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Chapter 6:Language,Communication,and Belief

Chapter 6 Lecture

Katie PrattMacalester College

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• Distribution and proliferation of world languages

• Language dynamics• Different forms of

communication• Distribution and proliferation

of world religions• Different religions and

religious movements• Importance of space to

religion

Key Concepts

Figure: Chapter 6 Opener - Speech and hearing impaired students use sign language to answer their teacher’s question in a classroom in the Xa Dan school in Hanoi.

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• What is language?• Linguists• Dialects• Standard language

(official language)

Geographies of Language

Figure 6.1: In some parts of India, pranāma, or touching feet, is an expected gesture of respect made by a young person to an older one.

Apply your knowledge: What dialects are spoken in the United States? How has your own dialec changed as you’ve traveled, gained employment, gone to college? Why do you think that might be?

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Geographies of Language (cont’d)

Figure 6.2: World distribution of major languages and major language families.

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Figure 6.3: Language map of India.

Geographies of Language (cont’d)

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Figure 6.4: Twitter map of language use in New York City.

Geographies of Language (cont’d)

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• Fusion language

The Garifuna Example

Figure 6.5 (a & b): Garifuna language migration and influences.

Apply your knowledge: How is the Garifuna language also a story of human migration and power relations between people?

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• Language family, branch, or group• Language tree• Proto-languages

Language Relationships and Dynamics

Figure 6.6: Iranian language tree.

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• Linguistic drift• Icelandic example (one of

the most unchanged languages)

• Mother tongue• Mutually intelligible• Ultraconserved words• Linguistic weathering

Language Relationships and Dynamics (cont’d)

Figure 6.7: Linguistic drift: the separation of the Germanic language as it branched into three pathways.

Apply your knowledge: How does geography affect language development and/or preservation?

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• Official (standard) language

Language Relationships and Dynamics (cont’d)

Figure 6.8: Regional languages and dialects of France.

Apply your knowledge: What is the role of the state in creating an official language? What do you think is gained in the process? What is lost?

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• Language hearths

Language Relationships and Dynamics (cont’d)

Figure 6.9: Hearth areas of the Indo-European language family.

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• Place names (toponyms)

Language Relationships and Dynamics (cont’d)

Figure 6.10: Piestewa Peak, Phoenix, Arizona.

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• Identity and language– Lingua franca– Majority and minority languages

Figure 6.11: Endangered language hotspots globally.

Apply your knowledge: Aside from the children raised in a minority language community, who else might benefit from learning a minority language, and why?

Language Relationships and Dynamics (cont’d)

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• Threatened languages are typically minority languages

• Linguistic contestation

Language Revival

Figure 6.A: The office of the French language.

Figure 6.B: Basque Country.

Apply your knowledge: Why do regional languages experience endangerment and what does it matter if they die out?

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• Geographies of language learning: children acquire language in culturally explicit and implicit ways

• Writing and reading: literacy• The story of writing

– Cuneiform– Pictograms

Communication

Figure 6.13: Roman graffiti.Figure 6.12: Pictograms.

Apply your knowledge: How do you think technology has changed writing?

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Geographies of Literacy

Figure 6.D: Race, literacy, and prison.Figure 6.C: School-to-prison pipeline.

Apply your knowledge: What is the difference between illiteracy and functional literacy?

Why is illiteracy higher for women than for men around the globe?

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• Slang• Vocal fry

Communication (cont’d)

Apply your knowledge: What are five slang terms you and your colleagues use regularly? List them and trace the roots of their development. How does your own community of friends embrace new words and change language in the process?

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• Social media

Communication (cont’d)

Figure 6.14 World maps of social networks. Figure 6.15 Intimacy and communication.

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• Sign language• Sensual language

Communication (cont’d)

Figure: Chapter 6 Opener - Speech and hearing impaired students use sign language to answer their teacher’s question in a classroom in the Xa Dan school in Hanoi.

Apply your knowledge: List three examples of non-verbal communication used around the world. How important is nonverbal communication in social relations? Why do you think we often inflate the importance of words over other ways of communicating?

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Religious Geographies

Figure 6.16: World distribution of major religions.

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• Migration and religion– Diaspora

Religious Geographies (cont’d)

Figure 6.17: Origin areas and diffusion of four major religions.

Figure 6.18: Spread of Buddhism.

Apply your knowledge: How is religion like language in terms of its diffusion and potential for change?

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Religious Geographies (cont’d)

Figure 6.19: Spread of Christianity in Europe.

Apply your knowledge: What are the world’s major religions? Where did they develop? Why is the concept of “diaspora” important to the proliferation of world religions? Why do you think the world’s major religions are oriented around men and not women?

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• Established churches• Church and state in England• Islam as a state religion

Figure 6.20: Cross Bones burial grounds in Southwark, London.

Figure 6.21: Planted Church.

Religious Geographies (cont’d)

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Belief Systems and Restrictions on Behavior

Figure 6.1.1: Government religious restrictions around the world.

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• Religiosity

Figure 6.22: Religiosity in Europe.Figure 6.23: Religiosity in London.

Figure 6.24: Adaptive reuse of a church.

Religious Geographies (cont’d)

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Figure 6.25: Wealth and religiosity.

Apply your knowledge: In looking at the relationship between wealth and religion, where does the United States stand? What can explain this exception? In what areas of the U.S. public and private life has religion remained important?

Religious Geographies (cont’d)

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• Other belief systems– Cults

Figure 6.26: Norse mythology.

Apply your knowledge: Where in the world is religion part of everyday life? What parts of the world are experiencing a decline in religious affiliation? What factors explain this regional phenomenon?

Religious Geographies (cont’d)

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• Cargo cults• The influence of modern communications

Globalization, Communication, and Religion

Figure 6.27: San Xavier del Bac Mission near Tucson, Arizona.

Figure 6.28: Megachurch, Louisville, Kentucky.

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• Cultural nationalism• Islamism

Globalization, Communication, and Religion (cont’d)

Figure 6.29: Muslim World.

Apply your knowledge: What is Islamism? How does it differ from the practices of Islam? Where in the world does Islamism have the most traction? Why?

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Fashion Veiling

Figure 6.F: Three examples of Islamic dress: (a) traditional; (b) a more liberal interpretation in London; (c) a mixture of styles in Singapore.

Apply your knowledge: What is fashion veiling? How does veiling among Muslim women reflect both religious beliefs as well as popular culture?

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• Visible architecture as well as less visible land holdings

Religion and Landscape

Figure 6.30: Parish church spires, like this one in Chamery, in the Champagne region of France, were visible from a long distance.

Figure 6.31: Bedford Estate, London. Owners of Great Estates had the opportunity to exercise architectural and urban design control.

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• Sacred spaces

Religion and Landscape (cont’d)

Figure 6.32: Angkor Wat, Cambodia.Figure 6.33: Sacred sites of Hindu India.

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• Pilgrimages– Hajj

Religion and Landscape (cont’d)

Figure 6.34: Source areas for pilgrims to Mecca.

Figure 6.35: Source areas for pilgrims to Lourdes.

Figure 6.37: The Dome of the Rock.

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• The future of language, communication, and belief will be one of accelerating change

• Religions will remain an influential force globally• Secularization in core countries will continue• New forms of belief and worship will emerge• Many languages in decline while languages like

English experiences dramatic growth

Future Geographies