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Home , Linguistic anthropology

News February 2000 SECTION NEWS

Emory U, Georgia Institute of Technology and in anthropology is marginal and he considers his anthropological approaches. Likewise, I have International for the Study of main interests as . learned greatly from their dedication to studies of Literature will sponsor an International Confer- At the U of Auckland, until very recently, lin- NZ English, Maori and of the Pacific. ence on Narrative Apr 6-9,2000. See the Meeting guists belonged to two departments: English and Calendar for further details. Anthropology. Now, all linguists belong to a Us@l Addresses. Susan Gal, SLA Presidenl;.Dept Lmguistics Dept. I still have limited knowledge of of Anth, U of Chicago, 1126 E 59th St, Chicago IL Sociolinguistics and Anthropology in these liiguists, but my understanding is that 60637-1539; [email protected]. New Zealand those who were under the English department Alessandm Wanti, Journal of Linguistic An- are mostly formal (Chomskian) people, whereas thropology Edim; Dept of Anth, UCLA,CA 90095- By Yukako Sunaoshi (V of Auckland, New Zealand) those who were under the Anthropology depart- 1553; [email protected]. As an American-trained sociolinguist, I wasn’t ment are mostly descriptive people. It should be Laura Milk, SLA Progrmn Orgrmizer;.Dept of Soc sure what to expect when I first arrived in New noted, however, that many of these linguists are and Anthm, Lopla U, 6525 North Sheridan Road, Zealand. What I found was people doing very interested in the sociocultural aspects of Chicago, IL 60626; tel 773/508-3469, fax 508- interesting work in sociolinguistics, but very little use and that the division between formal and 7099, [email protected]. along the lines of linguistic anthropologyas I had other types of is generally not as strong Cyndi Durm, SLA wlumn co-editoc Dept of studied it in the States. This essay is an overview in NZ as in the US. The predominant languages English, U North Tm,Box 31 1307, Denton, TX of current sociolinguistic research in New being studied here are NZ English, Maori and lan- 76203-1307; tel940/565-331I, [email protected]. Zealand and some of the possible reasons for the guages of the Pacific Islands. Therefore, it is not Richard Senghas, SLA column co-editor and lin- lack of a linguistic anthropology focus. It is a nec- difficult to find someone who is working on an ganth email list adminisirator; Dept of Anth/Ling, essarily partial truth based on my personal obser- indigaous/ or society, but Sonoma State U, 1801 E Cotati Ave, Rohnert Pa& CA vations and discussions with a few individuals. their approaches are likely to differ from those of 94928-3609; tel 707/664-2307, fau 664-3920, I recently earned my PhD from the U of Texas ustrained linguistic . richard.senghas@?sonoma.edu. at Austin. My official affiliation was the depart- Te Reo Maori (the Maori language), and Maori ment of linguistics, but at VT, sociolinguists (in people’s cultural issues also tend to be studied Linguistics) and linguistic anthropologists (in under the discipline of Maori Studies. One inter- Society for ) form a shared community of esting difference between NZ and the US is that Anthropology practice dedicated to pursuing the study of con- NZ government has become more proactive in cul- nections between language, society and . terms of maintenance of Maori language and ANN MILES AND HOLLYPEIERS-GOLDEN, While finishing my dissertation, I spent 1997-98 ture (eg Maori Language Commission at the gov- CONITUBUIYNGEDITORS as a visiting researcher at Victoria U of ernment, pre-schools operated in Maori). There- Wellington, New Zealand. Sice last Jun, I have fore, Maori people seem much more visible here than Native Americans in the US. A number.of SMA and SfMTogether In San Francisco been teaching courses on Language and society in Japan at the U of Auckland, New Zealand. issues related to Maori language, culture and ByPeterGuamaccia(Rutgm) identity seem to be studied in various disciplines, It is interesting that we often find or become but not part of linguistic anthropology. Be The society for Medical Anthropology‘s spring aware of our identity when we out of our as are cause of the politico-historical situation; the meeting will be held jointly with the Society for place of origin. In my visiting Victoria U case, major focus of ethnic studies in has been on , Mar 21-26, 2000 at the made me realize how their definition of sociolin- NZ Maori-Pakeha (European-originated New Zea- Cathdral Hill Hotel, San Francisco, CA. The guistics and mine differed. At UT, I did not have landers) issues and relatively little attention has Program for the SMA spring meeting has devel- to dichotomize sociolinguistics and linguistic been given to more recent immigrant groups oped into a varied and exciting set of sessions. anthropology. They were on a continuum, over- from non-European countries, including Asians The Program will begin with the SMA Plenary lapping with each other. In New Zealand, there such as myself. entitled “The Contributions of Medical Anthro- seems to be no liiguistic anthropology program, There have been extensive studies on various pology to Anthropology and Beyond” to be held and very few scholars seem to approach language aspects of NZ English. For example, the Welling- on Wed, Mar 22,2000 from 2S5mPM. The with an anthropological concern. Janet Holmes ton Corpus, done at Victoria, is a longitudinal, participants in the plenary are: Art Rubel, Arthur (Victoria U-Wellington) and Allan Bell (U Auck- large-scale study, and various members (eg pho- Kleinman, Charles Leslie, Margaret Lock, Rayna land) are two of New Zealand‘s most prominent nologists, applied hguiits, sociolinguists) have Rapp and William Dressler. Some of the questions figures in sociolinguistics. Although both con- used the data for a of interesting studies. the panelists have been asked to address include duct intriguing sociolinguistic research, there is Another area of interest I noticed is the issues of 1) What have been the major accomplishments very little about their work that could be de- Kiwi identity/ies. For example, Allan Bell‘s recent of medical anthropology from which to build a scribed as anthropological. My impression is that work is concerned with how Kiwi identity is con- medical anthropology for the 21st Century? 2) in both cases, is not really part of structed in Air NZ’s TV commercials. How has medical anthropology contributed to their methodologies. And to me, this is the indi- I suspect that linguistic anthropology as a field the theoretical, substantive and applied develop- cation that they are sociolinguists, but not lin- may well be unique to the US. It is important to ment of anthropology as a field? 3) What are the guistic anthropologists. note that NZ may be too small as a country to promising and urgent directions, both theoretical Niko Besnier (Victoria U-Wellington) told me establish all possible academic fields. As Janet and applied, for medical anthropology for the that there are perhaps only one or two more Holmes pointed out, linguists in NZ cannot next century? Following the Plenary, there will be scholars besides himself in New Zealand whom afford to be just one kind of linguist if they want a reception hosted by SMA and sponsored by he would describe as linguistic anthropologists. to keep their rigorous linguistic inquiries with a SfAA. He is not hired as a linguistic but limited number of colleagues. This situation sug- We also have a number of rich and exating ses- as a sociocultural anthropologist. One reason he gests at least two things. Fmt, there are people sions organized by Board Members for the pointed out for this situation is the strong influ- here whose concerns and interests partially over- Meetings. These include: Evolutionary Perspec- ence the British tradition of anthropology has lap with ours. And second, there are a number of tives on Health: Relevance to Health Policy had in the field of anthropology in NZ. Donn situations which are worth receiving academic (Andrea Wiley) examines the concept of adapta- Bayard (U of Otago), who has been teaching an attention but have not been studied yet. Because tion from a biocultural perspective and the role of undergraduate course titled “Linguistic Anthro- of these reasons, I see a good potential for this evolutionary medicine in informing health poli- pology, ” commented that hguistic interest with- country‘s scholars to benefit from linguistic cy issues to improve well-being. 72