scholarly journals The Argobba of Ethiopia are not the Language they Speak

Aethiopica ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 7-22
Author(s):  
Abbebe Kifleyesus
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
First Language ◽  
Great Ease ◽  
Market Transaction ◽  
Linguistic Groups ◽  
Central Claim ◽  
As If

The Argobba of southeastern Wällo and northeastern Šäwa live amongst and speak the languages of the Amhara and the Oromo with great ease as if they are members of these ethnic groups. For them Amharic and Afaan Oromoo are the languages of administration and market transaction and therefore important for Argobba survival in a region domi-nated by these two ethno-linguistic groups. Yet the Argobba I met in these lands identified themselves as Argobba, and they were known as such, despite the fact that several of them had Amharic or Afaan Oromoo as their first language. The central claim of this article is therefore that the Argobba of this region define themselves as Argobba based on their traditions, customs, beliefs, values, and total cultural practices and not on the basis of who can or cannot speak the Argobba language.

scholarly journals CHALLENGES OF FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD: FATHER OR MOTHER LANGUAGE?

2021 ◽  
pp. 31-40
Author(s):  
Лейли Рахимовна Додыхудоева
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Life Support ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
First Language ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Marriage Patterns

В статье рассматриваются вопросы передачи родного языка следующим поколениям у населения Горно-Бадахшанской автономной области Таджикистана в ситуации активных языковых контактов: в местах фрагментированного распространения миноритарных памирских языков (ваханский, ишкашимский и др.), смешанных с зонами таджикского языка, где фрагментация населения усугубляется социокультурными практиками и брачными моделями; и при проживании в условиях внутренней и внешней миграции. В основу статьи положены материалы, собранные в ходе полевых исследований в Таджикистане и России методами наблюдения и интервью, в частности по методу фокус-групп, а также на основе анализа данных социальных сетей на памирских языках и публикаций по вопросам родного языка и лингвокультурной идентичности. Анализ языковых ситуаций проводится на основе типологической модели Эдвардса с выделением социолингвистических и демографических факторов, влияющих на жизнеспособность языковой группы. Мы рассматриваем формы передачи родного языка следующим поколениям у членов этих этнических групп в условиях двуязычия при традиционных моделях компактного проживания, а также в условиях многоязычия в ходе миграции. Установлено, каким образом стратегии жизнеобеспечения семьи, такие как тип расселения и брачные модели или выбор определенного типа миграции, оказывают влияние на стратегии и приемы передачи языковых навыков детям, а также на выбор и предпочтение языков родителями, а затем и самими детьми. Выявляются языковые предпочтения определенных групп на уровне семьи и этнической группы, их причины и приемы их поддержания. Кроме того, отмечен недавний поворот от нейтрально-позитивного отношения молодежи к родным (памирским) языкам к лингвистическому активизму и продвижению их в цифровом пространстве, а также созданию на них образовательных продуктов. The article is focused on the transmission of native languages to the next generation among the population of the Mountainous-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, Tajikistan. The article is based on data collected during field research in Tajikistan and Russia, using observational methods and interviews, in particular focus groups. It also draws on monitoring of social media in the Pamir languages and on publications addressing the mother tongues and linguacultural identity of the Pamir ethnic groups. Particular attention is given to the areas where language contacts are especially active. First, the steadily shrinking fragmented zones of distribution of various minority Pamir languages (Wakhan, Ishkashim) mixed with the Tajik language; here, fragmentation of the population in the contact zones is aggravated by socio-cultural practices and intensified by specific marriage patterns, whereby men marry women from neighbouring villages speaking languages other than their own. Another area where language contact and linguistic shift are most apparent concerns members of these ethnic groups who undertake internal or external migration. The analysis of linguistic situations is based on Edwards’ typological model employing a set of sociolinguistic and demographic factors which affect the viability of a language group. We examine the ways in which mother tongues are transmitted to the next generation among members of these ethnic groups in conditions of compact residence; we consider their specific bilingual model, when the native language turns to be a father’s language. We also trace multilingual models in the context of increasing translocal and transnational migration, with its variety of approaches. It has been established how family life support strategies, such as the type of settlement and marriage patterns or the choice of a certain type of migration, influence the transfer of language skills to children, as well as the choice and preference of languages by parents, and later by children themselves. Among our outcomes, we reveal the types of bilingualism of certain groups (passive/early bilingualism, multilingualism), the reasons for this bilingualism and the specific means of its maintenance (such as settlement and marriage patterns). We reveal a recent development whereby a neutral attitude towards native (Pamir) languages has given way, among the younger generation, to linguistic activism, the promotion of these languages in the digital space and the creation of educational products on them.

scholarly journals Cultural factors that affected the spatial and temporal epidemiology of kuru

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 160789 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. T. Whitfield ◽  
W. H. Pako ◽  
J. Collinge ◽  
M. P. Alpers
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
Cultural Group ◽  
Genetic Studies ◽  
Linguistic Group ◽  
Epidemiological Changes ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Linguistic Groups ◽  
Initial Pattern

Kuru is a prion disease which became epidemic among the Fore and surrounding linguistic groups in Papua New Guinea, peaking in the late 1950s. It was transmitted during the transumption (endocannibalism) of dead family members at mortuary feasts. In this study, we aimed to explain the historical spread and the changing epidemiological patterns of kuru by analysing factors that affected its transmission. We also examined what cultural group principally determined a family's behaviour during mortuary rituals. Our investigations showed that differences in mortuary practices were responsible for the initial pattern of the spread of kuru and the ultimate shape of the epidemic, and for subsequent spatio-temporal differences in the epidemiology of kuru. Before transumption stopped altogether, the South Fore continued to eat the bodies of those who had died of kuru, whereas other linguistic groups, sooner or later, stopped doing so. The linguistic group was the primary cultural group that determined behaviour but at linguistic boundaries the neighbouring group's cultural practices were often adopted. The epidemiological changes were not explained by genetic differences, but genetic studies led to an understanding of genetic susceptibility to kuru and the selection pressure imposed by kuru, and provided new insights into human history and evolution.

Art Means a Lot

2013 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Almanzar
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Dominican Republic ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Da Vinci ◽  
Language Barrier ◽  
Leonardo Da Vinci ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Language Class ◽  
As If

Art means a lot to me. Growing up in New York as a young teenager who came from another country, I felt as if I was an outcast from society due to the language barrier and numerous ethnic groups different than mine. Coming to New York from the Dominican Republic, I was placed in an ESL (English as a Second Language) class at Leonardo da Vinci IS 61 in Queens. I remember trying to speak to a girl who was not an ESL student. She was playing with her friends, tossing an orange back and forth, when she failed to catch it and the orange landed by my feet. She did not notice where it had gone, so I picked it up and tried to toss it back to her, at the same time telling her in Spanish, “Here it is.” The girl jumped back surprised and thought that I tried to hit her with the orange, so she began to curse me out. I didn't know what she was saying, but it was clear that it wasn't nice. I tried to explain myself, but she was not trying to hear me. This experience made me feel terrible.

Mental Structures in Transition Culture

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 901-927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Triin Vihalemm ◽  
Veronika Kalmus
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Cultural Reproduction ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Common Elements ◽  
Linguistic Groups ◽  
The Empirical Analysis ◽  
Generational Continuity ◽  
Level Analysis

Based on the concept of transition culture, the article discusses patterns of generational continuity and disruption in post-Soviet Estonia. We suggest a tool for meso-level analysis: factor structures of self-identification and value orientations. The empirical analysis of population survey data collected in 2005 shows that such mental structures have significant correlations with indices of perceptions about social changes and everyday social and cultural practices. Our analysis focuses on mental patterns of three generations among two main ethno-linguistic groups: ethnic Estonians and the Russian minority. The results reveal considerable differentiation between older and younger generations. We suggest that post-Soviet transition has brought about generational disruption in cultural reproduction, which is particularly visible among the ethnic minority group: Russian youngsters differ from their parents to a greater extent than do young Estonians from theirs. Moreover, the mental patterns of young Estonians and Russians have common elements.

Groupism and the politics of indigeneity: A case study on the Sámi debate in Finland

Ethnicities ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 526-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarno Valkonen ◽  
Sanna Valkonen ◽  
Timo Koivurova
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Discrete Groups ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Ethnopolitical Conflict ◽  
Collective Actors ◽  
As If

The article addresses the problems of defining an indigenous people by deconstructing the Sámi debate in Finland, which has escalated with the government’s commitment to ratify ILO Convention No. 169. We argue that the ethnopolitical conflict engendered by this commitment is a consequence of groupism, by which, following Rogers Brubaker, we mean the tendency to take discrete groups as chief protagonists of social conflicts, the tendency to treat ethnic groups, nations and races as substantial entities and the tendency to reify such groups as if they were unitary collective actors. The aim of the article is to deconstruct groupist thinking related to indigenous rights by analytically separating the concepts of group and category. This allows us to deconstruct the ethnicised conflict and analyse what kinds of political, social and cultural aspects are involved in it. We conclude that indigeneity is not an ethnocultural, objectively existing fact, but rather a frame of political requirements.

The Revitalization of Eurasian Identity in Singapore

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexius Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ethnic Identities

AbstractThis paper accounts for the revitalization of Eurasian identity in the 1990s. The revitalization was instrumental, as Eurasians had found themselves socially marginalized, particularly since the other ethnic groups were becoming more assertive about their respective ethnic identities since the 1980s. To counter this, the Eurasians selectively constructed a set of cultural practices and outlooks which were unique to the group, but not necessarily reviving practices that were "lost". The revitalization was therefore not a deep-seated emotional or primordial attachment to their identity; instead, it was used to improve the position of the community in Singapore.

scholarly journals THE INFLUENCE OF EDUCATION ON ETHNIC DIVERSITY BEFORE AND AFTER INDEPENDENCE IN MALAYSIA

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (23) ◽  
pp. 68-84
Author(s):  
Sharifah Darmia Sharif Adam ◽  
Irma Wani Othman ◽  
Jais Abdul Hamid ◽  
Mohd Sohaimi Esa ◽  
Romzi Ationg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Education System ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Ethnic Relations ◽  
Research Information ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Plural Society ◽  
Sabah And Sarawak

This article discusses the influence of education on ethnic diversity in Malaysia. Malaysia is known for its unique society that is made up of various ethnic groups such as Malay, Chinese, Indian, Sabah, and Sarawak indigenous ethnic groups and many other ethnic groups. Each ethnic group has its own cultural practices, traditional customs, religious beliefs, and language but everyone can live in a harmony. In other words, ethnic diversity and cultural differences are not an obstacle to the plural society in this country to live together peacefully. Among the efforts made to create such an atmosphere is through the education system which plays an important role in instilling the spirit of nationalism and love of country. However, the effort to make Malaysia a country society that is united through the education system is not as easy as expected. There are challenges that need to be faced. Therefore, this article is focused to discuss what is the influence of education and what are the challenges faced in creating an education system that serves as an agent of community unification in the country. The study of this article was made using a qualitative analysis approach and using archival research methods as well as library research to obtain research information sources. This study will produce an analysis that can be used as a reference to improve or formulate better policies, especially in matters that benefit the efforts to strengthen harmonious inter-ethnic relations in Malaysia.

scholarly journals Traditional Marriage Customs in Maharjan Community of Lalitpur District: An Ethnographic Exploration

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-45
Author(s):  
Ganga K.C.
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Food Habits ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
Traditional Marriage

The paper investigates how and why the traditional forms of marriage systems are sustained. This paper describes the marriage practices among Maharjan, and explains how it is anthropologically interesting. The main purpose of this research paper is to examine traditional marriage practices of the Maharjan people as well as the procedures from beginning to end of the marriage. Nepal is a multiethnic and multicultural country along with ecological variation and hidden ethno history. Most of them have their specific language, religion, cultural practices, food habits, festivals, rites and rituals. Among the 59 indigenous ethnic groups of Nepal, the Newars are one of them. Among the different groups of Newar, Maharjan is one sub-group. The present study is ardent to the Maharjan people of Ghachhe Tole of Patan in general and their practice of traditional marriage in particular. This study has been steered by retaining both exploratory cum descriptive research design using the qualitative data. The data of the present study is based on primary as well as secondary sources. In this exploration more detailed account of the traditional marriage practice and processes amongst the Maharjan people is presented in an intricate manner. The entire procedures of the Maharjan marriage, and their innumerable rites and rituals are explained clearly.

The Code of Silence across the Hong Kong Eurasian Community(ies)

Meeting Place ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicky Lee
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Code Of Silence ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The City

This chapter examines the dynamics of Hong Kong’s Eurasian community (from the 1860s to the 1960s) in terms of the community’s perception of its own members, the attitudes of its members towards their own European and Chinese heritage, and the mutual perceptions and interactions with other ethnic groups in the city during the period in question. Despite the fact that many Eurasians have served in various roles in Hong Kong, in both the public and private sectors, from doctors and lawyers to nurses, teachers, clerks and stenographers, particularly since the late 1800s, not much is known about this community. Unlike other ethnic groups such as the Parsee and the Portuguese communities, who shared a common religion common cultural practices identity, the sense of community among Eurasians was nebulous and sporadic. Ironically, one common practice shared by members of this community was a conscious attempt to de-emphasize their membership of this ethnic group and a reluctance to acknowledge their Eurasian heritage both on an individual and collective level.

The Multilingual Mind and Multilingual Societies: In Search of Neuropsychological Explanations of the Spatial Behavior of Ethno-Linguistic Groups

1985 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Laponce
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
First Language ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Spatial Behavior ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Delayed Reaction ◽  
Multilingual Communication ◽  
Linguistic Groups ◽  
Multilingual Societies

Languages are territorial. They tend to occupy homogeneous, well bounded areas. When they do not, they lessen their chances of survival, especially if they are languages of minority groups. Reaching beyond the usual sociological causes of this phenomenon, this article searches the neurophysiological and the psychological literature for explanation of the tendency of closed, equalitarian systems with a high density of communication to move toward unilingualism. The search is guided by the questions: are bilinguals less brain-lateralized than unilinguals? Are different languages stored in different “containers” in the bilingual memory? Are the reaction times for coding and encoding slower in a second language than in a dominant language, slower in multilingual compared to unilingual settings? What are the psychological costs and benefits of bilingualism?The hypothesis that the bilingual brain is different from the unilingual brain is not supported by the literature, but some fascinating studies keep the question open. Only two sets of findings emerge to offer likely explanations of language territoriality: the findings that measure the declining level of performance in a second as compared to a first language when the complexity of the task is increased, and the findings that show multilingual communication to be less efficient, due to interferences and delayed reaction times, than the same communication in a single language.

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