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Article published In: 10th Anniversary Issue: Engaging with LL futures
Edited by Robert Blackwood and Elana Shohamy
[Linguistic Landscape 10:4] 2024
► pp. 370–399

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Multispecies language landscapes

(Re)making beachscapes with monk seals in Hawai‘i

ORCiD logo with link | NHH Norwegian School of Economics
Published online: 31 October 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.24027.lam
Abstract
The Hawaiian monk seal is the most endangered of all pinnipeds (walruses, sea lions, and seals). The threat of extinction has loomed large for these seals, especially as sea-level rise threatens to inundate their primary habitat, but an alliance of conservation actors, from federal agencies to non-profit volunteer groups, are working to bring this species back from the brink in Hawai‘i. Today, the monk seal population is finally beginning to recover, but as monk seals make a comeback and reclaim busy beaches, new and unpredictable human relationships with monk seals are taking shape in an uncertain time of climate change. Drawing on data from my ethnographic research of the monk seal-human contact zone in Hawai‘i, in this article, I explore possibilities for a multispecies approach to linguistic and semiotic Landscape research that seeks to ‘multiply’ our understanding of social life and meaning-making in public space as a rich, multispecies entanglement.
Ka Moʻolelo i Hoʻopōkole ʻia
ʻO ka ʻīlio holoikauaua ka holoholona e ʻaneʻane loa nei i ka nalowale loa ma waena o ia lāhui holoholona (e laʻa ka palaʻo, ka liona kai, a me ka sila hoʻi). He hoʻoweliweli nui ʻia ia holoholona, he oki loa hoʻi ma muli o ka piʻi ʻana mai o ke kai me ka hālana ʻia o ko lākou wahi noho, akā naʻe, aia nō kekahi poʻe no ke aupuni pekelala a he mau lima kōkua hoʻomanawaleʻa hoʻi, ke ʻimi like akula i ka mea e pono ai ia lāhui holoholona ma Hawaiʻi. I kēia mau lā, aia nō ia lāhui holoholona ke kōnea nei me ka ulu hou mai o kona heluna nui, i ka wā naʻe e māhuahua aʻe nei lākou me ka noho ma nā kahakai paʻapū iā kānaka, he mahaʻoi paha ke ʻano o kānaka e hana aku ai i ia poʻe holoholona, a he kānalua kahi a pili ai me lākou i loko o kēia wā o ka loli ʻana o ke aniau. Ma ka hōʻike ʻana i ka ʻike i loaʻa mai ma kaʻu ʻimi noiʻi ʻana ma nā wahi e launa pū ai kānaka me ia poʻe holoholona i Hawaiʻi, ma kēia ʻatikala, e ʻimi aku nō au i mau wahi e ʻimi noiʻi ai i ka waihona ʻāina ma ke ʻano kālai ʻōlelo a kālai hōʻailona hoʻi, i mea e ‘māhuahua’ aʻe ai ko kākou hoʻomaopopo ʻana i ka nohona pilikanaka a me ke kūkulu manaʻo ʻana, me he ʻupena hihi lā e hihia ai nā ʻano lāhui like ʻole.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language landscapes in the multispecies contact zone
  • 3.Hawaiian monk seals on the brink
  • 4.Multiplying for multispecies language landscapes
  • 5.Discourses in place
  • 6.Historical body
  • 7.Interaction Order
  • 8.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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