Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction: Socialization, Self and Syncretism in a Papua New Guinean Village

Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language

by Don Kulick

Don Kulick's book is an anthropological study of language and cultural change among a small group of people living in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea. He examines why the villagers of Gapun are abandoning their vernacular in favor of Tok Pisin, the most widely spoken language in Papua New Guinea, despite their attachment to their own language as a source of identity and as a tie to their lands. He draws on an examination of village language socialization process and on Marshall Sahlins's ideas about structure and event.

Genres: Anthropology, Linguistics, School, Language, Textbooks, Nonfiction

335 pages, Hardcover

First published June 26, 1992

About the author

Don Kulick is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. His books include Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes.

Reviews

[Yael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read to prepare an exam in comparative linguistics
This book is about anthropology and linguistics and reads almost like a novel.
There are very little "technical" terms.
It is really after reading the whole book that I (think I) understood the mechanisms that allowed Tok Pisin to almost erase Taiap.

[Calen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don Kulick is the man! Great professor, and great writer.