VERNACULAR SHIFT: LANGUAGE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT IN BASTIMENTOS, PANAMA

Abstract

This article examines the connection between language shift and architectural shift in the Panamanian village of Old Bank on the Western Caribbean island of Bastimentos. The process of shift from Creole vernacular forms—both linguistic and architectural—to “prestigious” Panamanian forms is analyzed through an ethnographic lens focused on the spatial coordinates of social interaction. Language choice and the restructuring of communicative practices are shown to intersect in vital ways with architectural choice and the restructuring of the built environment. This essay suggests that vernacular shift in Old Bank is presently being held in check by the emergent covert prestige of Creole forms in a region where international tourism is fast supplanting the banana industry as the primary economic activity.

Key Words:

• language shift
• architectural shift
• Panama
• creoles

I thank the editors, two anonymous reviewers, Karla Slocum, Deborah Thomas, Jay Edwards, Chuck Goodwin, Peter Patrick, Lydia Pulsipher, the residents of Old Bank, and especially Paul Garrett for participating in the discussion that resulted in this article. Any errors or shortcomings are my responsibility alone.

Notes

1. All names are pseudonyms.

2. Fillmore (1966: 220) defines “deixis” as “the name given to those aspects of language whose interpretation is relative to the occasion of utterance; to the time of utterance, and to times before and after the time of utterance; to the location of the speaker at the time of utterance; and to the identity of the speaker and the intended audience.”

3. See Lawrence and Low (1990) for an exhaustive review of anthropological approaches to the built environment.

4. Jay Edwards (Louisiana State University, personal communication) points out that “while some scholars refer to imported materials as being above the vernacular, I believe that such considerations would be moved to second place, and design principles (geometry) moved to the determining position in a more modern conception of vernacular … In other words it would be perfectly possible for local builders to design in the traditional styles and forms, but use cement blocks and other imported materials in their designs.”

5. One possible exception may be a linguistically undocumented community of Creole French speakers in the mainland port of Almirante.

6. The term “Panya” (from España) is used by Creole speakers throughout the Western Caribbean to refer to anyone of Spanish culture.

7. Official census figures were not available for the village of Old Bank or the island of Bastimentos at the time I conducted my fieldwork. The figures presented are the results of my own census taking in 2000–2001.

8. Herzfeld (1983: 34, footnote 4) states that the name “Guari-Guari” is used by Panamanians to refer to varieties of Creole English spoken in Panama. The term is considered to be derogatory, and folk etymology attributes it the meaning of “gibberish.”

9. Creole, not Spanish, is the lingua franca on the docks for the Black, Panya, and Indian workers.

10. Some board houses on the fringes of Old Bank owned by Ngobe-Buglé families have roofs made of thatch, but all other buildings in the village have roofs made of metal.

11. Unfortunately, because of time constraints, I was unable to collect data on language choice for all families living in board houses.

12. In a personal communication, Edwards reports that “cement block houses with low-pitched Eternit roofs were introduced on San Andres in the early 1960s by Colombian continental immigrants. But the locals hated them, claiming that they heated up like ovens in the sun and that they had no piazzas around them. It was on the piazza that much social life took place.”

13. L. Pulsipher (University of Tennessee) reports in a personal communication that “Montserratian people are particularly cognizant of the changes now, first because hurricane Hugo took out the electricity and did major damage in 1989. For months the customs of storytelling and after dark street life were revived because there was no television. Then in the mid to late 1990s the volcano destroyed all the old domestic spaces and now many live like yuppies in condo-like wall houses with little land to exploit. Everything has changed and people talk about it constantly.”

14. Today, hosting and guiding tourists must be added to this list of activities (Snow 2004).

15. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_(television_series)

16. Such behavior is not related to Rastafarianism in any religious sense, at least not yet. Most ganja-smoking, dreadlocked youths have simply co-opted such types of behavior from visiting surfers and other travelers.

17. This annual trip to Costa Rica coincides with the turtle season. Since the late eighteenth century, families from Bocas del Toro have traveled north to Turtle Bogue (Tortuguero) to spend the late spring and summer months (March to September) hunting turtles. As a result, the boundaries of extended families are determined more by migration patterns than international boundaries.