Full Description
Hunter-gatherers are often portrayed as 'others' standing outside the main trajectory of human social evolution. But even after eleven millennia of agriculture and two centuries of widespread industrialization, hunter-gatherer societies continue to exist. This volume, using the lens of language, offers us a window into the inner workings of twenty-first-century hunter-gatherer societies - how they survive and how they interface with societies that produce more. It challenges long-held assumptions about the limits on social dynamism in hunter-gatherer societies to show that their languages are no different either typologically or sociolinguistically from other languages. With its worldwide coverage, this volume serves as a report on the state of hunter-gatherer societies at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and readers in all geographical areas will find arguments of relevance here.
Contents
Part I. Introductory Chapters: 1. Hunter-gatherer anthropology and language Tom Güldemann, Patrick McConvell and Richard Rhodes; 2. Genetic landscape of present day hunter-gatherer groups Ellen Gunnasdóttir and Mark Stoneking; 3. Linguistc typology and hunter-gatherer languages Balthasar Bickel and Johanna Nichols; 4. Ethnobiology and the hunter-gatherer/food-producer divide Cecil Brown; Part II. Africa: 5. Hunters and gatherers in East Africa and the case of Ontoga (Southwest Ethiopia) Mauro Tosco and Graziano Savà; 6. The Khoe-Kwadi family in Southern Africa Tom Güldemann; Part III. Tropical Asia: 7. Hunter-gatherers in South and Southeast Asia: the Mla-Bri Jørgen Rischel; 8. Languages in the Malay Peninsula Niclas Burenhult; 9. Language in the Andaman Islands Juliette Blevins; 10. Historical linguistics and Philippine hunter-gatherers Lawrence A. Reid; 11. Hunter-gatherers of Borneo and their languages Antonia Soriente; Part IV. New Guinea and Australia: 12. The linguistic situation in near Oceana before agriculture Malcolm Ross; 13. Language, locality and lifestyle in New Guinea Mark Donahue; 14. Small language survival and large language expansion in aboriginal Australia Peter Sutton; 15. Language and population shift in pre-colonial Australia: non-Pama-Nyungan languages Mark Harvey; 16. The spread of Pama-Nyungan in Australia Patrick McConvell; Part V. Northeastern Eurasia: 17. Typological accommodation in central Siberia Edward J. Vadja; 18. Hunter-gatherers in Eastern Siberia Gregory D. S. Anderson and K. David Harrison; Part VI. North America: 19. Primitivism in hunter and gatherer languages: the case of Eskimo words for snow Willem J. de Reuse; 20. Language shift in the Subarctic and central Plains Richard A. Rhodes; 21. Uto-Aztecan hunter-gatherers Jane H. Hill; Part VII. South America: 22. Language and subsistence patterns in the Amazonian Vaupés Patience Epps; 23. The Southern Plains and the Continental Tip Alejandra Vidal and José Braunstein.
