Creolization? Or Globalization?

[JFThiels at aol.com]

Well, to put in my two cents' worth, I'd like to problematize the relationship between linguistic phenomena and cultural phenomena, although comparisons are often tempting and sometimes very fruitful.  However, it is easy to transfer the whole kit of ideas contained in the idea of language (creolization) and transfer it to "culture" (hybridity, for example, mistakenly reifies the "parent" cultures)--anyone have the reference for Hymes's "Problems in the Definition of 'Tribe'"?  I guess my beef with some of the globalization literature is that it does not usually address questions of inequality in the world system; life becomes a big "it's a small world after all" exhibit at Disney World.  The movement of different products and ideas is undeniable; yet directionality and capital flow is often left to the side in such discussions.

Has anyone thought about Kulick's Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction in terms of this discussion?  I really liked his argument concerning the shift to Pidgin and the association for his informants of particular codes to gendered interaction...is it relevant here?

John Thiels