traditions of assimilation...

[Mia Kalish]

Everyone was so *cool* about this. 
In one way, I feel a bit silly about being to absolutely incensed both about
the content of Dirk Elzinga's email, and about what it seems to me to be the
nerve that it took to send it. I was watching an episode of Dexter at lunch,
and one of the characters used the term "entitlement." I guess that's
perhaps what it is, a sense from a certain group of people that they have
the right to tell others how to be. (I'm doing it again; I'll stop.)
 
It's been interesting reading everyone's responses. I guess for me, the
intersection of language, religion and hegemony cut close to the bone. I
frequently find myself thinking, in response to some unthinking person's
attribution of "whiteness" to me, When did the Jews become "white"? Was it
after the Holocaust killed 18 million of us and our closest undesirable
friends, like the Indigenous Gypsies? Maybe it was when we built Hollywood
because we weren't allowed to hold more "desirable" jobs; we are grateful
for the diamond and gold markets. Or maybe, it was when we built the Mt.
Sinai hospitals, arguably some of the best in the world - because we weren't
allow to practice in "white" hospitals. Maybe it was then that we became
"white". Although, the rumors of our horns still abounded in the middle 40s,
when a friend's father surprised his army cohort because they didn't see
them when he took of his hat. We know it definitely wasn't then. 

Maybe on second thought, we learn about the world and people's place in it
and their/our relation to others when we talk about the things that hurt us,
the things that bring tears to our eyes: Maybe it's the million points of
light in Yad Vashem, one for each of the million children whose names are
read endlessly, in remembrance.

Maybe it's "The Silent Scream" and maybe it shouldn't be silent any more.  

Mia


-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
On Behalf Of Mark Sicoli
Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 12:35 AM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] traditions of assimilation...

Dear Jimmy,  Thank you for this response and the information you provided.
 It's very interesting how the Chinese nationalist project also produced
the same ideological relationship of one language=one nation, with similar
oppressive results for vernacular languages.  Since I work in and am from
ex-european colonies, I trace it's effects there to European nation
building which was the model for the colonies.  You show the same type of
process where the Chinese communists model their idea of nation building
on past symbols deployed for unification.  In all these cases the belief
in unity doesn't match the real life diversity.  I would like to learn
more.  Can you recommend a book or article?

I wish you luck with your work with Siraya and look forward to hearing
more about your work in the future.

Mark



On Sun, February 17, 2008 12:33 am, Jimmy/ Chun said:
> Hi all,
>
> This is my first time writing here, so please allow me to
> introduce myself.
>
> I am a Siraya from Taiwan, now a PhD student under Dr Hardman's
> supervision at UF. I work at revitalizing Siraya language that is
> noted as extinct in Ethnologue (Ethnologue also uses Chinese terms
> that actually means "savage" in its Siraya entry). I work with a
> group of Sirayan people that are also Presbyterian; with the
> little re-constructed mother tongue, they have written a few
> Christian songs in addition to some folk songs with Austronesian
> tunes in Siraya. I enjoy the fact that we now have songs to sing.
> In the songs we sing the name of Alid...when singing Alid, I think
> of the Sirayan Goddess-mother, although my folks use it to refer
> to the Western God/Lord.
>
> I love this thread and I'd like to contribute to the discussion of
> "tradition of assimilation" by recommending a movie called
> "Hawaii" made in 1966, directed by George Roy Hill. It's a looong
> movie and makes me sad, but it has given me plenty to think.
>
> Also I very much agree with Mark Sicoli that the concept of "one
> nation = one language" has a lot to do with European nation-state
> building. But I'd just like to point out that such belief has a
> Chinese root as well. Since as early as 259 BC, the Qin King in
> China was already obsessed with the notion of a huge, unified,
> China Kingdom that spoke and wrote (!) only one language. This
> Chinese nationalist ideology has informed the communists in China
> as well as the Chinese Nationalists in Taiwan and led to many
> Mandarin-only (commonly thought to be "the Chinese language"
> today) policies. By 1930's the Japanese colonializers in Taiwan
> still documented about 30 indigenous Austronesian languages spoken
> around the island; now we have speakers for only about 13 of them
> and two peoples (Siraya and Bazai) are trying to re-constitutes
> their lost mother tongues (mostly based on written documents --
> 17th century land contracts and bibilical stuffs [!!] left by the
> Dutch missionaries). Luckily (??) I can't recall any Taiwanese or
> Chinese politician talking about us having a "tradition of
> assimilation" :)
>
>
> Jimmy (or "Chun Huang," my registered Chinese name, which is again
> a case of assimilation. Siraya used to be matri-focal and people
> used to have only first names, but the Chinese colonial government
> has assigned Chinese last names to us based on fathers being the
> head of a household).
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat Feb 16 17:03:15 EST 2008, David Lewis
> <David.Lewis at GRANDRONDE.ORG> wrote:
>
>> I for one appreciate more dialogue about how Christians and other
>> sects have contributed to the assimilation of Native peoples,
>> which in turn has contributed to the extinction or
>> near-extinction of many native languages. I too will use this in
>> my classes.
>>
>> David G. Lewis
>> Manager, Cultural Resources Department
>> Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of Mark
>> Sicoli
>> Sent: Sat 2/16/2008 12:49 PM
>> To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: [ILAT] traditions of assimilation...
>>  Thank you Phil, well said.  The nationalist myth is based on a
>> pervasive
>> ideology where a single language is taken (or given) as the
>> symbol of a
>> singular identity.  The one language=one nation association goes
>> back to
>> nation-state building in Europe and the practices of linguistic
>> unifications, like in Spain, France, and Italy, and other such
>> places
>> where vernacular languages were ideologically "erased" in the
>> formation of
>> national unities.  These served as models for nation building in
>> the
>> Americas and the ideology is real prominent in Mexico where I
>> work, and
>> where language shifts from indigenous languages to Spanish are
>> currently
>> occurring at unprecedented rates.  The same basic ideology is at
>> work
>> equating one language with one individual, which serves to work
>> against
>> bilingualism and bilingual education, thus facilitating language
>> abandonment rather than bilingual maintenance.  For these reasons
>> I agree
>> that this is a worthwhile discussion for this list.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>> On Sat, February 16, 2008 9:02 pm, phil cash cash said:
>>> For the language advocates (LA) it might be worthwhile to point
>>> out these
>>> "assimilationist" agendas are all founded on a nationalist
>>> myth.??  In
>>> today's
>>> contemporary context, this nationalist myth states that our
>>> societies are
>>> or
>>> can become linguistically, culturally homogenous.??  When in
>>> reality, this
>>> may
>>> be impossible.?? And as Richard points out so well, the
>>> nationalist myth (in what ever
>>> manifestation it may take) supports other agendas as well.?? Phil
>>> UofA
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> -- Mark Sicoli Ph.D.
>> Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
>> Postbus 310
>> 6500 AH Nijmegen
>> The Netherlands
>>
>>
>
>


-- 
Mark Sicoli Ph.D.
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Postbus 310
6500 AH Nijmegen
The Netherlands