Communication: Another Method
In Ways with Words, the author teaches many lessons and presents many facts she collected throughout her long, detailed visit and living experience with the two communities—Roadville and Trackton. First, she points out the importance for the ethnographer to be present in the field that he or she wants to research about. Second, people are willing to be literate—they only need institutions, libraries and books. Third, the ordeals of the past should not affect the present. Fourth, parents should teach their children what they have learnt from the past. Fifth, it is true that poverty is an issue, however, people can surmount that by “working hard”(41). Sixth, disagreement with other people is hard, and the only way “to stay away of trouble is to keep out of trouble” (42). Seventh, students should share what they learn at school with the society members, also they should participate and work to build the society-- their job should not only be confined to doing the homework.
The author wrote, “A good family man takes seriously his responsibilities to his mother first, then those to his children”(emphasis mine) (p. 69). Despite the discrimination based on the child’s gender, people of the Tracketon community were fully aware of the importance of the communication roles. Therefore, they enhanced those skills and trained their children to master them from a very early age by taking them on stage. Apparently that helped those boys to become prominent speakers in the future. Here, the word speaker refers to a person who does not accept the unjust or keeps quiet when his rights violated. Having said this, the author/ethnographer did mention this long description of the communication practices for a purpose, she wanted to draw attention on an important stage that the African-American community went through which changed many generations because they knew how to make that change.
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