Contact Information

 Department of Anthropology
 University of Pennsylvania
 325 University Museum
 33rd and Spruce Streets
 Philadelphia, PA  19104-6398

 Telephone:   Office: (215) 898-0895,
   Fax: (215) 898-7462,
   E-mail:  gurban@sas.upenn.edu
 
 
 

Education

 Ph.D. 1978     University of Chicago (Anthropology)
                         Dissertation -  A Model of Shokleng Social Reality

 M.A.  1973     University of Chicago (Anthropology).  Thesis -  Kinship
                         Templates:  A Kaingang Variation on the Gê Theme

 B.A. 1971       University of Chicago (Anthropology)
                         Special Honor's Thesis -  Domestic Groups, Myth, and the Study of an Animal Category:  Eighteenth Century Cherokee
 

Academic Positions

    Arthur Hobson Quinn Professor, Univ. of Pennsylvania, 2003 to present

    Class of 1965 Professor of Anthropology, Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1998 to 2003.

    Professor, Department of Anthropology, Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1994 to present.

    Professor, Department of Anthropology, Univ. of Texas at Austin, 1993 to 1994.

    Associate Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Texas, 1987 to 1993.

    Assistant Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Texas, 1980 to 1987.

    William Rainey Harper Teaching Fellow,  University of Chicago, 1978 to 1980.
 
 

Specializations

     Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology
     Cultural motion
     Discourse
     Corporations and culture
     South American Indians
     Metaculture

Honors and Fellowships

Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA, 1998-1999.

American Ethnological Society Senior Book Prize -- Awarded 1997 for Metaphysical   Community: The Interplay of the Senses and the
        Intellect (Texas, 1996).

 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 1993-94.

 University Research Institute Faculty Research Award, University of Texas,
        1993-94.

 Research Fellow, Center for Psychosocial Studies, Chicago, 1985-1986, Spring   1988, and Spring 1990.

 Texas Excellence Teaching Award, 1984.

 University Research Institute, University of Texas, Summer Research Award for   writing, 1984.

 University Research Institute, University of Texas, Summer Research Award for   research in Brazil, 1982

 Social Science Research Council, Committee on Latin America and the Caribbean -    Grant for research in Brazil, 1981-1982.

 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation summer award, 1981.

 Social Science Research Council Postdoctoral Training Fellowship for nine months   of study at the University of Chicago in
          linguistics and logic, 1978.
 
 

Administrative and Other Positions Held

    Chairman, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, 2001 to present.

    Associate Director, Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at  Austin, 1991 to 1993.

    Member of the Executive Committee, Society for Linguistic Anthropology of the  American Anthropological Association, 1990-1992.

    Graduate Adviser, Department of Anthropology, Univ. of Texas, 1990-92.

    Co-Director, Center for Psychosocial Studies, Chicago, Spring 1990.

    Director, Center for Intercultural Studies in Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Univ. of  Texas, Fall 1989.

    Co-editor,  Working Papers and Proceedings of the Center for Psychosocial Studies,  Chicago, 1986 to 1993.

    Director, "Culture and Nuclear War Project," Center for Psychosocial Studies,  Chicago, 1986 to 1990.

    Visiting Professor, Deptº de Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil,  Autumn 1985.

    Visiting Professor, Department of Anthropology, Duke University, Spring 1985.
 

Publications

BOOKS:

    2001 Metaculture:  How Culture Moves through the World.  Minneapolis:  University of Minnesota Press.

    1996 Metaphysical Community: The Interplay of the Senses and the Intellect.  Austin: University of Texas Press.

    1996 (with Michael Silverstein, eds.)  Natural Histories of Discourse.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    1991   A Discourse-Centered Approach to Culture: Native South American Myths and    Rituals.  Austin: University of Texas Press.

    1991 (with Joel Sherzer, eds.)  Nation-States and Indians in Latin America.  Austin:    University of Texas Press.

    1989 (with Benjamin Lee, eds.)  Semiotics, Self, and Society.  Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    1986 (with Joel Sherzer, eds.)  Native South American Discourse.  Berlin: Mouton    de Gruyter.
 
 
 

ARTICLES:

2006               “Metasemiosis and metapragmatics.” Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd Ed. Vol. 8, pp.88-91.
                      “Power as the transmission of culture.”  New Perspectives on Native North America: Cultures, Histories, andRepresentations,
                                S.A. Kan and P.T. Strong (ed.), pp. 65-97.

2004               (with Jason Baird Jackson) "Mythology and Folklore". Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 14: Southeast, pp. 707-719. Washington,
                                D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
                      (with Jason Baird Jackson) "Social Organization". Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 14, Southeast, pp. 697-706.  Washington, D.C.:
                                 Smithsonian Institution.

2002             "Metasignaling and language origins."  American Anthropologist  Volume 104, No. 1, pp. 233-246.  2002. Link to website with audiovisual
                                samples: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~gurban/metasignal/metasignal.htm

2001             "The Proto-Aesthetics of Imperatives."  In Verbal Art across Cultures: The  Aesthetics and Proto-Aesthetics of Communication.
                                Hubert Knoblauch and  Helga Kotthoff (eds.).  Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.  Pp. 223-236.
                     "How "we" moves through the world." Suomen Antropologi, Volume 26, Number 4 (December 2001), pp. 19-63.

1999             "The Role of Comparison in Light of the Theory of Culture."  In Critical  Comparisons, John R. Bowen and
                                Roger Petersen (eds.).  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.

1998             "The Sunny Tropics of 'Dialogue'?"  (with Kristin Smith).  Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies
                                 121-3/4: 263-281.

1997             "Culture: In and About the World."  In Anthropology Newsletter (American Anthropological Association), Vol. 38 (2): 1 and 7.
                                 February 1997.

1996             (with Michael Silverstein)  "The Natural History of Discourse."  In  Natural Histories of Discourse,   M. Silverstein and G. Urban,
                                (eds.), pp. 1-17.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
                     (with Michael Silverstein)  "Codafication [sic]."  In  Natural Histories of Discourse,   M. Silverstein and G. Urban, (eds.),
                                pp. 329-331.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
                     "Entextualization, Replication, and Power."  In  Natural Histories of Discourse,   M. Silverstein and G. Urban, (eds.), pp. 21-44.
                                Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
                     "On the Geographical Origins and Dispersion of Tupian Languages."  Revista de Antropologia 39(2): 61-104.

1994             "Repetition and Cultural Replication: Three Examples from Shokleng."  In Repetition in Discourse: Interdisciplinary Perspectives,
                                 Barbara Johnstone (ed.), pp. 145-61.  Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.
                     "The Social Organizations of the Southeast."  In North American Indian Anthropology: Essays on Society and Culture, R. J.
                                 DeMallie and A. Ortiz (eds.), 172-193.  Norman, Oklahoma:  University of Oklahoma Press.

1993             "Culture's Public Face."  In Public Culture 5: 213-238.
                     "Rube Replies."  In Public Culture 5: 249-50.
                     "The Represented Functions of Speech."  In Reflexive Language, John Lucy (ed.), pp. 241-259.  Cambridge:
                                 Cambridge University Press.

1992             "A História da Cultura Brasileira Segundo as Línguas Nativas" ["Brazilian Culture History Through the Lens of Native
                                Languages"].  In História dos Indios no Brasil, Manoela Carneiro da Cunha (ed.), pp. 87-102.  São Paulo:
                                Companhia da Letras.
                     "Semiotics and Anthropological Linguistics."  In International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Vol. 3, William Bright (ed.), pp.
                                406-408.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.
                     "Two Faces of Culture."  Working Papers and Proceedings of the Center for Psychosocial Studies,  Chicago. No. 49, 21 pp.

1991             "The Semiotics of State-Indian Linguistic Relationships."  In Nation-States and Indians in Latin America, G. Urban and
                                J. Sherzer (eds.), pp. 307-30.  Austin: University of Texas Press.
                     (with Joel Sherzer)  "Introduction: Indians, Nation-States, and Culture."  In Nation-States and Indians in Latin America, G. Urban
                                and J. Sherzer (eds.), pp. 1-18.  Austin: University of Texas Press.

1990             "Ceremonial Dialogues in South America."  In The Interpretation of Dialogue, Tullio Maranhão (ed.), pp. 99-119. Chicago:
                                University of Chicago Press.  (Modified version of 1986 paper).

1989            "The 'I' of Discourse in Shokleng."  In Semiotics, Self, and Society, B. Lee and G. Urban (eds.), pp. 27-51.  Berlin:
                                Mouton de Gruyter.
                     (with Benjamin Lee)  "Introduction" and "Afterthoughts."  In Semiotics, Self, and Society, B. Lee and G. Urban (eds.),
                                 pp. 1-13 and 297-303.  Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

1988          "Ritual Wailing in Amerindian Brazil."  American Anthropologist  90(2):385-400.
                  "The Pronominal Pragmatics of Nuclear War Discourse."  Multilingua 7(1-2): 67-93.  [Also appeared in Nuclear Policy,
                                Culture and History: Report of a Colloquium Held at the University of Chicago, Milton B. Singer (ed.), pp. 237-56.
                                Chicago: Center for International Studies.]
                   "Rhetoric of a War Chief."  In Nuclear Policy, Culture and History: Report of a Colloquium Held at the University of Chicago,
                                Milton B. Singer (ed.), pp. 211-235.  Chicago: Center for International Studies. (Same as 1986 paper.)
                    (with Joel Sherzer) "The Linguistic Anthropology of Native South America."  In Annual Review of Anthropology 17: 283-307.

1987         "The 'I' of Discourse."  Working Papers and Proceedings of the Center for Psychosocial Studies,  Chicago. No. 10, 20 pp.

1986         "Ceremonial Dialogues in South America."  American Anthropologist.  87(2): 371-386.
                 "Linguistic Consciousness and Allophonic Variation: A Semiotic Perspective."  Semiotica, 61(1-2): 33-59.
                 "Rhetoric of a War Chief."  Working Papers and Proceedings of the Center for Psychosocial Studies,  Chicago, No. 5, pp. 1-25.
                 (with Joel Sherzer)  "Introduction."  In Native South American Discourse,  J. Sherzer and G. Urban (eds.), pp. 1-14.
                               Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
                 "Semiotic Functions of Macro-Parallelism in the Shokleng Origin Myth."  In Native South American Discourse,  J. Sherzer and G.
                                Urban (eds.), pp.15-57.  Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

1985         "Ergativity and Accusativity in Shokleng."   International Journal of American Linguistics  51( 2): 164-187.
                 "Developments in the Situation of Tribal Brazilian Populations from 1976 to 1982."  In Latin American Research Review  20(1): 7-25.
                 "The Semiotics of Two Speech Styles in Shokleng." In Semiotic Mediation, Beth Mertz and
                              Rick Parmentier (eds.), pp. 311-329.  New York: Academic Press. (Revised version of 1982 paper).
                 "Interpretations of  Inter-Cultural Contact: The Shokleng and Brazilian National Society 1914-1915."  Ethnohistory  32(3): 224-244.
                 "On Pataxó and Hãhãhãi."   International Journal of American Linguistics  51(4): 605-608.

1984         "Speech about Speech in Speech about Action."  Journal of American Folklore 97(385): 310-328.
                 "Las Misiones y los Indios en Brasil."  Extracta, No. 1: 21-22.  Centro de Investigación y Promocion Amazonica.
                            (Spanish translation of 1983 article).
                 "Nil do Macuco (.... -1983)."  Revista de Antropologia  27-28: 445-446 (1984-85).

1983         (with Janet Hendricks)  "Signal Functions of Masking in Amerindian Brazil."  Semiotica 47 (1-4): 181-216.
                 "Missions and Indians in Brazil."  Cultural Survival Quarterly 7(3): 18-19.

1982         "The Semiotics of Two Speech Styles in Shokleng."  Sociolinguistic Working Paper,  No. 103: 1-52.  Austin, TX: Southwest
                            Educational Development Laboratory.

1981         "Agent- and Patient-Centricity in Myth."  Journal of American Folklore  94(373): 323-344.
                "The Semiotics of Tabooed Food."  Social Science Information (SAGE, London and Beverly Hills) 20(3): 475-507.
                 "The Semiotics of Tabooed Food:  Shokleng (Gê)."  Working Papers in South American Indians, Bennington College,
                            Bennington, Vermont. No. 3, pp. 76-90.  (Different version).
 

REVIEWS:

    Dmitri Douka, Worked Over: The Corporate Sabotage of an American Community. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 2003. Review entitled
                    "Trouble along the Mohawk" in Anthropology and Humanism, Vol. 29(1): 91. 2004.
    Greg M. Nielsen, The Norms of Answerability: Social Theory Between Bakhtin and Habermas,.  Albany: State University of New York Press,
                    2002.  In Contemporary Sociology, vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 5-6.  2003.
    Philip Lieberman, Human language and our reptilian brain:  The subcortical bases of speech, syntax, and thought.  Cambridge:  Harvard University
                    Press, 2000, and Chris Knight, Michael Studdert-Kennedy, and James R. Hurford, The evolutionary emergence of language:  Social
                    function and the origins of linguistic form.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2000.  Appeared in Language in Society Vol. 31, No.
                    4, pp. 609-612.  (2002).
    William Hanks, Language and Communicative Practices, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996.  American Anthropologist 100 (2): 582. (1998)
    Jane H. Hill and Judith T. Irvine (eds.), Responsibility and Evidence in Oral Discourse.  Cambridge University Press.  1993.  American
                    Ethnologist 22(3): 631 (1995).
     Paul Kroskrity, Language, History, and Identity — Ethnolinguistic Studies of the Arizona Tewa.  Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
                    1993.  American Anthropologist 97(2): 382 (1995).
     Laurence E. Sullivan, Icanchu's Drum: An Orientation to Meaning in South American Religions.  New York: MacMillan.  1988. In  Journal of
                    American Folklore 106(420): 244-246 (1993).
     Harald Haarmann, Language in Its Cultural Embedding: Explorations in the Relativity of Signs and Sign Systems.  Studies in Anthropological
                    Linguistics, 4.  New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1990.  In American Anthropologist 95(4): 1031-32 (1993).
     Verschueren, Jef, What People Say They Do With Words: Prolegomena to an Empirical-Conceptual Approach to Linguistic Action.  1985.
                    Norwood, N.J.: Ablex. In Language  63(1): 164-166 (1989).
     Fawcett, Halliday, Lamb, & Makkai (eds.), The Semiotics of Langauge and Culture.  Vol. 1: Language as Social Semiotic and Vol. 2:
                    Language and Other Semiotic Systems of Culture.   London and Dover N.H.: Frances Pinter (Publishers).  1984.  In Language in
                    Society  16: 281-291  (1987).
     Harriet E. Manelis Klein and Louisa R. Stark (eds.), South American Indian Languages: Retrospect and Prospect.  1985.  Austin: University
                    of Texas Press.  In American Anthropologist  89(1):187-88 (1987).
     Ellen B. Basso, A Musical View of the Universe: Kalapalo Myth and Ritual Performances.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
                    1985.  In American Anthropologist , 88(3): 729-730 (1986).
     Stephen G. Bunker, Underdeveloping the Amazon.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press. 1984.  In Journal of Forest History, 30(2):
                    93-94 (1986).
     Adrian Cowell, "The Decade of Destruction."  (four films on the Amazon basin) London: Nomad Films, Ltd., In American Anthropologist,
                     87(3): 735-739 (1985).
     Michael Shapiro, The Sense of Grammar: Language as Semeiotic.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press.  1983.  In Language in Society,
                     14(2): 239-242 (1985).
     M.A.K. Halliday, Language as Social Semiotic:  The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning.  University Park Press, 1978; American
                      Anthropologist,  83(3 ): 659-661 (1981).
 
 

BOOKLETS, CATALOGUES, EXHIBITS & REPORTS:

     (with others) As licões de Baheta.  Brazil.  No Date.
     (with Susan Moore and Elaine Sullivan)  The Shokleng of Brazil: Artistic Expression in a Changing Forest.  Texas Memorial Museum
                    Miscellaneous Paper #8.  University of Texas at Austin.  1990.
     "The Shokleng of Brazil: Expressions in a Changing Forest," Exhibit at Dallas Museum of Natural History, 1991.  Moved to Texas Memorial
                    Museum, Austin, in 1992.
     (with Milton Singer and Sharon Stephens).  Gender, Reason, and Nuclear Policy: Report of a Colloquium Held at the University of Chicago.
                    Chicago: Working Papers and Proceedings of the Center for Psychosocial Studies,  No. 32-36.  1990.
     (with James Fernandez,  Russell Hardin, and Milton Singer).  Boundaries of Power, Boundaries of Communication: Report of a Colloquium
                   Held at the University of Chicago.  Chicago: Working Papers and Proceedings of the Center for Psychosocial Studies,
                    No. 42-46.  1991.
     "From Pottery to Plastics: The Shokleng of Brazil," Exhibit at the Texas Memorial Museum, University of Texas at Austin, Spring 1993.