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Baptismal Essentialisms
Author(s) -
McIntosh Janet
Publication year - 2005
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.2005.15.2.151
Subject(s) - performative utterance , ideology , code (set theory) , essentialism , sociology , perspective (graphical) , divination , linguistics , ethnic group , code switching , epistemology , gender studies , anthropology , philosophy , computer science , programming language , political science , theology , law , politics , artificial intelligence , set (abstract data type)
This article examines code‐shifting among Giriama in Malindi, Kenya, to explore the performative construction of language ideology and to enhance standard notions of code‐shifting as a means of projecting the self. In select Giriama speech acts, code choice helps to reify essentialist ideologies that posit intrinsic connections between certain languages, ethnicities, and religions. Codes are also used to invoke the potency and perspective associated with particular cosmologies. Evidence is drawn from code choices in a Giriama healing and divination ritual and code‐switching in a spontaneous oration.