New Delhi: The Department of Anthropology at University of Delhi is preparing to propose a new discipline-specific elective on “Linguistic Anthropology” for the second year of the master's programme under the Postgraduate Curriculum Framework 2024, a professor said.

Titled “M.Sc Linguistic Anthropology”, the paper is expected to carry four credits and will be placed before the Standing Committee for Academic Affairs at its next meeting.

Once approved, the proposal will be forwarded to the Academic Council and later to the Executive Council before being incorporated into the syllabus.

Dannarapu Venkata Prasad of the Department of Anthropology said the paper is currently proposed as an elective and may later be introduced as a core paper.

He said the course has been designed with four units covering “Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology”, “Social Context of Language Use”, “Structure of Linguistic Forms”, and “Sanskrit as an Ancient Indian Language”.

Head of the Department of Anthropology and Director of the Centre for Tribal Studies Soumendra Mohan Patnaik said the department had long felt the need to introduce the “Anthropology of Linguistics”.

He cited the work of Franz Boas, who argued that anthropology must be studied through four interconnected branches — cultural anthropology, physical or biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology and prehistoric anthropology — to understand society comprehensively.

Patnaik said linguistic anthropology remained underrepresented in India as early anthropology departments were established under British influence, while the concept gained prominence in the United States.

Referring to the ideas of Claude Levi-Strauss, he said understanding social phenomena such as marriage, kinship and politics requires examining deeper structural patterns rooted in language.

He added that restructuring under the Postgraduate Curriculum Framework and the National Education Policy 2020 has enabled the department to introduce the fourth branch of anthropology in its curriculum.

The course is expected to explore themes such as the emotional connection people feel when using their mother tongue and include case studies on classical languages like Sanskrit, Pali and Tamil, with a focus on the Indian Knowledge System framework, faculty members said.