The role of the court interpreter as a culture broker

This thesis presents the results of a field investigation into the role of the court interpreter. Field work consisted primarily of interviews with certified court interpreters and observation of court cases involving the use of an interpreter, and was limited to the Superior and Municipal Courts of the County of Los Angeles, California. The purpose of the thesis is both theoretical and substantive. The court interpreter, so far overlooked in the research of the social sciences, presents an example of a type of individual known the anthropological literature as a culture broker. Occupying a linkage role between two levels of a multiethnic society, the culture broker acts as a buffer or mediator, transmitting critical information between the partially assimilated, subordinate ethnic community and the dominant nation-state (Wolf 1956; Geertz 1960). Social scientists are concerned with clarifying the mechanisms of culture change and gaining greater understanding of the levels of socio-cultural integration. In this connection, linkage roles are of considerable interest. The study of culture brokers is relatively new and lacks a well-integrated theory. An analysis of the court interpreter as a broker and comparison with other types of brokers discussed in recent literature will provide a synthesis and clarification of how anthropologists delimit this role.