1. Today Communication in Practice Quiz Share current uses of silence
Media examples of silence
Silence activity
Key terms and discussion for each reading
Summary and preview

2. Communication in Practice Quiz (10 Min)
Write down one example of what silence has meant in your social interactions. Try to be as specific as possible
What are two of the five times Apache use silence?
Why did people get angry at the Quakers?

3. How Do You Use Silence?
Share with the class

4. Silence as Protest UC Davis Protest Background Silent Protest
To 2:06
Silent Protest
To 1:13
What’s the social business of this silence?
How is this an example of emergent communication?

5. Silence Activity Pair up with someone you don’t know well
Sit facing each other in silence for 2 full minutes
What does your body do when you are silent?
Pay attention to whether/how you communicate with your partner in silence
Body language
Facial expressions

6. Bauman, Let Your Words Be Few
Silence
The message of the deity can be received fully through silence – sound may alter it
Language
One’s voice is an important tool, not to be used carelessly
Phatic communication
“Language whose primary purpose is to establish a connection” (60) and which has a “lack of referential meaning” (62)

7. Bauman, Let Your Words Be Few
Politeness phenomenon
“Means of acknowledging or upholding another person’s face” (68)
Face is the public self image that each person tries to protect
Positive Face
“The positive consistent self-image or personality’…including the desire that this self-image be appreciated and approved of”
Negative Face
“the basic claim to…freedom of action and freedom from imposition”

8. Apply it to Ourselves
What are some examples of phatic communication and politeness phenomena today?
Phatic Communication
Politeness Phenomena
How does it protect positive face?
How does it protect negative face?

9. “To Give Up On words”: Silence in western Apache Culture
Keith Basso
“To Give Up On words”: Silence in western Apache Culture

10. Basso, To Give Up On Words
When do the Apache use silence?
Meeting strangers
Courting
Children coming home
Being cussed out
Being with people who are sad
What, according to the book, do these situations have in common?

11. Some Context for Boarding School
Apache (and other American Indian) children were forced to attend federally funded boarding schools, sometimes literally taken by force
Given Anglicized names, haircuts, and clothing
Forbidden to use their native language
Often taught by Christian missionaries
Often in poor conditions, high rate of abuse
The intention was explicitly to destroy American Indian culture: “kill the Indian, save the man”
Began in 1870s, continued through early 1990s, peaked in the 1970s

12. Before and After

13. Analysis
What is at stake, or what is the social business of silence for the Apache?
How do these practices compare with your own in similar situations?
When would we be likely to remain silent or even just talk less?

14. Summary Silence is as much a social tool as speech; it does something
It’s important to note how silence is working when you take jottings and write fieldnotes
Politeness allows us to maintain face for ourselves and others in social interactions
Cross-cultural differences in silence can lead to misunderstanding and even violence

15. Preview for Wednesday
Susan Lepselter, “The License: Poetics, Power, and the Uncanny”
Key terms: uncanny, the poetic function of language
The two halves of this article are very different: stories first, then theory
Choose expert groups!
Greetings Assignment due in 1 week