ANTHROPOLOGY 281--The Phonetics of Deceit--WAVEFORM & TRANSCRIPTION ANALYSIS

ANTH 281-1001
Dr. J Ferguson
University of Nevada, Reno
Spring 2018 06M18
JC Langelle

     A recent essay assignment in English 102 references the video "The Power Principle, Part 3, "Apocalypse". (2010), released by Metanoia Films and directed by Scott Noble. The essay required analysis of part 3, with a focus on two minutes of the video.

     Background: The film represents an effort to trace the proliferation of atomic weapons from the post-World War Two era, through various events such as the Cuban missile crisis, the fall of the Soviet Union, and at least two other non-relevant conflicts, Kosovo and Libya. Various speakers are either edited into the video or have some direct relation to its development. This essay is not interested in the cast of characters, but will focus on the technique used to purvey the message.

     Narration: the soft-spoken woman's voice with the intense and varied music attempts to lull the viewer-listener into a state of semi-comatose hypnosis. One would think that presentation of the catastrophic events surrounding a nuclear detonation in a major metropolitan center would cause the narrator to be screaming in the ears of the audience. Instead, she continues throughout the video in the monotonous monotone, possibly intended by some speech expert to be the style necessary to convey the message. Here's what the overall pattern of the speech analysis looks like on the SIL Technology Speech Analyzer. (NOTE: The MP4 video was downloaded from Vimeo and  converted to an MP3 file for use on the analyzer.)

The film is about 70 minutes long and jumps from speaker to news clip to what-if scenarios to direct interviews of persons, some well known, others insignificant.

     Another method for analysis which allows for viewing the MP4 along with the sound file utilizes Sony's Acid Music Studio program:

In the above image we can see several functions at once including the location of the sound file at the video in time at the upper left corner along with a numerical frame reference. The image on the bottom has a notepad transcription placed in front of the program so that the text file can be analyzed as the film is running.

     The transcription itself was unavailable at all of the locations where the film was located, both at Vimeo and at YouTube. A third party online source was used to decode, transcribe the text and of the two, neither provided one-hundred percent accuracy. Editing was possible on both and a timestamp on the other. Below is one done at Vocalmatic with a timestamp:

The inaccuracy in the transcription requires following along the video in the Acid MS file and making corrections, this is due to the raw transcription done by a machine. For more money, the transcription can be done by "humans"

     Certainly, if there was an attempt to deceive the viewer, it may be uncovered in technical analysis such as the above, which could act as a lie-detector test for the content. Further investigation into the above process is necessary before any hard conclusions can be drawn.

ANTHROPOLOGY 281--The Phrase "Illegal Immigrant"--ETYMOLOGY OF AN ETHNIC SLUR

ANTH 281-1001
Dr. J Ferguson
University of Nevada, Reno
Spring 2018  02Mar18
JC Langelle

Human Cargo, Deportations and the Jews in Palestine

     In class following the lecture on Thursday, Dr. Ferguson made a strong argument against the label of "illegal immigrant" for those who have entered the United States undocumented. Taking for granted and usually referring to Hispanics who have crossed the border from the south, I was quite surprised to listen to the ensuing dialogue between the classmates and Dr. Ferguson, some considering the phrase appropriate, others not.
     Research in the newspaper archive files revealed a fascinating fact, the phrase has been around for a long time.

 

The above article dated May 20, 1891 published in the Wilkes-Barre Record ,
"it is better that illegal immigrants be not sent to the United States."
As Dr. Ferguson pointed out, the human beings were reduced to the level of objects, in the article above, mere human cargo, to be shipped or returned depending on whether there was a bill of lading attached to it.

In the next article, " The Pesky Chinee" is to be returned not to his homeland, but to the nation from where he entered improperly, in this case Canada,

In yet another archived article, Japanese are deported from Hawaii for being "illegal immigrants"

But the single most overused case of the phrase came during the exodus of Jews to Palestine during and following World War Two. Note in the above case the Arabs made of game of matching each Jewish refugee with 10 "illegal immigrants" of their own.

Great Britain made no bones about calling the Jews illegal and did everything it could to halt the flow to the Holy Land.

Obviously we have become so accustomed to using the phrase through many generations, it may take several generations to rid ourselves of this disgusting and derogatory affront to the less-fortunate among us.