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White between the Lines: Ethnic Positioning in Lakhota Discourse
Author(s) -
Trechter Sara
Publication year - 2001
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 - 10.1525/jlin.2001.11.1.22
Subject(s) - individualism , ethnic group , white (mutation) , gender studies , sociology , context (archaeology) , aesthetics , anthropology , political science , art , history , law , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , gene
By examining constructed dialogues with whiteness in everyday conversations, this article demonstrates how one group of Native Americans, the Lakhota, mark whiteness as rampant individualism. As such, whiteness is not an essential characteristic of white people, but shifts to different participants as it is negotiated in Lakhota discourse. In this context, the Lakhota values of community responsibility and service are juxtaposed to individualism associated with whiteness.