ANT102H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Benjamin Lee Whorf, Edward Sapir, Baffin Island
31
ANT102H5 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
31 documents
Document Summary
Anthro was more of an avocation at the time. Most had other careers, but boas was the first to actually be hired to teach anthropology. Worked on baffin island, he was on an expedition to study the physics of seawater. He came in to contact with inuit people. As a german, he was surrounded by canadian english and inuit. Ex. english has one word for seal but in inuit there are multiple words. Specific words for different kinds of seals or for seals that are doing something specific. Words from a generic seal, male / female seal, seals of different ages, seal basking in the sun, seal floating on piece of ice, etc. Boas reports his findings and people who read them extended his work\ The structure of language influences cognition, perception and action. Language models the physical, social and supernatural. Edward sapir was a student of boas. Boas and sapir were both jewish but lived very differently.
