discomfort

[David Samuels]

I've also sent this message to the linganth list, so I apologize if you
receive it more than once.  Thanks.

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Hi all.  I've got a little interesting dilemma that I thought some folks on
the list might be able to wrap their brains around.

A student in my Ethnographic Field Methods class (NOT, I should point out,
a linganth field methods course) wants to do a project on "uncomfortable
situations" - contexts in which one or more participants are less at ease
than others.  She's interested in what contexts trigger discomfort, how
people signal that they are uncomfortable (through body language and other
discourse cues), how the more comfortable participants interpret and
respond to the discomfort of others, why this might be an important thing
for participants to signal to each other, what it says about social
relations.

Anyway.  She's faced with two broad problems.  First, the
ethnomethodological one, of how she can reasonably interpret certain cues
as indexing discomfort rather than something else (the blink/wink thing);
second, you know, ethnographically, it's hard for her to go up to someone
and say "gee, you look really uncomfortable, can I interview you about it?"
That would seem to exacerbate the problem.

If anyone's got any ideas about how these questions can be addressed in the
context of a fieldwork class, I'd be really appreciative.

Thanks!

Best,



David W. Samuels, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
212 Machmer Hall
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003

VOX: (413) 545-2702
FAX: (413) 545-9494
email: samuels at anthro.umass.edu
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~samuels/