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Dissertation Information for Elizabeth L. Keating

NAME:
- Elizabeth L. Keating

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Cultural Anthropology

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (1994)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: Power sharing: Language, rank, gender, and social space in Pohnpei, Micronesia

Abstract: "This is a study of how power and status relations are created and negotiated through language among the Pohnpeian people of Micronesia. Particular social interactions examined at the ""micro"" level explicate the nature and constitution of what are usually understood as ""macro"" social processes, such as power and status. The data base is video-recorded interactional data of honorific or status marked speech in contexts where chiefs and chieftesses are present. Hierarchy is also analyzed as it is constituted through the encoding of social space, and the interaction between verbal and visual constructions of hierarchy is discussed.

A theory which is developed in this dissertation is that honorific speech in Pohnpei constitutes relationships of hierarchical sharing, or power sharing, including rights to resources. Lower status persons are empowered through honorific speech forms to construct their own and others' rank relationships, and gender is one variable which can be constituted within these negotiations. Status hierarchies are constructed not only as a relation, but as separate meaningful domains. High status and low status are not just constituted as polarities, but as states with differing degrees of agency and/or causality. Metaphorical relationships in honorific possessive constructions reveal a link between shares of power and shares of food; food and rank are connected in many ways on Pohnpei, including through the consumption of the ceremonial beverage sakau.

Interactional data shows an important first step to constructing hierarchy is constructing solidarity. Information management is also linked to issues of status and power sharing. Women's roles in constituting a discourse about honor are also discussed. A reliance on informants' idealizations about honor in previous studies has over-emphasized the male role in constituting honor. Analysis of Pohnpeian discourse about honor reveals women play an important part in constructing honor, which I propose is actually a discourse about associating hierarchy and social stratification with positive emotion states.

Power relationships indexed in language and encoded in social space in interaction have far reaching consequences for the constitution, reproduction, and naturalization of asymmetry across events, across space, and across time."

MPACT Scores for Elizabeth L. Keating

A = 0
C = 1
A+C = 1
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:25:58

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