

Characterizations of language ideology as representative of one community or culture, such as those routinely documented in ethnographic research, are common examples of neutral approaches to language ideology. Often, a single ideology will be identified in such cases.

In neutral approaches to language ideology, beliefs or ideas about a language are understood to be shaped by the cultural systems in which it is embedded, but no variation within or across these systems is identified. The basic division in studies of language ideology is between neutral and critical approaches to ideology. no core literature, and a range of definitions." One of the broadest definitions is offered by Alan Rumsey, who describes language ideologies as "shared bodies of commonsense notions about the nature of language in the world." This definition is seen by Kroskrity as unsatisfactory, however, because "it fails to problematize language ideological variation and therefore promotes an overly homogeneous view of language ideologies within a cultural group." Emphasizing the role of speakers' awareness in influencing language structure, Michael Silverstein defines linguistic ideologies as "sets of beliefs about language articulated by users as a rationalization or justification of perceived language structure and use." Definitions that place greater emphasis on sociocultural factors include Shirley Heath's characterization of language ideologies as "self-evident ideas and objectives a group holds concerning roles of language in the social experiences of members as they contribute to the expression of the group", as well as Judith Irvine's definition of the concept as "the cultural system of ideas about social and linguistic relationships, together with their loading of moral and political interests." Critical vs. Paul Kroskrity, a linguistic anthropologist, describes language ideology as a "cluster concept, consisting of a number of converging dimensions" with several "partially overlapping but analytically distinguishable layers of significance", and cites that in the existing scholarship on language ideology "there is no particular unity. Scholars have noted difficulty in attempting to delimit the scope, meaning, and applications of language ideology. By doing so, language ideologies link implicit and explicit assumptions about a language or language in general to their social experience as well as their political and economic interests.

When recognized and explored, language ideologies expose how the speakers' linguistic beliefs are linked to the broader social and cultural systems to which they belong, illustrating how the systems beget such beliefs. Like other kinds of ideologies, language ideologies are influenced by political and moral interests, and they are shaped in a cultural setting. Language ideologies are conceptualizations about languages, speakers, and discursive practices. The UC Davis program in archaeology emphasizes research in California and the Great Basin, but also supports the study of hunter-gatherer systems in general, and is engaged in such research in Australia Alaska, Peru, Greenland, Western Europe, North and South Africa, and northern Asia.Language ideology (also known as linguistic ideology or language attitude) is, within anthropology (especially linguistic anthropology), sociolinguistics, and cross-cultural studies, any set of beliefs about languages as they are used in their social worlds. ArchaeologyĪrchaeologists study the material remains of present and past cultural systems to understand the technical, social and political organization of those systems and the larger culture cultural evolutionary process that stand behind them. Some examine fossils and apply their observations to understanding human evolution others compare morphological, biochemical genetic, and physiological adaptations of living humans to their environments still others observe behavior of human and nonhuman primates (monkeys and apes) to understand the roots of human behavior. Biological anthropologyīiological anthropologists study a variety of aspects of human evolutionary biology. UC Davis sociocultural anthropologists conduct research on most areas of the world, focusing on topics that include: human ecology gender relations culture and ideology demography and family systems race, class and gender inequality resistance movements colonialism, neocolonialism, and development and cultural politics in the West. Sociocultural anthropologists interpret the content of particular cultures, explain variation among cultures, and study processes of cultural change and social transformation.

Anthropology is divided into three subfields: sociocultural, biological, and archaeology.
