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Surface Politics: Scaling Multiscriptality in an I ndian Village Market
Author(s) -
Choksi Nishaant
Publication year - 2015
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.12070
Subject(s) - dialogic , scripting language , indigenous , sociology , semiotics , politics , scale (ratio) , linguistics , anthropology , gender studies , media studies , geography , political science , computer science , ecology , pedagogy , philosophy , cartography , law , biology , operating system
Linguistic anthropologists have used the concept of “scale” to describe how everyday interactions are linked to global flows and movements, particularly in the urban centers of E urope and N orth A merica. This article reconceptualizes the notion of “scale” by examining how residents in a small market village in eastern I ndia order, in both hierarchical and nonhierarchical configurations, multiple graphic repertoires in dialogic engagement with the built environment. In the article, I suggest that script is an important semiotic modality through which indigenous and nonindigenous residents align notions of community, language, and territory according to different evaluative metrics, often in conflicting and antagonistic ways. These differential scalings of multiple scripts on the village's surfaces, and the disjunctures that exist between these scalings illuminate how dominant language hegemonies are perpetuated and, at the same time, contested by indigenous and minority language communities.