Mendoza-Denton Homegirls

Language and Cultural Practice Among Latina Youth Gangs
1. Auflage 2008
ISBN: 978-0-470-69297-4
Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 360 Seiten, E-Book

Reihe: New Directions in Ethnography

In this ground-breaking new book on the Norteña andSureña (North/South) youth gang dynamic, culturalanthropologist and linguist Norma Mendoza-Denton looks at the dailylives of young Latinas and their innovative use of speech, bodilypractices, and symbolic exchanges that signal their gangaffiliations and ideologies. Her engrossing ethnographic andsociolinguistic study reveals the connection of language behaviorand other symbolic practices among Latina gang girls in California,and their connections to larger social processes of nationalism,racial/ethnic consciousness, and gender identity.
* * An engrossing account of the Norte and Sur girl gangs - thelargest Latino gangs in California
* Traces how elements of speech, bodily practices, and symbolicexchanges are used to signal social affiliation and come togetherto form youth gang styles
* Explores the relationship between language and the body: one ofthe most striking aspects of the tattoos, make-up, and clothing ofthe gang members
* Unlike other studies - which focus on violence, fightingand drugs - Mendoza-Denton delves into thecommonly-overlooked cultural and linguistic aspects of youthgangs

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mendoza-Denton, Norma

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures viii
List of Tables x
Acknowledgments xi
Acknowledgment of Sources xiv
Introduction 1
1 La Migra 10
2 Beginning Fieldwork 42
3 Norte and Sur: Government, School, and Research Perspectives 76
4 Hemispheric Localism: Language, Racialized Nationalism, and the Politicization of Youth 101
5 "Muy Macha": Gendered Performances and the Avoidance of Social Injury 148
6 Smile Now Cry Later: Memorializing Practices Linking Language, Materiality, and Embodiment 176
7 Icons and Exemplars: Ethnographic Approaches in Variationist Sociolinguistics 207
8 Variation in a Community of Practice 230
9 "That's the Whole Thing [tin]!": Discourse Markers and Teenage Speech 265
10 Conclusion 292
References 297
Appendix 324
Index 328

Über Autor(innen)

Norma Mendoza-Denton is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, and the founder and director of the Linguistic Anthropology Research and Teaching Laboratory.