Enculturation through collaborative storytelling performances
Fieldwork and writing assignment I
Option 2
Read one of the articles pertaining to narration and storytelling, or gossip, or hidden transcripts,
provided in the Angel folder “articles pertaining to storytelling, gossip, etc.)
As Elinor Ochs and Lisa Capps (1996:22) observed, “Narrative is radical, creating us at the very
moment it is being created.” Narratives are formed out of experience and they give shape to experience.
All people tell stories about the past, present, and future. Their accounts create plots and build theories of
events, but not just any plots and theories. People’s accounts are framed through the linguistic repertoires
of their cultures. The events people describe in their narratives are evaluated according to community or
group concepts of appropriateness, sense making, and ideas about what is rational and moral. (Ochs &
Capps 1996:26-31). In this assignment, observe and write down the stories you hear people tell each other
in your culture group. What kinds of stories do they tell? What are people’s reactions? Do other people
jump in and ask questions? Is the gist or ‘moral’ of the story decided by the teller or by the listening group,
or both? Whose interpretation is empowered and whose version is not? What can you learn about
enculturation of values and worldview from listening to co-narration of a story in your culture group?
In culture groups, people tell stories, people listen to stories, people interrupt and help tell stories,
people ask questions, and people give opinions. In this sense the group is co-narrating the story, coming
up with a group version, so to speak, of the event and circumstances. Even when there is a speaker and a
listener, the speaker is aware of the listener’s expectations and forms his/her narrative in regard to or in
resistance to the listener’s viewpoint. So the story is framed and formed as a co-created explanation of
what happened and why.
Some stories are problem-solving stories or ‘detective’ stories.
Problem-solving through story telling is a socially-accomplished cognitive activity.
- narrative components are constituted, ordered, and clarified through social collaboration
- problem solving motivates co-narration
- the activity of problem-solving stimulates co-narration
Detective Stories
How are story problems reformulated in the course of storytelling
- Certain tellings involve extensive participation of other culture group members in a groping
process to make sense out of the problem underlying the narrative’s initiating event.
- These are ‘detective stories’ because there is missing information felt by some co-narrators to be
vital to understanding the problem that motivates actions and reactions of protagonists and others
in the storytelling situation
- Some listeners are Lieutenant Columbo co-narrators who return to the narrative problem in an
effort to find ‘truth’ through ‘cross-examination’ of the details
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In detective stories, the authority to define a narrative problem is not vested solely in a single
knowing. It is scrutinized in the course of the telling
Co-narrators probe for or contribute information to try and help clarify a narrative problem.
When culture group co-narrators decide to adopt a novel perspective on a narrative problem, we
see evidence of a paradigm shift.
These are socially engendered and have social implications.
Sometimes a culture group accommodates older people and their life stories.
Barbara Myerhoff talks about the emotional importance of having a place and an audience where and for
whom you can relive one's memories. What does your culture group do in the context of life stories? For
young people life stories are a way to reassess experiences in the context of culture group interpretations.
For elderly people, Myerhoff said that life histories were essential to the last stage in the life cycle.
Audiences are essential to working through those life histories. Life history performances are not optional,
she said. Rather they are a matter of well being - a means of incorporating the past with the present compressing them together - as having meaning. Does your culture group accommodate life stories? What
kinds of stories? Are they co-narrated by the group, co-interpreted as an enculturating event?
Some stories are not allowed in particular culture groups, or are considered inappropriate. Some
versions of some stories are not allowed. Sometimes certain people are silenced in some way. Can you
identify silencing of people or types of narratives in your culture group?
Some narratives belong to the group as a whole and are part of the group’s collaborative
description of itself and its history. Some stories are told over and over to newcomers, or retold to
culture group members because they are so important to the group’s sense of purpose, etc. Can you
identify narratives that are important as identity markers for your culture group?
Gossip
Some narratives are gossip stories. Gossip is a near universal linguistic performance. In some ways it
provides opportunities for the repetition and expression of moral values and for making sense of ‘bad’ or
outrageous behavior. It is also a means of defining one’s self by describing someone who one is glad not to
be. Gossip stories can be considered part of the expressive and communicative repertoire of a community.
How gossip is conducted in any community, its style and interactional organization are as critical for the
parties involved as are its topics. While gossip threatens to disrupt relations with some, it also can be an
essential way of building and sustaining sociability, of weaving together a social web. Perhaps the stories
you are hearing are examples of gossip.
You might identify types of enculturating narrative that I have not mentioned.
Write a description of your fieldwork observations and discuss how narratives or stories used in your study group
are part of performing culture, limit-setting, a way of identifying and articulating right and wrong
behavior, enculturating, part of group identity, etc., etc.. Incorporate ideas from the lectures about storytelling,
genre, frames, performances, gossip, face-saving etc., and from the article you chose from article choices in the wiki
week-4 folder. The paper should be at least three double-spaced pages, with 1-inch margins and 12 point
type. In addition, include a copy of your fieldwork notes that describes the storytelling event(s) you
observed and then wrote about.
Wherever you use concepts from your chosen article, or from sources used in lectures, provide a citation
(author’s last name, date of article, page number). Include a bibliography at the end of your paper.
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