Cutting Words

This chapter provides a detailed discussion of recent and current work in linguistic anthropology, particularly in the ways in which different extant language groups talk (and thus think) about the actions, tools, and consequences of cutting and breaking. Discussion presents results of recent fieldwork in ten languages or language groups: Germanic languages, Ewe (Southern Tongo), Tzeltal (Mexico), Mandarin (China), Jalonke (Ghana), Hindi and Tamil (India), Chontal (Mexico), Yélî Dnye (Papua), and Tidore (Papua). From this research, the chapter identifies critical components that distinguish the ways that different communities conceptualize cutting and breaking: the predictability of the break/cut, the action of cutting and breaking, the material that is cut or broken, and the consequences of the cut or break. The chapter ends with a discussion of how these results change the way that we understand the pit-houses at Măgura and at other similar sites.