Center For Mind, Brain, And Culture

Drawing upon data from an ongoing ethnographic study of embodiment and emotion in everyday interaction among cohabitating couples in the U.S., this presentation engages with key theoretical and methodological questions involved in conducting ethnographic research at the intersection of linguistic and biocultural anthropology. My discussion, specifically, focuses on video-recordings of naturally occurring interaction in couples’ homes alongside time-matched psychophysiological data on moment-to-moment shifts in each partners’ respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) —an aspect of heart rate variability (HRV)—gathered with a mobile impedance cardiography device (Mindware Technologies, Ltd. Westerville, OH). In analyzing video data, I demonstrate how the theories and methods of linguistic anthropology complicate a quantitative approach to emotion-in-interaction that often hinges upon the identification of specific, discrete “emotions” and/or designation of particular interactions as either “conflict” or “agreement” (s