9413360 Scheffler This project involves the dissertation research of an anthropology student from Yale University in Mali, West Africa. The project is to document the importance of political speakers, known as "griots", in Mali politics. Using ethnographic techniques such as participant observation, intensive interviewing, analysis of media, public documents and archives, the student will analyze the changes in recent history of how griots, as clients of powerful "patrons" and as independent commentators, shape and express public opinion. This research is important because it advances our expertise of political behavior in this important area of the world at the same time that it provides a case study of the role of the media in a very different political system than ours. Such comparisons will advance our understanding of general political processes of attitude formation. ***
