An Anthropology of Indirect Communication Sometimes we convey what we mean not by what we say but by what we do, wear or eat; sometimes it is by a gesture of the hand, a curl of the lip or a raising of an eyebrow. The authors of this new volume ask what kind of communication occurs when we employ these indirect means of conveying our intentions. Anthropologists soon learn that understanding the codes of conventional behaviour in a foreign setting requires paying special attention to what is not said as much as to what is. From patent miscommunication, through potent ambiguity to pregnant silence, this incisive collection examines the many possibilities of indirect communication. A complex and important aspect of social life, indirection itself has rarely been the focus of ethnographic study. In this volume, for the first time, different modes of indirect communication are brought together and examined in the light of anthropological ideas and concepts. Drawing on their experiences in the field, from a Mormon theme park in Hawaii, through carnival time on Montserrat, to the exclusive domain of the Market, the case studies examine the many ways in which we can communi- cate indirectly, both verbally and non-verbally. The authors discuss how indirect communication can be deliberate and how the most expressive form of communication is often the most indirect. By illustrating how food, silence, sunglasses, martial arts and rudeness can all constitute powerful ways of conveying meaning, An Anthropology of Indirect Communication is a fascinating and engaging text which provides a challenging introduction to this growing area of thought and study. Joy Hendry is Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University. Her main area of interest is Japan and her publications include An Anthropologist in Japan (1999). C. W. Watson is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He is a specialist on Indonesia and Malaysia and his publications include Multiculturalism (2000). ASA Monographs 37 Titles available: 24 Reason and Morality Edited by Joanna Overing 29 Anthropology and Autobiography Edited by Judith Okely and Helen Callaway 30 Contemporary Futures: Perspectives from Social Anthropology Edited by Sandra Wallman 31 Socialism: Ideals, Ideologies, and Local Practice Edited by C. M. Hann 32 Environmentalism:The View from Anthropology Edited by Kay Milton 33 Questions of Consciousness Edited by Anthony P. Cohen and Nigel Rapport 34 After Writing Culture Edited by Allison James, Jenny Hockey and Andrew Dawson 35 Ritual, Performance, Media Edited by Felicia Hughes-Freeland 36 The Anthropology of Power Edited by Angela Cheater 37 An Anthropology of Indirect Communication Edited by Joy Hendry and C.W.Watson An Anthropology of Indirect Communication Edited by Joy Hendry and C.W.Watson London and New York First published 2001 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. © 2001 Association of Social Anthropologists, for selection and editorial matter; individual chapters, the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data An anthropology of indirect communication / edited by Joy Hendry and C. W. Watson. p. cm. – (A.S.A. monographs; 37) Papers presented at the ASA Conference held 1998, Canterbury, Eng. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Nonverbal communication–Congresses. 2. Communication and culture–Congresses. I. Hendry, Joy. II. Watson, C. W. III. Association of Social Anthropologists. Conference (1998: Canterbury, England.) IV. Series. P99.5 .A58 2001 302.2'22–dc21 00-051705 ISBN 0-203-42857-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-43871-X (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–24744–6 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–24745–4 (pbk) Contents Notes on contributors viii Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 JOY HENDRY AND C. W. WATSON PART I Intercultural communication and the anthropologist 17 1 Communicational distortion and the constitution of society: indirection as a form of life 19 NIGEL RAPPORT 2 On the ontological status of honour 34 ROGER JUST 3 Not talking about sex in India: indirection and the communication of bodily intention 51 HELEN LAMBERT 4 Talk, silence and the material world: patterns of indirect communication among agricultural families in northern England 68 PIA CHRISTENSEN, JENNY HOCKEY AND ALLISON JAMES vi Contents PART II Indirection beyond language 83 5 Eating your words: communicating with food in the Ecuadorian Andes 85 NICOLE BOURQUE 6 Sunglasses, suitcases and other symbols: intentionality, creativity and indirect communication in festive and everyday performances 101 SARAH PINK 7 Trust, privacy, deceit and the quality of interpersonal relationships: ‘peasant’ society revisited 115 URSULA SHARMA 8 The temple and the theme park: intention and indirection in religious tourist art 128 TERRY D. WEBB PART III Bodily possibilities 143 9 Dance, dissimulation and identity in Indonesia 145 FELICIA HUGHES-FREELAND 10 Don’t talk – blend: ideas about body and communication in aikido practise 163 TAMARA KOHN PART IV Intricacies of language explained 179 11 Licence revoked: when calypso goes too far 181 JONATHAN SKINNER Contents vii 12 Indirect speech: heteroglossia, politeness and rudeness in Irula forest festivals 201 NEIL THIN 13 Straight talk, hidden talk and modernity: shifts in discourse strategy in Highland New Guinea 218 LISETTE JOSEPHIDES 14 Unwrapping rudeness: inverted etiquette in an egalitarian enclave 232 PETER PARKES PART V English – with diplomacy 253 15 Ambiguity and verbal disguise within diplomatic culture 255 ANNABEL BLACK 16 Delay and deception in Thai–British diplomatic encounters of the early nineteenth century 271 ANDREW TURTON 17 Diplomacy and indirection, constraint and authority 290 JAMES G. CARRIER Index 301 Contributors Annabel Black did research on the topic discussed in this book as a Research Associate at Oxford Brookes University. She has lectured in European Community Studies at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and has worked as Spouse Employment Adviser in the British Foreign Office. She is currently training to become a furniture restorer. Nicole Bourque is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Glasgow. Her research interests include popular religion and syncretism in the Andes, and conversion to Islam in Britain. James G. Carrier teaches Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. His recent publications include the edited collections Meanings of the Market (Berg 1997) and Virtualism (with D. Miller; Berg 1998). He has begun research on political economy and environmental protection in the Caribbean. Pia Christensen is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Hull. Her main interests and publications are in the anthropological study of children’s everyday lives and of children’s health, with a particular focus on the individual and collective actions of children. Her most recent research (with A. James and C. Jenks) is a study of the perception, under- standing and social organisation of children’s time, a project funded by the ESRC under the Children: 5–16 research programme. Joy Hendry is Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University. She has worked in various parts of Japan over the last twenty- five years, and her recent publications include Wrapping Culture: Politeness, Presentation and Power in Japan and Other Societies (Clarendon Press 1993), An Anthropologist in Japan (Routledge 1999), and The Orient Strikes Back: A Global View of Cultural Display (Berg 2000). Jenny Hockey is a social anthropologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Hull. She has published widely on ageing, death and bereave- ment, including Beyond the Body: Death and Social Identity (co-authored with E. Hallam and G. Howarth; Routledge 1999). Contributors ix Felicia Hughes-Freeland is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Wales, Swansea. She has edited Ritual, Performance, Media (ASA Monograph 35), and Recasting Ritual (EASA series, with Mary Crain), and the film Taybuan: Dancing the Spirit in Java. A monograph on Javanese dance is forthcoming. Allison James is Reader in Applied Anthropology at the University of Hull. Her main research interests are in childhood, ageing and the life course. Her most recent publication is Theorising Childhood (with C. Jenks and A. Prout; Polity Press 1998). She has just completed a study of children’s perception and understandings of time (with P. Christensen and C. Jenks) on a project funded under the ESRC Children 5–16 research programme. Lisette Josephides teaches anthropology at Queen’s University, Belfast. Her most recent publication,‘Disengagement and desire: the tactics of everyday life’, appeared in the American Ethnologist. Her continuing interest in poli- tics and the deployment of social knowledge now includes research interests in issues of morality and human rights. Roger