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Accepted Paper:
The Language of power and the power of languages
Ioannis Kyriakakis
(Hellenic Open University)
In this paper, I push the concept of language beyond the standard spoken/written symbols. I see languages as cosmological codes, including practices, hierarchies, and taxonomies that are strictly connected to power relationships. Under this perspective, I explore current anthropological languages.
Paper long abstract:
I am not a linguist. I am exploring the concept of language as a cultural instead of a biological trait of humanity. Language includes a powerful mechanism of cultural selection: What is worth paying attention to and what is not? In this sense, language is not merely a phonetic and symbolic system facilitating communication, but also a mighty device for social discrimination. This is better understood if we consider the specialist "languages" of trades, occupations, and fields of knowledge. No one can enter those fields without commanding their "languages". Under this specific perspective, I examine the languages of current anthropologies, and I put forward the question of whether there are different anthropological languages in the global North and the global South.