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CONTENTS
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xxii
STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles and
Practices 32
vii
viii Contents
Predictive Function 39
COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 39
The Purpose of Communication in Small Groups: Making Sense 40
Complexity 41
Small Groups: More Complexity 41
Theoretical Perspectives for the Study of Group Communication 42
Systems Theory 42
Social Exchange Theory 43
Symbolic Convergence Theory 44
CASE STUDY: How Do You Keep a Group on Task? 46
Structuration Theory 46
Functional Theory 47
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: Structuration and the Exercise
of Free Will 48
A Model of Small Group Communication 49
VIRTUAL GROUPS 50
STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles and
Practices 73
Contents ix
Glossary 343
Notes 349
Photo Credits 375
Index 377
PREFACE
F
rom our first edition to this, our eleventh edition, our goal in writing this book has
remained the same: to write a book students find interesting and practical, and instruc-
tors find clear and comprehensive. We are pleased that the previous ten editions
continue to be praised and widely used by both teachers and students.
We have written the eleventh edition of Communicating in Small Groups: Principles and
Practices to serve as the primary text for a college-level course that focuses on group communi-
cation. We continue to seek a balanced approach to presenting the latest small group principles,
while also identifying practical practices that bring the principles to life.
Expanded Emphasis on Virtual Groups and Teams. From the first page of Chapter 1
through the final appendix, we have included additional research-based information about the
role technology plays in facilitating collaboration in contemporary society. Students who have
used technological tools all of their lives are increasingly becoming more sophisticated about
the use of technology. We have revised our coverage of technology and the use of new media to
reflect students’ existing knowledge while also building on it.
Linking Chapter Objectives with Chapter Headings. To help students learn, review,
and master chapter content, each learning objective that appears at the beginning of a chapter
corresponds to a specific major heading. Students can easily confirm their mastery of each
section of the material by reviewing the chapter objectives.
New Chapter-End Study Guide. We have completely revised our chapter-end material
to help students assess their understanding of chapter content. Our new Study Guide features
use the revised chapter objectives to organize their study. We review information linked to each
objective and help them clinch chapter content; we identify key terms and page numbers where
students can review their understanding of the term. Finally, we present activities and assess-
ment measures—including several new assessment measures—linked with each objective in
the book.
xvii
xviii Preface
Revised Ethics Feature. To help students explore their own values and ethics when col-
laborating with others, we have revised several of the “Collaborating Ethically: What Would You
Do?” features. These mini case studies can be used for student journal entries or spark insightful
class discussions.
And Much, Much More. Each chapter includes new examples, illustrations, cartoons,
and updated pedagogy to make Communicating in Small Groups: Principles and Practices the
best learning tool possible. We’ve made a special effort to streamline our coverage of content to
make room for new research and additional pedagogical features so as not to add to the overall
length of the book.
The Serpent, the Man, the Ox, the Horse, and the
Coyote (From Acomita)[167]
Once a man, while going through a meadow, found a serpent
trapped under a stone. The man had compassion for it and took
away the stone.
At that time the animals spoke the same as we, and the serpent
said to the man: “Now I am going to eat you: I am very hungry.”
“Why do you wish to eat me after I did you such a great benefit?”
But the serpent insisted on eating him and at last the man said to
him: “Wait a little while. Wait until that ox gets here and then you
may eat me.” “Good,” the serpent replied.
And as soon as the ox arrived the man said to him: “Where has it
been seen that a good deed is repaid with evil?” “In me,” replied the
ox. “After I served my master for many years he unkindly turned me
out here to get fat so that he can kill me.” And then the serpent said
to the man: “So you see it is right that I should eat you.”
“Wait a little until that old horse comes, and then you may eat
me,” the man said to him. Good; so they waited, and as soon as he
came the man said to him, “Where has it been seen that a good
deed is repaid with an evil one?” “In me,” said the horse, “for after
serving my master for many years they left me here for the wild
beasts to eat me.” “Now you see how right it is that I should eat
you,” the serpent said to the man. “Wait a bit until that coyote
comes and then you may eat me.”
Good; so the coyote came and the man said to him: “Where has it
been seen that good is repaid by evil? This serpent was trapped
under a stone, and because I did him the benefit of taking away the
stone he now wishes to eat me.” “It is quite right that he should eat
you,” said the coyote, “but first I wish to see how the serpent was
trapped.”
The serpent then consented that they should roll back the stone
so that they might see how he was trapped. And as soon as he was
well trapped, the coyote said: “Was it like this that he was trapped?”
“Yes, it was like this,” they all replied. “Good,” the coyote said to
them, “if that is the way it was, let him remain so, so that the devil
may not cause him to eat me also.”
San Pascual
A poor man who lived in a city had no family but his disconsolate
wife.
In the course of time they had a little child. And as they were so
poor there was no one they could ask to be godfathers. Near the city
lived a rich man who had many sheep, and they determined to ask
this rich man to be the godfather.
The rich man consented with much pleasure, and they took the
child to the chapel of the same city and baptized him. They named
him “Pascual the destitute.”
Not long afterwards, in three months, death came and carried
away the mother of the child, and the father then decided to go and
deliver the orphan to the godfather. And as at the same time the
farm foreman arrived with his party, the godfather gave the child to
him and said: “See here, man, take this child with you, so that you
may rear him with a goat, in order that he may be of some service
to you when he is a man.”
Good; so they took him to the steward and told him what his
name was and that the patron had said that they were to rear him.
And then they took him.
The steward was a very religious man and whenever he could he
went to divine services, but he never took the child.
When Pascual was ten years old and was now very useful, the
steward ordered the farm foreman to go to the house of the patron,
for he did not need him any longer.[168]
One day the steward went to mass, and left Pascual alone taking
care of the cattle. Pascual began to think, and said to himself: “But
what can mass be?” Finally he decided that if he left him alone again
he would follow him to find out what mass was.
He did so. The steward went away and Pascual followed him.
When he lacked only a mile to arrive in the city he saw a man
coming in a cart for wood. As the poor little fellow had never seen
carts, he said, “Now I know what mass is. This is it.”
As soon as the woodman came up he said to him, “May God give
you good days, kind sir.” “Good days to you, good boy.” Then Pascual
asked him: “Where is mass?” Said the woodman, “Go straight along
this road until you come to the plaza, there where it is seen to
coloriar, and the great house which is in the little square in the
middle is the church, and inside of it they say mass.”
“And what does one do in mass?” asked Pascual. “Everything that
you see done, you do,” the woodman told him.
Good; he then went straight to the plaza and soon found the
chapel. Outside was an old woman, and he took her shawl from her
and covered himself. And he took off his breeches and covered them
up. Then he entered the church. And when they all prostrated
themselves they saw him without breeches, and some of the
mischievous ones pricked him behind. And then Pascual pricked the
old woman, who was in front of him, saying: “Prick, prick, for they
are pricking behind.”[169]
When everybody went out he remained alone, much frightened,
and when he saw the Lord nailed on a timber he said, “This poor
man killed or robbed.” The sacristan did not see him and locked all
the doors, leaving him shut in.
Then Pascual went to where the Lord was and said to him:
“Friend, do not be sad. I am going to work and I will bring you food
to fatten you. Where can I find work?” “Look,” said the Lord, “go
along the main street until you find a great house. Ask for work
there.”
The door opened and Pascual went out and came to the great
house, which was where the curate lived, and the sacristan came
out and asked him what he wanted. “I am looking for work.” The
curate then came out and said to him: “What kind of work do you
want?” “I do not know how to do anything but take care of sheep,”
replied Pascual. “Then come here. How much pay do you want?”
“Nothing but food for myself and a friend of mine.” “Good, then take
this hoe and weed the garden.” “How weed?” “Level it all,” said the
curate.
And Pascual weeded the garden, leveling it all, chili, onions, and
everything, he cut down level. The sacristan saw the destruction and
went to tell the curate. But when the curate came he saw that all
the pulled-up plants were flowering and giving fruit. And the curate
said to him: “Surely this is a servant of God, who comes to test my
gratitude.”
And he called Pascual to come and eat with him. “No, I only want
food for myself and for my friend.” They gave it to him and he went
away. When he returned the curate said to him: “To-morrow I am
going to make a great feast, and I wish you and your friend to come
and eat at my table.” They went, and the curate made a very great
feast.
And the Lord said to Pascual: “Tell the father to invite to-morrow
all the people to a feast except your godfather, because he was
ungrateful.”
The next day the gentleman made the feast, and when the people
were coming Pascual was much ashamed because he saw that
nothing was ready, and he said to the Lord: “But, men, nothing is
ready. That is why they have you a prisoner, because you are a
deceiver.” “Go bring a barrel of water,” the Lord said to him. “And
where shall I go to bring water?” “Go, Pascual, on one side of the
street and you will find it.” And Pascual went out and returned with a
barrel of water.
When he returned there was a large table well set out and full of
all kinds of viands. And Pascual said to the Lord: “With reason they
regard you as a witch.” “Be silent, Pascual; take this barrel and
follow me.” And Pascual followed him, and when he turned around
he saw dead persons lying on all sides, and he said to the Lord:
“With reason they held you prisoner, for you are a regular murderer.”
“Be silent, Pascual; follow me.” And they went on, scattering water
on all sides until everybody was dead.
And when Pascual died he was raised to the celestial mansions.
And his godfather went to the eternal abyss for his ingratitude.
If it is true
He is over there;
If it is a lie
Then he is fooled.
If, then, the “tawny patch on the shoulder of a rabbit,” the antlers of
a deer, the crest of a bird, are full of meaning to the Indian mind, we
can understand that there must be an inexhaustible store of tales,
varying from tribe to tribe with the living creatures and the local
conditions that obtain in each. Though we to-day after the long
sophistication of the years may regard this phase as childish,
ignorant, and superstitious, and resent its tyrannous fettering of the
human mind, we must remember that it was the only view of life
possible at the period of its sway—a life of Nature, speaking with
many voices, sensitive to every changing facet of the created world
—and that from such rude beginnings all primitive religion and
poetry have arisen. We cannot afford to ignore or lose the only
contribution thereto made on the western continent.
Myths represent incidents long past and not to be repeated, those
which occurred in the morning of the world when man had few or
none of his present customs and arts. Folk-tales, on the other hand,
are busied with more recent events and may even be woven about
present-day occurrences. The myth therefore appeals especially to
the imagination and the emotions, and to that deep-seated belief of
the Indian that the world of sense and the world of spirit are so
intimately linked that the former is ruled in minutest detail by the
latter.[175]
The “ritualization of myths”[176] takes place when an attempt is
made to weave together these far-away happenings into a
consistent tribal, clan, or fraternity story, the telling of which is
frequently accompanied by ceremonies. Since there is usually a
desire shown to arrange these chronologically, they may become an
historical record of the tribe’s beginnings. At the same time, it must
never be forgotten that these myths are handed down verbally by
the older men of the tribe through successive generations, and must
suffer certain alterations and embellishments as time passes.
Strong resemblances exist between the origin-legends of all the
different Pueblo tribes, though each has its own variants. There is
almost total absence of intimate studies of the Ácoma tradition, such
as have been made with elaborate care and detail for both the Hopi
and the Zuñi. It is not possible to set forth any origin or religious
myths as positively or exclusively those of the Ácomas, yet since
they, like the people of Sía, only seventy miles away, both belong to
the Keresan nation, we feel something like assurance in assuming
that the Ácoma legends must be closely similar[177] to those
described in the distinguished researches of Sía.
To all Pueblo Indians the world was flat and round, like a great
disk. Before there was any life, the All-Father existed alone in the
Somewhere, and immemorial darkness covered all space. This primal
All-Father “thought outward into space” until mists finally penetrated
the thick and universal blackness, and the Middle Place appeared,
guarded by Six Warriors. In some legends, a god named Po-shai-an-
ki-a is identical with the All-Father, whereas in others he is only an
early culture hero, giver of domestic animals and of wealth. In the
larger number of legends the Spider—Sussistinnaka[178]—is the All-
Father, sometimes spoken of as a male, and in other tribes as a
female, deity. In Sía myths, however, the spider is the first living
creature of the underworld, dominating the actions of all other
beings.
The creation of light follows that of the Middle Place, and the sun
becomes not only an emanation from the All-Father, but the
Supreme Being himself,[179] and Mother Earth is his complement.
The Pueblo world is divided into six regions, each having its centre in
a spring somewhere in the heart of a great mountain, on whose
summit is a gigantic tree. I combine the phrasing of the myths of
two Keresan pueblos to make more clear these six “points of the
compass,” as we call them.[180] Each of them has its especial color-
symbol, which, however, is not uniformly assigned by all tribes.
The theatre of the world is the theatre of necromancy: and the gods are
the primaeval wonder-workers. The primitive religion of every
American Indian tribe is an organized system of inducing the
ancients to take part in the affairs of men and the worship of the
gods is a system designed to please the gods, that they may be
induced to act particularly for the tribe of men who are the
worshippers.—J. W. Powell.
It is the eternal contest between the material and the spiritual that
was to the Indian an omnipresent prepossession. Through the
powerful theocratic organization of the community in its social as
well as in its hieratic aspects, and by the songs and prayers of a
hoary antiquity, the whole year is a complex of ceremonies. This is
more especially the case in the maize-growing countries. From birth
to death the Indians were aware of mysterious environing forces,
some beautiful and fortune-bringing, others inimical and disastrous.
To the end that life should be made endurable, a large number of
esoteric organizations was everywhere established, each of which
employed a special ritual at an appointed time. Among the Keres,
there were originally four such priesthoods,[206] but the march of
modern ideas has gradually eliminated some of these in certain of
the villages. Highest of these groups were the Ya-Ya (mothers) to
which the caciques belonged; then came the medicine men, the
warriors, and the hunters.
Frazer points out that in the most primitive societies the practice
of magic was for individual gain, but that, as community life evolved,
it was employed for the benefit of the tribe. Sacrifice and prayer
were the means by which the gods, the personal agents of
elemental forces, were induced to bestow favors upon the whole
people. Consequently it signified a great advance in social progress
when a class of magic-practising men was set apart to bring
prosperity to their tribe, whether this was for the control of the
weather, and so indirectly for the increase of foods, or for the
healing of diseases.
Although everywhere these priests were given terrible power,
often ruthlessly exercised, they were,
There is scarcely any limit to the fetishes that exist, for they are
mediators between men and the deified animal or object which each
particular fetish represents, and they are therefore an essential
accompaniment of all dances, or other rites, also of all the supreme
events of life, such as birth, adolescence, and death. In the most
unlikely clefts of the mountain or in hidden spots of earth curious
little bundles are found that betoken the shrine of some fetish.[209]
Probably the oldest of all religious cults is the worship of the
serpent, so often curiously mingled with that of the sun, as, for
instance, in the pantheon of the Aztecs. In his “Origin of Civilization,”
Sir John Lubbock says that, “as an object of worship the serpent is
preëminent among ancients.”[210] Do we not also know that in that
period which the historian Gibbon calls the happiest and most
prosperous of the human race—the era of Marcus Aurelius—the
Romans sent every year a troop of young girls to feed a great
serpent asleep within a sacred cave, and that if any of the maidens
were impure the serpent did not eat and the harvest of that year
was a failure? How many visitors to the pueblos of the American
Indian comprehend the profound reason for the awe that underlies
the worship there of what is to the average white man an object of
repulsion if not of fear—the rattlesnake? Yet it is easy to understand
when explained. It has long been observed that the mysterious force
by which all things move, whether on earth, in the sky, or under the
sea, is regarded by the savage as so inexplicable that he believes it
to be controlled by unseen beings of superhuman power.
Consequently, the continuous movement of a serpent, whether slow
or swift, without any visible aid to locomotion, would strike the
primitive man as especially mysterious; add to this its power of
hypnosis, its immortality achieved through the annual shedding of its
skin, and lastly, a death-dealing sting, and we see reason enough
why savages should regard a creature, thus endowed with gifts he
has not, with such awe and fear as would lead to an intense desire
to propitiate the occult power. Given desire of sufficient intensity, it
may in itself become worship.
Various scholars have pointed out that not only is the zig-zag form
of lightning the natural sky symbol of the serpent, but that since
both may kill instantaneously when they strike, there is another
logical association of ideas between them.[211] The plumed serpent,
[212] Awanyu, was guardian of the waters, and had for his sky
emblem the rippling course of the Milky Way. Although the snake
ceremonial is thought of as chiefly a prayer for rain, it had an equally
intimate connection with the bestowal of health, reminding us of the
classic myth in which the symbol of Esculapius was a serpent.
If white visitors to the communal dances of any of the tribes, but
let us say particularly to the snake dances of Hopi-land, would only
recognize that this whole performance is an incantation or invocation
to the gods, giving thanks for the harvests of the year, and would
refrain from laughter and other unseemly expressions that are
sacrilege to the Indian, they would greatly help toward the mutual
good-will and understanding of the two races.
From the plumed serpent to the adoration of the bird is an easy
transition for the Indian mind. Do we not read in the wisdom of
Solomon: “There be three things which are too wonderful for me;
and the chief of these were the way of an eagle in the air, the way of
a serpent on a rock”? And in truth what is more enviable than a bird,
that, spurning the earth, may overtop the clouds, pouring out his
melody as he soars; or, like the eagle, proud, swift, and sudden, may
swoop to clutch his prey and be aloft again in the flash of a moment.
[213]
Enough has been said to show that symbolism plays a large rôle in
Indian beliefs and in daily life.
Among the most sacred symbols of the Indians was the number
four, undoubtedly derived from the four cardinal points, which, like
most of the primitives, the aborigine in his wanderings identified
with the daily journey of the heavenly bodies; and with the winds,
which were the spirits of the cardinal points that brought about
changes of weather and of seasons. The amazing extent of the
application of this sacred four is beyond the scope of this work, but
a few examples will illustrate the astonishing variety of its use:
All the first missionaries who came out to New Mexico with the
Conquistadores were of the Franciscan order. Very keen were these
ardent apostles to watch the native mind, and to make use of every
point of approach or community of idea that would help the savage
to grasp the new religion they offered him. One of the first aids
undoubtedly toward this end was their recognition of certain
emblems or totems that they found in Indian villages, which bore
some resemblance to Christian symbols. In this they were but
following the example set them by the earliest of their faith, who
took over as far as possible pagan characters, such as we may see in
the Roman catacombs. May we not believe that, as they found
among the barbarians symbols such as the cross, or a ritual of
sprinkling and of head-washing somewhat akin to Christian baptism,
through which initial links of understanding could be established
between them and the Indians, so they must soon have perceived
that in the Canticle of the Sun, given them by their founder, Saint
Francis, there was another possibility of mental approach, deeper
and more embracing than any other? The Canticle does not indeed
proclaim the “worship of all creatures,” but its communion with all
elemental life surely forged a bond between them and the aborigine,
which made the Indian more willing to listen to this new religion,
and which aided the priests in forcing upon them its acceptance: