Music related to Linguistics & Lx-Anthro?

[Richard J Senghas]

Hey LingAnthers,

I am looking for music (popular, obscure, whatever) that plays with linguistic (& especially anthropological) topics.

I am now teaching a somewhat large (~70 students) undergraduate, lower division Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology course.  It hits us at that just-before-and-going-into dinner hour, when students, even those interested in the topics, begin to fade as their blood sugar-levels drop, and the daylight begins to fade (especially now).  When I taught my Intro to Cultural Anthro course, I found that playing relevant, especially upbeat, music just before class started helped up the energy for the class session, and I would like to use this trick again in this course.  I also found that many of the students started to pick up on the anthropological themes I planted in these selections.  By the end of the semester, students started asking me for my sources, often asking me if they had indeed figured out the thematic connections.  (In a very real sense, this became a not-grade-related extra credit opportunity.)

I plan to start with some more obvious choices (e.g., Laurie Anderson's "Language is a Virus" from her "Home of the Brave" album), but I'm looking for other pieces for later this semester.  Do you have any tracks you'd recommend?  If the topic is obscure, I wouldn't mind being given hints at the reason for your choices, though we could make it a game for this list if you choose to respond on-list.  And energetic music is preferred; we're looking to juice them up!

Best regards,

-RJS
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Richard J. Senghas, Professor            | Sonoma State University
Department of Anthropology               | 1801 East Cotati Avenue
Human Development Program                | Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
Richard.Senghas[at]sonoma.edu            | 707-664-3920 (fax)