Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics - Hardcover

Besnier, Niko

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0824833384 ISBN 13: 9780824833381

Publisher: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

An eminently readable book, both approachable and engaging, offering rich linguistic analyses embedded in the broader socio-political contexts of meaning-making in a small corner of a MIRAB nation.-- "Western Folklore"

Compelling and ambitious. . . . A remarkable and erudite work. It will be welcomed by
those who seek a model ethnography for the embedding of everyday utterances within their wider social and historical contexts, and its attention to ethical issues will be appreciated by those who are not inclined to shy away from debates surrounding the production of anthropological knowledge

-- "American Ethnologist"

About the Author:

Niko Besnier is professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Amsterdam.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Hawai'i Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0824833384
• ISBN 13: 9780824833381
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312