ANTH245 2007-09-17: Difference between revisions

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* Same "universal grammar" applied to language and other domains
* Same "universal grammar" applied to language and other domains


== The image of the computer ==
=== The image of the computer ===
* Explained by reference to the computer (or database)
* Explained by reference to the computer (or database)
* Not the only time:
* Not the only time:
Line 48: Line 48:
<br/>
<br/>
''The Savage Mind'', p. 89.
''The Savage Mind'', p. 89.
<br/>
It is, in fact, difficult to see why certain linguistic problems could not be
solved by modern calculating machines. With knowledge of the phonological
structure of a language and the laws which govern the grouping of consonants
and vowels, a student could easily use a machine to compute all the combina-
tions of phonemes constituting the words of n syllables existing in the vocabu-
lary, or even the number of combinations compatible with the structure of
the language under consideration, such as previously defined. With a machine
into which would be "fed" the equations regulating the types of structures
with which phonemics usually deals, the repertory of sound which human
speech organs can emit, and the minimal differential values, determined by
psycho-physiological methods, which distinguish between the phonemes closest
to one another, one would doubtless be able to obtain a computation of the
totality of phonological structures for n oppositions (n being as high as one
wished). One could thus construct a sort of periodic table of linguistic struc-
tures that would be comparable to the table of elements which Mendeleieff
introduced into modern chemistry. It would then only remain for us to check
the place of known languages in this table, to identify the positions and the
relationships of the languages whose first-hand study is still too imperfect to
give us a proper theoretical knowledge of them, and to discover the place of
languages that have disappeared, are unknown, yet to come,, or simply possible.
<br/>
"Language and the Analysis of Social Laws", p. 57-58.
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
* Other examples from our reading this week?


== Essay 2 (Mythology) ==
== Essay 2 (Mythology) ==

Revision as of 00:15, 17 September 2007

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ANTH 245: Lecture for SEPT 17 2007

Recap

Rappaport's second cybernetic loop

  • Sacred propositions -> pragramatic proposition -> the System --> Ritual experience --> Sacred propositions
  • Actually similar to this:
    • EXPERIENCE --> RELIGION --> POLITICS --> ECONOMICS --> EXPERIENCE

Segue

Cognitive models

Actually looking at a pattern (myth)

Levi-Strauss

Background

Essay 1 (Structuralism)

>> See Levi-Strauss, 1951, "Language and the Analysis of Social Laws"

Wiener's pessimism

  • Working from analysis of "time series" data under stable conditions
    • e.g. anti-aircraft
  • Famously found social science unfertile

The model of linguistics

  • Historical linguistics
    • Grimm's law
    • Regular and unconscious
    • Phonemes and perception ("sound blindness")
  • Langue vs. Parole

Kroeber's Theory

Structuralism

  • The linguistic analogy
  • Elements and rules
  • Same as "code"
  • Same "universal grammar" applied to language and other domains

The image of the computer

  • Explained by reference to the computer (or database)
  • Not the only time:

The day may come when all the available documentation on Australian tribes is transferred to punched cards and with the help of a computer their entire techno-economic, social and religious structures can be shown to be like a vast group of transformations.
The Savage Mind, p. 89.

  • Other examples from our reading this week?

Essay 2 (Mythology)

>> See Levi-Strauss, 1955, "The Structural Study of Myth"

Themes

Myth as signal and message

  • Message as ontology
  • Code as method of interpretation
  • Myth itself is a vehicle for ontology

The function of myth

  • Compare to Rappaport
    • L-S focuses on content, Rappaport sacred context
    • L-S helps explain myths credibility -- it overcomes contradictions
  • Compare to Bateson
    • Patterns
  • Who is communicating?

L-S's image of the computer

  • Confuses cybernetics with computation
  • Actually very interested in databases
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