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I have attempted to represent this movement in and out of sociability in
fig. 5.1. Our social gatherings were clearly played out as distinct encounters,
with beginnings - the main duration of sociability - and closures. By and large
this trajectory of basic phases of sociable gatherings applied to the majority of
gatherings in each sociable milieu, and to that extent, constituted the same type
of situation - the same situational reality, as It were. Within each of these
phases, and over the trajectory of the gatherings, participants in both cultures
clearly aligned for the activity of sociability per se - in short, aligned
recognisable and mutually ratified and supported sociable selves.
Fig. 5.1 Sociable Gatherings: Basic Phases
SOCIABLE
GATHERING
Arr'ival Departure
MAIN PHASE greetings Post-
greetings Sociability
What I am referring to here as greeting phases can be taken to refer to
episodes during the gathering where people either gather or depart from
gatherings. In their basic format, these phases are taken up with ritual and often
formulaic hello-hello / goodbye-goodbye type interchanges, what Goff man
(1971) classed as'access rituals'. Main phase refer to what might best be
defined as the 'the post-arrival / pre-departure phase' of the gathering and differ
both qualitatively and quantitatively from greeting phases in that they are rather
more indeterminate and spontaneous in activity (i. e. what gets talked about)
and length (i. e. how long these phases normatively last for). For example, main
phases often included eating, drinking, conversation, and movement away from
the actual focal point to become quite dispersed affairs as well as additional
activities such as strolling round gardens to admire the hosts plants, tending
barbecues, or helping out in the kitchen. It is indeed from these main phases
that my conversational data are drawn and to which I will turn in the following
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