Derek Freeman and the War Over Cultural Anthropology By

Book Reviews 621 Guyer’s 2004 book Marginal Gains as a launch pad; chapter Second, the callbacks to previous work, the intellectual 6 (“The Eruption of Tradition? On Ordinality and Calcula- omnivorousness, and the at times almost aphoristic writing tion”) pivots from this text to consider rank ordering as a style combine to give the book the quality of something phenomenon, concluding—via Bateson, Veblen, Bourdieu, akin to a cross between the director’s cut of a movie and the Great Chain of Being, and racehorse stud fees—that “the Theodor Adorno’s Minima Moralia—the latter presented phenomena of ordinality deserve anthropological attention, by its author, in a phrasing with which I suspect Guyer as one of the powerful social devices of our moment in would agree would be applicable to her text as well, as history” (p. 139). “models for a future exertion of thought” (Adorno 2005, Guyer’s discussion of ordinality is a good example of 18). what makes Legacies, Logics, Logistics such an enjoyable and In this way, Legacies, Logics, and Logistics is best ap- thought-provoking read. First, the book seamlessly engages proached not as a traditional ethnography or even a tradi- with a dizzying array of thinkers, from Friedrich Hayek to tional monograph but as a series of encouragements to think Levi-Strauss,´ from John Rawls to Thomas Kuhn (to give just more deeply and creatively through history and ethnography a few examples). But if there is one central interlocutor to about some of the core presuppositions of modern society the text, it is Michel Callon and his colleagues, with whom and the anthropology thereof. Guyer engages repeatedly—most notably in the first chap- Legacies, Logics, and Logistics is an impressive book, but ter, when she sets out her framing, but also in subsequent it is so densely packed with ideas and references to other chapters. Indeed, in many ways Guyer’s book is intended work (by Guyer and others) that working through it requires as an anthropologically and historically informed rejoinder patience. It is not for everyone—it might not be appropriate and complement to actor-network theory. Taking issue with for most undergraduate classrooms, for example—but those some of Callon et al.’s accidental ontologizing of “elements” who stick with it will be amply rewarded. of assemblages, Guyer asks: “How are these elements lying around in the first place” (p. 33)? The answer is to be found in Guyer’s deeply theorized and historicized conceptualiza- REFERENCES CITED tion of “the platform” (or “the platform economy,” in the Adorno, Theodor W. 2005. Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged book’s subtitle) as a structure that itself consists of struc- Life. New York: Verso. tures and whose performance is contingent upon an array Guyer, Jane I. 2004. Marginal Gains: Monetary Transactions in Atlantic of past and present (and future-oriented) techniques (hence Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. the legacies, logics, and logistics). Truth’s Fool: Derek Freeman and the War over Cultural Anthropology by Peter Hempenstall Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2017. 321 pp. DOI: 10.1111/aman.13063 scribes Freeman’s many fractious and polarizing campaigns that preceded the pitched battles over Margaret Mead’s re- Lee D. Baker search in Samoa. Finally, the biographical section details Duke University and empathetically describes Freeman’s three mental break- downs, each an intellectual turning point in his life. The Peter Hempenstall, Pacific Islands historian, situates his bi- second section is a somewhat sympathetic narration of the ography of Derek Freeman and postmortem of “the Mead arc of the increasingly tense, invective, and acrimonious thing” in the age of Trump, or what he calls our age of post- fights Freeman had with anthropologists, which began with truth, when facts are less influential in shaping opinion than Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an good stories, emotional appeals, or individual beliefs. “Derek Anthropological Myth (1983) and became even crazier and Freeman and his war with anthropology offer us lessons as surreal in the wake of The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead the world learns to deal with this new-old definition of its (1999). existential reality” (p. xii). Although Hempenstall clearly respects Freeman, and Hempenstall’s book has two sections. One is a brilliant at times tries to paint a sympathetic portrait, he holds intellectual biography of Freeman that traces his ambitious no punches detailing his many cringe-worthy outbursts, academic career, his intellectual journey from psychology to episodes of petty paranoia, and the over-the-top righteous- British structural functionalism to sociobiology. He also de- ness that fueled Freeman’s furor and outrage. He also 622 American Anthropologist • Vol. 120, No. 3 • September 2018 includes many quotes from Freeman’s critics that paint Freeman was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and the bouts him as an unhinged maniac fueled by hubris and insecu- of mania and depression were on a spectrum; moreover, rity. Hempenstall does want to set the record straight, but it the disease was not well known when Freeman had his first is not to defend Freeman. Three themes emerge to accom- episodes. In some respects, The Truth’s Fool is as much a psy- plish his goal. The first is that Freeman should not simply be chological biography as an intellectual biography. Hempen- defined “by the cult of hostility and the regular ritual denun- stall plumbs the cause and effect of a deeply religious and ciations that seem to have grown around him” (p. 8). He was overbearing mother and an ineffectual father. He documents a punctilious and prolific scholar, a voracious reader, and a how Freeman was aware of his mental health challenges and leading expert on agriculture of the Iban in Borneo as well as tried to cope and get therapy before finally resorting to us- the title-chiefs in Samoa. The second theme includes framing his detailed diary as a coping mechanism. Hempenstall ing Freeman’s own deeply held moral convictions of right has written a fascinating and detailed biography of a com- and wrong and his unflinching commitment to an objec- plex and troubled man who made war with anthropology. tive and logical truth that apparently only he could discern. Hempenstall takes us through Freeman’s upbringing in New Righteous indignation yoked to a truth that only Freeman Zealand, his stint in the military, his detailed and arduous could articulate became the formula for the many rancorous fieldwork in Borneo, his “conversion” to sociobiology, the and vituperative campaigns launched by Freeman, decades politics and problems of the burgeoning Australian National before he focused on Mead. His first major campaign was University, his complicated relationships with Meyer Fortes in 1961 against Tom Harrison and the Sarawak Museum. and Edmund Leach, and a simply fascinating campaign to Freeman accused Harrison of misrepresenting Iban religion remove Aztec art displayed at ANU. Freeman’s war with and “exercising a degree of mind control that is inspiring a anthropology came late in his life, as he was nearing re- local cult, in cahoots with Soviet Russia, to undermine the tirement. But his career of academic fights and intellectual Sarawak government” (p. 69). Hempenstall explains that conversions, challenges with mental health, and deep-seated “his tears for the Iban were real and deeply felt . There feelings of righteous indignation provides both context and is a touching innocence and sense of moral rightness behind content to better understand what motivated him to become his decision to stay and fight” (p. 77). The author explores obsessed with the half-century-old fieldwork of a twenty- this first major controversy that involved students, colonial four-year-old woman. administrators, communist guerillas, and a sculpted penis that Freeman smashed in the museum. It was also the first REFERENCES CITED time Freeman had a mental break, which leads to the third Freeman, Derek. 1983. Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and theme—mental illness. Throughout the book, Hempenstall Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard recounts how people misdiagnosed Freeman with a vari- University Press. ety of mental illnesses, mainly paranoid schizophrenia and Freeman, Derek. 1999. The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead: A narcissistic personality disorder. It is important for Hempen- Historical Analysis of Her Samoan Research. New York: Basic stall to challenge these accusations. The author explains that Books. Maritime Heritage in Crisis: Indigenous Landscapes and Global Ecological Breakdown by Richard M. Hutchings Archaeology and Indigenous Peoples Series. New York: Routledge, 2017. 142 pp. DOI: 10.1111/aman.13086 will agree with what Hutchings writes, but his ideas bear consideration. Ben Ford The big idea contained in this slim book is that the CRM Indiana University of Pennsylvania industry is a tool of the neoliberal state and is being used to divorce Indigenous peoples from their heritage claims Richard M. Hutchings has written a troubling book that to lands that are desired by the state and its supporters. should be read by all cultural resource management (CRM) Hutchings makes this argument by drawing on established professionals and archaeology graduate students. The for- Indigenous,postcolonial,andcriticalliteraturesandapplying mer should read it because the book is about them, and them to a case study along the Pacific Northwest Coast. The the latter because they will be the ones to enact change case study and title imply that this work is only of interest if they judge his argument to be valid. Not everyone to maritime archaeologists, but the critique applies to all.

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