Touch without vision: Referential practice in a non-technological environment

In the tradition of interaction studies, the organization of vision has been well investigated since video became available for the detailed analysis of the directions in which participants in interaction look. The focus of this article is rather on the organization of touch, and, in particular, on ways in which reference to a body part is accomplished when the body part is only tactilely accessible to participants. Through the detailed analysis of segments from vaginal palpation (or “pelvic examination”) performed by a Japanese independent midwife, I elucidate practices that these participants employ to deal with the limitation on the accessibility of what they refer to in their interaction. The practices to be elucidated include current position marking, spatial-pattern evoking, and being explicitly responsive. The elucidation reveals that reference is interactionally accomplished through deployment of more or less generic practices in ways sensitive to situational particularities. In conclusion, I discuss a possible consequence of the analysis to the conceptualization of human interaction in technological society.