Word Noise No More: The Purpose and Value of Interjections

 

Huh?  Mmmhm. Wow! Oh? Ugh. Psst!  These randomly placed sounds or words are presented here for a specific reasons: they are all examples of interjections.  Interjections are defined as short utterances or sounds that, until recently, were not considered formal words and were provided with little attention or study by linguistic scholars.  More recently, however, scholars have redirected their focus to interjections, recognizing them as important linguistic tools that help form connections, provide clarification, and assist in conversational flows.

 

The lack of interest in interjections can be seen in various ways, but most easily in any language’s dictionary.  Dictionaries are resources that contain most, if not all, of the recognized words and their definitions within any given language.  Typically, interjections are not contained within these texts.  This is because they were considered word noise, and communication specialists viewed them as simple sounds that degraded language and communication and showed the speaker using them as being less intelligent or unprofessional. 

 

This, however, does not match the everyday realities of communication, wherein interjections are voiced quite frequently in all types of conversations.  They are an integral part of communication, particularly when one realizes that interjections exist in various languages spoken today.  Japanese, Hungarian, Catalan, Egyptian Arabic, and Pite Saami are just a sample of the languages that have their own interjections.  They also exist within the English language and their various dialects (e.g., ouch, wow, psst, um, hmm, ouch, pooh, huh). 

 

Work completed by Mark Dingemanse highlights the importance of interjections as he seeks to normalize their study and acknowledge their importance in communication.  He has identified specific classifications of interjections, which include expressive, conative, and phatic interjections.  Expressive interjections are those, such as ouch or wow, that convey an emotional response.  Conative interjects call attention to the speaker, such as when someone uses shh or hey.  Phatic interjections are simply interactional words or sounds, such as mmmhm.  These all play specific roles in communication, such as being signifiers of continuation within a conversation or clarification of what is being said.

 

Interjections are integral to communication based on linguistic experiments wherein their use was tested.  In one study an individual was given the task of sharing a story with a listener.  When the listener used continuation and clarification interjections the speaker provided a rich and detailed story.  When the listener did not do so the story being shared lacked detail, often very significantly.  This underscores the importance of interjections within everyday language patterns.  Failure to include them leaves individuals with the impression that the listener is not actually listening or caring about what the speaker is saying, thereby fracturing the relationship between them.

 

Despite this demonstrated importance and the existence of interjections among many spoken languages they continue to be overlooked and ignored.  This is evident in language learning courses wherein interjections are never discussed and not taught.  This creates a situation wherein a language learner can learn to speak the language but will easily be identified as an outsider/non-native speaker due to the nuances of interjections that help establish social bonds.  Interjections are also neglected in Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) programming, which can help individuals identify a “deep fake” or AI created conversation (or individual conversing in a video or audio recording). 

 

Ultimately, interjections are an important part of communication patterns.  They are not simply “noise” or useless words as previously claimed.  They aid in collaborative communication and social bonding, and they should not only be acknowledged but further understood to help better realize what it means to be human.

 

Works Cited

Dingemanse, Mark. "Interjections at the Heart of Language." Annual Review of Linguistics (2024): 257-277. Print.

Holmes, Bob. "Huh? The Valuable Role of Interjections." Sapiens 9 April 2025. Electronic.

Ponsonnet, Maia. "Interjections." The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages (2023): 564-572.

 

Myth Busting: Neanderthal Diet

A 1991 study set the precedent for Neanderthal diets: they were hypercarnivores that consumed extraordinarily high amounts of meat.  This conclusion was drawn from isotopic analyses of Neanderthal remains.  Their bones had extremely high levels of nitrogen locked within them, which reflected high protein consumption.  This conclusion was largely unchecked due to a couple of reasons.  First, it confirmed various negative perceptions of Neanderthals that existed at that time.  Also, there were limited botanical remains present at Neanderthal sites, fostering little reason to debate the conclusion that Neanderthals were hypercarnivores.

 

At least until recently.  Newer studies began to question and erode away at previous conclusions about Neanderthals, leading us to realize that there were not dumb brutes.  A Neanderthal site in Israel provided evidence of botanical food remains, suggesting that Neanderthals at least had access to those food options.  Additional research showed botanical remains were present in plague and tartar build up on Neanderthal teeth.  The crucial line of evidence, however, was the study of 50,000 year old Neanderthal coprolites (poop), which showed definitive evidence of plant consumption among Neanderthals.  It also, however, reinforced the high nitrogen levels, further supporting the notion that Neanderthals were hypercarnivores. 

 

This concept continued on for several more decades until archaeologist John Speth of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor published his work.  Drawing upon ethnohistorical evidence Speth stated that human populations in the past, from foragers to horticulturalists, regularly consumed rotten meat.  These populations not only did not shy away from rotten meat but in some cases preferred it.  There are reports of how some would purposefully manipulate the meat to encourage it to enter into a rotten state before consuming it.  In both cases (consuming meat that became rotten with or without manipulation) there was also the consumption of maggots that were present on the rotten meat remains. 

 

There are various contemporary foraging and northern European populations who continue to consume rotten or fermented meat, so it is not a trend that has completely disappeared despite legitimate health concerns over consuming rotten food.  Speth noted that because these populations were exposed to the consumption of rotten meat at an early age they very possibly developed gut microbes that enabled them to consume the rotten meat safely.    

 

He went even further to suggest that rotten meat may have been a part of hominids’ diets.  There had been substantial evidence that various early hominids were meat scavengers before they were hunters.  These hominids would remove the limbs of animals that were taken down by larger beasts, consuming the meat left on the bones and breaking open the bones to consume raw marrow.  There is no guarantee that these opportunistic scavenging options occurred among fresh kills (chances are they were more often not fresh).  This meant that the consumption of rotten meat and maggots present on the meat was something that existed throughout human history.

 

Speth, however, had not tested his ideas upon publication of his work.  Melanie Beasley, who was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, decided to do just that.  She utilized the human remains present at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s Body Farm to collect maggots, and she tested the maggots chemical composition to determine what she would find.  She ultimately realized that the maggots were high in nitrogen, meaning that hominid populations that showed high nitrogen levels in their bones may not have been hypercarnivores.  These individuals may have been consuming maggots, which created the high nitrogen levels in their bones.  Beasley argued that there are three lines of evidence to support the conclusion that Neanderthals were consuming maggots: First, it was inevitable that maggots would show up during the meat processing procedures that Neanderthals used to butcher their prey.  Second, Neanderthals may have utilized meat storage procedures for very large prey (e.g., mammoths or whales) and maggots would have turned up during meat storage, particularly as Neanderthals did not have access to refrigeration (as is common today).  Thirdly, she cited Speth’s ethnohistoric research concerning modern foraging groups consumption of maggots as part of their diets and their lack of qualms in doing so.

 

Ultimately, her fellow scholars liked her ideas and conclusions as it accounts for the extraordinarily high nitrogen levels in Neanderthal bones.  This also accounts for the current contradictory evidence concerning Neanderthal diets, which show that they were indeed consuming balanced diets full of vegetables, shellfish, cooked grains.  Lastly, as Speth also pointed out, Neanderthals would have gone extinct much sooner had they relied on an almost exclusively meat diet.  The consumption of too much lean meats (with little to no supplementation of fats and other dietary needs provided through plant consumption) would have led to the nutritional deficiency known as “rabbit starvation.”  This is the result of consuming meat products that have little to no fat (be it from meat or other products such as fruits, vegetables, and dairy) will in the long term cause irreparable harm to the body, eventually leading to death.  Ultimately, no one can survive on a diet almost exclusively made up of lean meats, striking yet another blow to the ever popular and super unhealth “Paleodiet”.

 

References

Bower, B. (2023, March 20). A surprising food may have been a staple of the real Paleo diet: rotten meat. ScienceNews.

Duerstock, H. (2015, February 15). Proof is in the Poop. Retrieved from ASU: Ask a Biologist: https://askabiologist.asu.edu/plosable/proof-poop-what-neanderthals-ate

Gibbons, A. (2025, March 19). Neanderthals may have eaten maggots as part of their diet. Science.

 

Applied Anthropologist Profile: Dr. Herman Pontzer

Dr. Herman Pontzer

Dr. Herman Pontzer is a bit of a maverick in the anthropological community.  He employs traditional research methods and tools to answer questions concerning human evolution, but the conclusions he reaches stretch and often contradict the expectations of his peers.  He is a widely published scholar who has articles published in prestigious journals and books, but he also not afraid and does not shy away from ensuring the public hears about his work.  He takes to social media and talk shows to share his conclusions.  All in all he is an interesting character who is helping not only scholars better understand the biological aspects of how we became the human species we are today, but also how that information can be used to enhance the athletic potential of endurance athletes and the health outcomes of the average individual living within industrialized societies. 

 

Dr. Herman Pontzer is currently employed at Duke University’s Global Health Institute, where he leads his own laboratory.  He and his team study human and nonhuman primate physiology, specifically examining the effects of ecology, lifestyle, diet, and evolution on metabolism (the ability to burn calories into energy) and health.  He applies these understandings to better understand how and why certain diseases (e.g., diabetes and heart disease) are more common in industrialized groups versus non-industrialized ones (e.g., foragers). 

 

It was through the employment of methods created and refined by physiologists that he established a great deal of information and conclusions that have stretched the scholarship on human evolution and human physiology.  For example, he identified that exercise in and of itself does not lead to greater caloric expenditure.  Human bodies, which require a great deal of calories to maintain appropriate functioning of the expansive and complex brain, will compensate for energy expenditures as needed in order to keep enough energy for the brain.  This conclusion refutes a longstanding and popular idea that one can exclusively exercise themselves to a better body.  Instead, his work supports the conclusion that it is a balanced diet and exercise that allows one to get the body they want.

 

These conclusions were reached through the financial support of various grants, such as the prestigious Wenner-Gren grants, as well as work on both animal and human subjects.  His initial research started with dogs, but then graduated to goat and later nonhuman primate, specifically ape, species.  After continually discovering that larger animals expend fewer calories than smaller ones, except for humans, he moved on to studying modern populations, including foraging groups in Africa, horticulturalists in South America, and industrialized populations in the United States.  It was through comparative studies of contemporary human groups that he realized that exercise is not the only factor in burning calories.  The applications of his research can and do help those working in nutrition, athletics/exercise physiology, and human health.

 

His conclusions have not been accepted without criticism.  There were those who were hesitant to accept his conclusions because they ran counter to expected results, but with greater research these concerns have decreased.  Currently the concerns are in the delivery of the information to the public, specifically in encouraging those interested in weight loss to take on unhealthy diets.  Pontzer is unafraid of the critiques.  In his interview with Science magazine, he remarked: “When you have a bad experience and life plucks you off your track, it’s scary. You have to move forward, though, and that teaches you not to be scared of new things.”  This philosophy has undoubtedly helped him move past the negative critiques and foster better scientific research that  is helping not just the scientific community but the general public as well.

 

Bibliography

Gibbons, A. (2022, February 17). The Calorie Counter: Evolutionary anthropologist Herman Pontzer busts myths about how humans burn calories—and why. Science.

Pontzer, H. (n.d.). Herman Pontzer, Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Global Health. Retrieved from Duke Global Health Institute: https://globalhealth.duke.edu/people/pontzer-herman

Death & Resurrection among Ancient Egyptians: New Interpretations of King Tut’s Burial Goods

King Tut's burial mask (Source: Getty Images)

 

King Tutankhamun (Tut) is probably one of the most well-known Egyptian pharaohs.  His tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter.  The opulent tomb had never been disturbed prior to Carter, and a series of unfortunate but explainable tragic events that befell Carter’s team led to a revival of mummy curse lore.  This has overshadowed much of what was learned about Tut and Egyptian life during his rule.  Scholars have revisited this topic over the past century, and new interpretations of the grave goods suggests the creation of a new ritual and a desire to restore religious order after a tumultuous period in Egyptian history.

 

King Tut ascended to the throne after his father, Akhenaton, died.  Akhenaton, popularly referred to as the “Heretic King”, abandoned traditional Egyptian religious order and replaced it with a revolutionary ideological approach: the monotheism wherein Aten was the supreme and only deity to worship.  This disrupted Egyptian ways of life, as well as ripped power away from Egyptian clergyman, who we suspect were desperate to get it back upon Akhenaton’s death.  King Tut was immediately confirmed as Pharaoh, and the powerful elites took to restoring the previous religious order.  When he died shortly thereafter his death was used as further propaganda to reestablish normalcy through the newly reinstated state religion.

 

Scholar Nicholas Brown claims this all took place by having the deceased Tut undergo a ritual known as the Awakening of Osiris.  This ritual was meant to resurrect Tut (through his mummified form) in the afterlife through the transformation from a mere (and very dead) mortal to the immortal god Osiris, the God of the Underworld.  In various illustrations Osiris is depicted as a deceased Pharaoh, whose green and black skin represents fertility (of the Nile River Delta) and new life (as the mythos around Osiris is one of death and resurrection).  

 

This transformation was known as the Awakening of Osiris ritual, which was recorded in the “Books of the Underworld and Sky”, which were written decades after Tut’s passing.  This prevented scholars from making the connection between the ritual and King Tut, but Brown claims that the evidence within King Tut’s tomb is suggestive of a precursor to the recording of the ritual within the aforementioned text. 

 

The first line of evidence is the meticulous care the embalmers took in preserving Tut’s penis in the erect state.  This is interpreted as representing Osiris’s virility as a life bringer among the dead.  Additional evidence comes from the grave goods discovered in the tomb, specifically located in the tomb’s northwest and southwest corners: pedj-aha emblems, or decorated wooden staffs, and clay troughs (or trays).  The pedj-aha emblems are cited in the ritual, while the clay troughs are made of Nile (River) clay.  Each are believed to be representative of either Osiris himself or power of regeneration. 

 

Taken together Brown believes these are evidence of King Tut being the first pharaoh to have the Awakening of Osiris ritual performed on him, or at least the foundations of the one recorded decades after his death.  The purpose of the ritual would have been to reaffirm the power of the gods and the religious order that his leadership (in life) was used to restore. His premature death halted those plans, leading the elites to monopolize his death to promote their agenda further.  Ultimately it worked as no further disruptions to that order occurred until new dynasties and outsiders wrested control of the throne.

 

Bibliography

Brown, N. (2025). These Thy Libations, Osiris! A Reconsideration of the Four Clay Troughs from the Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62). The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 1-10.

Gilmour, C. I. (2025, April 8). Tutankhamun: Plain-looking mud trays in pharaoh's tomb may have been key part of complex afterlife rituals. Phys.org.

Taub, B. (2025, March 24). Tutankhamun May Have Invented The “Awakening Of Osiris” Ritual. IFL Science.

Applied Anthropologist Profile: Dr. Tracy Rone, Applied Educational and Linguistic Anthropologist

Dr. Tracy Rone

Education is considered an essential means of allowing and enabling individuals to better themselves.  This betterment is not just about improving one’s mind and skills but then applying what is learned to gainful employment.  Through gainful employment one can earn money to allow them a better way of life.  This is all well in good, but in practice there remain various barriers for certain groups of people.  These barriers make it difficult to achieve not only academic but also socioeconomic success.  Various scholars have recognized and studied these issues, applying what they learn to improving educational institutions and attainment among these institutions’ pupils.  Today’s blog post features one such scholar, Dr. Tracy Rone, who has and continues to apply what she is learning through her research to make educational better for students in the mid-Atlantic area.

 

Dr. Tracy Rone is a linguistic anthropologist by training.  She earned a B.A. from Goucher College, her M.A. from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.  In her research she critically studies urban education programs, particularly within contexts of poorly funded and under resourced educational institutions and districts.  She specifically focuses on how to improve these institutions to aid students in improving their educational experiences, but she also explores the micro (individual) level aspects of education.  This had led her to focus on identity and educational attainment, the impacts on health and educational disparities, and experiential learning.

 

Her passions in education and equity have led her to take on various roles.  Since joining the faculty at Morgan State University in 2007 she has served in several positions.  She is currently an Assistant Dean, Research and Community Partnerships, and Associate Professor in the Department of Advanced Studies, Leadership, and Policy in the School of Education and Urban Studies at Morgan State University.  She was previously the Interim Director of Innovation and Community Partnerships. 

 

Outside of the university setting she works as an applied anthropologist.  She was the Research Co-director for the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC), a partnership founded by Baltimore City Public Schools, Morgan State University and Johns Hopkins University.  She is also the Equity Task Force Co-Chair for Transform Mid-Atlantic, an organization that works in partnership with higher education institutions to increase educational equity within these institutions and their surrounding communities.  She took on the responsibility of developing and implementing many programmatic needs of Transform Mid-Atlantic’s work, as well as acted as the liaison for the organization and her university.  Her efforts were recognized when she was awarded the Alan G. Penczek Service-Learning Faculty Award.

 

 

Dr. Rone’s work continues as she seeks to improve educational equity for students.  While her work is concentrated on the mid-Atlantic region, it is work that is applicable to students across the United States, ultimately benefiting all who use her work to accomplish and further her goals.

 

Works Cited

Association of Black Anthropologists. ABA Executive Board, Association of Black Anthropologists. 2025. Electronic. 30 April 2025.

Morgan State University. Dr. Tracy Rone, School of Education and Urban Studies. 2025. Electronic. 30 April 2025.

Transform Mid-Atlantic. Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusiveness (JEDI) Initiative. 2025. Electronic. 30 April 2025.