International workshop: Hunter-gatherers and semantic categories

An interdisciplinary workshop on theory, method and documentation

The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics will award five student bursaries for participation in the workshop Hunter-gatherers and semantic categories and we hereby invite talented young Master’s students to submit applications. Preference will be given to Master’s students in linguistics or anthropology enrolled at a German university.

Funded by the Volkswagen Foundation’s DOBES program and organised by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, the workshop brings together an interdisciplinary group of international experts on languages spoken by hunter-gatherers. Driven by theoretical questions central to linguistic, cognitive and anthropological science, the meeting will address issues of theory, method and documentation with regard to the comparison of semantic categorisation strategies in several diverse hunter-gatherer communities. It represents the first concerted effort to tackle language-culture interaction in the context of a global sample of hunter-gatherer peoples, and it will explore similarities and differences in categorisation processes across languages, cultures and environments. The meeting is aimed at promoting and paving the way for coordinated collaborative research and documentation of endangered languages and cultures crucial to understanding human history and variation.

The workshop addresses the following questions: In what way does a way of life influence categorisation strategies in language and cognition? Are natural ecology and subsistence economy of speech communities significant determinants of categorisation? Is there a shared ‘hunter-gatherer mode of categorisation’, common to all hunter-gatherer communities? Do hunter-gatherer practices of categorisation differ from that of other groups? Finally, is ‘hunter-gatherer’ a grouping which is relevant to linguistic and cognitive science? We shall also investigate how theoretical questions like these can enhance and develop the documentation of endangered languages and cultures further.

The selection (carried out under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics) will be based on (a) demonstrated interest in language documentation in course work and/or practice, (b) high performance in study results, (c) a summary of interests and future goals.

To apply, please send a CV, evidence of grades, and a statement of interest and future plans (no more than one A4 page) as .pdf files to HG-Cats@mpi.nl. Closing date for applications is March 31, 2010.

Where and when:

May 30 to Jun 4, 2010

Neuwied (Germany)

Organizers:

Asifa Majid, Niclas Burenhult, Thomas Widlok

Contact:

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