Key terms in language and culture
(hereafter Key terms) is an ambitious collection of
75 short essays on concepts central to linguistic anthropology
and related fields. This book began as an informational session
at the American Anthropological Association meetings in 1998
and was first published as a special issue of the Journal
of Linguistic Anthropology (vol. 9, no. 1–2, 1999).
Alessandro Duranti, Key terms' chief editor and
architect, is an experienced navigator in the varied terrain of
language and culture research; he is also the author of Linguistic
anthropology, a comprehensive textbook that covers the
discipline's major theoretical and methodological contributions.
In Key terms, Duranti appeals to the expertise of 74 other
scholars working on questions central to language and culture research.
The result is a powerful and eclectic volume that brings together
core concepts from anthropology, linguistics, folklore, philosophy,
sociology, and psychology, among other fields.