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New Paths in the Linguistic Anthropology of Oceania ANRV388-AN38-02 ARI 14 August 2009 18:1 New Paths in the Linguistic Anthropology of Oceania Matt Tomlinson1 and Miki Makihara2 1Discipline of Anthropology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia; email: [email protected] 2Department of Anthropology, Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, Flushing, New York 11372; email: [email protected] Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2009. 38:17–31 Key Words First published online as a Review in Advance on agency, entextualization, language ideologies, mana, personhood June 12, 2009 by 64.131.196.231 on 10/07/09. For personal use only. The Annual Review of Anthropology is online at Abstract anthro.annualreviews.org The linguistic anthropology of Oceania has seen vigorous and produc- This article’s doi: tive analysis of language ideologies, ritual performance, personhood, 10.1146/annurev-anthro-091908-164438 Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2009.38:17-31. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org and agency. This article points to three related paths of inquiry that Copyright c 2009 by Annual Reviews. are especially promising. First, language ideologies are analyzed for the All rights reserved ways they shape expectations and interpretations of effective action and 0084-6570/09/1021-0017$20.00 social identity. Second, processes of entextualization are examined with reference to Bible translation because Christianity is a dominant social force in contemporary Oceania. Third, prominent recent work on per- sonhood and agency is reviewed, and scholars are urged to reconsider the classic Oceanic term mana in relation to changing understandings of power, including those wrought by religious transformations. These paths of inquiry are intertwined and cross-cutting and can lead to pro- ductive new understandings of ideologies and practices of stability and transformation. 17 ANRV388-AN38-02 ARI 14 August 2009 18:1 INTRODUCTION Three areas of investigation in which the lin- As scholars increasingly focus on culture’s“pub- guistic anthropology of Oceania has been espe- cially illuminating are (a) language ideologies, Personhood: lic, mobile, traveling” qualities (Ortner 2006, grammatical p. 18), anthropologists ask how certain cate- (b) ritual performance, and (c) personhood and configuration of social gories and identities come to seem stable and agency. In each of these areas, interplays be- selves durable for our interlocutors. Rightly wary of tween stability and transformation are manifest Agency: essentialisms, anthropologists nonetheless rec- in discourse about tradition, authority, and ef- responsibility for ognize that discourse of fixity and permanence ficacy. This article reviews recent work in these action is a prominent feature of many cultural contexts areas and points to three interconnected paths Entextualization: the and is a means of shaping unfolding practice. of inquiry. process in which The study of language use has been at the fore- We begin by examining language ideologies, segments of discourse shared notions about the nature of language, gain apparent fixity front of efforts to understand relationships be- that facilitates their tween ideologies and practices of stability and including reflexive representations of language public circulation transformation, and in the past 20 years the lin- characteristics, use, and effects. Language ide- guistic anthropology of Oceania has played a ologies, which often treat stability and trans- vital role in developing relevant theoretical ap- formation as both subjects and criteria of eval- proaches with careful attention to ethnographic uation, have become a major area of research detail. (See sidebar, Oceanic Boundaries.) because of the ways they “envision and enact links of language to group and personal iden- tity, to aesthetics, to morality, and to epistemol- OCEANIC BOUNDARIES ogy ...[and] often underpin fundamental so- cial institutions” (Woolard & Schieffelin 1994, “Oceania” conventionally denotes the Pacific islands, extending pp. 55–56). Anthropology has vigorously taken from New Guinea and the Northern Mariana Islands in the up research on language ideologies throughout west and northwest to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the east, Oceania and across a range of local settings and, and from New Zealand in the south to Hawai’i in the north. In in doing so, has illuminated culture’s “public, 1832, d’Urville classified the islands in three groups: Melanesia, mobile, traveling” qualities in new ways. Next Micronesia, and Polynesia (Besnier 2004, p. 97). These labels we turn to entextualization, focusing on the in- have come under scholarly criticism; archaeologists have pro- tersection of ritual performance and translation posed a new distinction between “near Oceania” and “remote practices, paying special attention to studies of Oceania” on the basis of migration and settlement histories Bible translation. We take this approach be- by 64.131.196.231 on 10/07/09. For personal use only. (Green 1991, Kirch 1997). Despite such criticism, the terms have cause Christianity is a dominant social force in become accepted within the region and applied to such entities modern Oceania and is increasingly the sub- as states (the Federated States of Micronesia), economic zones ject of intensive ethnographic analysis. Finally, (the Melanesian Spearhead Group), and religious organizations in the third section we address topics of per- (the Anglican Diocese of Polynesia). sonhood and agency. Anthropologists have used Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2009.38:17-31. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org The two major language groups in Oceania are Austrone- detailed grammatical and pragmatic analyses sian and Papuan, with the former extending to southeast Asia of subjects such as “segmentary persons,” the and Madagascar. Papuan languages, which unlike Austronesian “heroic I,” and ergativity to illuminate the ways ones do not share a common ancestor (Foley 1986, 2000), are that personhood and agency are constituted and found largely in New Guinea. Oceanic, a subgroup of Austrone- contested in Oceanic linguistic-cultural con- sian, includes ∼450 languages (Pawley & Ross 1995, p. 39). All texts. We argue that work on personhood and Polynesian languages are Oceanic; all Micronesian languages are agency in Oceania can be enriched through Oceanic except for two, Chamorro and Palauan (Lynch et al. fresh critical attention to mana, a term whose 2002, p. 4). cognates are found in languages throughout the region. 18 Tomlinson · Makihara ANRV388-AN38-02 ARI 14 August 2009 18:1 LANGUAGE IDEOLOGIES in the regulation of social relations, in the Language ideologies—shared notions about formation of group and personal identities, and in negotiations of power and interpersonal the nature of language—inform worldviews, Language ideologies: shape verbal behaviors, and contour social in- and group conflict (e.g., Arno 1993; Besnier shared notions about teractions. As such, they help construct social 2004; Brenneis & Myers 1984; Makihara & the nature of language realities, personhood, identity, agency, aesthetic Schieffelin 2007a,b; Watson-Gegeo 1986; sensibilities, and sentiments (Kroskrity 2000, Watson-Gegeo & White 1990). Several schol- Schieffelin et al. 1998, Woolard & Schieffelin ars working in Melanesia have undertaken 1994). They do so not only through the use of pioneering work on the dense and complex language in which propositional meaning is cre- interconnections among forms of linguistic ated, but also, and perhaps more significantly, and material exchange [Merlan & Rumsey through the semiotic working of language, 1991; Robbins 2001b, 2007; Schieffelin 1990; where social actors use or interpret “contextual- see also Keane’s (1997) influential work on In- ization cues” (Gumperz 1982, 1992), in partic- donesia]. In addition, Oceanic societies exhibit ular those with indexical and iconic properties enormous diversity in language varieties, prac- linking linguistic elements to social and affec- tices, and ideologies, even across small speech tive meanings.1 communities. Small speech communities also Fine-grained analysis of the relationship often experience sociolinguistic change at an between linguistic structure and practice and accelerated rate, with transformation depend- language ideologies has provided a tool for ing on innovations and strategic language understanding social and cultural formations’ choices on the part of fewer individuals. reproduction and transformation. Through Recent anthropological work on language close examination of verbal acts and their so- ideologies and sociocultural reproduction and ciocultural contexts, linguistic anthropologists transformation has benefited in particular from have demonstrated how verbal behaviors can Ochs’s and Schieffelin’s innovative writings constitute innovative, experimental, reproduc- on language socialization (Ochs & Schieffelin tive, and transformative acts, thereby illumi- 1984; Schieffelin & Ochs 1986a, 1986b). nating the dynamic, processual relationships Socialization is a lifelong process of interaction among what Williams (1977) called “emer- and participation. Through careful linguis- gent,” “residual,” and “dominant” cultural tic and ethnographic examination of verbal formations. Verbal behaviors themselves are interactions involving caretakers and children, by 64.131.196.231 on 10/07/09. For personal use only. shaped by the linguistic dispositions and ide- Ochs and Schieffelin have demonstrated ologies of their speakers, which are continually how participants
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