Arrival: Anthropology in Hollywood. Issue 1 (1st February 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sutton, David
• Is Part Of: Anthropology today. Volume 34:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 7
• Page End: 10
• Publication Date: 2018-02-01
• Subjects: Anthropology -- Periodicals; 306.05
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8322.12402
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0268-540X

Abstract

Abstract : The recent Hollywood science fiction film Arrival features as its main character a linguist who explicitly references the Sapir‐Whorf hypothesis and linguistic relativism. Unusually for a mainstream film, Arrival presents the insights of linguistic anthropology as a key to the human‐alien encounter and combines these concerns with other key anthropological insights, particularly in relation to notions of time and the embodied nature of writing/drawing. In this article, the author argues that the film can be useful in thinking about anthropological debates on 'strong' and 'weak' versions of Sapir‐Whorf and suggests that a careful parsing of the anthropological concepts drawn on in the film provides food for thought about the possible usefulness of popular fictional concoctions for thinking through contemporary issues in anthropology and conveying them to a wider audience.