traditions of assimilation...
Heather Souter
hsouter at GMAIL.COM
Tue Feb 26 03:00:29 UTC 2008
On 2/25/08, Mia Kalish <MiaKalish at learningforpeople.us> wrote:
> 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
>
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