The Open Anthropology Journal

2010, 3 : 114-123
Published online 2010 March 22. DOI: 10.2174/1874912701003010114
Publisher ID: TOANTHJ-3-114

Modification of Social Identity in Experience-Toughened Trans-Migrant Agricultural Workers

Keith V. Bletzer
School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85217, USA.

ABSTRACT

Diversion and subversion occur in the playful humor in which trans-migrant farm workers engage to alleviate the gruffness and roughness of farm labor and to re-assert the human potential for creativity, with words, if not in action and behavior. This essay considers nuances of the humor response in formal interviews as markers of significant points of transition. Narrators use humor to reflect on alterations in behavioral experience that directly affect the personal identity they have come to accept and to believe is a reasonable representation of who they are.

Keywords:

Trans-migrants and immigrants, farm work, humor, resilience, identity.