Starting from the premise that interpersonal communication is inseparable from culture, this collection moves beyond traditional approaches to the subject by foregrounding the ways in which interpersonal relationships emerge through culturally mediated language practices. Proposes a new approach to interpersonal communication, based in ethnography and performance. Features ethnographic articles that are inviting and accessible to beginning students. Explores interpersonal interactions in a range of settings: from high school slang in California to sign language use in a deaf church, from Tuareg greetings in the Sahara to the language of aggression among Mississippi girls. Includes articles with detailed transcripts of conversation that students can analyze. Provides students with conceptual and practical tools to develop their own ethnographic research on language practices.

Leila Monaghan Leila Monaghan teaches Anthropology at the University of Wyoming. Previously she was the Course Director of Interpersonal Communication in the Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University. She is co-editor of the recent volumes Many Ways to Be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities (2003) and HIV/AIDS and Deaf Communities (2006).

Jane E. Goodman is Associate Professor of Communication and Culture at Indiana University, where she teaches performance and ethnographic studies. She previously served as Course Director of Interpersonal Communication. Goodman is the author of Berber Culture on the World Stage: From Village to Video (2005).