“Tales from the Trail”: Oratory and Affect among Alaska Dog Mushers

Abstract

Abstract This paper draws from linguistic anthropological and ethnographic fieldwork to illustrate the role of award ceremonies in maintaining and creating affective orientations toward rivalry among Alaska dog mushers. It focuses on award speeches given by dog mushers and others involved in the Alaska dog mushing community and reveals a “need for narrative” that has characterized sled dog racing since its origin as an (inter)national sport. Mushing “stories” are constitutive of public talk about wins and losses in the sport, as well as about race events that take place far from view on distant trails. Specifically, “accounts,” a humorous narrative genre that pivots upon unpredictable “instinct-driven” characteristics of canine athletes, serve as an important idiom for evoking chance in describing wins and losses. The performance and appreciation of these narratives constitute the intangible heritage of Alaska dog mushers, and accounts emerge as a semiotic resource for negotiating and downplaying rivalry through orchestration of embodied intersubjective sentiments, i.e. affect.