Interaction and gaze in rituals of legal mediation a moderation in Quechua communities

Abstract

Interaction and visual contact in rituals of legal mediation and moderation in Quechua communities

The relevance of the look as a communicative conversational resource and its different functions in a social interaction has been evidenced by different studies, especially in Western societies. However, studies from different societies and cultures have also reported differences in the action of looking.

In this contribution, we review two types of activities in the use of the look as a conversational communicative resource during a legal mediation and moderation session in a rural Quechua community: a) the visual contact that the receivers give to a speaker who addresses a group and b) the mutual look between the participants. The results suggest behaviors in the use of the look that are different from those described in the literature: the attention shown by the receivers through the look is almost non-existent, and the few cases that are recorded of a sustained mutual look occurs as a challenge or an announcement of a physical assault. These data suggest communicative practices of the Quechua indigenous communities with strategies and uses of multimodal communicative resources that are different from those of Western society.