1. Language, Communication and Culture
How Anthropologists Study Meaning

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The KEY Questions
How do anthropologists study meaning?
What are basic features of language?
How do culture, society and communication interact?
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Origins of Language
Verbal language developed around years ago
Using calls, body postures and gestures
Emergence of writing associated with emergence of the state
Development of the international phonetic alphabet.
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4. Thought, Language and Society
Sapir-Whorf
language determines how we see the world and behaviour
reality is filtered through language categories
Sociolinguistics
social position determines the content and form of language, e.g. in the relation between languages and dialects.
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5. Properties of Language
It is symbolic: the relation between the word and the object referred to is arbitrary and culturally determined.
A symbol is defined as something that stands for something else, e.g. a flag for a nation.
If we examine the word for ‘dog’ in many languages, we can see that there is no ‘natural’ relationship between the symbols d-o-g and a four-legged furry mammal.
All words can be divided into the signifier, i.e. the oral or written symbols that represent something.
And the signified, the concept of the thing to which the signifier refers.
The relationships between signifiers are relations of difference: we know that dog is a dog because it is not a cog, a fog, or a god.
These relations of difference can be studied by anthropologists.
Levi-Strauss: every culture has basic, key symbols that are arranged in relations of opposition.
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6. Properties of Language II
Language exhibits ‘displacement’, i.e. it can refer to events in the past or future and in places that are distant from the speaker or writer.
Language is also conventional: it is defined by its use. E.g. the Oxford English dictionary.
Language is productive: individuals can combine words to make new meanings.
It is universal: all human societies possess language.
Geertz: Culture can be ‘read’ as one reads a ‘text’.
Through examining public documents, e.g. prominent literary works, scientific works, legal maxims, etc.
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Symbolic
Productive
Conventional
Binary Oppositions
Universal
“Culture is like a text”
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8. An Example of Symbolic Analysis: The Egg and the Sperm
Emily Martin examined medical textbooks used in universities.
Despite their scientific neutrality, she found that gender images and symbols were very important in them.
Especially relating to biological processes of conception, birth, menstruation and menopause.
In describing conception, the egg is portrayed as passive, and the sperm as active.
After 1984, new research showed that the egg possessed adhesive molecules that actively embedded the sperm in the egg.
Also the action of the sperm’s tail was shown to be mainly sideways and not forward.
After this, medical textbooks portrayed the egg as a ‘vamp’ that entrapped the sperm.
Imagery and metaphors of ideal gender relations, in which good women are generally more passive than men when it comes to dating and romance.
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