[Linganth] Middle finger as informal greeting

[Gaudio, Rudolf]

Leila,

I don't have any real data on this, but my surmise is that you & your students are onto something.  
An example from pop. culture that comes to mind is Eminem's movie _8 Mile_, in which a few of the
characters use the middle finger to greet each other in a way that (to me) suggests affection and 
hostility at the same time.  I'd be curious to know how you & your students read it.

Rudi 

Rudolf P. Gaudio
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
School of Natural and Social Sciences
Purchase College, State University of New York
Purchase, NY 10577
rudolf.gaudio at purchase.edu

> ----------
> From: 	owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu on behalf of monaghan at indiana.edu
> Sent: 	Sunday, January 30, 2005 8:47 AM
> To: 	linganth at cc.rochester.edu
> Subject: 	[Linganth] Middle finger as informal greeting
> 
> Hi.  I'm writing a paper on student doing conversational analysis based 
> ethnographies and the question of using the middle finger as a casual greeting 
> has come up.  
> 
> Have other people seen/heard of this phenomenon?  It seems to be common among 
> male undergrads and grad students here at Indiana University but I don't know 
> if it is just an IU phenomenon or is broader spread than that.
> 
> Amazing where this profession of ours leads us!
> 
> all best, 
> 
> Leila
> 
> Leila Monaghan, PhD
> Department of Communication and Culture
> Indiana University
> monaghan at indiana.edu
> 
> 
> 
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