Language, Discourse, and Narrative

This chapter looks at narrative and considers more closely how it is a primary means for the communication and articulation of moral worlds. It discusses the central role that language-use plays in the shaping of local moral worlds. The chapter argues that counternarratives show the agency of the mothers and their resistance to racist and moralizing discourse and narratives, and practice One of the reasons the analysis of narratives is so important to the anthropological study of moralities is that it provides a rare instance to see and hear the articulation of competing and contested moral perspectives, for what often becomes clear in the analysis of these narratives is that the teller is setting up her own moral position over and against another position.