[lit-ideas] "Joking Relationship"
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 19:36:18 EDT
In a message dated 9/9/2004 12:59:00 AM Eastern Standard Time,
mccreery@xxxxxxx writes:
A Google search for "joking relationships" turns up 66,700 entries.
"Joking relationship" has a special technical sense in social
anthropology, where it refers to to relationships between people who
are expected, perhaps even required, to tease and joke with each other.
----
Interesting.
The collocation is credited in the OED, where it is traced to Lowie 1920 --
below.
Interestingly, the second cite, from Evans-Pritchard, mentions 'joking
relationships' between clans, so there may be a Scottish element there (in the
'clan' idea).
Radcliffe-Brown (in the next cite) says the name is not a very 'happy' one,
but I'm never happy with that, because the name itself is never asked if it is
happy (or not) with itself -- or should the _referent_ be asked, Geary?
To tell you the truth, I'm not sure I understand the idea, and wonder
whether Lowie did. Joking seems to me to be so much contextualised, that I
cannot
see how an anthropologist (or anyone else for that matter) can claim a
relationship belongs to the 'joking' kind. It is my undestanding that you
cannot
take _anything_ for granted, and some jokes will fall _flat_ on anyone... (if
that's what I mean).
In particular, the cite is:
A joking relationship is a relationship
between two persons (sometimes
between two groups) in which one is
by custom permitted (and in some cases
obliged) to tease or make fun of the other,
who must take no offence...
Gould.
That's a good social-anthropological way of putting it; _exceptions_ to the
'rule' (where the person/group _does_ take offence) will be seen as a
_dispreferred_ or _disvalued_ behaviour?
This is a good point for Popperians like McEvoy.
Suppose we say that A and B hold a 'joking relationship'; yet A issues the
joke J -- on occasion O -- and B _does_ take offence.
The move for the social anthropologist may seem to be:
-- Popperian:
the initial judgement is changed, and A and
B are then said _not_ to be in a 'joking'
relationship.
-- Confirmationist:
To stick to the idea that A and B _are_ in
a joking relationship, but that this is not
a real falsification of the general claim,
"A and B are in a joking relationship", but
only a sort of 'exception' that _proves_
(rather than refutes or tests) the 'rule'.
Cheers,
JL
----
From the OED
under 'joking'
joking relationship (Anthropoly), a relationship of familiarity between
specific persons which is sanctioned in certain tribal groups.
1920 R. H. LOWIE Primitive Soc. (1921) v. 95
Of a distinct character is the joking-relationship of the Crow and Hidarsa.
1933 E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD Ess. Social Anthropol. (1962) vii. 151
One way in which intimacy and equality are expressed between the partners
[sc. blood~brothers] is by each publicly insulting the other, a custom
commonly
described by ethnologists as a â??joking relationshipâ??. Ibid. 152 A
â??joking
relationshipâ?? may grow up between two clans.
1958 A. R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN Method in Social Anthropol. I. v. 119
The expression of opposition between the moieties may take various forms.
One is the institution to which anthropologists have given the not very
satisfactory name of â??the joking relationshipâ??.
1964 GOULD & KOLB Dict. Social Sci. 358/1
A joking relationship is a relationship between two persons (sometimes
between two groups) in which one is by custom permitted (and in some cases
obliged) to tease or make fun of the other, who must take no offence...
Obscenity..and the taking of property are common forms.
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