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Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics

Online ISBN:
9780824870676
Print ISBN:
9780824833381
Publisher:
University of Hawai'i Press
Book

Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics

Niko Besnier
Niko Besnier
University of Amsterdam
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Published:
8 July 2009
Online ISBN:
9780824870676
Print ISBN:
9780824833381
Publisher:
University of Hawai'i Press

Abstract

Although gossip is disapproved of across the world’s societies, it is a prominent feature of sociality, whose role in the construction of society and culture cannot be overestimated. In particular, gossip is central to the enactment of politics: through it people transform difference into inequality and enact or challenge power structures. This book uses an analysis of gossip as political action to develop a holistic understanding of a number of disparate themes, including conflict, power, agency, morality, emotion, locality, belief, and gender. It brings together two methodological traditions—the microscopic analysis of unelicited interaction and the macroscopic interpretation of social practice—that are rarely wedded successfully. The book approaches gossip from several angles. A detailed analysis of how Nukulaelae’s people structure their gossip interactions demonstrates that this structure reflects and contributes to the atoll’s political ideology, which wavers between a staunch egalitarianism and a need for hierarchy. The discussion then turns to narratives of specific events in which gossip played an important role in either enacting egalitarianism or reinforcing inequality.

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