The activity to create language maps with the girls staying at Harali was an interesting experience. It is Jessica’s method to understand how people experience, perceive language use in their surroundings. Jessica is a linguistic anthropologist visiting Harali to work with us and see if we can get some insight to move the work forward with the Laman Banjara community.
The girls were bored in the afternoon. It was their day off. I had been busy visiting Tandas with Jessica and interviewing parents and teachers about language use in schooling so hadn’t found time to interact with them. With supplies spread out in their hostel wing everybody started drawing the space, people, and languages. I was a bit unsure if the task was too abstract for them but it was surprising to see the variety of ways they drew the maps.
Some potrayed places or distance, mostly from Harali, their current location. Some portrayed it as information about places neatly divided according to some theme. Others focused closer to home. Instead of different villages and Tandas they zoomed in to showcase details of spaces in and around their Tanda – temple, lavatory, school etc.
You can see a couple of their maps here.
Related reading:
Chandras J., Tirthali D., and Dabak P. (2023). Mapping Multilingual Sociality in Rural India: Children and Youth’s Perceptions of Self and Language in Space. Communication in the Worlds of Children and Youth: Imagination, Language, Performance, and Creative Expression
devayani tirthali 