article
The political topography of Spanish and English: the view from a New York Puerto Rican neighborhood
American ethnologist • 18 (2) • Published In 1991 • Pages: 295-310
By: Urciuoli, Bonnie.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article is based on the author's study of eight families (seven Puerto Rican and one black) in New York's Lower East Side, and their views and experiences on bilingualism and community structure. The field work was done during 1978-1979 and again in 1988. Urciuoli suggests '…that people build their sense of language around relationships as much as they build relationships around language' (p. 295). For example, when English is used by inner-city Puerto Ricans with one another and with black neighbors, the experience is completely different from that in which English is used with middle class whites. Those individuals who are bilingual develop a set of strategies. Linguistically, the ease with which Puerto Ricans and blacks form social relationships, contrasts strongly with relationships between Puerto Ricans and middle class whites.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Acculturation and culture contact
- Speech
- Social relationships and groups
- Community structure
- Ethnopsychology
- Ethnosociology
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Puerto Ricans (Mainland)
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2002
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Linguist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 1992
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1978-79, 1988 (p. 296)
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1978-1988
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York, N.Y., United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- [by] Bonnie Urciuoli
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 74644326
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Language--Puerto Ricans--New York, N.Y.