Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) poetry allows us to understand how lived beliefs can be central t... more Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) poetry allows us to understand how lived beliefs can be central to the realization of the individual self in community. In this paper, we focus on the poetry of Mata-U'iroa Atan, a Rapa Nui poet who characterizes his political project as walking to fly like a bird. His poem Ki Te Reva ('To the Flag') exemplifies a particular form of corporeal consciousness leading to a project of political persuasion. His poems are written in Rapa Nui, an indigenous Polynesian language and draw attention to sociolinguistic and historical "disjunctures" (Meek, 2010) in contemporary Rapa Nui community life. We argue that lived beliefs are produced by corporeal consciousness, and verbal art can be central to the mobilization of lived beliefs in the process of persuasion for emancipatory praxis. Poetry can give people an imagination, and this imagination is constitutive of a kind of truth underlying political projects.
This article examines evolving linguistic practices in the Spanish-Rapa Nui (Polynesian) bilingua... more This article examines evolving linguistic practices in the Spanish-Rapa Nui (Polynesian) bilingual community of Easter Island, Chile, and in particular the transformation of Rapa Nui Spanish speech styles. The island's rapid integration into the national and world economy and a vibrant indigenous movement have profoundly influenced the everyday lives of island residents. Although community-wide language shift toward Spanish has been
Makihara, Miki, and Juan Rodriguez A. 2020. Anthropology of Language Contact. In Oxford Bibliogra... more Makihara, Miki, and Juan Rodriguez A. 2020. Anthropology of Language Contact. In Oxford Bibliographies in Anthropology, edited by J. Jackson Jr. Oxford University Press.
The Native Speaker Concept: Ethnographic Investigations of Native Speaker Effects, edited by Neriko M. Doerr, 2010
Makihara, Miki. 2009. Heterogeneity in Linguistic Practice, Competence, and Ideology: Language an... more Makihara, Miki. 2009. Heterogeneity in Linguistic Practice, Competence, and Ideology: Language and Community on Easter Island. In The Native Speaker Concept: Ethnographic Investigations of Native Speaker Effects, edited by Neriko M. Doerr, pp.249–275. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
This chapter explores political and cultural dimensions of indigenous experiences, focusing in pa... more This chapter explores political and cultural dimensions of indigenous experiences, focusing in particular on linguistic practices, ideology, and diversity. More specifically, it discusses how indigenousness has operated as a transnational identity in the context of global political decolonization movements, as well as in regional, nation, and community contexts, for example in tensions between nationalist or multiculturalist nation-states and indigenous communities, as well as within indigenous communities. It examines the ways in which sociolinguistic and linguistic changes in indigenous communities have conditioned as well as have been led by indigenous language documentation and planning efforts. In particular, it highlights ways in which research paradigms have shifted over time from missionary, colonial, and modern linguistic language descriptions to more ethnographically grounded, dynamic, and forward-looking projects of indigenous language and culture documentation and education. It also discusses various challenges involved in sustaining indigenous languages and privileging indigenous voices and knowledge. [Lane, Pia, and Miki Makihara. 2017. Indigenous Peoples and Their Languages. In Handbook of Language and Society, edited by Ofelia Garcia, Nelson Flores, and Max Spotti, pp. 299–319. Oxford University Press.]
Makihara, Miki. 2010. Anthropology. In Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity, 2nd edition, edi... more Makihara, Miki. 2010. Anthropology. In Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity, 2nd edition, edited by Joshua A. Fishman and Ofelia García, pp.32–48. NewYork: Oxford University Press
Rodriguez, Juan, and Miki Makihara. 2019. Posicionamiento, poder y política. Anuario de Glotopolí... more Rodriguez, Juan, and Miki Makihara. 2019. Posicionamiento, poder y política. Anuario de Glotopolítica. [https://glotopolitica.com/indiceaglo3/]
Recent work in linguistic anthropology highlights the role of linguistic ideologies, or cultural ... more Recent work in linguistic anthropology highlights the role of linguistic ideologies, or cultural conceptions of language, in transforming social relations and linguistic structure and use. This article examines the links between language attitudes and uses in their institutional and interactional contexts on Rapa Nui, a Polynesian island community that is part of the Chilean nation-state. By the 1970s, a sociolinguistic hierarchy and functional compartmentalization of languages between Spanish and Rapa Nui—what I will describe as " colonial diglossia " —had become established in the community, which was rapidly becoming bilingual. Language shift toward Spanish has continued to advance since then. However, rising Rapa Nui syncretic language practice and consciousness, combined with the political successes of a local indigenous movement and changes in the local economy, are now contributing to the breakdown of colonial diglossia, generating better conditions for the maintenance of the Rapa Nui language.
[Keywords: language ideology, language maintenance, language shift, bilingualism, ethnolinguistic minority]
This chapter argues that language ideologies and practices mediate consequences of cultural conta... more This chapter argues that language ideologies and practices mediate consequences of cultural contact over time. Focusing on the Pacific, from Rapa Nui to West Papua, it highlights complex histories and variation of cultural encounters, crossings and re-crossings; cultural and political conditions of linguistic research across different colonial and postcolonial phases; the linguistic diversity of Pacific Island societies, and the social centrality of talk and other verbal practices such as literacy, in them. The chapter emphasizes variation in linguistic and cultural change, debates about modernization, missionization, and language endangerment and revitalization, and suggests strategies for understanding the dynamics of such changes by identifying key agents, institutional sites, and linguistic forms, within a wider historical and global conjuncture.
Keywords: cultural processes, cultural contact, Rapa Nui, West Papua, Pacific societies, postcolonial, colonial
In recent years, increased attention has been drawn w the situation of endangered minoriry langua... more In recent years, increased attention has been drawn w the situation of endangered minoriry languages and the complexiry of sociolinguistic processes surrounding their evolution and future prospects. The Rapa Nui (Polynesian)-Spanish bilingual communiry of Easter Island, Chile has been experiencing language shift toward Spanish over the last four decades. At the same time, however, political struggles over land, political decision-making rights, and control over the heritage tourism economy have been converging to lead the Rapa Nui communiry to publicly and intensively assert and reconstruct their cultural identiry. Although the majority of Rapa Nui children today are native and dominant speakers of Spanish, their positive ethnic identification and participation in public cultural activities and in bilingual and syncretic conversational interactions are providing opportunities for communiry revaluation and maintenance of their ancestral language. Using ethnographic and linguistic analysis of face-to-face verbal interaction, this article examines the role of children in the dynamics of sociolinguistic changes and the construction of the ethnolinguistic communiry. [Key Words: agency, children, endangered language, language ideology, linguistic anthropology]
Rapa Nui (Easter Island) provides a good illustration of a small community experiencing heterogen... more Rapa Nui (Easter Island) provides a good illustration of a small community experiencing heterogeneous and changing understandings of communicative competence and of the dynamic relationships between language, competence, use, community, and consciousness. Using ethnographic and linguistic analyses of micro-interactional and macro-sociological processes, this paper demonstrates that communicative style repertoires and competence are socially generated and transformed.
[Key Words: Communicative competence, Language revitalization, Language shift, Language ideology, Bilingualism, Rapa Nui]
A B S T R A C T This article examines evolving linguistic practices in the Spanish-Rapa Nui (Poly... more A B S T R A C T This article examines evolving linguistic practices in the Spanish-Rapa Nui (Polynesian) bilingual community of Easter Island, Chile, and in particular the transformation of Rapa Nui Spanish speech styles. The island's rapid integration into the national and world economy and a vibrant indigenous movement have profoundly influenced the everyday lives of island residents. Although community-wide language shift toward Spanish has been evident over the past four decades, the Rapa Nui have in this period also expanded their speech style repertoire by creating Rapa Nui Spanish and syncretic Rapa Nui speech styles. Predominantly Spanish-speaking Rapa Nui children who have imperfect command over Rapa Nui are today adopting a new Rapa Nui Spanish style. Ethnographic and linguistic analysis of recorded face-to-face verbal interactions are utilized to analyze the development , structure, and social significance of Rapa Nui Spanish varieties and to locate them within the complex process of language shift. [Key Words: Language shift, language socialization, bilingualism, language variation, ethnic identity , communicative style, Polynesia]
The linguistic anthropology of Oceania has seen vigorous and productive analysis of language ideo... more The linguistic anthropology of Oceania has seen vigorous and productive analysis of language ideologies, ritual performance, personhood, and agency. This article points to three related paths of inquiry that are especially promising. First, language ideologies are analyzed for the ways they shape expectations and interpretations of effective action and social identity. Second, processes of entextualization are examined with reference to Bible translation because Christianity is a dominant social force in contemporary Oceania. Third, prominent recent work on per-sonhood and agency is reviewed, and scholars are urged to reconsider the classic Oceanic term mana in relation to changing understandings of power, including those wrought by religious transformations. These paths of inquiry are intertwined and cross-cutting and can lead to productive new understandings of ideologies and practices of stability and transformation.
Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) poetry allows us to understand how lived beliefs can be central t... more Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) poetry allows us to understand how lived beliefs can be central to the realization of the individual self in community. In this paper, we focus on the poetry of Mata-U'iroa Atan, a Rapa Nui poet who characterizes his political project as walking to fly like a bird. His poem Ki Te Reva ('To the Flag') exemplifies a particular form of corporeal consciousness leading to a project of political persuasion. His poems are written in Rapa Nui, an indigenous Polynesian language and draw attention to sociolinguistic and historical "disjunctures" (Meek, 2010) in contemporary Rapa Nui community life. We argue that lived beliefs are produced by corporeal consciousness, and verbal art can be central to the mobilization of lived beliefs in the process of persuasion for emancipatory praxis. Poetry can give people an imagination, and this imagination is constitutive of a kind of truth underlying political projects.
This article examines evolving linguistic practices in the Spanish-Rapa Nui (Polynesian) bilingua... more This article examines evolving linguistic practices in the Spanish-Rapa Nui (Polynesian) bilingual community of Easter Island, Chile, and in particular the transformation of Rapa Nui Spanish speech styles. The island's rapid integration into the national and world economy and a vibrant indigenous movement have profoundly influenced the everyday lives of island residents. Although community-wide language shift toward Spanish has been
Makihara, Miki, and Juan Rodriguez A. 2020. Anthropology of Language Contact. In Oxford Bibliogra... more Makihara, Miki, and Juan Rodriguez A. 2020. Anthropology of Language Contact. In Oxford Bibliographies in Anthropology, edited by J. Jackson Jr. Oxford University Press.
The Native Speaker Concept: Ethnographic Investigations of Native Speaker Effects, edited by Neriko M. Doerr, 2010
Makihara, Miki. 2009. Heterogeneity in Linguistic Practice, Competence, and Ideology: Language an... more Makihara, Miki. 2009. Heterogeneity in Linguistic Practice, Competence, and Ideology: Language and Community on Easter Island. In The Native Speaker Concept: Ethnographic Investigations of Native Speaker Effects, edited by Neriko M. Doerr, pp.249–275. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
This chapter explores political and cultural dimensions of indigenous experiences, focusing in pa... more This chapter explores political and cultural dimensions of indigenous experiences, focusing in particular on linguistic practices, ideology, and diversity. More specifically, it discusses how indigenousness has operated as a transnational identity in the context of global political decolonization movements, as well as in regional, nation, and community contexts, for example in tensions between nationalist or multiculturalist nation-states and indigenous communities, as well as within indigenous communities. It examines the ways in which sociolinguistic and linguistic changes in indigenous communities have conditioned as well as have been led by indigenous language documentation and planning efforts. In particular, it highlights ways in which research paradigms have shifted over time from missionary, colonial, and modern linguistic language descriptions to more ethnographically grounded, dynamic, and forward-looking projects of indigenous language and culture documentation and education. It also discusses various challenges involved in sustaining indigenous languages and privileging indigenous voices and knowledge. [Lane, Pia, and Miki Makihara. 2017. Indigenous Peoples and Their Languages. In Handbook of Language and Society, edited by Ofelia Garcia, Nelson Flores, and Max Spotti, pp. 299–319. Oxford University Press.]
Makihara, Miki. 2010. Anthropology. In Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity, 2nd edition, edi... more Makihara, Miki. 2010. Anthropology. In Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity, 2nd edition, edited by Joshua A. Fishman and Ofelia García, pp.32–48. NewYork: Oxford University Press
Rodriguez, Juan, and Miki Makihara. 2019. Posicionamiento, poder y política. Anuario de Glotopolí... more Rodriguez, Juan, and Miki Makihara. 2019. Posicionamiento, poder y política. Anuario de Glotopolítica. [https://glotopolitica.com/indiceaglo3/]
Recent work in linguistic anthropology highlights the role of linguistic ideologies, or cultural ... more Recent work in linguistic anthropology highlights the role of linguistic ideologies, or cultural conceptions of language, in transforming social relations and linguistic structure and use. This article examines the links between language attitudes and uses in their institutional and interactional contexts on Rapa Nui, a Polynesian island community that is part of the Chilean nation-state. By the 1970s, a sociolinguistic hierarchy and functional compartmentalization of languages between Spanish and Rapa Nui—what I will describe as " colonial diglossia " —had become established in the community, which was rapidly becoming bilingual. Language shift toward Spanish has continued to advance since then. However, rising Rapa Nui syncretic language practice and consciousness, combined with the political successes of a local indigenous movement and changes in the local economy, are now contributing to the breakdown of colonial diglossia, generating better conditions for the maintenance of the Rapa Nui language.
[Keywords: language ideology, language maintenance, language shift, bilingualism, ethnolinguistic minority]
This chapter argues that language ideologies and practices mediate consequences of cultural conta... more This chapter argues that language ideologies and practices mediate consequences of cultural contact over time. Focusing on the Pacific, from Rapa Nui to West Papua, it highlights complex histories and variation of cultural encounters, crossings and re-crossings; cultural and political conditions of linguistic research across different colonial and postcolonial phases; the linguistic diversity of Pacific Island societies, and the social centrality of talk and other verbal practices such as literacy, in them. The chapter emphasizes variation in linguistic and cultural change, debates about modernization, missionization, and language endangerment and revitalization, and suggests strategies for understanding the dynamics of such changes by identifying key agents, institutional sites, and linguistic forms, within a wider historical and global conjuncture.
Keywords: cultural processes, cultural contact, Rapa Nui, West Papua, Pacific societies, postcolonial, colonial
In recent years, increased attention has been drawn w the situation of endangered minoriry langua... more In recent years, increased attention has been drawn w the situation of endangered minoriry languages and the complexiry of sociolinguistic processes surrounding their evolution and future prospects. The Rapa Nui (Polynesian)-Spanish bilingual communiry of Easter Island, Chile has been experiencing language shift toward Spanish over the last four decades. At the same time, however, political struggles over land, political decision-making rights, and control over the heritage tourism economy have been converging to lead the Rapa Nui communiry to publicly and intensively assert and reconstruct their cultural identiry. Although the majority of Rapa Nui children today are native and dominant speakers of Spanish, their positive ethnic identification and participation in public cultural activities and in bilingual and syncretic conversational interactions are providing opportunities for communiry revaluation and maintenance of their ancestral language. Using ethnographic and linguistic analysis of face-to-face verbal interaction, this article examines the role of children in the dynamics of sociolinguistic changes and the construction of the ethnolinguistic communiry. [Key Words: agency, children, endangered language, language ideology, linguistic anthropology]
Rapa Nui (Easter Island) provides a good illustration of a small community experiencing heterogen... more Rapa Nui (Easter Island) provides a good illustration of a small community experiencing heterogeneous and changing understandings of communicative competence and of the dynamic relationships between language, competence, use, community, and consciousness. Using ethnographic and linguistic analyses of micro-interactional and macro-sociological processes, this paper demonstrates that communicative style repertoires and competence are socially generated and transformed.
[Key Words: Communicative competence, Language revitalization, Language shift, Language ideology, Bilingualism, Rapa Nui]
A B S T R A C T This article examines evolving linguistic practices in the Spanish-Rapa Nui (Poly... more A B S T R A C T This article examines evolving linguistic practices in the Spanish-Rapa Nui (Polynesian) bilingual community of Easter Island, Chile, and in particular the transformation of Rapa Nui Spanish speech styles. The island's rapid integration into the national and world economy and a vibrant indigenous movement have profoundly influenced the everyday lives of island residents. Although community-wide language shift toward Spanish has been evident over the past four decades, the Rapa Nui have in this period also expanded their speech style repertoire by creating Rapa Nui Spanish and syncretic Rapa Nui speech styles. Predominantly Spanish-speaking Rapa Nui children who have imperfect command over Rapa Nui are today adopting a new Rapa Nui Spanish style. Ethnographic and linguistic analysis of recorded face-to-face verbal interactions are utilized to analyze the development , structure, and social significance of Rapa Nui Spanish varieties and to locate them within the complex process of language shift. [Key Words: Language shift, language socialization, bilingualism, language variation, ethnic identity , communicative style, Polynesia]
The linguistic anthropology of Oceania has seen vigorous and productive analysis of language ideo... more The linguistic anthropology of Oceania has seen vigorous and productive analysis of language ideologies, ritual performance, personhood, and agency. This article points to three related paths of inquiry that are especially promising. First, language ideologies are analyzed for the ways they shape expectations and interpretations of effective action and social identity. Second, processes of entextualization are examined with reference to Bible translation because Christianity is a dominant social force in contemporary Oceania. Third, prominent recent work on per-sonhood and agency is reviewed, and scholars are urged to reconsider the classic Oceanic term mana in relation to changing understandings of power, including those wrought by religious transformations. These paths of inquiry are intertwined and cross-cutting and can lead to productive new understandings of ideologies and practices of stability and transformation.
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Papers by Miki Makihara
[Lane, Pia, and Miki Makihara. 2017. Indigenous Peoples and Their Languages. In Handbook of Language and Society, edited by Ofelia Garcia, Nelson Flores, and Max Spotti, pp. 299–319. Oxford University Press.]
[Keywords: language ideology, language maintenance, language shift, bilingualism, ethnolinguistic minority]
Keywords: cultural processes, cultural contact, Rapa Nui, West Papua, Pacific societies, postcolonial, colonial
[Key Words: Communicative competence, Language revitalization, Language shift, Language ideology, Bilingualism, Rapa Nui]
[Lane, Pia, and Miki Makihara. 2017. Indigenous Peoples and Their Languages. In Handbook of Language and Society, edited by Ofelia Garcia, Nelson Flores, and Max Spotti, pp. 299–319. Oxford University Press.]
[Keywords: language ideology, language maintenance, language shift, bilingualism, ethnolinguistic minority]
Keywords: cultural processes, cultural contact, Rapa Nui, West Papua, Pacific societies, postcolonial, colonial
[Key Words: Communicative competence, Language revitalization, Language shift, Language ideology, Bilingualism, Rapa Nui]