A Cultural Approach to Interpersonal Communication Essential Readings

by Monaghan, Leila; Goodman, Jane E.

• ISBN13: 9781405125956
• ISBN10: 1405125950
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-01-08
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This engaging and innovative collection brings together key readings from the fields of linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, communication, and conversation analysis. Beginning with the theory that interpersonal communication is inseparable from culture, this volume introduces students to the rich and varied communicative practices of social communities in the United States and beyond. Readings explore interpersonal interactions in an internationally diverse range of settings, such as the use of slang in California high schools, the application of sign language in a church for the deaf, Tuareg greetings in the Sahara, everyday verbal encounters on American city streets, the speech of male rugby players in New Zealand, and the language of aggression among Mississippi girls. Drawing ethnographic case studies,A Cultural Approach to Interpersonal Communicationmoves beyond traditional approaches to the subject by examining the ways in which interpersonal relationships emerge through culturally mediated language practices.

Author Biography

Leila Monaghan Leila Monaghan teaches Anthropology at the University of Wyoming. Previously she was the Course Director of Interpersonal Communication in the Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University. She is co-editor of the recent volumes Many Ways to Be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities (2003) and HIV/AIDS and Deaf Communities (2006).

Jane E. Goodman is Associate Professor of Communication and Culture at Indiana University, where she teaches performance and ethnographic studies. She previously served as Course Director of Interpersonal Communication. Goodman is the author of Berber Culture on the World Stage: From Village to Video (2005).

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors

Preface for Instructors

Editors’ Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments to Sources

Introduction

Ethnographer’s Toolkit

Introduction

Body Ritual among the Nacirema

Culture Blends

Five Principles

Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture

Winking as Social Business

Speaking of Ethnography

The Emergent Quality of Performance

Poetics, Play, Process, and Power: The Performative Turn in Anthropology

Narrative Lessons

Greetings in the Desert

Let Your Words Be Few: Symbolism of Speaking and Silence among Seventeenth-Century Quakers

“To Give Up on Words”: Silence in Western Apache Culture

What We Need Is Communication: “Communication” as a Cultural Category in Some American: Speech

Writing Cousin Joe: Choice and Control Over Orthographic Representation in a Blues Singer’s Autobiography

Talking Culture: Ethnography and Conversation Analysis

Ethnography of Talk: From Language Form to Social Solidarity

Introduction

The Triangle of Linguistic Structure

The Grammar of Politics and the Politics of Grammar: From Bangladesh to the United States

Conversations: The Link between Words and the World

Conversational Signals and Devices

A Cultural Approach to Male--Female Miscommunication

Preface and “Put Down that Paper and Talk to Me!”: Rapport-talk and Report-talk

Swearing

Swearing as a Function of Gender in the Language of Midwestern American College Students

Communication and Social Groups: The Work of Belonging

Introduction

Speech Communities

Encounters

Symbols of Category Membership

Word Up: Social Meanings of Slang in California Youth Culture

Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls

Sporting Formulae in New Zealand English: Two Models of Male Solidarity

Inner-City Teens and Face-Work: Avoiding Violence and Maintaining Honor

Speech Play

“If I’m Lyin, I’m Flyin”: The Game of Insult in Black Language

Interpersonal Communication in Institutional Settings: Structure and the Exercise of Power

Introduction

Language and the Power of Men

Mayor Daley’s Council Speech: A Cultural Analysis

Linguistic Ideology and Praxis in US Law School Classrooms

Participant Structures and Communicative Competence: Warm Springs Children in Community and Classroom

Footing

“An Association for the 21st Century”: Performance and Social Change among Berbers in Paris

Signing

V

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