Tweets Digitally Archived at Library of Congress

The mission statement of the Library of Congress reads: "The Library's mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations."

Since its establishment by an act of Congress in 1800, the Library of Congress has become on of the foremost cultural institutions, acquiring and proudly offering a vast wealth of resources to the public which is unmatched anywhere else in the world. It is indeed the largest library collection on Earth with more than 144 million items, including: more than 33 million cataloged books and other print materials; more than 63 million manuscripts; North America's largest rare books collection; and the world's largest collection of legal materials, films, maps, sheet music and sound recordings.

Last month the popular global social networking service, Twitter, donated to the Library its entire digital archive of public tweets (2006-present). Twitter reported the acquisition on its blog and the Library on its website. One asks: how does a potentially infinite collection of digital artifacts factor in to the Library's stated mission of "preserving a universal collection of knowledge?"

Over 100 million users worldwide send more than 50 million "tweets" daily, so this extraordinary cultural database currently numbers in the billions and is continuously growing. The 140-character messages we publish every minute of every day provide an unparalleled barometer of the entire global human population at a specific moment in time over a period of time. Twitterers collectively produce an instantaneous snapshot of the world's social and cultural milieu. Every tweet preserves the intimate details of one person's thoughts about his/her status, of where s/he is and what s/he is doing; a whole day of tweets is his/her public bulletin board of firsthand information. Combined these bulletin boards offer a perfect composite depiction of the contemporary way of life across and through time and space.

Tech news website Ars technica acknowledged the Library of Congress' "turn toward historicism" in their acquisition: "The idea is to better understand the context of a time and place, to understand the way that all kinds of people thought and lived...As twitter continues its march into the mainstream, the service really will offer a real-time, unvarnished look at what's on people's minds."

By acquiring Twitter's entire public archive, the Library of Congress recognizes these digital artifacts as one whole evolving body of work worthy of inclusion in its ongoing digital preservation project, the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. (Click here for the program's history and initiatives since 2000.) Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said of the transfer: "The Library looks at this as an opportunity to add new kinds of information without subtracting from our responsibility to manage our overall collection. Working with the Twitter archive will also help the Library extend its capability to provide stewardship for very large sets of born-digital materials."

What do you think of the Library's acquisition of the world's tweets? Do they deserve such "stewardship" of our species collective past and future digital heritage? Is the Twitter archive more or less "universal" than other types of cultural heritage? If UNESCO decides to recognize the universal value of digital heritage, would there possibly be such a thing as a World Heritage (Web)Site?

[Culture in Peril is now on Twitter @cultureinperil]

African Dance, Heritage on Display in Brooklyn

An interesting cultural heritage article, "So, You Think It's African Dance?" by Alastair Macaulay, appeared in the Arts section of the New York Times last week (18 May 2010). Macaulay takes as his starting point the upcoming DanceAfrica festival, held annually by the Brooklyn Academy of Music (2010 marks the festival's 33rd year). He explains why "African dance" is a stereotypic label that has often been misapplied to talk about ALL dance forms originating on the African continent; the cliche, he writes, is one of intense pelvic movement and jumping, bright costumes, polyrhythmic drumming, and the audience's conception of the dances being "perfectly marvelous" (his emphasis). Macaulay's main contention, then, is that African dance "should no longer be lumped together as a single category but parsed as pure artistry. The area is as diverse as it is fecund."

The article hints at several important points when discussing the (intangible) cultural heritage of mankind.

First, African dance performed in America is not "authentic." Authenticity, to be sure, is a convoluted word in the field of cultural heritage studies and will not be variously interpreted at this time. However, in regards to this particular story "authenticity" refers to the geographic/spatial/cultural context of the heritage in practice. African dance loses its authenticity when performed on a stage as a theatrical presentation. According to Chuck Davis, the founder of DanceAfrica, "'Authenticity happens in the space and on the soil.'"

Second, "dance" is a word that simply cannot be translated into many African languages. In traditional cultures across Africa, "what we call dance is an automatic part of ceremony and social function," writes Macaulay. Dances are intended as efficacious cultural rituals marking a significant occasion or event. For example, there are certain dances to: improve the results of work; to build or mend kinship relations; to recognize the coming and going of season; and (perhaps most central and ubiquitous) to honor age and development. In this way, performances of African dance lose their meaning and function when set on a stage for an audience to freely interpret itself.

Lastly, African dance is intimately connected to--and in some ways reliant upon--the music that accompanies it. We typically think of drumming as the predominant music-making form in traditional African dance, but some tribes are known to create music in other ways as well. (I was fortunate to attend a Daasanach warrior and maiden dance on the shores of Lake Turkana, Kenya, in the summer of 2007. All of the females wore metal bands on their arms and legs, designed to rattle during the dance. In this East African culture's dance style the louder the rattling the more attractive the female to a potential mate.) Dancing and music-making are thus interrelated ways of reflecting cultural norms, lessons, traditions, and goals to the whole group.

I think it is important for cultural events such as DanceAfrica to be held on a regular basis for a wide audience. Despite the notion that African dance is inauthentic when performed outside its original context, a notion which I do not deny, I strongly believe that a general awareness and understanding of African dance is needed for outsiders' stereotypes to be sufficiently debunked. Without the opportunity to actually see African dance in practice, people are likely to maintain inaccurate generalizations and false assumptions of the culture as a whole. As global members of a shared cultural heritage, we are all enriched by the accessibility to different cultures. (Note: this is NOT a defense of universal museums, private collecting, or the trade in art and antiquities.) Likewise, the survival of these traditional dance forms requires repeated performance by new generations of dancers, whether African or not. Festivals like DanceAfrica help to raise awareness as well as educate and motivate people to continue studying and practicing art forms of all kinds. The patrons of the upcoming festival will no doubt be refreshed to see a vibrant, diverse exhibition of many kinds of African dance.

[Photo credit: Nicholas Merkelson]

Cultural Heritage Versus Commerce

A March 2010 article in the New York Times, "When Scholarship and Tribal Heritage Face Off Against Commerce," highlighted a tenuous cultural heritage situation ongoing in Oxford, Alabama, where the fate of an archaeological site remains in jeopardy because of the city's desire for economic growth. To be fair, the site in question is no Temple of Doom: it is a small earthen mound and a scattering of stones sitting atop a lone hill behind a strip mall called the Oxford Exchange. Despite its unassuming character, the mound has spurred over a year of debates between archaeologists and historical preservationists—who want the mound saved—and Oxford's City Council and mayor—who want to use it as fill dirt for construction of new commercial developments.

The leading voice for the preservationists belongs to Dr. Harry Holstein, an archaeology and anthropology professor at Jacksonville State University. After conducting an initial study of the mound in which only few artifacts and no human remains were excavated, Dr. Holstein concluded that American Indians had constructed it over 1,000 years ago. (He subsequently recorded these findings in Alabama's archaeological registry in 2003.) However, a more recent excavation carried out last June by the Office of Archaeological Research, University of Alabama and commissioned by the city, found that the mound was not archaeologically significant [in archaeology parlance, the mound was undeserving of future study]. Follow-up reports determined even further that humans had not built the mound at all, and because the city owned the land the Oxford City Council and Mayor Leon Smith were legally entitled to either authorize or prevent the mound’s destruction.

On the one hand, Oxford’s politicians and economic decision-makers are looking after the best interests of the city’s commercial welfare. Understandably, if there is city-owned land that is deemed suitable for new business, Mr. Smith should be the person who champions its development most vigorously. Indeed there are some Oxfordians who have voiced support for Mr. Smith in the local paper, the Anniston Star, and defended his track record on business development in the city. His ideas for new commercial real estate include a restaurant, or a hotel, or a health clinic; whatever it is, “It’s going to be real pretty,” he said.

In contrast, Dr. Holstein represents a contingent of archaeologists and historical preservationists who instead argue that the mound has significant historical value—it is the largest stone mound of its kind in Alabama, not to mention may date to 1000 B.C. or older!—and thus deserves to be saved from destruction. Leveling the mound and destroying archaeological context would prevent any future excavations from taking place and would irreparably disrupt scholarship on Native American occupation of the area in the last millennium. Likewise, Dr. Holstein also represents American Indian groups who believe the controversy surrounding the mound's preservation signifies the larger issues of natives' rights to cultural property and their heritage. For example, Sharon Jackson of the Central Alabama Native American Council sees the mound’s preservation as typifying their attempts “to preserve our ancient heritage.” Rather, she proposes the construction of an educational complex that would include “history trails,…walking tours to the top of the mound,…[and] since there is a slave cemetery on the property, it could also include a museum about the impact of slavery.” No doubt these cultural heritage ventures will bring year-round revenue in educational and recreational tourism (not unlike the proposed Sam’s Club to be built in its place).

It is up for your consideration, though, whether economic motivations superseded cultural (and scientific) interests.

One final point to recognize is the prodigious use of social media throughout this debate. What began as a small town’s local development problem quickly transformed into a global cultural heritage debate. Carolyn Chambliss, a former Oxford resident now living in Italy, founded the Facebook group “Stop Sacred Burial Mounds from becoming a Sam’s Club” and the cause “Save Sacred Mounds from Destruction/ Boycott Sam’s Club,” which have a combined membership of over 7,000 Facebook users. Chambliss also utilized Twitter to increase the publicity of the preservationist cause to concerned global citizens around the world. She called these “virtual protests” and hoped they would usher “a real paradigm shift in Americans’ perception of Native Americans."

I think the value of social media in transmitting cultural heritage movements to the world is only just being more appreciated. Having joined the Blogosphere this February, I am still learning how beneficial my writing on Culture in Peril has been towards a wider appreciation of issues that seem only to concern a local population. Instead, I have found that the most insignificant issues are important, and certainly relevant, to an audience outside the one location I am discussing. It is very possible, as I continue to write and publish stories and insights on this blog, to raise awareness among a readership with no geographic boundaries, a goal I set at the very birth of Culture in Peril.

[Culture in Peril can now be followed on Twitter @cultureinperil. There I will post daily links to cultural heritage stories I personally find most interesting.]

World Heritage Status for Austrian Village's Starry Skies

Grossmugl, a small village (pop. 1600) located in Lower Austria, is seeking UNESCO world heritage status for the protection of its starry skies, reports an article posted last week in Earth Times. Villagers are upset about excessive light pollution coming from Vienna, only a 30 minute drive from Grossmugl, which they say obscures all but 40 of the 5,000 stars that typically light up the night sky. With major support from local astronomers, the town is hoping to convince UNESCO of the "outstanding universal value" of their stars.

The geography of Grossmugl--in a valley among low hills and clean, crisp air--offers star gazers a near unique experience as can only be found in a few other locations. Astronomers like Guenther Wuchterl have called this star gazing experience in Grossmugl a "window into the universe" and believe in the protection of "the human right to see the Milky Way." They maintain that the starry sky is a piece of cultural heritage that has been a source of knowledge for generations: humans have used it for navigation, for time-keeping, and for cosmological purposes, among others. If efforts to preserve the conditions for Grossmugl's stargazing succeed, and the town is named a "starlight reserve" and given world heritage status, then UNESCO will officially recognize the cultural heritage value of celestial bodies.

In this case, UNESCO will be forced to expand the criteria for its definition of "natural world heritage site," as given in the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage 1972. Currently the types of natural heritage considered in Article 2 are:

• natural features consisting of physical and biological formations or groups of such formations, which are of outstanding universal value from the aesthetic or scientific view;
• geological and physiographical formations and precisely delineated areas which constitute the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation;
• natural sites or precisely delineated natural areas of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty.

and the four criteria offered in the Operational Guidelines 2005 are:

1. to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance;
2. to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features;
3. to be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals;
4. to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

Nowhere on this list will you find objects of astronomical or celestial importance, or "starlight reserves" as will be proposed to the World Heritage Committee. Thus UNESCO will have to amend this category to their definition of natural heritage accordingly. The committee already has plans to meet in July to discuss whether starlight protection is feasible both practically and theoretically. If voted yes, Grossmugl (and other sites like Lake Tekapo, Zealand) will be able to apply for world heritage status after another conference is held in 2011.

What is your view of this potential cultural heritage addition? Do you support or disclaim its inclusion on the World Heritage List? (Would including nightscapes on the List open up archaeoastronomic sites to inclusion as well??) What are the differing virtues of inclusion versus exclusion in terms of our appreciation of global cultural heritage?

Keep in mind, the citizens of Grossmugl have begun implementing preliminary cultural preservation and conservation measures (e.g. street lamp installation; "light consulting" sessions with astronomers; low-key tourism for stargazers).

His Maker's Artifice: Literatary Critique As Method of Dating

Kudos for a recent post found on His Maker's Artifice, a new and very interesting blog written by Stephanie Wills, a graduate student in English Language and Literature at University College. The blog takes as its premise, "old art, new contexts."--literature in its physical, tangible form used to examine its historical and thematic contexts.

Her most recent post is about the Esdaile Notebook, a notable historical object--it is a holograph!--containing 56-57 of Percy Shelley's poems and acquired by the New York Public Library over forty years ago. Ms. Wills appears a literary-turn-cultural-heritage detective, offering readers a compelling explication of how this material culture has come to be an important artifact and valued piece for literary scholars and art collectors alike. (The object was part of an investment banker's private collection purchased from Sotheby's in 1962.)

Culture in Peril looks forward to His Maker's Art further contextualizing literature in its cultural property form: as cultural objects appropriated for the use and consumption by people and institutions, as artifacts appreciated for their literary content as much as their history.

Negative Memory Bulldozed in Sri Lanka

A March post on Culture in Peril, titled "Remembering to Remember at Holocaust Museums," discussed the topic of memory and its crucial role in effecting proper negotiation of tragic negative events. I wrote,

[T]he key premise of this blog post: museum exhibits dedicated to past tragedies, particularly human induced atrocities such as The Holocaust, are important vehicles in the formation of collective memory and facilitate the consumption of trauma/loss in a way that provides society with a cathartic release from grief. Simply put, memorials to 'negative heritage' allow society to remember to remember.

Culture in Peril asks readers to recall this previous post in light of recent cultural heritage developments occurring in Sri Lanka, that is, the government-sanctioned destruction of all LTTE [Tamil Tiger] landmarks. According to Tourism Ministry Secretary George Michael, “The official government policy is not to highlight former LTTE landmarks for tourism purposes. The government has already begun to clear some LTTE landmarks in line with the government’s view that terrorism, the LTTE and the violence which affected the public during the war should be forgotten.” Newly-elected President Mahinda Majapakse's UPFA government has consequently begun bulldozing LTTE cemetaries, homes of former LTTE leaders, and memorials erected by the LTTE. In their place the government plans to build hotels and resorts to promote tourism in the country's Northern Province.

While I support the decision to develop these once war-torn areas as new tourist destinations, thus empowering Sri Lanka's economy, ultimately I condemn the UPFA's egregious efforts to eradicate all tangible remnants of the decades-long civil war. This conflict has only just ended--May 17, 2010 marks the one-year anniversary of the Tamil Tigers' defeat--and vivid memories (nightmares?) of it are no doubt fresh in the minds of people who have witnessed the indescribable horrors firsthand. These living victims of the war require a means of reconciliation and confirmation of their experiences. Eliminating LTTE landmarks is not proper grief counseling; it is shunning the negative heritage that remains today. Malathi de Alwis, a Sri Lankan journalist writing in The Guardian, remarks,

The primary response to the war we endured should not be bulldozings and demolitions and exhortations to forget, but rather to ensure that we never again descend into that hellish abyss. To do this, we need to reflect on the circumstances that led to this war and make sure we do not repeat the mistakes made in previous decades.

In this case it is not beneficial to advance touristic opportunity to spite the collective memory of the Sri Lankan people. As I mentioned, the people of Sri Lanka--Tamil or otherwise--are living victims of the tragedy. They are relatives, friends, and even enemies of those who perished. Deconstructing the cultural landscape and ensuring that the LTTE is entirely forgotten by erecting "victory" monuments is a callous way to honor and memorialize those who have ties to this event. The suggestion is to maintain the former sites of LTTE presence because they are "repositories of memory, suffering and grief, and often help to translate the unthinkable to the thinkable." In any event, though these sites were once appropriated as a form of Tamil nationalism, instead they now can act as conciliatory landmarks of the LTTE's former power, reminders of the tragedy and indicators of the government's triumph.

We can also ponder the repercussions of this cultural heritage destruction as it pertains to the Tamils. Johnathan Steele notes, "If [President] Rajapakse treats Tamils as a conquered enemy, who have to be corralled in camps and whose land has to be split up and occupied, he will sow the seeds for new militancy in the generation to come."

Clearly, the treatment of (negative) memory has significant social, economic, and political ramifications. Cultural heritage of past tragedies, even recent ones, need not always have negative connotations. We must consider how this heritage can be appropriated for good purposes as well--like fomenting collective memory to prevent these events from recurring. (Indeed, is it possible for the former LTTE landmarks to serve as tourist destinations without encouraging Tamil nationalism?)

Culture in Peril asks readers to think about a global cultural landscape without a Fort Sumter, a Normandy Beach, or Gorée Island.

Iraqi Cultural Week Begins

Saturday marked the beginning of Iraqi Cultural Week, as part of host Qatar's "Doha, Capital of Arab Culture 2010." This event, which goes through this Wednesday, features exhibitions and folk performances at the Qatar National Theatre by a delegation of Iraqi artists and cultural performers. Moubarak bin Nasser al-Khalifa, General Secretary at the Qatari Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, proclaimed Iraqi Cultural Week a celebration of "the Iraqi people's love of life and their rich cultural heritage, despite the current situation in Iraq."

This culture emerged in the 9th century AD in Baghdad, and the city has since served as a cultural hub for Arab world. It is significant that the Qatari delegation openly recognized the difficulty facing Iraqis in restoring their culture's image in the region. Iraqi Cultural Week highlights a regional acknowledgment of the cultural contributions Iraqis have made throughout their history and have continued to make even through ongoing conflicts. Al-Khalifa further remarked, "The suffering of the Iraqis has not deterred them from cultural innovation and achievements, to revive the cultural heritage of Iraq, which used to supply the whole world with art and craft products."

Scheduled events for Iraqi Cultural Week include: a documentary screening about Iraqi civilization and cultural treasures; a visual arts exhibition featuring photos and antiques representing old Babylonian gods; a crafts exhibition with handmade carpets and handicrafts; traditional dance performances by Iraqi National Folk Arts band; and folk music concerts.

Baghdad will serve as Arab Culture Capital in 2013.

A Czech City's Cultural Revitalization

Urban planners know well when a city's leading industry or market folds the cultural milieu stands in jeopardy as well. When the Detroit auto industry collapsed in July 2009 and GM, Ford, and Chrysler were consequently forced to lay off thousands of their employees, people were left wondering if the city stood at a cultural cross-roads. That year, in a Sports Illustrated article titled "The Courage of Detroit," a hopeful Mitch Albom explained that Motown truly is a "swallow-hard-and-deal-with-it place":

Do you think if your main industry sails away to foreign countries, if the tax base of your city dries up, you won't have crumbling houses and men sleeping on church floors too? Do you think if we become a country that makes nothing, that builds nothing, that only services and outsources, that we will hold our place on the economic totem pole? Detroit may be suffering the worst from this semi-Depression, but we sure didn't invent it. And we can't stop it from spreading. We can only do what we do. Survive.

Basically, if you take the fashion out of Milan or the film out of Los Angeles, for example, those cities would likely experience a shocking social and cultural facelift as serious as an economic one.

In any case, there do happen to be more positive examples out there. One European city, Ostrava, in the Czech Republic, has begun to alter its image as a result of the recent decline of its coal mining and processing industry. Mining operations in Ostrava were terminated in the early 1990s, leaving a number of abandoned warehouses, mines, and factories. In hopes of revitalizing these industrial sites while still embracing its heritage, the town is turning many of them into chic cultural hot spots.

For example, the Vitkovice "castle," a former steel and ironworks plant, is being converted into a new science museum and conference center. Currently visitors can tour the plant and marvel at the Communist-era metal machinery, some of which, according to David Byrne (ever heard of the Talking Heads?), look like aliens or Easter Island statues. Hlubina and Michal Mine, two now-closed mines, will soon begin to host electro-punk, jazz, and classical concerts as well as cultural events and art shows. Tourists will be drawn to these exhibitions not only for their modern appeal but also because they will be "industrial themed," including "'day in the life of a miner' tours of equipment and living quarters."

In 2002 these localities were declared a National Cultural Monument by the Czech government and were also included in the European Cultural Heritage network in 2008.

It is refreshing to see important cultural conservation and renovation movements such as that ongoing in Ostrava. The "New Vitkovice" project is responsible for "preserving the industrial heritage for next generations" and is also pioneering the revitalization of the town with the construction of "new residential blocks, administrative premises, university, scientific-research and cultural background and leisure time zones." The New Vitkovice website clearly states the project's goals:

What does the uniqueness of the project consist in? It connects the old with the new. It materializes the reality of development of Vítkovice together with Ostrava and redeems the promise of future of Ostrava that is positively evaluated by general public...The room for industrial use of the entire area is reduced and conversely, new opportunities for the development of the City of Ostrava are built.

I think this case stands against many preconceived notions about former Soviet strongholds and their current situations. We sometimes forget how recently the Soviet Union fell, and instances such as the 2008 South Ossetia War are in some ways seen as the tremors from this event. Ostrava is one place where memories of the Communist era still linger, and yet they are making great cultural gains in regard to their local, national, and international image. Ostrava is taking a proactive approach towards ensuring their identity is not lost in the mentality of what was or could have been. They have recognized the absolute necessity of revitalizing the industrial heritage they enjoyed only a decade ago, and they are working towards making that heritage a distinctive part of their future albeit with a touch of modernity.

Endangered Languages Preserved in New York

In a February post, titled "The Ethnosphere and Our Common Culture," Culture in Peril referred to a Wade Davis lecture in which he remarked on the conspicuous daily extinction of languages. Davis notes that of the roughly 6500 to 7000 languages in the world (a rough estimate only because nobody really knows how many there are), half of them are not being taught to children. On average every two weeks, he says, "some elder slips away and carries with him or her into the grave the last syllables of an ancient tongue." The loss of language, then, equates to a loss of culture, the loss of a person or group's identity that manifests itself in their mythologies, ritual songs, folkloric tales, and spoken cultural creations. Culture in Peril encouraged readers to think about what it means to be "facilitators of cultural survival," the optimistic term Davis uses to promote intercultural appreciation and awareness.

A recent New York Times article in the N.Y./Region section, titled "The Lost Languages, Found in New York," reports on a linguistics project, the Endangered Language Alliance, begun in New York and aims at endangered language research and conservation. Its mission, according the ELA website, "is to further the documentation, description, maintenance, and revitalization of threatened and endangered languages, and to educate the public about the causes and consequences of language extinction." The ELA takes as its geographic focus the whole of metropolitan New York, which is not only "the capital of language density in the world" but also, more importantly, "an endangerment hot spot," says ELA co-director, Daniel Kaufman.

Linguists believe over 800 languages are spoken in New York, some of which come from the most remote parts of the world and now have their last speakers living in New York. For example, a Rego Park, Queens, resident is believed to be the last living speaker of Mamuju, an Austronesian language found in West Sulawesi, Indonesia. Vlashki, an Istro-Romanian dialect spoken by less than 1000 people in the world and listed as "seriously endangered" in the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages, is indeed kept alive in conversations heard elsewhere in Queens. By applying in New York's urban ethnic niches the very same field methods utilized in exotic and foreign areas, ELA is attempting to record these dying languages and hundreds of others which may have no written documentation and whose native speakers are so few in number.

The initiative shown by the ELA to preserve languages and prevent their extinction characterizes the nature of what is meant by facilitating cultural survival. Many of the speakers of endangered languages recognize that the survival of their people's identity depends so heavily on the perpetuation of their native tongue. They understand that as older generations die away, without new speakers to carry on the voice of their cultural group their identity quickly becomes moribund. Perpetuation of a cultural identity through its linguistic tradition does not mean that studying and recording the syntax and grammatical rules of the language necessarily ensures its survival; rather, perpetuation means that the language must continue to be spoken and passed on through generations of living speakers--essentially, through children. ELA supports this notion by encouraging these fading ethnic communities to teach younger generations and compatriots their native tongue, through the revival of songs and stories.

One of the more refreshing indicators of communities’ awareness of the importance of new speakers for disappearing languages is the number of taught courses offered to students and younger generations alike. A linguistics class at New York University is currently instructed by Daowd I. Salih, a Darfuran refugee living in New Jersey who speaks Massalit, a tribal language. On teaching these young minds his language he says, “Language is identity. This is the land of opportunity so these students can help us write this language instead of losing it.”

Culture in Peril recommends the video about New York’s language diversity and the move to preserve speakers’ cultural identities.