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Words and Processes in Mambila Kinship

The Theoretical Importance of the Complexity of Everyday Life

David Zeitlyn author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Lexington Books

Published:23rd Dec '04

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Words and Processes in Mambila Kinship cover

Words and Processes in Mambila Kinship presents a set of studies of the way that Mambila speakers in Cameroon talk about themselves and their kin. Author David Zeitlyn employs conversational analytic methods to further the study of kinship terminologies. This book takes an important step toward a new synthesis between the practice of ethnography and the study of language while presenting African natural language data (still rare in mainstream linguistics) in an accessible format.

Zeitlyn has plunged enthusiastically into the domain of cultural instantiation, linking the formal structure of kinship terminologies with the arena of 'person referring conversations.' He brings to the surface a panoply of topics, ranging from the ethnography of a Mambila conversation to the problem of ethnographic translation, and shows us effective ways of integrating rigorous analysis with social and linguistic context. The result is a refreshing approach to kinship that recognizes its roots in past theories as it maps out new territory for future theorizing. -- Dwight Read, University of California, Los Angeles

ISBN: 9780739108017

Dimensions: 235mm x 159mm x 20mm

Weight: 445g

256 pages