Orientación de espacio y tiempo en la cultura tojolabal por medio de la conversación

In 1978 Brody, with their consent, left a recorder in a room to tape a conversation between two Tojolabal speakers in Comitán, Chiapas. The present text is a transcription and analysis of that text. The text itself includes various topics of ordinary life such as a bus ride to another town and a discussion of where work may be available. Interesting ethnographic features of the discourse are described that include the use of repetition, the manner in which time is contextualized, and the use of certain particles to relate the action to the present. She also points out the manner in which the speakers take turns in the conversation, the ways in which they construct the sequence of their talk, change topics, and indicate that they are listening or not to the other speaker. Also important are the ways in which the speakers draw on shared social and cultural knowledge.