Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Sociopolitics of Linguistic Differentiation among the Sundanese of West Java, Indonesia

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9974360Silverstein / Zimmer This project supports the dissertation research of an anthropology student from the University of Chicago studying ideologies of language differentiation among the Sundanese people of West Java, the second largest ethnic group in Indonesia. At the present time Indonesian society is undergoing rapid change with the end of the long-standing regime of President Suharto, and one major issue shared with many parts of the world is the relation of ethnic minorities to the national state. Through a fine-grained analysis of linguistic interaction in two fieldsites (a historically aristocratic highland area, and another locale with a complex mixture of contemporary cultural influences) the project aims to understand how Sundanese speakers position themselves and others by drawing internal and external linguistic boundaries. These boundaries will be based on local models of "Sundaneseness" and "Indonesianness" opposing traditional normative refinement with modern egalitarian ideals. This analysis of linguistic self-positioning will shed light on how people identify with or against other ethnic groups, and will help us understand the roots of local ethnic conflicts. In addition the project supports the training of a young social scientist, and advances our knowledge of this important area of the world.