In considering literacy, we take a step back to ask: literacy in which language? And what is the purpose and measure of achievement? Although not in disagreement with the Bialostok and Whitman article in this issue, we place English literacy as a part of the continuing drive to colonize and assimilate indigenous peoples. Local indigenous control…

This book contains 15 essays which provide an overview of the state of the art in the discipline of anthropology, including archaelology, biological anthropology, linguistics, regional studies, and cultural-social anthropology. Most of the authors are professors and researchers from departments of anthropology in colleges and universities. Topics…

States that iconographic investigations of Olmec style art works have produced convincing evidence that rulership during the Early and Middle Formative Period of Mesoamerican prehistory was publicly legitimized by a visual charter. Shows that the charter's naturally derived symbols functioned within a system which stressed the human ruler's access…

Offers an overview of Later Formative period writing in Mesoamerica, and discusses recent findings. Asserts that analysis of the iconographic context of the script reveals considerable interdependence between text and context and provides a glimpse of the importance of cosmological considerations in the display of power. Discusses the importance…

Summarizes the nature of the pre-Hispanic pictorial communication system used by the Mixtec people of Mexico, who were creating manuscripts in which they recorded their histories, genealogies, and religious beliefs long before the Spanish reached the New World. Explains and illustrates the principal pictorial conventions. (PRA)

Recent research on comparatives in the Muskogean language, Alabama, suggest similar work for Koasati, the language most closely related to Alabama. Koasati has a system parallel to that of Alabama. Although the actual morphemes used for comparative constructions in Koasati are almost identical to the ones used in Alabama, the syntax of such…

Native American language communities have had four choices regarding the adoption or change of a writing system in recent years: to adopt or not to adopt a system, or in the case of an existing system, to alter it or not to alter it. The paper also examines the criteria of orthography choice and functions of literacy. Bilingual education issues…

Local inversion in English and Chichewa shows remarkable similarities that can be explained by hypothesizing the same underlying argument structures and principles for mapping argument structure roles into syntactic functions. However, profound typological differences between the two languages defy analysis within a widely assumed architecture of…

Reviews the literature to determine the importance of immersion in language restoration or preservation. Defines immersion and its goals, and discusses effects on students' English cognitive ability. Examines the success of Indian nations in retaining/restoring Native languages and concludes that, if nothing is done, additional Native languages…

Provides an afterword to a special issue of the journal on technology and indigenous languages. (Author/VWL)

Presents indigenous language revitalization resources, primarily organizations, web sites, and recent publications that are likely to be readily available on the Internet, in bookstores and university libraries, or by interlibrary loan. Includes listings of programs and organizations; videos; Internet indexes, sites, and discussion groups; books;…

Liliana Sanchez' paper is a welcome contribution to the growing body of literature on Andean Spanish (cf. a recent survey in Muysken, 2004a), welcome both because a well-motivated and clearly described methodology is used and because it is embedded in an explicit theoretical framework. I do not have reservations about the overall conclusions of…

Recent studies of American Indian dialects of English have focused on efforts to determine whether the sources of such dialectal variation lie in interference from the native languages or in developmental errors in the acquisition of English. The implication of both assumptions is that educational intervention and the passage of time can eradicate…

Examines "Logan's Oration" as an example of native American speechmaking and reaffirms this piece of rhetoric as a useful sample of native oratory and a culturally authentic artifact. (JMF)

Surveys the origin and development of the representational conventions of Mesoamerican writing systems. Asserts that writing probably grew out of the iconography of ceremonial celts, and seems to have taken shape during or just before the period in which state-level political organization was emerging. Discusses the representational features of…