Culture, Language, and Thought

Anthropology 3002 James S. Boster Spring 2009

Language is the most important means that humans use to organize and transmit their understandings of the world. The organized pool of information transmitted principally through language is what we call culture. This course explores what the study of language can tell us about culture and about ourselves as culture bearers. It also examines how language might constrain and structure our perception of the world. The required text for the course, D'Andrade's The Development of Cognitive Anthropology (DCA), is available at the bookstore. Other required readings will be available through this page. Evaluation in the course will be based on two fieldwork projects (30%), and a midterm and a final examination (70%). (The better of the two scores will be counted 45%, the other 25%.) The midterm will be on the Thursday of the 7th week of class (3/5), and the final will be whenever the University decides it should be. The class meets 12:300 PM to 1:45 PM in Young 233. I expect that students will know the student conduct code and the standards of civility appropriate to the classroom. Office hours will be held Tuesday afternoons 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM in Beach Hall 439. I can be reached via e-mail at james.boster@uconn.edu. The TAs name is Dan Finkel, his office hours are Thursday 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM or by appointment in Beach Hall 440 and his email is daniel.finkel@uconn.edu.

Note: the links to lecture notes below are intended only for the use of students in Anthropology 244 at the University of Connecticut.

Images from various sources are used under the provisions of fair use under copyright law and copyrights to those images are retained by the original publishers.

Copyright to the content and organization of the site is retained by the author, James Boster. Lecture topics and contents may change.

Schedule of Topics and Readings.

Readings to the First Midterm