Anthropology Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
Journal
Language and Communication
Volume
64
Issue
2019
First Page
91
Last Page
103
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2018.11.002
Abstract
This article illuminates the social structures and relations that shape agency for members of two marginalized groups in Canada and examines how individuals respond differently to constraints on their power to name themselves and their children. Constraints on spelling, structure and choice of name are framed according to the particular positions of indigenous peoples and immigrants in relation to European settler society as either ‘original inhabitants’ or ‘recent arrivals’. These historically unequal power relations are manifest in intertwined ideologies of language, identity and nation, evident in ethnographic interviews, media reports and online commentary. Differential responses include resistance, endurance and assimilation.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Citation of this paper:
Pennesi, Karen (2019) “Differential Responses to Constraints on Naming Agency among Indigenous Peoples and Immigrants in Canada.” Language and Communication 64: 91-103.
Included in
Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Discourse and Text Linguistics Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Linguistic Anthropology Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons
Notes
Published version available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2018.11.002