Premium
Constructing a Decentered Archival Method: AILLA Recordings and Wanano/Kotiria Kaya Basa ‘Sad Songs’
Author(s) -
Hosemann Aimee J.
Publication year - 2019
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.12226
Subject(s) - indigenous , salience (neuroscience) , negotiation , latin americans , meaning (existential) , sociology , musical , media studies , history , anthropology , linguistics , visual arts , art , social science , epistemology , computer science , ecology , philosophy , biology , artificial intelligence
I consider how Sherzer's discourse‐centered approach can be extended in new ways, particularly through the use of digital archiving. My work concerns women's songs produced in Kotiria (fka Wanano/Guanano), an Eastern Tukanoan language spoken in the Upper Rio Negro. The data I use, collected by Janet Chernela, is “housed” electronically through the Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America ( AILLA ) at the University of Texas at Austin. This archive is part of Sherzer's lasting legacy—a legacy that is becoming part of indigenous peoples’ experiences of themselves as major producers of the discourses that represent them to the world. I describe how AILLA contributes to the ability of indigenous people and anthropologists to fruitfully negotiate the collection and analysis of matters of cultural, linguistic, and musical salience. I also describe how in the Kotiria case, the existence of AILLA has been fundamental to geographically dispersed relations among academics working with indigenous groups in the region. In this way, indigenous voices are able to enter new flows of meaning creation on both localized and more global levels.