Poetics, Poetry, and Ethnopoetics

Abstract

This entry considers the history of ethnopoetic exploration in linguistic anthropology over the last hundred years, beginning with Franz Boas. We discuss rhetorical‐poetic structuring devices, aesthetic ideologies, craft and inspiration, linguistic relativity, and methodological considerations including experimental transcription styles. We provide examples from several Indigenous languages, including extended examples from Navajo. Throughout, we maintain a concern for the importance of ethnographically situated analyses of individual creative pursuits, exploring Sapir's language “dynamo” in its culturally specific context. We argue, following Friedrich, that it is through poetics that we find the most interesting differences between languages.