Africana Periodical Literature 
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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | Classifying Information: Secrets, Lies, and Other Categories in Mande |
| Author: | Hoffman, Barbara G. |
| Year: | 2000 |
| Periodical: | Mande Studies |
| Volume: | 2 |
| Pages: | 81-95 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Mali |
| Subjects: | research methods social sciences communication Manding Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/44078791 |
| Abstract: | This article addresses the question of how we can distinguish between truth and falsehood, secret and common knowledge, when we conduct research in cultures other than our own. Drawing on her own research on Mande language and caste in Mali in the mid-1980s, the author illustrates the impact of social position on the classification of information. Much of the first year of her research, the author spent watching and listening to Mande communicative processes. This enabled her, in subsequent years, to more accurately perceive the types of information her interlocutors gave her as well as to conduct interviews in culturally appropriate ways. In Mande societies, ways of classifying talk include such metacategories as 'kuma' (talk in general), 'baro' (conversation among intimates), and 'nyininkali' (asking questions). Each of these metacategories has numerous forms and instantiations. 'Nyininkali' is the most delicate category of talk and often the most difficult to manage. The interview, a form of communication common in Western culture, does not map directly into Mande languages and cultures. The author suggests other techniques of eliciting data and methods for checking information obtained from interviews, particularly sensitive information, such as that offered by a consultant as secret or as the 'pure truth'. Bibliogr. |
