Abstract
Gossip has a bad reputation around town—if not the world. Among the West African Ashanti, nasty or scandalous gossip about a tribal leader is punished by cutting off the gossiper’s lips. Only during special ceremonies are members of the tribe allowed to tattle without having their mouths altered. The Seminole Indians of North America treat “talking bad about someone” as they would stealing and lying. They are absolutely convinced that gossiping Indians will lose their place in “Big Ghost City” after they die.1
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Notes
R. B. Stirling, “Some Psychological Mechanisms Operative in Gossip,” Social Forces 34 (1956): 262–267.
Jean E. Laird, Gossip, Gossip, Gossip (Liquori, MO: Liquori Publishers, 1980), 7, 9, 20.
As quoted in Bob Thomas, Winchell (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971), 160.
Ann Landers, “Gossip: The Faceless Demon That Breaks Hearts and Ruins Careers,” Philadelphia Inquirer (August 22, 1985): 23.
Sissela Bok, Secrets (New York: Vintage Books, 1983), 101.
Alexander Rysman, “How the ‘Gossip’ Became a Woman,” Journal of Communication 27 (1977): 176–180.
Patricia Meyer Spacks, Gossipn (New York: Knopf, 1985), 26.
Rysman.
James Mercer Garnett, The Gossip’s Manual (Richmond: T. W. White, 1825), 361.
Rysman.
Anne Edwards, Vivian Leigh: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1977).
Albert Goldman, from the journalism of Lawrence Schiller, Ladies and Gentlemen—Lenny Bruce!! (New York: Random House, 1971).
Lena Pepitone and William Stadiem, Marilyn Monroe: Confidential (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979).
Priscilla Johnson McMillan, Marina and Lee (New York: Harper & Row, 1977).
Robina Lund, The Getty I Knew (Kansas City: Sheed Andrews & McMeel, 1977).
Margaret Trudeau, Margaret Trudeau: Beyond Reason (New York: Paddington Press, 1979).
Rosemary Clooney with Raymond Strait, This for Remembrance: The Autobiography of Rosemary Clooney (Chicago: Playboy Press Book, 1977).
David Gwyn, Idi Amin: Death-Light of Africa (Boston: Little, Brown, 1977).
A summary of our methods of inquiry is located in Appendix A.
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© 1987 Jack Levin and Arnold Arluke
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Levin, J., Arluke, A. (1987). The Inside Scoop. In: Gossip. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6112-9_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6112-9_1
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