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Continuous Perfectibility: Pueblo Propriety and the Consequences of Literacy
Author(s) -
Debenport Erin
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1111/jola.12001
Subject(s) - indigenous , citizenship , literacy , publics , sociology , politics , secrecy , realization (probability) , control (management) , political science , law , pedagogy , computer science , ecology , statistics , mathematics , artificial intelligence , biology
Indigenous language literacy in Pueblo contexts is both highly controversial and a new site for the enactment of processes of perfectibility, refinement, and control. This essay examines the creation, content, and circulation of an indigenous language pedagogical text at San Antonio Pueblo and the ways that writing is used in prototypically Pueblo ways. This allows for the expansion of understandings of secrecy, literacies, and the importance of examining language in material form. I argue that by considering practices of perfectibility, a critique of the formation of publics arises centering on literacy as a technology of refinement and control rather than anonymous circulation. Indigenous‐language literacy practices at San Antonio Pueblo reflect different understandings of citizenship and political participation that rely on known but indirectly addressed individuals, rather than unknown publics, for their realization.