article
The etymology of excuses: aspects of rhetorical performance in Greece
American ethnologist • 9 (4) • Published In 1982 • Pages: 644-663
By: Herzfeld, Michael.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article, Herzfeld examines the similar rhetoric of excuse making used at both the personal and national level. Journalistic accounts of bureaucratic indifference and superpower intervention are couched in personal terms of inhospitality and betrayal that serve to absolve personal blame and instead attribute blame to outside impersonal and malignant forces. According to Herzfeld, excuse making does not express fatalism, rather by drawing on shared understandings it invokes a common identity of Greeks as both citizens and a nation.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Ethics
- Luck and chance
- Ethnopsychology
- Ethnosociology
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Greeks
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2003
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Europe
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southeastern Europe
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 2002
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1974-1981
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1974-1981
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Greece
- NotesAdditional notes
- Michael Herzfeld
- Includes bibliographical references (p.660-663)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 74644326
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Greece