Lexical and cultural diffusion: a study of fire fans in South America, Konrad Rybka (Postdoc, Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac)
Séminaire de l'EREA
21, allée de l’Université, Nanterre
Présentation
In South America, despite demonstrable grammatical convergence that defines several linguistic areas, lexical borrowing is said to be rare. This raises the question: what factors moderate the rate of lexical borrowing and how is the lack of lexical borrowing compensated by other processes, e.g. lexical innovation, when cultures come in contact? A particularly suitable domain to investigate these questions is the vocabulary of man-made objects. A comparative ethnographic study of the artifacts can determine in which cases their manufacturing techniques have diffused. This provides a benchmark against which the linguistic consequences of material diffusion and their determinants can be measured. Using museum collections, ethnographic literature, and language data, I uncover small and large-scale patterns of cultural and linguistic borrowing of fire fans (tools for fanning cooking fires) in South America.
La présentation sera réalisée en anglais.
Document annexe de la présentation téléchargeable ici.
Cliché: Évantails à feu, basses terres sud-américaines / montage Konrad Rybka 2019.
The EREA (Enseignement et recherche en ethnologie amérindienne) seminar is a flexible discussion space open to the public that aims to stimulate exchanges between Centre researchers, University of Paris Nanterre Department of Anthropology, and invitees from elsewhere. It serves as both a focal point for reflection on ongoing Americanist research and as a platform for doctoral students, post-docs, and associate researchers’ work.
Under the form of individual presentations, thematic cycles, or half-days of study, the seminar provides a complementay research space for meetings, namely the Séminaire d’anthropologie américaniste (SAA) and the Groupe d’enseignement et de recherche sur les Mayas et la Mésoamérique (GERM).
Some sessions are available in replay on Canal U's Erea channel.
Organisation : Valentina Vapnarsky, Philippe Erikson andVincent Hirtzel
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