ANTHROPOLOGY COLLOQUIUM
Speaker: Steven P. Black
Vocal Practice: Noun Classes, Click Consonants, and Creativity
Amid Stigma in South Africa
This presentation discusses the communicative construction of HIV stigma in South
Africa and infected individuals’ creative responses to stigma. This is based on
ethnographic fieldwork with isiZulu speakers living with HIV and with a gospel choir that
operated as part support group and part activist organization. Detailed linguistic and
musical analysis in cultural context coupled with an attention to the socioeconomic
dynamics of international aid provides for a model of how choir members and others
creatively refashioned language ideologies of exclusion in speech and song.
This vibrant vocal practice extended support beyond in-group interactions, helping
isiZulu speaking South Africans with HIV to live productive lives amid stigma.
Steve Black is an anthropologist and visiting instructor at Rutgers University. In addition
to his research in South Africa he has also worked on a project on creativity and group
interplay with jazz music students and instructors in a university setting
Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011
Hamilton College, Rm 318
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.