Alessandro Duranti
From Grammar to Politics
Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village
$26.95, £18.95 paperback
9780520083851
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August 1994, Available worldwide
August 1994, Available worldwide
Alessandro Duranti explores the way traditional oratory in a Samoan village is shaped by the needs of the political process and shows how language insulates ceremonial speakers from the perils of everyday confrontation. He proposes a "moral flow hypothesis" in discourse, to describe a grammar that distributes praise and blame and in that way defines the standing of individuals in the community. This ethnographic journey from linguistic to political anthropology demonstrates that the analysis of grammar in context needs ethnography just as much as the conduct of politics needs grammatical analysis.
"Not only a valuable contribution to Samoan and Polynesian ethnography but also a stimulating and highly readable commentary on theory and method in anthropology."—Choice
"Innovative and thorough scholarship by an acknowledged leader in his field, one which lies at the often quite baffling intersection of linguistics and anthropology."—Donald L. Brenneis, Editor, American Ethnologist
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