The origin of language among the Aché

Abstract

For the Aché of Paraguay, language seems to never have been an issue, much less a topic. Aché verbal art emphasizes non-communicative and non-representational functions of speech. The activity of speaking was not related to ethnic or personal identity and there is no account of language in their mythology. This stands in stark contrast to their neighbors, the Guaraní, who have the concept of the word-soul, which relates to names and personhood, and a myth about the origin of language. In the twentieth century, contact with Paraguayan society, settlement in reservation communities, and the influence of missionaries led to profound sociocultural transformations among the Aché, including language shift. And as their speech practices were changing, these same practices were attended to in novel ways, as “language.” This paper analyzes the origin of language among the Aché and how it became similar to what it is in many other places of the world where people struggle for the maintenance and revitalization of their ancestral ways of speaking: a decontextualized cultural object and emblem of ethnic identity.