Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Aaron V. Cicourel
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The setting: Mexicano society and Córdova, New Mexico
- 3 Interview techniques vis-à-vis native metacommunicative repertoires; or, on the analysis of communicative blunders
- 4 The acquisition of metacommunicative competence
- 5 Listen before you leap: toward methodological sophistication
- 6 Conclusion: theoretical quagmires and “purely methodological” issues
- Notes
- References
- Index
2 - The setting: Mexicano society and Córdova, New Mexico
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Aaron V. Cicourel
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The setting: Mexicano society and Córdova, New Mexico
- 3 Interview techniques vis-à-vis native metacommunicative repertoires; or, on the analysis of communicative blunders
- 4 The acquisition of metacommunicative competence
- 5 Listen before you leap: toward methodological sophistication
- 6 Conclusion: theoretical quagmires and “purely methodological” issues
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
The data were collected in Córdova, a community of about 700 inhabitants in the mountains of northern New Mexico. The residents are Mexicanos, with the exception of one recent Mexican immigrant, two middle-aged Anglo-Americans who have married Córdovans, and occasionally a few transient Anglo-American youths. Mexicanos are descendants of primarily Spanish and Mexican citizens who settled in New Mexico and southern Colorado during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Their ancestry includes a significant Native American element, but the Mexicanos consider themselves to be culturally Hispanic.
Córdova lies in the extreme southeast corner of Rio Arriba County (see map, Figure 1). The foothills area that includes the community is bordered on the east by the Sangre de Cristo mountain range; Córdova lies at the base of the highest peak in this section of the range, the Truchas Peak, which stands at 13,102 feet of elevation. The foothills extend some fourteen road miles to the west, where they are severed by the area's major water course–the Rio Grande. Córdova is situated in a small enclosed canyon, the Quemado Valley. The valley, which runs roughly east and west, is 6,800 feet above sea level. The surrounding hillsides can boast only sparse range grasses, cacti, and small trees, primarily piñons and junipers. The scarcity of arable land and the harshness of the environment are compounded by the scant and variable rainfall–an average of ten to fifteen inches per year (Maker, Folks, Anderson, and Link 1973:6–7).
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- Information
- Learning How to AskA Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Role of the Interview in Social Science Research, pp. 31 - 38Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1986