This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Herzfeld, M. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The cultural politics of gesture

Reflections on the embodiment of ethnographic practice

Harvard University, USA, herzfeld{at}wjh.harvard.edu

Ethnographers enter the field as legible signs of otherness to their interlocutors. In this article, I explore the ramifications of my personal experience of being variously `read' in the course of encounters in Bangkok, Thailand, to show how a gradual process of bodily inculcation can reduce the sense of difference and partially overcome the expectations induced by phenotype in particular, leading to greater access to the protected zones of cultural intimacy (including recognition of the newcomer's linguistic capacities). Such transitions also entail a learned increase of ease with informal modes of embodiment, as opposed to postures signaling varieties of power that are intrusive and palpably foreign to local experience. The processes of mutual recognition thus described are embedded in political relations of international as well as inter-personal significance. They thus have multi-faceted consequences for the outcomes and implications of our research.

Key Words: embodiment • cultural intimacy • gesture • personal appearance • fieldwork • language

Ethnography, Vol. 10, No. 2, 131-152 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1466138109106299


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?