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Inalienability in social relations: Language, possession, and exchange in Amazonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2011

Christopher Ball
Christopher Ball
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, Department of Anthropology, Hanover, NH [email protected]
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Abstract

This article describes inalienability in the Wauja (Arawak) language in the context of Brazilian Upper Xinguan culture. Wauja grammar encodes a distinction between alienable and inalienable possession that marks kin, body parts, and other terms and that largely but not perfectly overlaps with a local cultural category of emblematic possessions. I analyze how grammatical and cultural aspects of inalienable possession combine in discourse and exchange to contribute to the social identities of possessors. I present an ethnographic account of the role of inalienability in Wauja grammar and discourse in the disruption and repair of social relationships between groups in Upper Xinguan ritual. I argue for a mutually reinforcing relationship between grammatical categories and sociocultural meaning. I suggest that attention to language and possession, in addition to language and identity, is important for cross culturally comparative sociolinguistic analysis of such connections. (Inalienable possession, grammatical categories, discourse, exchange, Upper Xingu, Wauja (Arawak), ethnolinguistic identity)*

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , June 2011 , pp. 307 - 341
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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