Sometimes we convey what we mean not by what we
say but by what we do, wear or eat: sometimes it is by gesture of the hand, a curl of the lip or a raising of an eyebrow. The authors of this new volume ask what kind of communication occurs when we employ these indirect means of conveying
our intentions. Anthropologists soon learn that understanding the codes of conventional behaviour in a foreign setting requires paying special attention to what is not said as much as to what is . From patent miscommunication, through potent ambiguity to pregnant silence this incisive collection examines the many possibilities of indirect communication. A complex and important aspect of social life, indirection itself has rarely been the focus of ethnographic study. In this volume, for the first time, different modes of indirect communication are brought together and examined in the light of anthropological ideas and concepts. Drawing on their experiences in the field, from a Mormon Theme Park in Hawaii, through carnival time on Montserrat, to the exclusive domain of the Market, the case studies examine the many ways in which we can communicate indirectly, both verbally and non-verbally. The authors discuss how indirect communication can be deliberate and how the most expressive form of communication is often the most indirect. By illustrating how food, silence, sunglasses, martial arts and rudeness can all constitute powerful ways of conveying meaning. An Anthropology of Indirect Communication is a fascinating and engaging text which provides a challenging introduction to this growing area of thought and study.
Edited by:
Joy Hendry,
C.W. Watson
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 19mm
Weight: 476g
ISBN: 9780415247450
ISBN 10: 0415247454
Series: ASA Monographs
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 15 March 2001
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction PART I Intercultural communication and the anthropologist 1 Communicational distortion and the constitution of society: indirection as a form of life 2 On the ontological status of honour 3 Not talking about sex in India: indirection and the communication of bodily intention 4 Talk, silence and the material world: patterns of indirect communication among agricultural families in northern England PART II Indirection beyond language 5 Eating your words: communicating with food in the Ecuadorian Andes 6 Sunglasses, suitcases and other symbols: intentionality, creativity and indirect communication in festive and everyday performances 7 Trust, privacy, deceit and the quality of interpersonal relationships: ‘peasant’ society revisited 8 The temple and the theme park: intention and indirection in religious tourist art PART III Bodily possibilities 9 Dance, dissimulation and identity in Indonesia 10 Don’t talk – blend: ideas about body and communication in aikido practise PART IV Intricacies of language explained 11 Licence revoked: when calypso goes too far 12 Indirect speech: heteroglossia, politeness and rudeness in Irula forest festivals 13 Straight talk, hidden talk and modernity: shifts in discourse strategy in Highland New Guinea 14 Unwrapping rudeness: inverted etiquette in an egalitarian enclave PART V English – with diplomacy 15 Ambiguity and verbal disguise within diplomatic culture 16 Delay and deception in Thai–British diplomatic encounters of the early nineteenth century 17 Diplomacy and indirection, constraint and authority
Joy Hendry is Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University. Her main area of interest is Japan and her publications include An Anthropologist in Japan (1999). C.W. Watson is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He is a specialist on Indonesia and Malaysia and his publications include Multiculturalism (2000).
