Language Ideology and Women's Speech: Talking Community in the Northwest Amazon

Abstract

Taking the Northwest Amazon of Brazil as its example, this article argues for the analytic concept of a "speech culture," combining, but heuristically separating, speech practice and language ideology. In the Northwest Amazon, an ideology of language establishes an equivalence between linguistic performance and descent group belonging. In contrast to the fixed, normative notions of groupness, this article explores the dynamic construction of social relations through women's ritualized wept greeting speech. In these interactions, linguistic differentiation is countered by the experience of a single speech act based upon shared principles with organized participation in and by different linguistic codes. Through the collaborative nature of the speech act a common ground is produced and revealed. The community in this sense emerges as a cultural artifact whose production is largely the work of women. Through these speech interactions—of similar sentiments and meanings across different linguistic codes—women of the Northwest Amazon construct a community of talk. [Keywords: women, laments, language, Amazonia]

The Second World of Wanano Women: Truth, Lies, And Back-Talk in the Brazilian Northwest Amazon

“…To do so, Mrs. Patricio draws on a number of rhetorical devices. The most important of these is reported speech or quoted speech (also “constructed dialogue,”Tannen 1988, 1995), in which a speaker attributes her utterances to another, a cited spokesperson or “mouthpiece” (Chernela 2003). The diffusing of voices by means of their distribution across a complex social field, rather than concentrating within a single authorial voice, creates the effect of multiple participants in a speech event (Hill and Zepeda 1993:197).…”

“…Linguistic performance functions as an index of descent group belonging, identity, and naturalized patrilineal kin ties. Marrying a speaker of the same language constitutes incest and persons are obliged to seek spouses outside the language group (Chernela 1993, 2003, 2004; Gomez‐Imbert 1993, 1999; Hugh‐Jones 1979; Jackson 1974, 1976, 1983; Sorensen 1967; Stenzel 2005). Patrilocal residence, linguistic exogamy, and strong linguistic loyalties result in villages comprised of a core of agnatic kin (males and children) who are monolingual speakers of Wanano and in‐marrying wives who are speakers of other languages (Stenzel 2005).…”

“…The song exchange excerpted here was performed by two young Wanano women toward the end of an elaborate Po'oa exchange ceremony. Po'oa generally proceed through a progression of performative events carried out by different actors who take the floor according to a formulaic order (Chernela 1993, 2001, 2003; Hill 1993, 2009). The Po'oa at which the song was recorded took place in Yapima, the village where I had been living and conducting fieldwork.…”

“…At the end of the morning, the solemn, public performances by the men in the center were replaced by activities along the periphery, in which participation and attention were limited to those in close proximity. The first of these were the texted‐weeping songs ( Kaya basa ) performed by married women in dyadic exchanges (Chernela 2003). By nightfall, as the ceremonial center became the site of flute playing and dancing, the unmarried women took up improvised teasing and joking songs in the furthest reaches of the dance house.…”

“…Whereas the men's recitations are marked by strict formality, and a certain amount of bravado, the songs of married women that follow them are mournful (Chernela 1988, 1993, 2003). In contrast to both, the songs of the unmarried women, known as Buhupu basa , are brash, derogatory, and bawdy.…”