Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: Space in Language, Cognition, and Sociality among Central Quechua Speakers

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University of Michigan doctoral student Joshua Shapero, supervised by Dr. Bruce Mannheim, will investigate the connections among language, thought, and space. Shapero will study how spatial concepts at linguistic and cognitive levels shape -- and are shaped by -- the social actions of talking about, walking through, and working within the landscape of a Quechua-speaking community in the central Peruvian Andes. The goal of the research is to discover the degree to which spatial concepts can be separated from the individual, environmental, and stereotypical factors of particular social contexts as opposed to remaining constant across all contexts. The investigation uses three methodological approaches: 1) ethnographic study of the spatial organization of agricultural, pastoral and ritual activities; 2) recording and analysis of interactions among speakers engaged in these activities; and 3) controlled experimental studies of spatial language and behavior. The combination of these three approaches will yield rich data, because by enlivening current experimental methods through the insights of ethnographic investigation, the project points toward ways of testing spatial conceptualization in complex social settings. The formal description this research will provide, and its focus on space at a conceptual level, is crucial to understanding the role of language in the intimate relationship between people and the space they inhabit. The focus on variation gives analytic purchase to social, linguistic, and cognitive differences manifest at an interactional rather than cross-linguistic level. This research will contribute to the documentation of Ancash Quechua, which is an endangered language. Shapero will conduct workshops in linguistic and ethnographic methods at the Regional Academy of Ancash Quechua and at the program in intercultural education at the National University Santiago Antunez de Mayolo, and will help to develop pedagogical materials in Ancash Quechua. He will also disseminate his findings and offer his expertise to local community members. The project will also contribute to the training of a graduate student.