Continuous Perfectibility: Pueblo Propriety and the Consequences of Literacy

Abstract

Indigenous language literacy in Pueblo contexts is both highly controversial and a new site for the enactment of processes of perfectibility, refinement, and control. This essay examines the creation, content, and circulation of an indigenous language pedagogical text at San Antonio Pueblo and the ways that writing is used in prototypically Pueblo ways. This allows for the expansion of understandings of secrecy, literacies, and the importance of examining language in material form. I argue that by considering practices of perfectibility, a critique of the formation of publics arises centering on literacy as a technology of refinement and control rather than anonymous circulation. Indigenous‐language literacy practices at San Antonio Pueblo reflect different understandings of citizenship and political participation that rely on known but indirectly addressed individuals, rather than unknown publics, for their realization.

Spatiotemporal, Geographic, and Linguistic Fixity: (Counter)hegemonies in the Pueblo Borderlands

“…I had spent seven years working as part of the San Ramón Pueblo 4 language program and have advised projects at Pojoaque and Nambe Pueblos, which provided me with knowledge of the grammar and phonology of Kiowa-Tanoan languages, the family to which Southern Tiwa belongs. Like my previous work (Debenport, 2010a(Debenport, , 2010b(Debenport, , 2011(Debenport, , 2012(Debenport, , 2015(Debenport, , 2017, I…”

“Improving Native American elder access to and use of health care through effective health system navigation”

“…A second ethical consideration in undertaking this type of research concerns privacy and local control of intellectual property. While these issues are present within all projects involving indigenous participants [ 97 ], researchers and collaborators working with NM Pueblo groups must be especially attuned to the emphasis placed on secrecy and appropriate dissemination of cultural knowledge [ 76 , 77 , 98 – 100 ]. The most sensitive area of cultural knowledge in these communities is indigenous language, with many Pueblo communities choosing to avoid writing and other technologies of circulation to control the audiences for their heritage languages.…”

“…We will conduct most interviews in English, with provisions for persons preferring to speak a Pueblo language. Due to the incredible linguistic diversity across Pueblos and the proximity of these communities to English-speaking populations, Pueblo residents are generally fluent in English [ 76 ]. Moreover, only tribal members appropriately have access to written and recorded texts in Pueblo languages [ 77 ], meaning that producing written interview scripts in Pueblo languages may violate local models of information control.…”

Inscribing the Miraculous Place: Writing and Ritual Communication in the Chapel of a Guatemalan Popular Saint

“…As illustrated by numerous ethnographic studies in recent years (e.g., Blommaert ; Debenport ; Noy ; Salomon and Niño‐Murcia ), an anthropological investigation of writing requires multiple analytic levels that go beyond the referential content of the text‐artifacts themselves. For example, Bender (), in her ethnography of Sequoyah's syllabary in Eastern Cherokee life, advocates an analysis of writing in terms of structural, pragmatic, and ideological perspectives.…”