Conclusion

The book concludes by uniting the themes developed throughout the volume. It introduces the concepts of the soundscape and of soundmarks to show how place may be both physical and aural, as argued in earlier chapters. Place creation is the mapping of a community’s boundaries onto its space, via storytelling, using landmarks to define the boundaries of physical space, and via the use of soundmarks to indicate the boundaries of aural space. Places reflect who we are, and they teach us how to be. They are intrinsically personal, and their loss felt profoundly. There are many reasons that we should be concerned about land and language loss, but it is precisely because the connection to land and to language is so very intimate, that they matter so much to the people whose lives shape and are shaped by them, that we should care when they are threatened.

Omens from the Past, Warnings for the Future

Chapter Eight considers the stories told in the process of place-making. It focuses on the history of land loss in the Lafourche Basin via personal accounts of recent storms and land loss and of the hurricanes that destroyed vibrant communities such as Last Island or Chenière Caminada. These are the stories people tell when they create place in Terrebonne-Lafourche; it has been so for generations. The stories are presented in the words of the residents themselves. The chapters shows how these stories invoke both land and language, and a subsequent showcasing of the stories told about language demonstrate that people speak of the disappearance of land and of the language in parallel ways; the disappearance of both has thrown this into sharp relief and demonstrates that place is both physical and aural space made meaningful.

Oak Point or Dog Point?

Chapter Six confirms the findings of chapter Five, via an examination of the dispute over the name of the town that is either Pointe au Chien or Pointe aux Chênes. Place naming is an important part of place-making: those who name a place are the authentic stewards of the place. The chapter traces the history of the confusion and shows that the long-standing dispute seems to pattern along ethnic lines today. However, via an examination of many factors, including the linguistic landscape, storytelling, and a consideration of semantics, it becomes clear that both groups lay claim to the same space, using the same means to do so. Because place is so closely tied to personal identity, the competing goals of the two sub-groups results in the need to characterize the place differently. The dispute over the name is not a dispute over boundaries or stewardship, but rather over characterization.