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Vol. 58, no. 2 (Summer 2016)

Contents

Abstracts

How Changing Lifestyles Impact Seri Smellscapes and Smell Language

Carolyn O’Meara
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Radboud University

Asifa Majid
Radboud University and Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

Abstract. The sense of smell has widely been viewed as inferior to the other senses. This is reflected in the lack of treatment of olfaction in ethnographies and linguistic descriptions. We present novel data from the olfactory lexicon of Seri, a language isolate of Mexico, which sheds new light onto the possibilities for olfactory terminologies. We also present the Seri smellscape, highlighting the cultural significance of odors in Seri culture that, along with the olfactory language, is now under threat as globalization takes hold and traditional ways of life are transformed.

Gros Ventre Ethnogeography and Place Names: A Diachronic Perspective

Andrew Cowell
University of Colorado

Allan Taylor
University of Colorado

Terry Brockie
Gros Ventre/White Clay Tribe, Hays, Montana

Abstract. This article documents and linguistically analyzes all known place names in the Gros Ventre language. Analysis of names both from the perspective of a supra-tribal system of place names on the Northern Plains and with respect to a naming system specific to Gros Ventre (which we compare to that of Arapaho) allows a better understanding of the ethnogeographic process of identifying a particular region as a homeland. Postcontact names reveal shifts in the system; nonetheless, the overall homelanding process remains largely intact in its structure and ideology, despite major changes in the types of place names used resulting from the shift from nomadism, and attendant cosmological perspectives on the land, to a settled reservation existence.

Spatial Language and Culture: Cardinal Directions in Negev Arabic

Letizia Cerqueglini
Tel-Aviv University

Roni Henkin
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Abstract. Negev Arabic displays a unique spatial system characterized by referential complementarity: Intrinsic, Relative, and Absolute frames of reference serve all speakers and are selected according to properties of the Ground. The Absolute frame of reference, employing cardinal directions, represents the lateral axis of all Ground-objects and serves as a default frame for problematic cases, such as modern, culturally alien objects; this frame of reference largely replaces right and left and serves, e.g., as a means to locate Figures in nonprototypical axial positions or in relation to modern Ground-objects. As in other Arabic dialects, cardinal directions also encode cultural, metaphorical, and symbolic meanings—especially east and west; north and south have not developed cultural salience.

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