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27 - Language and archaeology

State of the art

from Part V - Interdisciplinary perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2014

By
Roger M. Blench
Edited by
N. J. Enfield ,
Paul Kockelman  and
Jack Sidnell
N. J. Enfield
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute
Paul Kockelman
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Jack Sidnell
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

This chapter discusses the evolution of the ideas that connect linguistics with the modeling of prehistory and focuses on particular topics to illustrate the practical working out of their interactions. It begins with some of the contrasting opinions about the relationships between linguistics and archaeology, and in particular the negative views of some archaeologists. The chapter explores some of the main topics that have been the subject of debate, in particular claims about numerical classification of languages and the processes of language diversification. It considers the genesis of writing, for which there is considerable epigraphic evidence but which can also be documented ethnographically and the evolution of gender registers, something clearly present in Sumerian but also the subject of contemporary descriptions. The chapter takes on one of the most controversial issues, the proposed synthesis of linguistics, archaeology, and DNA evidence to generate new hypotheses about prehistory.

Keywords

mediated communicationwordsremediationlanguagematerialityimmediacymedia
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Anthropology , pp. 661 - 685
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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