Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives - Cultural Studies

Boxes 1.1 Doing anthropology at Microsoft 1.2 Culture and intelligence gathering 1.3 Contemporary cultural controversies: banning religious symbols in France 2.1 Living without culture: the “Wild Boy of Aveyron” 2.2 Primate culture? 2.3 Contemporary cultural controversies: studying Kennewick Man 3.1 The “monstrous races” of the pre-modern world 3.2 Brutish savage versus noble savage 3.3 Contemporary cultural controversies: the American “social contract” 4.1 Speech and power – a cultural comparison 4.2 Gestures across cultures 4.3 Contemporary cultural controversies: the politics of language in the U.S.A. 5.1 Learning to be violent or non-violent 5.2 The construction of maleness in Sambia culture 5.3 Contemporary cultural controversies: gender and mental illness 6.1 American Anthropological Association Statement on “Race” (1998) 6.2 Deafworld: the culture of the deaf 6.3 Contemporary cultural controversies: “multiculturalism” in the U.S.A. 7.1 The Ainu foragers of northern Japan 7.2 Limits to growth in Basseri pastoralism 7.3 Ensuring power in an intensive agricultural society 7.4 The Hxaro exchange 7.5 A pre-modern market 9 19 22 28 36 48 54 60 71 87 91 95 106 115 119 131 139 146 157 160 167 170 172

BOXES 7.6 Contemporary cultural controversies: studying consumption or manipulating consumption? 8.1 Love and marriage in Ancient Greece and Rome 8.2 Female age grades in Hidatsa culture 8.3 The Indian caste system 8.4 Contemporary cultural controversies: gay marriage in the U.S.A. 9.1 Hannah Arendt on power and authority 9.2 To be or not to be a headman 9.3 The Tiwi band 9.4 Cheyenne tribal politics 9.5 Internal and external politics in the Ulithi chiefdom 9.6 The Qemant in the Ethiopian state 9.7 Honor and feud in Albania 9.8 Contemporary culture controversies: is war inevitable? 10.1 The ambiguous ancestors of the Ju/hoansi 10.2 The gods of Ulithi 10.3 Contemporary cultural controversies: “civil religion” in the U.S.A. 11.1 Malinowski on the “changing native” 11.2 The invention of Cherokee writing 11.3 Stone versus steel axes in an Aboriginal society 11.4 Genocide in Rwanda 1994 11.5 Contemporary cultural controversies: imposing regime change 12.1 A U.S. Indian treaty: the Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794 12.2 Inventing tradition in colonial Fiji 12.3 Contemporary cultural controversies: “sovereign farms” in Sudan 13.1 Politics, culture, and identity in Canada 13.2 Defining the nation in “Yugoslavia” 13.3 Contemporary cultural controversies: the Republic of Lakotah 14.1 Irrigation and agriculture in a Senegal development project 14.2 Appraising development: a role for anthropologists 14.3 Microfinancing – a new development strategy 14.4 Contemporary cultural controversies: resisting development – the James Bay Cree 15.1 Sherman Alexie on “Imagining the Reservation” 15.2 Millennium on the subway: Aum Shinrikyo 15.3 Politics and Christian fundamentalism in the U.S.A. 15.4 Contemporary cultural controversies: who owns culture? xv 176 185 201 203 205 212 218 219 223 225 228 231 233 245 247 261 271 274 277 283 287 296 306 311 323 325 336 351 352 355 360 368 373 376 387

Introduction “The world has come to the conclusion – more defiantly than should have been needed – that culture matters. The world is obviously right – culture does matter” (Sen 2006: 103). Indeed, culture has entered public consciousness and political discourse, often, literally, with a vengeance. This fact demands examination. Human beings have always had culture, that is, learned and shared ways of living; even some non-humans can and must learn essential skills and habits. And human cultures have always been diverse: humans in disparate groups in disparate places and times have inevitably developed different – sometimes strikingly, even shockingly different – tendencies and codes of thought and behavior. Yet, people have not always, in fact until recently generally have not, appreciated the significance and value of these differences and certainly have not actively and systematically set out to study and explain these differences. Instead, “our kind” was deemed to be truly human, and other kinds were judged as less so. This is clearly not a position that anyone can afford to hold. Cultural anthropology is the modern science of human behavioral diversity. While it aimed initially to describe “primitive cultures,” it always had the ambition and the potential to be a complete subject of human ways of life, including “modern,” urban, technological life. In recent years, cultural anthropology has begun to realize that potential, at the same time narrowing the distance between “others” and “ourselves.” For instance, there is no such thing as a “primitive” culture. It is to introduce and celebrate the achievements of cultural anthropology, and to indicate the contributions that it can and will make to our understanding of contemporary and future cultural circumstances, that this book was written.

INTRODUCTION PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK I have taught cultural anthropology for over twenty years, yet I have been frustrated from the very start of my teaching career with the structure of most courses and texts on the topic. All of them naturally include a discussion of the concept of culture and its major components, like language and gender and personality. All of them present an analysis of the important areas of culture – economics, politics, kinship, and religion. However, virtually all offer at most a couple of concluding chapters on “culture change” and “the modern world” as if these matters are tangential, almost anathema, to anthropology and barely within its purview. This is simply not true: change is an inherent part of culture, and the modern world is the most critical matter for all of us, since it is the world that we, modern nation-state populations and indigenous peoples alike, inhabit. So, I found teaching a course with thirteen weeks dedicated to the basics of cultural anthropology and a couple of weeks devoted to “the modern world” to be akin to spending thirteen weeks learning the grammar and vocabulary of a foreign language and only two weeks actually speaking (that is, applying or using) the language. That is inadequate. If cultural anthropology cannot be applied usefully to contemporary life, then its utility is fatally limited. Happily, it can be. Of course, in the days before the internet, it was more difficult to provide students with information that was not already integrated into textbooks. It was possible, although costly, to photocopy materials for distribution; often, as a teacher, I was compelled to talk about topics for which the students had no readings at hand. In response, I created my own addendum to formally published books, covering crucial issues like colonialism, nationalism and ethnic conflict, economic development and “Third World” poverty, indigenous peoples, and cultural movements. That addendum evolved into the third section of this book, which was obviously composed first. Subsequently, based on my years of teaching, I realized that I had a worthwhile perspective on the entire discipline of cultural anthropology, one that would allow me to craft an entire textbook embodying the same principles throughout the presentation as I had established in the final section. The result is the book you are holding in your hands. COVERAGE OF THE BOOK There are many fine and venerable textbooks on cultural anthropology. The world does not need another one unless it has something new to offer. The student and instructor, and anyone interested in the discipline, will find that this book covers more topics more deeply than rival texts, and in so doing immerses the reader in the worldview, the history, the literature, and the controversies of cultural anthropology like no other. Certainly, this book includes all of the standard and necessary subjects of a cultural anthropology text, as mentioned above. Even these are presented in novel xvii

xviii INTRODUCTION and usefully organized ways. However, it also provides original and nuanced coverage of a number of topics which are customarily given insufficient attention or no attention at all, such as: a sophisticated and subtle discussion of cultural relativism an integrated analysis of the biological/evolutionary basis of culture a meaningful description of the emergence of anthropology out of the intellectual traditions of the Western world details on culturally relevant genres of language behavior, such as political speech, jokes and riddles, and religious language, based on the notion that language is social action a refined discussion and critique of the race concept the presentation of gender not only in relation to women but also to the construction of maleness and of alternate genders across cultures the inclusion of consumption as part of the anthropology of economics the integration of kinship-based groups into a more general analysis of social group formation a contribution to an anthropology of war a cutting-edge description of the composite nature of religions, set within the question of social legitimation extended discussion of colonialism and post-colonialism serious presentations on nationalism, ethnicity, and other forms of identity politics major attention to development policies and practices and the role anthropology has played and can play in them the recognition and inclusion of indigenous sources and voices a balanced analysis of possible futures of culture based on integrative and disintegrative processes inclusion of state-of-the-art anthropological concepts including globalization and glocalization, multi-sited ethnography, world anthropologies, microfinancing, diaspora, cultural tourism, popular culture, and multiple modernities. FEATURES OF THE BOOK The book also incorporates a number of features, within specific chapters and across the structure of the entire book, which enhance the readability and the utility of the text. Each chapter, for example, includes: an opening vignette introducing the topic at least two boxed case-studies or discussions to pursue issues in more depth a concluding box concerning a “Contemporary Cultural Controversy” to indicate the relevance of the topic and to spark analysis and debate a brief but meaningful summary

INTRODUCTION a list of key terms notes in the margins of pages, providing definitions, intra-text references, and resources (books, videos) for further research. In addition to chapter-specific features, the overall construction of the book includes: an intentionally graphically simple design, leaving more room for text and reducing the cost to buyers organization into three sections of equal length, with one-third dedicated explicitly to contemporary cultural processes chapters of virtually equal length extensive intra-textual references, so that readers may find links between subjects discussed in more than one chapter three in-depth case-study/discussions, entitled “Seeing Culture as a Whole,” distributed evenly through the text (one-third, two-thirds, and end point) to summarize and integrate the preceding chapters a glossary an unusually thorough bibliography. All of these features are supported by a rich and dynamic companion website, with resources for student and instructor alike, including additional original material which will be continuously added to the site, making the book a living and growing product. My hope is that this textbook, the fruit of two decades of my teaching experience and more than a century of the experiences of cultural anthropologists, will convey the relevance, urgency, and excitement of cultural anthropology that I feel and that I try to communicate to my students. Culture does matter, and there is no more pressing task for professional anthropologists and for the educated public than to realize that most if not all of the present problems and challenges facing humanity are cultural problems and challenges – related to how we identify ourselves, how we organize ourselves, and how we interact as members of distinct human communities. Cultural anthropology has made significant contributions to these questions, and it is my heart-felt hope that this book will help future anthropologists and world citizens make even more significant contributions. xix

MAP Major societies mentioned in the text

Understanding Anthropology 1 2 THE SCIENCE(S) OF ANTHROPOLOGY 7 TRADITIONAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND BEYOND 12 THE “ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE” 19 THE RELEVANCE OF ANTHROPOLOGY 22 SUMMARY During his inaugural parade in January 2005, the American President, George W. Bush, made a gesture with his raised hand, holding down the second and third fingers with his thumb and extending his first and fourth fingers. As a Texan, his gesture was a salute to the University of Texas Longhorns football team. However, when the event was reported in Norway, some people were shocked to see what they considered to be a salute to Satan. In February he was visiting Slovakia on a cold winter’s day and shook hands with Slovak leaders while wearing gloves. This was “unheard of” behavior for many Slovaks, who consider shaking hands through one’s gloves an offense, equivalent to not shaking hands at all. (When leaving the following day, he removed his gloves for the parting handshake.) Finally, in April while hosting Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, the President was photographed walking with the Prince and holding his hand. The reactions in the United States varied from amused to scandalized by the “gay” appearance of it, whereas in Saudi Arabia holding a man’s hand in public is a sign of respect and friendship. Lest you think that only a head of state can commit an international faux pas, I was traveling in Europe in the mid1980s when I found myself trying to cross a busy street in Athens, Greece. Athens is notorious for its traffic, and crossing a main thoroughfare is no easy feat. Happily, a motorist slowed down for me, and I dashed across the street. As I did so, I threw out my hand, palm toward him, and waved briskly to show my appreciation. Only afterward did I remember that an open palm thrust at a person in Greece is a rude

2 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: GLOBAL FORCES, LOCAL LIVES and even obscene gesture. I felt horrible, hoping that I had not insulted a kind stranger through my thoughtlessness. Everywhere humans are found, they live in groups. And everywhere human groups are found, these groups have worked out unique ways of living, complete with a language, a form of organization, a body of knowledge, a set of values, and a code of behavior. Members coordinate their actions in terms of these rich “cultural” resources – as must non-members who want to interact with or understand and be understood by the group. In a word, humanity is a remarkably and inherently diverse species. Not only are there differences between groups, but there are differences within groups: members are differentiated by age, gender, class, occupation, region, specialization, and potentially other qualities such as race, ethnicity, and religion. The human species is not homogeneous, nor are its constituent groups homogeneous. But neither are they isolated and independent. From the beginning of human history, groups have had contact with each other and exchanged ideas, technologies, and genes. Trade, travel, and conquest circulated cultural items regionally, then continentally, and today globally. The world of the twenty-first century (by Western time-reckoning; it is the fifteenth century by the Muslim calendar and the fifty-eighth century by the Hebrew calendar) is a complex world of difference and connectedness. The much-discussed processes of “globalization” have linked human communities without eliminating human diversity; in fact, in some ways they have created new kinds of diversity while injecting some elements of similarity. The local and particular still exists, in a system of global relationships, for a result that some have called “glocalization” (more on this below). But above all else, the conditions of the contemporary world virtually guarantee that individuals will encounter and deal with others unlike themselves in various and significant ways. This makes awareness and appreciation of human diversity – and one’s own place in that field of diversity – a critical issue. It is for exploring and explaining this diversity that anthropology is made. THE SCIENCE(S) OF ANTHROPOLOGY Anthropology has been called the science of humanity. That is a vast and noble calling but a vague one and also not one that immediately distinguishes it from all the other human sciences. Psychology and sociology and history study humans, and even biology and physics can study humans. What makes anthropology different from, and a worthy addition to, these other disciplines? Anthropology shares one factor with all of the other “social sciences”: they all study human beings in action and interaction. However, all of the other social sciences only study some kinds of people and/or some kinds of things that people do. Economics studies the economic things people do, political science studies the political things people do, and so on. Above all, they tend to study the political, economic, or other behaviors of certain kinds of people – “modern,” urban,

UNDERSTANDING ANTHROPOLOGY industrialized, literate, usually “Western” people. But those are not all the people in the world. There are very many people today, and over the ages there has been a vast majority of people who are not at all like Western people today – not urban, not industrialized, not literate. Yet they are people too. Why do they live the way they do? Why do they not live the way we do – or more to the point, why do we not live the way they do? In a word, why are there so many ways to be human? Those are the sorts of questions that anthropology asks. Any science, from anthropology to zoology, is distinguished by three features: its questions, its perspective, and its method. The questions of a science involve what

Cultural Anthropology Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives is an accessible, ethnographically rich, cultural anthropology textbook which gives a coherent and refreshingly new vision of the discipline and its subject matter - human diversity. The fifteen chapters and three extended case studies present all of the necessary areas .