ANT 260 - Topic: Language, Culture, Power (1)

This course examines how language shapes social life. Using the tools and insights of linguistic anthropology, we explore a variety of cultural contexts in order to better understand how language creates, reproduces, and sometimes challenges social identity, group belonging, and patterns of inequality. Throughout the class we examine language as a complex system of signs that enables and shapes our social worlds. We interrogate cross-cultural examples of everyday language practices as well as artistic performances with attention to the production of social power. This course provides the opportunity to better understand the significance of language in our own ongoing social interactions, with the goal of comprehending how language practices contribute to both the construction of and challenges to ongoing patterns of social inequality. Prerequisite: ANT 101 OR SOC 101