title: The politics and semiotics of sounds--Mayan linguistics and nation-building in Guatemala.
abstract: This paper discusses the development Mayan linguistics as an authoritative field of knowledge in Guatemala. In particular, it links missionary linguists' and Maya linguists' activities with shifting nationalist agendas from the 1920s in to the late 1980s. It is argued that during the historical and intellectual moment that linguistics becomes an authoritative epistemology, phonetic analysis functions as a creative index that constitutes "expert" knowledge for particular semiotic and ideological reasons tied to competing versions of the Guatemalan imagined community.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Grinell College, Grinell, USA. frenchb@Grinnell.edu
authors.forename: Brigittine M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: French
mesh_terms: D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D006166:Guatemala; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007197:Indians, Central American; D019359:Knowledge; D008037:Linguistics / Q000266:history*; D066189:Missionaries; D010700:Phonetics; D011057:Politics; D008921:Religious Missions