The Language of Hunter-Gatherers

Offers a linguistic window into contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, looking at how they survive and interface with agricultural and industrial societies.

Tom Güldemann (Edited by), Patrick McConvell (Edited by), Richard A. Rhodes (Edited by)

9781009299558, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 December 2022

745 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm, 1.059 kg

'Overall, this is a fascinating volume that presents many inter-related case studies of how language histories are shaped by HG lifeways, and especially their interaction with neighbouring food producers.' John Mansfield, LINGUIST List

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Anthropology [JHM], Society & social sciences [J], Sociolinguistics [CFB], Linguistics [CF], Language [C]