Communication, identity, and power in the horse world

Abstract

This chapter offers an introduction to the Horse language(s) and thereby encourages investigation into nonverbal and interspecies communication, other-thanhuman agency, and their relationship with social trust and fieldwork in (language) geography. The emphasis is on human Horse, that is, a jargon that varies geographically, socially, and functionally. It is place-and situation-specific but understood worldwide. The numerous (partially overlapping) subcultures have particular socioeconomic and gender profiles with distinctive identities and complex power relations reflected and reproduced in speech and performance. Yet, the equine serves as a common point of reference for this language, cocreates community, and fosters global networks where humans communicate with one another across linguistic and other boundaries. The internal diversity, unity, and places of Horse as constituents of identity and power are discussed. The examination expands scholarly understanding of how sociocultural and professional status is established, tradition maintained, and knowledge transferred without words and through naming. The reader learns how competence in verbal and nonverbal Horse builds cultural capital and social trust and manages boundaries between "us" and "them. "The reader is challenged to think beyond human agency, spoken and written communication, and customary ways of learning, teaching, and doing fieldwork.