Greg Urban Arthur Hobson Quinn Professor of Anthropology
(download CV as pdf)
      Updated: August 2010
 

Department of Anthropology
University of Pennsylvania
325 University Museum
3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104  

Phone: (215) 898-0895  
Fax: (215) 898-7462
Email: gurban@sas.upenn.edu
   
Education

 
  Ph.D. 1978    University of Chicago (Anthropology)
       
  M.A.  1973   University of Chicago (Anthropology) 
       
  B.A. 1971    University of Chicago (Anthropology)

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
Laws of Cultural motion
Constitutions and Citizenship
Ethnography of Corporations
South American Indians
Discourse
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 2007.

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 - Book
   
  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.

Publications - Articles
 
2010
  • "A Method for Measuring the Motion of Culture." American Anthropologist 112(1): 122-139.
  • "Objects, Social Relations, and Cultural Motion." In Social Archaeologies of Trade and Exchange: Exploring Relationships among People, Places, and Things. Alexander Bauer and Anna Agbe-Davies, eds. Left Coast Press.
       
  2009  
       
  2008  
  • "The Circulation of Secularism," International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 21:17-37.
  • "Citizenship as a Mode of Belonging by Choice." In The Future of Citizenship, J.V.Ciprut (ed.), pp. 311-333, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
  • "Freedom and Culture." In Freedom: Reassessments and Rephrasings, J.V.Ciprut (ed.), pp. 209-231, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
       
  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, and Representations, 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  
       
  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  
       
  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  
       
  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.
  • (with others) "Critical Multiculturalism," In Critical Inquiry, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Spring), pp. 530-555. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • "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  
       
  1984  
       
  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).

Publications - Reviews
 
 

Joel Sherzer, Stories, Myths, Chants, and Songs of the Kuna Indians. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003. In Revista de Música Latinoamericana/ Latin American Music Review, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 347-352. (2005).

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).

Jonathan D. Hill, Keepers of the Sacred Chants: The Poetics of Ritual Power in an Amazonian Society. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1993. In Ethnohistory, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 367-369. (1996).

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 Language 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 Semiotic. 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).


Publications - Booklets, Catalogues,
 
  (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.
 
     

Contact: Greg Urban, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, 325 University Museum, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104  |  Phone: 215.898.0895  |  Email: gurban@sas.upenn.edu