Abstract
The aim of this article is to study how children experience their ethnic identifications in relation to their knowledge of the Toba language through daily interactions with peers and adults (both indigenous and non-indigenous). The study is focused on an urban setting in Buenos Aires (Argentina) where monolingual (Spanish) practices are replacing bilingual ones (Spanish-Toba), and where the Toba language is a valuable feature of ethnicity. From an anthropological perspective, this article focuses on the identity constructions of the children. Finally, it re-examines the agency of the children and looks at how their life experiences impact on their contextual identities.
Eskimo children spoke Eskimio; Chinook children spoke Chinook; Pukapuke children spoke Pukapuka. (Mead, 1963: 186)
Although this epigraph appears simple at a glance, a more in-depth reading reveals implicit ideas about cultural homogeneity, the connection between culture and identity and the correlation between language and identity. For the past several decades, the social sciences have questioned approaches that assume that culture is a finished, transferable product or a simple indicator and differentiator of identity. During this revision, another aspect that was interrogated was the harmonious relationship constructed between language, culture and identity. The current theoretical perspectives define culture as processes of production that are developed in historical contexts that involve contact between different societies and where heterogeneity and the social agents’ capacity for cultural production is a subject to examine in-depth and understand (Benhabib, 2006; Brubaker and Cooper, 2000; Hall, 1995; Rockwell, 1997). Rereading the epigraph of this work from this point of view, the questions multiply and become more complex, especially if the queries are reversed: What happens to children who do not undergo the process of learning the language that is part of their group’s heritage? How can an attempt be made to understand the ethnic identifications of children who grow up in multicultural, plurilingual contexts? What type of culture constructions do these children produce as a result of their daily experiences of linguistic and cultural contact?
This article offers reflections on some of these complex questions. To this end, the analysis considers the ethnic identifications of children from migrant indigenous families whose first language is not the indigenous language but the official state language. These girls and boys live in a settlement known as the ‘Toba neighborhood,’ which is located on the outskirts of the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina), a neighborhood characterized as such because its residents identify themselves as migrants belonging to the Toba (qom) ethnolinguistic group. 1 These families, who have different migratory experiences, have to make many adjustments due to the many changes in their everyday lives, including the landscape, clothing, language, cultural products, religious beliefs, and subsistence activities, among others. Specifically, at the sociolinguistic level, there is a shift from the Toba language to Spanish among children. There are thus different degrees of bilingualism among the children: some speak and understand both of the languages while others understand Toba but only speak Spanish. However, the Toba language is one of the main diacritics used to define their ethnic ascriptions.
In their daily lives, children from this neighborhood move amid different social spaces (domestic, recreational, work, religious, and school) and in each of these spaces, they interact with peers and adults (both indigenous and non-indigenous) and confront ideas of what it means to ‘be Toba.’ This article sustains that within these daily interactions, the children produce, reproduce, and experience their own ethnic identifications, resignifying, appropriating, and/or disputing the viewpoints of their surroundings (Hall, 1995; Makihara, 2005; Rabello de Castro, 2004). In particular, within a framework that involves ethnographic material focused on different contexts, I study how children experience their ethnic identifications in relation to their knowledge of the Toba language through daily interactions with peers and adults (both indigenous and non-indigenous).
This article is organized in four sections. The first describes the methodology used: ethnography, interviews, a survey, and workshops with children. In the second section, there is an overview of the state policies for the acknowledgment of ethnolinguistic diversity. The third section describes the identity constructions of the children within domestic sphere/neighborhood and work. Finally, in the conclusions, I re-examine the agency of the children and see how their life experiences influence and limit their contextual constructions and identities.
Methodology
This research was based on an anthropological-linguistic approach that employed various theoretical and methodological tools to understand the perspectives of the participating subjects. My methodological approach views children as social subjects with the same rights as adults and therefore worthy of being treated as such. In this sense, I consider Christensen and Prout’s (2002) notion of ‘ethical symmetry’ quite relevant. According to this notion, the researcher should approach the ethical relationship with his or her informants equally, with the same precautions and respect, regardless of whether they are adults or children. Furthermore, children’s agency should be evident not only when analyzing data, but also during the process of development of research. Thus, the material presented here is the result of contexts of dialogue and joint reflection by children and me.
Extensive ethnographical fieldwork was done in the ‘Toba neighborhood’ of Buenos Aires; one or two visits per week were made to the neighborhood from 2002 until 2010. This extensive time period meant sharing daily life in different places and forming emotional bonds with the residents. 2 Moreover, during this period, adults and children of different ages and genders were interviewed, producing a total of 50 in-depth interviews.
The ethnographic approach allowed us to denaturalize the conceptions of childhood and take into account the way in which each society constructs this vital stage of life, thus recovering its historical, contingent, and heterogeneous nature. From a Toba perspective, childhood refers to a phase of the individual life cycle, which goes from one’s own birth to the birth of one’s first child. This phase, which is known as nogotshaxac (childhood/youth, nogot = ‘child/young man or woman’ and shaxac = ‘way of being’) is divided into three stages: (1) ’o’o’ (baby, from birth until learning to speak); (2) nogotole/c (girl/boy, from learning to speak until the girl’s first menstruation or the deepening of the young man’s voice); and (3) qa’añole/nsoqolec (young woman/man, from the girl’s first menstruation or the deepening of the young man’s voice until the birth of the first child). Thus the transition from childhood to adulthood is not determined by one’s chronological age but by a change in one’s status: the period following one’s entry into paternity/maternity (cf. Hecht, 2010).
In addition to the ethnography, a sociolinguistic evaluation of the 32 homes in the neighborhood was done through a survey. Thanks to this technique, useful materials were gathered to construct a general panorama of the representations and opinions of the neighborhood residents on Spanish and Toba language (Hecht, 2010).
In following with ethnographic investigation, boys and girls were considered social agents who participate and give meanings to the processes in which they are involved, making their analysis valid and necessary (Cohn, 2005; Grover, 2004; James, 2007; Qvortrup, 1994). To further emphasize this, I choose another research strategy: workshops in which the children participated. The challenge was to select which methodologies to use – besides the interviews and participant observation – in order to make the children more active participants of the research. In this case, a decision was made to design two workshops for and with the children. The use of both prepositions refers to two implicit methodological stances that were taken in these workshops: first, to be a space for children to express themselves, and second, to be a space constructed with the children based on their needs, concerns, interests, demands, etc.
The first intervention was a workshop held in the Toba language that was called Napaxaguenaxaqui na qom llalaqpi da ỹiyiñi na l’aqtac (‘The place where the descendants of the Qom learn to write in their language’). As collaboration was a major focus of the study, several people were involved in giving the workshop: a team of Toba speakers from the neighborhood, a linguist, and me. The idea for the workshop sprung from the neighborhood residents’ desire to revitalize the Toba language and their concern that the indigenous language is being increasingly replaced by Spanish in children’s interactions. The workshop in which Toba was compulsory was held once a week at the neighborhood community room and was attended by approximately 40 children from the age of 3 to 12, whose language competence in Toba varied greatly. Besides serving as a space for reversing language shift, this workshop was useful for our research because it allowed us to systematize aspects that would have been difficult to study any other way. For example, linguistic competence is not something that small children can be objective about when asked questions such as ‘Do you think you know Toba?’ Instead, it is a kind of knowledge that is expressed and assessed through games and/or hands-on activities (Hecht, 2007).
The second workshop was developed in conjunction with an anthropologist and was called ‘Reconstructing our neighborhood’s history’ (García Palacios and Hecht, 2009). The goal of the workshop was for the children (ages 3–15) to use different media (art, print, and film) to share their viewpoint of the neighborhood with others – both neighborhood residents and outsiders. This experience allowed us to reconstruct their perspectives on the different social processes in which they are involved, giving them the chance to express critical and reflexive viewpoints on their ethnic belonging, school, religion, and languages, among others (García Palacios and Hecht, 2009).
To summarize, the decision to hold workshops as part of the research was based on the need to establish dialogues with the children – dialogues that go beyond the hierarchies implicit in the adult–child relationship, encouraging their trust and active participation. As a result, close bonds were formed with them, making these workshop meetings different from those that take place in their homes or schools.
Furthermore, in terms of the ‘informed consent’ of the children, the accessibility to the fieldwork did not require either the mediation or the approval of the adults because in Toba families their children are autonomous agents. In fact, the adults were surprised when asked to give their permission before I interacted with the children. However, based on ethical considerations, I believed it was fundamental to have the children’s consent since having the adults’ permission did not necessarily mean that the children were willing to be involved in our research (Enriz, 2011; Szulc, 2007). In this regard, the children’s voluntary participation in the workshops was taken as a sign of their consent to participate in the investigation.
From integrationism to multiculturalism: A perspective on state policies for ethnic-linguistic diversity
The Argentine state was modeled on western and Christian civilization, bringing together a territory, a people, and a language (Trinchero, 2000). Although there are many socioeconomic and political aspects that can be considered within this historic process, this section limits itself to the relationship between the state and the indigenous peoples in order to later delve into its implications for the current contexts of migration.
As the state was being formed in the 19th century, the indigenous groups of the country were marginalized and discriminated both culturally and linguistically. There was a severe social stigma against these groups and Spanish was declared the official state language (Gerzenstein et al., 1998). Policies ranged from homogenization and assimilation to the hegemonic model to extermination of these groups. Even those who did assimilate to the state were treated unequally, never as citizens will full rights.
This ethnocentric and integrationist policy persisted until the end of the last dictatorship in 1983 when the country moved towards acknowledgment and respect for ethnolinguistic plurality (Falaschi, 1998). In 1994, the National Constitution was reformed and the state’s obligations to indigenous communities were modified. The new Constitution recognized the ‘ethnic and cultural pre-existence’ of the indigenous peoples and granted them a series of special rights such as respect for their identity, the right to intercultural and bilingual education, and the possession and community property over lands they had traditionally occupied, among others. However, this legal modification was more of a declaration of principles ‘of what should be’ than as a manual for action. On a daily basis, in fact, the lack of political will to guarantee these rights is visible and there is thus an even larger gap between what the law guarantees and what actually occurs.
These multicultural policies were implemented during a time of neoliberal reforms across countries of South America. Neoliberal policies reduce the sphere of action of the state and heighten the social segmentation of the system, thus consolidating existing inequalities. Therefore, in spite of living in a world of increasing inequality, the following concepts were incorporated at the judicial level: pluriculturality, respect, and tolerance for diversity, interculturality, etc. Although these neologisms are aimed at the acknowledgment of a pluralistic society, they disguise the historically constructed inequalities that are reiterated on a daily basis, since they refuse to question the social inequality and hide behind discourses of cultural diversity (Alonso and Díaz, 2004; Novaro, 2006).
Ethnic-linguistic diversity and migration: Toba neighborhoods in the city
In conjunction with the aforementioned political changes, an increasingly complex ethnic-linguistic diversity became more visible in the daily lives of Argentine citizens. One clear example is the migration of indigenous groups moving from rural areas to the cities. 3 Thus, a city like Buenos Aires – which always emphasized its European heritage due to the origin of its inhabitants – was forced to confront its indigenous population.
The migration of indigenous families brought about linguistic and cultural contact that had complex repercussions on the different dimensions of the daily life of indigenous and non-indigenous residents alike (Hecht, 2010; Tamagno, 2001; Wright, 2001). On the one hand, in some cases this increased the invisibility of these groups, since indigenous identities are hidden behind other categories and negative stereotypes assigned to people who live in conditions of poverty, and other migrants from different provinces and from neighboring countries. In consequence, they are grouped alongside other social collectives that share similar socioeconomic conditions of exclusion. On the other hand, the change in their place of residence has promoted processes of ethnic reclaiming and identity reaffirmation that does not hide the differences that construct ethnic belonging, such as their native tongue: instead, such differences are exaggerated and emphasized.
The Argentine state has yet to establish clear public policies to assist migrant indigenous populations who are residing in urban spaces. As a result, many of the recent rights these populations have required are vulnerable, and the groups thus fluctuate between acknowledging and denying their indigenous heritage.
The case studied in this article is an example of these migratory processes. The indigenous Toba used to live in nomadic groups dedicated to hunting and harvesting in the northeast of Argentina. However, after the conquest and the colonization of the region in the 19th century, the Toba were forced to adopt a sedentary lifestyle, thus reducing the resources available for subsistence. Therefore, many families migrated toward the cities.
The Toba neighborhood in Buenos Aires was formed in 1995 by 32 families from Chaco that were previously dispersed in different marginal settlements of Buenos Aires. Gradually, these family groups joined together, forming a cooperative of artisans and a civil indigenous organization that staked collective claims based on legislation that granted them differential rights. In fact, the lands where they moved were donated by a Bishopric under the title of ‘historic redress.’ Therefore, the indigenous Toba began a novel process of territorial occupation that led to this neighborhood on the city’s outskirts. For the migrants, bonds with neighbors and relatives proliferate in this space where it is possible to materialize, update, and consolidate new ways of (re)presenting ‘being Toba’ in Buenos Aires.
With respect to the migrants’ sociolinguistic condition, it was not possible to establish a correlation among children of different ages, the age when they migrated, and their linguistic competence in Toba. While some children were born and raised in the city, others arrived in Buenos Aires at different ages. Members of both groups had varying competence in Toba and Spanish.
The linguistic differences of children and adults are clearly evident in the communicative practices of the neighborhood. The routines of interaction reveal that the Toba language is used for the communication between adults, community meetings, and religious worship, and for work activities related to promoting their culture. However, it tends to be combined with Spanish for dialogues with children, with the exception of certain interactions between parents and children where Toba predominates, such as daily domestic instructions and interactions with babies (cf. Hecht, 2010). The use of Spanish is justified due to its representation as the prestigious language, that is, the language related to social ascent and education. Hence, the competencies in the indigenous language vary depending on the age group: most of the elderly and adults are bilingual and state that Toba is their native tongue while the children are mainly Spanish speakers with different competence levels in Toba.
Childhood, identification, and language: Disputes across different contexts
This section provides a systematic view of the specific identity constructions of the children within different contexts; it explains the complex relations that are established between the categories of ethnic ascription (whether or not they feel that they belong to the Toba collective) and linguistic practices (whether or not they speak the native language). The goal is thus to show how children are active agents in the processes of identification and how these processes are defined and vary according to the contexts and the participants (Brubaker and Cooper, 2000; Hall, 1995).
Becoming Toba in Spanish
During this research, I have emphasized the diacritics by which Toba families construct their own categories of identification. It is useful to note that when in this work I mention the concept of ‘identity/identification,’ I am referring to the processes and actions taken by the agents that lead to the act of identifying themselves, without assuming that there is a similarity among the subjects that results from this process (Brubaker and Cooper, 2000). In addition, I believe that the categorical names of the group (as ‘Toba’) are not indicative of the ‘actual’ groups (Brubaker and Cooper, 2000); instead, what is interesting is to delve into the way in which these institutional names are involved in the understanding that the subjects have of themselves (García Palacios, 2010). The self-identification of neighborhood adults is based on bonds of consanguinity, speaking Toba, working with the Toba artisans, practicing their religion, and preserving the teachings of their ancestors – sometimes alternatively and sometimes jointly (Hecht, 2010).
Children add a key element to this identification in terms of their sense of group belonging: their residence in the neighborhood. From their perspective, the neighborhood provides the necessary conditions for the community to flourish and express itself. The neighborhood materializes difference, making it fully explicit and inhibiting inter-identity overlap with other neighborhoods in the area that do not define themselves as indigenous or migrant, even when these are inhabited by Bolivians (Quechua speakers) and Paraguayans (who speak both Guaraní and Spanish). In fact, the intra-ethnic differences among the different Toba ethnodialects are overlooked, creating a fiction related to the scope of the ‘Toba’ category as an indicator of a group and a language (Messineo, 2003). The neighborhood and its very name refer to the ethnic belonging due to the isomorphism that is established between the neighborhood and its inhabitants as can be seen in the testimonies of the children: I think we feel Toba because we live in the Toba neighborhood. (Hecht fieldwork register, Esteban,
4
age 12) [During an interview in which we discussed the new neighborhood alongside the Toba neighborhood] And do you think it will be like this neighborhood or different? Yes, it’s like this one . . . but that neighborhood doesn’t have a name. Does this one? Yes. What’s it called? The Toba neighborhood . . . There are Toba people who speak the language, it’s another language but it belongs to the Tobas . . . that’s why they call it the Toba neighborhood. (Hecht and García Palacios fieldwork register, Noelia, age 9) When I was younger, I didn’t know what being Toba means . . . No, I didn’t know until I came here, that’s when I learned what it meant, because before that, I didn’t know. (Hecht and García Palacios fieldwork register, Violeta, age 15)
According to the children, the neighborhood is presented as the space in which identification flourishes, unlike the space outside the neighborhood. In this regard, it is a space marked as ‘ethnic’ and by being born and growing up there, the people acquire their ‘brand’ name (Hecht and García Palacios, 2010). It is useful to note that the original name of the neighborhood is not the ‘Toba neighborhood,’ though this is how it is referred to in the area by outsiders and residents alike; the actual name of the neighborhood is a word in the Toba language. According to some community leaders, it is the same name as that referring to the civil organization (Daviaxaiqui) and according to others, that of the artisan co-op (Qom lo’onatac), both of which were founded in the neighborhood within the past few years.
The relationship of the Toba neighborhood with the non-Toba people in the area is a complex and tense one because the indigenous population is granted exemptions and differential rights. This seemingly unfair capacity to mobilize resources to access better living conditions negatively affects the relationship between the community children and other local children at their school. For this reason and others, non-indigenous children use the term ‘Toba’ pejoratively, provoking different reactions among children from the neighborhood. Although I did not delve into the identity disputes in the educational sphere, one example is worth noting. During our discussion with the children on whether or not to show the material produced in the workshop on the neighborhood history at school, Martín explained that he wouldn’t like the material to be shown: ‘I don’t like to be called “Toba” at school,’ he said. Matías responded, ‘But you are Toba,’ and Martín answered, ‘Yes but I don’t like to be called Toba. I want to be called by my name’ (Martín and Matías, age 14). Children can appropriate or refute these categories of ethnic belonging based on the context (in this case, the neighborhood and school). This shows us that they are not merely witnesses to what occurs in different spheres but true producers of meanings as they interpret each situation.
The ethnic ascriptions of the children are also based on other features which are highlighted in this context. The neighborhood encourages different dimensions of ethnic identification and allows them to flourish, such as an idealized construction of ‘Toba customs’ (including artisan pieces, religious worship, language, etc.). With respect to the Toba language, it is important to note that ethnic belonging plays a central role in its definition in that it serves to strengthen solidarity within the community and consolidates an opposing identification within a threading of inter-ethnic relations. However, in spite of this bond, Toba is not the daily language that the children use to communicate among themselves or with others (Hecht, 2010).
I now examine the competencies in the indigenous language among those who identify themselves as part of the community (Makihara, 2005; Meek, 2001; Rindstedt and Aronsson, 2002). Today, fluency in Toba is becoming a specialized knowledge that requires instruction, like playing an instrument, telling a story, or curing an illness. For this reason, speaking the language grants prestige, authority, and establishes intergenerational hierarchies (Meek, 2001; Paugh, 2005). In addition, although the indigenous language always had a positive connotation in the identification within an intimate context, speaking Toba is now valued within the neighborhood as a positive aspect both within the community – as it is indicative of ‘heritage from our ancestors’ – but also outside the neighborhood, since it grants them legitimacy as indigenous residents of the city and allows them to optimize their strategies for subsistence in this new context, as is explored in the following section.
As I mentioned in the section on the neighborhood, the Toba language is also used in the daily community lives of the adults. In this context, the children participate as listeners and attentive spectators; they develop different levels of listening competence in Toba and can behave as though they were competent (De León, 2005). As demonstrated, knowing a language includes both people’s capacity to produce and to receive, and involves communicational aspects that go beyond the code and grammar rules (Duranti, 2002; Saville Troike, 2005). In this regard, children can act appropriately in situations in which Toba is used, returning a greeting, understanding a joke, or responding to an order or request. In fact, they take full advantage of their rudimentary knowledge of Toba to actively participate in certain communicational events. As a result, it is possible to understand why the Toba language represents an explicit marker of belonging for the group – not only for those who speak it but also for those children who don’t speak it but do understand it. This is evident in the conversations I registered: Because if you don’t know how to speak the language, you are not going to cease to be Toba. I also understand and respect all the customs, all the culture. I am Toba; I was brought up as a Toba. But it’s not that I’m missing that [the language], it’s that I want to learn it and I have to know. (Hecht fieldwork register, Romina, age 13) People who are not Toba ask, ‘Are you Toba?’ and I say yes. And so then they would ask me to speak a little Toba and I would tell them I didn’t know the language. But the language is like an emblem to me. (Hecht fieldwork register, Manuel, age 15)
In summary, children in the domestic sphere conceive of their ethnic ascription in novel ways that differ from those of the adults (by including life in the neighborhood) and appropriating others pointed out by the adults, though from a different perspective (like understanding instead of speaking the language). In this regard, Toba is losing its role as a medium for daily communication – specifically, in interactions between adults and children and among children – and it starts to occupy new sites as a symbol of identity, power, and prestige among neighborhood residents. In this process of language shift, children play a critical role by outlining identity constructions that question the essentialisms about the language, identity, and the relationship between the two.
Toba children who don’t speak Toba?
From a socioeconomic viewpoint, Toba families in the urban context have formed a novel work sphere based on state subsidies and different work activities, such as temporary paid employment (as a builder, security guard, domestic employee) or independently (production and sale of ceramic pieces, textiles or carved wood, or organizing talks on promoting ‘Toba language and culture’ at Buenos Aires schools). Although this last economic option has a recent origin (migration), it is now the principal source of monetary income for the community.
Artisan production and linguistic-cultural promotion function as economic strategies and as ways to consolidate and inform aspects of indigenous identity in the new context. Self-exoticization as an indigenous person provides benefits and special privileges (monetary assistance, clothing donations, tax exemptions). For this reason, these activities deserve to be studied in relation to the learning experiences of the children.
Children participate in this work sphere, helping to make the handicrafts and collaborating with their parents at fairs and talks. According to the adults, children are taken along for practical reasons and for educational ones. In relation to the first reason, the children who have lived in Buenos Aires have generally finished more years of schooling than their parents. They thus understand mathematics better (adding and subtracting money) and reading/writing (first, it is easier for them to write in Spanish, and in addition, when they participate in international fairs, children can use their English to help communicate with foreign clients). In relation to the educational function, during the talks the children participate in classes on Toba vocabularies, types of greetings, and sayings; in addition, they hear traditional tales, myths, and beliefs about their ancestors. For children, these events idealize a past that sets them apart from other children and invites them to identify with their indigenous belonging, based on a collective memory that reproduces and produces specific meanings through memory.
By participating in these events, children confront new social and linguistic challenges in comparison with those they face in the domestic/neighborhood sphere, as explained in the previous section. According to Makihara (2005), besides family situations in which the indigenous language is used, public events that allow them to do an ‘identity performance’ are important for the children because this participation involves an explicit recognition of ethnicity.
However, as the function of these public events involves staging what it means to ‘be indigenous,’ many children feel questioned – and even challenged– as ‘Tobas’ due to their elementary language level. Unlike the adults who use these spaces to appeal to stereotypes in order to mark differences with other opposing identities (Toba vs. non-Toba; Toba speaker vs. Spanish speaker; Chaco natives vs. Buenos Aires natives, etc.), children said that the talks made them aware of different questions related to their ethnicity. For example, one boy explained his dilemma as follows: You go to a school and they ask you all sorts of questions, whether you know. . . . Once when I went to a school and they asked me ‘Do you know the language?’ ‘Yes, but just a few words.’ ‘Oh great, so how do you say “pig” in Toba?’ ‘Well, I’m not sure,’ I admitted. ‘Oh so then you’re not Toba,’ and then I heard him say to someone else: ‘Don’t believe it – he’s not Toba, he doesn’t even know the language.’ (Hecht fieldwork register, Miguel, age 15)
These events bring the children up against situations in which elementary competence in the language – or to put it more accurately, the fact that they understand the language but cannot speak it – does not appear to be enough to allow them to successfully perform as they do in the domestic sphere. In other words, for those who listen to these talks, rudimentary language competence delegitimizes and disavows their ethnic identity as Toba. But that set of oppositions mentioned (Toba vs. non-Toba, etc.) exist as objectified forms of culture abstracted from the more fluid, ambiguous, and plural processes of cultural production that occur in daily life (Hall, 1995).
In these situations, I note that the Toba language (among other factors) is not only a criterion for ethnic ascription and identification, but is also considered as a criterion for ethnic authenticity. The category of authenticity is applied critically here based on the analysis of Henze and Davis (1999), who questioned how at times the non-indigenous population resorts to language as a parameter of ethnic ‘authenticity,’ creating stereotyped images about what it means to be indigenous and what it means to know a language. Obviously, this is not exclusive to this case but statistically the language is considered a parameter for cataloguing an indigenous population (Krauss, 1992; Salas, 1987); thus metonymic arguments are constructed between the language and indigenous inscription. Now, these static constructions around ethnic authenticity delegitimize current identity within the indigenous world because they push to identify themselves more closely with an obsolete culture where the changes and the current resignifications are decoded as degradations of this archetypical model. In this regard, I concur with Benhabib (2006), who questioned certain uses of identity policies because these are affected by the paradox of wanting to preserve the purity of what is impure, the immutability of history, and the fundamental nature of contingency.
In summary, children in the work sphere confront new challenges that question and delegitimize their own identity construction. These talks to promote culture require a public, militant attitude toward ethnic belonging. For this reason, I believe that the processes of identification should also be understood as political strategies in the framework of intra- and inter-ethnic relations. Language as the criterion for ethnic authenticity is closely related to the work activities of the community. As a result, the disputes regarding ethnic authenticity are important to understand the tensions that children experience in relation to their own rudimentary linguistic performance and their future job possibilities. Again, the main economic strategy in the community involves the production of handicrafts and talks on promoting ‘Toba language and culture.’ Although it is also critical to consider the impact that this outsider’s view on the language–identity relationship can have in encouraging children to revitalize Toba.
Conclusions
This article showed how children experience their ethnic identifications in relation to knowledge of the Toba language through their daily interactions with peers and adults (indigenous and non-indigenous) within an intricate weave involving different spaces, institutions, and subjects. In fact, focus was placed on the procedural and situational aspect of identification, considering the actions taken by the agents which led them to identify themselves, without assuming that this process led to internal similarities among the agents (Hall, 1995; Makihara, 2005; Rabello de Castro, 2004). In this case, children resort to different dimensions in the process of forming their identifications as indigenous: life in the neighborhood, bonds of consanguinity, religious practices, the conservation and respect for the teachings of the ancestors, the handicrafts, talks to promote culture and native tongue. Although the focus was on the language, the argument I proposed shows that the identification categories have multiple dimensions involved in their learning such as experiences in daily interactions; in addition, their meanings vary according to the different contexts and the relationships between the dimensions involved (Hall, 1995).
Even more importantly, it is critical to point out that children are not spectators who reproduce the cultural constructions of the adults without question. Instead, they are producers of meaning in dialogue with the ideas and practices in their environment. For this reason, in this article I have emphasized that in different spheres, language is connected to identification and is given different uses by the children and the adults (both indigenous and non-indigenous). In the neighborhood/domestic sphere, from the group’s internal perspective, there is a correlation between language and identification, though one is not a condition for the other. In the public events or work sphere, however, from the perspective of outsiders, language is a necessary condition – as a certificate of authenticity – of ethnicity. In summary, the use (or non-use) of the indigenous language constructs identification categories in inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic relations, and children participate and make decisions in this regard. Like Carneiro da Cunha (1995) explains: cultural identity formation is an ongoing process; and what we must guarantee for future generations is not the preservation of cultural products, but the preservation of the capacity for cultural production.
The situations presented reveal the way in which children identify themselves and the way they are identified by others – both ways that vary significantly depending on the time and the situation (Brubaker and Cooper, 2000). It is impossible to conceive of these identities as if they were the same over time and among different people; instead, children go through complex processes that simultaneously repel and attract them toward that which is categorized as ‘Toba.’ As a result of their life experiences, children’s identities are conditioned in particular ways. This conditioning, however, is counterbalanced by the appropriations and negotiations that children engage in as they move through different social contexts.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Véronique Pache Huber and Spyros Spyrou, the guest editors of this issue, for their generous and unconditional support throughout the revision process, and for the enriching exchange of ideas. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their interesting suggestions and Wendy Gosselin, the translator, for her meticulous work.
Funding
This research was done with the support of University of Buenos Aires and CONICET (National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations), Argentina.