ANT100Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Denotation, Semiotics, Connotation
28/01/2016
SCL Lecture 2
Signifying Reality
Correct Teriology:
• Anthropologists do not aim to tell you what terms to use
• Social science describes before it can prescribe
Race in the U.S. Today:
• White etitleet subtle and systemic discrimination
• systemic = not just personal
• ot aout are you a raist
• the Oscars issue, police officers killing black people (assumption), etc.
• race is real, even though invented (it exists)
Naturalization:
• rae is gie y soiety, although it is preseted as atural
• social construction works with natural materials, but is not itself part of nature
• it is part of society, history
• social constructions are invented, but naturalized (they appear to be part of nature)
• other examples national identities, gender roles
• wrongs caused by social construction may entail historical rights
***Wrongs caused by social construction may entail historical rights
should African-Americans have the right to financial compensation for slavery?
should First Nations people have group rights to lands?
should French-speaking people in Ontario have language rights?
should Catholics in Toronto have the right to pay for Catholic rather than secular
schools? (Why not Protestants, Jews, Muslims?)
The Role of Anthropology:
• unravel the social and historical constructedness of invented (but real) categories like
race, national identity, or gender
• this work must precede any advice anthropologists can give as to what is right or
orret
Signifying Reality How Signs Reflect But Also Make the World:
• This is ot a pipe. it is just a piture of a pipe!
• soud of dog arkig, or soeoe sayig the ord dog, or seeig the ritte ord
dog, or sellig its sell all signs of the dog
How Signs Construct the World:
• signification making sense, making signs
• linguistic and non-linguistic signs
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Signifying reality (cid:862)correct(cid:863) ter(cid:373)i(cid:374)ology: anthropologists do not aim to tell you what terms to use, social science describes before it can prescribe. ***wrongs caused by social construction may entail historical rights. Should catholics in toronto have the right to pay for catholic rather than secular schools? (why not protestants, jews, muslims?) The role of anthropology: unravel the social and historical constructedness of invented (but real) categories like race, national identity, or gender this work must precede any advice anthropologists can give as to what is right or (cid:862)(cid:272)orre(cid:272)t(cid:863) How signs construct the world: signification making sense, making signs linguistic and non-linguistic signs. Homo sapiens (cid:862)hu(cid:373)a(cid:374) that k(cid:374)ows(cid:863): knowing = making sense, to make sense = to signify, semiotics the study of signs, linguistics the study of language. Anthropological linguistics and semiotics: how signifying (through language and other signs) is part of life in human society.
