Tag Archives: linguistic anthropology

Four Excerpts from a Four-Field Introductory Textbook

In the weeks leading up to the publication of Through the Lens of Anthropology: An Introduction to Human Evolution and Culture by Robert J. Muckle and Laura Tubelle de González, we posted four separate excerpts from the book on the main University of Toronto Press blog. We would like to round them up here for interested instructors. read more…

  • dateDecember 11, 2015
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  • posted byAnna
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The Sexual Lives of Others

As a linguistic anthropologist, I turn my attention to the fact that sex is not only about, well, sex, but how people talk about sex. In Love Stories: Language, Private Love, and Public Romance in Georgia, I address a distinctive way of ordering sex, reproduction, and romance among the Khevsurs of Georgia. As a linguistic anthropologist, my goal was to use ethnography to illustrate the pervasive role of language in mediating some sphere of social life, in this case, sexuality. Language and sexuality are explored through the linguistic genres of romance such as conversation, poetry, and gossip. read more…

  • dateMay 25, 2015
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  • posted byPaul Manning
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Five Simple Steps for Helping Students Write Ethnographic Papers

In my last post, I made the case for having students attempt ethnographic papers in courses other than “methods.” By introducing early undergraduates to the pleasures of ethnography, I think we showcase anthropology’s strong suit, but more importantly, I think it is a great way to scaffold them into ways of writing and reading that will serve them well in both the social sciences and the humanities. In this second post, I share the steps I go through to squeeze an ethnographic experience into what are admittedly short, one-term courses (12 weeks). read more…

  • dateSeptember 11, 2013
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  • posted byLindsay A. Bell
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Teaching Culture and Methods to Novice/Non-Anthropologists

Ashley, an eager undergraduate student, arrived to my office exasperated. “My fieldwork isn’t about, like, anything! I must have, like, totally done it wrong.” Ashley had spent the afternoon observing interactions in the waiting room one of Toronto’s upscale tattoo parlours. Her visit was part of an assignment in my second-year linguistic anthropology course, “Culture and Communication.” Introducing undergraduates to ethnographic methods and writing is a highlight of our discipline… read more…

  • dateSeptember 5, 2013
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  • posted byLindsay A. Bell
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Mandatory Respect Language Exercise

For those teaching linguistic anthropology, we would like to share a short exercise provided to us by John L. Steckley at Humber College. Download the PDF of Dr. Steckley’s exercise on mandatory respect to use with your students. read more…

  • dateJanuary 14, 2013
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  • posted byAnna
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