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| Dell Hymes (during his employment at the University of Pennsylvannia) |
Today’s blog post will cover the life and anthropological
contributions of Dell Hymes, a pioneering linguistic anthropologist. Hymes passed away in 2009, leaving behind an
academic legacy that has since been mired in some controversy. Despite this controversy he did make some
important impacts on the field of anthropological linguistics, which will be
covered herein.
Dell Hymes started his academic career at Reed College, but
he was almost derailed from pursuing his goals by war. He was drafted into the US Army and became a
Decoder, and while this situation may have derailed some people it actually
inspired Hymes to pursue his studies in linguistics and anthropology. He returned to Reed College and studied under
anthropologists David French and Kay Story French. It was during this time that he began working
with Native American groups in Oregon, including the Wasco, Wishram, and
Sahaptin peoples, and he continued to work with them during his graduate
work. His dissertation, which he
completed in a year, focused on the language of another Native American group,
the Kiksht, and was eventually published by Franz Boas.
Hymes went on to teach social anthropology at Harvard
University, the University of California-Berkley, and the University of
Pennsylvania. He taught classes in folklore,
linguistics, sociology, and education.
During this time he made several important contributions to the fields
of anthropological linguistics. The
first part of his career focused on developing the field of sociolinguistics,
while the second part of his career focused on ethnopoetics. Hymes promoted the notion that one cannot truly
understand a language until they understood the contexts of the language, which
is a central tenant of sociolinguistics today. He also put forward the need for
sociolinguistic scholars to study how social class and cultural affect
language, which helped direct anthropological study into social justice
issues. The second part of his career concentrated
on oral traditions and how rhythms and metric rules of speech affect language
and meaning, which is the foundation of ethnopoetics.
Hymes passed away in 2009.
He had previously written a public obituary that chronicled the personal
aspects of his life and highlighted his humor.
He is left behind by his wife and their four children. Since his death a series of accusations of
sexual harassment have been lodged against him, tainting his professional career. While it still unknown the extent of these
accusations and how they will affect his overall legacy it is important to
recognize his contributions to the field of sociolinguistics, while also acknowledging
his potential improper actions.
Works Cited
No Author. (2010, March). Anthropologist
revolutionized field of sociolinguistics. Reed magazine, p. 1.
PENN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION. (2009, November
30). Remembering Dell Hymes 1927-2009. Retrieved from University of
Pennsylvania: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/node/1221
Tripathi, P., & Reyaz, A. (2016). How Cultures
Talk: A Study of Dell Hymes' Ethnography of Communication. Journal of
Humanities and Cultural Studies, 1-10.
11 comments:
The idea of how social class and culture affect language is very intriguing. Just recently as the semester got into full swing I was drawn to the fact that on any given day I am able to distinguish the difference between persons racially speaking by annotations without actually seeing them. I found this very interesting and the concept of ebonics came to me. Something definitely worth following up on.
The idea that Hymes had the second part of his career really grabbed my attention. I had to google the definition to the word "Ethnopoetics" because that was a key word and I wanted to know the definition to better understand what I was reading. Now that I know what it means i believe Hymes really influenced how people speak and the meaning of what people say.
- Renee Wade
I agree that its important to recognize his contributions and legacy to anthropology. His personal life should not affect his professional contributions.
Hi my name is Avery Davis, and this blog has a interesting subject. My high school history teacher would talk the great Dell Hymes! he was talk about his success and gave us lectures about him. Its just refreshing to see it all over again.
Hi my name is Tonii Saffore. I like this post because it has introduced me a person that I have never heard of before. I think that It is great that Dell Hymes contributed so much to the field of anthropology and it surprises me that he doesn't have as much recognition as he deserved (based on everything that he has done for the field). As sad as it is, a lot of catastrophic events surface once a person who is widely known passes away and people remember bad over good a lot of the time.
This is my first time hearing about Dell Hymes. Its good to know that he contributed so much to the field of Anthropology. I wish that I would have heard about this is High school.
-Kyla Thomas
This is my first time hearing of him.I think its cool that he got to work at different universities to spread his knowledge. By the looks of it,he was very dedicated to his craft.
-Jasmine Busby
I’ve never heard of Dell Hymes until now. Hearing that he had to put his dreams on hold to go to war but found a brighter side to it and didnt quit is amazing. -castrele hoy
As I understand this gentleman was very instrumental in providing there were cultural linguistic in poetry and in the society from way back. However, some of his work has come into question.
Elaine christopher
Its an interesting moral question how a persons legacy should be handled after a misconduct on this level.
petra andrei
The post recognizes Dell Hymes' contributions to linguistic anthropology by highlighting his varied career that included community involvement, academic work, and military duty. It also honors Hymes' influential contributions in several fields by listing his varied responsibilities and accomplishments. It's good that Hymes emphasizes the value of sociolinguistic research and contextual knowledge in comprehending language. Lastly, it highlights Hymes' support for examining the ways in which culture and socioeconomic status impact language use, indicating his dedication to tackling issues of social justice in the discipline of anthropology.
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