Richard Seaford interview Coinage and early Greek thought Richard Seaford explores the origins of tragedy, philosophy and democracy in the earliest monetised society.

Radical Anthropology: on the coast to the west of electrum had a different and Can you outline your ideas Lydia. One plausible theory undeterminable proportion about the origins of coinage? is that it arose out of the best of gold and silver (and so a Where and when did it arise possible way for the Lydian different metallic value), but and why? monarchy to use its abundant numerous pieces each with exactly the same value could be created by stamping them with a mark meaning ‘this is worth x’. And so from the very beginning of coinage its conventional value was different from (generally greater than) its metallic value. This matters, because the pervasiveness of coinage in the Greek city-state was a central factor in a new kind of (monetised) society and a new way of thinking, both of which are in a sense still with us.

RA: Can you sum up what it is in this earliest monetised society that is still with us today?

RS: The first ever pervasive monetisation in Ancient Greek coin history (of the Greek polis) made possible for the first Richard Seaford: Coinage electrum to pay Greek time various features of arose at approximately the mercenaries. Each piece of Greek culture that have in a end of the seventh century BCE, in Lydia (in what is now western Turkey), where the pervasiveness of coinage in the Greek there was an abundant supply of electrum, a natural alloy of city-state was a central factor in a new kind gold and silver. But coinage was first used in everyday of society and a new way of thinking life in the Greek city-states

1 Radical Anthropology sense persisted throughout not occur in pre-monetary distribution (moira) came monetised society up to the society. to mean ‘fate’ indicates present. I confine myself here the importance of the to two examples. One is the RA: What are the special distributional imperative. idea that the abstract is more features of the ancient Citizenship was marked by real than the concrete, which Greek polis relating to participation in communal was a basis of much ancient monetisation? sacrifice, which also provided philosophy. Another is the a model for the egalitarian absolute isolation of the RS: In contrast to distribution of metallic individual: this is especially most ancient near-eastern wealth in standardised pieces. manifest in Greek tragedy, societies, the Greek polis where, for instance, Oedipus had retained sacrificial ritual RA: Can you explain the is entirely alienated from the that embodied the principle connections between ancient gods and from his closest of communal egalitarian Greek traditions of ritual kin. Both these features distribution. The fact that sacrifice and the origins of are familiar to us, but do the Greek word for this coinage?

In contrast to most ancient near-eastern societies, the Greek polis had retained sacrificial ritual that embodied the principle of communal egalitarian distribution

RS: Some of the vocabulary of early coinage comes from animal sacrifice. For instance, the word ‘obol’, used of a coin, comes from the word for a spit. In the communal egalitarian distribution meat was distributed on iron spits, which were of standard size as well as being portable and durable, i.e. they could be used as money (in a limited way). With the use of more precious metal in exchange, ‘obol’ was transferred to a piece that was of roughly equal value and so of much smaller size (and so even more convenient).

RA: So if someone holds The ancient Aegean a spit does that imply that he

2 Radical Anthropology has a right to meat from the women and children too, is of (problematic) ‘invisible sacrifice? Is the spit – and as left out. Interesting is how property’, and are much it develops, the ‘obol’ coin – much money impacts such a concerned with (invisible) intrinsically a kind of IOU, or society simply through the bribery, whereas the debt? fact that coins can be hidden conservatively egalitarian

On the one hand the new monetised order is egalitarian in that everybody belongs to the same regime of value... On the other hand, we find concern that the individual desire for money is unlimited

away and accumulated. This Spartans for a long time RS: Probably the spits lets people escape sharing rejected coinage and were were distributed with so rigorously. Whereas ritual said to have had money in meat on them. They were sacrifice would be a highly the form of iron bars, which dedicated in sanctuaries and visible event demonstrating in high values could not be placed in tombs, because the participation of the transacted invisibly. they had communal prestige citizens, how quickly did deriving from their role in coinage promote RA: What were the communally central ritual development of inequality the political effects of of sacrificial distribution. It from a beginning so rooted in the development of was because they had this commensality? coinage in the process communal prestige that they of democratization? Was could work as proto-money. RS: Yes, it is a paradox. democracy a stable outcome Greek money (in contrast On the one hand the new or relatively improbable? to say Babylonian silver) monetised order is egalitarian Did all the Greek city-states was not just a generally in that everybody belongs develop the same way, if not exchangeable commodity: to the same regime of value why not? rather, it had a conventional (in contrast to separate value that depended on spheres of exchange in RS: The political effects communal confidence (and Homer), and, as Aristotle of coinage have barely in that sense was a kind of points out, the parties to a been investigated. Besides IOU), and so prefigured monetised transaction are – its egalitarian effects (see modern money, which is qua transactors – equal. On above), coined money merely transferable credit. the other hand, from Solon also promoted individual onwards we find concern that autonomy, which would RA: For anthropologists, the individual desire for – tend to dissolve the vertical this ritual sharing recalls and individual accumulation lines of patronage (based practice among highly of – money is unlimited: on reciprocity) that we find egalitarian African hunter- in this respect it contrasts for instance in Homer (e.g. gatherers such as the Hadza, with Homeric prestige Odysseus and Eumaios). where men celebrate sharing goods such as tripods, and This was, I suspect, a of ‘sacred meat’. Whenever with the Homeric principle precondition for democracy, large game comes into camp of reciprocity (voluntary which at Athens arrived a it has to be shared out, since requital). The Athenians mere generation or so after everyone sees it. No one, also invent the category coinage. Moreover, control

3 Radical Anthropology of the central supply of control the money supply of insignificant until the late money was (in contrast to most of the Aegean sea. sixth century BCE, by which now) visible and simple. It time it finally had coinage was usurped first in various RA: Does this then explain en masse and moreover had cities by the ‘tyrants’ and why it is so particularly begun to extract much silver then, at Athens, by the people Athenian political, cultural from the mines at Laurium in (demos), and remained and scientific developments south-east Attica. In a newly essential to democracy. that are renowned as ‘origins monetised world this silver Many of the numerous city- of Western civilization’? (together with gold and silver states minted their own from Thrace) was crucial for coinage, and so had this RS: To a large extent, the development of festivals potential for democracy. But yes. Coinage arrived in and of temples, for the origin

Silver mine at Laurium

Athens was a special case, Attica later than in the and splendour of drama, for not least because (almost cities of the eastern Aegean, the building of a fleet, and uniquely) it had its own where philosophy originated eventually for Athens as a supplies of silver, and then in the early sixth century cultural centre to which (as came in the fifth century to BCE. Athens was culturally we see in the dialogues of

4 Radical Anthropology Plato) philosophers were who are not also kin of her upcoming project to compare attracted from various parts husband. The isolation of the Greek with early Indian of the Greek world. wife in such circumstances thought? prompted the Athenian polis RA: The origin of coinage to legislate to protect her, RS: There are, from the on this account is related and was a central issue of sixth century BCE, striking strongly to a ritual egalitarian Aeschylus’ Suppliants. It is similarities between Indian ethos among citizens of in reaction to the effect of and Greek thought that the polis: Greek men. But money on marriage that other are found nowhere else. what about those excluded – tragedies focus on incest (the For instance, we find in women and slaves? How was extreme form of endogamy): both cultures the counter- women’s status and position Sophocles’ Oedipus intuitive idea that all that affected by the invention of Tyrannus, for instance, exists is unitary and abstract coinage? Did this materially connects incest with the (so diversity and change is affect gender relations autonomous accumulation of unreal). Such similarities are and forms of marriage for money. almost always ascribed to example? influence, which is however At the conceptual level, most unlikely before RS: It is difficult to Greek metaphysics, which Alexander crossed the Indus tell. Money promotes the is profoundly influenced by in 326 BCE. The fact is that autonomy of the individual, the relationship of money in this early period northern and so may have reduced to goods, is gendered in the India had urbanisation, the need to make alliances sense that (ontologically commercialisation, and with other families by inferior) unformed matter is monetisation to a degree marriage. This may in turn associated with the female found nowhere else other have increased the practice and (ontologically superior) than in Greece (and possibly of endogamy, which has abstract form is associated China, which also develops the advantage of keeping with the male, for instance in ‘philosophy’). The point is wealth within the family. Plato’s Timaios. that the same kind of socio- This worsens the situation economic development may of the wife, for she has no RA: Finally, can you produce the same kind of kin to appeal (or return) to say something about your metaphysics.

Richard Seaford is Professor of Ancient Greek at the University of Exeter. He is currently engaged in an AHRC-funded collaborative project, a historical comparison of early Indian with early Greek thought.

[email protected]

Further reading:

R. Seaford 2004 Money and the Early Greek Mind Cambridge University Press. R. Seaford 2012 Cosmology and the Polis Cambridge University Press. G. Thomson 1961 The First Philosophers Lawrence and Wishart, 2nd ed. A. Sohn-Rethel 1978 Intellectual and Manual Labour Macmillan, due for reissue by E. J. Brill.

5 Radical Anthropology Sheehan Moore Taking Up Space: Anthropology and embodied protest Drawing on experiences of the McGill University student occupations, Sheehan Moore calls for an anthropology of the body in protest.

n November protesting body. However, and our bodies. But we are 10, 2011, two engaged in a struggle that the majority of literature students hid in is far from over. We must on the topic, as I outline a bathroom in continue to move beyond the below, tends to foreground theO James Administration liberal model of ‘discourse’ the discursive dimensions building at McGill University that has only served to of protests and occupations, maintain unjust power in Montreal. When they relations and control. Acting focusing almost exclusively received word that an anti- boldly and defying prescribed on demands and goals as tuition hike protest was boundaries, we subvert the only “whys” for protest. 2 reaching the campus’s main the logic of submission. Through this fairly limited Roddick Gates, they let analytic lens, we can easily twelve others in through The November 10 lose sight of an important the building’s back door occupation, as well as the bodily dimension of protest and together ascended to occupation of the same that exceeds the stated the fifth floor. The students, building in February 2012, or assumed politics of a some of them masked or can be located within a long demonstration or occupation. hooded, blocked doors with tradition of similar protests at When we try to understand their bodies and proceeded universities that dates back to only the causes and intended to occupy administrative the early 1960s. Additionally, effects of protest, we obscure offices for a total of eight both incidents arrived at their material nature and minutes before being a time when occupation erase the physical bodies forcibly removed by McGill loomed large in the public that enter – out of perceived Security.1 Two days later in consciousness: from the necessity – into spaces that a letter to The McGill Daily, revolutionary encampments are forbidden to them. What the fourteen occupiers wrote: in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, to would it mean to treat forms the Indignants in Madrid’s of protest like occupations By crossing the boundaries Puerta del Sol, to the Occupy not only as declarative – i.e., that authorities have forced on movement, protesters across us, by taking up space where as political statements – but our presence is prohibited the world began moving into also as embodied and spatial and our agency denied, spaces and refusing to leave. practice? 3 we triggered a response that exposes the necessary Occupations differ from After a short overview violence with which the other forms of protest like hierarchical power structure of the rise of university confronting students is marches and rallies primarily occupations, the historical enforced. […] The narratives in their temporal and spatial tactics they draw on, of the corporate media, the persistence, and in this and the context in which police, and the administration sense they allow for more they emerged as a form will aim at a common end: of an explicit meditation on a return to the status quo in of protest, I turn to the which they control our spaces the role of the persisting, two McGill occupations

6 Radical Anthropology during the 2011-2012 A reflection on the role of used by Miriam Ticktin and academic year, outlining bodies persisting in spaces Ghassan Hage, respectively. the events and the general where they are forbidden shape of the occupiers’ from doing so is crucial A brief history of discourse. My primary aim to understanding why occupation here is to suggest some protesters continue to choose ways an anthropology of occupation as a tactic. To this On December 2, 1964, embodiment might approach end, I draw on theoretical approximately one occupations theoretically work by Judith Butler and thousand students and and methodologically, Edward Soja that locates other supporters of the Free and specifically, how the meaningful and material Speech Movement at the way occupiers past and bodies in contested and University of California, present talk about bodies constructed spaces, and argue Berkeley entered Sproul can point us towards a that such interventions may Hall, then the seat of the reading of occupation as a be thought about as opening university’s administration, bodily practice rather than up the ‘political’ or an ‘alter’ in what would become the merely political discourse. politics, as the terms are first modern occupation of a university as a means of political protest on record.4 This was the occasion of Mario Savio’s famous call to action, issued from the steps of the hall, which related the protesters’ political convictions to certain political imperatives impressed on their bodies:

There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even tacitly take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you’ve got to Photo by Farid Attar Rifai. Photo by Farid make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machines will be prevented from working at all.5

From the beginning, then, university occupations have been presented by those engaging in them as a means of intervening physically into the prescribed means of A banner dropped by occupiers on the fifth floor of McGill’s administration building on November 10, 2011. 7 Radical Anthropology participation and decision- by other labour organizations the association of sit-ins making – the ‘machine’. With over the coming years with labour and civil rights these traditional avenues of for their effectiveness not movements and with growing nationwide opposition to the war in Vietnam – as well as from the increasing diversity of the student population. During this postwar period, in the United States as well as in Canada, universities saw a massive surge in enrolment encouraged by the allocation of public funds. This ‘golden age’ of universities, full of the Photo by Victor Tangermann. Photo by Victor promises of education’s democratisation and a learned populace, saw university enrolment in Riot police confront protesters outside the occupied administration building Canada increase more than on November 10, 2011. tenfold from 1956 to 1966, with comparable rates in the democratic opposition non- only in ceasing work, but United States.9 In part, this functioning or foreclosed also blocking replacement meant universities became upon, dissent becomes, workers from entering – relatively speaking – more necessarily, an embodied factories and continuing accessible and open for many action for those who decide production.6 Out of this of those who historically had they have no recourse except tradition, and beginning in been excluded from the ranks to occupy – to prevent the the 1940s, sit-in protests of its students and faculty university machines from became associated with the – including women, people working at all. civil rights movement in of colour, and those whose the United States, spreading class background barred In the decades leading up rapidly across the American them from elite campuses.10 to the Berkeley revolt, South following the Thus, while university occupations and similar February 1960 sit-ins at a protest up to this point in the tactics had gained increasing Woolworths in Greensboro, North American context had traction as a form of protest: North Carolina.7 But before focused for the most part on university occupations can Berkeley, student occupations issues of internal governance, trace their tactical roots to of university spaces were most often taking the form the first sit-down strikes in virtually unheard of, not of more or less harmless the US in the early twentieth yet figuring in the ‘tactical pranks, the post-war student century. These were initiated repertoires’ of student body increasingly recognized first by workers unionised protesters.8 itself as connected to broader under the International social movements beyond Workers of the World The emergence of occupation the campus gates – anti-war (IWW), including General at this moment in California movements, civil rights, Electric employees in New likely resulted from both labour, and so on.11 Out of York in 1906, and were the contemporary context this background, and with quickly adopted as a tactic of protest and activism – a student body growing in

8 Radical Anthropology its militancy, the Berkeley as conditions of an end to the as the amnesty of those occupation became, in the protest. Instead, many of those who had subsequently and words of former Berkeley occupying have rallied under spontaneously occupied the sociologist Seymour Lipset, the slogan, ‘Occupy everything, second floor of the building the ‘prototype event of the demand nothing’.13 in solidarity. Across campus, student movement’.12 A wave certain other buildings were of university occupations 2011-2012: Occupations at put on card-key access only, followed the Berkeley McGill preventing protesters and revolt: the London School bystanders from entering of Economics in 1966- In total, fourteen students buildings surrounding the 67; Columbia University, occupied sections of the square while riot police McGill University, and the fifth floor of the James used batons, pepper spray, Sorbonne in 1968; Concordia building on November and tear gas to disperse the University and City College 10, 2011. During those large support rally that had of New York the following eight minutes before their formed outside.15 In their year; and recurrently in the interception by the McGill letter to The McGill Daily, decades since. Security Team, the occupiers quoted above, the fourteen explored the principal’s occupiers made it clear that While the number of office and adjoining rooms, their occupation had been occupations has fluctuated dropping from a window without demands, and that with the political climate, a banner that read ‘10 it was instead a response to a recent upsurge in the Nov. Occupons McGill’ the deterioration of lines of number and visibility of (‘Let’s Occupy McGill’).14 communication on campus, occupations has followed After their removal they repression of striking non- the implementation of negotiated their amnesty academic workers,16 the lack austerity measures (most with administrators, as well of student representation in often entailing tuition hikes) resulting from the many of those occupying have rallied under the 2008 global financial crisis: students initiated austerity- slogan, ‘Occupy everything, demand nothing’ related occupations of university buildings in the 2008-2009 academic year in the UK, California, and New York, multiple anti- government occupations in the UK in 2010, and occupations of University of California campuses in 2011 and 2012. Concurrent with a philosophy that went global through the Occupy Wall Street movement, recent Tangermann. Photo by Victor university occupations have shown a markedly decreased interest in the formulation of specific Students occupy the lobby of the administration building in solidarity with demands that must be met the #6party occupation happening upstairs.

9 Radical Anthropology governance, and austerity of what the administration results of two referendum measures advocated by deems acceptable’.17 votes on the existence of a Board of Governors the Quebec Public Interest populated by CEOs, real Almost exactly three Research Group (QPIRG) estate moguls, McKinsey months later, on February and Radio CKUT – both of & Co. directors and mining 7, 2012, twenty-three which votes administrators executives. The occupiers students occupied the office had nullified the previous specifically link their actions of Deputy Provost Morton month – and that the to both the Quebec-wide Mendelson on the sixth floor Deputy Provost resign.18 student movement and to the of the James building in what As on November 10, the increasing neoliberalisation would come to be known as planned #6party occupation of society, in which they the #6party occupation, in prompted a spontaneous identify the university as reference to the hashtag used occupation of a lower a key player. ‘It is time to for Twitter updates. Unlike level of the building: upon hearing that students were on the sixth floor, a group of students, myself included, entered the building’s lobby around 11:30am, but were blocked from staircases and elevators by security. Over the course of the evening, sixty to one hundred students and professors came and went freely in the lobby, teaching courses, holding informal discussions, and serving food, even after an eviction notice was served at 3:30pm. Around 8:45pm, a member of McGill’s Security

Image by Vincent Tao. Image by Vincent Services announced to those occupying the lobby that they were free to leave, but would no longer be allowed to reenter.19 Roughly twenty students spent the night sleeping on the lobby floor, forced to use bottles and eventually a cooler as toilets in the absence of accessible lobby-level washrooms. At 11:30 next morning, the A poster that appeared across campus during the #6party occupation. remaining students chose to leave the lobby of their own enter their space,’ they wrote. the November 10 occupation, accord en masse, and were ‘Occupation is a means #6party occupiers issued greeted by a support rally of expressing our dissent specific demands: that the and reporters. The sixth- outside of the boundaries administration recognize the floor occupation, meanwhile,

10 Radical Anthropology continued until the morning the act of occupation, on are not. In this sense critical of February 12, when the the fact that occupation can sociology uncovers social McGill administration asked signify – can be meaningful forces and social relations Montreal police to evict the – in excess of political that are believed to be already remaining nine students (the declarations or demands. The having a causal effect on us others had gradually left in physical, embodied action regardless of whether we are aware of them or not (class the preceding days). itself is a crucial aspect relations, gender relations, of this meaningfulness. In etc.), critical anthropology Neither of the occupation’s what follows, I suggest a invites us to become aware of demands were ultimately methodological approach and to animate certain social met. But notably, when to occupation that centres forces and potentials that are lying dormant in our midst. talking with student on the role of the body in In so doing it incites what was occupiers about #6party protest, arguing that bodily not causal to become so.21 now, the conversation is practices, independent of Among these potentials are almost always about the declared demands, can work those ‘emerging social spaces experience of the occupation to create alternative political riot police used batons, pepper spray, and tear gas to disperse the large support rally that had formed outside

that lie outside the existing – nearly universally viewed situations. order of governmentality as positive and exciting – and intelligibility and rather than about its technical Occupation as embodied requiring an imaginative failure in terms of actual practice politics that can think demands. This is not to say them in their difference’.22 that supporting both CKUT In thinking about what Approaching these spaces of and QPIRG was not a priority those alternatives may be, the radical imaginary through for the lobby and sixth floor I want to take up some of anthropological inquiry is in occupations – there were Ghassan Hage’s proposals many ways a turn towards constant negotiations with for a critical anthropology some of the discipline’s administrators, and the directed towards the ‘radical originating impulses, towards bulk of the discussion and political imaginary’. To this alterity and alternative. media coverage at the time end, Hage draws a distinction Reflecting on the work of made it clear that the actions between a critical sociology Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, taken were taken to defend and a critical anthropology: Hage writes, ‘it is more than student organisations from Critical sociology invites a “the Amazonians have administrative overreach.20 or initiates a reflexive their reality and we have But what sticks with those analytical act that induces an our reality” argument. It who occupied now, over a understanding: it invites us to see how our social world does mean the latter, but it year later, is the act itself is constituted and the way it also means that their reality and not the immediate can be unmade and remade speaks to ours. It haunts motives behind it. This by us. Critical anthropology, us with the possibility that could be dismissed as self- appropriately enough, is more we, as well, live in multiple centredness on the part of akin to the shamanic act of inducing a haunting: indeed it realities’.23 occupiers, but I think it is encourages us to feel haunted To focus on only the worth lingering here on the at every moment of our lives by demands or the lack of feelings people have towards what we are/could be that we

11 Radical Anthropology demands presented by to protest is, after all, almost imaginary, can help us occupiers is to read these always to oppose or to resist, approach occupation in a occupations as if they were and the politics of protest are, way that is attentive not only simply petitions to political on the surface at least, ‘anti.’ to the politics of the action – figures, albeit petitions the demands, the policies or signed in the flesh. We But to get to try and machinery being explicitly risk missing important understand occupation opposed, and so on – but dimensions of radical anthropologically requires also to the possibility of the practice when our approach attending to alterity, looking political and to the challenges is limited so narrowly to the for the ‘otherness-within- occupying bodies pose to policies and practices that us’ to which Hage returns the current parameters set on occupations oppose, and repeatedly, and extending our politics. to weighing their chosen view beyond mere politics. It tactics against their demands. is useful here to draw on the In this sense, the body Yet this has taken up the distinction Miriam Ticktin is central to the work majority of commentary makes between politics and occupations do in shifting about occupations at McGill the political in her work from ‘politics’ to the and beyond.24 We can on humanitarianism: the ‘political’. Consistently, locate this merely political former is ‘a set of practices university occupiers and their discursive analysis within by which order is created supporters frame their bodily what Hage calls a politics of and maintained’ while transgression of campus ‘anti’ – that is, a politics that the latter ‘refers to the spaces as being a response to is primarily deconstructive disruption of an established the failure of available lines and oppositional.25 ‘Anti’ order’.26 Politics – including of communication, dissent, politics sits on the other the oppositional politics and participation – that is, to the failure of politics Politics ...allows for contention within in Ticktin’s sense of the word. For instance, citing certain given parameters; a crackdown on various forms of dissent by McGill’s the political, on the other hand, challenges upper administration – from injunctions against striking the very foundations of those parameters. workers, to disciplinary charges brought against students engaging in peaceful end of a spectrum from of, for instance, a liberal teach-ins,27 to security an ‘alter’ politics, which democratic party system – personnel filming faculty addresses itself to open- allows for contention within and students participating ended alternative physical certain given parameters; in approved forms of non- and political realities. And the political, on the other disruptive protest28 – McGill while almost any political or hand, challenges the very professors Hasana Sharp social movement will tend to foundations of those and Will Roberts wrote on incorporate both, providing parameters. The rough November 14, 2011, of the an oppositional critique while equivalencies between necessity of the occupation opening up alternatives, Ticktin’s categories here and that had occurred four days this latter aspect is easily Hage’s anti/alter politics, as prior: overlooked. Asking why well as his understanding about protest tends to mean of the open-ended ‘alter’- In 1997, students occupied merely in response to what : ness of the radical political the same offices as last

12 Radical Anthropology form of websites where arguing that theoretical week. They came with a list of demands, stayed for three questions to the principal can attention to matter and days, and left peaceably when be up- or down-voted, live- embodiment means situating the administration refused to streamed videos of Senate the body as constructed, negotiate on the demands. The meetings that have limited but acknowledging the occupiers last week made no opportunity for physical conditions and lived demands. Occupy everything, demand nothing. That is attendance or else are closed ‘realness’ of this constructed 32 their watchword. This is not to spectators altogether, and body. the frightening or confusing online voting on referenda development people seem to about student life. When Butler has also recently think it is. If occupations students appear physically to suggested some ways to do not make demands, that means they are not engaging protest the insufficiency of approach the embodiment of in mercenary activity. The these channels by sitting in occupation. In a talk given occupiers were not holding the offices in which the real in Venice in September 2011, the Principal’s office hostage. decision-making is assumed just days before Occupy They just want to talk and to take place, it becomes Wall Street pitched their first be heard. They occupy to short-circuit the usual crucial to direct our attention tents, she drew on the recent channels by which concerns to the way their presence Egyptian revolution in order get mediated and diluted, asserts itself against this to propose a politics based and arguments get muted to 30 29 immateriality. Doing so in a shared precarity of the the point of inaudibility.

Sharp and Roberts, echoing the body is central to the work occupations do the rhetoric of occupiers at in shifting from ‘politics’ to the ‘political’ McGill and at universities in North America and Europe situates our methodological physical body. Butler argues over the past five years or approach within the kind here that when protests so, assert the centrality of of materialism that Lock manifest and persist in space, occupation in light of the and Farquhar identify as ‘the very public character of shortcomings of ‘the usual central to an anthropological the space is being disputed channels’. By physically regard for the body. Unlike and even fought over when occupying a space without the dualistic or Cartesian these crowds gather’: issuing demands, protesters materialism that has been intervene not through these theoretically dominant since So though these movements channels, but into them, the Enlightenment, or the have depended on the prior blocking them from operating empiricist and positivistic existence of pavement, street, and square, and have and, in that very action, materialism critiqued by often enough gathered in opening up a sort of free- anthropologies of science, a squares, like Tahrir, whose space for the possibilities of materialism of embodiment political history is potent, new kinds of communication is attentive to even these it is equally true that the and participation in the ‘empirical’ bodily practices collective actions collect the space itself, gather the university. as sites of meaning-making pavement, and animate and 33 inextricable from human organize the architecture. It is significant that the experience.31 Judith Butler administration-sanctioned helps to reconcile post- Similarly, in ‘seizing and modes of participation at structuralist and feminist reconfiguring the matter McGill are almost entirely critiques of a supposedly of material environments’, immaterial (in both senses pre-social materialism occupiers make claims to of the word). They take the with this new materialism, the material supports of

13 Radical Anthropology certain aspects of life at the Goldsmiths in London: they refused to leave, one university – participation, student is quoted in The political appearance, and [T]he symbolic meaning of McGill Daily citing precisely being heard – that are seizing these buildings is that the failure of conventional otherwise perceived as being these buildings belong to the decision-making as a motive denied to them. Butler takes public, to public education; for occupation: ‘We have it is precisely the access to up and reconfigures Hannah public education which is these discussions over and Arendt’s notion of the ‘space being undermined by fee and over. […] The point is that of appearance’, in part as tuition hikes and budget cuts; all these decisions come to a means of understanding we should not be surprised nothing. Everybody knows how ‘power operates prior that the protest took the form we’ve done this repeatedly, of seizing the buildings, to any performative power performatively laying claim to so we’re not going to do this exercised by a plurality’ public education, insisting on again. […] We came to have to structure public and gaining literal access to the a party.’36 private spaces in ways that buildings of public education make political appearance precisely at a moment, In recognizing the way historically, when that 35 difficult to impossible for access is being shut down. that the performative body certain bodies.34 In the case can intervene in spaces of the McGill occupations, to open them up to new we can think here about The performative capacity sorts of political existence, the strategies of power that of bodies that Butler anthropology is well poised constrain the parameters of draws on here is key to to build theoretical bridges politics (again, in Ticktin’s understanding the material across disciplines, and terminology) to the realm of aspects of occupation. It is particularly to a tradition the nonphysical. Occupations this performativity that opens of critical geography. The that either make no demands up the political by redefining, ‘spatial turn’ that emerged – or that are remembered one if only for minutes or days, in the humanities and social year later for reasons other the limits on politics at the sciences most notably than the failure or success university. In the case of from the work of Marxist of their demands – remain the #6party, the use of the geographer and sociologist

‘We have these discussions over and over. … The point is that all these decisions come to nothing. Everybody knows we’ve done this repeatedly, so we’re not going to do this again. … We came to have a party’ meaningful for the way word ‘party’ rather than Henri Lefebvre has led that the bodies involved, ‘occupation’ to refer to their to a body of literature on through their physical, actions is in part a gesture the geographies of protest spatial transgression, make towards the openness to a (especially in relation to political claims or demands new sense of the political that urban space).37 The work of that are inarticulable in the those participating attempted geographer Edward Soja, conventional discursive to engage. When McGill which addresses the spatiality sense. Butler addresses Provost Anthony Masi tried of social justice movements this possibility, alluding to to talk to those in the lobby in large urban centres, is the then-recent occupation during #6party about why valuable in approaching of university buildings at they were there and why occupation here for its notion

14 Radical Anthropology of ‘spatial consciousness’ – that politics sustain, then we participate, feel, and hope defined as ‘an awareness that need to examine, similarly, differently, even if only oppression, marginality, and the parameters imposed briefly. When it is over, we inequality are produced and on our uses of space and might be ‘haunted’, to use reproduced to a significant the ways political protest Hage’s word, by what was degree through the new disrupts those prescribed made possible during those urbanization processes uses. What kinds of thinking minutes, days, or months, and the restructured socio- shape the parameters for even as the immediate causes spatialities of urbanism’.38 what is possible within the of the occupation fade from Mapping this urban spaces of the university? memory. geographical term onto How does protest create new practices of collective possibilities? These questions I’ve attempted to outline struggle and contention seem foundational to an a way of thinking about within smaller, more anthropological approach occupation that pays specific institutional settings like that takes the embodied, attention to the role of the universities helps direct ‘political’ dimensions of bodily in collective dissent. our attention towards the occupation seriously. The work of Hage and lived physical and material Ticktin is central here for * dimensions of protest – those the divisions they make aspects of protest that are Occupation is necessary, between a merely contentious inextricably linked to the writes former McGill ‘anti’ politics and the radical politics at hand, but which student Erin Reunions ‘alter’ of the political. In may not be accounted for in in a 1998 alternative the case of universities a merely discursive account student handbook,39 when like McGill, the former that aims to envelope students are no longer is often nonphysical, and only the ‘facticity’ of an able to participate and participation and dissent are

When bodies gather together in and claim space, publicly and collectively, they open up political possibilities for the future at the same time as oppose the politics of the present. occupation. To be spatially express dissent through the relegated almost exclusively conscious when talking avenues the university has to the level of discourse about university occupations established for this purpose. and to virtual spaces. means recognizing that what The prescribed channels Understanding the limits stays with us about those for communication – for this immateriality imposes experiences, one year later, democratic participation on political existence at the is not always reducible to in life at the university – university becomes key to ideological talking points are ignored or ineffective, listening to the way occupiers or to victories and defeats and the only response is to frame their actions: as the at the level of politics. In occupy, to ‘take up space’. McGill occupiers’ statements this way, physical space Occupations and similar show, it is through physical, becomes very much an object forms of protest, as physical material protest that they feel of anthropological concern. manifestations of bodies into pressed to intervene against If Ticktin’s ‘political’ the spaces of the university, the failures of a largely involves challenging the very rewrite the parameters of immaterial machinery. Butler parameters of contention those spaces and allow us to and Soja help us understand

15 Radical Anthropology occupation as both spatial and claim space, publicly present. and bodily practice, not and collectively, they open Thanks to Lisa Stevenson, just the declaration of an up political possibilities for Sandra Hyde, Joseph Henry, oppositional position. When the future at the same time and Emilio Comay del Junco for bodies gather together in as oppose the politics of the their guidance and suggestions.

Sheehan Moore recently completed a BA in Anthropology at McGill University, where his thesis work explored the affective and spatial dimensions of campus protests. He currently lives in Montreal. [email protected]

Notes 13. After the fall 2010 After the sexual violence. Gender & History 23: 251. fall: communiqués from occupied 27. Gass, H. 2011 Undergraduate students 1. Jutras, D. 2011. Report of the Internal California. Available online at http:// afterthefallcommuniques.info/; H. Sharp and involved in pro-MUNACA demonstration Investigation into the Events of November 10, cleared of charges. The McGill Daily. Available 2011. McGill University, pp.21-22. W.C. Roberts 2011 The crisis at McGill: who called riot police onto campus? New APPS: Art, online at http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2011/10/ 2. Anonymous letter from the fifth floor Politics, Philosophy, Science. undergraduate-students-involved-in-pro- occupiers. The McGill Daily, 2011. munaca-demonstration-cleared-of-charges. 14. Jutras 2011, p.22. 3. See J. Farquhar and M. Lock 2007 28. The McGill Daily, 2011. A false sense of Introduction. In M. Lock and J. Farquhar 15. Jutras 2011, p.20. security (editorial). Available online at http:// (eds) Beyond the Body Proper: Reading www.mcgilldaily.com/2011/10/a-false-sense- 16. Most notable through court-ordered of-security. the anthropology of material life. Durham, injunctions limiting the size and location of NC: Duke University Press, pp. 1-16, for a picket lines (see Arsem-O’Malley, Q. 2011 29. Sharp and Roberts 2011. more general discussion of anthropological McGill wins injunction against MUNACA. 30. There’s a temptation here not only to equate approaches to embodied practice. The McGill Daily. Available online at http:// the non-physical/-spatial with powerlessness 4. California Monthly 1965 Three Months www.mcgilldaily.com/2011/09/mcgill-wins- and inefficacy, but also to establish a causal of Crisis: Chronology of events; Lipset, S. injunction-against-munaca relationship between the two. Taken to its extreme, it becomes easy to argue that M. 1971 Rebellion in the University. Boston: 17. Anonymous letter 2011. Little, Brown, p. xliii. there can be no real democratic political 18. Rather unusually, McGill’s Deputy participation without physical presence – a 5. California Monthly 1965. Provost requires certain independent student reductive conclusion that fails to consider who can and cannot ‘take to the streets’, where the 6. Watson, B. 2005 Bread and Roses: Mills, groups that receive funding from student fees to run a referendum every five years levels of risk are differentially allocated based migrants, and the struggle for the American on gender, ability, sexuality, status, and where dream. New York: Viking. polling the student body on their continued existence. The administration nullified the levels of risk are differentially allocated 7. Morris, A. 1981 Black Southern student QPIRG and CKUT’s votes because of based on factors like gender, ability, sexuality, sit-in movement: an analysis of internal ambiguity in the questions. The majority of status, and care responsibilities. My intention organization. American Sociological Review the backlash on campus targeted a perceived here is not to argue that occupation is the only 46(6), December. overreach on the part of the administration possible response in situations like the one at into the jurisdiction of the student union’s McGill. Rather, the context in which these two 8. Taylor, V. and N. Van Dyke 2004. ‘Get affairs. occupations occurred – as well as the context up, stand up’: tactical repertoires of social for many occupations globally – is one in movements. In D.A. Snow, S.A. Soule, and 19. Hudson, E. 2012 Occupations continue which people on all sides are grappling with H. Kriesi (eds) The Blackwell Companion to through night. The McGill Daily. these questions of physicality and the political. Social Movements. Malden, MA: Blackwell, Anthropology, for its part, seems well-poised pp. 262-293; Hatherly, O. 2011 The occupation 20. CBC News. 2012. Protesting McGill to take up these questions. of space. In Fight Back! A reader on the winter Students refuse to end sit-in. Available online of protest. London: openDemocracy, pp. 117- at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ 31. Farquhar and Lock 2007, pp.10-12. 123. story/2012/02/07/montreal-mcgill-student- protest.html 32. Butler, J. 2007 from Bodies that Matter. 9. Saunders, D. 1998 For sale: crumbling ivory In M. Lock and J. Farquhar (eds) Beyond the tower. In School Schmool: an activist’s guide 21. Hage, Ghassan 2012 Critical Body Proper: Reading the Anthropology of to McGill. Montreal: QPIRG McGill, pp. anthropological thought and the radical Material Life, Durham, NC: Duke University 5-6; Hardy 1996 The Politics of Collegiality: political imaginary today. Critique of Press, pp. 164-175. Retrenchment strategies in Canadian Anthropology 32: 290. universities. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s 22. Hage 2012: 294. 33. Butler, J. 2011 Bodies in alliance and the University. Press, pp.21-22. politics of the street. The state of things. Office 23. Hage 2012: 299. for Contemporary Art Norway. Available 10. Davies, B., M. Gottsche and P. Bansel 2006 online at http://www.eipcp.net/transversal/ The rise and fall of the neo-liberal university. 24. See, for example, M. Matthen 2011 1011/butler/en European Journal of Education 41:313-314; ‘Occupy everything, demand nothing’. New Hall, Stuart 2007 Universities, intellectuals, APPS: Art, Politics, Philosophy, Science; 34. Butler 2011 and multitudes. In M. Coté, R.J.F. Day, and G. Aitchison 2011 Reform, rupture or re- G. de Peuter (eds) Utopian Pedagogy: Radical imagination: understanding the purpose of 35. Butler 2011 experiments against neoliberal globalization. an occupation. Social Movement Studies 10: Toronto: University of Toronto Press Pp. 109- 431-439; M. Moore 2011 Where Does Occupy 36. Hudson 2012 110. Wall Street Go From Here? Available online at http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike- 11. Lipset 1971. This can be distinguished 37. Lefebvre, H. 1974 La production de friends-blog/where-does-occupy-wall-street- l’espace. Paris: Éditions Anthropos. from a more militant tradition of student go-here; R. Perlstein 2012 Why Occupy Needs opposition in European universities, where to Start Making Demand. Available online at 38. Soja, E. W. 2000 Postmetropolis: Critical activism was linked to a number of political Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/ and social upheavals in the early twentieth studies of cities and regions. Oxford: Blackwell politics/blogs/national-affairs/why-occupy- Publishers, p.281. century and before, see M. Boren 2001 Student needs-to-start-making-demands-20120321. Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject. New York: Routledge. 25. Hage 2012: 292. 39. Reunions, E. 1998 Disrupting consent: stage an occupation in 8 easy steps. In School 12. Lipset 1971: xliii. 26. Ticktin, M. 2011 The gendered human of Schmool: an activist’s guide to McGill. humanitarianism: medicalising and politicising Montreal: QPIRG McGill, pp. 23-24. 16 Radical Anthropology Catherine Jones St George’s Eve Parade at the Dragon Cafe Catherine Jones reflects on the joyous if fleeting experience of a spring carnival at the Dragon Café.

‘We need now in the 21st surrounded by a commercial a Dragon emerged with a century to give much more district of brown and grey troop of drums, singing and thought to how Dragon office blocks. This hurried vibrantly costumed dancers. energy can be positive and London encompasses the Anyone watching the church transformative, if only we quiet island of St George the earlier that day would have could learn how to harness it Martyr Church, an ancient suspected some sort of and help it to thrive.’ site that has gradually been goings on, as people busily Sarah Wheeler, Creative encroached upon by the ever- disappeared and re-emerged Director of Mental Fight looming metropolis. from the crypt, taking part Club. in guided walks and creative Yet this April, on the workshops and in last Walk south from London eve of St George’s Day, minute preparation for the Bridge along Borough High a sudden flurry of colour afternoon’s parade. Street and you will meet and music burst out of the with a busy intersection belly of the church, and The setting for our carnival is Photo: Chris Knight

East meets west: dragon summit

17 Radical Anthropology well connected to the theme acrobatic performers from controlled, safe release of of St George, as is evident the Confucius Institute. the tensions built up within from various depictions of After much applause, the hierarchical society which St George and the dragon gathering is invited back into in turn helps to reaffirm hidden all around the area. the cosy underground crypt the social order. Others The dragon symbol is also for an evening of folk music highlight carnival as a the inspiration behind the and talks on the numerous fundamental form of popular mental health initiative, traditions that have inspired culture, giving voice, body Mental Fight Club, which the Legend of St George and and agency to the people. operates from the group’s the Dragon. There is also the view that own Dragon Café every the carnivalesque acts as Monday in the church crypt. It seems that almost as a mechanism for renewal. The dragon motif is all the quickly as the excitement Carnival’s subversive more captivating given arises, all becomes still again traditions of inversion

on the eve of St George’s Day, a sudden flurry of colour and music burst out of the belly of the church, and a Dragon emerged with a troop of drums its striking prevalence in around the church, all that and parody of the elite mythology, one that reaches remains are a few colourful represent an alternative right back into the depths of dragon scales being brushed to the hierarchical world prehistory. about in the wind. and so assist in society’s transformative cycles. Yet Quickly the Dragon is How quickly the liveliness others suggest that any such joined by tiny revellers and dissolves and the area is change today is ultimately a small dragon brood, the reclaimed by the city’s pallid sanctioned by the state and so entourage rapidly growing hue. Can any significance is only ever assimilated into to include a female Robin be made of such a fleeting the existing order of society. Hood with Merry Men, and a moment? Was it all quite Green Man and transgender inconsequential? Simply However, these Maid Marian, all cavorting a pleasant day of revelry, conceptualisations are often along behind. A samba patriotic celebration and critiqued, for the focus is band begins to play and a publicity for the mental restricted to dimensions Chinese dragon suddenly health charity. Could there be of power. It conceives of appears, gracefully sailing any more to it than that? those present as rather around Tabard St square contingent on external forces to meet with our crypt- Many theorists of carnival and overlooks carnival’s dwelling wyvern. Frenzied maintain that these sorts aesthetics and the people’s dancing ensues as the two of events serve a specific collaborative and reflective dragons, accompanied by function in society. One impetus. a battery from the brightly ‘safety-valve’ theory decorated players, encircle contends that carnival is Cohen, looking at the the church. Eventually, as a time of catharsis for the development of Notting the gathering begins to tire, workforce – ‘rituals of Hill Carnival up until 1992, we are wowed by Chinese rebellion’ that allow for argues that as art, culture

18 Radical Anthropology and politics are dynamically masses with yet another us indistinguishable from interrelated those present distraction; ultimately such movements. Surely the are predominantly active, divorcing us from our improvised spontaneity of the conscious and often capacity to construct our own day; the interaction, face-to- politically rebellious reality. face contact, the collective and inclusive spirit, however However since the early transitory, embraced an act of 1990s there has been a defiance against the corporate growing phenomenon of monoculture? carnivals appearing as conscious and celebratory Such a cross-cultural protests in the form of community as was seen that

Photo: Chris Knight unendorsed street parties day – the organisers, the or processions occupying performers, the bystanders, public space.2 Though the mentally well, unwell and Maid Marian there is a multitude of recovering, the homeless, the subjects. Yet even Cohen causes and campaigns, academic, the student, the recognises the loss of Notting most are brought under office worker, children after Hill’s old-style ‘organisation the banner of ‘carnivals school and senior citizens – for the people and by the against capitalism’ in the were all invited to dance, to people.’ He warns that ‘it is global justice movement. cheer, to be spectators to each likely to develop […] into Yet what of a localised other. Surely all participated, a predominantly tourist- event, such as the Dragon transiently, in a levelling off orientated show.’1 Carnivals Parade? Protest carnivals are of differences and identities such as Notting Hill or distinct in their explicitly in a way that echoes the Rio, like many large public oppositional rhetoric; egalitarian precepts of such events today, be it festivals, their police presence; their protest carnivals. concerts or dance clubs, are attempts to disrupt the often disparaged for having everyday and so interrupt For me, as a participant at become commodified and state/corporate business. the Dragon parade, engaging dehumanised, most people None of this was present with one another creatively no longer collaborating in during the St George and was a strategic assertion of human autonomy, self- definition, imagination and The dragon symbol is inspiration equality. The project’s mix of creative and healing behind the mental health resilience, supporting people initiative, Mental Fight Club with sincere warmth and acceptance, has promoted the issue of mental health and these cultural forms, but the Dragon and Maiden day the alienation and exclusion rather party to consumerism’s parade. We certainly did not that epitomises it, and in turn passive spectatorship. In make any noticeable stand has created a space for social this way it can become to the prevailing hegemony. inclusion. In addressing easy to see carnival as just Nevertheless our flamboyant our society’s prejudice, this another apparatus in creating costumes, dancing, our makes a wider statement of alienation and apathy; samba band, our banners, empowerment for all. mollifying, homogenising mascots and participatory and so depoliticising the ethos could at moments leave A Bakhtinian perception adds

19 Radical Anthropology yet another connection when still adhere to the Early all the people.’3 He posits we are heedful of those who Renaissance attitudes that that it was only during the are mentally unwell. Bakhtin first opposed the ‘aesthetics later Romantic period that delineates medieval carnival of the beautiful’ to the folk ‘madness acquires a sombre, as an anti-hierarchical, folk grotesque. We are still tragic aspect of individual or market-place cultural uncomfortable with the isolation.’ Nevertheless he affirms that madness is intrinsic to all forms of the grotesque because it ‘makes men look at the world with different eyes, not dimmed by “normal”, that is by commonplace ideas and judgments.’4 Ultimately too if the Romantic grotesque instigates fear, Bahktin’s folk carnival gives voice to the rude and real properties Photo: Chris Knight of ourselves that he affirms are communicated through a folk culture that is hence ‘absolutely fearless’.5 In this sense we can apprehend the sapience of giving ‘madness’ a voice in Final pyramid society and so insist on a form. He conceived it as contradictory, blemished or confidence and pride towards ‘the second life of the incomplete. This is imperfect, those stepping out into people, who for a time and so ugly to us. We wish public view when society entered the utopian realm to hide it, we become fearful claims they are incomplete, a of community, freedom, of it. Those with mental ill boldness materialised at the equality and abundance’ health are treated in just such Dragon Parade. as it was they who still a way. maintained the power to But what of the Dragon renew society through Bahktin states that in the Cafe carnivalists own laughter and mockery of Middle Ages the ‘unfinished’ understandings? Advocating the elite. By humbling them or ‘grotesque’ was not only a reinterpretation of the through the imagery of the associated with the hideous St George and the Dragon ‘grotesque body’ –the eating, but also viewed positively, story, one that resounds with defecating, copulating, as it was ultimately a the charity’s ethos towards natural body – they asserted reflection of the cyclic mental illness, the creative their power of renewal changes of man’s life and director of Mental Fight though the expression of so the phases of nature. We Club, herself a sufferer of the ‘grotesque’ and its had not quite become the mental ill-health, explains regenerative metaphor. This, modern, ‘isolated biological that the dragon he argues, is later lost and individual […]the private, reduced to its bare crudities. egoistic “economic man” but ‘is actually of universal Here I will simply highlight, [still acknowledged…] the human significance… as Bahktin does, that we collective ancestral body of a dragon or serpent is

20 Radical Anthropology universal to all cultures creative potential.’ humanity; our primeval worldwide[…yet] the dragon dragon solidarity. Repression in today’s conventional For those at the Dragon and exclusion of it will surely telling of St George is seen as Café, losing one’s fear of the hold us and everything else repellent and destructive […] dragon is synonymous with on the planet to ransom. We have looked at the story losing one’s fear of ‘the part and propose a retelling where of ourselves which we dare The Dragon Café, as a we consider how the Dragon not face…’ They maintain regular gathering of some is pacified by the Power of that of the most disenfranchised the Feminine [after all St in society, continually George on his own does not ‘Just like the dragon in the reminds us of our capacity overcome the Dragon but tale, repression and exclusion to collaboratively shape and it is only after the Maiden of this powerful part of enhance our own lives. What gives him her girdle, once ourselves is actually counter- more apt way to celebrate tied around the dragons neck productive. Our excluded this than with a Dragon that it is subdued] and its dragon energy holds us to Parade. Far from being an ransom […] We can only be inconsequential event, it truly mentally well if we can seems to me that community learn to face our fears and self-celebration can help understand that the inner foreground our prejudices resources to transform them and our reclamations of live within each of us…’ agency and solidarity.

I feel from this a deep sense Notes

Photo: Chris Knight of continuity. The Dragon, as an ubiquitous symbol of mankind’s mythology, may 1. Cohen, A. 1993. Masquerade Politics: Baby dragons explorations in the structure of urban stem from the earliest human cultural movements. Oxford: Berg, p.153. newly peaceful form is full cultures of the Palaeolithic 2. St John, G. 2005. Counter-tribes, global 6 protests and carnivals of reclamation. Peace of creative potential! When over 100,000 years ago. So Review 16: 421-428 St George slays it in front of in this sense when holding 3. Bakhtin, M. 1984. Rabelais and his the townspeople, he actually up the existing shape of world. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p.19. brings the story to a spiritual ourselves against that which 4. Bakhtin, M. 1984, p.39. dead end, because the formed us we can learn to 5. Bakhtin, M. 1984, ibid. townspeople have not learnt recognise our ancient arcane 6. Knight, C. 1991. Blood Relations: menstruation and the Origins of Culture. to overcome their fear of the unanimity, the creative and New Haven and London: Yale University Dragon, and its enormous cooperative part of our Press, pp.480-513.

Catherine Jones is an Anthropology student at University of East London. The Dragon Café materialises each Monday, from 11.30 am to 8.30 pm in the crypt of St George the Martyr Church, Borough, http://dragoncafe.co.uk/

21 Radical Anthropology Brian Morris Anarchism, individualism and South Indian foragers: memories and reflections Brian Morris examines the relationship of anthropology and anarchism in reflection on his work with South Indian forest hunters, the Malaipantaram.

his article brings together two long- standing interests of mine, as reflected Tin two of my books, namely Forest Traders (1982), a study of the socio-economic life of the Malaipantaram, a group of South Indian foragers, and Kropotkin: the Politics of Community (2004), which offers a critical Photo: Brian Morris account of the political philosophy and social ecology of the Russian revolutionary anarchist Peter Kropotkin.1 The books have one thing in common. Both have been ignored by academics. HIll Pandaram family outside their leaf shelter, Achencoil forests, Kerala, 1972 gatherers and capitalism at the never been reviewed in Apart from Peter Gardner,2 no local level.3 This was precisely any academic journal, nor hunter-gatherer specialist ever what my ethnographic study mentioned in recent academic mentions, or even cites, my Forest Traders, published a texts on anarchism. A pioneer study of the Malaipantaram. decade earlier, had entailed! ecologist and a renowned In a paper that emphasises Anyone who reads this book geographer – his portrait the heterogeneous will recognise that I don’t still adorns the library of the subsistence strategies among treat the Malaipantaram as Royal Geographic society contemporary (not modern) social isolates, nor do I deny – Kropotkin was also an hunter-gatherers, and aims them social agency – either anthropologist, the author of to mediate between the individually or collectively – the classic text Mutual Aid ‘traditionalists’ (Richard Lee) and I certainly do not describe (1902).5 Yet the reviews editor and the ‘revisionists’ (Edwin the Malaipantaram as an of the Journal of the Royal Wilmsen) in the rather unchanging society.4 Anthropological Institute did acrimonious Kalahari debate, not consider a book on such Nurit Bird-David argues that Likewise, apart from a review an obscure Russian anarchist contemporary ethnographic in an obscure anarchist as having any interest inquiry should concern itself magazine, published by to anthropologists. And with the ‘dynamics of contact’ the Anarchist Federation, given the current academic between modern hunter- my book on Kropotkin has fashion with so-called post-

22 Radical Anthropology anarchism, which invokes it for any grammatical or in the relationship between the ghosts of such radical stylistic errors or indiscretions. anarchism and anthropology. individualists as Max Stirner When she returned the thesis Indeed, I long ago suggested and Friedrich Nietzsche, a to me she declared: ‘I don’t that there was a kind of book on Kropotkin seems believe a word of it’. When I ‘elective affinity’ between of little relevance also to asked why she responded: ‘It anarchism as a political contemporary academic is just a description of your tradition and anthropology. anarchists.6 own anarchist politics. I think For scholars like Celestin you’ve made the whole thing Bougle, Marcel Mauss and The dean of Khoisan studies, up’.8 A.R. Radcliffe-Brown had Alan Barnard, once wrote close associations with a perceptive paper on anarchism: Radcliffe- primitive communism: Brown in his early years it was aptly subtitled was a devotee of Kropotkin ‘Kropotkin Visits the and was known as ‘Anarchy Bushman’.7 In like fashion, Brown’; while anarchists in this paper, I want to bring such as Kropotkin, Elie together my two books – and Elise Reclus, Murray linking the Malaipantaram Bookchin and John Zerzan ethnography to Kropotkin’s have all drawn extensively social anarchism – and on anthropological writings to address the question: in developing their own are South Indian foragers brand of anarchism.10 anarchists, or more precisely, can the social life In his classic study The of the Malaipantaram and Nuer,11 Evans-Pritchard other South Indian foragers famously described their Kropotkin: anthropologist and anarchist be described as a form of political system as ‘ordered anarchy? That hunter-gatherers and anarchy’ while Marshall tribal people, more generally, Sahlins, equally famously, Anarchy and anarchism have been described as living described the ‘domestic in a state of anarchy, has mode of production’ as a I begin this discussion with a long been a common theme ‘species of anarchy’. In true confession. When I completed in anthropological writings. Hobbesian fashion, Sahlins a draft of my Ph.D thesis In recent years, with the negatively portrayed the

the reviews editor of the JRAI did not consider a book on such an obscure Russian anarchist as having any interest to anthropologists

on the Malaipantaram in highlighting of the presence social organization of tribal 1974 – Forest Traders was a of anarchists within the peoples as akin to a ‘sack drastically shortened version anti-capitalist and Occupy of potatoes’.12 But, more of my thesis – I asked a close movements, together with importantly, long before the friend of mine who had a the publication of James current interest in anarchist degree in English literature Scott’s seminal The Art of Not anthropology, the Canadian and is a talented poet, to read Being Governed,9 there has scholar Harold Barclay wrote the manuscript and to check been an upsurge of interest a perceptive little book People

23 Radical Anthropology Without Government, which twentieth century, and is still less as some fixed, benign is subtitled ‘The anthropology a vibrant political tradition.15 essence. A form of existential of anarchism’.13 The book individualism is then a affirms that ‘anarchy is In Kropotkin’s own defining feature of anarchism possible’ and describes not understanding of anarchist as a political tradition. only hunter-gatherers – such history, anarchism sought as the Inuit, Bushmen, Yaka to actualize the rallying Secondly, there is an Pygmies, and the Australian sentiments of the French emphasis on equality, and the Aborigines – as having revolution – liberty, equality affirmation of the community

In Kropotkin’s own understanding of anarchist history, anarchism sought to actualize the rallying sentiments of the French revolution – liberty, equality and fraternity anarchic societies, but also and fraternity (social as a ‘society of equals’. tribal societies more generally. solidarity) – and entailed For anarchists this implied Finally, we may note that Peter a creative synthesis of a complete repudiation Gardner, in his pioneering radical liberalism, with its of the capitalist market study of the Paliyan foragers emphasis on the liberty of the economy along with its wage of south India, entitles one individual, and socialism (or system, private property, of his key chapters ‘Respect, communism) which implied its competitive ethos, and Equality and Peaceful a repudiation of capitalism, the ideology of possessive Anarchy’ – emphasizing the and the development of a individualism. Anarchism fierce egalitarianism, the high society based on voluntary thus upheld egalitarianism as value placed on individual co-operation, mutual aid and both a social premise, and as autonomy, and the non-violent community life.16 an ethical principle. ethos that pervades the social life of these foragers.14 Anarchism may be defined Thirdly, it expressed a vision for the purposes of the of society based solely on A distinction needs to be present essay in terms of three mutual aid and voluntary co- made, of course, between essential tenets or principles. operation, a community-based anarchy, which is an ordered Firstly, a strong emphasis is form of social organization society without government placed on the liberty of the that would promote and (or any enduring structures of individual, for the moving enhance both the fullest domination and exploitation), spirit of anarchism entails expression of individual and anarchism, which refers a fundamental focus on the liberty, and all forms of social to an historical movement and sovereignty of the individual, life that were independent of political tradition. Emerging and thus a complete rejection, both the state and capitalism. in Europe around 1870, in not only of the state power The anarchists thus believed the aftermath of the defeated but all forms of hierarchy and in voluntary co-operation, Paris Commune, mainly oppression that inhibit the not in chaos, ephemerality among workers in Spain, autonomy of the individual or ‘anything goes’, and Italy, France and Switzerland, person. For social anarchists anarchists like Kropotkin anarchism as a political the individual was viewed, of viewed both tribal and kin- movement subsequently course, as a social being, not based societies as exhibiting spread throughout the world as a disembodied ego, or as many of the features of in the early years of the some abstract individual, still anarchy.17 Communism or

24 Radical Anthropology what Kropotkin described India – such as the Kadar, criticisms.23 We need, in as free communism, was Paliyan, Malaipantaram fact, to go back to Immanuel therefore one of the defining and Jenu Kurubu – express Kant, and to commonsense values (or characteristics) what has been described as understandings of the world. of anarchism as a political an individualistic ethic or tradition – or at least a culture.20 Kant famously described defining feature of the kind anthropology as the study of of anarchist communism that To understand what this ‘what is a human being’, or in Kropotkin advocated.18 individualism entails, an contemporary parlance ‘what initial note of clarification it means to be human’. In his Anarchists like Kropotkin seems essential. For there seminal work Anthropology therefore did not view anarchy has been a lamentable from a Pragmatic Point as something that existed tendency on the part of many of View,24 published in the only in the distant past, in the anthropologists to set up, in last decade of his life, Kant Palaeolithic era, nor as simply rather exotic fashion, a radical suggested the understanding a utopian vision of some dichotomy between Western of the human subject in future society, but rather as conceptions of the individual terms of a triadic ontology, a form of social life that had – misleadingly identified with viewing the individual as existed throughout human Cartesian metaphysics or the a universal human being history – albeit, often hidden ‘commodity’ metaphor – and (mensch), as a unique self in contemporary societies, that of other cultures. This (selbst) and as a social being, buried and unrecognised radical dichotomy suggests a member of a particular beneath the weight of that Western culture views group of people (volk). Kant, capitalism and the state. As the human subject as an of course, focussed on the Colin Ward graphically put it: egocentric, isolated, non- individual as a universal, anarchy is like ‘a seed beneath social, and rigidly bounded rational subject, while his the snow’.19 individual, whereas in other student and later critic Johann the key distinction has to be made between the individualism of the South Indian foragers, and the various kinds of individualism associated with capitalist economy

I turn now to the ethnography cultures – specifically Bali, Herder stressed that humans of South Indian foragers, and India and Melanesia – people were fundamentally cultural will address the question as have a sociocentric concept of beings. Many years later to whether their social life the subject. They view people the anthropologist Clyde can be described as a form of as intrinsically social beings, Kluckhohn expressed this anarchy in terms of these three a ‘microcosm of relations’, triadic ontology in simple defining features of anarchism who conceive of themselves everyday terms. Critical of as a political tradition, namely, in terms of their social dualistic conceptions of the individualism, egalitarianism roles rather than as unique human subject in terms of and communism. individuals.21 There exists in the nature (biology) versus the world, therefore, we are culture dichotomy, Kluckhohn Individualism told, ‘two types of person’.22 suggested, in contrast, that This kind of dualistic approach there were three essential It has long been recognised is quite untenable, and has ways of understanding the that the foragers of south been subject to several telling human subject. Every person,

25 Radical Anthropology he wrote, is in some respects subject, like the existentialists psychologically and like every other human being (but unlike Durkheimian economically independent as a species being (humanity); sociologists), places a at a very early age, and to that they are like no other fundamental focus on the respect the autonomy of other human being in having a individual as an independent individuals. Thus, in contrast unique personality (or self); person. They value and with neighbouring caste

strong adherence to individual autonomy, and thus an ‘intense’ individualism ... has been recognised by all researchers on South Indian foragers and, finally, that they have communities, the affinities with some M a l a i p a n t a r a m other humans, in being individual may social or cultural beings constitute a unit of (or persons).25 both production and consumption; and to The Malaipantaram, live a solitary existence and other foragers is not only possible but of South India, like by no means unusual for people everywhere, older men, and it is not clearly affirm this portrayed negatively.27 triadic ontology. They A strong adherence to recognise that the individual autonomy, people they encounter and thus an ‘intense’ Photo: Brian Morris are human beings individualism (as it has (manushyan) as distinct been described), has from, say, elephants been recognised by all and monitor lizards; researchers on South and that they have Indian foragers. unique personalities, and a sense of their own Although clearly individuality (which linked to a gathering ought not to be equated Pandaram hunter, Achencoil valleys, 1972 economy, both for with individualism subsistence and trade, as a cultural ethos). They stress the autonomy of the such individualism is also recognise too that other individual. Both in terms of expressed in the diversity of humans, both within their their child-rearing practices their economic strategies, own society, and with regard and their gathering economy and their individual mobility to outsiders, are social beings the Malaipantaram place a and flexibility with regard to with ethnic affiliations and high degree of emphasis on group membership. Indeed, diverse social identities.26 the person as an existential individualism has been being – self-reliant and interpreted as a characteristic Significantly, the autonomous. Socialisation feature of hunter-gatherer Malaipantaram and other patterns – as a dialectical societies generally, or at least South Indian foragers’ process – are largely geared those with an immediate- conception of the human to making a child socially, return economic system.28

26 Radical Anthropology Nobody has expressed this I have written elsewhere on associated with the concept of individualistic ethos with more this apparent paradox,32 but bildung or ‘self-cultivation’ cogency than Peter Gardner, what has to be recognised that was particularly who in relation to the Paliyan in the present context is that associated with literary and several other foragers, not only must a distinction be intellectuals in Germany at views it as intrinsically made between individuality the end of the 18th century, linked to individual decision- (and the agency of the and was later developed making, social mechanisms individual – acknowledged in by Nietzsche and by his that undermine any form of most societies) and normative poststructuralist devotees.34 hierarchy, a non-violent ethos, or cultural conceptions of in that inter-personal conflicts the human subject, but also But the key distinction are generally resolved the fact that there are many that has to be made is that through fission and mobility, distinct and contrasting between the individualism and a general absence in the forms of individualism.33 of the South Indian foragers, formalization of culture.29 Dumont himself devotes a and the various kinds of good deal of discussion to individualism that are In Forest Traders, I noted two forms of individualism, generally associated with that the ethnographic data besides that of economic the capitalist economy, if not on the Paliyans, who were individualism. One is that with many aspects of Western characterised by a ‘very of the ascetic ‘renouncer’ in culture. These range from that extreme individualism’,30 Hindu society, the Sannyasin of Cartesian philosophy, with seemed to run counter to whose individual identity its notion of a disembodied Louis Dumont’s argument is achieved by repudiating ego radically separate from that the presence of the all ties that bind a person to nature and social life;35 individual – in its modern, the caste system (society) the abstract or possessive normative sense – was not and the world. The other individualism of liberal theory recognised in Indian society.31 form of individualism is that that was long ago lampooned by Marx and Bakunin; the methodological individualism of optimal foraging theory;36 and the radical egoism of Ayn Rand which advocates a form of selfishness that has little or no regard for other humans.37

All four kinds of bourgeois individualism were repudiated by Kropotkin and the early social anarchists, as all tended to deny the social nature of the human subject. The mode of individualism that Kropotkin advocated, in contrast, he described as ‘personalismus or pro Distribution of foraging groups in India sibi communisticu’ – the

27 Radical Anthropology kind of individuality that is markedly from the emphasis the Malaipantaram meat inherently social.38 on hierarchy in surrounding from wild animals is always agricultural communities, shared within the camp or More recently, Susan Brown particularly in relation to settlement and every person is has followed Kropotkin in gender, and with regard to entitled to a share. Although making a clear distinction the higher castes.42 In fact, I the hunting of mammals between instrumental or argued that Malaipantaram such as sambar, chevrotain possessive individualism, society was both egalitarian and various monkeys is manifested through the and individualistic in its practised, most of the meat market, and the existentialist essential ethos.43 Around the obtained is through eclectic individualism advocated by same time, James Woodburn foraging, and what almost the social anarchists – as published his seminal paper amounts to the ‘gathering’ of expressed in the individuals on ‘Egalitarian societies’,44 small animals – specifically capacity to be autonomous although it is well to recall that tortoises, bats, monitor lizards and self-determining.39 as a concept ‘egalitarianism’ and squirrels.47 Apart from Clearly, the kind of is hardly mentioned in what the sharing of meat, sharing individualism expressed constitutes one of the founding is in fact limited among by the Malaipantaram and texts of hunter-gatherer the Malaipantaram, and other South Indian foragers studies.45 But it is generally economic exchange within the has close affinities with the recognised that egalitarianism community is best described existentialist individualism is a fundamental characteristic in terms of reciprocity and described by Brown. Indeed not only of South Indian mutual aid. she defines social anarchism foragers, but all hunter- as combining existential gathering societies with an Although in various individualism with free immediate-return economic Malaipantaram settlements communism.40 system.46 there are recognised ‘headmen’ (Muppan), Making a distinction between Among the Malaipantaram these are largely a function the individualism of hunter- and South Indian foragers of administrative control gatherers and the rugged egalitarianism is manifested introduced by the state via the individualism of modern in diverse ways, both as Forest Department, in order capitalism is not saying an ethos, as a constellation to facilitate communication. anything new or original. of values and normative Such headmen have little Long ago, Stanley Diamond expectations, and in their or no control over the lives emphasised that the mode of social relationships (indeed, or movements of other thought expressed by tribal their cultural values and social members of the local group.48 societies, specifically hunter- actions are inter-linked and There is, in fact, among the gatherers, with respect to the dialectically related). We can Malaipantaram and other human subject, was one that briefly mention, with regard South Indian foragers, a was concrete, existential and to such egalitarianism, three marked antipathy towards any personalistic.41 topics of interest: the emphasis form of authority, or any form on sharing, their attitude of hierarchy, whether based Egalitarianism towards authority structures, on wealth, prestige or power. and their general emphasis on In their everyday life the In Forest Traders, I equality, especially in relation emphasis is always on being emphasised that an to gender. modest non-aggressive and egalitarian ideal permeated non-competitive, engaging Malaipantaram society, and As in many other hunter- with others in terms of an that this ethos contrasted gathering societies, among ethos that puts a fundamental

28 Radical Anthropology emphasis on mutual aid and Given this emphasis on has authority over the other.53 on respecting the autonomy egalitarian relations it is But given the harassment of others, especially those not surprising that gender that Malaipantaram have with whom a person regularly relations among the generally to contend with, or associates. But as many Malaipantaram and other what Gardner described as scholars have indicated, the South Indian foragers are ‘inter-cultural pressure’,54 I stress on egalitarian never encountered relationships does not a Malaipantaram simply imply a lack woman foraging of hierarchy, but is alone in the forest.55 actively engendered by forms of social power In a widely- – diffuse sanctions or acclaimed essay on levelling mechanisms Marshall Sahlins’ – expressed and renowned thesis enforced by means of describing hunter- criticisms, ridicule, gatherers as the ostracism, desertion, ‘original affluent or by the simple, society’,56 Nurit voluntary adherence Bird-David seems to customary norms, Photo: Brian Morris to inflate the notion as I am doing in of sharing, which writing this essay in is a key element of intelligible English.49 egalitarianism, into a It seems to me that rather metaphysical to describe this form principle.57 Sharing of social power, and thus becomes a the diffuse sanctions totalising concept that are entailed, as Boy with Giant Hornbill that incorporates implying ‘reverse- almost all aspects of dominance hierarchy’50 or typically recognised as being the social and cultural life of as a form of ‘governance’51 equal. In Forest Traders, the Nayaka. By implication is quite misleading, for the acknowledging the social her model applies to all Malaipantaram have a marked and economic independence foragers with an immediate- aversion to all forms of of women, I stressed that return economic system, domination and governance; there was a high degree of although interestingly she this, of course, does not equality between the sexes, makes no mention at all of imply that they live in the especially when contrasted other South Indian foragers. forest in a state of anomie. with gender relations among It is of interest, too, that the stress on egalitarian relationships ... is actively engendered by .. diffuse sanctions or levelling mechanisms ...criticisms, ridicule, ostracism, desertion They are, however, like other caste communities. Within whereas Bird-David endorses South Indian foragers, well the conjugal family men and Sahlins’ thesis of the hunter- attuned to the ‘art of not being women have more or less gatherer ‘Zen road to governed’.52 equal rights, and neither party affluence’, inForest Traders I

29 Radical Anthropology made no mention at all of this and misfortunes, but from the reduced to a single metaphor, questionable thesis.58 maraudings of real elephants.60 however engaging and Indeed, rather than living in a illuminating. There is nothing amiss with ‘giving environment’,61 the describing South Indian Malaipantaram and other The Malaipantaram do foragers as individualistic south Indian foragers appeal recognise the forest as or egalitarian, or as having to the ancestral spirits (chavu) their home, and have warm a ‘sharing ethos’, but Bird- or the forest deities (malai feelings towards the forest as David’s analysis is a typical devi, mountain gods) not the essential source of their example of what Kathleen only when there are illnesses livelihood and well-being. It Morrison describes as and misfortunes, but also is the abode of their ancestral typological and essentialist when there is a lack of food spirits and the forest deities thinking,59 for although this or honey, or hunting has not on whom they can always analysis obviously has a been successful. Through call upon for support and ring of truth, it gives quite shamanistic rituals, the protection, and thus the forest a biased portrait of the reasons for the lack of food is always a place of refuge.62 social and cultural life of or misfortunes is explained South Indian foragers. In in terms of the foragers not Likewise, although sharing following Colin Turnbull’s upholding certain customary is a fundamental ethic (mis)-interpretation of Mbuti norms or moral edicts, among the Malaipantaram, an egalitarian ideal permeates Malaipantaram society, and this ethos contrasts markedly from the emphasis on hierarchy in surrounding agricultural communities religion as a form of crude particularly not respecting one has to recognise that it pantheism, Bird-David tends other people’s autonomy, or is not ubiquitous. For the to conflate natural phenomena not sharing or offering mutual Malaipantaram are involved – whether mountains, rivers, aid to their close kindred. in market relations, and rock outcrops, stones, trees or Equally, by focusing on their though they always strive animals (especially elephants) religious ideology, Bird- to make these relationships – as well as artefacts with the David completely ignores the inclusive – as Justin Kenrick63 spiritual beings – malevolent empirical naturalism that is describes it – that is friendly, spirits, ancestral spirits and manifested in their ecological sharing, personal and one forest deities – that, according knowledge of the natural involving mutual aid and to the forager’s religious world and in their practical support, these relationships ideology, inhabit or have acitivities, and which is are essentially hierarchical their ‘abode’ in the forest, equally a part of the foragers’ and exploitative, and they are or are identified with certain culture. The metaphor ones that the foragers do not figurines or icons. But these ‘giving environment’ is control. As Mathur describes two aspects of the forager’s misleading, for, like people in market relationships among life-world are distinct. all societies, the relationship the Chola Naickan, who are Ananda Bhanu writes, of the Malaipantaram and clearly related to the local for example, of the Chola other South Indian foragers group described by Bird- Naickan calling on the spirits, to the natural world, is one David, what the foragers represented in an elephant that is complex, diverse, attempt and prefer is to ‘act figurine (aneuruva) to protect multifaceted and often as a generous kinsman rather them, not only against illness contradictory, and cannot be than a self-seeking trader’

30 Radical Anthropology in contrast to the forest human societies engage to Rexroth once wrote: ‘People contractor who always seeks some degree in sharing or who hunt and gather cannot to control and exploit the generalised reciprocity65 be anything but communist’.68 foragers.64 but the relationship between There has, of course, been a such sharing and reciprocity long tradition, going back to Equally important, one has is always dialectical. Lewis Morgan and Friedrich to recognise that there is very Malaipantaram men who are Engels in the nineteenth little sharing between families deeply involved in hunting, century, affirming that hunter- among the Malaipantaram, and especially in the marketing gatherers – those ‘roving it is the family that is the key of the Nilgiri langur, tend savages’ as Engels described productive and commensal to live separately with their them – and tribal or kin-based unit. It always struck me as family, in order to avoid societies more generally, unusual that after a day spent sharing the meat, while any live in ‘communistic together in eclectic foraging, individual who constantly communities’.69 By both for food and for minor engages in demand-sharing communism was meant not forest produce, co-operating, – without any reciprocation simply the absence of private conversing, and engaging in – is likely to find his banter, on returning to the cave or her own kin moving in the late afternoon each of elsewhere. And among

The key idea expressed by the Malaipantaram is one of mutual aid – which includes sharing, reciprocity and an ethic of generosity

the three families would build the Malaipantaram their own fireplace, establish and other South Indian a distinct commensal unit and foragers there is a that there would be no sharing clear distinction made at all between the different between food gathered families. from the forest, and the Lewis Henry Morgan saw ‘communism in living’ among the Iroquois goods – whether rice, Although a distinction condiments, or artefacts – that (exclusive) property but can be made between are obtained from engaging rather a universal collective tribal agriculturalists and in market relations. The right of access to all resources South Indian foragers latter kind tend to involve a necessary for life and well- like the Malaipantaram, more balanced reciprocity.66 being – specifically rights and even between those The key idea expressed by to land and the means of Malaipantaram who are the Malaipantaram is one of production, the only property settled cultivators and those mutual aid – which includes ‘owned’ being of a purely foragers living exclusively sharing, reciprocity and an personal nature.70 in the interior (on whom I ethic of generosity.67 focused in my research), In his well-known reflections it is misleading to set up a Communism on ‘primitive communism’, radical opposition between Richard Lee71 noted that sharing and reciprocity. All The American poet Kenneth the concept was not only

31 Radical Anthropology ignored by later Marxists – and everyone has free production – primitive Chris Harman’s A People’s or reciprocal access to communism – are virtually History of the World,72 for resources. There is no synonymous with those example, barely recognises ownership in the sense of specified by Woodburn75 the existence of tribal completely withholding in terms of immediate- peoples – but was generally access. return economic systems; dismissed and belittled by • An ethic of egalitarianism by Gardner76 in terms of most anthropologists. Lee implies strong, even the individual autonomy tends to identify primitive if diffuse, sanctions syndrome; and Barnard’s77 communism with what he against the accumulation specifications of the hunter- describes as the ‘foraging’ of wealth, all forms of gatherer ‘mode of thought’. mode of production. He tends, political authority, and therefore, to leave out of any expression of self- Equally significant is that the his account not only hunter- aggrandisement. Malaipantaram, as depicted in gatherers that are sedentary • Such egalitarianism my study Forest Traders, as and non-egalitarian – such involves co-operation and well as South Indian foragers as the Ainu (Japan), Calusa mutual aid, and patterns more generally, can clearly (Florida) and the hunter- of sharing or generalised be described as communists, gatherers of the northwest reciprocity are strongly as exemplars of the foraging coast of the Americas – but emphasised, especially mode of production (or also the Iroquois. For Morgan, within the band or camp. thought), even though they however, it was the Iroquois No one goes hungry if may engage in a diversity of that were the prototypical food is available. economic activities.78 primitive communists. • An emphasis on co- Democratic and egalitarian, operation and sociality It has become rather they were the exemplars of is combined with a high fashionable nowadays to the ‘liberty, equality and respect for the autonomy suggest like Ayn Rand – fraternity of the ancient of the individual, Margaret Thatcher’s guru gentes’.73 especially individual – that societies do not exist, choice as to who a person and that all we supposedly In several essays Lee lives with.74 experience is sociality, social outlines what he terms the networks or lines, with the ‘core features’ of primitive Primitive communism or the human person simply being communism, or the foraging foraging mode of production the nodal point or intersection mode of production. These thus entails a combination of various relations; though are the following: the Malaipantaram... as well as South Indian • social life in the society or ethnic community foragers more generally, can clearly be is focused around a band structure with described as communists, as exemplars of small groups of 20-30 people, highly flexible the foraging mode of production membership and an emphasis on mobility, of individualism and nobody seems to doubt often with patterns egalitarianism. the reality of the state and of concentration and What is evident is that these capitalist organisations. It dispersal. core features or attributes has even been suggested • Land is held in common of the foraging mode of that the concept of society

32 Radical Anthropology is not applicable to hunter- regard themselves both as and are recognised as such gatherers, being defined, in Yaka (or forest people) as not only by the Indian state, rather Hobbesian fashion, well as a distinct society;81 but by all people with whom as entailing ‘structures of and, finally, with regard to they come into contact. But domination’. The concept of the Paliyans of South India, they do not form a cohesive

People at the settlement are intimately associated with the hill forests above the settlement,.. [forming] ritual congregations in relation to the ancestral spirits (chava) and mountain deities (malai devi) which have their ‘abodes’ in the same forested hills society, of course, emerged they are described as being political unit, but are at the end of the eighteenth ‘both in their own, and in ‘fragmented’, as I expressed century, as a relational one, their neighbours’ eyes, a it in Forest Traders,85 into in contradistinction to the separate ethnic group’82 diverse, flexible but inter- nation-state, that was then or, in everyday language, related social groupings. asserting its hegemony. The a society. Dismissing the Basically, with regard to the distinction between society concept of ‘society’ as a Malaipantaram, as a society or and the state (entailing stereotype is hardly helpful moral community, there exists structures of political to understanding hunter- three levels of organisation, domination or government) gatherers.83 namely the forest settlements, was not only articulated by the conjugal family, and what such radical liberals as Tom A human society, of course, I termed forest camps, the Paine, but, of course, by is simply a group of humans loose groupings of two or numerous anarchists from who are linked to each other three families, who are linked William Godwin at the end by enduring social ties, who essentially by affinal ties.86 of the eighteenth century share certain values, beliefs, to Kropotkin, Reclus and normative expectations Named after particular forest the social anarchists in the and purposes, and whose locations, the dispersed twentieth century. members have a sense of settlements are local groups, belonging to the group. consisting of between 18 and Like other primates, all A society, as Kropotkin 36 people. They are situated humans live in groups of long ago emphasised, is in specific valleys or forest various kinds, and from essentially a moral, not a ranges. At the settlements the the ethnographic record it political, community.84 To Malaipantaram often engage is quite clear that hunter- even talk about an ‘egalitarian in the cultivation of tapioca or gatherers live in societies. For ethos’, or ‘mode of thought’ rice, as well as certain fruit- the Hadza have a clear and presupposes the existence and bearing trees, and often engage distinctive ethnic identity;79 identity of a specific hunter- in casual agricultural labour the Ju/’hoansi of the Kalahari gatherer society. on nearby estates. People at recognise themselves as the settlement are intimately a society of ‘real people’ The Malaipantaram, and associated with the hill forests with a distinctive culture other South Indian foragers, above the settlement, and and language – as many identify themselves as have extensive knowledge of scholars have described;80 the belonging to a specific the forest environment and its Mbendjele of central Africa society or ethnic community, diverse inhabitants. They also

33 Radical Anthropology form ritual congregations in do not have corporate, land- camps.90 relation to the ancestral spirits owning kin groups, is no (chava) and mountain deities reason to suggest that they Malaipantaram social life, (malai devi) which have do not live in groups! I have and that of other South their ‘abodes’ in the same discussed in Forest Traders Indian foragers, can therefore forested hills. The settlement at some length, the forest be described, in important or local group is rarely a groups of the Malaipantaram, respects, as communistic. But cohesive unit, and is often and have suggested that many scholars have suggested divided into several ‘clusters’ although membership is often that there is an inevitable or hamlets, each composed flexible and transient, and all tension, or contradiction, of 2-4 families.87 Though Malaipantaram are highly between egalitarianism (with widely dispersed over the mobile, acting as independent the emphasis on mutual aid, Ghat mountains south of persons, such groups are in sharing and sociality) and Lake Periyar, the settlements the nature of a kindred, and individualism (with stress are by no means isolated, people are united in terms on the autonomy of the

Anarchists like Kropotkin and Reclus always recognised that the basic principles of anarchism were characteristic of hunter-gatherers and tribal society generally for all Malaipantaram are of affinal ties. As I put it: individual).91 Indeed liberal linked by a universal system ‘Affinal links seem to serve scholars like Isaiah Berlin of kinship,88 and thus there as a guiding principle in stressed that there was an are kinship links, particularly structuring friendships and inherent conflict between affinal ties, between members camp aggregates.’89 the values of equality and of the various settlements. liberty. But as anarchists have People that constitute the camp always emphasised, the two In contrast the conjugal family aggregates are drawn together concepts are dialectically is a fairly cohesive unit, by ‘dyadic bonds of affection’ related, and necessarily imply forming a distinct social and and express enduring each other. As Kropotkin put economic grouping. As noted relationships of mutual it: you can hardly be free and above, the family is the basic aid, as well as expressing independent in a society based productive and commensal an ethic of sharing and on inequality and hierarchy. unit, even though marriage ties reciprocity. Malaipantaram are often transient. Conjugal social structure cannot Among the Malaipantaram, relations are generally therefore be interpreted and it seems hunter-gatherers warm and affectionate, simply as consisting of more generally, an egalitarian essentially reciprocal and independent families with ethos seems to co-exist with complementary. floating ‘single persons’ an equal emphasis on the (mostly adolescents) giving autonomy of the individual. Between the dispersed social cohesion to the local As I wrote long ago: ‘A settlements or local groups, group. All Malaipantaram act, viable ethnographic portrait and the conjugal family there and are expected to act, as can be drawn only if we are social aggregates that are autonomous individuals; it is stress the co-operation and difficult to define. But the affinal ties that structure their the individualism, the warm fact that the Malaipantaram relationships and their forest attachments Malaipantaram

34 Radical Anthropology hold towards each other and ever envisaged a society the plains, the exactions of the fragility and ephemeral without some form of social the Indian state bent on their nature of these ties’.92 power, immanent within development and settlement

the Malaipantaram attempted to retain their independence and cultural integrity despite being ridiculed and harassed by the caste communities of the plains

Conclusion the community – power as and the intrusions of a mutuality and equality, as mercantile economy focused Having outlined above the Barclay expressed it.95 around the trade of minor forest individualism, egalitarianism products. The suggestion that and communism that is In my study of the in emphasising the external undoubtedly manifested in Malaipantaram, written social factors that impinge the social life of on Malaipantaram the Malaipantaram social life, I and other South thereby deny them Indian foragers, social agency96 is can such foragers misleading. The be described as whole ethnography living in a state of is, in fact, about anarchy? their social agency: how the Judging by the M a l a i p a n t a r a m ethnographies of derive their basic Peter Gardner and livelihood; how myself the answer they organise their seems to be in kin relations and the affirmative. Paliyan women from Sirumali hills, Tamilnadu forest camps, and Indeed Jana how through their Fortier certainly suggests almost forty years ago, I nomadism and flexible social that the micropolitics of emphasised how much of organization – and many other both the Paliyan and the their social life and culture ploys – they retain a sense of Malaipantaram can be – their nomadism, their autonomy and independence. depicted as anarchy.93 Yet flexible organization, and And I also stressed, like other scholars have baulked at their reluctance to take up many other late scholars the idea. Christopher Boehm, agriculture and become a of hunter-gatherers, that for example, dismisses the settled community – was among the Malaipantaram a whole idea that the ‘egalitarian an attempt to retain their strong emphasis on personal blueprint’ of hunter-gathering autonomy as a forest people. autonomy and independence is a form of anarchy, Thus the Malaipantaram co-existed, as I noted above, suggesting that anarchy attempted to retain their with an equal emphasis on implies a complete absence independence and cultural mutual aid, sharing and of power and control.94 Apart integrity despite being egalitarian relationships. from Stirnerite individualists, ridiculed and harassed by Malaipantaram social life no social anarchist has the caste communities of could therefore be described

35 Radical Anthropology as a form of anarchy. mutual aid – was characteristic accumulated over the past five of hunter-gatherers and tribal thousand years or so, their aim Anarchists like Kropotkin society generally.97 What they was to engender an anarchist- and Reclus, of course, always advocated was not a return communist society, where recognised and affirmed to hunter-gathering, and productive activities and all that the basic principles of the advocacy of some form social functions, would be anarchism – the liberty of the of anarcho-primitivism;98 organised through voluntary individual, egalitarianism and but rather, drawing on the cooperation and mutual aid, a form of social life based knowledge, technics, arts and the wealth produced being on co-operation, sharing and sciences that humanity has shared equally with all.

Brian Morris is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, London, following a varied career as foundry worker, seaman and tea planter. He is author of numerous books including Pioneers of Ecological Humanism (2012 Book Guild Publishing) and Religion and Anthropology: A critical introduction (2006 Cambridge University Press).

Notes

1. B. Morris 1982. Forest Traders: A socio- and mutual aid: Kropotkin visits the 18. Morris, pp. 69-74. economic study of the Hill Pandaram. LSE Bushmen. In C.M. Hahn (ed) Socialism: 19. C. Ward 1973. Anarchy in Action. Monograph 55, London: Athlone Press; B. Ideals, ideologies and local practices. London: George Allen & Unwin, p.11. Morris 2004. Kropotkin: The Politics of London: Routledge pp 27-42. Community Amherst: Humanity Books. 20. P. Gardner 1966. Symmetric respect 8. This raises the interesting question as and memorate knowledge: the structure 2. P. Gardner 2000. Bicultural Versatility as to what degree anthropologists, in their and ecology of individualistic culture. a Frontier Adaptation Among the Paliyan ethnographic accounts, impose upon the Southwestern Journal of Anthropology Foragers of South India Lewiston: Edwin data their own epistemological and political 22: 408; R. G. Fox 1969: 145; P. K. Misra Ellen Press. pre-conceptions? 1969. The Jenu Kuruba. Bulletin of the 3. N. Bird-David 1992. Beyond the 9. J. C. Scott 2009. The Art of Not Being Anthropological Survey of India 18: 234; hunting and gathering mode of subsistence: Governed: An anarchist history of upland Morris 1982, pp.109-110. observations on the Nayaka and other Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University 21. C. Geertz 1975 [1973] The modern hunter-gatherers. Man 27: 21. Press, see Radical Anthropology 5: 27- Interpretation of Culture: Selected Essays. 35 for an extensive review by Graham London: Hutchinson, pp. 360-411; R. A. 4. cf. N.Bird-David 1996. Puja, or sharing Purchase. with the god? On ritualised possession Shweder and E.J. Bourne 1984. Does the among the Nayaka of South India 10. B. Morris 1998. Anthropology and concept of the person vary cross-culturally? Eastern Anthropology 49: 260; Norstrom anarchism. Anarchy 45: 35-41. In R.A. Shweder and R.A. Levine (eds) 2003. They Call For Us: Strategies for 11. E. E. Evans-Pritchard 1940. The Nuer. Culture Theory: Essays in mind, self and securing autonomy among the Paliyan Oxford: Oxford University Press. emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University hunter-gatherers of the Palni Hills, South Press, pp. 158-199; M. Strathern 1988 The India. Stockholm: Stockholm Studies in 12. M. Sahlins 1972. Stone Age Economics. Gender of the Gift. Berkeley: University of Social Anthropology 53, p.49. In fact, a London: Tavistock, pp.95-96. For an California Press. important critique of his neo-liberalism, decade before the revisionist controversy, 22. J. Carsten 2004 After Kinship. I was emphasizing, while explicitly see J. Overing 1993 The anarchy and collectivism of the ‘primitive other’: Marx Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, acknowledging the earlier seminal work pp.84-88. of Richard Fox (1969 ‘Professional and Sahlins in the Amazon. In C.M.Hann primitives’: Hunter gatherers in nuclear (eds) Socialism: Ideals, ideologies and local 23. M. E. Spiro 1993 Is the western South Asia Man in India 49: 139-160) and practices. London: Routledge pp. 43-58. conception of the Self ‘peculiar’ within the Peter Gardner (1972 The Paliyans. In M.G. 13. H. Barclay 1982. People without context of world culture? Ethos 21: 107- Bichieri (ed.) Hunters and Gatherers Today. Government: the anthropology of 153; B. Morris 1994. Anthropology of the New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston pp. anarchism. London: Kahn & Averill. Self: The individual in cultural perspective. London: Pluto Press, pp.16-18; E. Lipuma 404-47), that the Malaipantaram had long 14. Gardner 2000, pp. 83-100. been incorporated into a wider mercantile 1998. Modernity and forms of personhood capitalist economy. But in dialectical 15. L. Van Der Walt and M. Schmidt 2009. in Melanesia. In M.Lambek and A.Strathern fashion, I also stressed their social agency Black Flame: The revolutionary class (eds) Bodies and Persons Comparative in maintaining their autonomy and cultural politics of anarchism and syndicalism. Perspectives from Africa and Melanesia. integrity as a foraging community. Edinburgh: AK Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 53-79. 5. P. Kropotkin 1939 [1902]. Mutual Aid: 16. R. N. Baldwin1970 [1927]. Kropotkin’s A factor in evolution. Harmondsworth: Revolutionary Pamphlets. New York: Dover. 24. I. Kant 2007. Anthropology, History Penguin Books. Essentially this text was This synthesis is well illustrated by Michael and Education (trans. M. Gregor et al). a repudiation of the Social Darwinism of Bakunin’s familiar adage:‘That liberty Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Herbert Spencer and Thomas Huxley that without socialism is privilege and injustice, By ‘pragmatic’ what Kant intended was the was prevalent at the end of the nineteenth and that socialism without liberty is slavery use of such knowledge to further human century. and brutality.’ (A. Lehning ed. 1973 Michael enlightenment, to widen the scope of human freedom, especially from religious 6. e.g. D. Rouselle and S. Evren (eds) 2011. Bakunin: Selected Writings. London: Cape, p. 110). dogma and political oppression, and thus to Post-anarchism: A Reader. London: Pluto Press. advance the ‘dignity’ of humans. 7. A. Barnard 1993. Primitive communism 17. Morris 2004, pp. 173-190.

36 Radical Anthropology 25. H. A. Murray and C. Kluckhohn 1953. 48. Morris, pp.158-159. Oxford: Berg, pp.252-268. Outline of a conception of personality. In 49. On diffuse sanctions among hunter- 72. C. Harman 1999 A People’s History of C.Kluckhohn et al (eds) Personality in nd gatherers see R. B. Lee 1979. The !kung the World. London: Bookmarks. Nature, Society and Culture (2 edition). San: Men, women and work in a foraging New York: Knopf, pp.3-52. 73. L. H. Morgan 1907 [1877] Ancient society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Society. New York: Henry Holt , p.552. 26. S. Rupp 2011 Forest of Belonging: Press, p.457; Barclay 1982, p.22. 74. E. Leacock and R. Lee (eds) 1982 Identities, ethnicities and stereotypes in the 50. Boehm 1999, pp.86-88. Congo River Basin. Seattle: University of Politics and History in Band Societies. Washington Press, pp.14-17. 51. C. Norstrom 2001. Autonomy by default Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, versus popular participation: The Paliyans pp.7-8; Lee 1988, p.254; R. Lee 2005 27. Morris 1982, pp.140-147. of South India and the Proposed Palni Power and property in twenty first century 28. J. Woodburn 1982. Egalitarian societies. Hills Sanctuary. In I. Keen and T. Yamada foragers: A critical examination. In Man 17: 431-451. (eds) Identity and Gender in Hunting and T.Widlok and W.G. Tadesse (eds) Property 29. P. Gardner 1966; P. Gardner 1991. Gathering Societies. Osaka: National and Equality Vol 1: Ritualization, sharing, Foragers’ pursuit of individual autonomy. Museum Ethnology. Senri Ethnological egalitarianism. Oxford: Berghahn, p.20. Current Anthropology 32: 547-549; Gardner Studies 56: 27-50. 75. Woodburn 1982. 2000, pp.83-85. 52. Scott 2009. 76. Gardner 1991. 30. Gardner 1966, p.409. 53. Morris 1982, p.40. 77. A. Barnard 2001 The Hunter-Gatherer 31. L. Dumont 1970. Homo Hierarchicus. 54. Gardner 1966, p.391. Peoples. Buenos Aires: Fundacion Navarro Vida. The caste system and its implications. 55. On gender relations among South Indian 78. J. Fortier 2009 The ethnography of London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. foragers see U. R. Ehrenfels 1952. Kadar South Asian foragers. Annual Review of 32. B. Morris 1978. Are there any of Cochin. Madras: University of Madras Anthropology 38: 102. individuals in India? A critique of Publications, p.209; P. R. G. Mathur 1977. 79. Woodburn 1988: 439. Dumont’s theory of the individual. Eastern Tribal Situation in Kevala. Trivandrum: Anthropology 31: 365-377; B. Morris 1991 Kerala Historical Society, p.178; N. Bird- 80. S. Kent (ed.) 2002 Ethnicity, Hunter- Western conceptions of the Individual. David 1987. Single persons and social Gatherers and the ‘Other’: Association Oxford: Berg, pp.262-269. cohesion in a hunter-gathering society. or assimilation in Africa. Washington: Smithsonian Institute Press. 33. S. Lukes 1973. Individualism. Oxford: In P Hockings (ed) Dimensions of Social Blackwell. Life. Berlin: Mouton, p.154; Gardner 2000, 81. J. Lewis 2005 Whose forest is it pp.101-103. anyway: Mbendjele Yaka pygmies, the 34. L. Dumont 1986a. Essays in 56. Sahlins 1972, pp.1-39. Ndoki Forest and the wider world. In Individualism. Chicago: University of T.Widlok and W.G. Tadesse (eds) Property Chicago Press; L. Dumont 1986b. Are 57. N. Bird-David 1992 Beyond ‘the and Equality Vol 1: Ritualization, sharing, cultures living beings: German identity in original affluent society’: A cultural egalitarianism. Oxford: Berghahn, p.57. interaction. Man 21: 587-604. deformulation. Current Anthropology 31: 82. Norstrom 2003, p.4. 35. Critiqued by C. Levi-Strauss 1977 25-47. [1973] Structural Anthropology Vol. 2 58. See D. Kaplan 2000 The darker side of 83. It is often said that foragers (or tribal (trans. M. Layton). Harmondsworth: the ‘original affluent society’.Journal of people) do not have a concept of ‘society’ Penguin Books, p.41. The tendency of Anthropological Research 56: 301-324 for a that matches that of the anthropologists. many postmodern anthropologists to equate measured critique of its limitations. Why on earth should they? Foragers may Western culture with Cartesian metaphysics not have a concept of the ‘economy’ or 59. K. D. Morrison 2002. Historicizing ‘culture’ but this does not imply that they and mechanistic philosophy is, of course, adaptation, adapting to history: Forager reductive and facile. have no economic life or no culture. Terms traders in South and Southeast Asia. In K.D. such as Kudumbam (family, kin group) like 36. Critiqued by T. Ingold 1996. The Morrison and L.L. Junker (eds) Forager- the English terms ‘group’ or ‘society’ have a optimal forager and the economic man. In Traders in South and Southeast Asia. wide range of meanings (or referents). This P. Descola and G.Palsson (eds) Nature and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press does not imply they have no society, or that Society: Anthropological Perspectives. p.3. the Malaipantaram is not a society. London: Routledge pp 25-44. 60. B. A. Bhanu 1989. The Chola Naickan 84. cf. Boehm 1999, p.12. 37. Now apparently dominant in right-wing of Kerela. Calcutta: Anthropological Survey U.S. politics, according to G. Weiss 2012 of India. Memoir no. 72, pp.63-66. 85. Morris 1982, p.112. Ayn Rand Nation: The hidden struggle for 61. N. Bird-David 1990. The giving 86. Morris, p.30. America’s soul. New York: St.Martins Press, environment: another perspective on the 87. cf. Misra 1969: 206 on the Jenu Kuruba; pp.9-10. economic system of gatherer-hunters. N. Bird-David 1983 Wage gathering: 38. Kropotkin 1970 Selected Writings on Current Anthropology 31: 189-196. Socio-economic changes and the case of the Anarchism and Revolution. M.Miller (ed.) 62. Morris 1982, p.50. food-gathering Naikens of South India. In Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, p. 297. P. Robb (ed.) Rural South India. London: 63. J. Kenrick 2005 Equalizing processes, Curzon Press, pp.57-88, on the Nayaka. 39. L. S. Brown 1993. The Politics of processes of discrimination, and the forest Individualism. Montreal: Black Rose, pp. people of Central Africa. In T.Widlok 88. Barnard 2001, p.94. 32-33; Morris 2004, pp.183-186. and W.G. Tadesse (eds) Property and 89. Morris 1982, p. 157. 40. Brown 1993, p.118. Equality Vol 1: Ritualization, sharing, 90. cf. Bird-David 1987: 151-165; U. 41. E. R. Service 1966, The Hunters. egalitarianism. Oxford: Berghahn, p.135. Demmer 1997. Voices in the forest: The Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, p.83; S. 64. Mathur 1977, p.36. field of gathering among Jenu Kurumba. Diamond 1974. In Search of the Primitive: 65. J. A. Price 1975. Sharing: the integration In P. Hockings (ed.) Blue Mountains A critique of civilization. New Brunswick: of intimate economies. Anthropologica 17: Re-visited.Delhi: Oxford University Press, Transaction Books, p.146. 3-27. pp.164-191. 42. Morris 1982, p.49. 66. cf. Norstrom 2003, p.221. 91. D. Riches 2000. The holistic person, 43. Morris, p.110. or the ideology of egalitarianism. 67. Morris 1982, p.161. Journal of the Royal Anthropological 44. Woodburn 1982. 68. K. Rexroth 1975. Communalism: Institute 6: 671-672. 45. R. B. Lee and I. DeVore (eds) 1968. From its Origins to the Twentieth Century. 92. Morris 1982, p.114. Man the Hunter. Chicago: Aldine. London: Owen, p.1. 93. Fortier 2009: 103. 46. Gardner 1991; C. Boehm 1999 69. K. Marx and F. Engels 1968 Selected Hierarchy in the Forest: The evolution of Works. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 94. Boehm 1999, p.87. egalitarian behaviour. Cambridge, Mass.: p.579. 95. H. Barclay 2009 Fresh Alternatives. Harvard University Press; T. Widlok and 70. E. Leacock 1983. Primitive communism Lake City Printers, pp.7-26. W.D. Tadesse (eds) 2005 Property and in T. Bottomore (ed.) A Dictionary of 96. Nostrom 2003, pp.48-51. Equality Vol 1: Ritualization, sharing, Marxist Thought. Oxford: Blackwell, 97. Kropotkin 1939 [1902], pp.74-101; egalitarianism. Oxford: Berghahn; pp.445-446. J. Solway (ed.) 2006 The Politics of Morris 2004, pp.173-190. Egalitarianism: Theory and practice. 71. R. Lee 1988. Reflections on primitive 98. J. Zerzan 1994. Future Primitive and Oxford: Berghahn. communism. In T. Ingold, D.Riches and J. Other Essays. Brooklyn, NY: Automedia. Woodburn 1988 (eds) Hunter and Gatherers 47. Morris 1982, pp.71-79. vol 1. History, Evolution and Social Change.

37 Radical Anthropology Stefan Voicu Contemporary art workers: Precarity and alternatives in Romania Stefan Voicu examines the rhetorical confusion in the Romanian art market and the consequent material and emotional exploitation of intern workers.

Work Relations, Dan Perjovschi (2009) n 2011, a period of acute them into the “99%”, defining and sent a callout to ‘artists, global economic crisis, themselves as: students, teachers, activists, the art market was doing sympathizers, friends and I 1 fine. Artprice estimated that artists and interns, writers and whoever is interested’. This that year more than 41,000 educators, art handlers and action was a response to the contemporary artworks were designers, administrators, uncertain relocation of CNDB curators, assistants, and sold in the world which students. We are all art workers after the commencement generated a total profit of over […] dedicated to exposing of renovation works at the $1.26 billion, experiencing a and rectifying economic National Theater of Bucharest growth since 2001, when the inequalities and exploitative (TNB) building, where it general revenue was estimated working conditions in our had resided since 2004. But, fields through direct action at $87.7 million. In contrast, and educational initiatives. as choreographer Madalina the majority of art workers By forging coalitions, Dan stated in an interview, were and still are faced with fighting for fair labor ‘it was also a form of artistic economic precarity. One practices, and reimagining resistance that militates of the most vocal groups of the structures and institutions actively for the legitimation that frame our work.2 art workers that addressed of contemporary art in the issues of precarity is the Romania.’3 Arts & Labor working group Romanian art workers from the Occupy Wall Street organised similar initiatives. That year I worked at and (OWS) movement. The Arts On March 21, 2011, a group did research on a non-profit & Labor group aimed to of artists occupied The contemporary art and culture outline the discontents of art National Center of Dance – institution based in Bucharest, workers and to incorporate Bucharest (CNDB Ocupat) Romania. When I started

38 Radical Anthropology participating in their activities justified by the financial (ICR), from 2003. in February, the institution crisis. I argue that precarity is was composed of a four- a position within hierarchical Alternative funding came member executive board and power relations of neoliberal from international cultural a nine-member administrative politics, in a given situation, organisations, representing team. Nevertheless, only rather than a collateral effect nation states, like the French five persons were day-to-day of the ‘free market’. Institute, the Goethe Institute,

precarity is a position within hierarchical power relations of neoliberal politics...rather than a collateral effect of the ‘free market’

active: the intern, the assistant Market revenues, state and the British Council, etc. More director, the coordinator, the corporate subsidies recently the Polish, Czech and executive of the board and Austrian institutes became the director. It consisted of In Romania, the primary active in Bucharest. Private three so-called ‘instruments sources of income for organisations contributed as for critical thinking’: namely contemporary art workers well, like the Open Society the Center for Contemporary were state subsidies. Rațiu5 Foundations (OSF) and, very Art and Culture, the Biennial mentions that contemporary active in recent years, the of Contemporary Art and art has been funded by the ERSTE Foundation. The art the Journal of Politics and Ministry of Culture through workers’ unions established Culture. The goal of the the artistic institutions found during the communist period, institution was, and still is, in its administration, like like the Union of Plastic Artists ‘to produce and research the the National Museum of (UAP), did not disappear, but visual, the performative and Contemporary Art (MNAC), received less funding and the discursive’, ‘to know open since 2004, or the to a certain extent emerging and to be active for the National Center of Dance artists were underprivileged society, the city, and the by these. The art market community’, ‘to promote was hardly an alternative an understanding of art source of income since, as and cultural institutions Rațiu6 points out, it did not as socio-politically flourish. In 2007, Bucharest involved’.4 had only 12 commercial galleries. In this article, focusing on my practices as a The institution I researched worker in this institution, is one of the few non- I will be describing profit contemporary art precarity in context, organisations in Romania, and the alternatives to it Job, Dan Perjovschi (2005) if not the only one, that gets unraveling in the Romanian – Bucharest (CNDB); as funded by a corporate bank. art networks. Besides the well as through relatively This bank provides 50% of description of contemporary autonomous organisations the annual budget, and the art associations in Romania, like the Administration of working facilities needed. this article implicitly stands the National Cultural Fund For the other 50%, the as a critique of the modes (AFCN), from 1999, and the institution has to associate in which precarity is often Romanian Cultural Institute with the Romanian and

39 Radical Anthropology What drives this intricate circulation of capital is the adoption of a metapragmatic register

international governmental Art, which requires an that considers art workers and government-affiliated amount of finance too big to and artworks as instruments institutions and private be amortized by using the for social and economic foundations and corporations. regular strategy of not paying development. The same art workers’ fees. During the metapragmatic justified that 5th edition of the Bucharest particular distribution of the Biennial (BB5), which biennial’s budget. took place in 2012, a leaflet with the financial stats was Metapragmatic registers distributed to the visitors, as a response to the critiques faced Why, instead of the more by the institution on behalf of popular terms of ideology, Romanian art workers. discourse or narrative, employ the concept of metapragmatic From a total budget of register? Because, although 124,100€, 16.1% in cash these analytical tools seem came from the bank as to describe similar things, strategic partner. 10.4%, also I believe that this concept in cash, was granted by the avoids the ubiquity of institutional partners, among the habitual terms used which the ‘traditional’ ICR, in the humanities and but also new institutions like: social sciences. Taking for BAM, the Flemish Institute granted words like ideology, for Visual, Audiovisual and discourse or narrative leads to Media Art; IASPIS, the misunderstandings generated International Artists Studio by the interpretations made Program in Stockholm; the from a certain trajectory of University of Bucharest; the term. The metapragmatic and the US and Netherlands register is a relatively pristine Be More Explicit, Dan Perjovschi (2006) Embassies. This budget concept. I draw its usage was distributed in the from Boltanski who argues following manner: 47.2% that metapragmatic registers In order to form these exhibition costs, 30.5% PR are transformations of associations, the team and communication costs, ‘the opinion that everyone elaborates short-term projects 9.2% went on publications, can have “in their possession” into a common knowledge, with which they apply for 4.7% curators’ costs, 4.6% such that everyone henceforth grants. artist-related costs and 3.8% knows that what he knows organisational costs. (or is supposed to know) Exhibitions, journal the others also know and know that he knows it, in publications or lectures are What drives this intricate accordance with the logic of, such projects, but most of the circulation of capital is the common knowledge on which time this endeavour is more adoption of a metapragmatic game theory establishes the possibility of epistemic demanding, as in the case of register, i.e. an abstract set equilibria (but treating them the Biennial of Contemporary of ideas that justify actions,7 as the result of interactive

40 Radical Anthropology mechanisms, without raising justification for state support the question of the bodies of the arts in Romania. authorized to give the First, artworks are viewed judgement the character of an attested public fact)’.8 as responsible for creating and disseminating national Moreover identity and art workers as ‘[t]his signifies that being ‘guarantors of national performances of this kind 11 must not only be realized cultural identity’. Secondly, Budget Cut, Dan Perjovschi (2011) with others, but also in front artworks and art workers are of others, placed in the posi­ seen as tools of and factors made possible the associations tion of witnesses, and whose presence, far from being in social and economic between the institution and restricted to being physically development. Thirdly, the the Romanian government, actual in a certain place government conceives its the corporate bank and other at a certain time, must be associated with some form actions as interventions sources of funding, the former or other of engagement, meant to reinstate social and justified disputes emerging if only that of memorizing economic equity among art from the idiosyncrasies of the what has occurred – that is institution’s actions. to say, being in a position, if workers, as a result of art necessary, to recall its factual market failures. Fourthly, the 9 character to a contradictor.’ intrinsic value of artworks are Because of this oscillation, considered as an ’essential there was a lack of rhetorical Metapragmatic registers do element of a life that deserves consistency in the institution’s not capture the idiosyncratic to be lived’ and a ‘human actions, perpetuated in the characteristics of art workers’ accomplishment’.12 associations made between and artworks’ actions, the institution and state, leading often to disputes Likewise, in the institution corporate, non-governmental over the value of art work I researched there were institutions, informal groups and artworks that break different interchanging and individuals, which had associations made between metapragmatic registers. One an impact on the perception different institutional entities. involved cultural marxism of these different entities on Moreover, institutions adopt with anarchist tendencies,13 the institution. For example, as a worker I saw this oscillation between the two metapragmatic registers in the polarity between the emphasis on collective decision-making and top-down directives

intermittently different by which art workers’ an art collective which was registers. actions were considered to supposed to participate in be different, but of equal an exhibition, but withdrew The postcommunist value. The other was an because the institution Romanian governments anti-communist, neo-liberal did not provide a fee, has valued artworks and art one that emerged after termed this inconsistency workers according to different 1989 in most of the former of the institution’s practices metapragmatic registers, communist nation-states from ‘ a n a r c h o - c o r p o r a t e depending on the interests of Eastern Europe, with some schizophrenia’,15 stating that the political parties in power. overt nuances in the case of the apparent anarchist point Rațiu10 identified four types of Romania.14 Whereas the latter of view of the institution is in

41 Radical Anthropology fact a mode of concealing corporate interests.

Organising art work

This inconsistency had an impact on my point of view as well, when as a worker I saw this oscillation between the two metapragmatic registers in the polarity between the emphasis on collective decision-making and top-down directives. In processes of collective decision-making, it was stressed by the director that I Have To, I Like To, Dan Perjovschi (2003) every member of the team, the intern, the coordinator, identified with. framed in an organising the executive of the board Both the emphasis on mechanism of trust-building and the assistant director, had collective decision-making and easily recodified in equal rights to present and and the reinforcement of the emotional blackmail or pursue their opinion, as in the hierarchies were made within verbal abuse and vice versa. case of my appointment as a very elusive and open ended My fear of making mistakes an intern, and later on in the affective realm, composed or uncertainty regarding the periodical meetings we had of actions and re-actions future were either comforted for the purpose of evaluating of the senses. According or intensified accordingly to and planning activities. Still, to Massumi, ‘affect is the effects it might have had at the same time, the formal synesthetic, implying a on the immediate goals of the hierarchies of the team were participation of the senses institution. often reinforced in moments in each other: the measure of authority disputes, of a living thing’s potential Whereas affect set the especially by the director interactions is its ability to premises for the relations himself. transform the effects of one of work in connection with sensory mode into those of the metapragmatic register 16 Regardless of the relatively another’. In the institution, adopted, materials made the emancipatory position of the strategies within this affective inconsistency between the 17 institution’s cultural marxism, realm consisted in sensorial two durable. The latter were the two metapragmatics interactions abstracted as artifacts as diverse as mobile deployed within the working trust-building, in the case phones, portable computers, environment were unbalanced, of the collective decision- business cards, books, folders, with hierarchical structures of making, and ranged from legal contracts and artworks. domination being frequently emotional blackmail to verbal The inconsistency between asserted. As such, subaltern abuse, in the case of hierarchy the two metapragmatic art workers like myself were reinforcement. registers was inscribed into often impeded from pursuing these objects, fixing the their own interests and were The benefit of operating associations made by the being ascribed with identities affectively was that, for institution. that they themselves hardly example, uncertainties were

42 Radical Anthropology Precarious intern board. In these three months, the institution; managing the the exhibition of the assistant library area and the storage The intern’s work was director was being organised, space; contacting artists and affectively organised which required me to work institutions for collaboration; according to the also on the editing of the and on certain occasions metapragmatic registers exhibition publication and being a teaching assistant inscribed in the job its installment. During the for the director’s course on announcement made events with public attendance, curatorial practices held at by the institution. This lectures, and exhibition the University of Bucharest. announcement stated that the openings, I had to take Like the director, coordinator intern had to work full time, photographs and in certain and chairman of the executive maximum twelve weeks, cases make video recordings board, I had my own office. but with the possibility to which later had to be extend this period, and he/ downloaded on the computer The intern was frequently she would not be paid. He/ and uploaded on the webpages recruited from among she had to be ‘hard-working’, of the institution. Often, I the undergraduates and meticulous and interested also had to go to the post graduates, with high English in contemporary culture, office to send correspondence language skills, able to work provide assistance in crucial and sometimes to the bank on a computer and willing to administrative tasks, such as to transfer money. Making work in cultural management/ dealing with correspondence, coffee, buying food, cleaning curating. In other words, this and other tasks. The intern the restroom were also on the is the demographic category was required to have skills and activities list. that has been experiencing the

The internship program affectively transformed and organised my uncertainties into and as what Marx called labour power

previous experience in DTP, After three months, I became devaluation of their newly, or to do research for articles, the assistant coordinator of on the way to be acquired, exhibitions and projects, the institution. From this academic degrees and high improve the distribution and position the hierarchies in rates of unemployment. promotion of the journal, the organisation of work felt Announced as ‘offering the assist with production of press more pervasive. Even though possibility to examine the releases, to help find funding still unpaid for my work, I role, function and activity of and install the exhibitions. was granted the opportunity a wide array of professionals to curate a year-long film from the cultural sector, I worked for twelve months, programme. Besides the as well as the role and unpaid, from Tuesday to interns, every other member of function of an institution’, Sunday, from 12.00 till the team curated exhibitions the job appeared more as an 19.00. Throughout my and film screenings, with the educational program, rather internship I was responsible director and the chairman of than a job. Plus, unlike the for the administration of the the board putting on shows at academic programs, ’the enrollments and participation least once a year. I was also accumulated experience and in the institution’s educational responsible for attending to knowledge constitutes an program, called Free official visitors who wanted informational asset that might Academy, organised by the to get extra information on, help in the pursuit of a future chairman of the executive or establish partnerships with career’.

43 Radical Anthropology The internship program The hierarchies of the gas exploitation by means of affectively transformed and neoliberal metapragmatic hydraulic fracturing, urban organised my uncertainties registers gave rise to gentrification and speculative into and as what Marx precarity. Nevertheless, the real estate investments, called labour power.18 The oscillation between the two and women’s rights. In the institution’s internship was registers was responsible ongoing protests against the presented as the context in for the difficulty to make a gold mining project at Roșia which my labour power can decision to withdraw from the Montană,19 that started on be self-valued by framing the working associations with the Sept 1, 2013, art workers ‘experience and knowledge institution. The inconsistency acted as alternative media, accumulated’ as a market asset, of this justification made it organisers and commentators. into something that looks possible to attract art workers Nonetheless, a workers’ good on my CV, thus rather who were then placed in a movement dealing with than being paid or demand a precarious state from which it exploitation and precarity did wage I should have showed was hard to escape. not emerge, the traditional gratitude for the opportunity trade unions – often suspected by working harder. But, Disputing hierarchies of corruption – being the only the oscillation of the two ones active in this sense. metapragmatic registers fed Once my affects were the uncertainty upon which transformed into labour I believe that there is an the internship was based, power, precarity defined the absence of a workers’ benefiting the institution’s conditions of the subaltern movement because in accumulation of labour. When position I was delegated to Romania the dominant adopting a cultural marxist according to the hierarchies metapragmatic register is the metapragmatic register, the of power installed by the anti-communist neoliberal possibility of self-valuing adoption of a neoliberal one, according to which only my labour power seemed metapragmatic. Despite the artists, institution directors and to be a gain in autonomy. difficulties of withdrawing curators are considered to be From an anti-communist from the working association art workers. Those subaltern neo-liberal perspective, with the institution, because workers that do not reach this self-valorification of the metapragmatic the top of the hierarchies are legitimated work as a mean of oscillation, these hierarchies most of the times overlooked. exploitation. and structures could have In disputes over state, or other been challenged, if alternative types of funding, they become institutions and the media invisible. Actions, such as had not failed to support CNDB Ocupat or anarchist art workers who found cultural events, driven by themselves in similar a radical metapragmatic situations. register, become modes of contesting funders and re- In Romania, art workers appropriating resources in formed associations with the interest of a few high a renewed social critique positioned art workers. As that has been addressing soon as these reach their goals, and received media they switch to the dominant coverage on ecological metapragmatic register in issues involved in cyanide order to reinstate the ‘regular’ pollution resulting from circulation of capital. The Less Is More, Dan Perjovschi (2005) gold mining and shale interests of these ‘elite’ art

44 Radical Anthropology workers is not to counter dynamics of the precariat.23 Rather than exchanging precarity, but to secure their And rightly so. My experience labour power for a wage, this high-brow social status. of precarity, compared with power should be employed in the precarity of low-skill and the elaboration of networks The Romanian situation unskilled workers, looks like of solidarity and resistance did not stop international a bourgeois lament. among precarious art workers, commentators and activists based on consensual decision- conceptualising the precariat, As a precarious worker, making. In other words, it defined by Guy Standing20 as I do identify with certain would imply the adoption of a fragmented global class ‘in- characteristics of the an anarchist metapragmatic. the-making’ – a cross-class precariat: low to no wages, But, since the institution I coalition21 that puts together uncertainty, and no social worked with adopted at times farmers and artists, migrants security. Yet, unlike in Italy, a metapragmatic register akin and civil servants, based on Germany and France, a to anarchism, further research the common experience of Romanian precariat class should be conducted in order to temporary and uncertain jobs, did not emerge. Moreover, understand whether in the case no social security and low to I do not agree with some of Romanian contemporary no income. Highly educated of the solutions circulating art workers a ‘pure’ anarchist young interns have been fierce among the precariat. Instead metapragmatic register is proponents of the articulation of their demands for a better required, as I suggested, or of such a class.22 Yet some wage, stable jobs and social if the re-establishment of a critical theorists and activists security, I propose a ‘radical’ balance between two opposite are skeptical regarding metapragmatic transformation modes of conceptualising the possibility of not re- of work – work conceived as actions is possible and more deploying the already existing the articulation of the ‘outside’ suitable, as artists, institutions hierarchies between these of capital. What would this directors and curators seem to working identities into the imply? be suggesting.

Stefan Voicu is a postgraduate in Social and Cultural Anthropology. Dan Perjovschi is a Romanian contemporary artist who has exhibited internationally. Thanks for his permission to use these illustrations.

Notes 9. Boltanksi, p.73. Virtual. Movement, affect, sensation. 10. D. E. Rațiu 2011b. Statul și cultura: Durham, NC & London: Duke University Concepte, valori și justificări ale politicii Press, p.35. culturale în România postcomunistă. In 17. See B. Latour 1991. Technology is 1. Artprice 2011. Art Market Trends 2011. Dan Eugen Rațiu (ed.) Politica culturală și society made durable. In John Law (ed.) A Available at http://imgpublic.artprice.com/ artele: local, national, global. Cluj-Napoca: Sociology of Monsters. Essays on power, pdf/trends2011_en.pdf Casa Cărții de Știință, pp. 58-96. technology and domination. London: 2. Retrieved from http://artsandlabor.org/ 11. Iliescu cited in Rațiu 2011b. Routledge, pp. 103-131. about-al/ 12. Rațiu 2011b, p.82. 18. K. Marx 1977. Grundrisse. Foundations 3. Retrieved from http://cristianebouger. of the critique of political economy. Trans. wordpress.com/2011/09/30/moving- 13. See C. Nelson and L. Grossberg (eds) Martin Nicolaus. Harmondsworth: Penguin dialogue-madalina-dan-in-conversation- 1988. Marxism and the Interpretation of Books. with-cristiane-bouger/ Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. See also the journal Anarchist 19. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian. 4. See http://pavilioncenter.ro/en/about-us/ Developments in Cultural Studies (2010- com/environment/2013/sep/17/romanians- 5. D. E. Rațiu 2011a. Sistemul de sprijinire 2013). mobilise-gold-mine a artelor într-o societate în tranziție: 14. See V. Rizescu 2012. Tranzitii 20. G. Standing 2011.The Precariat. The România 1990-2006. In D. E. Rațiu (ed.) discursive. Despre agende culturale, istorie dangerous new class. London: Bloomsbury Politica culturală și artele: local, national, intelectuală și onorabilitate ideologică Academic. global. Cluj-Napoca: Casa Cărții de Știință, după comunism. București: Corint; Sîrbu; 21. See A. Ross 2009. Nice Work If You Can pp. 97-146. A. T. and A. Polgár (eds) 2009. Genealogies Get It. Life and labor in precarious times. 6. Rațiu 2011a. of Post-Communism. Cluj: Idea Design & New York & London: New York University 7. L. Boltanski 2011. On Critique. A Print. Press. sociology of emancipation. Cambridge: 15. Retrieved from http://postspectacle. 22. R. Perlin 2012. Intern Nation. Polity Press. blogspot.ro/2011/07/dorato-action.html 23. Ross 2009. 8. Boltanski, p.73. 16. B. Massumi 2002. Parables for the

45 Radical Anthropology