1st Edition

Engaging Native American Publics Linguistic Anthropology in a Collaborative Key

Edited By Paul V. Kroskrity, Barbra A. Meek Copyright 2017
    220 Pages
    by Routledge

    220 Pages
    by Routledge

    Engaging Native American Publics considers the increasing influence of Indigenous groups as key audiences, collaborators, and authors with regards to their own linguistic documentation and representation. The chapters critically examine a variety of North American case studies to reflect on the forms and effects of new collaborations between language researchers and Indigenous communities, as well as the types and uses of products that emerge with notions of cultural maintenance and linguistic revitalization in mind. In assessing the nature and degree of change from an early period of "salvage" research to a period of greater Indigenous "self-determination," the volume addresses whether increased empowerment and accountability has truly transformed the terms of engagement and what the implications for the future might be.

    Introduction



    1. Native American Languages and Linguistic Anthropology:  From the Legacy of Salvage Anthropology to the Promise of Linguistic Self-Determination
    Barbra A. Meek



    Part I: Collaboration



    2. There’s No Easy Way to Talk about Language Change or Language Loss:  The Difficulties and Rewards of Linguistic Collaboration 
    Gus Palmer, Jr.



    3. Recontextualizing Kumeyaay Oral Literature for the Twenty-First Century
    Margaret Field 



    4. “You Shall Not Become This Kind of People”: Indigenous Political Argument in Maidu Linguistic Text Collections  
    M. Eleanor Nevins



    5. To “We” (+inclusive) or Not to “We” (–inclusive):  The CD-ROM Taitaduhaan (Our Language) and Western Mono Future Publics              
    Paul V. Kroskrity



    Part II: Circulation



    6. Future Imperfect:  Advocacy, Rhetoric, and Public Anxiety over Maliseet Language Life and Death
    Bernard C. Perley



    7.  Perfecting Publics:  Future Audiences and the Aesthetics of Refinement
    Erin Debenport



    Part III: Scaling Publics



    8. “I Don’t Write Navajo Poetry, I Just Speak the Poetry in Navajo”:  Ethical Listeners, Poetic Communion, and Imagined Future Publics of Navajo Poetry
    Anthony K. Webster



    9. Reflections on Navajo Publics, “New” Media, and Documentary Futures
    Leighton Peterson



    10. Labelling Knowledge:  The Semiotics of Immaterial Cultural Property and the Production of New Indigenous Publics
    Jane Anderson, Hannah McElgunn, and Justin Richland

    Biography

    Paul V. Kroskrity is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, United States. He served as Chair of the Interdepartmental Program in American Indian Studies and is a past President of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology.



    Barbra A. Meek is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of Michigan, United States.