Fieldwork Paper II/Due May 27
Linguistic Anthropology
A fieldwork paper involves spending time in participant observation (or perhaps just observation in this
case).
- taking accurate, detailed notes to document ‘talk’ and/or recording actual conversations
- taking notes about communication settings, participants, ends, act sequences, keys, instrumentalities,
norms, and genres.
- paying special attention to the cultural/social contexts of language uses and forums
- considering the enculturating, socializing nature of ‘talk’ and other aspects of communication.
Choose one of the three suggested options, or if you have your own idea for a paper that focuses on
the materials presented in weeks 5 and 6, let me know. A video is also possible. It should include all
of the elements that a paper requires
1) Joking cultures option
Assignment introduction:
Consider Keith Basso’s approaches and findings when he studied the joking culture of Western
Apache. For example, see page 37 & 38 of Portraits of “The Whiteman”. Basso discusses Apache
understanding of joking as both funny and dangerous. The danger comes when people take joking
literally as not play, so the joking has to be done within careful frames of performance to cue people
that a joke is occurring. As Basso shows, the content of jokes and the ways they are performed
reveal a great deal about culture group dynamics.
Folklorist Alan Dundes writes that if you want to know “what is really on a people’s collective
mind, there is no more direct and accurate way of finding out than by paying attention to precisely
what it is making the people laugh.” A study of humor is essentially an exploration of a type of
cultural language and communications. In this fieldwork assignment pay attention to the use of
humor in the group you observe. In your notations of jokes or humor events, include a description of
the contexts (who, what, when, where, why, how etc.) of the humor performance events. What is
revealed about how participants confront their reality by distorting, disguising, enlarging and
exaggerating its dimensions through the language of humor? What is on the collective mind of those
participating in the humor events described in your journal? Are people strengthening social
relationships? Are they resisting in some way? Are there particular kinds of jokes people tell more
than others? Who laughs? Who doesn’t?
Suggested assignment parts:
1) Observe the joking or humorous storytelling of a group of people.
2) Take notes about the setting up of joke performances, the performances, the role of the
audiences, the context of the joking performance, the actual words used in joking exchanges, and
the influences of group power and relational dynamics. Remember the S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G acronym.
3) Take your notes and your experiences and work to put them into a larger analytic perspective.
- What happened and why?
- What can you bring from Basso’s Portraits of “The Whiteman” to help describe, explain, and
define what you observed?
- What can you bring from the lectures/discussions about joking as a language frame to help
describe, explain and define what you observed?
4) Write an essay or create a video in the spirit of the work that Basso did to delve into the
underlying influences of joking as a form of linguistic communication.
5) Briefly describe what is missing in your study for a more complete analysis and description and
what steps you would take to make this a serious study.
The paper:
The paper should be approximately 3-4 pages with one-inch margins and 12-point type. Cite sources
within your narrative and include a works-cited page. You should include some concepts/theory from
written or lecture sources to illustrate points. Attach your field notes to the back of the paper. You are
welcome to visit and talk about your paper.
A video is also possible. It should include all of the elements that a paper requires
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2) Language acquisition option
Assignment introduction:
We will spend time discussing some of the ways that children are enculturated through learning
language. The ways children learn language influence how they learn to take meaning from the
environment around them. As they learn language, children learn how to be good subjects and fit
into their social/cultural surroundings.
Language socialization research examines how young children and other novices,
through interactions with older and/or more experienced persons, acquire the
knowledge and practices that are necessary for them to function as, and be regarded
as, competent members of their communities. (Paul B. Garrett and Patricia Baquedano-Lopez.
2002. Language Socialization. Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 32: 339-361)
This option would involve observing child/adult interactions (with permission of sources) to
understand how language is used and the patterns for how to take in information about the
environment, and the worldview and values being transmitted.
Suggested assignment parts:
1) Observe child/caregiver interactions. Remember the S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G acronym.
2) Take notes about the interaction performances, the context of the interactions, the actual words
used in child/caregiver exchanges, and the roles of all of the people involved in the interactions.
3) Take your notes and your experiences and work to put them into a larger analytic perspective.
- What happened and why?
- What can you bring from written, sources to help describe, explain, and define what you
observed?
- What can you bring from the lectures/discussions to help describe, explain and define what you
observed?
4) Write an essay or create a video in the spirit the language socialization paradigm to delve into
the underlying meanings of child/caregiver interactions as a form of linguistic communication
and socialization.
5) Briefly describe what is missing in your study for a more complete analysis and description and
what steps you would take to make this a serious study.
The paper:
The paper should be approximately 3-4 pages with one-inch margins and 12-point type. Cite sources
within your narrative and include a works-cited page. You should include some concepts/theory from
written or lecture sources to illustrate points. Attach your field notes to the back of the paper. You are
welcome to visit and talk about your paper.
A video is also possible. It should include all of the elements that a paper requires
3) Speech acts and genres, keys, framing and performance in social settings
Assignment introduction:
As Salzmann (2004:233) puts it, “Communicative activity is guided by rules of interaction: Under
normal circumstances, members of a speech community know what is and what is not appropriate.”
Rules of interaction and the ways that interactions are interpreted vary from culture to culture.
People read and interpret interaction through genre expectations, keys, framing, etc. etc. For
example, each communication situation is accompanied with styles of talk and communication
rituals. (Example a car salesman is expected to perform with certain kinds of phrases, forms of
address, body language etc.) People are cued in to the speaking event by the keys that people use.
Keys, according to anthropologist Dell Hymes, are the “tone, manner, or spirit in which an act is
done.” Framing is closely associated with keys. Keith Basso discussed the importance of framing
among Western Apache and how joke tellers let people know - through code switching, change of
voice tone, change of posture etc. - that they were telling a joke that involved imitating a ‘whiteman’.
A particular performance – what participants in an interaction are doing when they speak (or write or
text etc.) – commonly determines the frame of reference in which the exchange is to be interpreted and
understood.
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Authentic genres are culture-specific and vary from one society to another
Some might include:
- bargaining
- complaining
- congratulating
- consulting
- excusing oneself
- insinuating
- interviewing
- joking
- gossiping
- mimicking
- reporting
Dell Hymes’ pointed out that language and speech have a culture-influenced patterning of their own, as
do social organizations, politics, religion, and economics, and therefore merit attention by
anthropologists.
- The patterning is not identical to the grammar of a language
- Understanding the genre and framing of the speech event is central to the ethnography of
speaking
- Speech events require study of the interrelationships among a number of components/factors:
settings, participants, purposes, verbal or textual organization in terms of constituent acts, key
or manner of delivery, linguistic varieties used, norms of interaction, and genres. Remember the
S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G acronym.
- To look at these elements is to attempt to capture a description of each group’s unique cultural
organization of language and speech
Suggested assignment parts:
1) Observe speech or writing or other communication events that take place in a group.
2) Take notes about the ‘setting-up’ of event performances, the performances, the role of the
audiences, the context of the communications event, the actual words (or signs) used in
exchanges, and the influences of group power and relational dynamics. Remember the S-P-E-A-KI-N-G acronym.
3) Note and describe the keys and framing that occurred to cue members that a type of speech
event or genre was taking place.
4) Take your notes, recordings and your experiences and work to put them into a larger analytic
perspective.
- What happened and why?
- What can you bring from Basso’s Portraits of “The Whiteman” about speech event rituals, genres,
framing and keys to help describe, explain, and define what you observed?
- What can you bring from the lectures/discussions and text book about speech event rituals,
genres, framing and keys to help describe, explain and define what you observed?
5) Write an essay in the spirit of the work that Basso did or the descriptions of language in some of
our other readings or videos to delve into the underlying influences of framing and keying
speech events as essential to communication.
6) Briefly describe what is missing in your study for a more complete analysis and description and
what steps you would take to make this a serious study.
The paper:
The paper or should be approximately 3-4 pages with one-inch margins and 12-point type. Cite sources
within your narrative and include a works-cited page. You should include some concepts/theory from
written or lecture sources to illustrate points. Attach your field notes to the back of the paper. You are
welcome to visit and talk about your paper.
A video is also possible. It should include all of the elements that a paper requires.
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