Publications

Publication details [#55156]

Ball, Christopher. 2011. Inalienability in social relations: Language, possession, and exchange in Amazonia. Language in Society 40 (3) : 307–341.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
Cambridge University Press

Annotation

This study provides an ethnographic explanation of the role of inalienability in Wauja grammar and discourse in the disruption and repair of social relationships between groups in Upper Xinguan ritual. It argues for mutually reinforcing the relationship between grammatical categories and sociocultural meaning and suggests that attention to language and possession, in addition to language and identity, is crucial for cross- culturally comparative sociolinguistic analysis of such connections.