Professional Documents
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Reyes (2014)
Reyes (2014)
Linguistic Anthropology
ABSTRACT In this essay, I discuss how linguistic anthropological scholarship in 2013 has been increasingly con-
fronted by the concepts of “superdiversity,” “new media,” and “big data.” As the “super-new-big” purports to identify
a contemporary moment in which we are witnessing unprecedented change, I interrogate the degree to which these
concepts rely on assumptions about “reality” as natural state versus ideological production. I consider how the
super-new-big invites us to scrutinize various reconceptualizations of diversity (is it super?), media (is it new?), and
data (is it big?), leaving us to inevitably contemplate each concept’s implicitly invoked opposite: “regular diversity,”
“old media,” and “small data.” In the section on “diversity,” I explore linguistic anthropological scholarship that
examines how notions of difference continue to be entangled in projects of the nation-state, the market economy,
and social inequality. In the sections on “media” and “data,” I consider how questions about what constitutes lin-
guistic anthropological data and methodology are being raised and addressed by research that analyzes new and old
technologies, ethnographic material, semiotic forms, scale, and ontology. I conclude by questioning the extent to
which it is the super-new-big itself or the contemplation about the super-new-big that produces perceived change
in the world. [linguistic anthropology, superdiversity, new media, big data, technology, semiotics, ontology]
RESUMEN En este ensayo, discuto cómo el conocimiento en antropologı́a lingüı́stica en el 2013 ha sido crecien-
temente confrontado por los conceptos de “superdiversidad” “medios nuevos” y “bases de datos grandes.” En la
medida en que los “super-nuevos-grandes” pretenden identificar un momento contemporáneo en el cual estamos
presenciando un cambio sin precedentes, interrogo el grado al cual estos conceptos dependen de asunciones sobre
“realidad” como un estado natural versus una producción ideológica. Considero cómo los super-nuevos-grandes
nos invitan a escudriñar varias reconceptualizaciones de diversidad (¿es super?), medios (¿son nuevos), y bases
de datos (¿son grandes?) permitiéndonos contemplar inevitablemente el opuesto invocado implı́citamente en cada
concepto: “diversidad regular,” “medios antiguos,” “bases de datos pequeñas.” En la sección de diversidad, exploro
el conocimiento lingüı́stico antropológico que examina cómo nociones de diferencia continúan siendo involucradas
en proyectos del estado-nación, la economı́a de mercado y la desigualdad social. En las secciones sobre “medios”
y “datos,” considero cómo cuestiones sobre lo que constituye información y metodologı́a antropológica lingüı́stica
están siendo planteadas y abordadas por investigación que analiza nuevas y viejas tecnologı́as, material etnográfico,
formas semióticas, escala y ontologı́a. Concluyo cuestionando en qué medida son los super-nuevos-grandes en
sı́ mismos o la contemplación sobre los super-nuevos-grandes lo que produce el cambio `percibido en el mundo.
[antropologı́a lingüı́stica, superdiversidad, nuevos medios, grandes bases de datos, tecnologı́a, semiótica, ontologı́a]
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 116, No. 2, pp. 366–378, ISSN 0002-7294, online ISSN 1548-1433.
C 2014 by the American Anthropological
assumptions: that people have changed and that technol- ization, M. Eleanor Nevins (2013b) examines the differing
ogy has changed (Blommaert 2013). That is, it attempts evaluations of language loss on the Native American reser-
to trace how shifts in transnational mobility and develop- vation at Fort Apache. Her study moves beyond a confined
ments in new technology result in new kinds of migrants and view of language documentation to attend to shifting notions
more complex forms of communication (Arnaut et al. 2012; of linguistic and social identity in an indigenous community.
Blommaert et al. 2012). In this sense, its fundamental Also focused on issues of language shift, Shaylih Muehlmann
premise claims that superdiversity is “there,” happening, (2013) documents how a loss of language can result in a
and ready to be described by “us,” the researcher. loss of rights. Among the Cucapá people, most of whom
Thus, superdiversity is a theory built on what is under- no longer speak the indigenous language, Muehlmann ex-
stood as an empirical change in migrants, which has caused amines how government restrictions in northwest Mexico
“us” to identify them as newly unpredictable and the soci- claim the Cucapá are now not sufficiently “indigenous” to
etal conditions they alter as superdiverse. This speaker focus warrant preferred fishing rights.
neglects a thorough conceptualization and interrogation of Another set of work focuses on questions of politics and
the listening subject: how change may not in fact begin with diversity by examining language in relation to citizenship
speaking subjects (migrants) but may be brought into be- and activism. Monica Heller (2013a), for example, exam-
ing by listening subjects (those authorized to speak about ines the concept of “dis-citizenship” in Canada in which access
migrants) and whatever anxieties and desires motivate the to resources is framed within hegemonic ideologies about
circulation of representations of speakers. Over the past linguistic and social order. Jennifer Jackson (2013) explores
year, this and other issues have brought out many support- political change and the reshaping of democracy by focusing
ers and critics—sometimes one and the same—who try to on the rhetorical practices of public orators and political
make sense of how “super” this all really is (e.g., Makoni cartoonists in Madagascar. In his study of how literacy ac-
2012; Moore et al. 2013; Orman 2012; Silverstein 2013a). tivism is understood to transform Tamil villagers in South
Who, in fact, perceives the world as superdiverse? Who ex- India into citizens, Francis Cody (2013) examines how such
periences it as superdiverse? If it is superdiverse now, how movements both emancipate and subjugate the very people
was it diverse to some “regular” degree before? they seek to enlighten. While female activists are the central
Whether in line with, in response to, or in disregard focus in Cody’s study, other research in South Asia also looks
of superdiversity, a steady stream of scholarship in 2013 has at issues relating to women, particularly the role of language
continued to contemplate issues of language and diversity in producing and resisting gender ideologies (Siddiqui 2013).
(Black 2013a). Thus, this section of the essay not only de- There has also been work that examines language and
bates the significance of superdiversity but also considers diversity in relation to transnational identities. For example,
research for which notions of difference remain meaningful an Annual Review of Anthropology piece by Cecile B. Vigouroux
in ways that are not displaced by superdiversity. Two recent (2013) focuses on la Francophonie as a community united by
examples of such scholarship are the edited collections Mul- French but dispersed across nation-state boundaries. She dis-
tilingualism and the Periphery (Pietikäinen and Kelly-Holmes cusses how la Francophonie is shifting from a group focused
2013) and Transnational Identities (De Fina and Perrino 2013). on economic partnership to a political organization that de-
Both volumes investigate conceptions of people and language fends cultural diversity. In her study of Portuguese emigrants
that are informed by perceptions of difference, whether in France, Michele Koven (2013) finds that Luso descen-
along core–peripheral sites or across nation-state bound- dents understand themselves in relation to two competing
aries. In the sections that follow, I group various strands models of personhood: “diasporic” (willful abandonment of
of language and diversity scholarship into three categories: Portuguese identity) and “transnational” (legitimate integra-
nation, politics, and identity; labor and commodification; tion into French culture). Stanton Wortham and Catherine
and marginality and racialization. Rhodes (2013) also explore transnational processes in the
emergence of a “good reader” identity for a young Mexi-
Nation, Politics, and Identity can migrant girl in the United States. They illustrate how
Much work in 2013 explores ideas about nation and di- a trajectory of identification is established through the so-
versity, particularly as languages are understood to expand lidification of relevant heterogeneous resources, including
and contract their social domains. In their introduction to a discourses about family, education, and modernity that cir-
theme issue of the International Journal of Bilingual Education culate in the United States and in Mexico. Elaine W. Chun
and Bilingualism (Frekko and Woolard 2013), Kathryn A. (2013) explores YouTube as a transnational space in which a
Woolard and Susan E. Frekko (2013) discuss how public Chinese American performer embodies linguistic signs that
discourses that commonly perceive Catalan and Castilian as are understood as indexical of symbolic blackness by some
distinct languages and identities belie the actual use of lan- but not by others. She discusses how stereotypes about black
guage by speakers of varying social, ethnic, and linguistic hypermasculinity may be left unchallenged while stereotypes
backgrounds. In this sense, the ideologies and practices that of Asian masculinity are reshaped through collaborative in-
shape the social domains of language stand in tension. In her terpretations of the performance. Finally, Lian Malai Mad-
study of language endangerment, maintenance, and revital- sen (2013) finds that, among adolescents in Copenhagen,
Reyes • Year in Review: Linguistic Anthropology 369
linguistic signs that used to be associated with ethnic minor- forms and social meanings. Angela Reyes (2013) offers such
ity migration are now associated with status. She argues that an ethnographic portrait by exploring how brands become
this remapping is due to a notion of conservative standard- personified when Asian American youth take them on as nick-
ness that carries across national language boundaries. names. She examines how brands and corporate nicknaming
practices produce several meanings—some fleeting, some
Labor and Commodification stable, some resurrected—that guide the restructuring of in-
This past year also witnessed a steady stream of linguistic an- teractional practices as persons get read as commodity forms.
thropological scholarship on labor and commodification in
relation to notions of diversity. In their Annual Review of An- Marginality and Racialization
thropology piece, Bonnie Urciuoli and Chaise LaDousa (2013) In this final subsection on language and diversity, I group
explore what it means when language is conceptualized as together linguistic anthropological scholarship in 2013 that
labor. Because capitalist regimes interpret certain kinds of examines how conceptualizations of difference can lead to
diversity as skills that can be used to index authenticity, Ur- the marginalization of groups. Much of this work has looked
ciuoli and LaDousa argue that linguistic labor reimagines the at how racism is implicitly produced. Paul V. Kroskrity
person as a bundle of commodifiable elements. These ideas (2013), for example, explores how “narrative difference”
are explored in several other works, including the edited is created through the derogatory ways in which anthro-
collection Language, Migration and Social (In)equalities: A Criti- pologists and linguists characterize the narratives of Yokuts
cal Sociolinguistic Perspective on Institutions and Work (Duchêne and Western Mono of Central California. Barbra A. Meek
et al. 2013), which examines how neoliberal economic prac- (2013) also traces a type of covert racism in jokes featur-
tices affect migrants in the workplace and other institutional ing American Indian characters that reinscribe tropes of
contexts. In addition, studies in Canada (Heller 2013b), Cor- conquest and the contours of an exclusive citizenship. In
sica (Jaffe and Oliva 2013), and South Korea (Park 2013) their study of narratives by female former colonizers of the
critique capitalist discourses that commodify diversity and Belgian Congo, Dorien Van De Mieroop and Mathias Pag-
multilingualism as assets while rationalizing and justifying naer (2013) find racializing ideologies that continue to le-
inequalities of the new economy. gitimize colonization through the infantilization of indige-
A productive line of inquiry into issues of labor and com- nous peoples. Finally, Andrea L. Smith and Anna Eisenstein
modification has focused squarely on gender. In her study (2013) analyze how ethnic labels can index both race and
of Japanese corporate practices to address gender inequal- class in the production of “ethnic difference” in descriptions
ity in the early 1990s, Miyako Inoue (2013) discusses how of “Syrian Town,” a former neighborhood in Pennsylvania.
“neoliberal speech acts” position female workers as subjects Research this past year has also focused on responses
of neoliberalism—wherein they are conceptualized as free, to racializing discourses from the communities they target.
rational, and able to communicate what they want. For if In their study of Brazilian black activists, Jennifer Roth-
women are treated as autonomous subjects, then they them- Gordon and Antonio José B. da Silva (2013) discuss how
selves (not the workplace or labor policies) are responsible racial consciousness is produced by juxtaposing racist and
for failing to reach their full potential as professionals. Also antiracist voices in everyday language. Benjamin Bailey and
focused on East Asia, Jie Yang (2013a, 2013b) explores Sunny Lie (2013) examine how Chinese Indonesians take on
in two articles how women workers are used to advance names that combine a Western first name with a Chinese
market economies in China. In both pieces, she examines surname that is reconfigured to “sound Indonesian” in order
how female labor is simultaneously devalued and exploited: to resist discriminatory assimilation policies in Indonesia. In
whether in the field of psychological care (2013a) or in his research on an AIDS activist Zulu choir in South Africa,
relation to the displacement of class tensions onto the labor- Steven P. Black (2013b) explores how choir members engage
ing migrant woman (2013b). In addition, Susanne Cohen in various discursive strategies, such as the use of scientific
(2013) focuses on language that surrounds the image of the medical terminology, to counter the language of stigma.
female secretary in a St. Petersburg secretarial school. She Finally, work over the past year has looked at di-
argues that the ways in which this image becomes the ob- rect strategies for intervening in discourses that reproduce
ject of metapragmatic discourse sheds light on postsocialist racism. In her close analysis of talk about immigrants in Italy,
negotiations with neoliberal capitalism. Valentina Pagliai (2012) examines how speakers establish
Finally, work on brand—its vulnerabilities and footings of nonalignment to disengage from racializing dis-
multiplicities—investigates the diversification of commod- courses. At a wider scale, the Language and Social Justice
ity forms and values. In two recent pieces, Constantine Committee of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology has
V. Nakassis (2012, 2013) examines the excesses of brand been actively engaged in disrupting a racializing discourse
by tracing how it is performed and cited, particularly in in the United States in which undocumented immigrants
unauthorized forms such as brand counterfeits. Considering are labeled “illegal.” In spring of 2013, the “Drop the I-
neoliberal economic reforms that reshape how brand is medi- Word” campaign (Rosa 2012) was successful in convincing
ated, Nakassis argues that ethnography is necessary to inves- the Associated Press and other media outlets to terminate the
tigate how the brand displaces itself with a surplus of material use of illegal when characterizing the authorization status of
370 American Anthropologist • Vol. 116, No. 2 • June 2014
migrants. Scholars such as Jonathan Rosa increased the public not only to the influence of new media but also to the re-
profile of linguistic anthropology by granting several inter- cent theoretical work on “mediatization” (Agha 2011) and
views to journalists, appearing on news television programs to the general “historical turn” in linguistic anthropology in
such as MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry, and being cited in which “old media” text artifacts become primary objects of
many news articles. analysis. Some studies have looked almost exclusively at me-
Throughout the studies above, researchers examine dia data while others have combined media with face-to-face
the ideological and discursive mechanisms through which ethnography. Still others have explored the interaction be-
groups, languages, and material forms become understood as tween new and old media forms. For example, Anna De Fina
distinct and hierarchically organized. Regardless of whether and Sabina Perrino (2013) discuss how both new media (e.g.,
these research contexts are understood to be diverse to online communication) and old media (e.g., radio, political
some “super” or “regular” degree, linguistic anthropologists speeches) are promising sites for exploring different aspects
continue to explore how notions of difference become en- of transnational community formation. Moreover, many in
tangled in projects of the nation-state, the market economy, our discipline operate outside of a strict “language” focus to
and social inequality. In these next two sections, I continue examine other forms of semiosis and to trace intricate sign
to review “what” linguistic anthropologists study but do so processes. These overall concerns about how the old and
within debates about “how” we study it. That is, I turn to a new relate are also found in work that pays tribute to major
discussion of how questions about our data and methods are figures in our field.
being raised and addressed, particularly in the era of new I divide this section into three areas of scholarship that
media and big data. focus on how ideas about old and new technologies and media
interact: digital and analog forms; semiotic technologies; and
MEDIA: NEW AND OLD voices of legacy.
The roots of linguistic anthropology lie in traditional ethno-
graphic methodology: longitudinal fieldwork, living in or Digital and Analog Forms
frequently visiting a field site, recording language with field- Several linguistic anthropological studies in 2013 focus al-
notes and, later, audio and video devices. Because of vari- most exclusively on media, particularly new digital technolo-
ous theoretical, methodological, and technological develop- gies. Alexandra Saemmer (2013), for example, explores the
ments over the years, our discipline continually revises what iconicity of digital textuality through which the movement
its data can be. Recently, questions about the use of “new and manipulability of text (e.g., hyperlinks) can be under-
media” data have been raised. New media often refers to digital stood as traces and anticipations of reading practices. Paul
forms of communication that are densely networked in real Manning and Ilana Gershon (2013) examine the ways in
time. New media technologies include the Internet, social which performance and animation can serve as tropes for
media, and mobile devices. If new media involves signs in people who engage with two types of new media: virtual
digital space—offered up for construal in some virtual form worlds and social media. Focusing on a video game used
of interaction—old media might be traditional face-to-face by a Serbian student resistance movement to train activists
ethnography. But this raises questions about where “old” in nonviolent revolution, Jessica Greenberg (2012) analyzes
new media fit—that is, predigital media technologies such how game programming cannot easily incorporate the semi-
as the printing press, newspaper, radio, film, and so on. otic indeterminacy that makes the discursive practices of the
In 2013, linguistic anthropologists have been contem- resistance movement so successful. Considering how notions
plating this turn toward media data. In an April of 2013 of authenticity and intention frame the genre of reality tele-
interview with Bonnie Urciuoli that was excerpted in An- vision, Rebecca Pardo (2013) examines how various editing
thropology News, Paul Kroskrity, incoming president of the strategies—for example, how shots are sequenced and how
Society for Linguistic Anthropology, remarked: “I am con- sounds are mixed—reinscribe a distinction between con-
cerned that younger anthropologists who do close analy- ceptions of what one sincerely feels versus what one falsely
ses of media may be moving away from the face-to-face performs in the interpretation of discourse as racist.
ethnographic heart of linguistic anthropology that makes At the same time, many studies over the past year exam-
our subfield distinctive” (Urciuoli 2013). This sentiment is ine a range of old technologies. Ayala Fader (2013) considers
somewhat echoed by Susan Philips: “If one is trying to un- the audiocassette, on which inspirational lectures by and for
derstand the nature of the relationship between language nonliberal Jewish women in Brooklyn circulate in response
and culture, then methodologically it makes sense to give to secular modernities that are understood to weaken gen-
priority to data that comes from communication in socially dered faith. Focusing on advertisements in Spanish-language
occurring face-to-face interaction because that is the locus of newspapers in New York City, Nicholas Limerick (2012) ex-
the constitution of social processes” (2013:93). The concern plores how ideas about difference are constructed through
here is that the growing interest in media might come at the strategies of textual organization that constitute audiences
expense of face-to-face ethnography. and their others. Paja Faudree (2013a) examines textual
Indeed, 2013 has witnessed many linguistic anthropo- organization as well but in a much older text: the Re-
logical studies that focus on media data. But this is due querimiento, the Spanish declaration of sovereignty over the
Reyes • Year in Review: Linguistic Anthropology 371
Americas written in 1513. She focuses on the performativity Parmentier and Paig-Ki Kim, and Semiotic Review (formerly
of the text—how social hierarchies are presupposed through The Semiotic Review of Books), edited by Paul Manning and
the establishment of participant roles. Considering text of Kane X. Faucher. Moreover, the significance of semiotic
even earlier times, a study of Mayan hieroglyphics (Law et al. approaches was recognized by the Society for Linguistic
2013) circa C.E. 250–900 explores how the use of first- and Anthropology 2013 Edward Sapir Book Prize, which was
second-person deictics can establish and maintain indexical awarded to Paul Manning’s (2012) Semiotics of Drink and
links through anchoring devices such as quotative phrases and Drinking.
accompanying images. The authors explore what it means In addition, a few books in 2013 explore semiotic modal-
to read context into text when the processes of production ities of language, particularly singing. In her study of an
and interpretation are vastly separated in time. ethnic revival in Oaxaca, Mexico, Paja Faudree (2013b)
But none of this is to say that work on media cannot bring examines the inclusion of singing in debates about indige-
the analog and digital together or incorporate face-to-face nous orality and literacy. She notes how songs in Maztec
ethnography. Here I focus on two recent studies that ex- indigenous language play a significant role in increasing in-
emplify the effectiveness of looking across many data types. digenous literacy and in creating enduring indigenous texts.
Exploring ideologies about Magyar and German, Susan Gal Nicholas Harkness (2013) also explores singing within an ex-
(2013) brings together two texts differentiated by time, pansive notion of “voice.” Noting how European-style clas-
space, and modality: explicit metapragmatic discourse in a sical singing serves as a model for Christians in South Korea,
magazine article from the 1880s and implicit poetic discourse Harkness examines how cultivating a “clean” voice—as a
in a spoken narrative from the 1990s. For the former, Gal matter of both aesthetics and ethics—exhibits not only an
analyzes how a popular Hungarian journalist linked Magyar idealized vocal quality but also an idealized person quality.
language to qualities such as “calmness,” “order,” and “sim- Such qualities also extend to a national vision whereby vo-
plicity” (in contrast to those linked to German and Italian) calization can stand for a Christian progress that transforms
and instructed readers on how to find these qualities else- South Korea from an “unenlightened” past to an “enlight-
where, such as in contrasting house types. Gal brings this text ened” future.
into conversation with a narrative she collected in the 1990s
in which contrasts in food types—“fancy” palacsinta (Magyar Voices of Legacy
pancake) and “dense” pfannakucha (German pancake)—are I end this section on old and new media by reviewing a few
mapped onto contrasts in language and personae. Barbara volumes in 2013 that pay homage to influential figures in
Johnstone (2013) also draws on different kinds of data as she linguistic anthropology. In many ways, these volumes are
examines the histories, ideologies, and uses of Pittsburghese about old and new: bringing together different generations
dialect. Like Gal, Johnstone brings together historical mate- of scholars and highlighting the ways in which pioneering
rial with face-to-face data, but she also considers new media ideas continue to inspire current scholarship.
forms, particularly those that contribute to the increased In 2013, Jane Hill’s influence on the field of linguistic
visibility of Pittsburghese over the past half-century. anthropology was recognized in the edited volume, The Per-
sistence of Language: Constructing and Confronting the Past and
Semiotic Technologies Present in the Voices of Jane Hill (Bischoff et al. 2013). It begins
Each study in the above section takes a decidedly semiotic with a beautifully crafted portrait of Hill—both intimate and
approach to both digital and analog forms. The more en- inspiring—by Kenneth C. Hill (2013). The editors organize
amored linguistic anthropologists become with (Peircean) the volume around scholarly areas that Hill has profoundly
semiotics, the more we may bear witness to an increasingly shaped through her research and mentorship. This is evident
cohesive “semiotic anthropology” (Mertz 2007). Peircean in the numerous contributions by colleagues and former
semiotics insists on the importance of a missing element in students that present original research directly influenced
Saussurean semiology, that of the “interpretant” as mediating by the work of Hill. The book is divided into two main
the relationship between “sign” (signifier) and “object” (sig- sections: the first section features research on indigenous
nified). Over the years, Peirce’s triadic model has served as languages in the Americas; the second section features work
somewhat of a theoretical playground for many linguistic an- on voice and ideology, with chapters on language shift and
thropologists, who find inspiration in his classification of sign racist discourse, several of which were discussed earlier in
types, most notably icon-index-symbol. In 2013, much work this essay.
has continued to further theorize Peircean concepts, such Dell Hymes’s pioneering work on ethnopoetics is re-
as “qualia” (Chumley and Harkness 2013), “rhematization” visited in a triple theme issue of Journal of Folklore Re-
(Gal 2013), “interpretant” (Kockelman 2013c), and “index- search (Kroskrity and Webster 2013). In their introduction,
icality” and “iconicity” (Silverstein 2013b). In fact, 2013 Anthony K. Webster and Paul V. Kroskrity (2013) argue
witnessed the establishment of two new semiotics journals that Hymes’s work on ethnopoetics—and related areas, such
with linguistic anthropologists—working in the Peircean as verbal art, voice, and narrative inequality—continues to
tradition—featured prominently in their editorial boards have profound significance on current scholarship across sev-
and inaugural issues: Signs and Society, edited by Richard eral disciplines, including linguistic anthropology. Dividing
372 American Anthropologist • Vol. 116, No. 2 • June 2014
eight articles into two sections that end with commentaries in questions about science, including the 2010 controversy
by Richard Bauman (2013) and Charles L. Briggs (2013), the over the American Anthropological Association dropping
editors include pieces that seek to extend Hymesian modes the word science from its long-range plan, which was then
of research. Robert Moore (2013), for example, offers new revised in 2011. This dispute was framed as a rift between
methods for transcription and analysis that consider the shift- the so-called “scientific” subfields (physical, archaeological)
ing multilingual environments in which narratives emerge. and the so-called “nonscientific” subfields (linguistic, cul-
M. Eleanor Nevins (2013a) considers how Hymes’s work tural), though the location of linguistic anthropology within
on genre and addressivity elucidates a contemporary analy- this problematic dichotomy has long been ambiguous. That
sis of two accounts of Apache lives in which speakers draw a “hard science,” such as big data, enjoys epistemological
on an oratorical genre that positions their “own” group in authority is nothing new. But big data can only heighten
opposition to that of addressed “others.” the intensity around which anthropology—particularly lin-
In addition, Dell Hymes’s concept of communicative guistic and cultural anthropology—is allowed to see itself as
competence is the focus of a theme issue of Language and legitimate scientific inquiry, especially given the perceived
Communication (Kataoka et al. 2013). Each piece reconsiders link between linguistic anthropology and “small data”: small-
the notion of communicative competence in a wide range scale, ethnographic inquiry.
of cultural contexts. For example, Alexandra Jaffe (2013b) As I allude to above, this question about science is also
explores the complexity of communicative competence in a question about methodology. If big data is large sets of
relation to idealized communities of practice in the Corsican small data, then big data analysts would question not the
adult language-learning classroom. Drawing on data from type of data we gather but, rather, the amount of data we
a second-hand marketplace and a beauty pageant in Tonga, gather (not to mention our interpretive processes for assign-
Niko Besnier (2013) considers how shifting global and local ing meaning to data). Yet there have been increasing efforts
dynamics reconfigure notions of communicative competence to bend the ethnographic method so that it encompasses a
in which linguistic practices map onto new and old patterns broader scope. Two examples of promising developments
of societal inequality. Other pieces continue to expand the in this area are work on the lifespan (Woolard 2013) and in-
scope of communicative competence, whether in contexts termediate scales (Wortham 2012). Both lines problematize
of schooling and media in Indonesia (Goebel 2013) or in the tired “micro–macro” (or “small–big”) dichotomy, reveal-
contexts that are defined by heterogeneous and shifting ways ing that, rather than two levels, there are many intervening
of speaking in a Rapa Nui bilingual community (Makihara layers built from regimentations of small-scale trajectories.
2013). Ethnographic methods prove to be immensely productive in
exploring these interstitial processes.
DATA: BIG AND SMALL In this section, I explore how linguistic anthropological
Just as we contemplate what counts as “data” (ethnographic, work in 2013 addresses ideas about big data, small data,
new media, old media, sign processes), so do we contem- and the methodologies on which they are based. I group
plate what counts as “science,” particularly against the rise of work under the following headings: scale, ontologies, and
“big data.” Big data refers to the massive amounts of data that methodologies and handbooks.
new technologies have been able to generate and store at
escalating degrees (Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier 2013). Scale
Big data is often used by corporations and governments to The concept of scale can intervene in this conversation about
identify patterns of behavior and make correlations and pre- big and small data, given its concern with how social pro-
dictive assessments—to serve and protect at best, to spy and cesses become understood as situated at various sizes, levels,
abuse at worst. Privileging quantitative research as the site of sites, and other scalar dimensions. In recent years, scale has
knowledge, big data asks us to rest our faith in the immensity received much scholarly attention. This work has been criti-
of large-scale design as a way to truly “know” something. To cal of perspectives that treat scale as a given dimension of ob-
know a “person,” for example, is to trust in the “quantified jects of analysis (Lemke 2000). Instead, scale—if and when
self”: an algorithm of an individual’s social networks, in- it is made to matter—becomes itself an object of analysis.
teractions, activities, purchases, and whereabouts. That the Research in this area asks how phenomena become consti-
quantified self is framed as a grassroots movement is hege- tuted through various types of scaling routines that specify
mony defined: people actively participating in the tracking of relationships among time, space, event, category, and so
their own data, which are offered up to others to accumulate on (Lempert 2012; Reyes 2013). At the 2013 American
and analyze (and whatever else). Anthropological Association annual meeting, scale was the
Questions about what constitutes science and knowl- theme of a double panel entitled “Pragmatics of Scale” and the
edge in the era of big data are increasingly present in theme of several presented papers, including Adrienne Lo’s
academia. For example, big data has given rise to the “dig- (2013) historical examination of how Asian Americans are
ital humanities” (Schreibman et al. 2004), a field that has understood to speak through “mediatized scaling projects”
been met with both enthusiasm and repulsion by humanities that align readers with the British colonial and U.S. imperial
scholars. Anthropology, of course, has long been engaged gaze.
Reyes • Year in Review: Linguistic Anthropology 373
Two major books in 2013 illustrate an aspect of these what matters; it is the definition of terms that is important
theoretical concerns of scale: how the supposed smallness (he acknowledges that he could have used instead culture, ide-
of social interaction can be scaled in relation to the sup- ology, imaginary, etc.). His theory of ontology relies on four
posed bigness of social order. In Fast-Forward Family: Home, components: index (any perceivable sign), kind (some cat-
Work, and Relationships in Middle-Class America, Elinor Ochs egory that can be indicated by that sign), agent (perceiver),
and Tamar Kremer-Sadlik (2013) present research based on and individual (something that displays that sign). Taking
1,500 video-recorded hours of 32 families over a four-year Kockelman’s example of a passage from The Adventures of
period. This project can, indeed, be scaled—as the edi- Huckleberry Finn in which Huck tries to pass as a girl but Mrs.
tors acknowledge—to the documentary, An American Family Loftus explains why she is not fooled, Huck is the individual,
(1973) (and its hilarious spoof, Real Life [1979] by Albert Mrs. Loftus is the agent, the categories of “boy” and “girl”
Brooks), both of which take the middle-class California fam- are the kinds in question, and certain acts—such as differ-
ily as their (and “America’s”) object of fascination. On the ences in throwing, catching, and threading needles—are the
opposite coast, William Labov’s (2013) The Language of Life indices. For Kockelman, this passage exposes Mrs. Loftus’s
and Death: The Transformation of Experience in Oral Narrative ontology: “the assumptions an agent has as to the indices,
brings together dozens of narratives (selected from thou- kinds, and individuals that constitute a particular world”
sands), several of which are drawn from his extensive field- (2013b:42). In this sense, ontology is a set of assumptions
work in the eastern United States. Incorporating narrative that motivates interpretations. But Kockelman is also inter-
genres from historical texts as well, Labov draws connec- ested in how interpretations can change ontologies—how
tions across narratives to highlight tools for analysis and to shifts in the various components of his model can lead to
foster a deeper understanding of humanity. Both books in- ontological transformation.
vite us to “upscale” (Blommaert 2007) the minute details of In addition to ontology, other concepts used to inves-
interaction as they are collected over long periods of time tigate the basis of knowledge are revisited in linguistic an-
and across a wide range of settings. thropological scholarship in 2013. Joel Kuipers (2013), for
example, examines the interplay between “evidence” and
Ontologies “authority”—the focus of Jane H. Hill and Judith T. Irvine’s
The question about how things such as scale are made to (1993) influential volume. Kuipers finds that these concepts
matter is also a question about ontology. Ontology has been a do not compete with one another as much as combine in
fashionable word in anthropology these past few years and, communicative practice to establish beliefs about the world.
perhaps predictably, has been loosely discussed and defined. “Intersubjectivity”—a concept at the center of Mary Bu-
Most fundamentally, however, ontology refers to understand- choltz and Kira Hall’s (2005) “tactics of intersubjectivity”
ings of the nature of being and of the existence of “things.” model—also continues to be an area of interest. As the fo-
One’s ontology is one’s set of assumptions about what exists cus of a theme issue of Language and Communication (Danziger
and how it exists, whether such things are understood to and Rumsey 2013), the notion of intersubjectivity is used
be “real” facts in the world or conceptual fictions created to further conceptualize the sharedness of knowledge states
by people. The so-called “ontological turn” in anthropology as interactional process. Relatedly, Kira Hall (2013) argues
was the subject of an invited panel by the AAA Executive that an account of “subjectivity” in other disciplines (in this
Committee at the 2013 American Anthropological Asso- case, queer theory) would benefit from a linguistic anthro-
ciation Annual Meeting: “The Ontological Turn in French pological focus on interactional and indexical processes.
Philosophical Anthropology,” featuring Bruno Latour and
Philippe Descola, among several other notable scholars. For Methodologies and Handbooks
Latour—who discussed a range of ideas drawn from his Related to these theoretical inquiries into “how we know
earlier work and his most recent book (Latour 2013)—the what we know,” several publications in 2013 address linguis-
ontological turn is about dismantling the ontological dis- tic anthropological methodology. For example, the Journal
tinction between “reality” and “perception” that produces of Linguistic Anthropology inaugurated a new forum for es-
the faulty bifurcations of object–subject and nature–culture says and commentaries on “Methods and Analysis in Lin-
through which people see themselves as separate from the guistic Anthropology.” This decision was prompted by the
world (that they study). successful Society for Linguistic Anthropology Presidential
This past year, ontology has been the focus of work Panel, “Frontiers in Methodology in Linguistic Anthropol-
in linguistic anthropology (e.g., Kockelman 2013a, 2013b; ogy,” at the American Anthropological Association annual
Nakassis 2012), as well as other anthropological subfields meeting in 2012. The first piece to appear in this new forum
(e.g., Blaser 2013; Goslinga 2012). In linguistic anthropol- is the work of Susan Philips (2013), which details a type
ogy, ontology—of “brand” (Nakassis 2012) or “spam” (junk of methodological rigor that involves “small” data (face-to-
mail) (Kockelman 2013b), for example—refers to under- face interactional units) in “big” formats (entering compar-
standings that things (such as “brand” and “spam”) exist and ative units of interaction into databases). But if big data is
that they have particular features (that can be identified, po- about quantitative measures that correlate decontextualized
liced, etc.). Yet for Kockelman, the term ontology itself is not units, Philips’s method argues for the absolute centrality of
374 American Anthropologist • Vol. 116, No. 2 • June 2014
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