Good Tongues, Bad Tongues: Denunciation, Rumour and Revenge in the French Basque Country, 1943-1945
Titel:
Good Tongues, Bad Tongues: Denunciation, Rumour and Revenge in the French Basque Country, 1943-1945
Auteur:
Ott, Sandra
Verschenen in:
History and anthropology
Paginering:
Jaargang 17 (2006) nr. 1 pagina's 57-72
Jaar:
2006-03
Inhoud:
This article provides the first ethnographic study of denunciation and rumor during the Gernam Occupation and its aftermath. In one French Basque village, “a good tongues” accused a female shopkeeper of adultery, multiple denunciations and economic collaboration with the enemy. She, in turn, played wtth “public rumour”, a product of human communication and imagination that citizens constantly reshaped as they evaluated and responded to accusations of wrongdoing. By making public, oral denunciations to the Germans, the shopkeeper competed with a female arch rival in the Resistance. Basques had their own traditional means of sanctioning moral treachery in their community. I show how one particular practice, La Jonchee, provided an anonymous, non-violent alternative to female head-shaving, carried out by men who wished to punish women for sexual collaboration.
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