Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-16T22:43:12.119Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - From miracles to classrooms: changing forms of erasure in the learning of ritual speech

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2011

Joel C. Kuipers
Affiliation:
George Washington University, Washington DC
Get access

Summary

This final chapter examines the changing forms of erasure employed in the teaching and learning of ritual speech, changes that contribute to the ways in which ritual speech as a register has shifted in its uses. By selectively ignoring (“erasing”) the diversity of speech varieties, the ideologies of language learning – both colonial and post-colonial – create an image of what ritual speech is ideally. Learning ideologies contributed to the shift in these ideals from “angry” to “humble,” from exemplary to marginal, from sacred to secular. The practice of learning ritual speech was once described as a totalizing experience involving miraculous inspiration, an experience that designated the learner as central and exemplary. Ability to perform verbally alone was seen as an act of spontaneous anger and boldness that was central to one's identity as competent, but which did not acknowledge the contributions of teachers, nor did it recognize the gradual and systematic process by which learning was (and is) interactively accomplished. Classroom schooling, on the other hand, requires not solo performance or anger so much as respectful response; one must learn active audiencing practices. Teachers occasionally code-switch, and borrow between Indonesian and Weyewa, sending subtle messages to the children about the relative merits of each. When they switch into Indonesian they are implicitly suggesting to students what kinds of things are “better said in Indonesian.” Ritual speech, seen as a variety of the local language, is relegated to a marginal area of the curriculum devoted to sports, regional folklore, and local arts.

Type
Chapter
Information
Language, Identity, and Marginality in Indonesia
The Changing Nature of Ritual Speech on the Island of Sumba
, pp. 125 - 148
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×