Joel Sherzer Books

Classic case studies surveying the use, role and function of language and speech in social life.

Frontmatter -- Introduction / Joel, Sherzer / -- Semiotic Functions of Macro-parallelism in the Shokleng Origin Myth / Greg, Urban -- Oratory Is Spoken, Myth Is Told, and Song Is Sung, but They Are All Music to My Ears / Anthony, Seeger -- Three Modes of Shavante Vocal Expression: Wailing, Collective Singing, and Political Oratory / Laura, Graham -- Quoted Dialogues in Kalapalo Narrative Discourse / Ellen, Basso -- The Report of a Kuna Curing Specialist: The Poetics and Rhetoric of an Oral Performance / Joel, Sherzer -- Styles of Toba Discourse / Harriet, Klein -- Topic Continuity and OVS Order in Hixkaryana / Desmond C., Derbyshire -- The Decline of Dialogue: Ceremonial and Mythological Discourse among the Shuar and Achuar of Eastern Ecuador / Maurizio, Gnerre -- Guide to Tape Selections -- Index

Twelve essays pose a challenge to classical anthropological theory and methodology in which Indian cultures have been analyzed in isolation, without regard for nation-state context. Empirically focused, they deal with such issues as how the Guatemalan tourist industry appropriates indigenous clothing to create a national image and how highland Indian music has adapted to Peruvian state interventions since the colonial period. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR