Orchid, my sister: Identities, relationality, and language documentation | SOAS University of London
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 2021-01-21

Note: This talk has not gone through a process of peer review, and findings should therefore be treated as preliminary and subject to change.

How to cite:
D'Souza, Vijay. 2020. Orchid, my sister: Identities, relationality, and language documentation (Language Documentation and Identity in Hrusso Aka). Talk presented at SOAS Linguistic Webinars 2020-07-28 [URL: https://youtu.be/2OhZ5w9jshs] 

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4453815

SOAS Linguistic Webinars

Language Documentation and Identity in Hrusso Aka
Orchid, my sister: Identities, relationality, and language documentation

Vijay D‘Souza (University of Oxford)

Abstract: Human communities constantly construct, deconstruct, and recalibrate their identities based on their past heritage, present attitudes and future aspirations. Since identities are essentially based on people’s perception of themselves vis-à-vis other beings around them, relationality, the web of relationships between humans, animals, plants, and nature, plays a central role in making and maintaining identities. Can language documentation be an opportunity for a language community to reflect on and reassess their identities and relationalities? I reflect on this question with the help of three recordings (‘The dumb son-in-law’, ‘Orchid, my sister’, and ‘Tage Raja’) my collaborators and I collected during our recent documentation work among the Hrusso Aka language community in India.