Are there any elephants in the desert?!

Judit Hidasi

doi:10.1556/AEthn.54.2009.1.3

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Acta Ethnographica Hungarica

Volume/Issue:: Volume 54: Issue 1

Are there any elephants in the desert?!

Author:

Judit Hidasi

Judit Hidasi College of International Management and Businesss Budapest Business School Budapest Hungary

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Pages:: 21–30

Online Publication Date:: 04 Jun 2009

Publication Date:: 01 Jun 2009

Article Category:: Journal Article

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1556/AEthn.54.2009.1.3

Keywords:: humour perception; humour competence; joke; verbal discourse; Japanese communication; affinity for humour

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Commonplace images from abroad of Japanese people and language hold that the Japanese are highly ritualized, harmony-seeking, and somewhat humourless. This study attempts to describe and analyze the reasons behind these images.It is pointed out that humour, and especially one of its characteristic genres, the joke, is a highly culture-specific construct. The topics of jokes differ from culture to culture and so does the kind of audience to which it is thought a particular joke can be told. It is also noticeable that humour competence and affinity for jokes — i.e. the capacity to produce, understand and perform humorous communication and interaction — is also a culturally programmed capacity. While in European cultures “humour competence” and “affinity for jokes” are considered intellectual virtues, in certain other cultures — like the Japanese — this practice has not been established. Based on a comparison with European discourse and communication practices we sought to identify the interaction and communication patterns that work against joke-affinity in Japanese culture.

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Acta Ethnographica Hungarica

Print ISSN:: 1216-9803

Online ISSN:: 1588-2586

Senior Editors

Editor-in-Chief: Ágnes FÜLEMILE
Associate editors: Fruzsina CSEH;
Zsuzsanna CSELÉNYI
Review Editors: Csaba MÉSZÁROS; Katalin VARGHA

Editorial Board

Balázs BALOGH (Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities)
Elek BARTHA (University of Debrecen)
Balázs BORSOS (Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities)
Miklós CSERI (Hungarian Open Air Museum, the Skanzen of Szentendre)
Lajos KEMECSI (Museum of Ethnography)
László KÓSA (Eötvös University, Budapest)
lldikó LANDGRAF (Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities)
Tamás MOHAY (Eötvös University, Budapest)
László MÓD (University of Szeged)
Attila PALÁDI-KOVÁCS (Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities and Eötvös University, Budapest)
Gábor VARGYAS (Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities and University of Pécs)
Vilmos VOIGT (Eötvös University, Budapest)

Advisory Board

Marta BOTÍKOVÁ (Bratislava, Slovakia)
Daniel DRASCEK (Regensburg, Germany)
Dagnoslaw DEMSKI (Warsaw, Poland)
Ingrid SLAVEC GRADIŠNIK (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Dmitriy A. FUNK (Moscow, Russia)
Chris HANN (Halle, Germany)
Krista HARPER (Amherst, MA USA)
Anya PETERSON ROYCE (Bloomington, IN USA)
Ferenc POZSONY (Cluj, Romania)
Helena RUOTSALA (Turku, Finland)
Mary N. TAYLOR (New York, NY USA)
András ZEMPLÉNI (Paris, France)

Further credits

Translators: Elayne ANTALFFY; Zsuzsanna CSELÉNYI; Michael KANDÓ
Layout Editor: Judit MAHMOUDI-KOMOR
Cover Design: Dénes KASZTA

Manuscripts and editorial correspondence:

Acta Ethnographica Hungarica
Institute of Ethnology
Research Centre for the Humanities
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
H-1453 Budapest, Pf. 33
E-mail: actaethnographicahungarica@gmail.com

Reviews:
Mészáros, Csaba or Vargha, Katalin review editors
Institute of Ethnology
Research Centre for the Humanities
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
H-1453 Budapest, Pf. 33
E-mail: meszaros.csaba@btk.mta.hu or vargha.katalin@btk.mta.hu

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2023
Scopus
CiteScore	0.6
CiteScore rank	Q2 (Music)
SNIP	0.369
Scimago
SJR index	0.164
SJR Q rank	Q2

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Acta Ethnographica Hungarica
Language	English
Size	B5
Year of Foundation	1950
Volumes per Year	1
Issues per Year	2
Founder	Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
Founder's Address	H-1051 Budapest, Hungary, Széchenyi István tér 9.
Publisher	Akadémiai Kiadó
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Responsible Publisher	Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN	1216-9803 (Print)
ISSN	1588-2586 (Online)