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The Ecology of the Spoken Word: Amazonian Storytelling and Shamanism among the Napo Runa by Michael A. Uzendoski and Edith Felicia Calapucha-Tapuy (review)

The Ecology of the Spoken Word: Amazonian Storytelling and Shamanism among the Napo Runa by... 2013 BOOK REVIEWS 191 Part 3 is heterogenous. It has the obligatory chapter on major African phyla (Afro- asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, Khoisan), reviewing their rather colorful history with Joseph H. Greenberg at the center. Dimmendaal expels Mande and Dogon from Niger-Congo, and Songhay, Koman, and Gumuz from Nilo-Saharan, and breaks Khoisan up into three unrelated families. These decisions are reasonable in the context of current thinking, though the expulsions will make it harder for some Africanists (including your hapless servant, a Songhay and Dogon specialist) to know which language-family conferences to attend. This is flanked by a chapter on the role of typology in historical linguistics and one on language and history (words and things). In the final chapter, “Some Ecological Properties of Language Development,” Dimmendaal plunges into the fray on speciation, evolutionary teleology, punctuated equilibrium, spread and residual zones, and esoterogeny (self-inflicted complexification). His favorite biological concept, however, is “self-organising principles” (e.g., p. 365). I fear that this concept, as Dimmendaal uses it, mixes two distinct processes. First, widely separated and unrelated languages, like corporations and other complex structures that must operate effectively, tend to develop similar organizational features. Dimmendaal correctly points out that we need not resort http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Anthropological Linguistics University of Nebraska Press

The Ecology of the Spoken Word: Amazonian Storytelling and Shamanism among the Napo Runa by Michael A. Uzendoski and Edith Felicia Calapucha-Tapuy (review)

Oakdale, Suzanne.
Anthropological Linguistics , Volume 55 (2) – May 18, 2014
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Publisher
University of Nebraska Press
ISSN
1944-6527

Abstract

2013 BOOK REVIEWS 191 Part 3 is heterogenous. It has the obligatory chapter on major African phyla (Afro- asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, Khoisan), reviewing their rather colorful history with Joseph H. Greenberg at the center. Dimmendaal expels Mande and Dogon from Niger-Congo, and Songhay, Koman, and Gumuz from Nilo-Saharan, and breaks Khoisan up into three unrelated families. These decisions are reasonable in the context of current thinking, though the expulsions will make it harder for some Africanists (including your hapless servant, a Songhay and Dogon specialist) to know which language-family conferences to attend. This is flanked by a chapter on the role of typology in historical linguistics and one on language and history (words and things). In the final chapter, “Some Ecological Properties of Language Development,” Dimmendaal plunges into the fray on speciation, evolutionary teleology, punctuated equilibrium, spread and residual zones, and esoterogeny (self-inflicted complexification). His favorite biological concept, however, is “self-organising principles” (e.g., p. 365). I fear that this concept, as Dimmendaal uses it, mixes two distinct processes. First, widely separated and unrelated languages, like corporations and other complex structures that must operate effectively, tend to develop similar organizational features. Dimmendaal correctly points out that we need not resort

Journal

Anthropological Linguistics – University of Nebraska Press

Published: May 18, 2014

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