Abstract:

While many authors have investigated the processes by which children are socialized into gender roles within their communities of practice, and others have taken up an examination of the ways in which gender is a consideration in language endangerment and revitalization, the process of gender socialization in communities working towards language revitalization has been less well examined. The purpose of this paper is to examine gender role socialization in the context of Native California language endangerment and revitalization. The goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which the ideologies linked to gender roles in the traditional cultures associated with endangered Native California languages of heritage are expressed and understood, particularly as they interact with gender ideologies from a surrounding, dominant society. The particular focus of this paper is an examination of the impact of those ideologies on the deployment of silence as a salient attribute of women’s speech in contexts which are framed as traditional and closely tied to Native California languages of heritage.

Author: Jocelyn Ahlers