Synopses & Reviews
Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader is a comprehensive collection of the best work that has been published in this exciting and growing area of anthropology, and is organized to provide a guide to key issues in the study of language as a cultural resource and speaking as a cultural practice. Revised and updated, this second edition contains eight new articles on speech communities, the power and performance of language, and narratives, among others.
Editor Alessandro Duranti's extensive introduction provides an original perspective on the development of the field and highlights its most compelling issues. Each section of the volume includes a brief introductory statement, a set of guiding questions, and a recommended further reading list. The readings are both historically oriented and thematically coherent, and are grouped according to four themes: speech community and communicative competence; the performance of language; language socialization and literacy practices; and the power of language. Duranti has taken care throughout to trace theoretical and methodological connections among different authors and research agendas from anthropology and other disciplines. This is a collection that stands to serve both scholars and students.
Review
"Another stellar contribution from a leading linguistic anthropologist who is also the field's foremost anthologist and textbook author. The updated readings, editorial framing, and appended study-questions are excellent throughout."
–Alan Rumsey, Australian National University
"This new volume reflects the vibrancy of work in linguistic anthropology, and will be an indispensable teaching resource for language and culture courses of many different kinds."
–Penelope Brown, Max Plank Institute for Psycholinguistics
"This revised edition of Duranti's text provides an indispensable introduction to the vibrant field of linguisic anthopology. Duranti provides conceptual vocabulary and ethnographic exemplars for the complex multiplicity of language as a social activity, ranging from relatively isolated small-scale societies to speech communities within contemporary American society."
–Regna Darnell, University of Western Ontario
"Framed by an excellent historical introduction, Duranti's reader provides students and scholars alike with a sophisticated yet accessible introduction to the range of topics and approaches that make up modern linguistic anthropology. The readings, linked by concise and thoughtful introductions, include a judicious mix of classic articles and new research. This collection should provide a definitive vision for linguistic anthropology for a long time to come."
–Bradd Shore, Emory University
"Very well organized and selected, and thus an excellent teaching resource, this reader provides perspective on the coherence of linguistic anthropology as a field. It can also be flexibly tailored to bring a linguistic approach to most arenas of topical interest to contemporary anthropological research."
–George Marcus, Rice University
Review
"Alessandro Duranti has succeeded in compiling an excellent reader that many instructors and students will find useful as an introduction to key works in linguistic anthropology. Leaders in the theory and practice of contemporary linguistic anthropology are well represented, and all of the articles are excellent; indeed, most are recognized as contemporary "classics" in the field. This reader is an excellent addition to the growing library of readers in linguistic anthropology and a valuable new resource for both students and teachers." (
Current Anthropology [from 1
st edition])
"Many of the articles included...are examples of highly innovative scholarly work on issues of language related to culture. It provides an excellent (and long overdue) discussion of terminology, American lingustic anthropology's development within Cultural Anthropology, its subsequent drift away from anthropology towards an independent discipline increasingly focused on theoretical anthropologists in the late 1960s, and its reestablishment as a subfield of anthropology in the 1980s-90s. As a textbook this reader makes a very useful teaching aid, as a source book it provides valuable insights into the discipline of linguistic anthropology." (Linguist List)
About the Author
Alessandro Duranti is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Dean of Social Sciences at UCLA. His publications include Key Terms in Language and Culture (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001) and A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2004). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and the recipient of various awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the UCLA Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award, and the American Anthropological Association/Mayfield Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments to the Second Edition.
Preface to the Second Edition.
Linguistic Anthropology: History, Ideas, and Issues (Alessandro Duranti).
Part I: Ideal and Real Speech Communities.
Introduction.
1 The Speech Community (John J. Gumperz).
2 The African-American Speech Community: Reality and Sociolinguists (Marcyliena Morgan).
3 The Social Circulation of Media Discourse and the Mediation of Communities (Debra Spitulnik).
4 Communication of Respect in Interethnic Service Encounters (Benjamin Bailey).
5 The Idealised Native Speaker, Reified Ethnicities, and Classroom Realities (Constant Leung, Roxy Harris, and Ben Rampton).
Part II: The Performance of