How to Distil Words and Obtain Culture History
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5791114 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jan Vansina (University of Wisconsin–Madison, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Pages | 499-511 |
| Publication date | 2006-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History in Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0361-5413 • E-ISSN: 1558-2744 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1353/hia.2006.0023 |
| OpenAlex | W2122729274 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 2 |
Nearly every historian of early African history has recently encountered studies that use the history of words as a source for history more generally defined, an approach also known as words-and-things. Indeed, by now a more or less elaborate use of words-and-things has become fashionable, especially in the Anglophone literature. A number of short presentations of the overall principles underlying this approach have been published, but they all lack an extended discussion of the methodological issues involved. Perhaps this is the main reason why words-and- things analyses are almost never subjected to critical scrutiny, while the conclusions of studies based on them, however weak or strong they might be, tend to be accepted as gospel-a most unsatisfactory situation. Hence a book-length study of the methodology involved in the application of words-and-things should be very welcome. As Klein-Arendt's book is devoted exclusively to this subject, it should fill the gap. Yet it will disorient most readers of this journal because K-A is not concerned with the solution of smaller- or large-scale problems of history as understood by such readers, but focuses on the epistemology of the central European school known as Kulturgeschichte (more or less "Culture History"), to which he subscribes and which is likely to be largely unknown to most readers. Yet when the expression "words-and-things" was first coined in 1909. it was intended to be a tool to elucidate Kulturgeschichte. Indeed, the journal from which the label stems was called Wörter und Sachen. Kulturhistorische Zeitschrift für Sprach-und Sachforschung (Words and Things, a Journal of Culture History for Research in Languages and Things) and on its very first page Rudolf Meringer stated that "[linguistics is only a portion of the science of culture ... We hold that the future of Kulturgeschichte resides in the union of the science of language with the science of things" in which "things" stood for what came to be better known as "culture traits
Art · Epistemology · Gospel · Literature · Political science · Scrutiny · Subject (documents · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Computer Science · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.36 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2012 - 2024 (13) |
| Highly cited | No |