Anthropology and Linguistics: The Union for the Sake of Truth

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2026-1/23-34

Authors

Keywords:

structuralism, bilingualism, ethnic identity, the unconscious, linguistics, anthropology

Abstract

The article raises the question of how the approaches of linguistics and anthropology to the problems of ethnocultural identity are interrelated. The American structural linguist Charles Hockett once said: "linguistics without anthropology is fruitless, anthropology without linguistics is blind." The birth of structural linguistics at the beginning of the 20th century and the convergence of its epistemological approaches with natural science opened a discussion about the legitimacy of using similar methods in socio-cultural anthropology. Inspired by the ideas of the Prague linguistic Circle about phonology, Claude Lévi-Strauss founded structural anthropology, having formulated the theory of structure as an unconscious system of interrelated elements.  A kind of manifesto of this trend was the report of Claude Lévi-Strauss "Linguistics and Anthropology" at the 1946 conference, where representatives of the two disciplines raised the question of the prospects for interdisciplinary relations. Research in recent decades has shown that linguistics and anthropology complement each other and thus their collaboration can be very fruitful. Linguistic anthropology has emerged at the junction of two epistemes and combines quantitative and qualitative methods to study such multifaceted and ambiguous issues as ethnic, linguistic and cultural identity in complex societies.

Author Biography

  • Marina Bakhmatova, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University

    Author Info: Bakhmatova, Marina N. — Ph.D. in History, Associate Professor, Department of Ethnology, Faculty of History, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russian Federation). E-mail: mbakhmatova@gmail.com  ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0189-3050

    For citation: Bakhmatova, M. N. 2026. Anthropology and Linguistics: The Union for the Sake of Truth. Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 1: 23–34.

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Published

13.03.2026

Issue

No. 1 (2026): Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik antropologii)

Section

Theoretical Issues