Michele Back

Performing and Positioning Orthography in Peruvian CMC

Using positioning theory and notions of stylization and performance, we examine alternative orthographies posted in Spanish on a Peruvian radio stations website. These posts were reactions to a published photo of Peruvian indigenous congresswoman Hilaria Supas orthographic errors in notes she took during a congressional meeting. Contrary to our original assumptions, we find that commenters who used Spanish CMC orthography were less likely to support Hilaria Supas own Quechua-influenced orthography, while commenters using a hyper-normative Spanish orthography were more supportive of Supa. We discuss possible reasons for this contradiction, with findings that contribute to a growing body of literature on CMC in non-English speaking environments and suggest new beliefs regarding the use of nonstandard Spanish orthographies in asynchronous CMC environments.

Globalized or glocalized? Transnational or transcultural? Defining language practices in global spaces

Recent years have witnessed an explosion of terminologies that address the complex interplay of languages and cultures in globalized spaces. This increased attention is encouraging for scholars in the area, as it offers an ability to discuss these issues with more nuance than previously possible. However, the sheer number of studies on language, culture, and globalization, with their often similar terms, can be frustrating for a reader wanting to find a concise way of analyzing these issues. In this chapter, I outline current definitions of ‘globalization’ and ‘transnationalism’ and how scholars in applied linguistics have perceived these concepts. I discuss the disconnect that still exists between notions of globalization as a unidirectional transfer from ‘majority’ to ‘minority’ cultures and the more dynamic concepts of ‘glocalized’ and ‘transcultural’ practices (Canagarajah 2013; Robertson 1995). I then turn to the field of indigenous language maintenance, drawing parallels to popular conceptions of globalization as unidirectional and negative. I argue how researchers of the maintenance and revitalization of minority languages such as Quichua might benefit from adopting more dynamic, microanalytic, and practice-based approaches regarding globalization and the loss, gain, and evolution of languages and cultures worldwide.

Introduction: Globalization, indigenous languages, and the Runa Takiks

In this book, I propose an intersection, and perhaps even a compromise, between discussions on indigenous language maintenance and the so-called ‘threat’ of globalization. Today, increasing linguistic and cultural contact as a result of travel, migration, and other transnational flows has become the rule rather than the exception. Although some would argue that globalization has existed for as long as human civilization, the increasing role of technology, along with more affordable travel, has accelerated the contact between cultures exponentially. Even as many scholars cry impending doom for indigenous languages as a result of this increased contact, their words are often ignored as the speakers of these languages attempt to negotiate new roles for themselves in globalized contexts.

Conclusions and implications for indigenous and minority languages

In this book, I have focused on one community of practice—an Andean folkloric music group that I call the Runa Takiks—and their family members in order to shed some light on transcultural practices of ethnicity, gender, and language at home and abroad. Departing from the many studies that have examined indigenous and minority language issues such as language policy, globalization, and language maintenance at a macro level, I have opted for a microanalytic perspective to focus on how certain policies, histories, and beliefs informed my participants’ practices on a daily basis. The findings from these chapters have shown that these individuals negotiated their transcultural and translingual selves in different ways and according to the different contexts shaping their lives at any given moment. At the same time, I noted that many of the Runa Takiks’ own beliefs regarding the Quichua language and culture both expressed a strong sense of selfhood and reflected essentialist narratives of legitimacy and inevitable loss, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

Gender and beliefs about language

In Chapters 2 and 3, I laid the theoretical foundation for discussing transcultural language practices. In this chapter, I use this foundation to discuss the beliefs the Runa Takiks held about their language practices. I compare the beliefs of the male participants in the Pacific Northwest with those of their wives and mothers back in Ecuador. In my discussion of these beliefs, I discover strong feelings of closeness and affection for Quichua among all participants, as well as the belief that the language is an essential component of indigenous identity.

Transcultural performances of ethnicity

In Chapter 5, I examined how the Runa Takiks and their wives and mothers performed gender and how the contexts of their interactions shaped these performances. In this chapter, I look closer at context in my discussion on how the male musicians performed ethnicity. Following the definitions of Jenkins (2008) and Liebscher and Daily-O’Cain (2013), and similar to my own interpretations of gender and identity, I define ethnicity not as something one has, but rather as something one does—as ‘complex repertoires which people experience, learn and “do” in their daily lives’ (Jenkins 2008, p. 15).

Transcultural performances of gender

In Chapter 4, I discussed the beliefs that my participants had with regard to their language use, and I began to highlight the differences in perceptions of this language use between genders. Discovering beliefs about these issues is an important way to begin to analyze the complexities surrounding transcultural realities; however, these beliefs, as accessed through interviews, are filtered not only through participant histories, but also through the medium of the interview and participants’ perceptions of what a researcher might want to hear. In this and subsequent chapters, I compare these beliefs to actual practices.

Theorizing transcultural language practices

In Chapter 2, I examined various perspectives on globalization and how they interfaced with issues of language maintenance and revitalization. In this chapter, I continue the discussion by focusing on how a poststructuralist perspective can assist us in analyzing one of the main functions of language: the construction of identity. Identity, roughly defined in this book as how we see ourselves and how others see us, is at the core of every interaction, including negotiations of gender and ethnicity, which I discuss in subsequent chapters. Here, I briefly trace the movement from structuralist to poststructuralist views of identity and how these differences have changed our perceptions of transcultural interaction. I follow recent theories that identity is contextual and negotiated, while at the same time acknowledging that most individuals still conceive of identity as something static.

Transcultural performance and legitimacy: Seven years later

I returned to the Otavalo area for a brief visit in the summer of 2014 with the intention of reconnecting with my participants. Though I had been in sporadic email contact with Marco in the seven years after my research, I had heard very little from the other members of the band. Upon arrival in Ecuador, I quickly discovered that, with the exception of Domingo and one of Allkurinchik’s daughters, my participants did not remember me, or only had faint recollections of my presence in their lives seven years prior. of course, it made sense that they would have gone on with their lives, although it was difficult for me to process this, given that I had spent a substantial portion of those years thinking, writing, and talking about them in a variety of different venues.