2024/10/29 by Hannah McElgunn · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Multilingual Education and Policy #EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning #Second Language Learning and Teaching
paper · doi:10.1086/732457
In 1932, Benjamin Lee Whorf, a fire insurance analyst, began studying the Hopi language with Ernest Naquayouma, a Hopi tribal member. This article asks how Whorf and Naquayouma’s working relationship came to be and what they were talking about across their seven years of meetings together. First, I situate their relationship within the broader historical context of the 1930s, extending Regna Darnell’s concept of “invisible genealogies” beyond the academy, highlighting how linguistic consultation was but one among many ways Hopi language and culture were being presented to non-Hopi audiences. Secondly, drawing on archival sources, I show how Naquayouma participated in working sessions as someone with proficiency in Hopi, but also as an individual accountable to a set of values that exceeded the research encounter. The holistic view of language that Whorf arrived at after 1937 arose at least in part from Naquayouma’s fullness of presence as an interlocutor.