Teaching
Linguistic Anthropology
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Unit 5
Language and Power
Institutionalized power determines the way we speak and guides the conversations that we have. Through language, power makes itself known via state messaging and sets the tone for social interactions with the use of predetermined wording and phrases. In this unit, students will study examples of how state power is exerted through speech and written language. They will have a chance to consider how the media, police, and military forces use language to maintain their control over large populations.
Sapiens articles
“Warspeak” Puts All of Us in the Trenches
From campaign “war rooms” to “battleground states,” the political lexicon in the U.S. distorts people’s experiences of others and of communal life.
Do Military Leaflets Save Lives or Just Instill Fear?
Modern warfare isn’t only conducted with bombs, tanks, and guns—language also plays a central role.
Keywords
View All in Politics
![A person dressed in a red Santa Claus suit with white trim kneels on a military runway while speaking into a handheld radio. In the background are two rows of large military airplanes.]()
![A photo shows the back of a person in a dark suitcoat standing at a podium and speaking to a large, captive, seated audience. Most onlookers wear red MAGA hats and Trump T-shirts.]()
![Two pairs of scissors, two rocks, and two slips of paper rest on a pale-yellow surface.]()
![A close-up view features an art exhibit composed of multiple photographs arranged side by side. The photos show people riding a horse, receiving medical care, and speaking at a women’s event.]()
![A woman’s legs and a man’s leg are shown against the backdrop of a stage where red, white, and blue colors are prominent. The man wears a black cowboy boot and black pants. The woman wears a cream-colored skirt and dark-blue high heels.]()
![Amid a political rally where red, black, and green colors are prominent, a smiling woman wearing glasses, a khaki shirt, and a black headscarf holds aloft a sketch of a person’s face that says, “Khan Is Hope.”]()
Unwrapping Operation Christmas Drop
An anthropologist takes a critical eye to a long-running holiday tradition: a U.S. military mission that drops toys and supplies throughout Micronesia.
Five Reasons Why Trump Won Again
In an effort to address toxic polarization in the U.S., an anthropologist of the “Trumpiverse” explains MAGA supporters’ thinking in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Playing Rock, Paper, Scissors Across the Red-Blue Divide
As toxic polarization deepens in the U.S., some global conflict prevention experts are now addressing political violence at home. An anthropologist shares three key insights from a community action program in Wisconsin.
Fighting for Reproductive Rights in Retirement
An anthropologist conducts research in an Arizona retirement community, where older women share hard-won insights about how limitations on sexual and reproductive freedom impacted their lives.
The Shortcomings of Height in Politics
Why is height a focal point for some politicians? An anthropologist explores the significance of height—explaining how cultural perceptions influence and distort political dynamics in the U.S.
The Rise of Aunties in Pakistani Politics
Middle-class, conservative women in Pakistan have found a political voice as supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party—putting them at odds with the secular women’s movement their own daughters support.
View All in Violence
![An image focuses on two hands of a statue in shadow coming together holding a white flower.]()
![A line of cattle travel across a dry desert landscape, kicking up dust.]()
![Two pairs of scissors, two rocks, and two slips of paper rest on a pale-yellow surface.]()
![Dozens of papers with text on them are punctured and strung horizontally on wires.]()
![A white cartoon speech bubble on a red background is wrapped in barbed wire.]()
![A person wearing a gray T-shirt and tan baseball cap pushes buttons on a camera that is attached to a tree in the forest.]()
Survival Notes
Black African women in former colonial centers such as London gesture to subversive ways of communicating with those imprisoned in archives across generations.
An Imagined Monograph for Nongqawuse
A 19th-century prophetess reportedly bore a serious message from the ancestors to her Xhosa people amid British colonial assault. The written archives judged her—but much still remains unknown and unacknowledged.
Playing Rock, Paper, Scissors Across the Red-Blue Divide
As toxic polarization deepens in the U.S., some global conflict prevention experts are now addressing political violence at home. An anthropologist shares three key insights from a community action program in Wisconsin.
Archived Haints
SAPIENS’ 2024 poet-in-residence conjures the voices of those imprisoned in archives.
Speaking Truth to Israel Requires More Than Academic Freedom
Educators and students critical of Israel’s war on Gaza face censorship, harassment, and dismissal. An anthropologist who researches coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians argues such critics need more than free speech protections.
Payangko, or Echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi)
After a 60-year haitus, an Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna was seen in Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains. A poet-anthropologist reflects on the echidna’s message through the storied lens of the people of Yongsu Sapari.
Professor Talking Points
- State power is exerted through the language people use and the language used by the institutions that support the state: the media, the military and police forces, the judicial systems, etc.
- By imposing the narratives of many aspects of public discourse, states guide the way people conceptualize and speak about war and peace; neighborhoods, regions, nations, and other countries, and the people who live there; safety; identity and belonging; allies and enemies; and what people can expect from the state itself both individually and collectively.
- An understanding of state language and its effects on the populations it presides over gives us a better grasp of why the above-mentioned subjects are discussed in certain ways.
Academic Articles
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Collins, James. 2017. “Dilemmas of Race, Register, and Inequality in South Africa.” Language in Society 46 (1): 39–56.
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McElhinny, Bonnie. 2001. “See No Evil, Speak No Evil: White Police Officers’ Arguments Around Race and Affirmative Action.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 11 (1): 65–78.
Student Discussion Questions
- In thinking about this unit’s articles, how can you tell which messages come from the state and state forces?
- Why is the language of the state and state enforcers so powerful?
- How are state messages different from non-state messages?
- List the ways that state language impacts the populations it holds power over.
- What challenges do citizens face when trying to change state language?
- How is state language used in political conflicts like war or apartheid regimes? What are some tangible effects of the use of this language in everyday life? What might be some lasting effects of this language after these conflicts officially end?
Activities
- Have students find a video clip of someone in power speaking (e.g., a president, a police chief) and analyze the ways in which their language has the potential to reflect and shape power dynamics.
Additional Resources
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Podcast Episode: Radiolab’s “Words That Change the World”
Unit By
Eshe Lewis (2020)
Teaching
Linguistic Anthropology
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Unit 6
Language and Race
