An Anthropology of Indirect Communication

Hendry, Joy; Watson, Carol

doi:10.4324/9780203428573

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Language differences may contribute to this crosscultural variability, each language embodying a distinct folk model of those who use the language falsely (Sweetser, 1987). Local beliefs about liars find their way into cultural sayings and lore (Hendry & Watson, 2001). …”

Section: The Current Projectmentioning

confidence: 97%

A World of Lies

2006

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

302

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This article reports two worldwide studies of stereotypes about liars. These studies are carried out in 75 different countries and 43 different languages. In Study 1, participants respond to the open-ended question "How can you tell when people are lying?" In Study 2, participants complete a questionnaire about lying. These two studies reveal a dominant pan-cultural stereotype: that liars avert gaze. The authors identify other common beliefs and offer a social control interpretation.

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Section: The Current Projectmentioning

confidence: 97%

A World of Lies

2006

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

302

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“…88 Contrasting the policies and other guiding documents that reflect the formal order with the practices and narratives of various informants makes it possible to distinguish 'between what people say they do, what they ought to do and what they in fact do' -or to identify disjuncture in order to comprehend the interface between the formal order and agency in practice. 89 Did I then manage to grasp the native's point of view -the eighth and final methodological principle? Here, the distinction between the emic, native's point of view as the ultimate goal of fieldwork and as a means -or approach -for gaining information becomes relevant.…”

Section: Studying the State And Studying Up In Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Challenging Anthropology: Anthropological Reflections on the Ethnographic Turn in International Relations

Lie

2012

Millennium: Journal of International Studies

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Ethnography and anthropology are intrinsically linked, but recently other disciplines have started to draw inspiration from anthropological methods. The ongoing ethnographic turn in International Relations has spurred debate on what ethnography is, what it means and entails in practice, and how to apply it in International Relations. Some assert that the ethnographic turn could not have taken place without adopting a selective and antiquated notion of ethnography; others counter that this argument draws on a caricatured version of ethnography. This article offers one anthropologist's reflections on these issues, drawing on ethnographic work within an international organisation and a state apparatus -both of which are areas of study more common in International Relations than in anthropology. This is not an International Relations turn of anthropology, but the practical and methodological challenges it involves are relevant to the ethnographic turn of International Relations and the disjuncture between the ethnographic ideals and anthropological practice.

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“…As Hendry and Watson point out: “[ethnography] requires learning how to decipher obscure messages, recognizing code names, and painstakingly assembling disparate and discrete pieces of data into a unified whole in order to make sense of the wider picture” (2001:1). Their concept of “indirect communication” is especially pertinent here, referring to “the communication of thoughts not directly, straightforwardly or unambiguously, but in a manner that to some degree or another obscures, hides or “wraps” the message (Hendry and Watson 2001:2). Indirection, allusion, obfuscation, and a variety of “non‐verbal semantic possibilities” (Hendry and Watson 2001:9), of which silence is one important example, are an inherent part of everyday life, and have particular relevance to socially sensitive topics.…”

Section: The Logic Of Linguistic Avoidancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their concept of “indirect communication” is especially pertinent here, referring to “the communication of thoughts not directly, straightforwardly or unambiguously, but in a manner that to some degree or another obscures, hides or “wraps” the message (Hendry and Watson 2001:2). Indirection, allusion, obfuscation, and a variety of “non‐verbal semantic possibilities” (Hendry and Watson 2001:9), of which silence is one important example, are an inherent part of everyday life, and have particular relevance to socially sensitive topics. The role of “indirection” in bodily and discursive practices relating to communication about sex has, for example, been considered in one analysis focused on India and grounded in a consideration of these deeply emic ways of being and talking (Lambert 2001).…”

Section: The Logic Of Linguistic Avoidancementioning

confidence: 99%

Coded Talk, Scripted Omissions

Wood

Lambert

2008

Med Anthropol Q

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In this ethnographic article, we explore the character of local discourse about AIDS in an affected township community in South Africa, describing the "indirection" that characterized communication about suspected cases of AIDS. Through a case study of one affected family, the article first explores the diverse ways in which people came to "know" that specific cases of illness were AIDS related, and how this "knowledge" was communicated. We consider why communication was indirect and coded, arguing that this reflected nota "denial" of its presence in this community but, rather, a complex group of overlapping concerns far from unique to AIDS: first, a normative injunction on naming potentially fatal conditions; second, an interest in pursuing different therapeutic options and the need to maintain hope of recovery; and third, a wish to avoid the "disrespect" entailed in referring directly to the nature of the problem in a context where, discursively, stigma was still present. The coded and indirect character of HIV/AIDS-related talk underlines the importance of ethnographic inquiry in understanding community responses to this epidemic, demonstrating that the subtleties entailed by verbal silence and elision should not be interpreted naively as collective "denial" but rather be grounded within existing patterns of responses to dangerous sickness.

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An Anthropology of Indirect Communication

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

A World of Lies

A World of Lies

Challenging Anthropology: Anthropological Reflections on the Ethnographic Turn in International Relations

Coded Talk, Scripted Omissions

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