Shunguhuan Yuyai: The Battle for Kichwa Language and Culture Revitalization in Ecuador as Thinking-Feeling and Performance
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
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Acosta Munoz, Felipe Esteban
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Anthropology
- Abstract
- An indigenous language with more than one million speakers in Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru, Kichwa is one of the most spoken indigenous languages in South America and an official language in Ecuador. Unfortunately, Kichwa is experiencing a rapid loss among young generations, which is leading to growing discontent about the education system, community and self-identity crises, among other issues. Furthermore, the situation of Kichwa is one example of a widespread indigenous language loss taking place worldwide, and it exemplifies the disappearance of indigenous cultures. It has been predicted that, by the end of the XXI century, approximately half of 7000 World languages will be extinct (Austin and Sallabank 2014, 2). Some more pessimistic sources provide an extinction rate by the end of the century up to 90%. However, there are efforts being done to revitalize endangered indigenous languages globally and, although many programs are struggling in their efforts, there are successful examples of revitalization through these programs. The best studied examples include languages like Maori, Hawaiian, and Basque. The purpose of this project is to understand Kichwa language revitalization in comparative perspective with other language programs. Within this goal, this thesis addresses four main issues: The first will be to look at the growth and challenges faced by Kichwa revitalization movement. Then, the reasons and arguments that Kichwa revitalization activists provide for the undertaking of such task will be presented. This will be done with the purpose of drawing initial lessons from past and present failing projects attempting Kichwa revival. Lastly, the signs of hope for future and current revitalization projects from each interlocutor in my project will be presented and analyzed. With these goals in mind, I will present how Kichwa revitalization movements are operating in Ecuador and how these efforts influence the younger generation of speakers.
- Date of publication
- spring 2017
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: Honors Undergraduate Research Fund
- Funding: Julia Crane Award
- Advisor
- Colloredo-Mansfeld, Rudi
- Degree
- Bachelor of Arts
- Academic concentration
- Anthropology
- Honors level
- Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Graduation year
- 2017
- Language
- English
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- Parents:
This work has no parents.
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