DU plans new linguistic anthropology elective for MA anthropology students

Delhi University’s Department of Anthropology is planning to introduce a new discipline-specific elective focused on linguistic anthropology for students enrolled in the second year of its master’s program.

The proposed course will be part of the postgraduate curriculum framework 2024 and is expected to be presented to the Standing Committee for Academic Affairs at its upcoming meeting, a professor said.

The paper, titled “MSc Linguistic Anthropology,” will carry four credits if approved. After review by the Standing Committee, the proposal will be placed before the Academic Council and, subsequently, the Executive Council before being formally added to the syllabus.

Dannarapu Venkata Prasad, professor at the Department of Anthropology, said, “We hope to introduce the paper as an elective for now and then later as a core paper.”

“Currently, the paper has been designed to contain four units, covering ‘Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology,' ‘Social Context of Language Use,' ‘Structure of Linguistic Forms,' and ‘Sanskrit as Ancient Indian Language,'" Prasad said.

Department officials said the course aims to expand the scope of anthropology studies by incorporating language as a key component in understanding social structures and cultural practices.

Speaking on the importance of the paper, head of the Department of Anthropology and director of the Centre for Tribal Studies, Soumendra Mohan Patnaik, said the department had long felt the need to introduce the “Anthropology of Linguistics."

“Franz Boas, the American anthropologist who provided the road map for the subject, showed that we must study four terrains of anthropology to create an integrated understanding of society, namely cultural anthropology, physical or biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and pre-historic anthropology,” Patnaik said.

“As the first branches of the anthropology department in various universities in India were established under the British influence, linguistic anthropology remained under-represented for decades," he said.

Patnaik added that linguistic anthropology was more of an American concept.

He said that Claude Levi-Strauss, another eminent personality in the field of anthropology, had argued that in order to understand social phenomena like marriage, kinship, politics, or anything surrounding the society, we have to understand the deeper structures that are involved.

“These structures need a substratum, and that is not material; it rests on a linguistic platform. That is where the centrality of language arises in anthropology,” he said.

He added that the restructuring of courses under the postgraduate curriculum framework and the National Education Policy 2020 has created an opportunity for the department to incorporate this fourth branch of anthropology into its curriculum.

“The subject will explore a lot of topics over time, like how one feels closer to oneself when using their mother tongue, for example, or certain classical languages as case studies like Sanskrit, Pali, Tamil, and much more,” Patnaik said.

Faculty members also noted that the focus on classical languages aligns with the broader emphasis on the Indian Knowledge System within academic programs.