ABSTRACT
In Chapter 8, we investigate how family members engage in practices of haptic sociality and phatic communication. We look at how relationships of care are constituted through boundary intertwinings (entailing kisses and hugs) in greetings. Routines in particular at boundaries of encounters can display involvement and connectedness to the other. We investigate both acoustic and haptic resources used in conjunction with one another.
Through voice quality (such as whisper and creaky voice), pitch, and vowel lengthening in the midst of greetings, family members display heightened affect and excitement. We find that haptic interchanges are performed not only with respect to a particular sequential ordering of action but, in addition, with regard to the simultaneous deployment of laminated resources overlaying moves, such as creaky voice quality. At the moment of most intense tactile communication, talk itself mirrors through voice quality the intensity of the affective hug. Several family members can engage in hugs simultaneously, thus enhancing and amplifying the displays and experiences of intimacy and affection. The multiple modalities used during various types of haptic encounters are calibrated to express the exact and nuanced emotional stance and corporeal engagement of intimacy and love among the participants.
