Chapter One: Voices of Play
Introduction to the frameworks and methodologies used in the book, which brings together linguistic anthropology (especially the paradigm of language socialization), ethnomusicology, and Latin American cultural studies. The Latin American concept of interculturalidad helps to reconfigure disciplinary paradigms and connect them to contemporary political struggles.
Terms:
• Heteroglossia
• Mestizaje
• Creolization
• Indigeneity
• Interculturalism/interculturalidad
• Language socialization
Questions for reflection:
1. How do Latin American discourses of interculturalidad, as described here, differ from U.S. discourses of multiculturalism?
2. How did Miskitu children’s status as migrants on Corn Island shape the significance of their expressive practices? What was at stake in their forms of communication?
3. Can you think of examples that illustrate the following quotation from your own experience or cultural context? “Play is not an autonomous sphere; it is stratified by many of the same principles that structure the distribution of power in other realms of society.” (12)
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- Corn Island sign erected by a regional intercultural education project, with a message in English, Spanish, and Miskitu
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- Kids listening to field recordings
