Anthropology's Lost Language Syndrome

This article suggests that there has been a decline in attention paid to issues of linguistic difference and translation in ethnography and examines the theoretical trends in anthropology associated with this decline. It analyses problems in ethnographic contexts where Chinese to English translation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Asia Pacific journal of anthropology 2024-01, Vol.25 (1), p.1-26
Main Author: Kipnis, Andrew B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actor-network theory
Anthropology
Anthropology of Translation
China
Chinese-English Translation
Ethnographers
Ethnography
Happiness
Language
Social life & customs
Theoretical Trends
Translation
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Summary:This article suggests that there has been a decline in attention paid to issues of linguistic difference and translation in ethnography and examines the theoretical trends in anthropology associated with this decline. It analyses problems in ethnographic contexts where Chinese to English translation (particularly in the translation of various words related to the English semantic domain of 'happiness'), have implications for social life, as well as the recent theoretical trends in the discipline that encourage ethnographers to ignore linguistic structure. Utilising Actor Network Theory and anthropological theorisations of translation, it argues that linguistic structure must be conceived as a significant force in the world and that it must be understood as interacting with other forces in the world.
ISSN:1444-2213
1740-9314
DOI:10.1080/14442213.2023.2280846