Kaleidoscopes of indexicality: multiplex symbolic functions of language and unfocused social categories

Journal article

Original data from an ethnographic study on the indexical meanings of language in a multilingual and ethnically highly diverse context in Belize, Central America, demonstrate that ascribing language to ethnic belonging does not necessarily work. The Belizean language Kriol, an English-lexified Creole that is Belize's dominant oral lingua franca, is a vehicle for several indexes. On the basis of social discourses on Kriol, which are interrelated with the culturally complex history of Belize – involving transnational ties to the former coloniser, to surrounding countries and to the US – I argue that Kriol has multiple indexical functions – as ‘the language' of Belizeans, as expressing ties to race and place, and as creating a space of resistance towards Western ideologies of standardization. The case shows that, where social categories are not focused and naturalized, we find multiplex orders of indexicality and non-teleological processes of enregisterment.

Authors: Schneider, B

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Anthropological Society of Oxford
• Journal: Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford Online
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 8-24
• Publication date: 2017-01-01
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-pvkdjrna5
• ISSN: 2040-1876
• Language: English
• Keywords: JASO