CURRICULUM VITAE
GREG URBAN
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.