25.2 (Summer 2001) Endangered Languages, Endangered Lives

Shuar Visit Cultural Survival

Cultural Survival — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 00:00:00 -0400

Cultural Survival was fortunate to have three Shuar visitors in February from the Ecuadorian Amazon. Professor Basco Atamaint, National Executive Director of the Shuar Federation; Profesor Aurora Wamputsar, who works in bilingual Shuar education; and Kar Atamaint, a student at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito and also the leader and founder of the new Intercultural Dialogue Project, came to the Cultural Survival office in Cambridge to talk about the recent indigenous-led protests in Quito.

Endangered languages in town: The Urbanization Of Indigenous Languages In The Brazilian Amazon

Cultural Survival — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 00:00:00 -0400

Brazil's territory covers an area of 8,500,000 square kilometers (3,286,170 square miles), and is home to a population of about 169,500,000 inhabitants, only 16 million of whom live in rural areas -- the number has not changed since 1950. (IBGE,(1) 1991 census) The country's remaining 154 million live in 5,507 urban nuclei, the seats of municipalities (the country's smallest administrative units). Brazil is a federal republic composed of 26 states that have the power to mandate and enforce their own public policies, including those concerning education.

Japan's Ainu seek help to preserve their native culture

Cultural Survival — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 00:00:00 -0400

With burning wood scenting the spring air, the elder chanted softly:

God of trees, god of the earth, god of river, god of water, god of wind, god of clouds, god of the heavens, gods residing in the mountains of this area, god of seas, god of the bear: To all these gods, please descend on this land. Please make our wishes true.

Plan A and Plan B Partnerships for Cultural Survival

Cultural Survival — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 00:00:00 -0400

"There are nine different words in Maya for the color blue in the comprehensive Porrua Spanish-Maya Dictionary but just three Spanish translations, leaving six butterflies that con be seen only by the Maya, proving beyond doubt that when a language dies, six butterflies disappear from the consciousness of the earth."

The Djenne Project, Mali: Jean Louis Bourgeois, Coordinator

Cultural Survival — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 00:00:00 -0400

The Djenné Project, Mali: Jean Louis Bourgeois, Coordinator

The Djenné mosque -- the world's largest adobe structure -- and surrounding town rank with Tombouctou (Timbuktu) and the famous Dogon (Bandiagara) Escarpment as the most important of Mali's tourist attractions. The town now faces disaster as plans for an upstream dam progress.

Can This Language be Saved?

Cultural Survival — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 00:00:00 -0400

Words are fascinating things. With meanings that expand and contract, they can be popularized, bought and sold in a linguistic marketplace, or, if denied access, they can be forced off the conversational road, never to be heard from again. Atapaka, for instance, was on someone's lips one hundred years ago, as were Wyandot, Galice, Nootsack, Salinan, Twana, and Lumbee. At the time, linguists documenting Native American languages noted that people spoke Chumash and Tonkawa with the same healthy conviction that we use Spanish, French, or English.

Requiem or Recovery: The 21st Century Fate of the Reindeer-Herding Peoples of Inner Asia

Cultural Survival — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 00:00:00 -0400

Reindeer herding as a way of life in the Eastern Sayan Mountain region along the Russian-Mongolian border faces the threat of imminent extinction as a result of the collapse of communist-era institutions and a variety of related crisis factors.

The Growing Shadow Of The Oroqen Language And Culture

Cultural Survival — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 00:00:00 -0400

Tucked away in the foothills of the Greater Hinggan mountains in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia lies Alihe, a city of quite modest size by Chinese standards, with a population of around fifty thousand. Alihe's main street, one of four paved roads in the city, stretches for about a mile and is flanked by the mounuments of communist China -- gray and white concrete buildings in varying states of disrepair. Ten of fifteen smaller roads intersect the main thoroughfare, all of them eventually leading to what seem endless rows of brick, wood, and packed earth houses.

Orang Asli at Odds with the Nation-State

Cultural Survival — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 00:00:00 -0400

Orang Asli are the original people of West Malaysia. Under federal law, they have no ownership rights to their traditional lands, despite having lived in Malaysia centuries longer than other groups. When Malaysian officials or businessmen want Orang Asli land, they may bring in a bulldozer and flatten houses and gardens. Orang Asli, however, are most often dispossessed by legal maneuvers.

You are a Dead People

Cultural Survival — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 00:00:00 -0400

"You are a dead people." This is what I hear when someone calls my language dead. Just what is language? The answer to this question will vary wildly depending on whom you ask. For many of those who have written and spoken on this matter, the answer has been that a given language is the core of that culture, and that the culture cannot survive without its language. This answer cannot be the only answer. Another truth is made apparent to me through my own experience.