Ruth A. Borker

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    Ruth A. Borker is a feminist anthropologist who has done research in the area of the role of women in complex societies.  This includes characteristics such as: movement from villages to cities, the formation of class distinction and the invention of writing stemming from record keeping by merchants and temples.

In her career she has had many published works. In 1980, Anthropology: Social and Cultural Perspectives was published along with works by Sally McConnell-Ginet and Nelly Furman in Women and Language in Literature and Society .

    In 1982, Ruth Borker wrote "A Cultural Approach to Male-Female Miscommunication" in coordination with Daniel N. Maltz, which can be found in Communication, Language, and Social Identity. This research led to the conclusion that in conversation women and men have different ideas of what friendly conversation is and different rules of interpreting it. One difference found was that women tend to ask more questions to show interest and men are more likely to interrupt others.

    Another study done in the 1980's by Ruth Borker along with Daniel Maltz is “Anthropological Perspectives on Gender and Language” which may be found in Gender and Anthropology: Critical Reviews for Research and Teaching.

References:

Andrea Sims .” Academics // Ling 330 (Fall 2002) http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~asims/330.html 3 Dec. 2002

“LSA Guidelines for Nonsexist Usage” (10 June 1998) http://www.lsadc.org/web2/nonsexist.htm 3 Dec. 2002

“American Anthropological Association.” Gender and Anthropology: Critical Reviews for Research and Teaching

http://www.aaanet.org/committees/coswa/gender.htm 3 Dec. 2002

Written by:  Kate Wilson, 2002