This chapter discusses language as part of culture. Language is central to culture since it is the means through which most of culture is learned and communicated. This chapter explores the structures and components all languages have in common. It discusses the theories and objectives of historical linguistics, and it demonstrates how linguistics and archaeology work together in reconstructing historical human migration patterns. It looks at the many forms of sociolinguistics, the discussion of how languages reflect issues of power, gender, race, and ethnic identity.
Learning Objective 1: Understand the structural components of all languages.
Learning Objective 2: Understand the processes anthropologists use for uncovering the histories of languages and language groups.
Learning Objective 3: Explore the political implications of language contact, language interaction, and language use in communities and within states.
Learning Objective 4: Explore how subcultures and ethnic groups use language as a form of resistance and expression. Understand the gender–based differences in language style within one culture.
Learning Objecting 5: Understand how anthropologists and linguists think about African American Vernacular and other linguistic forms unique to one language community.
