Transcript Silence in western Apache Culture

Today
Communication in Practice Quiz
 Share current uses of silence
 Media examples of silence
 Silence activity
 Key terms and discussion for each reading
 Summary and preview
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Communication in Practice Quiz
(10 Min)
• Write down one example of what silence
has meant in your social interactions. Try
to be as specific as possible
 What are two of the five times Apache
use silence?
 Why did people get angry at the
Quakers?
How Do You Use Silence?
Share with the class
Silence as Protest
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UC Davis Protest Background
◦ To 2:06
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Silent Protest
◦ To 1:13
What’s the social business of this silence?
 How is this an example of emergent
communication?
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Silence Activity
• Pair up with someone you don’t know well
• Sit facing each other in silence for 2 full
minutes
• What does your body do when you are
silent?
• Pay attention to whether/how you
communicate with your partner in silence
 Body language
 Facial expressions
Bauman, Let Your Words Be Few
◦ Silence
 The message of the deity can be received fully
through silence – sound may alter it
◦ Language
 One’s voice is an important tool, not to be used
carelessly
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Phatic communication
◦ “Language whose primary purpose is to
establish a connection” (60) and which has a
“lack of referential meaning” (62)
Bauman, Let Your Words Be Few
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Politeness phenomenon
◦ “Means of acknowledging or upholding another
person’s face” (68)
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Face is the public self image that each person
tries to protect
◦ Positive Face
 “The positive consistent self-image or
personality’…including the desire that this self-image be
appreciated and approved of”
◦ Negative Face
 “the basic claim to…freedom of action and freedom
from imposition”
Apply it to Ourselves
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What are some examples of phatic
communication and politeness
phenomena today?
◦ Phatic Communication
◦ Politeness Phenomena
 How does it protect positive face?
 How does it protect negative face?
Keith Basso
“TO GIVE UP ON WORDS”:
SILENCE IN WESTERN
APACHE CULTURE
Basso, To Give Up On Words
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When do the Apache use silence?
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Meeting strangers
Courting
Children coming home
Being cussed out
Being with people who are sad
What, according to the book, do these
situations have in common?
Some Context for Boarding School
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Apache (and other American Indian) children
were forced to attend federally funded boarding
schools, sometimes literally taken by force
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Given Anglicized names, haircuts, and clothing
Forbidden to use their native language
Often taught by Christian missionaries
Often in poor conditions, high rate of abuse
The intention was explicitly to destroy American
Indian culture: “kill the Indian, save the man”
 Began in 1870s, continued through early 1990s,
peaked in the 1970s
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Before and
After
Analysis
What is at stake, or what is the social
business of silence for the Apache?
 How do these practices compare with
your own in similar situations?
 When would we be likely to remain silent
or even just talk less?
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Summary
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Silence is as much a social tool as speech; it
does something
It’s important to note how silence is working
when you take jottings and write fieldnotes
Politeness allows us to maintain face for
ourselves and others in social interactions
Cross-cultural differences in silence can lead
to misunderstanding and even violence
Preview for Wednesday
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Susan Lepselter, “The License: Poetics,
Power, and the Uncanny”
◦ Key terms: uncanny, the poetic function of
language
◦ The two halves of this article are very different:
stories first, then theory
 Choose expert groups!
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Greetings Assignment due in 1 week