A widower and an ethnographer: The burlesque alliance in the Andes

‪Revisiting the field of joking relationship from the perspective of linguistic anthropology, this article analyses improvised verbal performances in Quechua in the Andes, that lead to a burlesque alliance between a widowed man and the young ethnographer. What does the performance do to the theory o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Homme 2023-01, Vol.1 (245), p.85
Main Author: Riverti, Camille
Format: Article
Language:eng ; fre
Subjects:
Alliances
Anthropology
Burlesque
Ethnography
Linguistics
Marriage
Participation
Social order
Widowhood
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Summary:‪Revisiting the field of joking relationship from the perspective of linguistic anthropology, this article analyses improvised verbal performances in Quechua in the Andes, that lead to a burlesque alliance between a widowed man and the young ethnographer. What does the performance do to the theory of joking relationship? Why the widowed man and the ethnographer? And why do they stage abusive spouses? The text first describes the funerary context within which the burlesque sequence takes place. It then analyses the participation framework and the humorous scenario. The article shows that a pragmatic approach is essential to understand how, through a multiple indexical play, the performance points to the social order of the alliance, the relations of domination between men and women, and the particular histories of the participants. The pranksters thus involve in the alliance persons who display a "defect of conjugality" while indirectly conveying a critical message on marital violence. Exhibiting and responding to gendered hierarchies within the marital alliance, these Quechua improvised performances are typical of a register that is widespread in the Andes? political burlesque.‪
ISSN:0439-4216
1953-8103
DOI:10.4000/lhomme.45121