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2015

AN News: “At the Crossroads of Linguistics and Anthropology: Disciplinary perspectives on language documentation” by Lise Dobrin (University of Virginia) and Niko Besnier (University of Amsterdam)

Anthropology News Article by Lise Dobrin and Niko Besnier For a long time in anthropology, the documentation of languages on the brink of disappearing was… Read More »AN News: “At the Crossroads of Linguistics and Anthropology: Disciplinary perspectives on language documentation” by Lise Dobrin (University of Virginia) and Niko Besnier (University of Amsterdam)

Letters, we get letters…

A list of links shared by SLA members and correspondents, including bilingual education in Columbia, an oral history of segregation in Alaska, a Faroe Islands documentary, and more. Links do not reflect official opinion of the SLA, its officers or members.

AAA Sports Mascot resolution

The American Anthropological Association has passed a resolution condemning the use of Native American mascots unless appropriate consultation has taken place. The move comes in part through the efforts of the SLA Committee on Language and Social Justice, in conjunction with other AAA sections.

Call for Nominations: SLA Award for Public Outreach and Community Service

The submission deadline is November 6, 2015.

Created and awarded for the first time by the SLA in 2014, this award honors an SLA member or members for work that effectively impacts public awareness of social issues involving language and communication and/or represents a significant service to a particular community outside of the academy. Applicants may self-nominate or consent to the nomination of others.

However, anthropologists do over-use some words

Annie Claus’s essay, “How a professional writer improved my academic writing” at Savage Minds is quite useful. She counsels academics to resist overly long sentences, to vary the structure of paragraphs, and to reflect on each element of the paper and what it contributes to communicating the message. I differ with Claus, however, in cautioning against a particular set of words. At the risk of being labeled a positivist, I’ve compared the frequency of “insipid grammatical markers” in American Anthropologist, the Corpus of Contemporary American English, and the work of Joan Didion. The results, to paraphrase an academic writing cliche, are a bit more complicated.

Spotlight: Journal of Linguistic Anthropology

The Journal of Linguistic Anthropology is the primary publication of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology. This web site features a variety of information about the journal, and links to additional content from the American Anthropological Association and Wiley Online Library.

Religious terrorism is sadly not unique

The January 7th attacks in France caused great sadness, anger, and fear. They also occasioned outpourings of support, and analyses of what went wrong. Some responses assert that religiously inspired terrorism is “unique” to Islam. Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian violence show that this is incorrect. Understanding religious violence requires careful analysis, not easy assertions.