A diversity of voices: men's and women's speech in ethnographic perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss men's and women's speech from an ethnographic perspective, with a focus on the speaking practices of the Kuna Indians of Panama, among whom I have carried out field research. As I thought about men's and women's speech among the Kuna I found it useful, in fact necessary, to place what I knew about the Kuna in the context of the growing linguistic, sociolinguistic, anthropological, and folkloristic literature on women in relation to language, culture, and society. In order to provide a background for my discussion of the Kuna, then, I first propose a brief overview, based on existing literature, of the types of relationships that exist between men's and women's speech around the world. In the case of the Kuna these relationships are manifested primarily in verbal genres, speaking roles, and ways and patterns of speaking. There are overlaps as well as sharply marked differences in men's and women's speaking practices. Whereas men at one level seem to control and perform most political and ritual activities through public and formalized speaking and chanting, women are also involved in significant ways. In addition women uniquely perform verbal genres that are important in Kuna social and cultural life. Furthermore, from the point of view of the ethnography of communication and of symbolic forms more generally, the molas (reverse appliqué cloth blouses) made, worn, and sold by women are probably the primary marker of Kuna ethnicity and culture, as well as being of social and economic significance.

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