Dr. Elizabeth Barber

Professor of Linguistics and Archaeology

B.A., Bryn Mawr; M.A., Ph.D., Yale University

Dr. Barber combines the field of linguistics with that of Old World archaeology (especially in Greece). Her interest centers on the interfaces between these disciplines--how linguistics and archaeology can enlighten each other.

Within linguistics she specializes in historical linguistics and in the development of communication systems (by the species as well as by the individual). At Occidental College she teaches introductory courses in basic linguistic analysis, in historical linguistics, and sometimes in "language and the brain." The linguistic analysis course introduces the student, through lectures and numerous hands-on exercises, to phonetics, phonemics, morphology, elementary syntax, and semantics. Her linguistic research has resulted in a book, Archaeological Decipherment (Princeton, 1974; 275 pp.), and in numerous articles on: various aspects of Greek and Indo-European; problems and methods of tying linguistic information to archaeological remains; early writing systems; second language acquisition; development of language by the human species; universal ("definitional") design features of language; and computer-assisted analysis of ancient texts, undeciphered texts, and texts in nonstandard writing systems. She has been awarded grants by NEH, ACLS, and the Mellon Foundation for her linguistic projects. She views having a knowledge of several other languages as important for studying humans (see WHICH LANGUAGE TO STUDY).

Within archaeology, Dr. Barber specializes in the Bronze Age and Neolithic cultures of the Aegean and southeast Europe. She works in particular on early writing systems of that area, on the origins and development of cloth and clothing in western Eurasia, on ways that linguistic analyses can help archaeology, and on the origins and development of human modes of transmitting information (through language, dress, myth, ritual, dance, etc.). At Occidental she teaches an introductory course in Old World archaeology, covering the origins of the Bronze Age civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, the Aegean, and surrounding areas. At other institutions she gives courses in the archaeological history of Old World textiles and costumes (e.g., Ohio State U. in 1995; UCLA in 1997-2001).

Her combined research in archaeology, linguistics, and textiles has resulted in three books: Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with special reference to the Aegean (Princeton, 1991; 470 pp.; the technological history of early textiles); Women's Work--The First 20,000 Years (Norton, 1994; 334 pp.; the social and economic history of early cloth and clothing); and The Mummies of Urumchi (Norton, 1999; 240 pp.; see below for topic). She has also written numerous articles (both for journals and for encyclopedias) on archaeological textiles, ancient craft-specialization, history of European costume, origin of carpets, and interpretation of Greek and Slavic myth and ritual (some textile-related, such as Athena's peplos). This ongoing work has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, NEH, ACLS, Wenner-Gren, Haynes Foundation, and Getty Foundation. Prehistoric Textiles was awarded the Charles Breasted book prize in Ancient History from the American Historical Association in 1994; all three books received book prizes from the Costume Society of America; while Women's Work was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History in 1994 and was selected by Book of the Month Club, History Book Club, and Quality Paperback.

In 1995 Elizabeth Barber and her husband Dr. Paul Barber (author of Vampires, Burial, and Death; Yale, 1988) were invited to join an expedition from the University of Pennsylvania to study a group of fully clothed, perfectly preserved Bronze Age mummies of Caucasoid type found in Chinese Turkestan--the later (?) home of a displaced Indo-European group, the Tokharians. This material has led to several more articles as well as a book listed above.

Together, Elizabeth and Paul Barber have just finished co-authoring a new book, When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth (Princeton, Jan. 2005), using modern cognitive science to show how stories of real events have turned into myths by regular processes.

Dr. Barber belongs to professional organizations that include the Linguistic Society of America, Archaeogical Institute of America (AIA), Textile Society of America (TSA), and Costume Society of America. She served for 3 years each as VP and president of the Los Angeles chapter of the AIA, and for 6 years on the initial governing board of the TSA. The AIA frequently invites her to be a national touring lecturer (visiting 3 to 5 chapters) and in 1996-7 chose her as the Joukowsky Lecturer (visiting 12 chapters across the continent) and in 2002-03 as the Norton Lecturer (13 chapters). In 1997 she lectured on a Mediterranean cruise, and in 1998 she gave give an 18-lecture tour in Australia. In 2001-02, she lectured nationally for Phi Beta Kappa. She travels frequently to Europe (especially Greece and East Europe) to do research on archaeology and folk costumes.

Dr. Barber's chief hobby since childhood has been European-based folk dance and choreography. In 1971 she founded Occidental's Folk and Historical Dance Troupe, which she still directs. It is a recreational, educational, and performance group composed of Oxy students, faculty, staff, and alumni and their families. Its most ambitious project to date was staging the Russian folktale, "The Frog Princess," as a dance theater piece. Dr. Barber spent two years researching the historical and archaeological background of the tale (which dates to the 12th century or earlier) and its dance tradition, before designing and choreographing the show with the enthusiastic help of 26 Oxy participants, aged 8 to 68. Since then, she has choreographed and staged Bulgarian, Irish, Hungarian, and American fairytales in dance, as well as continuing to choreograph exhibition waltzes for Oxy's traditional Viennese Waltz Night.  

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The Mummies of Urumchi
by Elizabeth Wayland Barber (E. J. W. Barber)
W. W. Norton & Co., 1999
 

Image 1 - Map of  Fertile Crescent and Eurasian Steppes
Image 2 - Spread of Plaid Twills
Image 3 - Detailed Map of Tarim Basin