An Interview with Juan Jose García, President of Ojo de Agua Comunicación

This is an interview with Zapotec video maker Juan Jose Garcia, president of the award-winning media organization Ojo de Agua Comunicacion, in Oaxaca, Mexico. He presents a brief history of native video in Mexico and discusses issues such as indigenous video production and circulation, thematic content, communal practices, relation to indigenous communities, funding, and current projects of his group.     

The Development of an Indigenous Knowledge Program in a New Zealand Maori-Language Immersion School

In 1985, Te Wharekura o Rakaumangamanga initiated a Maori-language immersion program for children ages 5 through 18. In recent years, a program based on Waikato-Tainui tribal epistemology has been incorporated into the language immersion program. This article describes the community context and the language immersion and tribal knowledge programs. We consider the relationship of these programs to individual and tribal self-determination and to theories of minority achievement, particularly the work of John Ogbu.     

Tooth wear in Australian aboriginal populations from the River Murray Valley

The study of tooth wear among prehistoric and recent populations has frequently been concerned with the rate and pattern of wear over the dental arches. In this report we considered the question of tooth wear variation among collections of Australian Aboriginal crania recovered from several sites along the Murray River in Southeastern Australia. These crania represent the remains of relatively recent populations from about 2,000 years ago until the early 19th century. The degree of tooth wear for each dental arch was recorded by an established method of determining the ratio of exposed dentin. The pattern or distribution of wear over each arch was summarized by principal component analysis. The mean wear degree and pattern were compared among four geographical grouping of crania separated by up to 700 miles of river frontage. Our results showed, as expected, a significant difference between the well-defined population at the Lower Murray site (Swanport) and the three upriver groups. However, there were significant differences among these three collections as well. Sexual dimorphism was noted but was only significant in the Lower Murray group; the mean wear was greater and also more variable among the males. At the second of the Middle Murray sites the pattern of wear was different and the degree of wear was significantly less than in the other groups. A possible explanation for this diversity may be environmental and subsistence base differences. The evidence from the Lower Murray supports this possibility, but the differences among the other three groups are not as clearly established. However, our results do suggest that the Murray Black collection, from which these crania were obtained, may not be as homogeneous a group as previously believed.     

Ethics in Indigenous Research – Connecting with Community

The challenge for those responsible for funding, brokering and assessing the merit of proposed Indigenous research is to identify and then work co-operatively with appropriate representatives of Indigenous interests in order to increase the flow of benefits from research to Indigenous peoples. Experience in Australia has shown that this is not a straightforward process. In this paper we indicate some reasons why it is important for the research community to broker research with representative Indigenous organisations and to involve Indigenous peoples in the ethical assessment and conduct of research. We then identify some barriers to the achievement of these objectives and outline recently developed interventions from the field of health research that aim to promote a more effective working relationship between Indigenous peoples and members of the research community.

Parasitic diseases of remote Indigenous communities in Australia

Indigenous Australians suffer significant disadvantage in health outcomes and have a life expectancy well below that of non-Indigenous Australians. Mortality rates of Indigenous Australians are higher than that of Indigenous populations in developed countries elsewhere in the world. A number of parasitic diseases which are uncommon in the rest of the Australian population contribute to the high burden of disease in many remote Indigenous communities. High rates of infection with enteric parasites such as Strongyloides stercoralis, hookworm and Trichuris have been recorded and infection of the skin with the ecto-parasitic mite Sarcoptes scabiei is also a substantial problem. Secondary infection of scabies lesions, including with Staphylococcus aureus and group A Streptococcus, can produce serious sequelae such as rheumatic fever and post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis. Transmission of many parasites in many remote communities is facilitated by overcrowded living conditions and infrastructure problems which result in poor sanitation and hygiene. Improvements in environmental health conditions must accompany medical initiatives to achieve sustainable improvement in the health of Indigenous Australians.     

The Politics of the Gap: Indigenous Australians, Liberal Multiculturalism, and the End of the Self-Determination Era

ABSTRACT  Since the 1970s, "self-determination" has been the dominant trope for expressing national aspirations for Indigenous Australians. Through the principles of self-determination, the liberal multicultural state has attempted to deliver postcolonial justice to its first peoples. In this new century, the sheen of the self-determination era has faded. Once heralded as the antidote to the racist assimilation era, it is now depicted as the cause of social ills. In this article, I draw on an ethnographic study of White antiracists working in Indigenous health in northern Australia to analyze the brand of liberal rationality that dominated the discourse of the self-determination era. By engaging with a "tribe" of White people who identify with the aims of the self-determination era, we can decipher the logic of self-determination as an instrument of the liberal state and better understand the internal contradictions and ambiguities that have led to its recent demise.     

A Bayesian phylogenetic approach to estimating the stability of linguistic features and the genetic biasing of tone

Language is a hallmark of our species and understanding linguistic diversity is an area of major interest. Genetic factors influencing the cultural transmission of language provide a powerful and elegant explanation for aspects of the present day linguistic diversity and a window into the emergence and evolution of language. In particular, it has recently been proposed that linguistic tone—the usage of voice pitch to convey lexical and grammatical meaning—is biased by two genes involved in brain growth and development, ASPM and Microcephalin. This hypothesis predicts that tone is a stable characteristic of language because of its ‘genetic anchoring’. The present paper tests this prediction using a Bayesian phylogenetic framework applied to a large set of linguistic features and language families, using multiple software implementations, data codings, stability estimations, linguistic classifications and outgroup choices. The results of these different methods and datasets show a large agreement, suggesting that this approach produces reliable estimates of the stability of linguistic data. Moreover, linguistic tone is found to be stable across methods and datasets, providing suggestive support for the hypothesis of genetic influences on its distribution.     

语言复杂性理论及临床应用

复杂语言结构和简单语言结构相比,哪一种更能促进语言能力提高,是语言心理研究的核心问题。近年来,国外出现大量语言复杂性的研究。本文对语言复杂性的理论、评估、原理及应用作了介绍,并对语言复杂性理论与教学理论的联系以及在应用中需要考虑的问题做了简单评述,旨在对语言学习和语言缺陷治疗提供帮助。     

达斡尔语分支早期在蒙古语族中的地位

在语言学研究建立的蒙古语族的多种分化谱系树中,达斡尔语均独立构成一个语言分支或语组。此前的研究表明,达斡尔语中保留了一部分13世纪蒙古语的要素。本文以遗传学数据为基础,结合历史学、民族学和语言学等学科的证据,详细地描述了蒙古语人群始祖群体的演化历史背景,并为蒙古语族语言早期分化、达斡尔语作为独立分支诞生的过程提供了较为准确的演化时间框架。父系支系M401是蒙古语人群的奠基者父系之一,达斡尔族的主要父系F5483是M401的最古老分支之一,其他蒙古语人群的M401主要集中在另一个分支F3796,两个分支的分化年代约为2.9千年前。历史学、民族学和语言学的研究也证明了公元9世纪之后迁徙到欧亚草原上的蒙古语人群与继续保留采集渔猎生活方式的亲族之间的分化。我们认为,从多学科研究所揭示的人类群体演化历史的角度看,达斡尔族确实可视为全体蒙古语人群的最古老分支。     

Redefining the Ojibwe Classroom: Indigenous Language Programs within Large Research Universities

Indigenous languages are powerful symbols of self-determination and sovereignty for tribal communities in the United States, and many community-based programs have been developed to support and maintain them. The successes of these programs, however, have been difficult to replicate at large research institutions. This article examines the issues of incorporating Indigenous languages into the university system by focusing on a series of language events developed as part of the Ojibwe language program at Michigan State University. These language events demonstrate a way for communities to participate in and maintain control of Indigenous language programs despite their location in nontribal educational institutions.     

Language analysis in the United Kingdom's refugee status determination system: seeing through policy claims about ‘expert knowledge’

This paper examines claims made about the role of ‘expert knowledge’ in analysing the language of individuals seeking asylum in the UK. I treat policy as a type of power and seek to understand how this policy uses the language of science to further the British government's stated interest to provide ‘secure borders’ and a ‘safe haven’ for refugees. I look at how the Home Office defines, shapes and implements the policy, and at how the policy has influenced judicial decisions. In short I unmask UKBA's claim that it relies upon expert, scientific knowledge to assess asylum claims.