“When Mister Right comes along”: gender and ethnic identity in narratives from spontaneous Indian New Zealander mother-daughter conversations

Narrative has been theorised as significantly implicated in the articulation of social identities and in the reproduction of culture. The present study investigated the kinds of observable practices used to achieve those ends. Spontaneous interactions between mothers and adolescent daughters from the Indian immigrant community of New Zealand were recorded. The conversations were examined for narratives where gender and ethnicity were explicitly mentioned. The analysis drew upon conversation analytic, linguistic, and psychological approaches to narrative. The results show narrative as an interactional site where there can be an explicit display and contestation of cultural norms. Explaining deviations to cultural norms and repair contexts were moments where gender and ethnicity were observable resources for action. The findings are an initial step toward understanding the role of everyday, naturally occurring narratives, within the processes of cultural transmission and change.