that is constituted as we speak
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Ex. You become you to me only because I address you, Up becomes up only if I find
myself under it
d) Linguistics, the study of language, is part, in this sense, of semiotics, the study of all
kinds of signs
• Linguistic anthropology and semiotic anthropology are disciplines that study the
role of signs in human culture and society (with linguistic anthropology focused
on the signs of language specifically)
2. Eller, Ch. 10 (Religion: Interacting with the Non-Human World)
• Religions convey belief and meaning in symbols
• Various definitions of religion (studied in anthropology)
1) A unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things that are set
aside and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral
community called a Church, all those who adhere to them
2) A set of rituals, rationalized by myth, which mobilizes supernatural powers for
the purpose of achieving or preventing transformations of state in man and
nature
3) A system of symbols which act to establish powerful, persuasive, and long-
lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general
order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality
that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic
• Functions of religion
1) Explanation, especially of origin or causes
2) Control, both of culture and of nature
3) Legitimation, of cultural and natural realities
• Religions entities
Beings
Soul a religious concept of a non-material component or components of a
living human (it is widely believed that a soul survives the death of the body, at
least temporarily, and continues in another form of existence)
Ghost a religious or spiritual being, generally regarded to be the disembodied
spiritual part of a deceased human
Ancestor Spirits the spirits of dead family members who are believed to
continue to reside near and interact with their living kin
• Animism a type of religious belief in which non-human species and phenomena have
spiritual components that interact with and sanction humans
• Totemism a religious conception that human individuals or groups have a symbolic or
spiritual connection with particular species, objects, or phenomena
• Theism the religious belief in one or more gods
• Monotheism the form of theism that includes belief in only one god/goddess
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