Seminar Room, Münsterplatz 19
Organizer:
Institute of Social Anthropology
Linguistic Crossroads: Reconciling Indigenous Language Documentation and Community-based Language Programs
This talk looks at the history of Indigenous language reclamation work in the United States and questions how communities use materials, created by scholars to document the linguistic past, to create Indigenous futures. I am particularly interested in the practices of early 20th century American anthropologists, and how the historical linguistic materials they produced have been used in contemporary language programs. Critically, I consider “documentation” as both a process and as a product and trace how textual materials have been inscribed and reinscribed by various generations of language activists and ‘experts.’ Following along work inspired by Atalay (2019) and Indigenous perspectives on
repatriation, I consider the problematic issues that surround the incorporation of linguistic materials into contemporary language programs including the history of acquisition and ideological constructions of authenticity and appropriateness. Central to this concern is access, and the ways in which communities and scholars share Indigenous language material. While my geographic scope is large, I primarily draw examples from my work with language programs among the Anishinaabemowin (Michigan) and Nakoda (Montana) communities over the course of the past two decades.
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