Seldom Ask, Never Tell: Labor and Discourse in Appalachia (Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics, 25)

326 Pages·2000·19.51 MB·English

by  Anita Puckett

SELDOM A S K,
NEVER TELL
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Text Labor and Discourse in Appalachia
SELDOM A S K,
NEVER TELL
LA5OR AND DISCOURSE IN APPALACHIA
Anita Puckett
OXPORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
2000
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Puckett, Anita, 1949-
Seldom ask, never tell : labor and discourse in Appalachia /
Anita Puckett.
p. cm.—(Oxlord studies in anthropological linguistics ; 25)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-5 10277-0
1. Appalachian Region——Social conditions, 2. Appalachian Region—
Economic conditions. 3. Sociology, Urban—United States. I. Title. (I. Series.
HN79.AI27 .P83 2000
306'.0974—dc21 99-040241
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Ralph Clinton Puckett
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PREFACE
This book is probative. Using information obtained through linguistic anthropo-
logical approaches to ethnographic fieldwork, it explores how ways of requesting
in a rural coalfield Appalachian community construct a local socioeconomy. Re-
sponding to recent and theoretically reorienting advances in linguistic anthropol-
ogy, it asserts necessary, irreducible relationships between verbal and material
forms when people engage in socioeconomic behavior. To separate the material
from the verbal in these instances of socioeconomic communication, to focus only
upon how commodities, goods, and services are consumed, circulated, and pro-
duced, is either to dehumanize those individuals (or groups) who initiate or re-
ceive the result of such processes, or it is to impose the analyst's own conception
of the motivating factors in such material transactions. To focus only on the ver-
bal invites similar critiques of an analyst's imposition of his or her own system of
meaning to socioeconomic communicative events. For socially involved, interacting
individuals, soeiocconomic communicative events reproduce or create behavior
meaningful to them. How these meanings are "contextualized" in specific socio-
economic communications and "entextualized," or lifted from specific events so
they can be talked about or "retextualized" in other verbal genres, could be the
major goal of this work.
But this task is impossible, given the asccssibility of most coalfield Appalachian
communities to new patterns of marketing commodities and services. Residents'
own efforts to adapt or adjust to different job markets also preclude a totally closed,
static system of language and socioeconomic relations. This book therefore
focuses on how tropes, expressions, and other conventionalized verbal forms
(metapragmatie designators) designate and interpret imperatives and other speech
forms that effect a division of labor for the production, circulation, and consump-
tion of resources in the rural eastern Kentucky community I have given the pseud-
onym of Ash Creek. These serve two contrasting major purposes: first, they pro-
vide a dynamic, interactive means for residents to negotiate how to categorize a
viii Preface
specific socioeconomic communication. Second, they can be entextualized into
more "textual" verbal practices such as humorous "tales" or sacred "prayers." These
entextualizations connect the specific socioeconomic communications these ex-
pressions index to overtly political, moral, or religious verbal genres and construct
a rich, complex, and constantly reassessed ideology of socioeconomic communi-
cation. To those who would appreciate either more detailed micro-analyses of
specific communicative events than this work attempts or would prefer more
careful analysis of performative verbal genres, my apologies. The focus of this work,
however, precludes it.
However, the focus of this book is not only theoretical issues. I have life-long
experiences with urban Appalachians who commonly call themselves "hillbillies,"
"country folks," or "briars." Their efforts at "makin a place" for themselves in the
industrial cities of southwestern Ohio has been a deeply felt and sometimes very
personal quest. Their frequently cited expression "ain't nobody tellin me what to
do" has heartfelt meaning for them and for those in Ash Creek as well. Exploring
this expression's contribution to the constitution of a local ideology of socioeco-
nomic communication motivated my research.
When I have presented portions of this work publicly, one or more members
of the audience commonly say, in reference to my examples and sometimes with
agitation, "that's not just in Appalachia." Of course not. Linguistic anthropologi-
cal research and the entextualization of the discursive interactions that constitute
it into a published, publicly accessible forum not only shed light on theoretical
understandings of a particular subject matter but also suggests interconnections
to other fields, other approaches, and, in the case of linguistic anthropological
ethnographic studies, speeeh-in-use in other communities and regions. In the case
of Ash Creek and Appalachian communities similar to it, the social-historical
context from which their present patterns emerge supports, rather than contra-
dicts, full or partial overlap with language and socioeconomic relations in other
communities and regions of the United States. This book does describe differ-
ences, sometimes significant differences, from those reported for more urban,
professional language and socioeconomic relations. These differences do not pre-
clude similarities. Perhaps these similarities are highly significant and can shed
light on workplace and community language and socioeconomic contestations or
conflict elsewhere.
To reach as broad an audience as possible, 1 have relegated many theoretical
points and observations not critical to developing the basic argument to the end-
notes, and have attempted to use technical jargon infrequently, only when neces-
sary. The work does assume a stance toward language different from what many
are accustomed to and therefore requires a certain amount of grounding in theo-
retical concepts. Many of the endnotes are glosses to explain how I am using some
of these terms. Each chapter begins with one or more anecdotes based on my Ash
Creek experiences. They are intended as framing devices in Goffman's (1967)
sense of providing "footing" to the following discussion. They should not be viewed
with the same linguistic rigor as the transcriptions of audiorecorded speech in-
cluded in chapters lor discussion.
Preface ix
Portions of chapter 3 appeared in two other works of mine (Puckett 1995;
1998). Some of the discussion and transcriptions concerning instructions in chap-
ter 7 appeared previously in the 1998 work. Permission to reuse this material has
been granted by the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services at East Ten-
nessee State University and by SUNY Press.
I lived in Ash Creek from June 1985 to August 1987 and have returned fre-
quently since then. From August 1987 to August 1993, I lived in areas adjacent
to Ash Creek (except for one year) and could visit, telephone, or hear about resi-
dents regularly. Now I return when I can. I am deeply grateful to the people of
Ash Creek who allowed me to enter their homes and their private lives to ask
questions, tape talk, and generally to get in their way in order to write still another
"book" about them. Their ability to see into my heart and beyond the goals of my
study is something I treasure. In particular, I "owe" Rill, Sarah, Debbie, Linda,
and Sandy (using pseudonyms that appear in the book and are annotated in
Appendix A) a debt that can never be removed for their patience and kindness.
They spent hundreds of hours working, listening, and talking with me. To Millie,
I give thanks for being a sounding board who would listen and respond to my
thoughts about community and language relations. To the administration and staff
of the Environmental Center, my appreciation for allowing me to become your
ethnographer-in-residence. To other members of Ash Creek who also tolerated
so many questions, so much intrusion, thanks. For those who kindly gave me their
love, I will gladly "do for" as best as I am able as long as I am able.
The research has generously been supported by several institutions that pro-
vided research grants. Loyal Jones and Berea College kindly awarded a Melon
Foundation Appalachian Studies Fellowship. Other support was forthcoming from
the National Science Foundation and a Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University Arts and Sciences research travel grant. I am indebted to the faculty,
staff, and students of Southeast Community College who provided professional
and personal support for the writing of the dissertation portion of this project,
allowed me to ask more questions and record their verbal interactions, and com-
mented on local speech and economic patterns useful to this research.
This manuscript is indebted to the contribution of others who commented
on it or took an active role in shaping its final form. I thank members of the
anthropology and linguistics faculty of the University of Texas at Austin who
shaped my thinking, encouraged my research, and commented so helpfully on
this manuscript. These include, but are not limited to, Joel Sherzer, who con-
vinced me it could be done and others that it had merit; Creg Urban whose
theoretical insights provide a means for understanding how language-in-usc
"means"; Anthony Woodbury, whose linguistic abilities are beyond the exem-
plary; James Brow, who provided sound economic anthropological critiques; and
Katie Stewart, who supported the last stages of the dissertation writing period.
I am permanently indebted to Jane Hill for her input in writing this manuscript
and continued support and to Shirley Brice Heath for her kind and useful evalu-
ation of the manuscript, both as reviewers for Oxford University Press. Eliza-
beth Fine has been not only a supportive colleague in the pursuit of Appala-