ABSTRACT
This chapter describes another approach to reconstructing the prehistory of language, namely the linguistic anthropology or relativist approach. In its basic outline, the approach uses typology to document small-scale, preferably hunter-gatherer societies, and by means of contrasting this data, the approach aims to reconstruct pre-agrarian Palaeolithic language. After a general description of the history of the approach from the early twentieth century onwards, the chapter will describe the most important methods for harvesting and analysing data.
