essay
Strategies of status manipulation in the Wolof greeting
Explorations in the ethnography of speaking • (8) • Published In 1989 • Pages: 167-191, 459-460
By: Irvine, Judith T..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
According to the author the principle of social inequality is fundamental to an understanding of the organization of social life among the Wolof. Not only is this principle expressed in the hierarchically ranked status groups or castes, but also in all types of social interaction within the society. In this paper Irvine analyzes the principle of inequality as it functions in everyday person-to-person greetings between members of the society.'The primary purpose of such an analysis is first to identify the opportunities which individuals have to affect their own rank by manipulating the rules of interaction. A secondary purpose is to describe a familiar, though brief, cultural event in such a way that the impression of the ethnographer can be related to the 'set of rules for the socially appropriate construciton and interpretation of messages' …which enables one to behave appropriately in this situation' (p. 167).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Phonology
- Sociolinguistics
- Status, role, and prestige
- Castes
- Etiquette
- Kin relationships
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Wolof
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1999
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Western Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- 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
- John Beierle ; 1998
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1970-1971
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1970-1971
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Senegal
- NotesAdditional notes
- Judith T. Irvine
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 88029427
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Wolof (African people)