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Ideophone Humor: The Enregisterment of a Stereotype and Its Inversion
Author(s) -
Bermúdez Natalia
Publication year - 2020
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.12275
Subject(s) - opposition (politics) , optimal distinctiveness theory , stereotype (uml) , sociology , colonialism , solidarity , aesthetics , indigenous , gender studies , linguistics , psychology , social psychology , art , philosophy , political science , law , politics , ecology , biology
This case study shows how speech play and verbal art mediate the transformation of pejorative stereotypes into alternative representations of Indigenous (Naso) identities for sociopolitical commentary. Ideophones become emblematic of the rube character and are enregistered as such through colonial organs such as national public education. Public education and other systems of structural power instill the ideological contrast between nonrepresentational and representational: ideophones are placed in opposition to abstract, arbitrary symbols, just like “primitive” Naso identity is hegemonically placed in opposition to “civilized” Spanish identity. Colonial ideologization places the “rube” character in the past, incongruent with modern representation, and indexes this character through ideophonic signs. However, Naso individuals play on the ideophone stereotype through subversive inverted mockery; they create alternative interpretations of subjects in order to form social solidarity and alignment with other Nasos.