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Anthropology 614 Ethnography of Communication
College of Social and Behavioral
Sciences, NAU Fall 1997
Thursday 6-8:30 p.m., Anth.
Rm. 226 3 credit hours
Course prerequisites: Graduate standing. You are expected to consult the professor, dictionaries, and/or introductory linguistics texts such as Fromkin and Rodman’s An Introduction to Language or Bonvillain’s Language Culture and Communication out of class if the readings presuppose concepts with which you are not familiar. Crystal’s Dictionary (see reference below) might be a helpful resource to have on hand. Course description: Presents theoretical models of "comparative speaking," treating communicative events as systems of social activity analyzed in relation to cultural contexts. "The ethnography of communication" has been the most dynamic subfocus for research and publication in linguistic anthropology since the mid-60's, certainly overshadowing other sub-areas such as formalist linguistic theory or the evolution of language. In name and substance, the ethnography of communication integrates insights from linguistics and sociocultural anthropology and thus aims at the heart of anthropological concerns. The course will help non-anthropological linguists appreciate anthropological perspectives on language. Course objectives and approach: This seminar will consider the many facets of the ethnography of communication, the questions it raises, and its relevance to students’ research agendas in anthropology and allied disciplines. Students will be expected to complete the readings before coming to class and participate in the seminar discussion, taking some leadership of the discussion for at least one class session. (See the guidelines on the last page of the syllabus.) Out-of-class research experiences and in-class demonstrations of methods of working with videotaped data will expose students to the methodology of linguistic anthropology. Assignments: Students will write 2-3 page responses to the readings at least eight times over the semester, to be handed in at the beginning of the seminar (i.e. before the discussion of the readings being critiqued). See the guidelines for writing these on the last page of the syllabus. In addition, a final research paper (13-18 pages) whose topic is worked out in advance with the professor will take up an issue developed in the readings, probably close to one of the weekly topics, and consider it in relation to the student’s own research interests. For this final project, students can but are not required to collect original data (audio or video recordings), or at least make fresh analyses of a previously recorded speech event. Keep IRB requirements in mind. Help in editing and repeated viewing of the video for purposes of transcription is available from the Graduate Assistant at the Video Lab (Anthropology Labs, Building 49). Grading system Grades will be assigned for participation and writing on a 100 point total:
Course Policies: Plagiarism includes all forms of using others’ words without citation; plagiarism in papers for this course will result in an "F" for the paper. TEXTS REQUIRED: 2) Duranti, Alessandro. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. 3) Duranti, Alessandro and Charles Goodwin, eds. 1992. Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon. (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language, No. 11). Cambridge: Cambridge University. (RC) OPTIONAL 6) Tedlock, Dennis, and Bruce Mannheim. 1995. The dialogic emergence of culture. Champaign/Urbana: University of Illinois. (DIALOGIC); 1 copy on reserve 7) Crystal, David. 1991. A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 3rd edition.
Note– The asterisk (*) designates weeks with heavier reading loads. It is strongly suggested you read ahead in weeks with lighter loads.
*Wk. 1, Aug. 28; Preview and overview of the course; getting to know one another; a historical view of the place of linguistics in anthropology
Wk. 2, Sept. 4; Organizing perspectives: Method and theory I Goodwin, Charles and Alessandro Duranti. 1992. Rethinking context: An introduction. In RC, 1-42. 87+41= 128 Hanks, chs. 5 &7 (pp. 91-117, 140-168) Mannheim, Bruce and Dennis Tedlock. 1995. Introduction. In Dialogic: 1-32. +28+25+28+31=112 Hanks, ch. 8 31 pp. 193 pp. Video: Iisaw: Hopi Coyote Stories to be shown in class Wiget, Andrew. Telling the tale: A performance analysis of a Hopi coyote story. In Recovering the word, pp. 297-336. ON RESERVE Read either Bauman and Briggs or Hill (to be coordinated in class, week 4): Bauman, Richard and Charles Briggs. 1990. Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life. Annual Review of Anthropology, pp. 59-88. COURSE PACK Hill, Jane H. 1995 The Voices of Don Gabriel: Responsibility and Self in a Modern Mexicano Narrative. In Dialogic, 97-147. *Wk. 6, Oct. 2; Language socialization Ochs, Elinor and Bambi B. Schieffelin. 1984. Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories and their implications. In R. Shweder and R. LeVine (Eds.) Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion. New York: Cambridge University, pp. 276-320. ON RESERVE Duranti ch. 6, 162-213 Wk. 7, Oct. 9; Speech events, structure, and conversation Duranti chs. 7- 8, 214-280 Wk. 8, Oct. 16; Language, the self, bodies, and medicine Duranti ch. 9, 280-330 Cicourel, Aaron V. 1992. The interpenetration of communicative contexts: Examples from medical encounters. In RC, 291-310. Read either Kuipers or Wilce (to be coordinated in class, week 7): Kuipers, Joel C. 1989. "Medical discourse" in anthropological context: Views of language and power. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 3/2: 99-123. COURSE PACK Wilce, James. 1995. "I cannot tell you all my troubles": Conflict, resistance, and metacommunication in Bangladeshi illness interactions. American Ethnologist 22/4: 927-952. Offprint copies in bookstore. Wk. 9, Oct. 23; Ethnogenesis, Language, history, and identity Blom, Jan-Petter and John J. Gumperz. 1972. Social meaning in linguistic structures: Code-switching in Norway. From Directions in sociolinguistics, 407-34. Reproduced in COURSE PACK Kroskrity, Paul. 1993. An evolving ethnicity among the Arizona Tewa: toward a repertoire of identity. Language, history, and identity: ethnolinguistic studies of the Arizona Tewa, 177-212. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ON RESERVE Read either Moore or Jackson (to be coordinated in class, week 8): Moore, John H. Putting anthropology back together again: The ethnogenetic critique of cladistic theory. American Anthropologist 96/4: 925-948. Jackson, Jean. 1974. Language identity of the Colombian Vaupés Indians. Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking, EES (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 50-64. ON RESERVE
Wk. 10, Oct. 30; Linguistic ideologies Hill, Jane. 1985. The grammar of consciousness and the consciousness of grammar. Matrix Articles by Irvine (251-262), Kroskrity (297-309), Mertz (325-334), Briggs (387-404), and Collins (405-416) and Blommaert and Verschueren (355-375) In COURSE PACK 27+11+12+9+17+11+20=107 Irvine, Judith. 1989. When talk isn’t cheap: Language and political economy. American Ethnologist 16: 248-267. Matrix: 258-283 (ALSO IN BOX) Lindstrom, Lamont. 1992. Context contests: Debatable truth statements on Tanna (Vanuatu). In RC, 101-24. Wilce, James M. 1996. Reduplication and reciprocity in imagining community: The play of tropes in a rural Bangladeshi moot. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 6/2: 188-222. COURSE PACK Woolard, Kathryn. 1985. Language variation and cultural hegemony: Toward an integration of sociolinguistic and social theory. American Ethnologist 12: 738-48. COURSE PACK Wk. 12, Nov. 13 Language and gender Gal, Susan. 1989. Between speech and silence: The problematics of research on language and gender. Papers in Pragmatics 3(1): 1-38. COURSE PACK Keenan (Ochs), E. 1974. Norm-makers, norm-breakers: Uses of speech by men and women in a Malagasy community. Matrix: 99-115 (also in EES, ON RESERVE). Ochs, Elinor. 1992. Indexing gender. In RC, 335-358. Gumperz, John. 1982. Interethnic communication. In Discourse strategies . (Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics I), 172-186. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ON RESERVE Rampton, Ben. 1995. Language crossing and the problematisation of ethnicity and socialisation. Pragmatics 5/4: 485-513. COURSE PACK Read either Philips or Scollon & Scollon (to be coordinated in class, Wk. 12): Philips, Susan. 1985 (1972). Participant structures and communicative competence. In Cazden et al (eds.), Functions of language in the classroom, 370-394. Colorado: Waveland Press. ON RESERVE Scollon, Ron and Suzanne B. K. Scollon. 1982. Athapaskan-English interethnic communication. In Narrative, literacy, and face in interethnic communication, 11-37. Norwood, NJ: ABLEX. ON RESERVE 27, 14, 28= 69 plus either 24 or 26
Briggs, Charles L. and Richard Bauman. 1992. Genre, intertextuality, and social power. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 2/2: 131-72. COURSE PACK Heath, Shirley Brice. 1986. What no bedtime story means: Narrative skills at home and school. Matrix: 12-38 (also in Language Socialization Across Cultures, ON RESERVE). Schieffelin, Bambi B. 1995. Creating evidence: Making sense of written words in Bosavi. Pragmatics 5/2: 225-244. COURSE PACK Read either Scribner & Cole or Duranti & Ochs (to be coordinated in class, Wk. 13): Scribner, S. & Cole, M. 1981b. Unpackaging literacy. In M. F. Whiteman (ed.) Writing , volume 1, pp. 71-87. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. ON RESERVE Duranti, Alessandro and Eleanor Ochs. 1986. Literacy instruction in a Samoan village. In B. Schieffelin and P. Gilmore (eds.) The acquisition of literacy: Ethnographic perspectives, 213-32. Norwood, NJ: ABLEX. ON RESERVE Wk. 15, Dec. 4 Student presentations Wk. 16 Papers due Guidelines for weekly written and oral presentations Reading Interaction Papers Typed papers of 2-3 pages are due at the beginning of each seminar, starting in wee 2. Papers will be your way of integrating and responding to the readings assigned for that day’s discussion (not the previous week’s). The aim of these papers is to help prepare you to participate. Don’t write one paragraph per reading. Rather, write integratively and critically, cumulatively drawing on the various perspectives of authors you read over the course of the semester. You should touch on the main contribution of each reading to theory and method and should point out the usefulness or weaknesses of each reading, such as in relation to your own work. However, again, organize the papers by theme, not by author (especially important in weeks when we read 4-5 authors). I am looking for evidence that you have integrated, compared and contrasted perspectives. Papers longer than 3 pages are NOT acceptable. Be concise. Leading discussions 1. Each class session will consist of a group discussion based on a collection of readings. You are required to attend each class having read the assigned readings and being ready to discuss them. You will find it helpful to take notes on the readings and bring them with you to class. 2. You will be responsible for co-facilitating some of the class discussions. Each required readings will be assigned to at least one student who will be expected to lead the discussion on it. In preparing for the discussions you will facilitate, try not to spend too much time summarizing the readings, but do so in enough detail to orient the group. In addition, you should formulate a series of questions and comments to stimulate discussion using the following guidelines: What are the broader issues that it seeks to address? What underlying assumptions-- theoretical or otherwise-- does the author make? What are the strengths of the argument? What are its weaknesses or limitations? What considerations has the author failed to take into account? What have you learned? What more would you now like to know on the topic? To what related material-- in this class, other classes, your own lives-- does the material relate? Does it help you more clearly understand dynamics or patterns that exist in this society or any others? Students not leading the discussions
that particular week should try to keep these same questions in mind. Remember,
the quality of any seminar depends mostly on how well participants prepare
prior to coming to class. This involves not only reading the assigned materials
but also thinking critically about the issues that they raise. Please attend
every week; the seminar format requires it. If you anticipate being away,
please notify me in advance for the sake of the smooth functioning of the
seminar.
Each syllabi the intellectual property of the author. |
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