Oral Tradition, 21/2 (2006): 295-324
Keeping the Word: On Orality and Literacy
(With a Sideways Glance at Navajo)
Anthony K. Webster
“Writing, when properly managed (as you may be sure I think mine is) is
but a different name for conversation.”
Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy
This article investigates the relationship between “orality” and
“literacy.” I take as my starting point the discussion by Walter Ong (1982)
of the shift in “consciousness” that resulted from the movement from an
“oral culture” to a “literate culture.” I discuss a number of specific examples
of the relationship between orality and literacy. My purpose in these
examples is to suggest that literacy and orality are kinds of specific linguistic
ideologies (see Silverstein 1979) and that we need a much more complex
understanding of literacy as an ideological position than Ong has offered. In
this article, I wish to explore orality and literacy as complex and interacting
notions. My purpose is not so much as to critique Ong (though there will be
some of that), but rather to elaborate what we might mean by “orality” and
“literacy” as on the ground, linguacultural phenomena (see Friedrich 1989).
I will begin, however, with a discussion of Ong’s critique of the use of
the term “oral literature.” I will then turn to the relative fixity of oral
literature. In doing so, I suggest that to fully understand “oral cultures” we
need to have a more empirically based understanding of oral literatures and
orality more generally. I then discuss the various ways that literacy is
articulated. I argue that we cannot assume a priori that literacy everywhere
means the same thing. What does it mean to write poetry in Navajo? Or in
Kuna? What does literacy mean to Navajos versus the Nukulaelae (Besnier
1995)? Finally, I take up some of the implications of literacy as a way of
artifacting “the word.” Much of this section will be based on specific
examples from a wide variety of sources. I believe this is needed as a
corrective to the grand theorizing that Ong has put forward. The devil, as
they say, is in the details.
296
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
On Oral Literature and Orality
Ong spends much time discussing the term “oral literature,” which he
considers a “strictly preposterous term” (1982:11). He bases this assertion on
etymology, tracing the word “literature” back to the Latin root litera, “letter
of the alphabet.” Ong goes on to state that (12):
One might argue…that the term “literature,” though devised primarily for
works in writing, has simply been extended to include related phenomena
such as traditional oral narrative in cultures untouched by writing. Many
originally specific terms have been so generalized in this way. But
concepts have a way of carrying their etymologies with them forever. The
elements out of which a term is originally built usually, and probably
always, linger in subsequent meanings.
Leaving aside Ong’s lack of evidence offered for this assertion and the
almost metaphysical quality of meaning and etymology, there are a number
of ideas that deserve some unpacking. First, etymology, the search for a
word’s “true meaning,” is a linguistic ideology (that is, beliefs concerning
the form, function, and use of language [see Silverstein 1979 and Rumsey
1990]). This ideology is based on the assumptions of the primacy of the
referential or denotational meaning of a word, and represents only one
possible linguistic ideology. Alan Rumsey (1990), for example, has
suggested that among the Ungarinyin, a northwestern Australian group, there
is a focus on pragmatic meaning over wording, on the enactive power of
words over their referential function. Similarly, Gary Witherspoon (1977)
and Margaret Field and Taft Blackhorse, Jr. (2002) argue that such an
enactive ideology is found among Navajo peoples (see also Reichard 1944;
Murray 1989). As Witherspoon writes (1977:60), “By speaking properly and
appropriately one can control and compel the behavior and power of the
gods. This is the ontological and rational basis of the compulsive power of
speech.” A crucial feature of this enactive, efficacious, compulsive power of
language can be found in the use of metonymy in Navajo ritual prayers
(Field and Blackhorse 2002; see also Reichard 1944). Field and Blackhorse
describe the dual function of metonymy this way (226):
In Navajo prayers it [metonymy] serves two overlapping functions: it
serves as an aesthetic form that marks ritual language as a special genre,
lending continuity over time, and it serves a performative function,
lending compulsion to the power of the words to summon deities and their
protection.
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
297
Etymologies, on the other hand, are based on a referentialist (nonperformative) and fixed (if not essentialist) view of words (perhaps a byproduct of literacy?).
Second, etymologies are naturalizing origin stories (Herzfeld 1997a).
Ong traces the root of “literature” to Latin. This is a motivated stopping
point, rather than being arbitrary or neutral. By stopping here, Ong
privileges certain assertions about the origins of knowledge: we are therefore
the intellectual progeny of Rome (and all that might entail). That the root
might be traced back further, back into other Indo-European and proto-IndoEuropean languages, is not addressed. Furthermore, to suggest that, “the
elements of which a term is originally built usually…linger” (Ong 1982:12)
is to naturalize the relative arbitrariness of any etymological investigation.
The truth, if one can still use such a term, is that—granting some use of
etymologies to find Ur-meanings and not present-day usages (where
meaning is created)—we will never know what a root “originally” meant for
two reasons. First, we cannot trace a word to its source; rather, we will
always make judgments about where to end our search (connecting High
Roman Culture with English seems an obvious choice). Second, we cannot
assume that a word had “a” meaning; rather we should suspect that words
have always had multiple semantic domains, fuzzy boundaries, as well as
pragmatic meanings. In short, etymology seems a weak argument for
eliminating “oral literature” (see Bauman 1986).
Recent discussions have begun to attend to “literature” as a
privileging of certain stretches of language use (discourse). I would now like
to take up a useful discussion of literature by Donald Bahr (Bahr et al.
1997:174): “Oral literature, including song, arose as a means to fix those
thoughts in memorable, recoverable, keepable forms…namely ‘stretches of
language (discourse) kept in memory or (later) writing;’ or more simply,
‘kept language.’” He adds that “by ‘keeping’ I mean ‘keeping for
reenactment,’ including retelling and rereading.” Bahr goes on to discuss
three levels of fixity within—specifically—Native American oral literature
(174-75). First, he suggests that the highest level of memorization can be
found in song, stating “this is the level of perfect (sound for sound) recall.”
Indeed, Bahr argues that exact replication of sound over time is a by-product
of the song structure—a structure that cements sounds to a
repeatable/memorable form (literature). Bahr cites instances of the
replication of Pima songs as evidence for the exact reproduction of sounds.
The second level of fixity involves the use of chants, prayers, spells,
and orations. According to Bahr (1997:175), “these attain…word-for-word
(less rigorous than sound-for-sound) memorization.” Comparing a Pima
298
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
oratory recorded in 1901-02 and then again in 1903 by Thin Leather, he
concludes that they “were in fact recited verbatim from memory” (1975:10).
Correspondingly, Joel Sherzer (1990:240, n. 1) describes how he was able to
elicit a verbatim reproduction of a puberty rite chant nine years after the
original performance. Greg Urban (1991) compares Shokleng chants
recorded in the 1930s by Jules Henry and chants he collected in the 1970s to
show the relative degree of overlap between the versions. Finally, Gary
Witherspoon (1977) has pointed out that exact repetition in Navajo prayers
(hatáál) is the ideal.1
The third level concerns longer stretches of narratives (myths, for
example) and “are memorized at the level of the episodes: the teller is sure
to give essential facts, but there is no guarantee, or intent, that the telling will
repeat exactly the same words that were used in previous telling” (Bahr
1997:175). Dell Hymes (1981) has termed this type of memorization
“measured verse” and has investigated it in numerous Native American
languages (see also Hymes 2003). Hymes has also offered preliminary
analysis for Na-Dene (1995). Barre Toelken and Tacheeni Scott (1981) and
Anthony Webster (1999) have looked at ethnopoetic structuring in Southern
Athabaskan languages (Navajo and Chiricahua Apache, respectively).
Bahr’s distinctions are useful in exposing the variation within oral
literature, that is, the variation within oral compositions. Ong seems to
assume that orality is everywhere the same, an assumption underlying
Milman Parry and Albert Lord’s “oral-formulaic theory,” which they sought
to apply to all oral narratives. This position has been usefully critiqued by
Ruth Finnegan (1977) and Paul Kiparsky (1976). Both point out that the
term “orality” subsumes under its umbrella a wide range of practices, and
that some of these practices resemble literacy to varying degrees. It should
be added, linguistically speaking, that most language use is in some manner
“formulaic.” When one combines various syntactic constituents one is
applying a formula. When one uses various phonological rules one is
applying a formula. For example, in Navajo there is a tendency in nouns for
a word-initial voiceless continuant to become voiced and intervocalic. Thus
we find saad (“word”) becoming bizaad (“her word”) or 99 (“horse”)
becoming bil99 (“his horse”).
Likewise, when one writes a sonnet, a haiku, or a villannelle, one is
using nothing more or less than a formula (the artistry derives from the
creativity employed within the formula). The point is that such practices and
1
I say “ideal” here because, as Faris (1990:103) points out, such “deviations”
may have pragmatic functions (dealing with the sickness, the patient, the surroundings,
and so on).
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
299
their relative local creative merits—however we define them—need to be
investigated. Only then can we make claims about the effects of orality on
something called “consciousness.” Sherzer (1990) provides a number of
useful empirical examples from the Kuna of the variety of forms that oral
literature can take. He makes clear that written and oral literature use devices
freely; there is no strict division between orality and literacy (43).
A related notion inspired by Ong and articulated by Dennis Tedlock
(1983) is that metrical verse does not occur without alphabetic or syllabic
writing forms. This is a curious claim, given that a metrical verse would be
following a “formula.” Rumsey (2001) offers a compelling instance of
metrical narratives among the Ku Waru. The genre, Tom Yaya Kange, has a
clear metrical formula. Rumsey argues that it is the aesthetics of Ku Waru
that make such a metrical genre possible. He compares it to the Kaluli,
another New Guinean people, who do not share the Ku Waru aesthetic of
“overwhelm[ing] the audience with a ceaseless flow of sound that keeps
their attention focused on the story” (2001:218). Colleen M. Fitzgerald
(1998) has also pointed to the meter in Tohono O’odham songs. Metrical
verse does not seem to be associated only with “literate” peoples.
I want to now turn to a specific example of the relative fixity or
flexibility in oral literature. Sherzer (1987, 1990) has discussed such
variation among the Kuna of Panama. He notes that among the Kuna there
are two general categories of texts: those that are relatively flexible and
dependent on the situation at hand, and those that are fixed or relatively
fixed. The first type includes narratives and stories told in gathering houses
(Bahr’s third level of fixedness). The second type comprises curing chants,
magical chants, and puberty rite texts. However, there is variation in the
level of accepted fixity within this second type. For example, Sherzer states
that, “not the slightest linguistic variation is tolerated in the puberty-rites
texts” (1987:103). On the other hand, he notes (104):
The Kuna also consider curing-magical texts to be fixed. But although
curing-magical texts and puberty-rites texts are both memorized directly
from a teacher specialist, there are interesting differences in their actual
performance. In curing-magical texts, slight variations of an essentially
nonreferential nature are tolerated, involving very superficial aspects of
the phonology and morphology of the noun and verb suffixation. Thus
there exist at least two types of memorization in Kuna.
Clearly we have a difference here in relative fixity. On the one hand we have
a fixed text without linguistic variation, and on the other hand we have a
relatively fixed text that allows for some non-referential variation. To treat
both “fashions of speaking” as if they were the same oral phenomenon
300
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
would be to miss the subtle ways that oral literature is circulated, replicated,
and perpetuated (in other words, the ways that literatures are variously
“kept”).
Concerning the distinction between orality and literacy, Ong has
argued that (1982:78): “Writing establishes what has been called ‘contextfree’ language (Hirsch 1977, pp. 21-22, 26) or ‘autonomous’ discourse
(Olson 1980), discourse which cannot be directly questioned or contested as
oral speech can be because written discourse has been detached from its
author.” However, this distinction seems to be challenged by the work of
Mikhail Bakhtin and Charles Briggs. Bakhtin suggests a distinction between
“authoritative discourse” and “dialogic discourse,” positing that authoritative
discourse “permits no play with the context framing it, no play with its
borders, no gradual and flexible transitions” (1981:343). Bakhtin goes on to
state that authoritative discourse “remains sharply demarcated, compact and
inert” (idem). The authoritative discourse is often a word uttered in another
language.2 This is an example of the spoken word—the oral—as “contextfree” language. Further, we can also examine Bakhtin’s distinction between
the “epic” and the “novel.” For him the epic is a distanced genre not readily
connected to the moment, not “close at hand” (23). The novel, rooted in the
“folkloric traditions,” is connected to the here-and-now (21) and (though the
form of writing) is not—according to Bakhtin—“context-free.” Similar
claims about the dialogic nature of satire or parody could also be made. The
epic, on the other hand, here an oral phenomenon, is an “autonomous
discourse.” Indeed, it is in the orality of the folkloric tradition that we find
connections with the novel.
A further example can be found in Briggs (1988), where it is pointed
out that among Mexicanos3 in Northern New Mexico, speech genres range
from those that do not allow for critique—“autonomous discourse”—to
those that are opened up to a dialogic contextualization. Briggs summarizes
(351): “I have argued that the more contextual realm plays a smaller and
smaller role in the genres that lie more toward the textual pole of the
continuum…the loss of contextual focus is balanced by an increase in the
stylistic and ideological stratification of the textual realm.” Note that in both
cases these are oral phenomena (be they proverbs or jokes). The clear-cut
2
See, for example, the use of Navajo words in English dominant poems. See
Webster 2006.
3
These are not the same Mexicanos that we find in Hill and Hill 1986. Those
Mexicanos are Nahuatl-speaking peoples who live in Central Mexico. These Mexicanos
live in Northern New Mexico and speak Spanish. The reasons for the overlapping
terminology are fascinating but wholly irrelevant to this article.
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
301
distinction between literacy as an autonomous discourse and orality as
uniquely “grounded” discourse seems spurious.
Another difference between orality and literacy that Ong claims
concerns the concept of the “word.” He asserts (1982:91) that
I cannot have all of a word present at once: when I say “existence,” by the
time I get to the “-tence,” the “exis-” is gone. The alphabet implies that
matters are otherwise, that a word is a thing, not an event, that it is present
all at once, and that it can be cut up into little pieces, which can be written
forwards and pronounced backwards: “p-a-r-t” can be pronounced “trap.”
Leaving aside Ong’s claim that the phonology of the first part of a word has
no residual effects (phonetically speaking) on the second part of a word and
that the different ways that languages piece together linguistic resources
(that is, the relative complexity of morphology for verbs, nouns, etc. and the
presence of verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc. in a given language), one can offer
a critique of this position by examining the play languages of putative oral
cultures. One can also see Ong’s position as an expression of a linguistic
ideology concerning the “objectification” of words––the turning of words
into objects, into things of value (see Silverstein 1979, Moore 1988). This
ideology is not unique to literate societies. Robert Moore (1988) has shown
how certain “old words” can become objectified as objects of value during
language shift.
Consider the evidence from play languages. Sherzer (1976) has shown
that among the Kuna the word is a salient unit that can be manipulated for
playful expression. For example, among the Kuna there is a play language
called sorsik summakke (“talking backwards”). The rules for this play
language are as follows: take the first syllable of a word and move it to the
end of the word. Here are a few examples (21):
osi (“pineapple”) > sio
takke (“to see”) > ketak
ipya (“eye”) > yaip
uwaya (“ear”) > wayau
This play language is based on an understanding of a unit that we might term
the “word” (based on prosody, phonological changes, and morphological
inflections). The first syllable is moved to the end of the “word”—that is, the
word can be taken apart and rearranged by an “oral culture.” The object-ness
of the word, then, appears to be less a case of “literacy” than of the saliency
of a prosodic unit termed the word (that is, the word is an oral phenomenon
that writing attempts to replicate).
302
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
Finally, I want to turn to another claim by Ong (1982:123, first
developed by Goody 1977), namely that “lists begin with writing.” Sherzer
(1990:249) has shown how the Kuna curing chants deploy, through
parallelism, a complex encoding of the body parts of a snake. This
displaying of body parts is nothing more or less than the creation of a list
within a specific semantic domain. Likewise, in Navajo curing chants a
metonymic catalog is created and the four sacred mountains are enumerated
from east to north (Field and Blackhorse 2002: 221). Again, both of these
examples present lists in putative oral cultures. Keith Basso (1979) describes
a game played by young Western Apache children that involves one youth
calling out a lexeme from an inclusive semantic domain (animate skydwellers such as mbúh [“owl”]). A second child then responds with another
lexeme from a different domain that includes one vocalic segment found in
the first lexeme. The first youth calls out a lexeme from the original
semantic domain that includes a non-vocalic segment found in the second
lexeme. The game continues until one player can no longer think of a word
within the specific semantic domain with an equivalent vocalic or nonvocalic correspondence that has not been previously used. The game is
clearly a compilation, the equivalent of a list. The children must form lists of
lexemes within specific semantic domains based on certain phonological
criteria. The list did not begin with writing.
The Interactions of Literacy and Orality
In the previous section I discussed the levels of fixity in oral
literatures and the variability of orality in general. In this section I want to
discuss literacy as a multifaceted practice as well. My point is that just as
Ong has assumed homogeneity within orality, he has also assumed
homogeneity within literacy. This section attempts to add complexity and
heterogeneity to that view.
I begin this discussion with a look at another claim by Ong as to how
oral cultures have approached literacy (1982:175): “Oral cultures today
value their oral traditions and agonize over the loss of these traditions, but I
have never encountered or heard of an oral culture that does not want to
achieve literacy as soon as possible.” Few would disagree with the first part
of this statement. Many Native American groups with which I am familiar
do agonize over the loss of their oral literature. I would be careful, however,
about the relationship between literacy and the decline of oral traditions.
Many Navajo poems are inspired by the oral tradition (in specific ways such
as the use of particles, parallelism, metonymy, and themes; see Webster
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
303
2004). However, an increase in the amount of Navajo poetry written in
Navajo has occurred simultaneously with a decline in spoken Navajo (see
Hale 1998). Literacy does not entail language maintenance; at best it is a
form of language preservation.
Further, as Elizabeth Brandt (1981) points out, not all Native
American groups in the southwest have been eager for literacy in their
Native languages or for their oral literatures to be written down. As
Elizabeth Brandt notes, due to a “Pueblo secrecy complex” where
information needs to be controlled by a select few, there has been general
resistance to creating orthographies for writing in Native languages as well
as to recording them in English.4 For example, she observes that (1981:19091)
Bilingual programs and other programs that necessitate the development
of materials are often opposed or severely restricted if they are in the
native language and use writing. There is less opposition to the oral mode,
particularly if it is not recorded . . . there is generally opposition to writing
in both vernacular and in English.
A specific example can be found in the language maintenance programs of
the Cochiti Pueblo (Benjamin et al. 1999; see also Benjamin et al. 1998).
The Cochiti have intentionally rejected using writing as a way to teach
Cochiti. They have done this because of religious concerns too complicated
to summarize here with any justice (see Benjamin et al. 1999). However,
even without written texts in Keres (Cochiti), there is an active language
revitalization program in both the Cochiti schools and in the community
more generally. The Cochiti have not “jumped” at the opportunity to change
an oral culture in Keres into a literate culture.
Not all “oral cultures” have embraced literacy. On a more complex
level, not all “oral cultures” have approached literacy in the same way. For
example, many Navajo see literacy as crucial for language maintenance
programs (Dick and McCarty 1997; Austin-Garrison et al. 1996), while the
Cochiti have eschewed written forms of Keres. Literacy has been imbued
with ideological presuppositions. In other words, literacy does not always
mean the same thing to everyone.
I turn now to an example from the Arizona Tewa. Paul Kroskrity
(1992) reports on an interesting way that he was allowed to record oral
narratives in the Arizona Tewa language (106):
4
Whiteley (1988) gives a superb account of the different levels of access to
knowledge among the Hopi. He goes on to show how this unequal access to knowledge
can sometimes explain the events (such as the Oraibi split) in Hopi history.
304
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
The data for this paper are not the result of naturalistic collection, but
rather the product of elicitation sessions. The chants below are re-creations
of recent announcements heard and reperformed by Dewey and Juanita
Healing of Tewa Village in July 1979. In addition to the purely technical
problem of recording a chant that occurs on a rooftop of a house located in
a busy and noise-filled Pueblo, the Arizona Tewa forbid the recording of
public performances of any type. This cultural aversion to recording and
other literacy-related attempts to “fix” or “capture” performances is well
established for both the Arizona Tewa . . . and the Indians of the Pueblo
Southwest in general.
What we have here then is a distinction made by some Arizona Tewa
between performance and reporting or displaying (in the Hymes’ sense
[1981]). It is as if some Arizona Tewa require a removal from the author—
the original chanter—to a reporting of the chant in order to allow it to be
written down. Written Arizona Tewa must be mediated from its situated,
context-dependent usage to a reporting of that usage in order for it to be
inscribed. In a way, it must already be decontextualized (detached) and
artifacted in order for it to be written down. This is a literacy distinct from
Western conventions.
Continuing in the Southwest among the Pueblo peoples, I next
consider the Hopi of Arizona. Armin Geertz discusses the use of writing by
Hopi “traditionalists” to stake out a political-religious position. Geertz states
that (1994:98)
One of the main political tactics employed by the Traditionalists was the
frequent use of letters, petitions, statements, and communiqués sent to
U.S. government officials as well as to English-speaking support groups.
The use of English gave access to an arena otherwise unattainable for an
opposition group that chose not to participate in the democratic system.
In other words, the use of writing by Hopi “traditionalists” has been
strategic.5 As Geertz notes (104),
Traditionalists were constantly plagued by legitimate criticisms of their
claims to power, which rested on highly questionable grounds, and yet
they criticized the members of the Tribal Council on exactly the same
grounds. Writing gave them a chance to create the trappings of power
through consistent use of the rhetoric of power. Their audiences were nonHopis, who by definition were ignorant of Hopi affairs.
5
I retain “traditionalists” in quotes because the term describes what can best be
described as a kind of political party that opposes the “progressives.” The use of
“tradition” is used as a rhetorical device, a validating claim, and a complex of beliefs that
I do not have the knowledge or space to describe.
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
305
He goes on to point out that the “traditionalists” have been in favor of
bilingual education programs and literacy programs on the Hopi
Reservation. They also founded an English language newsletter in the 1970s
(107). Finally, “traditionalist” Hopis have written down a number of esoteric
prophecy narratives that outline what the Hopis should do today. In so
doing, they have committed secret knowledge to a written form. The esoteric
prophecy narratives have thus gained a wider distribution than was
heretofore the case.
The Hopi, like the Arizona Tewa, and other Pueblo peoples, have
what Brandt termed a “secrecy complex” (1981) that restricts certain kinds
of esoteric knowledge to certain people. Writing such knowledge down
“fixes” it and thus opens up the possibility that people who do not have the
right to such knowledge will be able to gain access. We have seen here how
three Pueblo groups have responded to the introduction of literacy. Each
response has been different. They have varied from refusing to allow
materials to be written down at all to permitting a mediated version to be
written down to using writing as a strategic device in gaining politicoreligious authority. In each case we cannot assert a single model of literacy.
The Hopi Reservation surrounds the Arizona Tewa and I have moved
from the Arizona Tewa to the Hopi. It would thus seem natural to move
from the Hopi to the Navajo, whose reservation surrounds the Hopi
Reservation. It is also where I conducted fieldwork.
There is a small cottage industry of Navajo literature. Many of the
written materials have been produced by the Navajo Community College
Press in Tsaile, Arizona and Salina Bookshelf in Flagstaff, Arizona. The
corpus of written Navajo materials includes a collection of poetry by Diné
College students (Begay 1998), collections of poetry by Rex Lee Jim (1989,
1995), children’s books (Thomas 2000, Clark 1994, Emery 1996a, 1996b),
an oral history of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation (Brugge, Benally,
Harrison 1997) a Navajo version bible (American Bible Society 1985),
academic articles on Navajo language and philosophy (Suen-Redhouse
1990, Austin-Garrison 1991, and Silentman 1993), a play in Navajo (Mazii
1993), and a number of Navajo-English Dictionaries (Young and Morgan
1987, Neundorf 1983).6 The above is only a brief sample. There is also now
a CD called The Navajo Language (Young and Morgan 1999). Navajo
language poetry can also be found on the internet (for example, Red Mesa’s
6
There are other dictionaries that have been published, but I chose these two
because at least one author was Navajo (the late William Morgan and Alyse Neundorf).
306
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
webpage7 and at the MIT tribute to Ken Hale8). Navajo can also be found on
t-shirts today, such as those from the Navajo Language Academy,9 from the
protest around Arizona Proposition 203 “English for the Children”––which
includes the provocative slogan saad naakigo ‘ayóo nihi ’íl9 (“two languages
are better than one”)––and from Béégashii Bikooh (“Cow Canyon”) trading
post. There are also a number of children’s stories available at the Teacher
Education Program at the Diné College website, where some of these stories
are available on CD (Hane’ Yázhí 2001).10 My point here is not to be
comprehensive, but to indicate the variety of forms that Navajo literacy has
taken. With new digital technologies such as the Internet and CDs, Navajo
literature has expanded into these media as well.11
I should add that Rex Lee Jim has read his poems on KTNN, thus
interweaving orality and literacy. Likewise, many of the children’s books
produced by the Diné Teacher Education Program can also be listened to as
one reads along. Ann Nolan Clark’s Who Wants to be a Prairie Dog? (1994)
comes with a CD of the story being read aloud by Maybelle Little. Here
again we see literacy and orality connected, enmeshed with each other.
While Navajo literacy is expanding in certain areas, it has not been
universally accepted and appreciated. When a Navajo language page was
introduced in The Navajo Times, there were some Navajos who wrote to the
paper (in English) in order to criticize the page. One criticism held that by
publishing Navajo language texts, the newspaper was opening the language
up to being expropriated by non-Navajos. That criticism, no doubt, could be
leveled against me.
Daniel McLaughlin (1992) has produced the most complete study of
Navajo literacy practices in a community referred to by the pseudonym
“Mesa Valley.” He looks at literacy as a set of practices that can be best
understood from a sociolinguistic perspective, arguing against a “special
7
http://www.redmesa.k12.az.us/writers/poems.htm
8
http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/www/ken/posted/posted.html.#neundorf
9
Thanks to Carlota Smith for providing me with both of these shirts.
10
The full title of the CD is Hane’ Yázhí: Children’s Books in Navajo (2001) and
is a collaborative project by students and staff at the Center for Diné Teacher Education
at Diné College, in collaboration with the Navajo Education Technology Consortium. I
thank Clay Slate for providing me with a copy of this CD.
11
See Silverman 2001 for an interesting discussion of Sepik River narratives and
the introduction of cyberspace.
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
307
diglossia” where Navajo is used in oral communication and English is the
language of written communication. While this distinction is generally true,
written Navajo can be found in sites of power such as schools, missions, and
the government; more importantly, however, Navajo is also used “in
traditional domains, to record ceremonial procedures, for example, and in
the home, to write letters, lists, journals, and notes” (151). Several poets with
whom I conducted interviews, such as Bernice Casaus and Martha Jackson,
kept journals that included their poetry (in Navajo). McLaughlin also notes a
general shift in attitudes occurring among the residents of Mesa Valley. No
longer is written Navajo seen simply as an aid to record “traditional culture”;
rather, the written language is also becoming associated with “thinking it
useful primarily for the promotion of self-understanding” (156). Nowhere,
perhaps, can this be better seen than in the emergence of Navajo poetry. In
such ways, as McLaughlin argues, literacy is an empowering practice for
Navajos.12
Galena Sells Dick and Teresa McCarty (1999) come to a similar
conclusion when discussing bilingual education at Rough Rock
demonstration school. They argue that Navajo literacy can be seen as a form
of resistance against a dominant Anglo educational system. In their words,
“as their classrooms evolve away from the English-dominated routines of
basic skills, bilingual teachers are creating new academic contexts for
Navajo literacy—their own indigenous literacy, and that of their students. In
doing this, they have in effect reclaimed oral and written Navajo for
academic purposes” (83-84). Such empowering by-products of Navajo
literacy help explain the emotional investment a number of Navajo language
instructors had in stopping Arizona Proposition 203, a proposition that could
cripple bilingual programs (see also House 2002).
According to McLaughlin (1992) and Dick and McCarty (1999),
literacy in Navajo can be seen as an empowering practice. It gives voices to
people and possibly aids in “self-understanding.” I want to reiterate that
even with the rise of written Navajo (there are more “artifacts” being
produced in Navajo than ever before), there is still a language shift to
English occurring.13 The above authors are not unaware of this shift. Dick
and McCarty (1999:69) describe the Navajo language as “imperiled.”
12
See also Bahr 1992 and Anderson 2001 for two other examples of empowering
uses of literacy. Bahr discusses the use of Tohono O’odham legal writings, and Anderson
discusses the conversion of liturgy by Northern Arapahos. In both cases, native language
literacy has empowering ramifications.
13
See Slate 1993; Lee and McLaughlin 2001; Spolsky 2002.
308
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
Wayne and Agnes Holm (1995:160-63). have looked at the decline of
Navajo for young speakers, observing that children are simply not learning
the language at the same rate they were in the 1970s. The percentage of
children entering school with some command of the language is declining.
Holm and Holm suggest that one way to reverse this shift is to make Navajo
“cool” to young people (164). Poetry, rap, and the Internet may provide such
an avenue.
I also want to pause here and make an important point that must be
kept in mind: many of the Navajos whom I heard speak during the debate on
Arizona Proposition 203 argued that the Navajo language was crucial to
being Navajo. This is an essentialist position because it assumes an inherent
characteristic of Navajo identity is the ability to speak the language. This is a
common phenomenon (see Herzfeld 1997b) and, given the circumstances—a
perceived and real attack by the dominant society on their language, an
understandable rhetorical position. However, one can be Navajo and not
speak Navajo. We do not want to fall into the old trap of creating a checklist
of features to demarcate who is and is not a Navajo. Thus, while I have
focused here on literacy and poetry in Navajo, I am also concerned with
poetry written by Navajos in English. This poetry is not more or less
authentic than poetry written in Navajo (see Webster n.d.). Navajos have
appropriated poetry as a written form in Navajo, English, Navajo-English,
and combinations of the three.
Of course, Navajos are not the only indigenous peoples of the
Americas currently writing poetry. Ofelia Zepeda (1982) has described
Tohono O’odham poetry or “thoughts.” Not only does Zepeda write about
Tohono O’odham poetry; she has also published her own poems (1997)
composed in both Tohono O’odham and English “translations.” Daniel
Lopez (1995) has also published poetry in Tohono O’odham. Likewise,
there is poetry composed in Hualapai (see Watahomigie and Yamamoto
1992), in Kuna (Sherzer personal communication), and Yaqui (Molina
1995), among others.
Let us now return to a review of literacy practices and their
interactions with orality. Having discussed in some detail a number of
Southwest Native American responses to literacy, I want to discuss other
ways in which literacy has been actualized. Lisa Valentine (1995) has
described the use of hymnals among the Severn Ojibwe of Canada, hymnals
written in Cree syllabry. The people speak Ojibwe but read Cree. Valentine
points out that while the hymns are often memorized, the hymnals are still
used, a practice that within the religious experience seems to ratify the
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
309
sincerity or religious efficacy of the hymn.14 Note that Walter Ong (1982:32)
suggested that among oral cultures words—because they were not written—
had power. Yet in this case, it is through the enactment of the written word
(reading) that religious efficacy is actualized (see, however, Ong 1982:7475). It is precisely because the word is written that it gains “power.”
Paul Kroeber reports (1997:283) on a writing system developed by an
elderly Thompson Salish woman for herself and notes that “it was not used
for communication with other speakers of the language, or, for that matter,
with professional linguists.” Indeed, the writing system amounted to
glossing; that is, it was a metalinguistic system used to record information
about the language. Kroeber goes on to describe how it was used (283-84):
On being presented with an English expression, she would first write it
down; then pause for a considerable length of time to consider what the
“proper” (her term) Thompson equivalent of that English expression
would be . . . then, she would write down the Thompson expression. . . .
As she did this, she often whispered that expression to herself in a
syllable-by-syllable form, apparently deciding on the spot how it should
be written. . . . Only after completing each of these steps would she finally
read aloud the Thompson expression.
Here we see a fascinating writing system developed for a unique contact
situation (the linguistic elicitation session). This is a different kind of
literacy than the literacy discussed by Ong. It is a literacy of the moment,
based on a metalinguistic interaction between a linguist and the elderly
Thompson Salish woman. It was not a writing system meant to be shared
and came into Kroeber’s possession only after the elderly woman had died.
Ronald and Suzanne Scollon (1981) discuss the emergence of literacy
at Fort Chipeywan among Athabaskan-speaking peoples, clearly following
in the tradition of Jack Goody and Walter Ong. For the Scollons, literacy—
essayist Western literacy—has become a “crisis in ethnic identity” (53).
They argue that Athabaskan discourse patterns cannot be replicated in
written forms (idem): “an Athabaskan cannot, as an Athabaskan, write easily
about Athabaskan things.” From the foregoing it should be obvious that I am
dubious of such claims. Clearly, Navajos have been able to use literacy as a
way of indexing and asserting “ethnic identity.” Poems, for example,
concerning the Long Walk build on a tradition of storytelling and of identity
making through stories. Likewise, Sherwin Bitsui’s (2003) deeply personal
poems are ways to explore identity. For Bitsui, literacy becomes an avenue
14
Java.
Ward Keeler (personal communication) reports a similar example of reading in
310
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
for investigating and asserting identity. Still further, Navajos do write about
“things Navajo.” The crisis the Scollons report does not seem to exist for the
Navajo, for, as McLaughlin (1992) notes, literacy has become an
“empowering” practice for the Navajos with whom he worked.
Broadening the scope of examples, I would now like to look briefly at
Niko Besnier’s discussion (1995) of literacy on the Polynesian atoll of
Nukulaelae. Besnier shows the relationship between literacy and gender.
Among the Nukulaelae, men write sermons and women do not. He also
shows how letter-writing can become an “emotionally cathartic
communicative event” (93).15 Letters frequently are ways to express
emotional affect. Likewise, they are forms of gossip. Finally, letters serve as
vehicles for making economic requests that might be more difficult in faceto-face interactions. The Nukulaelae write down traditional esoteric
knowledge, but these textual artifacts are hidden from others; they are not to
be shared. Besnier (1995) shows that literacy on this tiny atoll is complex
and multifaceted, “embroiled” in the beliefs and values of the Nukulaelae.
There is no single view of literacy among the Nukulaelae.
Don Kulick (1992) offers a fascinating study of language shift among
the Gapun of Papua New Guinea, explaining the phenomenon as a social
process that raises a number of issues concerning literacy. In a survey of the
village, Kulick found 84 pieces of printed material. By far the most common
forms were liturgical pamphlets and hymnals written in the creole Tok Pisin.
However, there were two items that were in English. One of these was an
automobile maintenance manual and the other was a book called Daisy SingAlong, which contained a number of songs like “Yellow Rose of Texas”
(169). The automobile maintenance manual was occasionally “read” (adults
and children sometimes ran their fingers over the drawings of various gears
and sockets). The songbook was not read.
Kulick points out that the Gapun villagers do not actually read the
religious materials written in Tok Pisin (the native language is Taiap).
Rather, they are far more interested in understanding the accompanying
pictures in their booklets than in deducing knowledge associated with
Christianity and “white” ways. As Kulick states (171), “Gapuners actively
and creatively attempt to exploit the links they perceive between the written
15
I have several examples of this practice, where the writing of poetry allows
Navajos—especially Navajo women—to express and release deeply emotional feelings.
For example, one Navajo woman read me a poem she had written concerning the death of
her sister. Still others explained to me that they sometimes wrote poems about personal
frustrations. Nia Francisco’s collection of poems, Carried Away by the Black River
(1994), deals with a number of deeply emotional issues, including sexual assaults,
alcoholism, and domestic violence.
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
311
word, Christianity, and cargo in order to bypass the priests and find their
own ‘road’ to the millennium.” Literacy, for the Gapuners, is a way to
become “white” and obtain cargo. Kulick notes that recently male Gapuners
have spent a great deal of time “wondering how they can obtain the ‘forms’
that they have heard will bring them the cargo if one fills them in correctly”
(174).
Bambi Schieffelin (2000) outlines influences on Kaluli literacy,
focusing on sites. For example, she discusses the importance of missionaries
in regulating and introducing Kaluli literacy practices. Due to the nature of
missionary activities, many Kaluli associated literacy with orality. Written
forms, such as sermons, were to be performed orally. Furthermore, the
Bosavi mission focused Kaluli literacy on reading over writing. This
situation differs, for example, from both the Navajo and the Nukulaelae,
where there is a great deal of writing. Like the Gapun, most of the texts in
Kaluli (and Tok Pisin) are produced by outsiders. They are not emergent
literary traditions such as those we find among the Navajo, the Tohono
O’odham, and the Nukulaelae. Thus, while missionaries such as Father
Berard Haile produced Navajo language texts (see Haile 1984), a lively
Navajo literature by Navajos has also developed.
For the Navajo, literacy means something different than it does for the
Cochiti, the Arizona Tewa, the Nukulaelae, the Gapuners, the elderly
Thompson Salish woman, the Kaluli, or the Severn Ojibwe. We should not
be surprised at the diversity. These examples suggest that literacy is not a
single concept, approached everywhere in the same manner. Rather,
literacies are a complex of ideological presuppositions that are implicated in
various social, religious, and political milieus. These ideals and milieus vary
from place to place, from one domain to another, and literacy—whatever
that may mean—varies as well (see Street 1993; Haviland 1996; Collins and
Blot 2003). If it varies as an on the ground practice, we cannot assume that
literacy will everywhere have the same effects on “consciousness.”
On Literacy
I have argued so far that literacy and orality have much more internal
variation than Walter Ong seems to suggest. My purpose has been to
document concrete examples of the variability of both orality and literacy.
That is, I have tried to problematize these notions of a neutral or natural
framework. They are anything but neutral or natural. However, I wish to
312
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
conclude this section by discussing some of the implications of literacy as a
variable phenomenon and ideology.
Clearly, the above discussions of literacy have shown that
“artifacting” the word on the page has implications. I do not know if they so
much change “consciousness” as they involve social, political, religious, and
linguistic consequences (both intended and unintended). The writing of Hopi
prophecies has, according to Geertz (1994:114), broken down the
“traditional” distinction between esoteric knowledge and common
knowledge: “the written texts impart the illusion of permanence, but they
also provide ease of review for the reader. Thus the metaphors of
consistency and permanence, upon which prophecy makes its claims to
authority and power, seem to disappear in the face of historical and
comparative criticism.” The fixation of prophecy narratives has had religious
and political consequences. In a similar vein, the Pueblo aversion to fixing
their language suggests that they see writing as a way of destroying the
esoteric domain of knowledge but also as a way of “capturing” the word.
The Arizona Tewa have developed an interesting way to deal with the
tension between the spoken and the written. The Cochiti have simply not
accepted the necessity of writing Keres down in order to revitalize it. We
can also see how writing and literacy have had profound influences on the
Gapuners of Papua New Guinea. Literacy, or printed material, is an avenue
by which Gapuners may become “white” and receive cargo. Literacy has
been situated and incorporated into Gapuner views of the world and the
importance they place on change as cultural reproduction.
Literacy also has more immediate ramifications. As Bambi Schieffelin
(2000) notes, literacy is also about orthographies, which, she argues, “are
never neutral in terms of their logic” (300). This is, to borrow a notion from
Mary Bucholtz (2000), a part of the “politics of transcription.” Which
spelling acquires the veneer of “correctness” or “standard”? Which
orthography gains currency? Does it matter that Gladys Reichard’s Navajo
orthography has fallen into disuse and that the Young and Morgan
orthography is now current?16 When Rutherford Ashley (2001:14) writes
hajinei in a poem (“the place of emergence”), should I also note that Young
and Morgan (1987) give the form as hajíínáí? Am I not falling into the trap
of “the standard?” Do I privilege one form over the other? Or can I say that
Ashley writes in an idiosyncratic Navajo or that he follows a different
orthographic tradition? Certainly, many of the Navajo language instructors I
have met would mark Ashley’s form as incorrect. I think it pretentious for
16
See Young and Morgan 1993 on the history of Navajo orthographies.
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
313
me to say that one spelling is correct and another incorrect. Clearly, I figured
out what the form meant (in that respect it communicated something).17
One constant criticism I heard from various Navajo language
educators concerning the poetry of Rex Lee Jim (1989, 1995) was that he
spelled words “wrong.” This pronouncement did not contradict the fact that
many Navajo language educators were quite proud of Jim’s writing in
Navajo and were quick to mention his work when they heard I was
interested in Navajo poetry. They also used his poetry at the Navajo
Language Fair at Diné College in March of 2001. High School students
recited his poetry. The overall judgment was more a matter of “yes, Jim
writes in Navajo but he does not spell ‘correctly.’” In essence, this was an
assertion of authority.
Literacy can erase linguistic diversity and dialect diversity by creating
a norm. Young and Morgan (1987) is based primarily on the Chinle Valley
dialect of Navajo. There are other dialects, and some of that dialect variation
is presented in that same resource. However, other than an early study by
Gladys Reichard (1945), there has been little investigation of the linguistic
diversity within Navajo. One clear example, still retained in Young and
Morgan, are the two pronunciations for “snow”: zas and yas. However, as
Reichard noted, there was a whole array of linguistic features that
distinguished zas- and yas-speakers. Does one become the “standard” and
the other relegated to the margins? Literacy has ramifications here again.
During my work with Mescalero Apaches on a medical dictionary, I
conducted a standard linguistic elicitation session with two elderly
Mescalero women, concentrating on body-part terms. At certain points they
would disagree on how a word was pronounced. I, of course, was interested
in what potentially could have been dialect variations and tried to note both
forms. However, the two ladies with whom I was working wanted a decision
made concerning the “correct” form. They asked if I had a copy of the
Mescalero Apache Dictionary that they had worked on a number of years
earlier with Scott Rushforth (who was in charge of the medical dictionary
project as well). These women were a rarity among the Mescalero Apaches,
being literate in both English and Mescalero. I had a copy of the dictionary,
which I then produced. From that point on, whenever there was
disagreement about the form of the word, they would refer to the dictionary.
17
I asked Rutherford Ashley the meaning of the word in an interview at the Inn of
the Navajo Nation on May 15th, 2001. Ashley actually apologized for the spelling, noting
that he had not taken classes in writing Navajo and this was his way of writing the form.
The standard creeps in yet again, influencing one’s own view about one’s qualifications
for writing Navajo.
314
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
When one of them happened to have produced the “correct” or dictionary
form, the other would suggest that she had misremembered the form. The
dictionary became the arbitrator. On a small scale, this is how “standard
languages” get created.18 I have had similar experiences with Navajo
consultants who turned to Young and Morgan (1987) to confirm a particular
form. The implications of writing down words in a specific way tends to
freeze the words in that form. Dictionaries, by their nature, tend to give the
illusion of authority. In this way the act of language preservation—the act of
writing down words—creates a stratification within languages,
distinguishing a “standard” and a “non-standard” form. In so doing, it lends
legitimacy to one group of people and excludes or marginalizes another
group or groups. Linguists are thus, in the process of artifacting the word,
complicit in the act of prescription that so many of them decry.
There has been much discussion concerning language maintenance
and literacy. Some have argued that the only way—or the primary way—to
ensure that a language is maintained is to write it down, to create indigenous
orthographic literatures. Others have suggested that literacy is not essential
to such projects (see the Cochiti example). Some of them look to radio,
music, rap, and new literacy technologies such as the Internet as vehicles for
language maintenance. Bernadette Adley-Santa Maria, a Western Apache
who has been involved in the language preservation project for her tribe, has
discussed the concerns she has with literacy and what linguists do to
Western Apache when they write it down (1997:135): “I do not want our
language exploited and also believe that study of our language should be
done only for our people who want to learn their language and not for the
wider audience.” Such views can also be found in The Navajo Times
concerning the Navajo Language page. Adley-Santa Maria, however, is
resigned to having Western Apache recorded in writing in order to preserve
the language for future generations of Western Apaches. As she remarks
(137), “I saw documentation of our language as ‘tools’ for the future because
of the rapid acceleration of shift to English occurring in Western Apache.”
Literacy here can be a route for both language preservation and
maintenance, but it can also be a mode of exploitation (see also Axelrod et
al. 2003).
18
There is also another reason the dictionary was produced. This was the first
time I had ever worked alone with these two women, and they were far more used to
working with Scott Rushforth. His ability to hear the sounds of Mescalero Apache is
much better than mine was or is. I had to repeatedly ask for a form before I felt confident
that I had heard it correctly. The dictionary was a shortcut for them. They could always
bring it out to end a long series of repetitions of the same form. (The term “correctly” is
used here in an ironic sense.)
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
315
One distinction, noted by Andrew Cowell (2002), is between locally
produced indigenous texts and non-local, large-scale production of
indigenous texts (40):
Jeffery Anderson’s analysis [2001] of the role of literacy in Arapaho life
seems to me largely correct in that literate forms of knowledge are
generally detrimental to the traditional, oral-based culture. But we can
now begin to see that this is not a feature of literacy per se, as many
scholars have argued. Rather it is a function of the specific forms that
literate texts and knowledge take in large-scale, capitalist societies. In
contrast, literacy in small-scale, face-to-face societies in local contexts
offers a potential for Arapaho users to become “empowered disputants”
rather than mere passive receptors of texts.
Such small-scale collections of poetry in Navajo, like the collection
published by the Diné Teacher Education Program (Begay 1998), are then
literate, intracultural, communicative acts. This is locally controlled literacy
in the indigenous language. One can also look at Vee Browne’s (2000) selfpublished book of poetry, Ravens Dancing, which includes a set of limericks
in Navajo. One limerick is about Diné Bizaad. More recently (2005), Rick
Abasta (a Navajo) has begun producing a “zine”—Terra Incognito—that
includes poetry, photography, and other visual arts. These are also examples
of locally controlled literacy. There are, of course, other sites of literacy
production that are not locally controlled. As Cowell (2002) notes, such
distinctions in the sites of production of literacy materials may affect the
ability of such literate forms to become “empowering.” Again, the fact that
there are more poems being written in Navajo than ever before, but that the
language is still declining, calls into question the viability of any literacy
program for indigenous languages to be considered in any measure a “cureall.” We need to better understand the politics of poetry production and the
circulation of Navajo poetry, both as a “text artifact” and as a potentially
performable oral phenomenon.
Literacy has both social and political consequences. Therefore poetry
written in Navajo, as a form of literacy, must be understood as also having
political and social consequences. To put it more boldly, written poetry as a
form of literacy must be understood within its socio-politico-historical
milieu. To write something down––to create a textual artifact––is not a
neutral or benign act. It has ramifications, both intended and unintended.
Perhaps these are not the ramifications that Ong had in mind when he
discussed the issue of literacy. I do not know if literacy causes a profound
change in consciousness, as he suggests. However, I suspect that because
literacy and orality are both heterogeneous phenomena, not readily isolatable
316
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
as either-or categories but existing rather as complexes of practices and
ideologies, a single cause such as literacy will be insufficient as an ultimate
explanation. That said, I do believe that Ong was right (write?) to ask what
the effects of this shift to literacy might be—to ask why and how it matters
when we artifact the word, when we keep the word. My position has been to
sketch out the ways that they imbue the printed word with ideological
significance as well as the ways that they actually employ literacy. I have
argued that literacy and orality are implicated in ideologies concerning
language and what language can and cannot do.
A number of years ago Keith Basso (1974) urged anthropologists to
take up the investigation of what he termed an “ethnography of writing” as a
companion to Dell Hymes’ (1974) notion of an “ethnography of speaking.”
We need to recognize, I think, the ways that other peoples understand and
give meaning to literacy, as well as how literacy and orality are connected in
practice. It is only by looking at literacy as an on the ground practice that we
may more fully comprehend the implications as a complex of social and
ideological phenomena and, perhaps, as a motivator of cognitive changes. In
this respect, we need ethnographies of literacies.
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
References
Adley-Santa Maria 1997
Bernadette Adley-Santa Maria. “White Mountain Apache
Language: Issues in Language Shift, Textbook
Development,
and
Native
Speaker-University
Collaboration.” In Teaching Indigenous Languages. Ed. by
Jon Reyhner. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University
Press. pp. 129-43.
American Bible Society
1985
American Bible Society. Diyin God Bizaad. New York:
American Bible Society.
Anderson 2001
Jeffrey Anderson. “Northern Arapaho Conversion of a
Christian Text.” Ethnohistory, 48:689-712.
Ashley 2001
Rutherford Ashley. Heart Vision 2000. Window Rock:
Cool Runnings.
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
317
Austin-Garrison 1991
Martha Austin-Garrison. “Bee Ákohwiinidzinígíí Binahj"’
Ak’e’alchí Bíhoo’aah.” Journal of Navajo Education, 9:4350.
Austin-Garrison et al. 1996
, Bernice Casaus, Daniel McLaughlin, and Clay
Slate. “Diné Bizaad Yissohígíí: The Past, Present, and
Future of Navajo Literacy.” In Athabaskan Language
Studies. Ed. by Eloise Jelinek, Sally Midgette, Keren Rice,
and Leslie Saxon. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico
Press. pp. 349-89.
Axelrod et al. 2003
Melissa Axelrod, Jule Gómez de García, and Jordan
Lachler. “The Roles of literacy and Collaboration in
Documenting Native American Languages.” Sign
Language Studies, 3:296-321.
Bahr 1975
Donald Bahr. Pima and Papago Ritual Oratory. San
Francisco, CA: The Indian Historian.
Bahr 1992
______. “Translating Papago Legalese.” In On the
Translation of Native American Literatures. Ed. by Brian
Swann. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian. pp. 257-75.
Bahr et al. 1997
, Lloyd Paul, and Vincent Joseph. Ants and
Orioles: Showing the Art of Pima Poetry. Salt Lake City:
University of Utah Press.
Bakhtin 1981
Mikhail Bakhtin. The Dialogic Imagination. Austin:
University of Texas Press.
Basso 1974
Keith Basso. “The Ethnography of Writing.” In
Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking. Ed. by
Richard Bauman and Joel Sherzer. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. pp. 425-32.
Basso 1979
. Review of The Domestication of the Savage
Mind by Jack Goody. Language in Society, 8:72-80.
Bauman 1986
Richard Bauman. Story, Performance,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Begay 1998
Lydia Fasthorse Begay, ed. Hane’ Naach’""h. Tsaile, AZ:
Diné Teacher Education, Diné College.
Benjamin et al. 1998
and Lily Fillmore. “Reclaiming Communities
and Languages.” Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare,
25:81-104.
and
Event.
318
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
Benjamin et al. 1999
Rebecca Benjamin, Regis Pecos, and Mary Eunice Romero.
“Language Revitalization Efforts in the Pueblo de Cochiti:
Becoming ‘Literate’ in an Oral Society.” In Indigenous
Literacies in the Americas. Ed. by Nancy Hornberger.
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 115-36.
Besnier 1995
Niko Besnier. Literacy, Emotion, and Authority: Reading
and Writing on a Polynesian Atoll. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Bitsui 2003
Sherwin Bitsui. Shapeshift. Tucson: University of Arizona
Press.
Brandt 1981
Elizabeth Brandt. “Native American Attitudes toward
Literacy and Recording in the Southwest.” Journal of the
Linguistic Association of the Southwest, 4:185-95.
Breuninger et al. 1982
Evelyn Breuninger, Elbys Hugar, Ellen Ann Lathan, and
Scott Rushforth. Mescalero Apache Dictionary. Mescalero,
NM: Mescalero Apache Tribe.
Briggs 1988
Charles Briggs. Competence in Performance. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
Browne 2000
Vee Browne.
AuthorHouse.
Brugge et al. 1997
Doug Brugge, Timothy Benally, and Phil Harrison, eds.
Memories Come To Us In The Rain and Wind: Oral
Histories and Photographs of the Navajo Uranium Miners
and Their Families. Jamaica Plain, MA: Red Sun.
Bucholtz 2000
Mary Bucholtz. “The Politics of Transcription.” Journal of
Pragmatics, 32:1439-65.
Clark 1994
Ann Nolan Clark. Who Wants to be a Prairie Dog?
Flagstaff, AZ: Salina Bookshelf.
Collins and Blot 2003
James Collins and Richard Blot. Literacy and Literacies:
Text, Power, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Cowell 2002
Andrew Cowell. “Bilingual Curriculum among Northern
Arapaho: Oral Tradition, Literacy, and Performances.”
American Indian Quarterly, 26:24-43.
Ravens
Dancing.
Bloomington,
IN:
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
319
Dick and McCarty 1997
Galena Sells Dick and Teresa McCarty. “Reclaiming
Navajo.” In Indigenous Literacies in the Americas. Ed. by
Nancy Hornberger. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 69-92.
Emery 1996a
Nedra Emery. Day and Night. Flagstaff, AZ: Salina
Bookshelf.
Emery 1996b
. Turkey
Bookshelf.
Faris 1990
James Faris. The Nightway: A History and a History of
Documentation of a Navajo Ceremonial. Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press.
Field and Blackhorse 2002
Margaret Field and Taft Blackhorse, Jr. “The Dual Role
of Metonymy in Navajo Prayer.” Anthropological
Linguistics, 44:217-30.
Finnegan 1977
Ruth Finnegan. Oral Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Fitzgerald 1998
Colleen M. Fitzgerald. “The Meter of Tohono O’odham
Songs.” International Journal of American Linguistics,
64:1-36.
Francisco 1994
Nia Francisco. Carried Away by the Black River.
Farmington, NM: Yoo-Hoo Press.
Friedrich 1989
Paul Friedrich. “Language, Ideology, and Political
Economy.” American Anthropologist, 91:295-312.
Geertz 1994
Armin Geertz. The Invention of Prophecy. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Goody 1977
Jack Goody. The Domestication of the Savage Mind.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Haile 1984
Fr. Berard Haile. Navajo Coyote Tales. Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press.
Hale 1998
Ken Hale. “On Endangered Languages and the Importance
of Linguistic Diversity.” In Endangered Languages. Ed. by
Lenore Grenoble and Lindsay Whaley. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. pp. 192-216.
Haviland 1996
John Haviland. “Text from Talk in Tzotzil.” In Natural
Histories of Discourse. Ed. by Michael Silverstein and
and
Giant.
Flagstaff,
AZ:
Salina
320
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
Greg Urban. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 4578.
Herzfeld 1997a
Herzfeld 1997b
Michael Herzfeld. “Political Philology: Everyday
Consequences of Grandiose Grammar.” Anthropological
Linguistics, 39:351-75.
. Cultural Intimacy. New York: Routledge.
Hill and Hill 1986
Jane Hill and Kenneth Hill. Speaking Mexicano. Tucson:
University of Arizona Press.
Holm and Holm 1995
Wayne Holm and Agnes Holm. “Navajo Language
Education: Retrospect and Prospects.” The Bilingual
Research Journal, 19:141-67.
House 2002
Deborah House. Language Shift among the Navajos.
Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Hymes 1974
Dell Hymes. Foundations in Sociolinguistics. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
Hymes 1981
. “In Vain I Tried to Tell You”: Essays in Native
American Poetics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press.
Hymes 1995
. “Na-Dene Ethnopoetics, a Preliminary Report:
Haida and Tlingit.” In Language and Culture in Native
North America. Ed. by Michael Dürr, Egon Renner, and
Wolfgang Oleschinski. Berlin: Lincom. pp. 265-311.
Hymes 2003
. Now I Know Only So Far: Essays
Ethnopoetics. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Jim 1989
Rex Lee Jim. Áhí Ni’ Nikisheegiizh. Princeton: Princeton
Collections of Western Americana.
Jim 1995
. Saad. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Collections of
Western Americana.
Kiparsky 1976
Paul Kiparsky. “Oral Poetry: Some Linguistic and
Typological Considerations.” In Oral Literature and the
Formula. Ed. by Benjamin Stolz and Richard Shannon.
Ann Arbor, MI: Center for the Coordination of Ancient and
Modern Studies. pp. 73-106.
in
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
321
Kroeber 1997
Paul Kroeber. “The Performance of Specialized Literacy in
a Salish Language.” Texas Linguistic Forum, 38
(Proceedings of the Symposium About Language and
Society—Austin V):277-87.
Kroskrity 1992
Paul Kroskrity. “Arizona Public Announcements: Form,
Function, and Linguistic Ideology.” Anthropological
Linguistics, 34.1-4:104-16.
Kulick 1992
Don Kulick. Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lee and McLaughlin 2001
Tiffany Lee and Daniel McLaughlin. “Reversing Navajo
Language Shift.” In Can Threatened Languages Be Saved?
Ed. by Joshua Fishman. Tonawanda, NY: Multilingual
Matters Ltd. pp. 23-43.
Lopez 1995
Daniel Lopez. “Wi’ikam Do’ag / Lonely Mountain.” In
Home Places. Ed. by Larry Evers and Ofelia Zepeda.
Tucson: University of Arizona Press. pp. 13-14.
Mazii 1993
Mazii. “Hataa’ Hazhnitá.” Journal of Navajo Education,
10.2:45-51.
McLaughlin 1992
Daniel McLaughlin. When Literacy Empowers: Navajo
Language in Print. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press.
Molina 1995
Felipe Molina. “Sewailo Malichi / Flower Covered Fawn.”
In Home Places. Ed. by Larry Evers and Ofelia Zepeda.
Tucson: University of Arizona Press. pp. 15-17.
Moore 1988
Robert Moore. “Lexicalization Versus Lexical Loss in
Wasco-Wishram Language Obsolescence.” International
Journal of American Linguistics, 54:453-68.
Murray 1989
David Murray. “Transposing Symbolic Forms: Actor
Awareness of Language Structures in Navajo Ritual.”
Anthropological Linguistics, 31:195-208.
Neundorf 1983
Alyse Neundorf. Á chíní Bi Naaltsoostsoh: A Navajo/
English Bilingual Dictionary. Albuquerque: Native
American Materials Development Center.
Ong 1982
Walter Ong. Orality and Literacy. London: Routledge.
322
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
Reichard 1944
Gladys Reichard. Prayer: The Compulsive Word. American
Ethnological Society Monograph 7. Seattle: University of
Washington Press.
Reichard 1945
. “Linguistic Diversity among the Navaho
Indians.” International Journal of American Linguistics,
11:156-68.
Rumsey 1990
Alan Rumsey. “Wording, Meaning, and Linguistic
Ideology.” American Anthropologist, 92:346-61.
Rumsey 2001
. “Tom Yaya Kange: A Metrical Narrative Genre
from the New Guinea Highlands.” Journal of Linguistic
Anthropology, 11:193-239.
Schiefflin 2000
Bambi Schiefflin. “Introducing Kaluli Literacy: A
Chronology of Influences.” In Regimes of Language. Ed.
by Paul Kroskrity. Santa Fe, NM: School of American
Research. pp. 293-328.
Scollon and Scollon 1981
Ronald Scollon and Suzanne Scollon. Narrative, Literacy,
and Face in Interethnic Communication. Norwood, NJ:
Ablex.
Sherzer 1976
Joel Sherzer. “Play Languages: Implications for (Socio)
Linguistics.” In Speech Play. Ed. by Barbara KirshenblattGimblett. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
pp. 19-36.
Sherzer 1987
. “Poetic Structuring of Kuna Discourse: The
Line.” In Native American Discourse: Poetics and
Rhetoric. Ed. by Joel Sherzer and Anthony Woodbury.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 103-39.
Sherzer 1990
. Verbal Art in San Blas. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Silentman 1993
Irene Silentman. “Language Planning Binaj#’ Bits#’
Yisht"izhii Bizaad Choo’9#gi Náníl’9.” Journal of Navajo
Education, 10.3:3-6.
Silverman 2001
Eric Kline Silverman. “From Totemic Space to
Cyberspace: Transformations in Sepik River and
Aboriginal Australian Myth, Knowledge and Art.” In
Emplaced Myth. Ed. by Alan Rumsey and James Weiner.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. pp. 189-214.
KEEPING THE WORD: ORALITY AND LITERACY
323
Silverstein 1979
Michael Silverstein. “Language Structure and Linguistic
Ideology.” In The Elements. Ed. by Paul Clyne, William
Hanks, and Carol Hofbauer. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic
Society. pp. 193-247.
Slate 1993
Clay Slate. “On Reversing Navajo Language Shift.”
Journal of Navajo Education, 10.3:30-35.
Spolsky 2002
Bernard Spolsky. “Prospects for the Survival of the Navajo
Language: A Reconsideration.” Anthropology & Education
Quarterly, 33.2:139-62.
Street 1993
Brian Street, ed. Cross-cultural Approaches to Literacy.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Suen-Redhouse 1990
McQueen Suen-Redhouse. “Amá dóó Azhé’é Daniidlínígíí
Nihizaad nihi" Danil9#go Niha’á"chíní Aldó’ Bi" Danil9
Doolee".” Journal of Navajo Education, 8.1: 3-5.
Tedlock 1983
Dennis Tedlock. The Spoken Word and the Work of
Interpretation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press.
Toelken and Scott 1981
Barre Toelken and Tacheeni Scott. “Poetic Retranslation
and the ‘Pretty Languages’ of Yellowman.” In Traditional
Literatures of the American Indians. Ed. by Karl Kroeber.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 65-116.
Thomas 2000
Marjorie Thomas. Ch99lgai, Na’n#"kaadii: White Nose the
Sheep Dog. Flagstaff, AZ: Salina Bookshelf.
Urban 1991
Greg Urban. A Discourse-Centered Approach to Culture.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
Valentine 1995
Lisa Valentine. Making it Their Own: Severn Ojibwe
Communicative Practices. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press.
Watahomigie and
Yamamoto 1992
Lucille Watahomigie and Akira Yamamoto. “Local
Reaction to Perceived Language Decline.” Language, 68:
10-17.
Webster 1999
Anthony Webster. “Sam Kenoi’s Coyote Stories: Poetics
and Rhetoric in Some Chiricahua Narratives.” American
Indian Culture and Research Journal, 23.1:137-63.
324
ANTHONY K. WEBSTER
Webster 2004
. “Coyote Poems: Navajo Poetry, Intertextuality,
and Language Choice.” American Indian Culture and
Research Journal, 28.4:69-91.
Webster 2006
. “‘A k’id33’ M3ii Jooldlosh, Jiní: Poetic Devices in
Navajo Oral and Written Poetry.” Forthcoming in Anthropological Linguistics.
Webster n.d.
. “What is Navajo Poetry Doing? On Language
Ideologies, Language Maintenance and the Language of
Poetry.” Unpublished ms.
Whiteley 1988
Peter Whiteley. Deliberate Acts. Tucson: University of
Arizona Press.
Witherspoon 1977
Gary Witherspoon. Language and Art in the Navajo
Universe. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Young and Morgan 1987
Robert Young and William Morgan. The Navajo Language.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Young and Morgan 1993
. “The Evolution of Written Navajo.” Journal of
Navajo Education 10, 3:46-55.
Young and Morgan 1999
.
The Navajo Language. CD. Flagstaff, AZ:
Salina Bookshelf.
Zepeda 1982
Ofelia Zepeda. “O’odham Ha-Cegitodag: Pima and Papago
Thoughts.” International Journal of American Linguistics,
48.3:320-26.
Zepeda 1997
. Jewed ‘I-hoi: Earth Movements. Tucson, AZ:
Kore Press.
Discography
Hane’ Yázhí: Children’s Books in Navajo. 2001. Tsaile, AZ: Center for Diné Teacher
Education-Diné College.