ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the topic of anthropological approaches to translation first by placing both anthropology and translation and their respective fields of inquiry in the larger encompassing context of semiotics that is no longer human centred. In this respect, semiotics offers both anthropology and Translation Studies a means of unifying their remit both practically and theoretically and of extending their scope. Viewed from this perspective, this chapter examines various developments in anthropology that engage with semiotics and that also stem from and address the complexity of translation and hence can provide insights that can benefit Translation Studies. This involves examining the work of such scholars as Malinowski and Turner in cultural anthropology, as well as that of Silverstein in semiotic anthropology and more recent semiotics-related developments in linguistic anthropology. This work addresses translation directly and draws on it to help conceptualize ways of understanding (cross)cultural interaction. It also draws our attention to a broader semiosis of translation and ways of dealing with iconic and indexical translation. It is argued that the long, situated engagement required in anthropological studies allows scholars to develop sustainable conceptual tools that are of considerable use to translation scholars.
