2017 — 2020 |
Ball, Christopher |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mapping Linguistic, Cosmological, and Political Dimensions of Place in Riverine Environments @ University of Notre Dame
The research supported by this award investigates the relationship between language, culture, livelihood, and landscape. Scientific study of the role of language in defining landscape perception and landscape use has often focused on the significance of place names attached to prominent geological features. Unfortunately, this narrow approach misses much of importance because talk about landscapes is always much broader than just how it is labeled. At a time when landscapes everywhere are under severe stress, the researcher argues that we need to broaden our understanding of people's perception of the natural world and their place in it, as well as how and to what extent it is mediated by the language they speak. This information is essential if policy makers and social scientists are to understand why people act as they do in the particular environments they inhabit.
This research will be conducted by linguistic anthropologist Dr. Christopher Ball (Notre Dame University) among the indigenous Waujá people in the Xingu River basin, a main tributary of the Amazon River. This is an appropriate location because the Waujá are a small (population <500) group of people who use language to pass along knowledge about the river to members of their own group, to define the group and its territory in relation to others, and for subsistence. The small size of the group and the cultural centrality of their language and place linkages make the connections more conducive to intensive technical study than would be true for larger and more diverse populations. Nonetheless, findings will be applicable to riverine and other landscapes in the United States. The researcher will collect data by undertaking expeditions on the river, targeting named places deemed to have valuable natural resources and cultural significance. Using digital still photos, audio, and video, he will record narratives in the indigenous language as they are recounted by Waujá historians about these river places. Each site's coordinates will be marked using GPS. The investigator will translate these local language narratives into English and compile them to assess their fit as an environmental map. The audiovisual data will be combined with the GPS location data to generate interactive digital maps linked to interviews and photos, a new way to spatially model the oral transmission of ecological knowledge. The maps also will comprise a useful local resource for new forms of knowledge preservation and transmission, as younger people, as well as scientists, utilize them to hear, see, and speak about these environments. Combining the modelling of ecological language practices in space and providing for the continuation of these practices will further understanding of how local residents throughout the world contribute to global environmental knowledge. Funding this project also supports documentation of an endangered language and the education of undergraduate and graduate students.
|
0.909 |