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more deeply about the role of power in documentation efforts, and to engage deeply in an analysis of society and ideology before approaching revitalization efforts.Shulist sums up her work as a ". . . relevant case study for understanding how urban Indigenous realities force us to rethink both the theories and the strategies that we, as academic allies, have developed for describing and combating language loss" (p. 31). The main ideas that recur throughout the book are the politics of revitalization, the particularity of ideological pressures, what community is and how it is created, and what indigeneity looks like in the urban sphere. Her work responds (and indeed anticipates) calls to better theorize the symbolic structures and particular ideological currents that lead to language shift.If I have a criticism of this book, it is that Shulist's gaze seems to hover in the middle distance; her ethnography rings true, but it is seldom an intimate endeavor, and we are introduced to people only to be whisked away again into the machinations of revitalization politics. She also seems reluctant to make theoretical interventions on a grand scale; while identity, ideology, and power are present throughout the book, I would love to have seen a detailed discussion of how this study might inform our understanding of these concepts. Indeed, on first reading, Shulist's call in chapter 6 to scholars of language documentation and revitalization to better examine of the role of power in their scholarly practices struck me as rather anticlimactic. However, as I read the book more carefully, I better understood her point that even when we act as engaged scholars, the ideologies that we carry into the field are more powerful than we realize, and we are often reluctant to turn the analytical lens on ourselves. Scholars' ideas about what language revitalization is and how to do it most effectively influence the way that all stakeholders see the revitalization project, and strategies that are productive in rural areas may have far-reaching counterproductive or even damaging consequences for communities in the urban sphere.Shulist has written an important portrait of a region in transition, and her focus on urban indigeneity through the lens of language education and policy is unique and timely. I admire the way she draws out different threads from the Gordian knot that is the multilingual setting of São Gabriel. I particularly recommend chapter 6 for a thought-provoking analysis that turns the lens back on scholars as participants in the communities that we "study," and for carefully laying out the reasons why it is unwise to attempt to divorce the study of language from its messy context. This book makes an important contribution to indigenous studies, language revitalization and documentation, and of course the discipline of linguistic anthropology. Motherless Tongues: The
more deeply about the role of power in documentation efforts, and to engage deeply in an analysis of society and ideology before approaching revitalization efforts.Shulist sums up her work as a ". . . relevant case study for understanding how urban Indigenous realities force us to rethink both the theories and the strategies that we, as academic allies, have developed for describing and combating language loss" (p. 31). The main ideas that recur throughout the book are the politics of revitalization, the particularity of ideological pressures, what community is and how it is created, and what indigeneity looks like in the urban sphere. Her work responds (and indeed anticipates) calls to better theorize the symbolic structures and particular ideological currents that lead to language shift.If I have a criticism of this book, it is that Shulist's gaze seems to hover in the middle distance; her ethnography rings true, but it is seldom an intimate endeavor, and we are introduced to people only to be whisked away again into the machinations of revitalization politics. She also seems reluctant to make theoretical interventions on a grand scale; while identity, ideology, and power are present throughout the book, I would love to have seen a detailed discussion of how this study might inform our understanding of these concepts. Indeed, on first reading, Shulist's call in chapter 6 to scholars of language documentation and revitalization to better examine of the role of power in their scholarly practices struck me as rather anticlimactic. However, as I read the book more carefully, I better understood her point that even when we act as engaged scholars, the ideologies that we carry into the field are more powerful than we realize, and we are often reluctant to turn the analytical lens on ourselves. Scholars' ideas about what language revitalization is and how to do it most effectively influence the way that all stakeholders see the revitalization project, and strategies that are productive in rural areas may have far-reaching counterproductive or even damaging consequences for communities in the urban sphere.Shulist has written an important portrait of a region in transition, and her focus on urban indigeneity through the lens of language education and policy is unique and timely. I admire the way she draws out different threads from the Gordian knot that is the multilingual setting of São Gabriel. I particularly recommend chapter 6 for a thought-provoking analysis that turns the lens back on scholars as participants in the communities that we "study," and for carefully laying out the reasons why it is unwise to attempt to divorce the study of language from its messy context. This book makes an important contribution to indigenous studies, language revitalization and documentation, and of course the discipline of linguistic anthropology. Motherless Tongues: The
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