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Vol. 63, no. 4 (Winter 2021)

Special Issue:
Reflections on Joel Sherzer (1942–2022)

Contents

Abstracts

From the Tropical Forest to Caribbean Islands to Cities and Beyond: Migration, Displacement, and Travel of the Kuna

Dina Sherzer
University of Texas at Austin

Joel Sherzer†
University of Texas at Austin

Abstract. Travel, migration, and displacement have characterized most of Kuna history, beginning with their arrival in the Darién jungle in Panama and their subsequent move to the Caribbean coast and adjacent islands. Travel to other parts of Panama was formerly largely temporary, for work, education, or visiting other Kuna-speaking communities; recently, however, larger-scale migrations to the major cities of Panama have taken place, with migrants remaining permanently rather than returning to Kuna territory. A range of outsiders—missionaries, anthropologists, tourists, and others—have also visited Kuna communities. All these forms of travel, displacement, and contact with non-Kuna are reflected in Kuna oral traditions.

On Multiplying Echoes: Further Soundings on a Navajo Poem by Rex Lee Jim

Anthony K. Webster
University of Texas at Austin

Abstract. This article revisits a Navajo poem examined by Blackhorse Mitchell and myself in a previous publication, highlighting the nature, purposes, and importance of punning, echoing, and sonic texture in Navajo poetics, and raising the possibility of a specific political reference in the poem.

Emerging Vitality in “Endangered” Forms of Verbal Art in Naso

Tulio Bermúdez Mejía
University of Chicago

Abstract. This article provides evidence of change in verbal art in Naso (Chibchan, Panama). ‘Profound words’ (tjlõkwo rong) are ideologized as a poetic lexical category practiced exclusively by Naso ancestors, but are emergent in practice. Profound words number upwards of four hundred lexical constructions of different patternings, but primarily difrasismos. In a language documentation project, Nasos innovatively determine membership in the profound words category on the basis of formal analogization to difrasismos, and noncompositional meaning. Thus, the category is productively and creatively determined.

Multilingual Networks Past and Present: Insights from Naduhup Languages of Northwest Amazonia

Patience Epps
University of Texas at Austin

Karolin Obert
Lund University

Abstract. In Amazonia, interfluvial groups such as the Naduhup (Makú) peoples of the northwest Amazon have tended to be less visible than riverine peoples in the historical record, but are also more likely to maintain their cultural and linguistic identity over time. Hence the languages of these groups may offer insights into Indigenous histories that have otherwise been largely overlooked or obliterated. Lexicon, grammar, and discourse indicate that the Naduhup peoples have long been deeply integrated within multilingual, interactive regional networks—some still extant, but others long obscured by their disruption centuries ago through the colonial onslaught.

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