Learning Faith: Language Socialization in a Community of Hasidic Jews  

Oleh:

Fader, Ayala

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Language in Society (ada di PROQUEST) vol. 35 no. 2 (Apr. 2006), page 205-229.
Fulltext: 4169492.pdf (2.8MB)

Isi artikel

Despite a growing body of cross-cultural ethnographic research in religious enclave communities, we know little about the everyday discursive practices by which women caregivers socialize children to morally reject much of contemporary society. This article draws on ethnographic and linguistic research conducted in a Brooklyn (New York) neighborhood from 1995 through 1997 to discuss how Hasidic women caregivers rehearse a particular stance to faith with young children by examining socialization routines in which Hasidic children display culturally unacceptable ways of speaking: questioning, requesting or challenging authority figures. An unusual consistency of message across a range of socialization contexts supports caregivers' (mothers' and teachers') efforts to teach their children the morality of communal hierarchies of authority and difference. Hasidic women encourage their children to “fit in” to communal hierarchies of age, gender, and religious practice and to reject what they present as “Gentile” ways of behaving and communicating. When children make certain requests, ask culturally unacceptable questions, or challenge caregiver authority, caregivers invoke the moral authority of community practices and social roles. Through appeals to a higher authority, essentializing difference and morality, silence, shaming, or threat of exclusion, Hasidic children are presented with a type of faith which parallels communal authority with divine authority. An approach to religious enclave communities that is framed by the language socialization research paradigm can link everyday micro processes of talk with broader global processes shaping contemporary religious movements.

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