Outline

Overview

Human beings cannot generate collective identities or undertake collective action without symbols. Why is this so? And what can we learn about being human by analysing the role of symbols in facilitating collective identification, mobilisation and communication? This unit addresses these questions through an examination of forms, usages, and functions of symbols in different societies and historical periods. It provides students with an anthropological understanding of the role of symbols in shaping culture, politics, and collective behaviour.

Unit details and rules

Unit code	ANTH3621
Academic unit	Anthropology
Credit points	6
Prohibitions ?	None
Prerequisites ?	12 credit points at 2000 level in Anthropology
Corequisites ?	None
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator	Ryan Schram, ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
Lecturer(s)	Ryan Schram, ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length
Assignment	Description of a speech event An autoethnographic essay applying a key idea from class.	20%	Week 04 Due date: 15 Mar 2024 at 23:59 Closing date: 15 Mar 2024	1000
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Exposition of a key concept A simple explanation of the definition and relevance of an abstract idea	20%	Week 07 Due date: 13 Apr 2024 at 23:59 Closing date: 13 Apr 2024	1000
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	The social life of language: Three cases A demonstration of the broader relevance of a key idea through comparison	35%	Week 13 Due date: 25 May 2024 at 23:59 Closing date: 25 May 2024	2500
Outcomes assessed:
Small continuous assessment	Contributions to an online knowledge base Collaborative writing and editing on a class wiki every week.	10%	Weekly	500 words total
Outcomes assessed:
Small continuous assessment	Weekly journal Weekly reflective writing on the current topic and the learning process.	15%	Weekly	1000 words total
Outcomes assessed:
= hurdle task ?

Assessment summary

For all of your written work in this class, please keep in touch with the instructor if you cannot submit assignments on time.

Assessment criteria

All of the assignments will be scored on a 100-point scale. See https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/guide-to-grades.html for details of this scale. See Canvas for details on how to approach each assignment and the criteria by which each will be evaluated.

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

This unit has an exception to the standard University policy or supplementary information has been provided by the unit coordinator. This information is displayed below:

Late penalties will be applied according to current policy, especially if a student has not been in regular contact with the instructor to discuss their progress.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

You may only use artificial intelligence and writing assistance tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator, and if you do use them, you must also acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section.

Studiosity is permitted for postgraduate units unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Support for students

The Support for Students Policy 2023 reflects the University’s commitment to supporting students in their academic journey and making the University safe for students. It is important that you read and understand this policy so that you are familiar with the range of support services available to you and understand how to engage with them.

The University uses email as its primary source of communication with students who need support under the Support for Students Policy 2023. Make sure you check your University email regularly and respond to any communications received from the University.

Learning resources and detailed information about weekly assessment and learning activities can be accessed via Canvas. It is essential that you visit your unit of study Canvas site to ensure you are up to date with all of your tasks.

If you are having difficulties completing your studies, or are feeling unsure about your progress, we are here to help. You can access the support services offered by the University at any time:

Support and Services (including health and wellbeing services, financial support and learning support)
Course planning and administration
Meet with an Academic Adviser

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity
Week 01	No language left behind—Main reading: “Meta AI Research Topic: No Language Left Behind” (n.d.); “New AI Model Translates 200 Languages, Making Technology Accessible to More People” (2022). Other reading: Cameron (1999).	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 02	Pronunciation guides, or Where do you think I’m from?—Main reading: Newman (2002). Other reading: Ahearn (2021b); Ahearn (2021a); Blommaert (2009); Moore (2011); Silverstein (2022); Thorpe (2015).	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 03	Communication as event—Main reading: Irvine (2012). Other reading: Ansell (2009); Berman (2020); Goodwin (2006); Harkness (2017); Hymes (1974); Irvine (1996); Jakobson (1960).	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 04	Words that can hurt: Slurs, insults, and everyday racism in language—Main reading: Hill (2011b). Other reading: Hill (1998); Hill (2011a); Woolard (1998); Zuckerman (2016).	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 05	Border controls: Language standards and the nation state—Main reading: Errington (2022b). Other reading: Errington (2001); Errington (2022a); Gal (2006); Silverstein (2015).	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 06	Listening for modernity—Main reading: Inoue (2003). Other reading: Bauman and Briggs (2003); Inoue (2002).	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 07	Between a nation and a speech community—Main reading: Zentella (2003). Other reading: Haviland (2003); Urciuoli (1991); Woolard (1989).	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 08	Translation and the unequal division of communicative labor—Main reading: Orellana and Guan (2015). Other reading: Ghandchi (2022); Stasch (2014).	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 09	The signs of a race—Main reading: Reyes (2017b); Reyes (2017a). Other reading: Bucholtz and Hall (2005); Chumley (2017); Rosa and Flores (2017); Smalls (2020).	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 10	Communication as commodity production—Main reading: Jones (2021). Other reading: Blum (2009); Gershon (2023); Gershon (2022).	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 11	The right kind of honesty—Main reading: Carr (2010), intro. and chap. 6. Other reading: Carr (2010), conclusion; Bauman (1983).	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 12	Learning to be Deaf—Main reading: Hoffmann-Dilloway (2011). Other reading: Green (2022); Haviland (2022).	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 13	Feeling our way—Main reading: Edwards (2023).	Seminar (2 hr)

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

Required and recommended readings

Ahearn, Laura M. 2021a. Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Malden, Mass.: John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444340563.

———. 2021b. “The Socially Charged Life of Language.” In Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology, 3–30. Malden, Mass.: John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444340563.

AI at Meta: Research. n.d. “Meta AI Research Topic: No Language Left Behind.” Accessed January 11, 2024. https://ai.meta.com/research/no-language-left-behind/.

Ansell, Aaron. 2009. “‘But the Winds Will Turn Against You’: An Analysis of Wealth Forms and the Discursive Space of Development in Northeast Brazil.” American Ethnologist 36 (1): 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2008.01101.x.

Bauman, Richard. 1983. Let your words be few: symbolism of speaking and silence among seventeenth-century Quakers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://archive.org/details/letyourwordsbefe00baum.

Bauman, Richard, and Charles L. Briggs. 2003. Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Berman, Elise. 2020. “Avoiding Sharing: How People Help Each Other Get Out of Giving.” Current Anthropology 61 (2): 219–39. https://doi.org/10.1086/708068.

Blommaert, Jan. 2009. “A Market of Accents.” Language Policy 8 (3): 243–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-009-9131-1.

Blum, Susan D. 2009. My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7591/9780801458408/html.

Bucholtz, Mary, and Kira Hall. 2005. “Identity and Interaction: A Sociocultural Linguistic Approach.” Discourse Studies 7 (4-5): 585–614. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054407.

Cameron, Deborah. 1999. “Language: (De)racialising Linguistics.” Critical Quarterly 41 (4): 52–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8705.00263.

Carr, E. Summerson. 2010. Scripting Addiction: The Politics of Therapeutic Talk and American Sobriety. Princeton, UNITED STATES: Princeton University Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/usyd/detail.action?docID=617260.

Chumley, Lily. 2017. “Qualia and Ontology: Language, Semiotics, and Materiality; an Introduction.” Signs and Society 5 (S1): S1–20. https://doi.org/10.1086/690190.

Edwards, Terra. 2023. “The Hands as Reflex Republic.” Signs and Society 11 (2): 223–35. https://doi.org/10.1086/724180.

Errington, Joseph. 2001. “Colonial Linguistics.” Annual Review of Anthropology 30 (1): 19–39. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.19.

———. 2022a. Other Indonesians: Nationalism in an Unnative Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197563670.001.0001.

———. 2022b. “A Valuable Paradox.” In Other Indonesians: Nationalism in an Unnative Language, edited by Joseph Errington, 1–22. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197563670.003.0001.

Gal, Susan. 2006. “Contradictions of Standard Language in Europe: Implications for the Study of Practices and Publics*.” Social Anthropology 14 (2): 163–81. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8676.2006.tb00032.x.

Gershon, Ilana. 2022. “Genres Are the Drive Belts of the Job Market.” Journal of Cultural Economy 15 (6): 768–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2022.2087714.

———. 2023. “Bullshit Genres: What to Watch for When Studying the New Actant ChatGPT and Its Siblings.” Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 47 (3): 115–31. https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.137824.

Ghandchi, Narges. 2022. “‘We Explain’: Interaction and Becoming a Family in Migration.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 32 (3): 520–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/jola.12372.

Goodwin, Majorie Harness. 2006. “Stance and Structure in Assessment and Gossip Activity.” In The Hidden Life of Girls: Games of Stance, Status, and Exclusion., 190–209. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing. https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=293105.

Green, E. Mara. 2022. “The Eye and the Other: Language and Ethics in Deaf Nepal.” American Anthropologist 124 (1): 21–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13709.

Harkness, Nicholas. 2017. “Glossolalia and Cacophony in South Korea: Cultural Semiosis at the Limits of Language.” American Ethnologist 44 (3): 476–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.12523.

Haviland, John B. 2003. “Ideologies of Language: Some Reflections on Language and U.S. Law.” American Anthropologist 105 (4): 764–74. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2003.105.4.764.

———. 2022. “How and When to Sign ‘Hey!’ Socialization into Grammar in Z, a 1st Generation Family Sign Language from Mexico.” Languages 7 (2): 80. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7020080.

Hill, Jane H. 1998. “Language, Race, and White Public Space.” American Anthropologist 100 (3): 680–89. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1998.100.3.680.

———. 2011a. “Language in White Racism: An Overview.” In The Everyday Language of White Racism, 31–48. Malden, Mass.: John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444304732.

———. 2011b. “The Social Life of Slurs.” In The Everyday Language of White Racism, 49–49. Malden, Mass.: John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444304732.

Hoffmann-Dilloway, Erika. 2011. “Lending a Hand: Competence Through Cooperation in Nepal’s Deaf Associations.” Language in Society 40 (3): 285–306. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404511000194.

Hymes, Dell. 1974. “Ways of speaking.” In Explorations in the ethnography of speaking, edited by Richard Bauman and Joel Sherzer, 433–51. Cambridge University Press.

Inoue, Miyako. 2002. “Gender, Language, and Modernity: Toward an Effective History of Japanese Women’s Language.” American Ethnologist 29 (2): 392–422. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.2002.29.2.392.

———. 2003. “The Listening Subject of Japanese Modernity and His Auditory Double: Citing, Sighting, and Siting the Modern Japanese Woman.” Cultural Anthropology 18 (2): 156–93. https://doi.org/10.1525/can.2003.18.2.156.

Irvine, Judith T. 1996. “Shadow Conversations: The Indeterminacy of Participant Roles.” In Natural Histories of Discourse, edited by Michael Silverstein and Greg Urban, 131–59. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Chicago. https://archive.org/details/naturalhistories0000unse_w1b3/page/130/mode/2up.

———. 2012. “Keeping Ethnography in the Study of Communication:” Langage Et Société, no. 139 (March): 47–66. https://doi.org/10.3917/ls.139.0047.

Jakobson, Roman. 1960. “Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics.” In Style in Language, edited by Thomas Sebeok, 350–77. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. https://monoskop.org/images/8/84/Jakobson_Roman_1960_Closing_statement_Linguistics_and_Poetics.pdf.

———. (1957) 1984. “Shifters, Verbal Categories, and the Russian Verb.” In Russian and Slavic Grammar: Studies, 1931-1981, edited by Linda R. Waugh and Morris Halle, 41–58. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110822885.41.

Jones, Deborah A. 2021. “Writing Without Fear—or Bylines: Freedom and Frustration Among US American Ghostwriters.” In Work, Society, and the Ethical Self: Chimeras of Freedom in the Neoliberal Era, edited by Chris Hann, 1st ed., 7:258–77. New York: Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781800732261-014.

Meta (blog). 2022. “New AI Model Translates 200 Languages, Making Technology Accessible to More People.” July 6, 2022. https://about.fb.com/news/2022/07/new-meta-ai-model-translates-200-languages-making-technology-more-accessible/.

Moore, Robert. 2011. “‘If I Actually Talked Like That, I’d Pull a Gun on Myself’: Accent, Avoidance, and Moral Panic in Irish English.” Anthropological Quarterly 84 (1): 41–64. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41237479.

Newman, Barry. 2002. “Accent.” The American Scholar 71 (2): 59–69. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41213291.

Orellana, Marjorie Faulstich, and Shu-Sha Angie Guan. 2015. “Child Language Brokering.” In 9. Child Language Brokering, edited by Amy K. Marks and Mona M. Abo-Zena, 184–200. New York: New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814770948.003.0016.

Reyes, Angela. 2017a. “Ontology of Fake: Discerning the Philippine Elite.” Signs and Society 5 (S1): S100–127. https://doi.org/10.1086/690067.

———. 2017b. “Inventing Postcolonial Elites: Race, Language, Mix, Excess.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 27 (2): 210–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/jola.12156.

Rosa, Jonathan, and Nelson Flores. 2017. “Unsettling Race and Language: Toward a Raciolinguistic Perspective.” Language in Society 46 (5): 621–47. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404517000562.

Silverstein, Michael. 2015. “How Language Communities Intersect: Is ‘Superdiversity’ an Incremental or Transformative Condition?” Language & Communication 44 (September): 7–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2014.10.015.

———. 2022. Language in Culture: Lectures on the Social Semiotics of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009198813.

Smalls, Krystal A. 2020. “Race, Signs, and the Body: Towards a Theory of Racial Semiotics.” In The Oxford Handbook of Language and Race, edited by H. Samy Alim, Angela Reyes, and Paul V. Kroskrity, 231–60. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190845995.013.15.

Stasch, Rupert. 2014. “Powers of Incomprehension: Linguistic Otherness, Translators, and Political Structure in New Guinea Tourism Encounters.” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4 (2): 73–94. https://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.2.004.

Thorpe, David. 2015. “Who Sounds Gay?” The New York Times, June 23, 2015, sec. Opinion: Op-docs. https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000003757238/who-sounds-gay.html.

Urciuoli, Bonnie. 1991. “The Political Topography of Spanish and English: The View from a New York Puerto Rican Neighborhood.” American Ethnologist 18 (2): 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1991.18.2.02a00060.

Woolard, Kathryn A. 1989. “Sentences in the Language Prison: The Rhetorical Structuring of an American Language Policy Debate.” American Ethnologist 16 (2): 268–78. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1989.16.2.02a00050.

———. 1998. “Language Ideology as a Field of Inquiry.” In Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory, edited by Bambi B. Schieffelin, Kathryn A. Woolard, and Paul V. Kroskrity, 3–47. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Zentella, Ana Celia. 2003. “‘José, Can You See?’: Latin@ Responses to Racist Discourse.” In Bilingual Games: Some Literary Investigations, edited by Doris Sommer, 51–66. New Directions in Latino American Cultures. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403982704_4.

Zuckerman, Charles H. P. 2016. “Phatic Violence? Gambling and the Arts of Distraction in Laos.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 26 (3): 294–314. https://doi.org/10.1111/jola.12137.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

Outcomes
Graduate qualities

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. To understand the scope of linguistic anthropology, its place within anthropology as a social science, and how it contrasts with other studies of communication.
LO2. To develop familiarity with major theories of communication as practice and event, to understand their models of semiosis, and to apply them as analytic tools to ethnographic case material.
LO3. To be able to analyze the use of language and other systems of communication as social practices, and as a site of ideological value and struggle.
LO4. To be able to connect specific ethnographic cases to broader patterns in the use of language and communication systems, and to draw independent conclusions about the implications of communicative practice for social dynamics, inequalities, and forms of domination.
LO5. To be able to research and evaluate scholarly research and to situate specific empirical research results in broader scholarly debates among distinct perspectives on society.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

This is a new class for 2024. It was originally proposed as a course in political symbols but will instead offer a survey of the field of linguistic anthropology. Based in part on student feedback, future versions of this class will have broader themes and varying foci.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Support for students

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Study commitment

Required readings

Required and recommended readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect

Current students

ANTH3621: Symbols: Forms, Functions, Failures

Semester 1, 2024 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Support for students

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Study commitment

Required readings

Required and recommended readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect