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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page discussion of the various societal situations in which joking results. Notes that these situations, and the specifics of the joking, can change according to a number of factors. Relates observations from three separate societal situations in which joking occurs, the globalized workplace, the classroom, and in Presidential addresses to an audience. Utilizes the anthropological literature to explain the differences. Bibliography lists 13 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPhumor3.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
The manner in which we are related to one another either biologically or socially affects the manner in which we communicate and utilize
humor in that communication. This is true both for our modern culture and the so-called "primitive" cultures. In studies involving the primitive African tribes, for example, a number
of researchers have found a definitive relationship between the use of jokes and the social or familial relationships occupied by the respective individuals. Radcliffe-Brown (1940, 96) clarifies:
"The theory is that both the joking relationships which constitute an alliance between clans or tribes, and that
between relatives by marriage, are modes of organizing a definite stable system of social behavior in which disjunctive and conjunctive components are maintained and combined"
This same relationship has been found in social situations involving non-kin as well. In such situations individuals still operate
in respect to some sort of social hierarchy and their joking reflects that hierarchy. Numerous researchers, in fact, have examined this relationship. The workplace has received a particular
emphasis in that research Duncan (1982), Malone (1980) and Vinton (1989). One particularly interesting workplace use of humor can be observed among tribal peoples who have been pulled together
as a result of economics and industrialization. Scrivner has observed that though these peoples might have previously been characterized by intertribal hostility, in the workplace they are forced to
cooperate with one another. That situation often involves yet another development as well, however. In the workplace these peoples identify a common adversary, the Europeans who are forcing
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