Bodies that speak: Languages of differentiation and becoming in Amazonia

Abstract

In this article I consider the metaphysical underpinnings of a specific language ideology in Amazonian Ecuador by comparing Waorani ideas about the agency of speech in shamanism and funerary practices to their engagements in language documentation. I relate the notion of language as a force inseparable from the bodies of speakers to concepts of language as "culture" in research to document their language. By considering how Waorani consultants have come to see certain features of their language in video recordings, such as sound symbolism, I examine the differences and interconnections between Waorani language ideology and multiculturalist understandings. These interactions suggest divergent ontologies at the same time as they demonstrate how indigenous people operate simultaneously within contrasting imaginings of differentiation.

Hidden Likeness: Avoidance and Iconicity in Batek

“…This is taken further by Kohn, writing on Runa Quechua, who argues that iconic speech involves a momentary erasure of difference between the utterer, the listener, and the thing described: iconic words represent thanks to the ways that the differences between the word and the sensation it evokes are ignored (Kohn 2013, 31). Indeed, iconicity is often framed in terms of allowing the speaker to “become” that which they are describing (High 2018, 71–72). These arguments can be linked to those surrounding mimesis, where through the creation of a likeness, mimesis is argued to be a practice of inhabiting a radical alterity, taking on the form of an Other (Taussig 1993).…”

“… 5 5 For similar ethnographic examples, see Walker (2018), High (2018), Stasch (2003), and Duranti (1993b). …”

Linguistic Natures: Method, Media, and Language Reclamation in the Ecuadorian Amazon

“…Less considered is how these Euro‐derived notions interface with Indigenous understandings of the nature of language in revitalization projects, particularly outside of North America (c.f. Kroskrity 2009; Debenport 2015; High 2018). This article contributes to a growing body of scholarship (Davis 2017; Debenport 2015; De Korne and Leonard 2017; Kroskrity and Field 2009; Meek 2010; Perley 2012; Hill 2002) which explores how processes of Indigenous language revitalization are not ideologically neutral, but loaded with ideological commitments.…”

Balinese Language Usage by Ethnic Bali Teens in Dangin Puri Village, East Denpasar Subdistrict, Denpasar City

“…Being spoken to or being evoked in language, even at a distance, can have material effects and consequences for people and their relations with others (High, 2018). The internal linguistic factors refer to the structural traits of the grammar and lexicon of the target language, compared to the languages already known to the learner, i.e.…”