RE: [xmca] FW: Language and Culture

You may be interested in a blog posting on Dan Everett and the Piraha in the New Yorker. It contains links to the slide show, his most important paper, responses and discussion of his paper, and a segment from an NPR Weekend Edition. The link to the blog posting is:
 http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004387.html

Teresa Hallam
thallam@uakron.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Mike Cole
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 10:26 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] FW: Language and Culture

I am trying to get the whole article available, David. So far, not successfully. There are also important articles in academic journals. I have written about Gordon's work on number, but what this article makes clear is that he was a tiny part of a much larger, much more important picture.
If anyone can get the electronic version to distribute, please do!!
mike

On 4/16/07, David Preiss <davidpreiss@uc.cl> wrote:
>
> Hi Peter et al,
> How great you and Mike fwed this. I read the article and it is amazing.
> There
> are three parts I loved the most: first, the depiction of the
> intellectual and personal biography of Everett. What an unusual and
> carismatic chracter. He is an outsider enough to challenge the givens
> of American cog sci an has the training needed to do so. Everett
> stroke me as a new romantic in an unromantic science. And, second, I
> loved the way the journalist depicted the researcher that came "down
> there" to test Chomsky´s hypotheses and how evident was the whole
> experimental procedure was so alien to the culture that was of no use
> there. Last but not least, I loved the comeback of Sapir and how
> fitting was Everett depictions of the Piraha to the thinking of
> contemporary cultural psychologists such as Tomasello and Mike
> himself. There are many issues there that can be nicely framed in a
> CHAT perspective- Thanks to the New Yorker for being there for al of
> us!
> David
>
> Peter Smagorinsky escribió:
> > a colleague reports:
> >
> >
> > Dear Colleagues,
> >
> > I recommend to you a recent article in The New Yorker about peoples
> living
> > in the Amazon whose language seems to defy Chomsky's ideas that all
> > languages follow certain structural features (universal grammar). A
> > linguist Dan Everett who has lived with the Piraha off and on for
> > many
> years
> > writes that their language which is described as sounding like "a
> profusion
> > of exotic birds, a melodic chattering scarcely discernible, to the
> > uninitiated, as human speech" does not follow Chomsky's universal
> grammar.
> > The article is very engaging and might be useful in stimulating
> > student discussion of the relationship between language and culture.
> >
> > Look for "The Interpreter" by John Colapinto in the April 16th New
> Yorker
> > magazine.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Professor Michelle Commeyras
> > Department of Language and Literacy Education University of Georgia
> > 706-542-2718
> > pulane@uga.edu (currently being forwarded to pulane@gmail.com)
> > http://www.coe.uga.edu/lle/clinic/
> > _______________________________________________
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
>
>
> --
> David D. Preiss Ph.D.
> Profesor Auxiliar / Assistant Professor Pontificia Universidad
> Católica de Chile Escuela de Psicología.
> Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860.
> Macul, Santiago de Chile.
> Chile
>
> Teléfono: (56-2) 354-4605
> Fax: (56-2) 354-4844.
> Web: http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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Received on Mon Apr 16 22:42 PDT 2007