Taylor Chen

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Field

Eating Christmas in the Kalahari / Scope of the

Richard Borshay Lee

B. The tactic for enforcing humility / !Kung
3. AWe refuse one who boasts, for someday his pride will make
him kill somebody.@
4. There are no totally generous acts
e. All acts have an element of calculation
f. Thorough skepticism of good intentions
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Ethnically Correct Dolls: Toying with the Race
Industry / Scope of the Field
Elizabeth Chin
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Concept and Fieldwork

Argonauts of the Western Pacific / The Culture

Bronislaw Malinowski
I.

South coast of New Guinea / Trobiand Islands / Omarakana

Extensive and highly complex trading system, the Kula

J.

AHang of Tribal Life@

Cannot communicate well with natives
3. White full of bias and pre-judged opinions

I.

Methods used in collecting ethnographic material

Principles of method
e. Real scientific aims / know values and criteria of
ethnography
f.

Good conditions of work / live right among natives

xviii.
this is most elementary

e. Apply special methods of collecting, manipulating, and

fixing his evidence
I.

Proper conditions for ethnographic work

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

I.

Cutting oneself off from the company of other white men

Eventually seek out native=s company for relief from solitude
Eventually presented more or less like a native
Cease to be a disturbing element in the tribal life
Acquire Athe feeling@ for native good and bad manners

Inspired by knowledge / by its principles and aims

3. Good training apart from Apreconceived ideas@

e. Preconceived ideas are pernicious
f.
Foreshadowed problems are main endowment
3. First ideal
e. Give clear and firm outline of social constitution
f. Disentangle laws and regularities
g. Cover full extent of phenomena in each aspect
h. Whole area in all its aspects has to be gone over in research
J.

Formulation
Draw up rules and regularities of tribal life
e. Anatomy of culture / Constitution of society
3. Expediency
e. Collecting concrete data of evidence
f. Drawing general inferences
3. Method of statistic documentation by concrete evidence
e. Enormous deficiencies / must cross-fertilize work &
observation
f. Mental chart must be transformed into real one /
tabularized form

I.

Inponderabilia of actual life / Type of behavior

3. Observation in their full actuality / Flesh and Blood
4. Penetrating the mental attitude expressed in them
5. Use of Ethnographic Diary / detailed observations

I.

Corpus inscriptionum / documents of native mentality

3. Commentary contained in the native=s mind
4. Motives, feelings, ideas; ethnic peculiarity / Spirit
5. Practical means
e. Find out typical ways of thinking
f. Formulate results in convincing manner
g. Quote Verbatim statements / statements / narratives /
typical utterances / items of folk-lore

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMDCCCLXXXVIII. Number our Days

Barbara Myerhoff
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMDCCCLXXXIX.
American Culture / Language and Culture I

The Number Three in

Alan Dundes
B. AThree-determinism@ of contemporary thought
6. Number Three is predominant numerical category in American
culture
e. Three is an absolute limit

f.

Additional ones defined in terms of one of the three basic

terms
g. One source of trichotomies located in reference to some
initial point
h. Splitting a polarity
i. Merging of two terms
j. Repetition Compulsion /itself being divided in three parts
k. Three-in-one
3. Areas of Three determinism / Number Three is a folk category
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.
m.

Folklore
Superstition
Traditional Games
Team games / sports
Naming conventions
Folk Speech / Verbal Rituals
Food / Sandwiches cut into 3 = formal
Clothing / folding = formalizing effect
Technological culture / education / social organization /
military / music / religion

B. Language and culture

4. If pattern is found in social organization, likely to find pattern in
time and language
5. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
n. Cultural relativity of time concepts / Time trichotomy
o. Relationship bteween grammatical categories and concepts
of time
3. American English contains both binary and trinary features
4. What members of culture think about their language influences
other aspects of culture, as much as the actual linguistic
patterning.
5. Perceptions derived from language not from structure, but what
has been taught about it / which is analyzed into trinary
e. There are still trinary structural features
3. Individuals perceive in threes
B. How native category affects formation of analytical categories
4. Scientists analytical categories are ethnocentric extensions of
native categories
5. All analytical schemes have some standing in American culture
6. Anthropologists are culture-bound in their theoretical
formulations / i.e. tripartition
B. Wharf = cultural conditioning of thought patterns
7. Origins of tripartition is unknown, speculative / Wharf would
say language
8. Trichotomy is not nature of nature, but part of nature of culture
.

Codifications of Reality / Language and Culture, I

Dorothy Lee

C. Perceptions are codified in concepts embodied in language

9. Intervening Alenses@
10.Defines experience / blind to reality outside of Acultural
lenses@
B. Nonlineal apprehension of Trobiand Islands
11.Codifies experienced reality through use of language / behavior
characteristics
12.Grasps reality only as presented in this code
13.Absolute reality / communication is possible
14.Requires analysis of linguistic formulation
B. Diversity of Codification
15.
Each culture phrases reality differently, differently punctuated
e. Ontong Javanese / Wintu Indians
B. Nonlineality in Trobiand Language
16.Formulation of experienced reality
e. Word refers to self-contained concept
f. Word is ingredient / Gardener & Goodness
g. Series of beings, but no becoming / no temporal connection
3. Trobianders do not act on assumption of lineality
e. Organization / Coherence is result of patterned activity
f. Making of a sweater
g. Acts containing value assumes lineality, are despised
h. Nonlineal pattern is valued reality / lineal behavior exists
B. Line vs. Pattern
4. Not only connects, but moves
5. Chronological sequence / cause and effect
6. Climaxes / plan future climatically
B. Failure has no symbolic meaning / not personally destructive
.

Cynical Reason of Late Socialism / Language and Culture, II

Alexei Yurchak
C. Ideological representation of social reality is false, immutable,
omnipresent.
7. Strategies of simulated support
8. Political ridicule neutralizes experience of oppressive power
B. Parallel culture, not counter culture
9. Carved out within official one
10.Lost its role of providing a Abelievable@ representation of
reality
11.Turned into Hegemony of representation
B. Hegemony of Representation / space of the misrecognized
12.Apparent no other public representation of reality could occur
13.All institutions, discourses, practices centered as one unique
discourse
14.Participation was perceived as inevitable / cease being noticed
at all
15.Panorama of everyday life = visual part

B. Dissident, Activist, and Normal Subject

16.Dissident / insane to challenge the immutable
17.Activist / really believed the official representation of social
reality
18.Pretense Misrecognition / pretense one did not see falsity of
official claims though they did
B. Cynical Reason
19.Zizek
e. False consciousness / they do not know it, but they are
doing it
f. Cynical consciousness / they know very well they are
doing, but still are doing it
g. Cynical reason governs pretense misrecognition
h. Recognition of falsity through anekdoty / ubiquitous
political jokes
B. Sloterdijk / Humor that has ceased to struggle
20.Inability to struggle against one=s own simulated support
21.Empowerment and resistance to ideology
i. Subvert and achieve distance from dogmatic truths
j. Subverts even the most basic norms which it imposes
3.
Omnipresent social ritual / communicative practice
4. Not misrecognition / false consciousness, but pretense
misrecognition / enlightened false consciousness
B. Joke Work of Anekdoty
5. Humor produced not only by inner structure of
narrative, but also by a view of two incongruous
spheres coexisting together.
6. First level = inner incongruous / antithesis
7. Second level = social incongruous / social commentary
8. Rigid and formulaic structure
e. Repeating a whole narrative
f. Minimal spontaneous improvisation
g. Everyone is involved in same activity / joke
h. reinforced hegemony of representation
3. Jokes element written into system itself / not a way of
resisting it
e. Release repression anxieties / Have normal life
f. Thus sustaining pretense misrecognition
g. Trend to maximize symbolic free time / involvement in
parallel sphere
.

Signifying and Marking / Language and Culture, II

Claudia Mitchell-Kernan
C. In bilingual community, code of messages are highly salient
4. Analysis of components emphasized by elaboration on speech
forms
5. Pattern of selection among alternatives
h. Not just sociolinguistic systems / but cultural focus
(salience-emphasis) on components

3. Artistic component significant / major concern in Black English

e. Way in which something is said / style is criterion
f. Speech acts given labels / stylistic aspects / artistic
characteristics to other components / how used / concern
with style value of artistic merit influences
g. Direct effect upon choice of the linguistic code in
certain conversational situations / explains use of black
dialect forms
B. Signifying / encoding messages in natural conversations
4. Game activity / verbal dueling / end in itself
5. Element of indirection
h. Alternative message form
i. Selected for artistic merit
j. Embedded in variety of discourses
3. Not focal to linguistic interaction / not define entire speech
event
4. Rags / Poverty = implicit / stems from conventional associations
5. Folk notion / depends on context / must understand total
universe of discourse
6. Context
e. Facial expression / tone of voice / situational / background
knowledge / assumptions and expectations
3. Obscured by surface content or function
e. Meaning intended to convey
f.
Person message is directed
g. Goal orientation / intent of speaker
3. Signifying
e. Purposely formulated at the encoding stage
f. Requires recognition and attribution of implicit content or
function
g. Option of avoiding real confrontation / provoke
confrontations
3. Message often carries negative import for the addressee / i.e.
establishment of dominance
e. However, clearly thought of as an art
B. Signifying as a Form of Verbal Art
4. Artistic Characteristics
e. Indirect intent / Metaphorical reference Indirection
f. Recognition that signifying is occuring
g. Employ reinterpretation of utterance
h. Cleverness in directing attention to this shared knowledge
i. Signifying that tops a previous one, is especially appreciated
j. Intricacy of allusion to shared knowledge that makes success
3. Code selection and content define style being used
4. Requires strict adherence to sociolinguistic rules / requires
knowledge governing this usage
B. Marking / mode of characterization / mocking
5. In reproducing, affects voice and mannerisms of speakers

e. Individuation of characters through use of direct quotation

f. Meaning is revealed through phonological / grammatical
peculiarities / paralinguistic mimicry
3. Characterization relevant for further processing of meaning of
speaker=s words
e. Replay a scene / Parody or caricature
f. Features selected are associated with membership in
some class
g. Relies on folk notions of covariance of linguistic /
nonlinguistic categories
3. Context one where hearers are sufficiently like himself
4. Conveys many subtleties / source of information about attitudes
toward language
5. Exhibits finely tuned linguistic awareness / verbal virtuosity
B. Relationship between message form / content and function
6. Paralinguistic features
e. Posture / speech rate / tone / facial expression, etc.
f. Signals a change in meaning
g. Audience must be sensitive to cues
3. Pure syntactic / lexical elaboration requires ability to carefully
manipulate other components to create new meanings
.

The Pueblos of New Mexico / Culture and Personality II

Apache=s contact with White changed them a lot, but a lot stayed the same
Domestic activity in the individual camps or gowaa (nuclear families)
AWhite@ culture imposed on them, but they resisted language/culture assimilation
Joking
1.
2.
3.
4.

Information
Joking done by Adult men
Objects of Joking were men
Objects not necessarily kin
Frequently done at Adrinking parties@

Jokes both funny and dangerous

Subject of joke is depicted as something he or she is not
3 kinds of Jokes
1.
Joker likens the butt to class of material objects
2.
Joker metaphorically places the butt in a social category to which they do not
rightfully belong (usually to a third party who=s not there)
3.
Joker places himself in a social category he does not belong to, and tries to
make the butt a role that they do not belong to
Scene of unjoking activity: Primary text
Constructed mock scene of primary : secondary scene
Butt needs to be persuaded to play along
Joking provides moral cover for immoral social acts
Joking about Whites is most dangerous
Use caricature and hyperbole
Contrast Principle
1.
Imitate members of a status role category, paired usually with Apache
2.
Foreground the status-role category chosen in with stock phrases and lexical
items (aspirin).
3.
Select presentation elements of white culture that contrast with equivalent
elements in Apache
Distortion Principle
Verbal:
1.
Increase volume
2.
Increase tempo
3.
Exaggerated pitch elevations
4.
Repetition of whole phrases
5.
Modification of voice quality
Non verbal:
1.
Exaggerated abruptness / jerkiness
2.
Repetition of movements
3.
Lengthen duration of visual/body contact
Whitey portrayed as gross incompetents in the conduct of social relations
1.
2.

Whitey was Afriend@ label to liberally C lost meaning

Too personal in question-asking Ahow are you?@

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Call attention to the obvious ALook who=s here!@

Say names too much (names are personal)
Too physical ; weak self-restraint & disregard for others
Whitey asks too many questions
Too much attention to personal appearance
Too tense and quick in speech

Comparison and censure used to understand secondary texts

Whiteman is an abstraction, a complex of ideas and values
B Whiteman is a social category and a cultural symbol
B Term used to define what an Indian is not
Why does Whitey study this? To develop a sharp and more sensitive awareness of
the impressions they make
Languages of multilingual communities exhibit functional differentiation ; nothing
that chances / switching in languages have a reason, and have uses [ English /
Apache ]
Shifts convey implicit messages about how to construe what is said
Codeswitching a linguistic device for framing verbal messages
an indirect form of social commentary
Use of
Stock phrases
Lexical items
recurrent sentence types
modifications in pitch
volume, tempo, voice quality, facial expressions
Relationship of Girl to dog congruous with relationiship of school teacher to her
Foregrounding : when language is used in an unusual (marked) setting, associations
become metaphorically highlighted, or foregrounded, socially related meaning
Whiteman is abstract and malleable. Changed to fit situation. Symbolic construction
/ inventions
2 perspectives of joking:
How angloamericans are imitated; what does it mean to the joker?
What do these imitations disclose about their views?
Messages about 2 relationships
1.
The present relationship between himself and the object of his joke
2.
An absent one on which the present relationship is modeled
Understanding of social meaning rests upon prior understanding of their cultural
counterparts
Purpose
To demonstrate utility of viewing Apache Joking as vehicles for microsociological
analysis and a complex Aproblem@ in their lives that is a concern.

Jokes used to make sense of whitey, so we study how they go about it and what kind
of sense they make
Most dangerous joking: Joker pretends to be a role Aabove@ the butt
Joke is delicate and can go on too long, tearing a relationship
Apaches hate arrogance
Whiteman relationship jokes illustrate what Apache Jokes are not
White Jokes affirm Apache conceptions of what is right by dramatizing the wrong
Whitey based off ethnic sterotypes? No, dynamic. Inventive and creative.
Jokers change culture = active agents
Imitations are statements about what can happen to dignity and self respect when 2
cultures collide

Scope and Field

Tylor Definition
Culture (learned, shared)
Stereotyping
Basso
Mead
Ethnically Correct Dolls
Culture (transmitted, unselfconscious, symbolic, value system, changes)
Lee making cultural assumptions (unselfconscious) / Poverty is self conscious
therefore not natural
Hegemony of Representation / Hegemony in Chin (symbolic)
Cultural Concept and Fieldwork
Linnaeus / Lewis Morgan = Evolutionary Anthropology = Armchair Anthropology
Malinowski would critique = be in environment / live right among the natives
Evolutionary thinking / relationship to Survival Anthropology / Tylor
Different stages of culture (Color Categories) / The idea of progress
5 Basic Principles of Field Work
6 Diverse concepts to understand field work
Franz Boas : One father / Historically oriented Anthropology / Salvage Anthropology /
Focus on material items / language
To recover what Native Americans were like before white men, then after whitemen
Dealing with dying culture = diachronic
synchronic = freezing frame in present moment
Language and Culture
Cognition
Sociolinguistics
Claude Levi-Strauss / Minimal Pair / binary opposites / mapping out structure of
culture as convenient / describes the machinery of society
Reality is rooted in our language
What is the significance of Color Categories, Euphemisms, and Metaphor?
Language of Society
Code-switching / Basso B present in a lot of cultures B form of joke relationship
5 Types of Language (in relation to society)
5. Teknonymy / bilateral kinship system
Determine structure of society, much like binary oppositions
Main idea: effects the way we think, and thus the culture that we live in

Yurchak: Binary opposition, what else?

Signifying and marking, what=s relationship?
Culture and Personality
Culture not biology
Cultural determinism
Mead / Benedict / Malinowski
shapes role differentiation and control over expressions of personalities / e.g.
swaddling
Culture chooses personality / personalities at large B attributed to entire culture
What was the deal with October 2 nd lecture?
Compare/Contrast the anekdot, the Apache joking imitations, and marking as
linguistic forms in terms of their functions and manifestations
Functions
1. Anekdot
Official Sphere
Humour as resistance
Misrecognition
Post-colony
Making fun behind their backs
Simulated support / Not taking it at face value
Parallel Sphere
Humour that has ceased to struggle / directed at subjects rather than rulers /
admit to inability to struggle against ideology and simulated support
Pretense recognition
Late Socialism
Did not make fun behind their backs
Simulated support / Not taking it at face value
Indifference / Apathy
Releases anxiety of pretense misrecognition / since everyone participates
anekdoty / the system remains the same
2. Apache joking imitations
Reinforces their identity in a fully recognized way
Shows Whitemens values to be inappropriate
Puts the relationship to the test
3. Marking
Conveys an impression

Shows how speaker truly feels about the subject

Reveals the attitudes and values using language
Manifestation
1. Anekdoty
In the parallel sphere
Social Commentary
Rigid & Formulaic joking
Minimal spontaneous improvisation
Everyone participated in and enjoyed
2. Apache
Specific relationships
Imitation
Men
Drinking
Creative and inventive
3. Marking
Stereotypical language of the person
Heavy emphasis on phonological and grammatical peculiarities / diction