The Language of Hunter-Gatherers
Published on 27. February 2020
Book
Hardback
742 pages
978-1-107-00368-2 (ISBN)
Description
Hunter-gatherers are often portrayed as 'others' standing outside the main trajectory of human social evolution. But even after eleven millennia of agriculture and two centuries of widespread industrialization, hunter-gatherer societies continue to exist. This volume, using the lens of language, offers us a window into the inner workings of twenty-first-century hunter-gatherer societies - how they survive and how they interface with societies that produce more. It challenges long-held assumptions about the limits on social dynamism in hunter-gatherer societies to show that their languages are no different either typologically or sociolinguistically from other languages. With its worldwide coverage, this volume serves as a report on the state of hunter-gatherer societies at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and readers in all geographical areas will find arguments of relevance here.
Reviews / Votes
'Overall, this is a fascinating volume that presents many inter-related case studies of how language histories are shaped by HG lifeways, and especially their interaction with neighbouring food producers.' John Mansfield, LINGUIST ListMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 44 mm
Weight
1212 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-107-00368-2 (9781107003682)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Tom Gueldemann | Patrick McConvell | Richard A. Rhodes
The Language of Hunter-Gatherers
Book
12/2022
Cambridge University Press
€65.30
Shipment within 15-20 days
Tom Guldemann
Language of Hunter-Gatherers
E-Book
02/2020
Cambridge University Press
€113.99
Available for download
Persons
Tom Gueldemann is Professor for African linguistics and sociolinguistic at Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin. He specializes in African linguistics with a particular focus on languages subsumed under 'Khoisan' in the Kalahari Basin area of southern Africa as well as on Bantu and wider Niger-Congo. Patrick McConvell has worked on Australian Indigenous languages especially in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. He has published extensively on the social history of Hunter-gatherer languages in general, and language shift, code-switching and mixing of languages. Richard A. Rhodes is Associate Professor of Linguistics at University of California, Berkeley and an internationally recognized expert in Algonquian studies. His recent work has focused on descriptive syntax and nineteenth-century-Ojibwe/Ottawa documents.
Content
Part I. Introductory Chapters: 1. Hunter-gatherer anthropology and language Tom Gueldemann, Patrick McConvell and Richard Rhodes; 2. Genetic landscape of present day hunter-gatherer groups Ellen Gunnasdottir and Mark Stoneking; 3. Linguistc typology and hunter-gatherer languages Balthasar Bickel and Johanna Nichols; 4. Ethnobiology and the hunter-gatherer/food-producer divide Cecil Brown; Part II. Africa: 5. Hunters and gatherers in East Africa and the case of Ontoga (Southwest Ethiopia) Mauro Tosco and Graziano Sava; 6. The Khoe-Kwadi family in Southern Africa Tom Gueldemann; Part III. Tropical Asia: 7. Hunter-gatherers in South and Southeast Asia: the Mla-Bri Jorgen Rischel; 8. Languages in the Malay Peninsula Niclas Burenhult; 9. Language in the Andaman Islands Juliette Blevins; 10. Historical linguistics and Philippine hunter-gatherers Lawrence A. Reid; 11. Hunter-gatherers of Borneo and their languages Antonia Soriente; Part IV. New Guinea and Australia: 12. The linguistic situation in near Oceana before agriculture Malcolm Ross; 13. Language, locality and lifestyle in New Guinea Mark Donahue; 14. Small language survival and large language expansion in aboriginal Australia Peter Sutton; 15. Language and population shift in pre-colonial Australia: non-Pama-Nyungan languages Mark Harvey; 16. The spread of Pama-Nyungan in Australia Patrick McConvell; Part V. Northeastern Eurasia: 17. Typological accommodation in central Siberia Edward J. Vadja; 18. Hunter-gatherers in Eastern Siberia Gregory D. S. Anderson and K. David Harrison; Part VI. North America: 19. Primitivism in hunter and gatherer languages: the case of Eskimo words for snow Willem J. de Reuse; 20. Language shift in the Subarctic and central Plains Richard A. Rhodes; 21. Uto-Aztecan hunter-gatherers Jane H. Hill; Part VII. South America: 22. Language and subsistence patterns in the Amazonian Vaupes Patience Epps; 23. The Southern Plains and the Continental Tip Alejandra Vidal and Jose Braunstein.