Concerning America
But It's Only A Story: Using Ethnographic Theatre to Explore Collective Cultural Anxiety
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kerric Harvey
This paper reports on the results of the author's most recent research in adapting theatrical technique for anthropological purposes, particularly in situations characterized by significant intra-group division and/or inter-group conflict. As an example of "ethnographic theatre," “The Interrogation Project” excavated cultural attitudes underpinning American political sensibility by presenting three different versions of the same ten-minute play in which the race of key characters changed across versions. The goal was to use theatre as a means of mapping the emotional, political, and moral contours of an extremely relevant and highly flammable topic of public concern—the moral, military, and ethical considerations factoring into the acceptance or rejection of torture as a tactic for combating terrorism. The play itself tells the story of a group of conductors on the 1860s Underground Railroad, an undercover operation that brought African American slaves north to freedom, who reluctantly resort to using torture in order to discover the identity of an informant in their midst. Employing the morally safe "make believe" world of a theatre piece permitted the researcher to probe for "breakpoints" in the audience's reactions towards the use of torture within the diegetic world of the play, and, by extension, the contemporary political landscape.
Language Mediation in the United States Medical Sector and How It Affects Women and Children
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alexander Rainof
The USA is the richest country in the world. California, for instance, was in 2014 the seventh largest economy on the planet. Sadly, it boasts also the highest income inequality of any highly industrialized country on the planet, with the highest Gini Index (.42), and growing. It also has the worse social safety net and medical coverage system of all the industrialized nations. The new administration proposals portend further disparities. Those who do not speak English, are sick, or have sick loved ones, are the most affected by this situation. Of those, as amply reported in the socio-medical literature, are women and children. The law mandates that they be provided with competent language mediation (Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VI, Executive Order 13166), mediation all too often unavailable. This paper discusses some of the most distressing sociolinguistic aspects of this state of affairs and their ramifications as illustrated in the medical and legal literature, such as lack of compliance, the cost of errors in communication, the ethics of medical interpretation, cultural issues, advocacy, consent, and children used as interpreters. Possible solutions shall be discussed. Many of the examples given shall illustrate situations involving monolingual speakers of Spanish.
