An Anthropology of Indirect Communication / Edition 1

by Joy Hendry, C.W. Watson

Overview

Sometimes we convey what we mean not by what we say but by what we do. This type of indirect communication is sometimes called 'indirection'. From patent miscommunication, through potent ambiguity to pregnant silence this incisive collection examines from a rare anthropological perspective the many aspects of indirect communication. From a Mormon Theme Park to carnival time on Montserrat the contributors analyse indirection by illustrating how food, silence, sunglasses, martial arts and rudeness call constitute powerful ways of conveying meaning. An Anthropology of Indirect Communication is an engaging text which provides a challenging introduction to this subject.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415247450
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/15/2001
Series:	ASA Monographs
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

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).

Table of Contents

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