Abstract
The author examines the conflicts arising, with the Bolivian Education Reform of 1994, between previous forms of literacy acquired through weaving practices, as a longstanding Andean form of writing and identity, and the new teaching of literacy in the classroom through alphabetic writing. She argues that the teaching modules introduced during this reform ignored this historical context, and perceived rural indigenous children as part of an oral culture. One result was a crisis for teenage girls, forced to choose between “two pathways” to knowledge and ways of being in the world: one taught through age-old Andean educational practices at community and household levels and the other through state-controlled formal schooling to acquire the attributes of modernity and citizenship. The author suggests that this conflict in part might oppose weaving as “natural” or “semasiographic” writing, directed towards things in the natural world, to “conventional” alphabetical writing, directed at representing the sounds of human speech. Both writing forms have their respective communicative and integrationist functions for Andean populations. But the Reform programme underestimated how weaving also formed part of a regional scientific enterprise that appealed to the imagination, sense of personhood, and emotions, in which human interactions in the world introduced life into material form.
Zusammenfassung
Die Autorin untersucht die mit der bolivianischen Bildungsreform von 1994 entstehenden Konflikte zwischen früheren und neueren Formen der Alphabetisierung. Jene wurden durch Webpraktiken erworben und stellten eine seit Langem bestehende andine Form des Schreibens und der Identität dar. Diese werden im Klassenzimmer gelehrt und zielen auf das alphabetische Schreiben ab. Sie argumentiert, dass die in diesem Übergang durch die Reform eingeführten Lehrmodule den historischen Kontext ignorierten und indigene Kinder auf dem Land als Teil einer oralen Kultur betrachteten. Ein Ergebnis davon war eine Krise für weibliche Jugendliche, die gezwungen waren, zwischen „zwei Pfaden“ zum Wissen und des In-der-Welt-Seins zu wählen: der eine, der mittels uralter andiner Bildungspraktiken auf der Ebene der Gemeinschaft und des Haushalts gelehrt wurde und der andere, der darauf aus war, dass mittels staatlicherseits kontrollierter formaler Beschulung die Attribute von Modernität und Staatsbürgerschaft erworben würden. Die Autorin schlägt vor, dass dieser Konflikt teilweise darin besteht, dass das Weben als „natürliche“ oder „semasiografische“ Schrift, die auf die Dinge der natürlichen Welt ausgerichtet ist, der „konventionellen“ alphabetischen Schrift gegenübersteht, die auf die Darstellung der Laute der menschlichen Sprache ausgerichtet ist. Beide Schriftsysteme haben ihre jeweiligen kommunikativen und integrativen Funktionen für andine Bevölkerungsgruppen. Aber das Reformprogramm unterschätzte, wie sehr das Weben auch Teil einer regionalen wissenschaftlichen Unternehmung war, das Vorstellung, Persönlichkeitssinn und Gefühle ansprach, in denen menschliche Interaktionen in der Welt Leben in materielle Form brachten.
Résumé
Lʼauteur examine les conflits survenus, avec la Réforme de l’Éducation de 1994 en Bolivie, entre les formes antérieures d’alphabétisation acquises par les pratiques de tissage, en tant que forme d’écriture et d’identité andine de longue date, et le nouvel enseignement de l’alphabétisation en classe par l’écriture alphabétique. Elle soutient que les modules d’enseignement de la Réforme introduits dans cette transition ont ignoré ce contexte historique et ont perçu les enfants autochtones ruraux comme faisant partie d’une culture orale. L’un des résultats a été une crise pour les adolescentes, obligées de choisir entre percevoir « deux voies » vers la connaissance et de manières d’être au monde, l’une enseignée à travers des pratiques éducatives andines séculaires au niveau communautaire et familial, et l’autre dans la scolarisation formelle de l’État, visant à acquérir les attributs de la modernité et de la citoyenneté. Lʼauteur aborde ce conflit comme celui qui a lieu entre le tissage en tant qu’écriture « naturelle » ou « sémasiographique », orientée vers des choses du monde naturel, par rapport à l’écriture alphabétique « conventionnelle », orientée vers la représentation des sons de la parole humaine. Les deux formes d’écriture ont leurs fonctions communicatives et intégrationnistes respectives pour les populations andines. Mais le programme de la Réforme a également sous-estimé la manière dont le tissage fait partie d’une entreprise scientifique régionale, tout en faisant appel à l’imagination, au sens de la personne et aux émotions, dans laquelle les interactions humaines dans le monde introduisaient la vie sous une forme matérielle.
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Notes
See especially art. 2.6 and art. 10.1 of “Bolivia: Ley de Reforma Educativa, 7 de julio de 1994,” in https://www.lexivox.org/norms/BO-L-1565.html.
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Acknowledgements
I thank the weaver Elvira Espejo for our many conversations about these themes and Juan de Dios Yapita for the many fieldwork hours we shared together.
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Arnold, D.Y. Weaving as writing: a serious omission in the Bolivian Educational Reform of 1994. cult.psych. 4, 47–65 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43638-023-00066-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43638-023-00066-2