LANGUAGE Contact and Linguistic Diversity
Stephen Fafulas, East Carolina University
Language is an individual entity constrained by our cognitive abilities and woven into our biological fabric. At the same time, language is a social construct that is shaped through communication in the ever-changing world in which it is used. Without language, our means of expression, interaction, and knowledge transmission would be drastically different, if not impossible. Our species is unique in its ability to communicate through socio-culturally agreed upon symbols, which serve to draw attention to mental states and events in the outside world. While certain properties of language reflect our similarities,
others are manifestations of our differences. In part, these differences are responsible for the fact that we do not all speak the same language. In this essay, I examine how external forces, such as geo-political boundaries, population demographics, and world economies, lead to linguistic diversity and change.
A TORNALLOM. Luchas vecinales en la huerta de "La Punta".
Luis González Barrios, Bennington College
Este artículo propone un análisis ecológico-social de una serie de sucesos acontecidos, entre 1993-2003, en el barrio de La Punta, Valencia (España). Para ello analizo A tornallom (2005), un documental realizado con escasos medios que sirve de testimonio a aquellos hechos. Como apoyo teórico, La habitación de Pascal (2009), de Jorge Riechmann, una obra ensayística en la línea de la ecología social. Como inspiración, la lucha de los pueblos indígenas pre-colombinos, pueblos cuya ética ancestral centrada en el “buen vivir” y la defensa de la Tierra iluminan más que nunca nuestro convulso presente.