Gossip and the everyday production of politics / Niko Besnier.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Besnier, Niko.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communication and culture--Tuvalu--Nukulaelae.

Communication and culture.

Gossip--Tuvalu--Nukulaelae.

Gossip.

Political customs and rites--Tuvalu--Nukulaelae.

Political customs and rites.

Nukulaelae (Tuvalu)--Politics and government.

Nukulaelae (Tuvalu).

Nukulaelae (Tuvalu)--Social life and customs.

Tuvalu--Nukulaelae.

Physical Description:

xiv, 243 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Honolulu : University of Hawaiʻi Press, [2009]

Summary:

Although Gossip is disapproved of across the world's societies, it is a prominent feature of sociality, whose role in the construction of society and culture cannot be overestimated. In particular, gossip is central to the enactment of politics: through it people transform difference into inequality and enact or challenge power structures. Based on the author's intimate ethnographic knowledge of Nukulaelae Atoll, Tuvalu, this work uses an analysis of gossip as political action to develop a holistic understanding of a number of disparate themes, including conflict, power, agency, morality, emotion, locality, belief, and gender. It brings together two methodological traditions - the microscopic analysis of unelicited interaction and the macroscopic interpretation of social practice - that are rarely wedded successfully.

Drawing on a broad range of theoretical resources, Niko Besnier approaches gossip from several angles. A detailed analysis of how Nukulaelae's people structure their gossip interactions demonstrates that this structure reflects and contributes to the atoll's political ideology, which wavers between a staunch egalitarianism and a need for hierarchy. His discussion then turns to narratives of specific events in which gossip played an important role in either enacting egalitarianism or reinforcing inequality Embedding gossip in a broad range of communicative practices enables Besnier to develop a nuanced analysis of how gossip operates, demonstrating how it allows some to gain power while others suffer because of it. Throughout, he is particularly attentive to the ways in which anthropologists themselves are the subject and object of gossip, making his work a notable contribution to reflexive social science.

Written in an engaging and accessible style, Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics will appeal to students and scholars of political, legal, linguistic, and psychological anthropology; social science methodology; communication, conflict, gender, and globalization studies; and Pacific islands studies. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Gossip, Hegemony, Agency 1

2 The World from a Cooking Hut 29

3 Hierarchy and Egalitarianism 64

4 Morality and the Structure of Gossip 94

5 The Twenty-Dollar Piglets 120

6 The Two Widows 143

7 Sorcery and Ambition 166

8 Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics 189.

Notes:

"Published with the support of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Hawaiʻi"--P. facing t.p.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780824833381

0824833384

9780824833572

0824833570

OCLC:

302098879