<div dir="ltr">Julia's "researcher paradox" has been well explored by anthropologists, of course, with one of the earliest, but now a bit dated, accounts being:<div><br></div><div><div style="margin:0.2em 0px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18px">
<span dir="ltr"><font color="#000000">Peggy Golde 1986. <i>Women in the Field</i>. </font></span><span dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:13px">University of California Press.</span></div></div><div style="margin:0.2em 0px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18px">
<span dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:13px"><br></span></div><div style="margin:0.2em 0px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18px"><span dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:13px">Lots more references can be found on the web.</span></div>
<div style="margin:0.2em 0px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18px"><span dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:13px"><br></span></div><div style="margin:0.2em 0px"><font color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18px">The American Anthropological Association also has a section called "Association for Feminist Anthropology" (</font><font color="#000000" face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:18px"><a href="http://www.aaanet.org/sections/afa/">http://www.aaanet.org/sections/afa/</a>) but I am not sure if they deal with the kinds of issues about language and revitalisation that Dave raised in his original post to this thread.</span></font></div>
<div style="margin:0.2em 0px"><font color="#000000" face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:18px"><br></span></font></div><div style="margin:0.2em 0px"><font color="#000000" face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:18px">Best,</span></font></div>
<div style="margin:0.2em 0px"><font color="#000000" face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:18px">Peter</span></font></div><div style="margin:0.2em 0px"><font color="#000000" face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:18px"><br>
</span></font></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 30 August 2014 00:33, Julia Sallabank <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:js72@soas.ac.uk" target="_blank">js72@soas.ac.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Thanks Carl for this.<div><br></div><div>I'm not sure it's as simple as cultural imperialism vs. acquiescence in potentially repressive practices (or perhaps worse: domestic violence? FGM?). Even if we on't intend to impose our views, the very act of doing fieldwork involves cultural contact, and the presence of a linguist or anthropologist can affect both language and social attitudes - what I call the 'researcher's paradox', to echo the 'observer's paradox'. Simply being an independent female doing fieldwork raises the possibility of not following traditional gender roles. Reactions can range from<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> being seen as 'in some middle ground between women and men' (to quote one of our PhD students), to being propositioned.</span></div>
<div><br></div><div>Perhaps not really in response, another quote, from Matras 2005:2007: 'It is noteworthy that part of the imagery surrounding endangered language communities is their exotic depiction as groups that are not only disenfranchised and disempowered, but also archaic and remote from urban civilisation, both physically and in the stage of their technological and institutional development.'<div>
<br></div><div>Matras describes a community where the traditional role of Mukhtar or community leader is in part hereditary, in part elected (his right to succeed his father was confirmed by an assembly of the community elders), and in part appointed ( officially recognised by the authorities. The Mukhtar’s political challenger in the community is a young woman who is not a speaker of the endangered language but is fluent in English, and has founded an association, established links with non-governmental organisations and has established a web page which has become one of the principal sources of information on the community for the outside world. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Matras asks 'Who, then, represents the community toward the linguist? Is it the Mukhtar, the </div><div>‘officially acknowledged’ leader who, however, does not seem to have any active role in </div>
<div>the community, and certainly does not engage in any community-wide activity? Is it the </div><div>young activist, who is not a speaker, but who seeks to control all contacts between </div><div>members of the community and outsiders, and whose considerations in respect of academic </div>
<div>co-operation are essentially political, based on a need to secure a financial basis for her </div><div>own activities?'</div><div><br></div><div>I should acknowledge that the point I'm making is not quite the same as the one Matras stresses, but I find the illustration helpful. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Best wishes</div><div><br></div><div>Julia</div><div><br></div><div>Ref: </div><div><br></div><div><div>Matras, Yaron (2005). Language contact, language endangerment, and the role of the ‘salvation linguist’. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description, vol 3. London: SOAS. pp. 225-251. Available online at <a href="http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/043" target="_blank">http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/043</a> (accessed 28 August 2014)</div>
</div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div><div class="h5"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 27 August 2014 14:43, Carl Edlund Anderson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:carl.anderson@unisabana.edu.co" target="_blank">carl.anderson@unisabana.edu.co</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div>On 27 Aug 2014, at 08:16 , Julia Sallabank <<a href="mailto:js72@SOAS.AC.UK" target="_blank">js72@SOAS.AC.UK</a>> wrote:</div>
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It seems to me that documentary linguistics obscures gender roles, and other voices too (such as the young, also vital for language revitalisation), by 'totalising' the concept of 'community'. There is a tendency to talk about‘the community’ as a single unit
with agreed ideas, as in ‘the language attitude of the community itself’ (UNESCO 2003: 13). In my own research it has become clear that there are profound disagreements within such communities about language, its status, domains, functions, policy – and about
who has the authority or legitimacy to decide any of these. </div>
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</div><div>This is, I think, an important and overlooked issue. And there are often not only a variety of conflicting voices within "communities", but often considerable dissent over what any given "community" may be, and who is in it.</div>
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As Cavanaugh notes, in language revitalisation movements (or rhetoric) there is often a hyper-valorisation of 'authentic' language and culture, and by implication traditional societies, which also works to silence dissenting voices. In most traditional communities
it is quite likely that women will not have authority to decide on language policy at either family or societal level. In this issue of <i>Gender and Language</i> Leonard (2012) claims that ‘reclamation’ programmes evoke an essentialist notion of culture whereby
participants feel pressure to act, think or speak in certain ways, particularly those that are deemed to be ‘traditional’. </div>
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There has been some discussion of the non-democratic nature of traditional societies in the field of development studies, especially since the publication of Cooke and Kothari's<span> </span><i>Participation: The New Tyranny?</i><span> </span>in
2001. Uma Kothari notes that ‘the more “participatory” the enquiry, the more its outcome will mask the power structure of the community’ (Kothari, 2001: 146). Glyn Williams (2004) notes that 'homogenising differences within communities, and uncritically privileging
‘the local’ as the site for action, ... draw[s] a veil over repressive structures (of gender, class, caste and ethnicity) that operate at the micro-scale but are reproduced beyond it'. </div>
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<div>This highlights another complicated issue: that many aspects of (for example) contemporary Western feminist thought are ... well, contemporary and Western! This issue is extendable to other silenced/dissenting voices within given "non-Western" communities,
and there is a conflict between contemporary Western views on (for example) the empowerment of women as a positive thing and the right to self-determination within a community. If, for example, Western researchers/activists are faced with a society in which
women are treated repressively, they are confronted with the problem that the women cannot be "empowered" (in Western senses) without practicing "cultural imperialism" (against the society's men, at least, though arguably also against the very women that are
being "empowered").</div>
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<div>As a "Westerner", I think of empowering women (for example) as a Good Thing, and I would have a very hard time indeed seeing the "cultural imperialism" that led to their empowerment as a Bad Thing. But the fact remains that I am still saying, "You're
doing and thinking about it wrong, and should do it and think about it like me instead." This situation seems inevitable in a world where people have such widely varying views about what's Good or Bad, but in any event I am not sure that contemporary Western
academia has come up with a very graceful way of approaching (let alone resolving, if such a thing is even possible) the issue.</div>
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<div>Well, those are some thoughts. I'm not sure they are necessarily very helpful :) but, anyway .... :)</div>
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<div>Cheers,</div>
<div>Carl</div>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div></div></div><div class="">-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div><div>Dr. Julia Sallabank<br></div><div>Senior Lecturer in Language Support and Revitalisation, Endangered Languages Academic Programme;</div>
<div>Convenor, MA Linguistics and MA <span style="font-size:small;font-family:arial">Language Documentation and Description,</span></div><div>Department of Linguistics,<br>SOAS, University of London, <br>Thornhaugh Street <br>
London WC1H 0XG<br></div></div><div><div>UK <br><br>Tel. <a href="tel:%2B44%20%280%2920%207898%204326" value="+442078984326" target="_blank">+44 (0)20 7898 4326</a><br>E-mail <a href="mailto:js72@soas.ac.uk" target="_blank">js72@soas.ac.uk</a></div>
<div><br></div><div><b>Click here to listen to my interview on 'New Books in Language</b>': <a href="http://newbooksinlanguage.com/2014/08/10/julia-sallabank-attitudes-to-endangered-languages-identities-and-policies-cambridge-up-2013/" target="_blank">http://newbooksinlanguage.com/2014/08/10/julia-sallabank-attitudes-to-endangered-languages-identities-and-policies-cambridge-up-2013/</a> </div>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>Prof Peter K. Austin<br>Marit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics<br>Director, Endangered Languages Academic Programme<div>Research Tutor and PhD Convenor<br>Department of Linguistics, SOAS<br>
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square<br>London WC1H 0XG<br>United Kingdom<br><br>web: <a href="http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/index.php?cd=pa" target="_blank">http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/index.php?cd=pa</a></div>
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