Social Uses and Radio Practices: The Use of Participatory Radio by Ethnic Minorities in Mexico by Lucila Vargas

Author:Lucila Vargas [Vargas, Lucila]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General
ISBN: 9780813388861
Google: Gu27AAAAIAAJ
Goodreads: 2637852
Publisher: Westview Press
Published: 1995-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

The monthly expenditure for keeping the receiver operating with batteries comes roughly to the earnings of a half-day of work. The type of batteries needed by almost all the families' receivers ("C" type) in Madero or Tabasco sold for $0.42 each. Radio cassette recorders need four batteries, and simple radios need two. A frequent answer to the question, "How often do you put new batteries in your receiver?" was, "Once a month." So the monthly cost of batteries may reach $1.68 dollars. It is important to note that, in addition to Tabascans, some Maderans also use batteries to run their receivers either because their houses have no electric outlet, or because their receiver works only with batteries.

Ownership of Reception Technology and Social Uses. In her ethnography of Nahuas of Guerrero, Mexico Catharine Good Eshelman describes how stereo systems have become the most widely sought consumer goods among these people because stereos promote social gatherings and can also be used as any other good or service, for reciprocal exchange.68 Though naturally Maderans and Tabascans use radio for such purposes, I suspect that their uses of radio include not only a dimension of sharing and cooperation, but also of family conflict and gender domination. At another level I also suggest that the consumption of Radio Margaritas' offerings is a signifying practice challenging both the conventional meaning of listening to radio and the established definitions of Indianness. I mentioned above that a striking use of the radio set, and most importantly of radio listening, is as a commodity consumed to acquire the status of being modern.69 The radio set, as well as the wrist watch, seems to be used by young Tojolabal men to signify their participation in modern life. This point finds support in the patterns of ownership and control of the receiver.

Most families claimed that the radio receiver forms part of the household and that it is used as such by all family members. Three families specified that "as a property itself, the radio belongs to the father."70 I must interpret their answers in the light of property rights in the Tojolabal society, which grants only limited rights to women. Women do not inherit from their parents and seldom acquire the ejidatario status (in Madero two widows have ejidatario status), but they may own cattle, chickens, and household items such as pots and even sewing machines.71 As a household item, the radio receiver could well be part of women's domain. However, I found that more often radio receivers belong to men, a fact consistent with the history of technology and indeed with the history of radio. Shaun Moores, for instance, in his historical study on the incorporation of radio technology into the life of U.S. families, found evidence that "it was mainly young men, caught up in the play of experimentation, who were listening to broadcast transmissions" in the 1920s.72

The number of radios per person is higher in Madero than in Tabasco,73 and gender differences concerning ownership of receivers vary little from what feminist historians of technology have found in other places.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.