Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the rapid loss of Harakmbut language practices and use among the Arakmbut communities of the SE Peruvian Amazon in the context of massive in-migration of non-Harakmbut speaking gold miners and traders over the past 30 years with a consequent ‘shrinkage’ of Arakmbut social spaces.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the loss of Harakmbut language practices and use by the Arakmbut of SE Peruvian Amazonia where massive in-migration of non-Harakmbut speaking gold miners and traders over 30 years has 'shrunk' Arakmbut social spaces. It examines changes in use of Harakmbut among different generations and examines how steady massive physical encroachment of non-Arakmbut speaking gold miners and traders has shrunk social spaces for the transmission and performance of Arakmbut knowledge such as forest, garden, village and house. It questions the influence of the Spanish-language primary school, today an institutional fixture in Arakmbut villages managed by a Dominican missionary network. Using ethnographic research, it asks what these changes mean for specialized features of Harakmbut speech and registers and considers how Arakmbut individuals have the potential to develop their linguistic diversity over a lifetime through communication with the invisible spirit world and knowledge gained through productive activities for the benefit of the community. What does this shrinking of space mean for Harakmbut diversity and usage with continued territorial devastation from gold mining and as Arakmbut lives articulate in complex ways with local, national and global societies. What does the rejection of intercultural bilingual schooling as a space for the regeneration of indigenous language mean and are there new spaces that can claimed for the revitalization of Harakmbut language and identity.