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Social subjects beyond norm and action

Social subjects beyond norm and action

Ryan Schram
ANTH 2700: Key debates in anthropology
ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
Social Sciences Building 410 (A02)
Week of March 31, 2025 (Week 6)

Slides available at https://anthro.rschram.org/2700/2025/6

Main reading: Miller (2010)

Other reading: Hendriks (2023); Shange (2019)

A bold assertion. What do we make of it?

[J]eans wearing cannot be assimilated within the implicit assumption of normativity that has been the foundation of anthropology for most of its history and that remains an implicit device even within theories of practice. (Miller 2010, 426)

What should anthropology say about being "ordinary"?

• The most important paradigms in anthropology assume on some level that social order has a normative aspect, and that social actors operate in relation to rules and rule-like ideas. Do we agree?
• If Miller's jeans-wearers are representative of social actors in general, then people seem to be oriented toward being “ordinary,” and that presumes a standard or model of “normal.” What does the presence of that standard mean for a theory of society?

A story from Portland, Oregon

Overheard at the coffeeshop: “I wonder what it is like to have a culture.”

What would you say?

Go to this Padlet: https://sydney.padlet.org/ryanschram/what-would-you-say-lcmkv4zmiyf0me5s

Contemporary anthropologists must use binoculars to see society

The social sciences begin by embracing a synchronic view over a diachronic view.

Later scholars argued we need to see any society as the outcome of historical change.

Now, we need to maintain binocular vision on the the object of explanation, that is, be able to see it in both synchronic and diachronic perspectives at the same time.

The rule in ruler

Following a “norm” is like drawing a line with a T-square. The line is straight because the tool is straight.

Following social norms is like playing a game. If you break one of the rules of the game, you can’t play.

These are not the only relevant meanings of norm and normal.

A random variable has a bell-shaped distribution

Height is a random variable across a population

• Everyone in this class is a different height. There is a shortest (min) and a tallest (max).
• Most people are near the midpoint (median) of the min and the max
• And, the average height is close to median
• The distribution of heights in this class and the population (students at USYD) is Gaussian or bell-shaped.

How do you define normal?

• The people in the Portland coffeshop were saying themselves “We’re normal.”
• Orokaiva people are normal human beings because they aren’t like ejeba people, ol waitman.
• Workers at Signature Fashions think of themselves as middle-income people, neither rich nor poor.

There’s a problem with the idea that society is a rulebook

• Rules are statements, but social “rules” not always stated and don’t need to be stated to have force.
  • What kind of a rule is “unspoken”?
• People use the language of rules when they talk with each other, and all people do is talk with each other.
  • They may not be stating their ideas about rules in categorical terms, but they do judge and evaluate other people’s actions and their own in the course of interactions.

Every action sends a message. Everyday life is a conversation.

Social action is not just meaningful, it’s a message. When we appear in public, our appearance sends many messages, some of which is intentional and some which are unintentional.

We can distinguish between signals that we give intentionally and those we give off unintentionally (Goffman 1973, 2).

We also receive information from other people’s presentation and action

Every person receives feedback from the other people with whom they are interacting.

A: [casual, friendly] Hey what up.
B: 🤔
A: [serious, solemn] Oh… um, excuse me, Your Holiness. I am honored to be in your presence.

Obligatory reference to a classic early-aughts “wireless” ad touting the company’s great cellular coverage area

“Jimbo” [Cingular Wireless]. 2006. BBDO. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0pL_CsK3Dk.

Cingular has no dropped calls. You don’t have to worry that a long pause means you said something stupid to a future in-law.

References and further reading

Goffman, Erving. 1973. The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Overlook Press.

Hendriks, Thomas. 2023. “On the Surprising Queerness of Norms: Anthropology with Canguilhem, Foucault, and Butler.” Anthropological Theory 23 (3): 235–54. https://doi.org/10.1177/14634996221117755.

Miller, Daniel. 2010. “Anthropology in Blue Jeans.” American Ethnologist 37 (3): 415–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01263.x.

Shange, Savannah. 2019. “Black Girl Ordinary: Flesh, Carcerality, and the Refusal of Ethnography.” Transforming Anthropology 27 (1): 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/traa.12143.