Erik Aasland
My research combines anthropological, cognitive poetic, and folkloristic techniques. My current research explores discourse ecologies through the use of ethnographic interviews and corpus linguistics. I have just had an edited volume published along with my co-editor Gulnara Omarbekova in the Peter Lang International Folkloristics Series.
I am President of the Society for Humanistic Anthropology a Section of the American Anthropological Association. Please visit our page to explore our section activities including the Victor Book Prize and Edie Turner Book Prize https://sha.americananthro.org/.
Supervisors: Roberta King and R. Daniel Shaw
I am President of the Society for Humanistic Anthropology a Section of the American Anthropological Association. Please visit our page to explore our section activities including the Victor Book Prize and Edie Turner Book Prize https://sha.americananthro.org/.
Supervisors: Roberta King and R. Daniel Shaw
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Dissertation
Research into "national traits" using proverbs has validity issues since it relies on small proverb sets, fails to acknowledge the multi-voiced nature of language ideologies, and projects values onto the societies in question. More recent research utilizes larger proverb sets, surveys, and participant observation thus providing examples for addressing these shortcomings.
In my own research, I have incorporated these proverb research methods while also addressing the shortcomings of the "national traits" research by setting three delimitations of my research concerning language ideologies expressed by means of Kazakh proverbs. First, I focus on youth, the societal group most likely to change linguistically in an environment of language revitalization. Second, I only explore language ideologies concerning "community". Third, I have worked with a speech community rather than attempting nationwide analysis.
My field research was completed at Kazakh National Technical University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I surveyed students concerning Kazakh proverbs addressing "community". Students reenacted the most familiar proverbs from the set, thereby narrativizing their language ideologies concerning "community".
I analyzed the data using an adaptation of Goffman's frame analysis. The language ideology showing the most tension was individualism-collectivism. This cultural theme is best understood as a continuum going from individual to the extended family / friends, and finally to the nation. In their narratives, students grappled with the paradigm of strength in numbers and "elders" in the skits repeatedly opposed individualism. In the reenactments, students' agency received its clearest expression in terms of proverbs about extended family / friends. Thus the language ideologies concerning "community" showed the following frame issues (boundaries): 1. Tension over where the speech community should position itself along the individualism-collectivism continuum; 2. Scripts against individualism; 3. Preponderance of adaptations for smaller-scale collectives."
Articles
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Rather than explore perspectives of the culture in general, I selected college students in Almaty, Kazakhstan as the group to be investigated. The current generation of students in Kazakhstan is unique, since they have only known an independent and Post-Soviet fatherland. As they have grown up, the country has been in the throes of redefining itself as a society. Part of this process has been reestablishing Kazakh as the national language.
Field research was carried out among university students at the Kazakh National Technical University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Surveys provided information about the most familiar proverbs out of the proverb set concerning “community”. Analysis of the survey results showed that the population functions using proverbs as a speech community, a group able to communicate with each other effectively. Surveys and proverb encounter reenactments will provide the type of data necessary for circulation studies and frame analysis to establish a baseline concerning proverbial perspectives concerning “community” among Kazakh-speaking college students.
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Papers
Research into "national traits" using proverbs has validity issues since it relies on small proverb sets, fails to acknowledge the multi-voiced nature of language ideologies, and projects values onto the societies in question. More recent research utilizes larger proverb sets, surveys, and participant observation thus providing examples for addressing these shortcomings.
In my own research, I have incorporated these proverb research methods while also addressing the shortcomings of the "national traits" research by setting three delimitations of my research concerning language ideologies expressed by means of Kazakh proverbs. First, I focus on youth, the societal group most likely to change linguistically in an environment of language revitalization. Second, I only explore language ideologies concerning "community". Third, I have worked with a speech community rather than attempting nationwide analysis.
My field research was completed at Kazakh National Technical University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I surveyed students concerning Kazakh proverbs addressing "community". Students reenacted the most familiar proverbs from the set, thereby narrativizing their language ideologies concerning "community".
I analyzed the data using an adaptation of Goffman's frame analysis. The language ideology showing the most tension was individualism-collectivism. This cultural theme is best understood as a continuum going from individual to the extended family / friends, and finally to the nation. In their narratives, students grappled with the paradigm of strength in numbers and "elders" in the skits repeatedly opposed individualism. In the reenactments, students' agency received its clearest expression in terms of proverbs about extended family / friends. Thus the language ideologies concerning "community" showed the following frame issues (boundaries): 1. Tension over where the speech community should position itself along the individualism-collectivism continuum; 2. Scripts against individualism; 3. Preponderance of adaptations for smaller-scale collectives."
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Rather than explore perspectives of the culture in general, I selected college students in Almaty, Kazakhstan as the group to be investigated. The current generation of students in Kazakhstan is unique, since they have only known an independent and Post-Soviet fatherland. As they have grown up, the country has been in the throes of redefining itself as a society. Part of this process has been reestablishing Kazakh as the national language.
Field research was carried out among university students at the Kazakh National Technical University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Surveys provided information about the most familiar proverbs out of the proverb set concerning “community”. Analysis of the survey results showed that the population functions using proverbs as a speech community, a group able to communicate with each other effectively. Surveys and proverb encounter reenactments will provide the type of data necessary for circulation studies and frame analysis to establish a baseline concerning proverbial perspectives concerning “community” among Kazakh-speaking college students.
There are five courses: current use of Kazakh proverbs at home, in school, and on the internet; the content of proverbs used historically and in fiction; the dynamic relationship between proverbs and culture in Kazakhstan; the role of proverbs in education (both the ecologies of proverbial interaction between languages and the opportunities provided by technology); and finally, new vistas for the future of Kazakh proverb use. With the expanded role of the internet, Kazakhs have ventured beyond using traditional Kazakh proverbs. They are now recrafting proverbial content and forms to find fitting words for contemporary issues. The book’s finale is a ground-breaking piece of research which documents the twists and tweaks that keep Kazakh proverb use vibrant.