Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction: Socialization, Self and Syncretism in a Papua New Guinean Village (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language, Series Number 14) - Hardcover

Kulick, Don

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521414849 ISBN 13: 9780521414845

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1992

Synopsis

Don Kulick's book is an anthropological study of language and cultural change among a small group of people living in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea. He examines why the villagers of Gapun are abandoning their vernacular in favor of Tok Pisin, the most widely spoken language in Papua New Guinea, despite their attachment to their own language as a source of identity and as a tie to their lands. He draws on an examination of village language socialization process and on Marshall Sahlins's ideas about structure and event.

About this title

Book Description

This book, first published in 1992, is an anthropological study of language and cultural change among the people of Gapun, a small community in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea.

Review

"An excellent guide to the cultural logic and sociopolitical contradictions of language loss." Language

"Kulick displays formidable talents as both ethnographer and linguistic investigator." Anthropological Linguistics

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0521414849
• ISBN 13: 9780521414845
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 335