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Psychological, Sociological and Anthropological Explanations of Witchcraft and Gossip: A Clarification
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... Los enfoques lingüísticos y antropológicos que se han ocupado del chisme, han centrado su atención fundamentalmente en los aspectos discursivos y el aspecto funcional dentro de los grupos socio culturales analizados (Besnier 1989;Hall 1993;Gluckmann 1963Gluckmann y 1968Paine 1967;Wilson 1974;Goldsmith 1989;Ghosh 1996). De manera general podemos señalar que sobresalen los argumentos que giran en torno a la competencia lingüística de quien genera el chisme, así como de su posición social o grado de detención de poder en su círculo social. ...
... Efectivamente, el chisme puede contener todos los elementos funcionales señalados y una eficacia real sobre el control de conductas y mantenimiento de jerarquías (Gluckmann 1963), pero sobretodo, es una manera óptima para conocer las expresiones más espontáneas del sentido común que fluyen horizontal y verticalmente entre los miembros de un grupo, comunidad o cultura. En este caso, en el que interesa conocer las relaciones entre estudiantes adolescentes de ambos sexos, es pertinente señalar que el chisme y los rumores ejercen en esta población una presión particular, debido a que es una etapa de conformación identitaria que exige figuras en quien confiar por medio de la aceptación y condescendencia (Erikson 1992). ...
... Se realiza generalmente entre personas que tienen una relación cercana y supone, en muchos casos, una forma de pertenencia grupal. En suma, es una plática evaluativa de los ausentes (Goldsmith 1989;(Gluckmann 1963;Hall 1993;Besnier 1989). ...
This paper results from research conducted among teenager students of the senior high school of the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (UACH), an agronomical college where the number of male students is three times higher than that of female students. Both boys and girls spend most of the day together since they are full time students and live on campus. The objective of this paper is to examine the role of gossip among the student population, as well as the social representations they have about gender and sexuality. We analyze the impact of gossip and the relations of power and violence involved in which result from this every day practice.
... The proximate reasons for why gossip connects people are twofold, according to Gluckman (1963Gluckman ( , 1968. First of all, he says, gossip marks social groups. ...
... The sharing of negative attitudes towards mutually known third parties especially seems to contribute to this group delineation and may even elicit feelings of closeness among strangers (Bosson et al. 2006;Weaver and Bosson 2011). Second, Gluckman (1963Gluckman ( , 1968 says that gossip is used to communicate about group norms and scandalize those who violate these norms. In this perspective, gossip unites because it enforces conformity of group members. ...
... With gossip outlining group boundaries and norms, and punishing those who violate these norms, gossip thus establishes and reinforces social cohesion (Gluckman 1963(Gluckman , 1968. It sets the context for a system where gossip enforces cooperation by punishing those who do not cooperate. ...
Previous research indicates gossip is a social bonding system that is use to establish shared acquaintances and/or attitudes, to punish group norm violators, or for coercion via invoking fear of gossipmongers. However, no empirical work explores directly the relationship between gossip about freeloaders leading to improved cooperation in recipients. Thus, we predicted that the sharing of negative gossip about the freeloading behavior of a third party will lead to higher levels of cooperation. Using levels of cooperation in a prisoner’s dilemma game as a proxy to measure social bonding, we compared cooperation levels of 60 female respondents who met with a confederate randomly assigned to one of three conditions. They either (1) did not talk or were exposed to (2) negative reputation gossip or (3) self-disclosed negative reputation information. Results show that, even after controlling for a list of potential confounding factors, cooperation levels are high in both the control and self-disclosure condition and are significantly lower in the gossip condition. We suggest that gossip may spark initial relations, yet is insufficient to ignite a social bond sustained by cooperative action among complete strangers.
... Developing and engaging in groups "shapes our reasoning and reactions, our judgments and embodied senses of 'proper' and 'taboo'" (Hitlin & Vaisey, 2010, p. 9). Gossip has an important share in delineating group boundaries (Gluckman, 1963) and maintaining social cohesion (Dunbar, 2006). Several mechanisms underlie the relationship between gossip and social cohesion (see e.g. ...
... Both in actual (see e.g. Gluckman, 1963;1968) and virtual communities, gossip outlines group boundaries when discussing (in)appropriate behaviours. Themes of 'us against them' also appear in Second Life, as, for instance, the judgmental gossip on child avatars shows. ...
... Both in actual (see e.g. Gluckman, 1963;1968) and virtual communities, gossip outlines group boundaries when discussing (in)appropriate behaviours. Themes of 'us against them' also appear in Second Life, as, for instance, the judgmental gossip on child avatars shows. ...
This article explores to what extent the functions of interpersonal offline gossip can be mapped on to the virtual community of Second Life and its subsequent in-world and out-world interactions. A long-term hybrid ethnographic study was conducted that involved recurrent actual and virtual meetings with informants. The main objectives are, first, to look for similarities and to explain dissimilarities and, second, to gain some much-needed insight into how moral life is structured in social virtual communities and how important the role of gossip is. Results show overlaps between online and offline gossip concerning uses and functions. Gossip is important as a means for reputation management; as a cultural learning system; as a sanctioning system; and as entertainment. Just as in traditional offline communities, gossip is a central mechanism to regulate virtual moral life that stretches out to blogs, websites, and face-to-face meetings. Yet, technology amplifies the effects by creating new possibilities such as logging the evidence in order to spot cheaters. This way, in-world gossip becomes an inflated form of traditional gossip.
... Noon and Delbridge (1993) explicitly state that gossip is a phenomenon worthy of serious studying and analysis as its pervasiveness and perpetuation are vital to the organizationís life. Though negative gossip in the workplace has been discussed, it is usually focused on the individual (Gluckman 1968;Ellwardt et al. 2012) and organizational causes (Noon andDelbridge 1993) (Baumeister et al. 2004). In his study, Benwell (2001) claims that menís gossip seems to avoid topics that cover private and personal experiences; hence only issues that are of public knowledge are tackled; they invest no private or emotional energy in gossiping. ...
... Noon and Delbridge (1993) discovered that gossip circulating in an organization is negative, but there is positive news. Noon and Delbridge agree with Gluckman (1968), who claims that gossip serves three collective functions: 1) to create group morale, establishing and vindicating group norms and values; 2) to exert social control over newcomers and dissidents, and 3) to regulate conflicts with rival groups. From this perspective, organizational gossip may be regarded as organizationally beneficial. ...
... Noon and Delbridge (1993) explicitly state that gossip is a phenomenon worthy of serious studying and analysis as its pervasiveness and perpetuation are vital to the organizationís life. Though negative gossip in the workplace has been discussed, it is usually focused on the individual (Gluckman 1968;Ellwardt et al. 2012) and organizational causes (Noon andDelbridge 1993) (Baumeister et al. 2004). In his study, Benwell (2001) claims that menís gossip seems to avoid topics that cover private and personal experiences; hence only issues that are of public knowledge are tackled; they invest no private or emotional energy in gossiping. ...
... Noon and Delbridge (1993) discovered that gossip circulating in an organization is negative, but there is positive news. Noon and Delbridge agree with Gluckman (1968), who claims that gossip serves three collective functions: 1) to create group morale, establishing and vindicating group norms and values; 2) to exert social control over newcomers and dissidents, and 3) to regulate conflicts with rival groups. From this perspective, organizational gossip may be regarded as organizationally beneficial. ...
Marjorie Maido is a 4 th year PhD Sociology student of Eˆtvˆs Loraˇnd University (ELTE). She works as a faculty member of Social Science Department of Iloilo Science and Technology University in Iloilo City, Philippines but is currently on study-leave. Her interests include maritime sociology, culture, migration studies, deviance, economics, and linguistics. She is working on her dissertation on maritime sociology, particularly exploring the identity of global Filipino seafarers. 29 MARJORIE ABLANIDO MAIDO ABSTRACT Drawing from Filipino seafarersí narratives regarding their firsthand experiences of gossip or gossiping onboard international ocean-going vessels, this paper analyzes the masculinities expressed by Filipino seafarers while they are on board and at home through linguistic discourses of gossip and spousal arguments or compromise. The data is supplemented by the interviews of seafarersí wives regarding masculinities while the seafarers are at home. The ship as a workplace dominated by men reinforces masculine traits and behavior where different masculinities are displayed and expressed. Gossip is prevalent among Filipino seafarers as part of their cultural make-up and is used both as a socialization tool and a strategy to accumulate onboard social capital. Onboard gossip exposes the seafarerís agentic flaws ñ his incompetence, unacceptable work attitudes, and work ethics. For Filipino seafarers, this topic stresses how they capitalize on their workplace reputation, which is crucial in the continuance of their careers. Also, onboard gossip exposes biases against management styles and targets queer seafarers. Masculinities at home are expressed through compromises and arguments on sustaining the ìgood provider/good father/good sonî roles of the seafarer despite the temporary loss of income to reinstate the seafarerís relevance in the family.
... Noon and Delbridge (1993) explicitly state that gossip is a phenomenon worthy of serious studying and analysis as its pervasiveness and perpetuation are vital to the organizationís life. Though negative gossip in the workplace has been discussed, it is usually focused on the individual (Gluckman 1968;Ellwardt et al. 2012) and organizational causes (Noon andDelbridge 1993) (Baumeister et al. 2004). In his study, Benwell (2001) claims that menís gossip seems to avoid topics that cover private and personal experiences; hence only issues that are of public knowledge are tackled; they invest no private or emotional energy in gossiping. ...
... Noon and Delbridge (1993) discovered that gossip circulating in an organization is negative, but there is positive news. Noon and Delbridge agree with Gluckman (1968), who claims that gossip serves three collective functions: 1) to create group morale, establishing and vindicating group norms and values; 2) to exert social control over newcomers and dissidents, and 3) to regulate conflicts with rival groups. From this perspective, organizational gossip may be regarded as organizationally beneficial. ...
... (1) early (pre-1960s) work, which saw gossip as an interesting phenomenon to be discussed in passing but rarely speculated on its fundamental importance to the society being studied or on its similarities and differences to gossip in other societies; (2) the 1960s, when a famous debate took place between Gluckman (1963Gluckman ( , 1968, who put forward a social-functionalist analysis of gossip, and Paine (1967), who favored a more individualistic, social-process approach; (3) the period from the 1970s to the 1990s, when ethnographers either advocated one of these two theoretical positions or tried in some way to combine them; and (4) recent work since the 1990s, based on the recognition that gossip is universal and marked either by a neofunctionalist model based on evolutionary science or on the regional survey of the similarities and differences between patterns of gossip in different parts of the world. ...
... Paine argued that gossip is better seen as a competitive activity practiced for the benefit of individuals rather than groups. However, Gluckman's (1968) reply did a good job of rebutting this criticism. His key point was that gossip is a form of indirect aggression. ...
Gossip is a universal feature of all human societies but has not been systematically investigated in all of them: ethnographies that have focused on gossip largely concern semidispersed groups at the margins of modern European and North American societies. The anthropological study of gossip can be divided into four historical phases: pre‐1960s work, which tended to discuss gossip only in passing; a debate in the 1960s between proponents of social–functionalist and social‐process approaches to gossip; the period from the 1970s to the 1990s, when ethnographers either advocated one of these two theoretical positions or tried to synthesize them; and recent work based on the recognition that gossip is universal. Current theoretical innovations include regional surveys of similarities and differences in patterns of gossip and the resurgence of a neofunctionalist model based on evolutionary science, in which gossip has adaptive value in promoting group cooperation.
... It is a conversation about individuals and their private lives. As far as motive behind gossip is concerned, it is a tool for advancing and defending personal interests (Gluckman, 1968). This is a tactic used by people to use their weaknesses and preferences at the expense of others. ...
Cyber gossip is the interaction, via digital devices, between two or more than two persons making evaluative comments about somebody who is absent. This cyber behaviour affects the involved group in and becomes instrument to facilitate or damage relationships. Scientific researches that assess the nature of this emerging interaction type in the virtual world are very limited. Cyber gossip and traditional gossip should be interpreted and measured independently because it occurs through Information and Communication Technology. CGQ-A is applied and CFA, content validation, and MGA are run on the full sample (locality and both genders). Convergent and divergent validity of the scale are also measured by CR. Descriptive results are calculated for the difference between male, female, urban and rural participants of the sample. Analysis is done with the help of SPSS and Smart PLS 4.0.
... Since Gluckman (1963Gluckman ( , 1968) influential work on gossip, researchers from different fields have highlighted its valuable functions. For example, negative gossip can transmit negative information and reputation about a target (Dunbar, 2004;Keltner et al., 2008). ...
Despite gossip research’s predominant focus on gossipers and gossip targets, existing theoretical views and the limited yet important empirical studies converge to suggest that gossip benefits its recipients. Our research builds on conservation of resources theory to shift this consensus by examining the negative effects of supervisor-directed gossip on recipients. We theorize that hearing negative supervisor-directed gossip triggers both cognition- and affect-focused rumination, which consume resources, and we develop a research question around the moderating role of hearing positive supervisor-directed gossip. Furthermore, we propose that the aforementioned effects have cascading implications for recipients’ work behaviors the following day. In a 15-day experience sampling investigation of 122 workers, we found that on days when employees hear negative gossip about the supervisor, they are more likely to engage in cognition- and affect-focused rumination, and hearing positive supervisor-directed gossip strengthens these positive relationships. In addition, we found that cognition- and affect-focused rumination lead to poor sleep quality and diminished next-morning vitality, which in turn results in reduced work engagement and supervisor-directed organizational citizenship behavior. We conclude by discussing the implications and future directions of our work.
... В целом исследователи сходятся в том, что слухи представляют собой формы установления нарративного контроля над сложной и противоречивой ситуацией [Gluckman 1968;Pietila 2007;Schieffelin 2020]. Изучению слухов в контексте символической коммуникации и насилия 1914 -1930-х годов посвящены работы как историков (см., например: [Гайлит 2006; Аксенов 2020; Аксенов, Булдаков 2014; Колоницкий 2017]), так и фольклористов [Архипова 2012; Бессонов 2009; Петрова 2017]. ...
The paper deals with the anatomy of the idiom “St. Bartholomew’s Night” and the reasons for its popularity in the context of pre-revolutionary and early Soviet history. It analyzes the rumors of this era about a forthcoming “St. Bartholomew’s Night” and determines their place in the auditory response to significant sociopolitical transformations of the early 20th century. Since the middle of the 19th century the expression “St. Bartholomew’s Night” is found in journalism, historical literature, school textbooks, etc., and is then actively used in leftist political discourse of the early 20th century to negatively characterize the tsarist regime. In Bolshevik rhetoric the idiom is found in threats to political opponents. “St. Bartholomew’s Night” covers a series of events and generates a network of meanings associated with the discursive practices of competing political, ethnic and confessional groups. The reaction during the period of the Civil War and the first Soviet years to such public texts and speeches is expressed in mass panics in connection with the expected reprisals against various social, ethnic, and confessional groups. Rumors from the 1920s and 1930s about “St. Bartholomew’s Night” fit perfectly into the general context of early Soviet eschatological moods, when the post-revolutionary breakdown of the usual order actualized notions of the end times. Rumors appear in mass discourse in an order that corresponds to the key changes in the sociopolitical agenda of the first decades of the twentieth century. This shows how public anxiety is expressed and the problem of the conflictual division of society
... Indeed, it is known that gossip creates a sphere of intimacy for the gossipers. People who gossip feel connected (see e.g., Dunbar, 1992Dunbar, , 1993Dunbar, , 2004Gluckman, 1963Gluckman, , 1968). Yet who should we gossip with if people do not know our family, friends and foes? ...
This chapter has three goals. The first is to illuminate the various topics covered in mass media gossip about complete unknowns and celebrities, highlighting the overlap with interpersonal gossip. The second goal is to zoom in on celebrity gossip by examining who becomes a celebrity and what role the media play in this process. Third, we take a look at the audience, reviewing why people consume celebrity gossip, and how some people become so deeply involved with some celebrities that they actively take part in the creation and evolution of celebrities and their reputation. In all these discussions, we try to make clear how reputation gossip is a key part in every step of the process. That is, reputation gossip is what makes someone a celebrity and what drives the audiences to consume celebrity gossip and, in doing so, reinforcing the creation of a “celebrity.”
... В целом исследователи сходятся в том, что слухи представляют собой формы установления нарративного контроля над сложной и противоречивой ситуацией [Gluckman 1968;Pietila 2007;Schieffelin 2020]. Изучению слухов в контексте символической коммуникации и насилия 1914 -1930-х годов посвящены работы как историков (см., например: [Гайлит 2006; Аксенов 2020; Аксенов, Булдаков 2014; Колоницкий 2017]), так и фольклористов [Архипова 2012; Бессонов 2009; Петрова 2017]. ...
... Ele é punido, de acordo com as disputas de poder em cada coletivo humano, seguindo o nível de frustração de quem avalia ter sido prejudicado. Trata-se de uma relação de morde e assopra: coerção aos mágicos e feiticeiros quando alguém se sente prejudicado através da ação mágica, e, em alguns casos, com legítimas relações de vingança e contra-vingança, como nos materiais analisados por Evans-Pritchard (1931), Max Gluckman (1968), e Jeanne Favret-Saada (1977), e presentes em livro organizado por Mary Douglas (1970). Contudo, protegem-se os ditos feiticeiros quando eles não estão a serviço de inimigos ou pessoas que ameacem poderes estabelecidos, como no caso dos Shona, na antiga Rodésia, atual Zimbábue, analisado por Peter Fry (1976), no período em que membros do partido comunista a eles recorriam nas lutas de independência. ...
Resumo: Este artigo trata da análise de um processo-criminal em Cunha, São Paulo, 1870, aberto para investigar o que foi chamado de Escola de Feitiçaria Coroa da Salvação. Os escravos envolvidos foram acusados de matar pessoas como prática de lições de feitiçaria, em investigação iniciada pela senhora do principal acusado. A escola envolvia escravos de várias fazendas locais, além de libertos que moram na região. A base teórica usada são, principalmente, textos de Max Weber sobre religião e magia para tentar observar as condições de possibilidade para a crença compartilhada por senhores e escravos no caso analisado. Palavras-chave: escravidão; magia; acusações de feitiçaria. Abstract: This article deals with the analysis of a criminal process, in Cunha, São Paulo, 1870, open to investigate what was called by the School of Witchcraft Crown of Salvation. The slaves involved were accused of killing people as practicing witchcraft lessons in an investigation initiated by the lady of the main accused. The school involved slaves from several local farms, as well as freedmen living in the area. The theoretical basis used are mainly texts by Max Weber on religion and magic to try to observe the conditions of possibility for the shared belief by masters and slaves in the case analyzed. Max Weber se notabilizou nas Ciências Sociais, dentre outros fatores, por abordar a religião como fenômeno social, entrelaçado a elementos de ordem diversa, centrais na sua compreensão. Momentaneamente, ele isola o fenômeno para investigá-lo e, assim que possível, relacioná-lo a tantos outros. Uma questão de estratégia analítica, de método. Para Weber, a crença na salvação, a conformação das regras de autorização para alguém ser mágico, feiticeiro ou sacerdote, as maneiras de produzir os fundamentos de sua reputação, da crença em suas habilidades extraordinárias, a sustentação social moral que imbui de poder um messias, as camadas letradas, os especialistas, que detém as rédeas da argumentação teológica e as justi cativas rituais, são, em alguma medida, aspectos dos universos chamados de religiosos. Esses seriam ambientados a partir dos desejos nutridos nas pessoas para responderem de forma confortável aos seus medos, às suas angústias. Tudo isso socialmente concebido e performatizado, experimentado com paradoxos de diversos níveis de complexidade. Para Weber, a sociogênese da crença na magia não ocorre em etapas evolutivas numa única temporalidade ahistórica, mais sim em processos sociais os mais diversos-alguns de cunho mundial, outros territorialmente mais localizados. O tempo também é socialmente construído e vivido, e as investigações de Weber trazem recomendações teóricas e metodológicas para observarmos e analisarmos os agentes sociais em relação nos seus devidos contextos históricos. Neste artigo, viso a fornecer alguns instrumentos para avaliar situações nas quais indivíduos se valeram de recursos mágicos e processos de magicização do mundo social para atingir os ns por eles almejados, num processo de busca de superação de angústias, dramas dolorosos. Terei como corpo analítico central parte de um caso ocorrido na cidade de Cunha, província de São Paulo, em 1869 (Processo-crime, Corte de Apelação, número 50, caixa 28, galeria c, ano 1870). Desde minha tese de doutorado não revisitava essa documentação, e esta é a primeira vez em que publico algumas análises, que serão completadas em outros artigos em fase nal de elaboração, parte de um livro que pretendo publicar com investigações e interpretações mais amadurecidas intelectualmente sobre o caso. A base teórica das análises neste artigo são algumas observações de Max Weber, contidas nos seus estudos sobre as condições sociais de possibilidade para crença na magia e as investiduras sociais que os candidatos a mágicos devem ter para que sejam reconhecidos como portadores de poderes mágicos, para os que neles acreditam. De maneira alguma tratarei de percorrer a vasta bibliogra a sobre a magia, tema central na Antropologia, muito menos sobre a historiogra a sobre religiosidade e escravidão nas Américas e Caribe. A proposta é me ater em textos que permitam pôr em relevo o quanto os procedimentos mágicos são constitutivos do funcionamento do mundo social, buscando compreender o que me parece ser uma densa trama de relações, presentes nas narrativas que constam nas diferentes peças processuais que compõem o já referido documento. Dessa forma, a perspectiva por mim adotada é procurar identi car em certos antropólogos aquilo que é útil para pensar os materiais de pesquisa, enfatizando questões inspiradas em textos especí cos sobre religião de autoria de Max Weber. O que de Max Weber ajuda na análise do caso de Cunha? Religião é ação no mundo, para Weber, mas as motivações dos éis adeptos seguem os mais diversos protocolos, baseados em regras morais compreendidas empiricamente. Tal a rmação não vale somente para o que denominou por grandes religiões mundiais, às quais ele dedicou volumes particulares. Tal maneira de tratar pesquisas sobre religião coloca o pesquisador diante do impedimento de não universalizar valores morais. Não percebo, nesse sentido, um caráter etnocêntrico em Weber, nem mesmo observo antropólogos sob sua in uência, tendo feito uso de seus apontamentos ao se debruçarem no entendimento de seus materiais de pesquisa. Citarei dois exemplos. Lygia Sigaud (1979) buscou avaliar as condições morais de interpretação de formas de remuneração e de lidar com dinheiro entre trabalhadores em engenhos de cana na Zona da Mata de Pernambuco, observando forte presença de justi cativas morais para
... In der Ethnologie wurde das epistemologische Potential von Klatsch -entgegen anderer Wissensdisziplinen, die diese Sprechakte trivialisierten und/oder mit negativen Assoziationen und moralischer Verworfenheit versahen -schon früh erkannt und theoretisiert (vgl. die Debatte um Gluckman, Gluckman 1963;, Paine 1967Wilson 1974;Hannerz 1976;Handelman 1973;Bauman/Sherzer 1974;usw.). Seit den 1990er Jahren wird Klatsch (auch außerhalb der Ethnologie) als unterworfene, informelle Wissensart wiederausgegraben, rehabilitiert und in einer Umkehrungsstrategie mit subversiven positiven Attributen versehen (Collins 1994: 114). ...
... SITIAR suggests that this similarity is not just superficial, as gossip may have an important social function in terms of fostering shared social identity. Like other kinds of information access regulation, gossip creates boundaries around people (De Backer et al., 2016;Gelles, 1989;Gluckman, 1963Gluckman, , 1968Hannerz, 1967;Michelson et al., 2010;Soeters & van Iterson, 2002;Suls, 1977) and promotes cohesion and social closeness between gossipers (Bosson et al., 2006;De Backer et al., 2016;N. Elias & Scotson, 1994;Kniffin & Wilson, 2010;Weaver & Bosson, 2011). ...
Secrecy, privacy, confidentiality, concealment, disclosure, and gossip all involve sharing and withholding access to information. However, existing theories do not account for the fundamental similarity between these concepts. Accordingly, it is unclear when sharing and withholding access to information will have positive or negative effects and why these effects might occur. We argue that these problems can be addressed by conceptualizing these phenomena more broadly as different kinds of information-access regulation. Furthermore, we outline a social-identity theory of information-access regulation (SITIAR) that proposes that information-access regulation shapes shared social identity, explaining why people who have access to information feel a sense of togetherness with others who have the same access and a sense of separation from those who do not. This theoretical framework unifies diverse findings across disparate lines of research and generates a number of novel predictions about how information-access regulation affects individuals and groups.
... This second example shows how rumour can cut across and re define normal group boundaries. The given explanation is akin to the structural-functional interpretation of rumour originally formalised by Gluckman (1963Gluckman ( , 1968see also Epstein, 1969). However, Firth's (1956) even earlier research in Tikopea had suggested that certain types of rumour serve as social instruments by which individuals or groups attempt to improve their status; and Bott (1967) had concluded from her study of social relations in a lower-class London neighbourhood that gossip is one of the chief means by which norms are stated and reaffirmed. ...
Examination of the prevalence of verticality in thinking about about the future city in cinema during the interwar years.
... This second example shows how rumour can cut across and re define normal group boundaries. The given explanation is akin to the structural-functional interpretation of rumour originally formalised by Gluckman (1963Gluckman ( , 1968see also Epstein, 1969). However, Firth's (1956) even earlier research in Tikopea had suggested that certain types of rumour serve as social instruments by which individuals or groups attempt to improve their status; and Bott (1967) had concluded from her study of social relations in a lower-class London neighbourhood that gossip is one of the chief means by which norms are stated and reaffirmed. ...
This book, now reissued in Routledge's Library Editions (published November 2016), was the first book to deal with the relationship between geography and the popular media and indeed was one of the first of the new wave of cultural geography books to emerge in Great Britain during the 1980s. The editors note that the very ordinariness of the media masks their importance in everyday life, playing an essential role in moulding environmental experience and in shaping the relationship between people and place. In addressing those issues, a group of British and North American geographers present original and challenging viewpoints on the media. The essays deal with a diverse content, ranging from the presentation of news to the nature of television programming and from rock music lyrics to film visions of the city. The list of contents and a scan of the opening pages of the first chapter are appended. A full version of the original book (Croom Helm, 1985) is available from the author on request).
... Diversas ciencias sociales y humanas entienden al chisme como un reflejo de los modos en que concebimos la realidad y nuestra vida en sociedad, entre ellas la antropología (Gluckman, 1963(Gluckman, , 1968Paine, 1967Paine, , 1970Cox, 1970;Handelman, 1973;Wilson, 1974;Haviland, 1977;Fine, 1985;Vázquez García & Chávez Arellano, 2008, De León Torres, 2010; entre otros), la sociología (Levin & Arluke, 1987;Goffman, 1991;Bergmann, 1993;Goodman & Ben-Ze'ev, 1994;Bergmann & Luckmann, 1995;Pietrosemoli, 2009) y la psicología (Dunbar, 1996;Baumeister, Zhang & Vohs, 2004;Rosnow & Foster, 2005). 1 En suma, a todas las propuestas subyace la idea de que el chisme propicia formas particulares de socializar y al mismo tiempo es producto de ellas. ...
El chisme, como género discursivo, conlleva una actividad semántica compleja estructurada y motivada por necesidades interpersonales. En esta investigación se analiza, mediante las herramientas del análisis de la conversación casual y de la teoría de la valoración, cuáles son las estrategias discursivas que los participantes despliegan para construir un chisme. La recolección del corpus se hizo en el contexto de una red personal de un ama de casa de clase media de la zona metropolitana de Guadalajara —particularmente sus relaciones vecinales. Los resultados permiten distinguir al menos cuatro componentes básicos que se alternan continuamente: enfoque en la tercera persona, exposición del comportamiento probatorio, emisión de comentarios valorativos y empleo de elementos interactivos. Todas las estrategias analizadas se agrupan en torno a estos componentes y están mediadas por el deseo de cuidar la imagen personal.
... 2. An important moment in the study of gossip and rumour was a debate between Max Gluckman (1963Gluckman ( , 1967 and Robert Paine (1967Paine ( , 1968) over how to approach the study of gossip. Gluckman argued that gossip is a system-maintaining process, and it protects the solidarity of the group since gossip allows speaking the unspeakable indirect and discrete manner. ...
This article examines rumour and gossip among the tea workers in the south Indian state of Kerala in the context of recent economic crisis in the Indian tea industry. It argues that gossip and rumour may have distinct effects with regard to resistance and accommodation in the crisis-ridden plantations. The analysis of the gossip shows that the workers are critical of the plantation management, trade unions and the Kerala state for failing to ensure their means of livelihood during the crisis period. In this context, gossip functions as a form and agent of resistance which further shows that the workers were conscious of their exploitation. On the other hand, the ethnographic data presented in this article suggest that rumour is an effective instrument for the control and disciplining of workers in the crisis context.
... Most prior studies focused on negative workplace gossip have made the topic gradually become a hotspot in organizational behavior field overseas (Foster, 2004;Waddington and Michelson, 2007;Feinberg et al., 2014;Wu et al., 2016;Brady et al., 2017). Existing studies have probed into such antecedent variables of negative workplace gossip as individual factors (value, organization's hierarchy, etc.) (Gluckman, 1968;Ellwardt et al., 2012) and organizational factors (organization's integrity, power structure, etc.) (Noon and Delbridge, 1993;Baumeister et al., 2004). Some scholars believe that negative workplace gossip is a type of social undermining for employees (Duffy et al., 2002), and employees surrounded by such negative gossips will find it hard to trust others or establish good cooperative relationship (Aquino and Thau, 2009); meanwhile, negative workplace gossip can result in great side effects to employees (Baumeister and Leary, 1995;Ellwardt et al., 2012), such as lowering employees' work efficiency and job satisfaction, etc. (Michelson and Mouly, 2000;Greengard, 2001) and bring about more harm than good to their team (Elias and Scotson, 1994). ...
Negative workplace gossip generates social undermining and great side effects to employees. But, the damage of negative gossip is mainly aimed at the employee who perceived being targeted. The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual model in which perceived negative workplace gossip influences employees in-role behavior and organizational citizenship behavior differentially by changing employees’ self-concept (organizational-based self-esteem and perceived insider status). 336 employees from seven Chinese companies were investigated for empirical analysis on proposed hypotheses, and results show that: (1) Perceived negative workplace gossip adversely influences employees’ IRB and OCB. (2) Self-concept (OBSE and PIS) plays a mediating role in the relationship between perceived negative workplace gossip and employees’ behaviors (IRB and OCB). (3) Employees’ hostile attribution bias moderates the relationship between perceived negative workplace gossip and self-concept (OBSE and PIS); and also moderates the mediating effect of self-concept (OBSE and PIS) on the relationship between perceived negative workplace gossip and employees’ behaviors (IRB and OCB). Thus, our findings provide deeper insights into the potential harmful effects of gossip. In addition, we help to explain the underlying mechanism and boundary condition of these effects.
... This second example shows how rumour can cut across and re define normal group boundaries. The given explanation is akin to the structural-functional interpretation of rumour originally formalised by Gluckman (1963Gluckman ( , 1968see also Epstein, 1969). However, Firth's (1956) even earlier research in Tikopea had suggested that certain types of rumour serve as social instruments by which individuals or groups attempt to improve their status; and Bott (1967) had concluded from her study of social relations in a lower-class London neighbourhood that gossip is one of the chief means by which norms are stated and reaffirmed. ...
... Maier-Rigaud and colleagues 27 show that in laboratory experiments, participants in a PGG with ostracism opportunities can increase contribution levels and, unlike monetary punishment, ostracism also has a significant positive effect on net earnings. In groups and small-scale societies, ostracism can result from being negatively gossiped about 14,[28][29][30] , and a combination of these two mechanisms could effectively support cooperation. In a laboratory experiment, Feinberg and colleagues show that a combination of gossip and ostracism leads to restore the collective good at the end of the game, after an initial shrinking of group earnings 31 . ...
Cooperation can be supported by indirect reciprocity via reputation. Thanks to gossip, reputations are built and circulated and humans can identify defectors and ostracise them. However, the evolutionary stability of gossip is allegedly undermined by the fact that it is more error-prone that direct observation, whereas ostracism could be ineffective if the partner selection mechanism is not robust. The aim of this work is to investigate the conditions under which the combination of gossip and ostracism might support cooperation in groups of different sizes. We are also interested in exploring the extent to which errors in transmission might undermine the reliability of gossip as a mechanism for identifying defectors. Our results show that a large quantity of gossip is necessary to support cooperation, and that group structure can mitigate the effects of errors in transmission.
... In human societies, gossip and ostracism are tightly linked. In groups and small-scale societies, ostracism can result from being negatively gossiped about [16,[18][19][20], and a combination of these two mechanisms could effectively support cooperation. In a lab experiment, Feinberg and colleagues showed that gossip allowed for identification of defectors, who were consequentially ostracised by their group mates [21]. ...
There are several mechanisms in human societies that help supporting cooperation. Gossiping, for instance, allows to identify defectors who can then be punished via ostracism. However, the evolutionary stability of gossip might be undermined by the fact that it is more error-prone that direct observation, whereas ostracism could be ineffective if the partner selection mechanism is not robust. The aim of this work is to investigate the conditions under which the combination of gossip and ostracism might support cooperation in groups of different sizes. We are also interested in exploring the extent to which errors in transmission might undermine the reliability of gossip as a mechanism for identifying defectors. Our results show that a large quantity of gossip is necessary to support cooperation, and that group structure can mitigate the effects of errors in transmission.
... Gossip could be seen as the result of a sense of unity between the deaf people involved, who maintained this unity by (re-)asserting common morals and values. 127 Deaf people judged each other harshly and extremely, as with the three most common remarks: "X is too HEAD-HARD," "X is bad," "X is a cheater/pretender." When disapproving of another deaf person, they typically behaved in a friendly way toward that person but then insulted the person behind his or her back. ...
Shared signing communities consist of a relatively high number of hereditarily deaf people living together with hearing people in relative isolation. In the United States, Martha’s Vineyard gained mythical fame as a paradise for deaf people where everyone signed up until the 19th century. That community disappeared when deaf people left the island, newcomers moved in, married locals, and changed the gene pool. These unique communities still exist, however, one being the Akan village in Ghana called Adamorobe. Annalies Kuster traveled to Adamorobe to conduct an ethnographic study of both the deaf and hearing populations in the village. In her new book, Kusters reveals how deaf people in Adamorobe did not live in a social paradise and how they created their own “Deaf Space” by seeking each other out to form a society of their own. Deaf Space in Adamorobe reveals considerable variation in shared signing communities regarding rates of sign language proficiency and use, deaf people’s marriage rates, deaf people’s participation in village economies and politics, and the role deaf education. Kusters describes spaces produced by both deaf and hearing people as cohesive communities where deaf and hearing people living together is an integral fact of their sociocultural environments. At the same time, Kusters identifies tension points between deaf and hearing perspectives and also between outside perspectives and discourses that originated within the community. Because of these differences and the relatively high number of deaf people in the community, Kusters concludes it is natural that they form deaf relationships within the shared space of the village community.
The subject of Witchcraft has been a fertile are of research amongst many academic disciplines but Anthropology and History have the longest and most numerous engagements with the subject. It is therefore unsurprising that there have been interactions between the two disciplines in the area but these have been characterised by periods of both positive engagement and criticism bordering on hostility. In this brief article these interactions and the three ages that categorise them are discussed.
In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, young men rarely leave their parents’ homes until they have saved enough money to cover rent and basic needs. Among gay men, however, gossip, fear of violence, homophobia, and the need to hide their sexual identities pushes them to leave home before they are financially secure. Although Dar es Salaam is known for cultural tolerance of homosexuality, gay men in this city rarely felt safe sharing their sexual identity with families, friends, neighbours, or co-workers. Findings from one year of ethnographic research among gay men aged 18 years and above in Dar es Salaam in 2017 show that gay men frequently move houses, jobs, and neighbourhoods to conceal their sexual identity. Gossip pushes gay men, especially the younger ones, to move to areas where they are unknown to avoid shame, stigma, and homophobia. At the family level, young effeminate men may have their masculinity and sexuality questioned, and are often pressured to have female sexual partners, get married, and have children.
Social anxiety a fear of negative evaluation leading to persistent feelings of inferiority, self-consciousness. Adolescence emerges as a critical stage susceptible to social anxiety, impacting friendships and vulnerability to bullying. Cyber gossip, expressed through digital devices serves diverse group-related functions, influencing social dynamics and relationships. The intricate relationship between gossip, social anxiety and digital communication underscores the complex dynamics of human interaction in both physical and virtual spaces.
Social anxiety a fear of negative evaluation leading to persistent feelings of inferiority, self-consciousness. Adolescence emerges as a critical stage susceptible to social anxiety, impacting friendships and vulnerability to bullying. Cyber gossip, expressed through digital devices serves diverse group-related functions, influencing social dynamics and relationships. The intricate relationship between gossip, social anxiety and digital communication underscores the complex dynamics of human interaction in both physical and virtual spaces.
Gossiping and its reputation effects are viewed as the most powerful mechanism to sustain cooperation without the intervention of formal authorities. Being virtually costless, gossiping is highly effective in monitoring and sanctioning norm violators. Rational individuals cooperate in order to avoid negative reputations. But this narrative is incomplete and often leads to wrong predictions. Goal Framing Theory, a cognitive-behavioral approach anchored in evolutionary research, provides a better explanatory framework. Three overarching goal frames (hedonic, gain, and normative) constantly compete for being in our cognitive foreground. This Element argues that for gossip to have reputation effects, a salient normative goal frame is required. But since the hedonic mindset usually trumps gain and normative concerns, most gossip will be driven by hedonic motives and therefore not have strong reputation effects. Propositions on cultural, structural, dispositional, situational, and technological gossip antecedents and consequences are developed and illustrated with evidence from the empirical record.
At a sparsely populated wake in Luang Prabang, Laos, the guests appeared to re- strain themselves from evaluating the deceased’s son-in-law to his face, even as they said to one another that he had neglected his mother-in-law and pocketed the funds for her wake to feed his methamphetamine habit. What are we to do with moments of apparent restraint like this, those meaningful silences in which signs of evaluation seem partially withheld, transfigured, or utterly absent? What do they mean for ac- counts of ordinary ethics? In unpacking the events of Paa’s wake, I suggest that such moments force us to reckon with the relation between signs of evaluation and me- ta-ethical accounts of them, as they also give flesh to the descriptive claim that hu- mans are evaluative. Doing so makes clear that, at times, whether a particular person is being evaluative in a particular moment remains uncertain. At other times, people appear to be not only evaluative but so omnivorously evaluative—so fundamentally oriented to evaluation’s possibility—that they keep their evaluations to themselves. [ordinary ethics; anthropology of ethics; Laos; evaluation; face-to-face inter- action; sincerity; character]
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor (2017) portrays countless voices coming from stagnant bodies in a liminal state that cannot be represented historically because they are traversed by a paralyzing violence. When traditional History is not enough to explain the connotations of that violence in a small Mexican town, gossip arises among people, mainly because gossip can relativize the facts, challenge institutional imposition, and generate solidarity among those who have lost all hope. The main goal of this article is to analyze gossip as a stylistic resource employed by this female Mexican writer. The transgressive power of gossip is explored in the hands of who has been considered its greatest creator: women. Gossip in Hurricane Season reveals the violent suppression caused by the oligarchic, hegemonic, and scientific historical narrative. Through various studies on gossip, it is established as a feminine literary resource, voice of anomalous bodies and a historical representation of absence.
Resumo: Este artigo é resultado de um estudo sobre a crença na feitiçaria no Império do Brasil. Nossa pesquisa mostrou que não existiam leis reguladoras das acusações de feitiçaria no Império, ao contrário da colônia e do período republicano. Analisamos casos paradigmáticos publicados no jornal O Alabama, em Salvador, Bahia, entre 1863 e 1871, para compreender como, através de quais elementos, as pessoas que nele escreveram trataram a crença no feitiço. Primeiro, traçamos o perfil desse jornal, depois caracterizamos a sociedade de Salvador com base nas discussões acerca das sociedades ditas complexas, e por último analisamos aquelas notícias como sendo de conflitos entre acusadores e acusados. Palavras-chave: antropologia das religiões afro-brasileiras-antropologia das sociedades complexas-acusações de feitiçaria. Abstract: This article is the result of a study on beliefs in witchcraft in the Empire of Brazil. In our research we discovered that there were not any laws concerning accusations of witchcraft in imperial Brazil, in contrast to the colonial and republican periods. We analyze paradigmatic cases published between 1863 and 1871 in the newspaper O Alabama (Salvador, Bahia) in order to understand how, and through which bases, its journalists treated belief in witchcraft. First we trace the profile of the newspaper and then characterize Salvadorean society in terms of discussions on "complex societies" before moving on to analyze the articles as conflicts between accusers and accused. Keywords: anthropology of afro-Brazilian religious-anthropology of complex societies-accusations of witchcraft. Seguindo os apontamentos de Mauss & Hubert, Malinowski, Fortune, Evans-Pritchard e Elias, acerca da proeminência do social na sustentação das crenças mágicas, procuraremos mostrar algumas das características da sociedade escravista de Salvador, na segunda metade do século XIX, que podem nos ajudar a entender em parte as notícias de O Alabama que versam sobre assuntos ligados aos terreiros de candomblé e
The omnipresence of workplace gossip makes understanding gossip processes imperative to understand social life in organizations. Although gossip research has recently increased across the social sciences, gossip is conceptualized in disparate ways in the scientific literature. This conceptual confusion impedes theoretical integration and providing practical advice. To resolve this, we systematically reviewed 6114 scientific articles on gossip and identified 324 articles that define gossip. From these definitions, we extracted two essential characteristics of gossip on which there seems to be agreement within the literature, namely, (1) that gossip is communication between humans involving a sender, a receiver, and a target, and (2) that the target is absent or unaware of the communicated content. These two characteristics formed the basis of a broad, integrative definition of gossip: a sender communicating to a receiver about a target who is absent or unaware of the content. Furthermore, some definitions include characteristics on which there is less agreement: gossip valence (from negative to neutral to positive) and formality (from informal to intermediate to formal). We incorporate these characteristics in a dimensional scaling framework that can guide future research. Our broad, integrative definition of gossip and the dimensional scaling framework provide the building blocks for a systematic, integrated knowledge base on the role of gossip in human social life in general as well as in organizations. This can foster future theory development and hypothesis testing, ultimately helping organizations to manage gossip.
Amaç – Bu çalışmanın amacı örgütsel dedikodu kavramının örgütsel davranış yazını başta olmak üzere sosyal antropoloji, sosyal psikoloji, sosyoloji gibi yönetim yazını ile ilişkilendirilen çalışmaların bibliyometrik analiz yöntemi ile değerlendirilerek, Türk yazınında örgütsel dedikodu olgusuna yönelik yapılacak olan çalışmalara yön göstermektir. Yöntem – Web of Science Core Collection veri tabanında yer alan dedikodu ve örgütsel dedikodu kavramlarına yönelik 1990-2020 yılları arasında yayınlanan 681 makale bibliyometrik analiz yöntemiyle atıf analizi, bibliyografik eşleştirme, ortak atıf analizi, ortak-varlık analizi, ortak yazar ve bibliyometrik haritalama analizleri aracılığıyla değerlendirilmiştir. Bulgular – Araştırma sonuçlarına göre dedikodu alanında en çok çalışılan konuların sosyal medya, sosyal ağ, kurumsal itibar, güç, iletişim, güven, şiddet olduğu örgütsel dedikodu kavramına yönelik olarak ise en çok çalışılan konuların proaktif davranışları, örgütsel dışlanma, kurumsal sosyal sorumluluk, sosyal sermaye, duygusal düzenleme, negatif duygular, sinizm, güç, itibar yönetimi, örgütsel sapma davranışı, örgütsel güven, mobbing, tükenmişlik, bilgi arama davranışı olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Tartışma – Dedikodu yazınına yönelik literatüre önemli katkılar sağlayan çalışmalar bulunsa da, konunun örgütsel davranış yazını kapsamında bütüncül bir incelemesine yönelik çalışmalar yetersiz kalmaktadır. Bu nedenle gelecek araştırma yönelimlerinin mevcut yazında yer alan perspektiflerden hareketle, örgütsel dedikodunun örgütler arası ve örgüt düzeyinde incelenmesi önerilmektedir.
What is life like after drift‐cocaine arrives in a village on Colombia's Northern Pacific coast? Drift‐cocaine is a side‐effect of the interdiction of drug transport boats heading towards Central and North America as part of the US‐Colombian War on Drugs. Villagers refer to drift‐cocaine as the White Fish. Through ethnographic engagement with Afro‐descendant peoples in Chocó, this article explores the effects and relations that emerge from an ocean turned into an amphitheatre of fishing livelihoods, drug traffickers, and military operations. By taking seriously the White Fish as the way people refer to cocaine, I focus on gossip and rumour as the strategies they employ to discuss the pervasive effects of the drug trade. I trace three interrelated discussions – concerning violence, cocaine, and the White Fish – in order to argue for the usefulness of gossip and rumour in investigative ethnographies of violence.
Gossip is an everyday part of organizational life and has been increasingly researched. However, some gossip has a particular character, whereby it is to some degree secret. Drawing on studies of both gossip and secrecy, in this paper we explore this ‘confidential gossip’ via a participant observation case study. This was based on an internship with Quinza, a British media company, and had a covert element which is discussed and justified. Specifically, we show how the boundaries around confidential gossip are marked in organizational interactions. The paper contributes to existing knowledge about organizational gossip by showing the particular significance of secrecy which makes confidential gossip a more potent source of group inclusion and exclusion.
Claimants and industry professionals frequently view conflict that arises in the course of a native title claim as a detriment to timely claims resolution. I argue instead that disputation itself may constitute an integrative social process through which participants define, delimit and reproduce community. I show also how ethnographic analysis of disputation can provide useful insights into broader social and cultural practices and normative value systems. Drawing on theoretical and methodological concerns with human agency and the integrative and constitutive role of conflict that challenges consensus models of community, I develop a practice‐centred approach that is attentive to the ways that participants in a dispute articulate and contest the definition of community. The possibility of viewing 'culture' and group cohesion as contingent and emergent through disputation should assist anthropologists working in the native title field to incorporate conflict as a productive aspect of social and cultural practice.
A tanulmány egy társadalmi szempontból fontos jelenség, a pletyka meghatározási nehézségeivel foglalkozik, abból az apropóból, hogy a hiedelmekről való beszélés egyik gyakori természetes szituációja a pletykálás. A néhány létező magyar definíció mellett elsősorban angolszász kulturális és szociálantropológiai, szociológiai, illetve szociolingvisztikai meghatározások vizsgálatával azt veszi számba, milyen jellemző tulajdonságok mentén próbálták meg az egyes kutatók a pletykálást az egyéb verbális megnyilvánulásoktól elkülöníteni, és társadalmi jelentőségét megragadni. Habár a pletykálás meghatározása továbbra is problémás, a definíciós kísérletek elemzése segíthet e társadalmi jelenség mélyebb megértéséhez.
This thesis focuses on the institutional practices around witchcraft accusations in a region of central India. The reluctance of anthropologists and historians to dwell on the social heterogeneity of witches, their accusers and magical attacks is highlighted. Through the anthropology of violence, the witch accusation is understood as a ‘critical event’ - assembled at a certain moment in time through new symbols or newly arranged old symbols that crisscross with actors and their complex agency to create a unique configuration of events. This thesis challenges conventional theory on witchcraft and explores a less secure framework of violence and disruption offering insights into the intimate space of personal fear, anxiety and victimisation. The paradox of violent action in the witchcraft accusation is that as much as violence is a strategic tool aimed at bringing resolution and order, by its very nature it produces ruptures and disorder. The language of tortured witches and their torturers is mutilated and their narratives break all rules of syntax in presentation. The stoppages and ruptures incarnated in the trauma-trope direct new narrative procedures, objects and solutions. In addition, this thesis challenges ideas of progress where modern medicine is positioned as the eventual replacement for existing modes of healing. Indian villagers express scepticism in all forms of healing, suggesting that local people are ‘modern believers’. In the same way that people discriminate between diagnoses, healers and their treatments when sick, this thesis suggests that they discriminate between evidence, levels of violence, decision makers and options of punishment/reconciliation when faced with witchcraft. Scepticism is examined as a juncture by which it becomes possible to communicate across social contexts through various versions of modern dichotomies.
This article describes gossip perceptions in young students at the second year of the high school in the Autonomous University of Chapingo (UACh) in México. The analysis centers around three subject areas related to gossip: its association with women, its social function, and alternatives in face of its impact on daily life. The results are: first, although prevails the stereotype of gossipy women, there is a recognition that men also gossip, albeit in a more discrete manner; second, the social function of gossip at the UACh can be of three kinds: the one that strengthens bonds;that which promotes personal interests; or the one that serves both purposes, depending on the context where it is spread and its content; third, men and women agree that gossip has a negative impact on people's lives, but women declare having been victims in larger percentages. Some of them consider that gossip is inevitable, while others foresee two alternatives to diminish its harm: educating people; the personal option of ignoring it, by changing behavior to avoid being its victim or confronting the person who spreads it.
*** Suomeksi: ***
Tutkimus käsittelee islaminuskoisten somalityttöjen hyvään ja huonoon maineeseen liittyviä uskonnollisia, kulttuurisia ja etnisiä määrittelyjä ja niiden merkityksiä heidän arjessaan. Turussa hankittu etnografinen tutkimusaineisto koostuu osallistuvaan havainnointiin perustuvasta kenttäpäiväkirja-aineistosta sekä kahdestakymmenestäviidestä 17‒35-vuotiaiden somalityttöjen ja -naisten teemahaastattelusta vuosilta 2003–2006.
Tutkimuksen tehtävänä on selvittää, minkälaista somalityttöä pidetään maineeltaan hyvänä
ja miten tytön maine voi mennä. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan yhtäältä sitä, mikä merkitys
sosiaalisilla verkostoilla on tyttöjen maineen määrittelyssä. Toisaalta kysytään, mitä somalitytöt ja nuoret naiset itse ajattelevat tytön maineeseen liittyvistä odotuksista ja miten he niistä tietoisina toimivat. Lähestymistapa rakentuu uskontotieteen, antropologian, sukupuolentutkimuksen, tyttötutkimuksen, nuorisotutkimuksen ja kulttuurimaantieteen näkökulmia yhdistelemällä. Ensimmäisessä aineistontulkintaluvussa tarkastellaan tyttöyteen ja maineen rakentumiseen liittyvää ruumiillista merkityksenantoa pukeutumisen, seksuaalisuuden, tyttöjen ympärileikkausta koskevan asennemuutoksen ja seurustelun teemojen kautta. Toisessa luvussa keskitytään kaupunkitilan ja tyttöjen vapaa-ajanvieton sosiotilallisiin tulkintoihin sekä tyttöjen käytöstä kodin ulkopuolella määritteleviin ja mainetta rakentaviin puheisiin.
Haastatellut arvostivat islamiin ja somaliperinteeseen liittyviä arvoja ja pitivät niitä oman
käytöksensä ohjenuorina. Omanarvontunto, itsekontrolli ja vastuuntunto omista teoista liitettiin ”hyvään tyttöyteen”. Tyttöjen toimijuus ilmeni heihin kohdistuvien odotusten suuntaisena käyttäytymisenä ja näiden ihanteiden arvostamisena. Toimijuus näkyi myös tiettyjen tyttöihin ja poikiin kohdistuvien erilaisten odotusten kyseenalaistamisena ja joissakin tapauksissa vastoin odotuksia toimimisena. Turkua myös verrattiin somalityttöjen käytöksen osalta pääkaupunkiseutuun. Tässä vertailussa Turku nimettiin kulttuurisen jatkuvuuden, pääkaupunkiseutu kulttuurisen muutoksen paikaksi. Haastateltujen mukaan yhteisöllisiä tulkintoja tyttöjen käytöksestä tehtiin puheissa ja juoruissa, usein suhteessa havaintoihin suomalaistyttöjen käytöksestä. Tyttöjen arkeen nämä etniset ja moraaliset eroteot eivät kuitenkaan vaikuttaneet aina samalla tavoin, koska tulkinnat tyttärille sopivasta ja mahdollisesta käytöksestä voivat vaihdella perheiden välillä.
Tutkimus tuo esille, että tytön hyvä maine on eräs perheen hyvinvointiin vaikuttavista tekijöistä. Somalityttöjen käytös on myös eräs yhteisöllinen peili, jota vasten tehdään laajempia tulkintoja somalikulttuurin ja uskonnollisten arvojen tilasta diasporassa. Liiallinen muutos tyttöjen käyttäytymisessä uhkasi yhteisöllistä jatkuvuutta ja uskonnolliskulttuuristen arvojen välittymistä seuraaville sukupolville. Laajasti ymmärrettynä ”hyvä tyttöys” ja hyvä maine oli onnistuneen kulttuurisen neuvottelun tulosta diasporassa. Se tarkoitti, että tyttö kiinnittyi somalialaiseen taustaansa ja sen välittämiin arvoihin, osallistuen samalla kuitenkin myös suomalaiseen yhteiskuntaan.
*** In English: ***
The research focuses on religious, cultural, and ethnic definitions of Somali Muslim girls’ good and bad reputation, examining also the significance of the definitions in the everyday lives of the girls. The ethnographic research material, collected in Turku during the years 2003–2006, comprises of field diaries based on participant observation and twenty-five thematic interviews of Somali girls and women between 17–35 years of age.
The aim of the research is to ascertain what kind of a Somali girl is considered as having a good reputation, and how may a girl lose her reputation. On one hand the research examines the significance of social networks in defining the girls’ reputation; on the other hand the focus is on how Somali girls and young women themselves consider the expectations related to reputation, and how they operate with the awareness of these expectations. The approach combines the perspectives of comparative religion, anthropology, gender studies, girl research, youth research and cultural geography. In the first section of the analysis the focus is on the significance of physical attributes in the construction of girlhood and reputation, examined through the themes of dressing, dating, sexuality, and attitude changes regarding female circumcision. In the second section the emphasis is placed on city space and socio-spatial interpretations of the girls’ leisure time and on the communication networks defining the girls’ behaviour and reputation outside their homes.
The interviewees respected the values attached to Islam and Somali tradition, and regarded them as guidelines for their own behaviour. Self-worth, self-control and responsibility for one’s actions were associated with ”good girlhood”. The girls’ agency manifested itself in the behaviour consistent with expectations, and in appreciation of the ideals. Agency was also visible in the questioning of certain different expectations placed on girls and boys, and in some cases in counteracting some of the gendered expectations. The behaviour of Somali girls in Turku was also compared to that of Somali girls in Helsinki. In this comparison Turku was designated a place of cultural continuity, whereas Helsinki was a place of cultural change. According to the interviewees the communal interpretations of the girls’ behaviour were performed in speech and in gossip, often in relation to the observations of Finnish girls’ behaviour. These ethnic and moral differentiations did not always affect similarly the girls’ daily lives, as the definitions of appropriate and viable behaviour for the daughters might differ between families.
The research shows that one of the factors affecting the wellbeing of a family is the good reputation of the family’s daughter. Furthermore, the Somali girls’ behaviour is one communal mirror against which larger interpretations of the Somali culture and the state of religious values in the diaspora can be made. Excessive change in the girls’ behaviour threatened communal continuity and the transmission of religious and cultural values onto the next generation. The broad understanding of ”good girlhood” and good reputation was the result of a successful cultural negotiation in the diaspora. It indicated that the girl adhered to her Somali background and the values it conveys, while at the same participating in the Finnish society.
This chapter examines a double standard in academic gossip; it is used by outsiders as a way to get and spread information and ideas about the profession, while being invisibly used (while externally denounced) by insiders as a way of attacking critics’ credibility.
This article discusses the process of doing fieldwork on the role of religion in moral orientation and then writing about it as a series of small betrayals. During the research it became clear that to gain insight into the ways in which moral worlds are constructed and the place of religious institutions and their representatives in these moral worlds, it was very important to understand how individual "shameful" secrets were produced. Furthermore, it was through gossip that I became familiar with the ways people related to the church as an institution with a moral discourse, and with its representatives, the local parish priests. Both in sociology and in anthropology, gossip is seen as a way of creating a shared moral universe. This article examines the ways in which the researcher becomes part of social processes through the sharing of secrets and gossip, and the ethical difficulties that arise from this: on the one hand, it seems imperative not to betray secrets, not to repeat gossip, not to betray the atmosphere of complicity surrounding this. On the other hand, not analyzing how individual secrets are produced through social and cultural processes and ignoring the role of gossip meant leaving out some of the most significant data. Furthermore, it shows that by paying attention to the ways in which gossip and secrets circulate, one can go beyond the “case study” approach that limits much qualitative research on religion.
This article analyzes two recent instances of academic gossip becoming publicized, and suggests that the varying results of these case studies (so similar in other respects) reflects the fragile nature and tenuous status of institutional gossip. It is both a crucial tool for individuals to understand and function within workplaces, but its very effectiveness in popularizing critique makes it easy for those with status to critique it.
The analysis of gossip and scandal suggests that formal and informal social controls are not distinct and unrelated processes. They have significant continuities. Informal gossip may lead to formal collective implementation or feed into formal institutions of social control. For example, when gossip leads to a consensus in small-scale societies, leaders convert this into a formal sanction such as banishment or execution. In complex societies, informal talk acquires power through its impact on formal agencies. Further, the role of gossip and scandal in social control does not differ sharply between small-scale and complex societies. Gossip and scandal flourish whenever there are close-knit social networks and normative homogeneity. In both urban and rural societies, it serves as a way of drawing a social map of reputations and as a means of political competition and conflict. In both urban and rural societies, those with power and wealth, those who are marginal, and those with contacts outside the local social system are insulated from the consequences of gossip and relatively indifferent to its pressures. From this comparative analysis of the role of gossip and scandal, several specific hypotheses emerge that suggest general conditions under which they lead to effective social control.
The author looks at the main theoretical approaches to analyzing gossip, including the paradigms of functionalism, psychodynamics, social comparison, impression management, social exchange, social cognition, to determine the prospects of further research.
Drawing on field research in Malta, Sicily and among Italian emigrants in Canada, this book explores the social influence of the Mediterranean climate and the legacy of ethnic and religious conflict from the past five decades. Case studies illustrate the complexity of daily life not only in the region but also in more remote academe, by analysing the effects of fierce family loyalty, emigration and the social consequences of factionalism, patronage and the friends-of-friends networks that are widespread in the region. Several chapters discuss the social and environmental impact of mass tourism, how locals cope, and the paradoxical increase in religious pageantry and public celebrations. The discussions echo changes in the region and the related development of the author's own interests and engagement with prevailing issues through his career.
Honour, family and patronage
- J Campbell
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Campbell, J. I964. Honour, family and patronage. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
The Makah Indians Introduction; Conclusion. In Closed systems and open minds De la division du travail social. Paris: Alcan. 1 I895. Les regles de la me'thode sociologique
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Colson, E. I953. The Makah Indians. Manchester: Univ. Press. Devons, E. & M. Gluckman I964. Introduction; Conclusion. In Closed systems and open minds (ed.) M. Gluckman. Chicago: Aldine Press. Durkheim, E. I893. De la division du travail social. Paris: Alcan. 1 I895. Les regles de la me'thode sociologique. Paris: Alcan. Evans-Pritchard, E. E. I937. Witchcraft, oracles and magic among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
The role of the sexes in Wiko circumcision ceremonies Oxford: Clarendon Press. I963. Gossip and scandal I964. Closed systems and open minds: the limits of natvety in social anthropology. Chicago: Aldine Press. & F. Eggan I965; I966. Introduction
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Gluckman, M. I949. The role of the sexes in Wiko circumcision ceremonies. In Social structure (ed.) M. Fortes. Oxford: Clarendon Press. I963. Gossip and scandal. Curr. Anthrop. 4, 307-I5. (ed.) I964. Closed systems and open minds: the limits of natvety in social anthropology. Chicago: Aldine Press. & F. Eggan I965; I966. Introduction. In New approaches in social anthropology (ed.) M. Banton (Ass. social Anthrop. Monogr. I-4). London: Tavistock Publications.
The significance of quasi-groups in the study of complex societies
- A C Mayer
- I
Mayer, A. C. I966. The significance of quasi-groups in the study of complex societies. In The social anthropology of complex societies (ed.) M. Banton (Ass. social Anthrop. Monogr. 4) London: Tavistock Publications.
Symbols in Ndembu ritual
- V W Turner
- I
Turner, V. W. I964. Symbols in Ndembu ritual. In Closed systems and open minds (ed.) M. Gluck-man. Chicago: Aldine Press.