Contribuciones A Las Lenguas Y Culturas De Los Andes

This book offers a state of the art overview of current linguistic and archaeological research from the Caribbean and Meso America, through Amazonia and the Andes to Argentina, ranging from historical comparative through descriptive and socio-linguistics to new discoveries in archaeological research.

El libro reúne estudios de distintos enfoques bajo el concepto «cultural turn» en los que se intenta comprender, analizar y valorar la acelerada dinámica lingüístico-cultural de la región andina. Algunas contribuciones escritas en lengua quechua con traducción española sirven como estímulo para la comunicación inter y transcultural.

The Andean and Pacific regions of South America are home to a remarkable variety of languages and language families, with a range of typological differences. This linguistic diversity results from a complex historical background, comprising periods of greater communication between different peoples and languages, and periods of fragmentation and individual development. The Languages of the Andes documents in a single volume the indigenous languages spoken and formerly spoken in this linguistically rich region, as well as in adjacent areas. Grouping the languages into different cultural spheres, it describes their characteristics in terms of language typology, language contact, and the social perspectives of present-day languages. The authors provide both historical and contemporary information, and illustrate the languages with detailed grammatical sketches. Written in a clear and accessible style, this book will be a valuable source for students and scholars of linguistics and anthropology alike.

This book offers a new anthropological understanding of the socio-cosmological and ontological characteristics of the Isthmo–Colombian Area, beyond established theories for Amazonia, the Andes and Mesoamerica. It focuses on a core region that has been largely neglected by comparative anthropology in recent decades. Centering on relations between Chibchan groups and their neighbors, the contributions consider prevailing socio-cosmological principles and their relationship to Amazonian animism and Mesoamerican and Andean analogism. Classical notions of area homogeneity are reconsidered and the book formulates an overarching proposal for how to make sense of the heterogeneity of the region’s indigenous groups. Drawing on original fieldwork and comparative analysis, the volume provides a valuable anthropological addition to archaeological and linguistic knowledge of the Isthmo・Colombian Area.

This book explores the role of language academies in preserving and revitalizing minority or endangered languages. The author studies the controversial High Academy of the Quechua Language (HAQL) in Peru, the efficacy of which has been questioned by some experts. The book delves into the positions, attitudes, ideologies and practices of the HAQL and the role it has played in language policy and planning in the Andean region. The author uses ethnographic fieldwork to support what was previously only anecdotal evidence from individuals viewing the Academy from the outside. This book would appeal to anyone studying the sociolinguistics of the Quechua language, as well as to those studying broader issues of Indigenous language policy and planning, maintenance and revitalization.