Synopses & Reviews
Key Terms in Language and Culture is an exciting new collection of 75 original short essays, written by leading scholars in linguistic anthropology and related fields, covering all the major issues in the contemporary study of language and culture.
Together these essays provide a contemporary lexicon of language from an anthropological perspective. Each 1,000-word essay includes a brief description of a key concept, the issues associated with the concept, and the major contributions to its study. There is a set of suggested readings at the end of each essay that provides readers with an excellent starting point for further study.
Key Terms in Language and Culture is a comprehensive collection written in a clear and intellectually engaging manner. It is an ideal companion for introductory courses in language and culture, as well as advanced seminars in anthropology. It also constitutes a useful reference book for scholars and educators who want to know more about how language matters are being studied within anthropology.
Review
"Exploratory, generous, clear, and provocative, Key Terms in Language and Culture is an invaluable resource for any scholar concerned with the role and shape of language and communication in human lives, both present and past. Beyond this, it makes explicit the many complex but tightly woven links between language and culture, demonstrating with energy and to good effect the multiple ways in which language indeed matters."
Don Brenneis, University of California at Santa Cruz "This book is a unique collection -a set of key terms and definitions by many of the leading scholars in linguistic anthropology. An excellent overview and orientation to the study of language in culture, it is filled with gems of condensed yet clear formulation and stimulating commentary. A model of collaborative enterprise." Susan Gal, University of Chicago
"This volume, which includes contributions by some of the leading scholars in the field, is a unique companion for introductory courses in language and culture and advanced seminars in anthropology." Discourse Studies
Review
“A great and unique master. . . . Valeri had an ability for amazement and wonder that came from a practice of ethnography which, rather than being a nominalist search for historical details, looked to life itself as a source of percepts as well as a producer of concepts.”
Review
“Any superlative diminishes Valeri and his scholarship, which is characterized by rich, subtle, and complex ethnographic and historical information, underscored by theoretical rigor based on extensive fieldwork.”
Synopsis
Key Terms in Language and Cultureis a new collection of 75 short original essays written by leading scholars in linguistic anthropology and related fields, and covering the major issues in the contemporary study of language and culture. Together these essays provide a lexicon of language from an anthropological perspective. Each essay includes a brief description of a key concept, the issues associated with the concept, and the major contributions to its study. There is a set of suggested readings at the end of each essay that provides readers with a good starting point for a further study.
Synopsis
The late anthropologist Valerio Valeri is best known for the high quality of his writings on specific societies of Polynesia and eastern Indonesia, but Classic concepts in anthropology makes available a different side of Valeris inimitable genius, a series of dazzlingly erudite, comparative essays on core topics in the history of anthropological theory, originally published in Italian or French. This new volume brings together Valeris masterful discussions of anthropological thought about ritual, fetishism, cosmogonic myth, belief, caste, kingship, mourning, play, feasting, ceremony, and cultural relativism. Classic concepts in anthropology is an essential resource for students and researchers throughout the social sciences and humanities.
Synopsis
The late anthropologist Valerio Valeri (1944–98) was best known for his substantial writings on societies of Polynesia and eastern Indonesia. This volume, however, presents a lesser-known side of Valeri’s genius through a dazzlingly erudite set of comparative essays on core topics in the history of anthropological theory. Offering masterly discussions of anthropological thought about ritual, fetishism, cosmogonic myth, belief, caste, kingship, mourning, play, feasting, ceremony, and cultural relativism, Classic Concepts in Anthropology, presented here with a critical foreword by Rupert Stasch and Giovanni da Col, will be an eye-opening, essential resource for students and researchers not only in anthropology but throughout the humanities.
About the Author
Valerio Valeri (1944-98) was an Italian anthropologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago. He is the author of several books, including Kingship and Sacrifice: Ritual and Society in Ancient Hawaii, published by the University of Chicago Press.
Rupert Stasch is a lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Cambridge and the author of Society of Others: Kinship and Mourning in a West Papuan Place.
Giovanni da Col is a research fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oslo and the founder of HAU Books and HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory.
Table of Contents
Preface: Alessandro Duranti.
1. Acquisition: Susan Ervin-Tripp.
2. Act: Marina Sbisà.
3. Agency: Laura M. Ahearn.
4. Body: Mariella Pandolfi.
5. Brain: John Schumann.
6. Category: Ward H. Goodenough.
7. Codes: Celso Alvarez-Caccamo.
8. Color: Paul Kay.
9. Community: Marcyliena H. Morgan.
10. Competence: Jack Sidnell.
11. Conflict: Marco Jacquemet.
12. Contact: Christine Jourdan.
13. Control: Allen D. Grimshaw.
14. Crossing: Ben Rampton.
15. Deaf: Carol Padden.
16. Dreams: Laura R. Graham.
17. Endangered: Robert E. Moore.
18. Evolution: Kathleen R. Gibson.
19. Expert: Aaron Cicourel.
20. Functions: Michael Silverstein.
21. Gender: Mary Bucholtz.
22. Genre: Richard Bauman.
23. Gesture: John B. Haviland.
24. Grammar: John W. DuBois.
25. Healing: James Wilce.
26. Heteroglossia: Vyacheslav Ivanov.
27. Humor: William O. Beeman.
28. Iconicity: Bruce Mannheim.
29. Identity: Paul V. Kroskrity.
30. Ideology: Joseph Errington.
40. Ideophone: Dennis Tedlock.
41. Improvisation: R. Keith Sawyer.
42. Indexicality: William F. Hanks.
43. Individual: Barbara Johnstone.
44. Inference: John J. Gumperz.
45. Intentionality: Alessandro Duranti.
46. Interview: Charles Briggs.
47. Literacy: Niko Besnier.
48. Maxim: Stephen C. Levinson.
49. Media: Debra Spitulnik.
50. Metaphor: Bran Ben-Amos.
51. Meter: Giorgio Banti.
52. Music: Steven Feld & Aaron Fox.
53. Names: Betsy Rymes.
54. Narrative: Harriet E. Manelis Klein.
55. Orality: Alan Rumsey.
56. Oratory: Joel Kuipers.
57. Participation: Marjorie H. Goodwin.
58. Particles: Haruko M. Cook.
59. Performativity: Kira Hall.
60. Plagiarism: Ron Scollon.
61. Poetry: Dell Hymes.
62. Power: Susan Philips.
63. Prayer: Patricia Baquedano-Lopez.
64. Prophecy: John Leavitt.
65. Proverb: Kwesi Yankah.
66. Reconstruction: Victor Golla.
67. Reflexivity: John A. Lucy.
68. Register: Asif Agha.
69. Relativity: Alessandro Duranti.
70. Repetition: Penelope Brown.
71. Signing: Leila Monaghan.
72. Socialization: Elinor Ochs.
73. Space: Elizabeth Keating.
74. Style: Norma Mendoza-Denton.
75. Switching: Benjamin Bailey.
76. Syncretism: Jane H. Hill.
77. Theater: Ingjerd Hoëm.
78. Translation: Regna Darnell.
79. Truth: Susan D. Blum.
80. Turn: Sally Jacoby.
81. Variation: John Baugh.
82. Vision: Charles Goodwin.
83. Voice: Webb Keane.
84. Writing: Antonio Perri.