The talk goes outside: argument, privacy and power in Mambila society. Towards a sociology of embedded praxis

In this paper the sociological implications of loud argument are considered, by taking a case study from the Mambila in Cameroon. Meetings of rotating credit societies are non-traditional forums where power and status are in dispute. These meetings contrast with both domestic arguments and with disp...

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Main Author: Zeitlyn, D
Format: Journal article
Published: EDINBURGH UNIV PRESS 2003
Subjects:
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author Zeitlyn, D
author_facet Zeitlyn, D
author_sort Zeitlyn, D
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description In this paper the sociological implications of loud argument are considered, by taking a case study from the Mambila in Cameroon. Meetings of rotating credit societies are non-traditional forums where power and status are in dispute. These meetings contrast with both domestic arguments and with disputes held in the Chief's court. Rotating credit society meetings usually include arguments but these are dismissed as being unimportant by local informants. They pose a challenge for anthropological analysis since they are such a regular but disregarded-and disparaged-occurrence. Raised voices increase the range of bystanders as witnesses, so to argue loudly is a very social act.
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spelling oxford-uuid:f93dca6f-c534-49cc-ac8c-3aadeb764ab22022-03-27T12:56:33ZThe talk goes outside: argument, privacy and power in Mambila society. Towards a sociology of embedded praxisJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:f93dca6f-c534-49cc-ac8c-3aadeb764ab2AnthropologyOxford University Research Archive - ValetEDINBURGH UNIV PRESS2003Zeitlyn, DIn this paper the sociological implications of loud argument are considered, by taking a case study from the Mambila in Cameroon. Meetings of rotating credit societies are non-traditional forums where power and status are in dispute. These meetings contrast with both domestic arguments and with disputes held in the Chief's court. Rotating credit society meetings usually include arguments but these are dismissed as being unimportant by local informants. They pose a challenge for anthropological analysis since they are such a regular but disregarded-and disparaged-occurrence. Raised voices increase the range of bystanders as witnesses, so to argue loudly is a very social act.
spellingShingle Anthropology
Zeitlyn, D
The talk goes outside: argument, privacy and power in Mambila society. Towards a sociology of embedded praxis
title The talk goes outside: argument, privacy and power in Mambila society. Towards a sociology of embedded praxis
title_full The talk goes outside: argument, privacy and power in Mambila society. Towards a sociology of embedded praxis
title_fullStr The talk goes outside: argument, privacy and power in Mambila society. Towards a sociology of embedded praxis
title_full_unstemmed The talk goes outside: argument, privacy and power in Mambila society. Towards a sociology of embedded praxis
title_short The talk goes outside: argument, privacy and power in Mambila society. Towards a sociology of embedded praxis
title_sort talk goes outside argument privacy and power in mambila society towards a sociology of embedded praxis
topic Anthropology
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