PlatForum Journal of Graduate Students in Anthropology University of Victoria Vol 9/2008 PlatForum VOLUME 9/2008 PlatForum Journal of Graduate Students in Anthropology University of Victoria PUBLISHER University of Victoria Department of Anthropology Graduate Students

EDITORS Goran Dokić Brendan Gray Soma W. Morse Adrian Sanders Trudi Smith Jenny Storey David Strongman

COVER PHOTO Brendan Gray

DESIGN Goran Dokić Soma W. Morse

SPONSORS Office of the Vice President Research Faculty of Graduate Studies Faculty of Social Science Department of Anthropology Graduate Students’ Society MISSION PlatForum is a peer-reviewed journal organized by anthropology graduate students. We accept anthropologically relevant submissions from all university and college students of British Columbia, on a Call for Papers basis. PlatForum strives to be a participatory publication offering an opportunity for students to participate fully in the peer-review, evaluation and publishing process.

The Editors seek scholarly contributions including articles, reviews, and field notes, covering diverse topics and issues from all four anthropology sub-disciplines: archaeology, cultural, physical and linguistic anthropology. Every attempt is made to publish PlatForum (ISSN 1492-4293) annually. General inquiries may be forwarded to: Managing Editor, PlatForum, University of Victoria, Department of Anthropology, Cornett Bldg, Room 214, P.O. Box 3050 Stn CSC, Victoria, B.C. V8W 3P5. Copyright 2005 by the University of Victoria Department of Anthropology Graduate Students. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form for by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher.

Opinions expressed by individual authors are not necessarily those of PlatForum, the Department of Anthropology, or the University of Victoria. All authors retain the right to republish their material. The Editors assume responsibility for typographical errors.

INTRODUCTION The Editorial Team 2007-2008 welcomes readers to PlatForum (formerly Cultural Reflections), the journal published by Graduate Students in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Victoria. With this issue we celebrate ten years of publication and our debut under the new name and editorial direction. The change of name from Cultural Reflections to PlatForum signifies a shift in the journal parallel with new directions in the communication of anthropological knowledge and ideas:

Plat - to plait or braid

Forum - a public meeting place for open discussion, a medium for open discussion or voicing ideas

PlatForum - the braiding together of multiple perspectives while offering a public meeting place for discussion and debate

PlatForum is a part of a growing movement of journals that are transforming the way in which academics and members of the general public access and debate anthropological ideas and knowledge. We recognize the need for an open anthropological discourse, hence the transition from being a purely print-based publication, to one that embraces the web as an invaluable tool for open debate. This move facilitates dissemination of published PlatForum articles to a broader audience, while providing a platform for anthropological discussions relating to journal material. Ultimately, the online journal will provide readers with a constant source of dynamic anthropology, communicating ideas through an open editorial process and frequent online publication of articles.

The articles in this edition of PlatForum are varied in their scope and focus. Together they share a concern with being in the world and cover a wide range of applied and theoretical questions: modernity, representation, embodiment, health, exchange, landscape, and the ‘doing’ of anthropology in a globally interrelated political and economic environment. While journals are rarely read from cover to cover, the order of articles in PlatForum was created with these themes in mind. We invite readers to connect the specifics of each article to not just broader themes in anthropology but to their scholarly interests and passions. We hope that the inaugural edition of PlatForum stimulates discussion and exchange of ideas. The publication of the online version of this journal in the near future will further facilitate this dialogue and enrich our understanding of both the breadth and depth of anthropology at the University of Victoria and beyond.

CONTRIBUTORS

ALEX CAMERON graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Victoria in June of 2007. She hopes to go on in primatology and to conduct field work with lemurs in Madagascar.

GORAN DOKIĆ holds a Bachelors degree and is a Masters candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Victoria. His research interests include medical anthropology, psychology, and studies of postsocialism. His Masters thesis investigates the effects of the recent introduction of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the postsocialist discourse of Croatian psychiatry.

RACHEL HOUMPHAN has recently completed her Bachelors degree with Honors in anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Alongside issues of globalization, nationalism and politics of state, her other academic interests include the study of gender, identity, structural violence, social suffering and power relations, human rights, and the application of anthropology to everyday, practical problems.

CLAYTON MCCANN is co-founder of Nelson, BC’s the Mercury. His work has appeared in Contemporary Verse 2, The New Quarterly, filling Station, The Danforth Review, the annual In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself, The American Journal of Poetry, Grain and other places. He has performed on CBC Radio and at countless poetry readings throughout the Canadian West. He is currently harassing publishers with his manuscript, the mother-in-law who cried wolf and is hard at work on the Shit-Job Manifesto. Clayton is in his third year of anthropology at the University of Victoria with plans for a Masters degree in folklore studies.

SOMA W. MORSE is a graduate student at the University of Victoria. Her research interests concern the relationships between people, place, and power using visually-based research in urban contexts. Soma is currently writing her thesis, which investigates how a sense of home is negotiated throughout the creation, organization and display of a community-based exhibit by a group of children and youth living in a marginalized urban neighbourhood of Bacolod City in the Central Philippines.

LINDA OUTCALT holds a Bachelors degree in photographic arts from Ryerson University in Toronto and is presently taking courses in cultural anthropology at the University of Victoria. Her primary research interests lie in political and visual anthropology with a particular focus on issues of power, propaganda and media, the enclave model of development, new forms of expanding global tourism, and the wide-ranging socioeconomic effects of neoliberalism.

MORGAN RITCHIE is a graduate student of archaeology at Simon Fraser University and has been working with Chehalis for three years. His Masters thesis is an effort to demonstrate Chehalis’ cultural interactions in and with the Harrison River landscape. Morgan is interested in pursuing archaeology in this region both academically and professionally.

ADRIAN SANDERS began graduate school at the University of Victoria in 2006 where he has been working on his Masters degree in anthropology researching Holocene archaeology in Northeast Haida Gwaii. Inspired by friendships and research experiences acquired in Chehalis territory during his undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, Adrian has managed to stay connected with these people and places, and plans on remaining involved in both capacities.

KAZUKO SATO received a Bachelors degree in anthropology at the University of Victoria in 2005. She currently lives and works in Victoria, and is going to start her Masters Program at the University of Victoria in September 2008. Her research interests lie in the field of medical anthropology. More specifically, her focus is how biomedical technologies, including the concept of biomedicine itself, reflects and has impacts on societial values and people’s view of the world.

KISHA SUPERNANT is a Doctoral candidate at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Dr. Michael Blake. She received her Bachelors degree from UBC and Masters degree from the University of Toronto. Kisha is currently researching patterns of warfare and identity formation in the late pre-contact period in the Lower Fraser Canyon of British Columbia. Her interests include Northwest Coast archaeology, the archaeology of warfare, practice theory, agency, identity, indigenous knowledge, and cultural landscapes.

CLOE WHITTAKER is a recent graduate of the Anthropology Department at the University of Victoria, with a minor in environmental studies. Cloe’s interest in Indigenous pictographs was inspired by many childhood explorations of Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park in southern Alberta. Her research for this article fuelled an interest in intercultural power relations which she hopes to explore further in a Masters program.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CLAYTON MCCANN postprandial paleontology...... 11

RACHEL HOUMPHAN Museums, Postnational and Transcultural Identities in an Era of Cultural Dislocation...... 13

GORAN DOKIĆ Embodiment of Trauma through Performative Acts of Remembering...... 25

KAZUKO SATO The Gift of Life and Altruism: Organ Transplantation as Cultural Practice in the United States and Canada...... 43

SOMA W. MORSE Exchanges – The Gift, Place and Ethnography: Images and Text from Field Research in the Visayan Philippines...... 61

ALEX CAMERON Interaction, Connection: The Ecology and Zoonotic Transmission of Parasites...... 79

KISHA SUPERNANT Cultural Landscapes Conceptualized: A Cross-disciplinary History...... 99

CLOE WHITTAKER Drawing Power: Conflict Between Western Cartography and Indigenous Illustration...... 115

ADRIAN SANDERS AND MORGAN RITCHIE Ancient Settlements on the Harrison River: A Salishan Gateway Between two Regions...... 129

LINDA OUTCALT Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: Collaborators in Neoliberal Imperialism...... 149

CLAYTON MCCANN

postprandial paleontology

it arrives.

the moment of the day when i just want to collapse

to give in to Death a little

to say

“if you begin with blankets and a pillow

clean starch-cold sheets,

i’m your man.”

Regarding the work I have been driven of late to explore the crash-site of the post-modern, where, I suspect, the nascent shoots of re-enchantment may be discerned. This is one of a series of poems which seeks to illumine the remains--in this case the collapse of a weary technocrat at day’s end, set in a culture devoid of meaning. Centuries from now, what sense might an archaeologist make of these ever-diminishing cycles of meaning? Indeed, what sense can we make of them today?

11

12 RACHEL HOUMPHAN

MUSEUMS, POSTNATIONAL AND TRANSCULTURAL IDENTITIES IN AN ERA OF CULTURAL DISLOCATION

Abstract In an age characterized by the massive scale interconnections and flows of people, it has been argued the notion of nationhood has become less adequate for explaining the identities of those who are more culturally and geographically fluid. This article seeks to explore how the museum, an anthropological enterprise traditionally premised on the notion of cultural difference, seeks to represent those identities which do are not so easily contained by coherent and discreet demarcations of culture and geography. The article argues that though the museum has roots in nation-state ideology and nation building, exhibitions such as African Worlds and the Transcultural Galleries, show that it is possible for the museum to articulate, represent and celebrate postnational, transcultural and hybrid identities through techniques that are fluid, ironic, reflexive, and emphasize identities in motion. INTRODUCTION dynamically both within and outside Many authors have written of the role institutional frameworks (Macdonald of the museum in not only representing 2003; Appadurai 1996; Bhabha 1994). but also constructing a sense of identity Within this perspective, identity is about people, culture and political order. actively negotiated and produced not As Macdonald (2003:1) notes, the birth only within but also beyond the fixed of the museum is intimately linked borders of the state. Scholars have to the late 18th century, a moment in called these identities postnational, which people in Western Europe saw transcultural, or hybrid: all three terms the decline of the aristocratic order configure identity as more culturally at emergence of the nation-state, and geographically fluid than that of epitomized by the French Revolution nationalism (Appadurai 1996; Bhabha in 1789. Thus, as objects became 1994; Caglar 1997; Israel 2000; released from the aristocratic and the Macdonald 2003; van de Veer 1997). private sphere into the public museum This shift in identity conception realm, the institution functioned as an informs the concern of my paper. I seek emblem of the new national identity to explore the ways in which museums of the people (Macdonald 2003:1). accommodate these changes. Given that As Benedict Anderson (2006) attests, the museum has traditionally served to these early museums do not simply create and represent a sort of cohesive reflect world changes in social and national identity and heritage, what political organization, these museums sorts of challenges do museums face also became institutions which sought when the prevailing idea of national to constitute and build national heritage starts to change? Appadurai identity. Yet many scholars today talks about the ways in which linkages maintain that identity is constructed and interconnections have been made

13 on a global scale, through different archaeological field museums, all “-scapes” (Appadurai 1996). Through contain features useful for the work expanded media, technology, migration, of identity construction (Macdonald economy and numerous other ways, 2003:3). For the nation, the idea of our world has become more connected having a culture provides a means of so that the idea of the nation has less expressing distinctive identity. Objects currency than in the past (Appadurai and artifacts came to represent and 1996) as traditional borders and notions signify the national culture: they were of locality are being challenged. thought to “belong” to the nation. This paper not only seeks to Thus, the nation’s culture was brought explore how museums have in the past to the museum, and this was a way of played a role in national identity but creating a common history and identity also how museums have reacted to these (Macdonald 2003:2-3). important shifts in identity. Given that Not all museums were the museum is a product of colonialism consciously concerned with the public and the burgeoning nation state, how and the dissemination of nationalist capable is the museum of expressing rhetoric (Macdonald 2003:4). identities unbound from fixed national That is, not all museums identified borders, and in what ways? I argue that themselves as national museums with despite these colonial roots, through explicit nationalist agendas, and not various techniques as exemplified in the all museums fit the description of African Worlds and the Transcultural ‘national’. However, even non-national Galleries exhibits, it is possible for museums carried the same identity the museum to practice, articulate, rhetoric as national museums. As represent and celebrate postnational, Macdonald suggests, transcultural and hybrid identities. even where they were not, the MUSEUMS AND NATIONAL model of identity articulated IDENTITY: US VERSUS THEM by national museums played Museums articulate and construct into the more localized identities in the past and today (Shelton identities being constituted 2003; Philips 2002). Ashley writes that and displayed. Thus, museums do not merely function as metropolitan areas generally repositories of material culture: they sought to establish museums also work to form identities (2005:5). on very similar lines to those As has been documented by several of national museums, each scholars, in the late 18th century and city thus effectively claiming into the 19th century, the emergence for itself an identity – a type of museums, the nation, and the public of mastery – analogous to were intimately bound (Macdonald that of the national museum 2003:1). Of course, not every institution (Macdonald 2003:4). executed its operations in the same fashion. Despite differences amongst Regardless of the scope of a particular art galleries, science and technology museum, choosing, organizing, museums, and ethnographic and labeling, categorizing and other related

14 techniques of representing culture are previous director of the Museum of inherently a part of the museum concept. Anthropology at the University of It is these same practices which make British Columbia in Vancouver, offers possible the projection of national an insightful insider’s perspective and identity; for the logic goes that in order study on the practice of ethnographic for it to be displayed and articulated, museology (Ames 1992). He writes it must be coherent. Moreover, the powerfully that “anthropologists expectations of coherency create a through their curatorial and research necessity to define, which lead to activities are actively contributing to inevitable inclusions and exclusions the development of the phenomena within a simplified grand narrative. which they are so busily collecting and In Exhibition, Difference, and studying” (Ames 1992:59). Moreover, the Logic of Culture, Tony Bennett the general public often demands offers clarification on the ways that and is rewarded with opportunities museums communicate ideas to the to consume the exotic and engage in public. Bennett refers to the museum “cannibal tours” may further encourage as a “differencing machine” (2006:46), this development. What must perhaps suggesting that as an institution, be noted is that the very attempt to the museum encodes the world into “represent” a culture may in itself be knowledge, which is then internalized problematic. by viewers. However, what is At the same time, exhibitions particularly interesting is his choice rely on narrative construction through of the word machine, which implies the overwhelming use of visuals. that the museum is an active site of Museums impart educational take- production. Fred Myers, building home messages and authoritative on Bourdieu’s concept of the field interpretations and lessons about of cultural production, supports this cultures, which implies that the creation perspective, referring to the museum of bounded identities is necessarily as an “exhibitionary field of cultural a part of the museum process. Lidchi production” (Myers 2006:504). In reminds us that at the very least, other words, museological exhibition ethnographic exhibitions are mere practices do not merely represent fixed fictions woven from facts. However, cultures that are out there (or here, for she argues that the profound use of that matter). Instead, exhibitions can be visuals in these projects creates a sense viewed as a process in which museums of literalness, which arguably “quickens “cunningly recontextualize forms their claim to be both evidence and and practices, producing something truth” while underemphasizing the new” (Myers 2006:505). As such, understanding the constructed nature of these inherent museological methods the displays (Lidchi 2006:95). Lidchi of representing culture often create draws from a Foucauldian perspective, identities in the process—that is, they which emphasizes the role of visuals are constitutive of the subjects that they in making creating such authoritative seek to represent. In Cannibal Tours knowledge. This perspective traces and Glass Boxes: The Anthropology the history of visual displays in both of Museums, Michael Ames, a science and popular traditions in a

15 particular “exhibitionary complex” endeavors to represent and essentially (Lidchi 2005:95) which delights in capture essences of cultures create the employment of visuals as tools bounded notions of cultures. Most of education and entertainment. contemporary ethnographic museums Thus, with respect to the connections are classified by geographical locations between nationalist museum practices, with tangible boundaries; however, and bounded notions of culture, some scholars have put forth the argument that thinking of cultural national identities and national identities in terms of physical geography publics were also defined must be rethought. For example, in through difference from other her treatment of soundscapes and nations and ethnic groups— the cultural capital of sound, Julia the new world picture was one Obert challenges scholars to detach of discrete, spatially-mapped, themselves from the “visuospatial” bounded difference, something which are part of the “cartographic which would prove difficult phenomenon” (Orbert 2006:1). For for those who, according Orbert, then, traditional scholarly to this picture, were ‘out of tendencies to think of cultural identity place’ (such as migrants) or as attached to certain geographies limits who found their values and identity because of the necessary lines, cultural attributes depicted territories and boundaries it draws. as less advanced or morally worthy than those of the ‘home CHALLENGES OF EXHIBITING team’ (Macdonald 2003:2). POSTNATIONAL AND TRANSCULTURAL IDENTITIES Similarly, Benedict Anderson (2006) The museum can be thought of as argues that the museum institution cultural production which works to was one of the strongest institutions to encode the world neatly into cultures instill nation-building ideology, along and nations and thus creating fixed, with the census and the map. Anderson finite identities, rooted in specific (2006:163) argues that although the geographical locations. At this point, I colonial era may appear anti-nationalist, would like to emphasize that although in fact, nationalist ideology has its museums have been key institutions for origins in colonial state practices and nation-building and for the perpetuation concepts. He argues that the map, of thinking of cultures and peoples as the census and the museum were bounded entities, there is little reason institutions that embody the way that to think that the museum had so much the late colonial administrators thought authority so as to be the only informers of their domains (Anderson 2006:184). of this way of thinking. Indeed, I suggest Colonial administrations imagined that those who go to museums are not their domains as “total classificatory merely passive viewers of nationalist grids” (Anderson 2006:184), which ideology; instead, viewers merely use could be applied to anything under the the museums as one resource amongst state’s control. many others (such as film, books, Moreover, the museum’s very schools, amongst others) to construct

16 or stitch together a worldview. Authors implicit inclusion of certain forms such as Ashley seem to grant the of identity to the exclusion of others, museum an almost totalizing power fixing culture to geographical location. for identity-formation. For example, Shelton very effectively problematizes she speaks (in particular) of the 19th this type of museology and identifies it century museum as: as a practice that:

a ‘monopoly of knowledge,’ allows museum displays a centralized structure of still to distinguish stylistic power, situated in an imposing categories, abstracted from city building, controlling the historical considerations, and preservation of historical to present a picture of African knowledge and identity of the peoples living in hermetically dominant culture, and also sealed and solitary isolation world knowledge seen through from each other, detached the lens of the dominant from trade, political and culture (Ashley 2005:6). familial alliances, religious pilgrimage routes, and the While I would dispute this vicissitudes of an inclement omnipotent portrayal of the museum, history responsible for massive the museum is certainly a key player forced resettlements (Shelton in the dissemination of national 2003:190). identity, and Ashley’s contention that the museum does have authority has In other words, classic exhibition salience; as an institution, the museum models fail to represent the nuanced controls a narrative about what is lived realities of people’s identities. worth conserving and the kinds of Instead classic exhibits preserve stable narratives deemed to be important. In identities and nations that are easier to addition, Ashley notes that the public order and think of than the alternative, expects museums to speak on matters transcultural and hybrid identities being of history and national identity (Ashley experienced and lived out in today’s era 2005:6), a point which recognizes the of globalization. importance of museum-goers in the The idea of the nation state is process identity construction. Though being challenged by what has generally viewers today likely see the museum as been referred to as globalization (Bhabha one resource of information amongst 1994; Appadurai 1996; Macdonald others, it must not be forgotten that the 2003). Because a vast body of literature museum existed and does exist amongst dedicated to the often-nebulous term many other institutions that are also “globalization” already exists, it would embedded in nationalist and modernist probably be futile to even attempt to ways of thinking. The result is that define it here. Nonetheless, for the only a few venues and resources for purposes of this article, I employ the the subversive and the alternative exist. term because it is a useful concept The creation of the stable, definable that generally refers to the massive and coherent national body meant the scale interconnections amongst people,

17 ideas, and economies. While there has these communities are affected by the always been a movement of peoples processes of globalization and identity around the world, Nico Israel (2000:10) transformation with the import and argues that the essential difference consumption of new goods and ideas. of migration between earlier periods These processes are what and the twentieth century is that of make it possible, for example, for a sheer scale. Likewise, Edward Said, Canadian to eat sushi, a “traditional” characterizes our age as “the age of the Japanese meal, often accompanied refugee, the displaced person, [and] by Mexican-grown avocadoes, while mass migration” (Said 1987:357). watching Canada’s national sport, Israel (2000:10) citing statistics from hockey, on broadcast television. While the United Nations High Commissioner this individual may not consciously for Refugees (UNHCR), reports that feel hybrid, what is important to between the year of 1951 (when the note is that the ability to do all of agency first started) and 1994, the these things and still feel Canadian number of refugees escalated from 1 shows that hybridity is in the very million to at least 26 million in 1994. makeup of identity of those who do Global trends seem to indicate that not themselves shift geographies. these numbers are only increasing Hence, while globalization is about the (Israel 2000:10). While this example dislocations of peoples, it is also about is only one type of occurrence that the dislocation of culture: either can be has fostered and continues to foster anywhere. Thus, as Bhabha writes, “the global links, it demonstrates the extent, very concept of homogenous national distribution and importance of viewing cultures, the consensual or contiguous globalization as a process. transmission of historical traditions, or There has been much ‘organic’ ethnic communities—as the treatment on the effect of globalization grounds of cultural comparativism—are on identity. While the pattern of in a profound process of redefinition” increasing interlinkages between (Bhabha 1994:7). Importantly, he also peoples and cultures are often viewed continues, writing that “the very idea as a crucial dimension of identity of a pure, ‘ethnically cleansed’ national globalized, most scholars argue that identity can only be achieved through these exchanges cannot be described the death, literal and figurative, of the as creating dislocated peoples who complex interweavings of history, and simply replicate in another location the culturally contingent borderlines of the identities and cultural values of modern nationhood” (Bhabha 1994:7). their homeland. Rather, it has been While I do not wish to deny argued that a transformation of identity the political and historical reality of occurs so that such individuals feel in the nation (moreover, it is clear that between cultures and occupy a neither despite globalizing processes, assertion here nor there, “interstitial third space” of the nation still holds much social (Bhabha 1994; Desai 2004). I would and political currency), my aim is to go so far as to argue that in the case problematize its certainty, factuality of those who have not literally moved and homogeneity by emphasizing its from one geographic place to another, constructed nature. Jigna Desai, in

18 her explorations of the South Asian of exhibiting? The next section will diasporic film, notes that notions of discuss the strategies of two exhibitions the diasporic homeland are discussed which deal with these questions. with reference to a place of origin and a homeland. However, in considering CONTEMPORARY diasporic peoples (she is particularly RESPONSES: REPRESENTING interested in what she calls the “Brown POSTNATIONAL IDENTITIES Atlantic”) Desai challenges us to Notions of postnational, transcultural reconsider the emphasis on the search and hybrid are challenging the traditional for an origin or an essential identity in rhetoric of museums, which have played order to better understand the situation key roles in fostering notions of nation of those which occupy this disjunctured, and national identity. With the onset of in-between third space (2004:22). globalizing forces, the museum faces Eliminating the diaspora’s several challenges with respect to the relationship to the notion of a homeland way identity is represented and put on “unfetters it from a permanent physical display. Next, I turn to a discussion of resettlement in favor of heterogenous two examples and their provision of connections to both the homeland practical solutions for a philosophical to other diasporic locations” (Desai and theoretical problem. 2004:19). Like Desai, Bhabha argues In Where is ‘Africa’? Re- that a theoretically innovative approach Viewing Art and Artifact in the Age would be to focus on the productive of Globalization, Ruth Philips (2002) moments that arise in this third, in- provides an overview of three museum between space. A severance from exhibitions which tried to tackle the the “origin” and an emphasis on the problem of globalization. Philips, productive in-between spaces allows quoting a statement made by Cotter us to think of new, hybrid modes of from the New York Times, writes, identity. He encourages us to ask, “How “Africa, whatever it is, is everywhere” are subjects formed ‘in between’, or (Phillips 2002:944). This statement in excess of, the sum of the ‘parts’ of very succinctly communicates the difference?” (Bhabha 1994:2). challenges of representation that This sort of question poses museums face today - not only in regards serious challenges for museums, to Africa but in regards to any identities which seem to have emerged out of a or cultures which once seemed to be different paradigm. Indeed, museums coherent but are now fluid across time are confronted with the validity of and space. Quoting again from Cotter, their existence even more so in this Philips goes on to write, “It’s far more globalized age. In addition to this than just a continent. It’s a global challenge, if museums continue to diaspora, an international culture and a exist, how should they exist in a way metaphor with fantastical associations that effectively reflects postnationality, for the West: gold, savages, ‘darkest,’ transculturalism and hybridity? How ‘deepest,’ liberation, devastation” can the museum deal with these issues (Phillips 2002:944). In light of such a effectively not only at a conceptual statement, how can a museum, which level but also at the practical level seeks to define and represent, begin

19 to practically approach questions of originally from Africa and now living in cultural identity? London, giving Wusi the space to talk The first example I discuss is authoritatively about African female The African Worlds Exhibition at the initiation rites conveyed the message Horniman Museum. In 1995, the UK to viewers that Africa is just as much museum began to reconsider a new ‘here’ as ‘there’ (Phillips 2002:948- approach to best exhibit its ethnographic 949). In my opinion, the technique of collection in the South Hall, which had involving Mrs. Wusi demonstrates that originally featured the presentation Africa is not so much neither here nor of diverse cultures from all seven there, but somewhere in between. In continents of the world. After much this sense, identity becomes a fluid, consideration, the museum decided to dynamic and unbounded entity which shift from a general to a specific focus avoids hegemonic labeling, and thus on its African collection. In March allows more room for definition and 1999, the gallery reopened with African self-construction. Worlds (Shelton 2003:182-183). African Worlds attempted to As part of planning for this respond to the limitations of 18th and exhibit, curators wanted to move away 19th century nationalist models of from traditional exhibition techniques, museums and colonial ethnography, which portray material items within and to think more of postnational, assumed natural settings (Phillips transcultural diasporas. One method 2002). In order to deconstruct as much used by the exhibit curators to as possible what may seem natural, foreground this latter approach was Anthony Shelton, then Chief Curator of to make clear to the audience that the Horniman, relied on “aggressively the exhibition considered not just the industrial” (Phillips 2002:947) display many different cultures in the continent techniques. For example, the purposive of Africa, but also the worlds and juxtaposition of these objects with identities of those Africans who had asymmetrical and cubist-style cases moved to places elsewhere as a result serves to emphasize movement and of moments in history such as the relocation of ideas and objects into slave trade. African Worlds achieves new contexts (Phillips 2002:947). this sense of movement and mutability The exhibition strived to achieve a through the provision of space in the postcolonial historical sensibility: form of text panels for the voices of thus, the placement of these objects members of the black community in in disruptive casing placed a further London, describing their reactions to emphasis on the sense of alienation in the objects which surrounded them the gallery. (Shelton 2003:191). This helped Another way in which African reinforce to viewers that Africa is not Worlds attempted to portray the simply bound to a place on the map. diasporic reality of Africa was through The Transcultural Galleries the involvement of Mrs. Beatrice Wusi, at Cartwright Hall in Bradford, West a Mende woman from Sierra Leone who Yorkshire also provides an example is now working as a community worker of how one art museum attempted in London. As a woman who was to represent transcultural identities.

20 As Macdonald (2003) documents, Asian styles (Macdonald 2003:8), the greater goal of the Transcultural prioritizing a transcultural notion of Galleries was largely to provide a identity despite some external criticism bridge between two conspicuous and objections. communities in conflict: the white As Macdonald (2003:9) English community and the non-white documents, the galleries break from South Asian community. However, it traditional spatial organization should be noted that even within the in museums. Cultures are not white population and the non-white individuated into separate displays populations, there exist many different or along a grand historical narrative ethnic groups (Macdonald 2003:7). (MacDonald 2003:9). However, Nima Poovaya Smith, a curator in Poovaya Smith achieves this sense of Bradford, was appointed to take care fluidity while also maintaining a sense of the building up and display of the of organization. Instead of an objective Indo-Pakistan subcontinent in The taxonomy, Poovaya Smith’s conceptual Transcultural Galleries. vision for the organization of the In setting out to accomplish museum is based on an intersubjective this task, Poovaya Smith recognized connection and flow, where connection the dangers of museums to identify and is “conceptualized as a movement, create fixed communities, cultures and as process, as creative agency” traditions (Macdonald 2003:7). The (Macdonald 2003:9). The exhibit is strategies used by Poovaya Smith draw broken up into themes and traces the from the post-colonial theoretical work connections within that particular of those such as Edward Said, Homi theme. For example, one section Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak, in order located within the water theme exhibits to project more fluid, transcultural two paintings on the topic by non South and hybrid notions of identity to Asians alongside a sculptural display cut across traditional geographies of the South Asian ‘vessel of vitality’. (Macdonald 2003:7). One method The theme-based layout of the exhibit used by Poovaya Smith attempted evokes transcultural connections to overcome the challenges of static that flow across and permeate neat cultural representation was through the geographical boundaries (Macdonald purposeful display of gold and silver 2003:9). material in her exhibits (Macdonald 2003:7-8). She did this because the CONCLUSION use of these metals is an important Because the birth of the museum is in medium for many artists in South Asia; so many ways entwined with the birth however, the use of these mediums of the nation state as well as a colonial is important for non-South Asian worldview which sought to categorize artists as well (Macdonald 2003:7-8). peoples, globalization raises serious and Moreover, in the display of jewelry, difficult questions that the museum must Poovaya Smith also decided to display address in order to cope with a form of works of art not only created by those identity that is starting to fade in favor in the South Indian population, but by of postnationalism, transculturalism artists who drew inspiration from South and hybridity. A fundamental question

21 that arises, however, is if the museum is its inherent discourse on the other can at all suitable as a medium with which no longer comfortably accommodate to express these alternative forms of and express identities produced in a identities? If the museum is embedded world of merging cultures and histories in a nation-state ideology premised on (Pieterse 2005:171). Pieterse’s second the practice of exhibiting cultures as reason for the abandoning of the fixed and bounded entities, is it possible discourse of ‘the other’ is based on to exhibit transculturalism without what he simply describes as “the falling to the dangers of defining epistemological and political arrogance these supposedly unidentifiable, in of representing others” (Pieterse between and dislocated cultures? In 2005:171). Moreover I suggest, other words, how does one locate – moving beyond a mere recognition an act which essentially points at and to a celebration of these ‘in between’ stops – something in dislocation? This identities, as opposed to viewing them question is a pertinent one, given the as marginal and unknown because they critique leveled by Appadurai with are more difficult to define. Instead, as respect to the limits of ethnography. Bhabha asserts, we can celebrate this Museums, like Appadurai’s critique identity in between because it allows of ethnographies as a mode of for the possibility of a cultural hybridity representation are reductive, inevitably that “entertains difference without an imprisoning of their subjects as they assumed or imposed hierarchy” (van de “render them perpetually captive to Veer 1997:94). Rather than imagining the mode of thought that was used to it as a site of objective knowledge represent them” (Lidchi 2006:95). and representation, it is hoped that the What the African Worlds Exhibit and museum institution, as well as other the Transcultural Galleries seem to cultural institutions for that matter, imply is that museums are certainly will come to be a place of creativity, capable of being more representative innovation and experimentation that of postnational, transcultural and produces forever-unfinished works hybrid identities. Moreover, it seems a and leaving its viewers with a sense step in the right direction to articulate of identity that is complex, fluid and these types of identities, while at the constantly shifting. same time recognizing the dangers of traditional museological practices. Pieterse (2005) suggests that REFERENCES CITED if there is any general guiding principle Ames, Michael for exhibiting strategies in today’s 1992 Cannibal Tours and Glass Boxes: globalized world, it is to abandon the The Anthropology of premise of the discourse about the other. Museums. Vancouver, University He suggests this for two reasons. First, of British Columbia Press. as I have argued, coherent labeling of Anderson, Benedict 2006 ImaginedCommunities: the national “us” versus the outsider Reflections on the Origins and “them” is being seriously refigured Spread of Nationalism. 3rd ed. in an age of transculturalism and London: Verso. hybridity. Quite simply, nationalism and

22 Appadurai, Arjun Corinne A. Kratz, Lynn Szwaja 1996 Modernity at Large: Cultural and Tomás Fraustro-Ybarra, eds. Dimensions of Globalization. Pp. 504-535. Durham: Duke Minneapolis: University of University Press. Minnesota Press. Orbert, Julia Catherine Ashley, Susan 2006 The Cultural Capital of Sound: 2005 State Authority and the Public Québécité’s Acoustic Sphere: Ideas on the Changing Hybridity. Postcolonial Text Role of the Museum as a 2(2):1-14. Canadian Social Institution. Phillips, Ruth Museum and Society 3(1):5-17. 2002 “Where is Africa?” Re-Viewing Bennett, Tony Art and Artifact in the Age of 2006 Exhibition, Difference, and the Globalization American Logic of Culture. In Museum Anthropologist Vol. 104(3):944- Frictions: Public Cultures/Global 952. Transformations. Ivan Karp, Pieterse, Jan Nederveen Corinne A. Kratz, Lynn Szwaja 2005 Multiculturalism and Museums: and Tomás Fraustro-Ybarra, Discourse about Others in the eds. Pp. 46-69. Durham: Duke Age of Globalization. In University Press. Heritage, Museums and Bhabha, Homi K. Galleries: An Introductory 1994 The Location of Culture. 1st Reader. Gerard Corsane, ed. Pp. edition. London: Routledge. 163-183. London: Routledge. Desai, Jigna Said, Edward 2004 Beyond Bollywood: The 1987 Reflections on Exile.In Out Cultural Politics of South Asian There: Marginalization and Diasporic Film. New York: Contemporary Cultures. Russell Routledge. Ferguson, Martha Gever, Israel, Nico Trinh. T. Minh-ha, and Cornel 2000 Outlandish: Writing between West, eds. Pp. 357-66. New Exile and Diaspora. Stanford, York: New Museum of California: Stanford University Contemporary Art; and Press. Cambridge: MIT Press. Lidchi, Henrietta Shelton, Anthony 2006 Culture and Constraints: Further 2003 Curating African Worlds. In Thoughts on Ethnography and Museums and Source Exhibiting. International Journal Communities. Laura Peers and of Heritage Studies 12(1):93- Alison K. Brown, eds. Pp.181- 114. 193. London: Routledge. Macdonald, Sharon van der Veer, Peter 2003 Museums, national, postnational 1997 The Enigma of Arrival: and transcultural identities. Hybridity and Authenticity in the Museum and Society 1(1):1-16. Global Space. In Debating Myers, Fred Cultural Hybridity: Multi- 2006 The Complicity of Cultural Cultural Identities and the Production: The Contingencies Politics of Anti-Racism. Pnina of Performance in Globalizing Werbner and Tariq Modood, eds. Museum Practices. In Museum Pp. 90-105. London: Zed Books. Frictions: Public Cultures/Global Transformations. Ivan Karp,

23

24 GORAN DOKIĆ

EMBODIMENT OF TRAUMA THROUGH PERFORMATIVE ACTS OF REMEMBERING

Abstract Within the paradigm of embodiment, it is possible to ask how are bodies objectified without objectifying and internalizing bodily experience. In this essay, I attempt to bridge the mind and body dualism by problematizing different sites of expression of past traumas. Specifically, I explore some of the ways in which traumatic memory is embodied through performative acts of remembering in cases of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dissociative amnesia.

INTRODUCTION define who they are, and to understand Memories raise epistemological issues and create a particular kind of self. about representations of history, However, the relationship between experience, and authenticity, as well individual and collective memories is as ontological questions about origins always ambiguous and recollection of of selfhood and individual identity. past events that play into creation of In anthropological theory, memory is self may, at the same time, challenge sometimes represented as a tool for its unity. Individual and collective reproduction and reification of culture, identities are determined by what people or as a part of identity discourse (Antze remember and what they can, or cannot and Lambek 1996:xxi; Cattell and remember. On the other hand, precisely Climo 2002:15). Furthermore, memory because of this ambiguity, and because is central to bodies, embodiment, and it spans across the multiple sites of the creation of meaning (Becker et recall and temporal dimensions of al. 2000:320). Similarly, Antze and existence, memory allows individuals Lambek (1996:vii) treat remembering to re-create their selves. as a practice and a performative act The purpose of this article that moves in and out of consciousness. is to problematize particular sites of At the same time as memory becomes expression of traumatic memories a body projected into the world, it by asking how is trauma articulated, is increasingly objectified and its embodied, and objectified in expression is shaped by particular psychotherapy and in narratives of social and cultural contexts. individual suffering. Here trauma refers In this way, memory is primarily to types of emotional distress embodied but it should not be that are associated with recollection construed as only a personal, of past traumatic events. Specifically, subjective experience (Becker et al. I am interested in how performative 2000:320). Instead, memory is both a acts of remembering past traumas play phenomenological basis of identity and into creation of individual memories the instrument for identity construction and how traumatic memories become (Antze and Lambek 1996:xvi). In other expressions of collective identity. words, memories serve individuals to Throughout this text, I draw on the

25 body of knowledge in medical and and this results in victims’ feeling as psychological anthropology, as well as if the mind and body act as separate phenomenology and practice theory. and disjunctive (Winkler 1994:250). Initially, I explore some of the However, while trauma disassociates ways in which trauma is conceptualized the cognitive and somatosensory of in Euro-American philosophy and the bodily experience and perpetuates psychiatry, and how ideas about the mind and body dualism, from the traumatic memory influenced traditional perspective of embodiment, traumatic distinctions between mind and body, memory can potentially reconnect subject and object, and existence mind and body. In a similar way, and being. From there I move into a Csordas (1990: 31) argues that trauma discussion of how the embodiment reinforces the unity of body and mind, of trauma might benefit from two creates a shared human existence, and theoretical orientations: the paradigm expresses transcendence. of embodiment by Thomas Csordas Finally, I connect the and Pierre Bourdieu’s discourse on discussion about embodiment of practice and the notion of habitus. trauma to a specific ethnographic The paradigm of embodiment account about the role of traumatic forces us to consider how “cultural memory in cases of posttraumatic objectifications, and objectifications stress disorder (PTSD) and dissociative of the self arrived at in the first place” amnesia. In particular, I explore how (Csordas 1990:34). At the same time, the links between individual and past body is viewed not as an object but traumatic memories are connected as the subject and “as the existential through narratives of suffering and ground of culture” (Csordas 1990:5). institutional discourse about the Similarly, Bourdieu’s (1990:53) effective psychiatric treatment. Antze notion of habitus as a system of and Lambek (1996:xvii-xviii) argue generating and organizing practices that narratives follow chronotopic that can be objectively adapted conventions of time, place, and without presupposing their objective position, which are never obvious and existence, offers a mediating point controlled by an individual alone, but between material properties of bodies are shared with collectives, specialists and phenomenological concerns for in memory, and state officialdom. symbolic properties, which themselves Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin become objectified once they are employed the term “chronotope” perceived (Bourdieu 1990:135). (literally, “time-space”) to describe the By treating body a site of both process of compressing real historical perception and practice, the paradigm time and space in literary texts and how of embodiment attempts bridging generic properties of the term define mind and body. In this way, traumatic and maintain distinctions between memory, as a kind of bodily, emotional literary genres (Holquist 1981:84-5). disruption may provide the “missing In the same way, an investigation into link” to transcend this duality (Scheper- how traumatic events break the flow Hughes and Lock 1987:28-9). Bodies of of chronotopic narrative in particular traumatized individuals are objectified contexts may expose the processes in

26 which memories of individual actors memory emerged at the intersection of begin to be objectified. For example, in somatic and psychological streams of chronotopes of psychoanalytic therapy scientific inquiry.2 The first diagnosed a patient is encouraged to express and cases of trauma that included damage accept his or her thoughts in order to to neural tissue were described as understand them and accept them as caused by “railway spine accidents” his or her own (Antze 2004:103), in or injuries to the spinal cord that were contrast to courtroom where narrative caused by frequent railroad accidents of a witness serves to expose a victim in nineteenth-century Britain. John or a perpetrator. Erichsen, the physician responsible for diagnosing and treating injuries and TRAUMATIC MEMORY FROM A symptoms of railway spine accidents, HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE reported three categories of patients Memories are not exact reproductions according to the severity of ‘shocks’ of past events, but are narrative and the visibility of damage to the constructions that span the spatial and neural tissue. Although symptoms temporal scales of human existence. in all of the cases appeared to be the Memories are closely connected same, some injuries were less visible to emotions and are dependent on than others and this invisibility caused socially conditioned processes of a growing concern about individuals recall and as such they are subject fabricating symptoms to receive to distortions (Cattell and Climo compensation. Furthermore, Erichsen 2002:13). Distortions may be caused by could not identify specific mechanisms a number of factors including selective that caused the symptoms, and even forgetting and remembering, amnesia, more importantly for the discussion and trauma.1 The concept of “traumatic about trauma and memory, he could not memory” was developed in Western answer how a particular emotion, such psychiatry and nineteenth century as fear, produced effects that could European neurology, which later amplify the consequences of physical culminated in Freudian psychoanalysis trauma. At the root of the problem (Kenny 1996:152). The term “traumatic was the effort to find a single cause for memory” was first coined by Pierre trauma that was complicated further Janet, Freud’s contemporary, who by attempts to separate the less visible posited that this condition occurred psychological effects from the more in people with weak nervous systems visible physiological effects of trauma. who, after an initial shock, become The “railway spine” was for the fragmented beings and sometimes lost first time transformed into a syndrome control over their conscious will and by Jean-Martin Charcot who believed presented themselves using multiple that patients were most likely suffering personalities (Kenny 1996:153). from “hysteria” which was caused by In his study about the intense fear. In this way, Charcot moved introduction of posttraumatic stress away from somatic explanations and disorder (PTSD) to the discourse argued for a psychoneurological cause. of Western psychiatry, Alan Young In doing so, one could argue that that (1995:13-14) describes how traumatic this explanation successfully distanced

27 THE SEPARATION OF MIND AND the mind, along with the brain, even BODY: MENTAL MEMORY AND further from the rest of the body. MATERIAL SELF Similarly, Sacks (1998:4) describes the inability of early neurologists to The distinction between mental memory locate possible causes for the loss of and material self implies a conventional speech function, or loss of memory and separation between mind and body, and identity. He notes how all of the early subject and object. Lakoff and Johnson attempts at treating the impairment (1999:16) argue that in Western of neurological function were based philosophical tradition humans are on the treatment of centers in the granted with a “faculty” of reason that is left hemisphere of the brain, while treated as independent from perception the “minor” right hemisphere that and body. The separation of mind and controls the sense of reality, or what body came to be known as a defining was termed as “direct consciousness”, feature of Cartesian dualism. Descartes was systematically ignored. The reason introduced a methodological distinction for this was, once more, the apparent between two classes that constitute invisibility of specific syndromes that the human organism: tangible body would correspond to lesions in the right and intangible mind (Scheper-Hughes hemisphere of the brain. and Lock 1987:9). The only category that could be taken “on faith” was the In the cases of traumatic 3 memory, Young (1995:26) claims intuited perception of the body-self. that the main difference between In addition, Descartes believed that contemporary psychiatric nosology and mathematics was the only pure essence historical accounts lies in the treatment of reason and the single reliable form of verbal memory and its relationship of knowledge (Descartes 1960:12). to forgetting. While Erichsen refers to He further argued that the method for “forgetting” as the loss of intellectual acquiring this knowledge should be ability to perform calculations, or the based on the principles of geometry: ability to recall the spelling of common words, current psychiatric explanations Those long chains of place the “loss of memory” at the reasoning, so simple and easy, centre of the disorder. However, if which enabled geometricians Charcot’s, and later Freud’s, “hysteria” to reach the most difficult is replaced with a variety of symptoms demonstrations, had made that can leap from the unconscious me wonder whether all things into present memory, what connects knowable to men might not fall current conceptualizations of traumatic into a similar logical sequence. memory to historical representations is If so, we need only refrain the idea that psychic residues of past from accepting as true that events are the primary cause of present which is not true … and there suffering. Therefore, the existence of cannot be any propositions so traumatic memory rests on the presence abstruse that we cannot prove of memories about past events that are them (Descartes 1960:15). external to the self and are somehow beyond individual consciousness. The logic of Descartes’ rationalist

28 method is first to provide a statement continuous absence of a more embodied of the problem and then to break it language in Western philosophy. down into its component parts. After On the other hand, as Geertz perceiving and understanding the notes, constant epistemological re- idiosyncrasies of each individual part, evaluations may reflect a hidden the whole can be reassembled into concern that in the absence of objective its original form (Berman 1981:33). knowledge, scientific descriptions might According to this reasoning, the act fall into a trap of extreme relativism and of perceiving component parts is in subjectivity (Geertz in Scheper-Hughes essence the same as the act of knowing and Lock 1987:30). Similarly, Csordas the whole. In this way, given the (1994:7) notes how Cartesian dualism faculty of reason, the act of thinking caused a kind of “ontologization of and perceiving in effect separates the distinction” in social sciences, as humans from the rest of the world and, well as a growing tendency to blame although individual awareness about the doctrine using a language of moral the body exists, the body is perceived degradation. However, he further as an object of the perceiving subject. notes that although Descartes may be However, according to the credited for his attempts to provide a evidence from cognitive science, methodological tool that would be free this reasoning is flawed. Lakoff and from the institutional grip of the Church, Johnson (1999:17) explain that human he alone should not be credited for the reason and sense of reality are linked ways the Cartesian legacy became to body that is in constant interaction embedded in the Western philosophical with the outside environment through tradition. its sensimotor system. In this way, human concepts are reflections of the METHODOLOGICAL BASIS: outside reality, which interacts with EMBODIMENT AND THEORY OF the perceptual structures of individual PRACTICE bodies. Therefore, the creation of Within a paradigm of embodiment, it perceptual categories and their may be possible to mediate the subject- interaction with objects depends on the object duality by asking how bodies overall part-whole relationship, which become objectified and by refusing to is the basic principle of the Gestalt accept claims that in the process of self- psychology.4 However, although it reflection, individual bodily experience departs from the traditional postulate becomes internalized inside the body in Western philosophy that perception (Csordas 1990:36). Therefore, treating may inform reason while not being a embodiment as practice is crucial in part of it, this view does not move away moving away from the object to the from perceiving the end product, or an process of objectification. In this way, already objectified self and it does not the paradigm of embodiment is linked solve the problem of separation between to Bourdieu’s notion of habitus and subject and object. Moreover, it can be theory of practice. argued that the persistent difficulty in Bourdieu (1990:52) argues breaking away from assumptions of the that it is necessary to break away from Cartesian legacy is most visible in the the objectivist realism of the structure

29 and move toward the dialectic of through a focus on the logic of action” practice, or from the opus operatum (Bourdieu 1990:56), it is possible to to the modus operandi. He continues escape the duality that is concerned that: with already objectified and externally determined consciousness. In addition, The theory of practice it allows for the existence of different insists, contrary to positivist sites of objectifications of history, such materialism, that the objects as objectifications in bodies and in of knowledge are constructed, institutions, which although operating not passively recorded, and, at the level of unconscious generate contrary to intellectualist different forms of practical action. idealism, that the principle of In the same way, in his paradigm of this construction is the system embodiment, Csordas recognizes the of structured, structuring value in habitus because the concept dispositions, the habitus, moves away from considering only which is constituted in practice a collection of practices to include a and is always oriented towards focus on psychologically inculcated practical functions (Bourdieu behavioral environment and on how 1990:52). it is systematically generated and organized by the “socially informed Habitus is a Latin word used to signify body” (1990:11). Furthermore, a “habitual or typical condition, this conceptualization of habitus is state or appearance, particularly of important because objective conditions the body”, while the embodiment of do not cause practices, nor do practices habitus is captured in the Greek word generate objective conditions. hexis which Bourdieu uses to describe Therefore, habitus is at once the “deportment, the manner and style principle of generation of practices in which actors ‘carry themselves’: and the unifying principle of collective stance, gait, gesture, etc.” (Jenkins practices. 1992:74-5). The similarity between On the other hand, Ortner the two concepts reflects the central criticizes Bourdieu for his “heavy role of body in the conceptualization of structural determinism” (2005:35). habitus. Furthermore, Bourdieu treats She continues that although Bourdieu’s habitus as “embodied history” that is concept of habitus seems to include “internalized … and so forgotten,” and a consideration of subjectivity in the as such is “the active present of the sense of ‘feelings’, its main emphasis whole past of which it is the product” appears to rest on how it presents options (Bourdieu 1990:56).5 and limits to the social actor. In other This definition is of particular words Bourdieu’s notion of habitus importance to the discussion of leaves subjects either without, or with traumatic memory because it addresses a limited intentionality. In contrast to the unconscious content while at the Ortner, Jenkins (1992:72) argues that same time giving individual practices Bourdieu’s rejection of structuralism is a degree of autonomy in relation to evident in his constant advocacy for a the immediate present. As a result, shift in focus ‘from rules to practices.

30 On the other hand, Ortner’s critique According to this perspective, of habitus, to an extent, parallels analysis should not focus on definite Jenkins’ claim that, by granting people interpretations of meaning but on with limited intentionality, Bourdieu performative events, such as a song effectively attempts to avoid the trap performance or speech events. In this of treating conscious and deliberate way, Ahearn foregrounds the possibility intentions as sufficient explanations of of a free will. This is particularly people’s actions. relevant for the discussion of how is On another level, Ahearn individual trauma expressed and given argues that Bourdieu’s conceptualization meaning through performative acts of the recursive nature of habitus, of remembering past traumas and in which generates an infinite, but always particular contexts of recall. constrained number of possible actions and individual perceptions, leaves DIALOGUE WITH no room for the concept of what she PHENOMENOLOGY AND describes as “free will” (2001:118). PERCEPTION At the same time, because of the Focus on perception and the process limits it imposes on intentionality, of meaning creation is key to studies habitus limits unpredictable social grounded in phenomenology and transformation and social change. philosophical anthropology. Csordas Instead, it is embodied and cannot be (1990:6) argues that Hallowell should transformed by voluntary intent alone. be credited for recognizing perception Ahearn’s critique is supported with as crucial to self-awareness, which has Jenkins’ (1992:79) reflection on the an important role in the functioning ambiguous role of Bourdieu’s notion of society and is one of the basic of dispositions in how the practices elements of human personality are produced. Furthermore, Jenkins, structure. Furthermore, through his in the same way as Ahearn, continues methodological approach to perception with a critique of Bourdieu’s claim that and practice, Hallowell set the ground habitus is ‘the site of internalization for the anthropological debate about of reality and externalization of the distinction between subject and internality’ and states how this elliptical object (Csordas 1990:6).6 As early as and unclear formulation does not solve the 1950s, researchers criticize Western the issue about the possibility for classifications of “mental behaviors” change at the individual or collective that do not include a consideration of level. However, it has to be noted that, particular “nonorganic” factors: although overemphasizing past and discrediting conscious engagement, Man’s behavior is everywhere Bourdieu does address generative canalized, restricted, and aspect of practices, instead of treating defined by customary them as only deterministic. procedures that are imposed As an alternative to Bourdieu’s upon each new generation insistence on inculcated nature of of human individuals in habitus Ahearn offers a practice theory accordance with the demands of “meaning constraint” (2001:112). of different culture patterns

31 … Even perception itself and is that it calls for a psychology that is mental imagery are not free more context dependent and inclusive from the influence of culture of particular social and historical patterns, nor are motor habits, circumstances. gestures, the expressions of Hallowell expanded Koffka’s emotions, and the motivations work on behavioral environment and of the individual (Hallowell argued that although an understanding 1956:22). of what he called individual beliefs is of great relevance, the real importance Hallowell’s treatment of “behavioral lies in locating the source of people’s environment” as the central element in beliefs. In this way, he acknowledged the process of structuring of individual that individual behavior is dependent experience is directly linked to on both to the constraints of the Koffka’s works in Gestalt psychology. physical reality and culturally reified In Principles of Gestalt Psychology, world, and provided a context in which Koffka (1935:32) treats behavioral the practice of meaning creation is environment as a mediating link carried out. However, according to between “geographical environment” Csordas (1990:6) although Hallowell and behavior, or between stimulus and referred to his approach to the study response. He argues that the question of of perception as phenomenological, how we know what behavior is cannot his study deals with the already be answered without recognizing that it objectified self. Furthermore, he did is grounded in a particular environment. not address how the self is constantly When it comes to memory, Koffka being reshaped and objectified in argues that it allows individuals to different contexts. In other words, determine their behavioral field. Hallowell’s phenomenology requires However, he could not explain how to a more informed and explicit approach account for the existence of behavior, that would show that the process of including memories, which occurs self-objectification is precultural and outside of “direct experience” of the existing before the analytic distinction behavioral environment. between subject and the object. In this way, although providing On another, but related important insights into mechanisms level, Merleau-Ponty’s work on of perception, Koffka could not phenomenology grounded in Husserlian explain how particular experiences philosophy, offers a counter point to and perceptions survive over time. studies that interpret embodiment in He continues how the complexity terms of cognitive and linguistic models lies in the interaction of the physical of explanation (Lock 1993:137) and and physiological fields, and the allows for a degree of intentionality problem becomes even more obscure and a preconscious understanding of as “physiological field events take the world (Csordas 1994:7). However, place which change the geographical before Merleau-Ponty, Husserl argued field and thereby the physiological that all knowledge should be grounded fields” (Koffka 1935:54). However, in “transcendental phenomenology” what is significant in Koffka’s work that would locate meaning from various

32 types of experience, from perception to On the other hand, knowledge formation (Smith 2007:12). Bourdieu (1990:25) is critical of Furthermore, he claimed that by focusing phenomenological modes of knowledge on deeper structures of consciousness, that set out to reflect experience but or the ways consciousness is directed cannot provide a description that goes toward and representing objects may beyond the social world, which itself provide an understanding of the role of appears as self evident and ‘taken- intentionality. for-granted’. In contrast, Jackson For Husserl, phenomenology (2006:323) argues that phenomenology is “the science of the essence of is crucial to study of embodiment. consciousness” (Smith 2007:56)7 and He quotes Merleau-Ponty and consciousness, an act of something Binswanger, who have argued that that is directed toward something and we should not reduce meaning to the including an object within it. In his status of sign, which does not have theory of intentionality he distinguished properties of an act. According to this between “acts of consciousness,” or conceptualization, body should not be noesis and “intentional objects of treated as only a medium of expression consciousness,” or noema.8 According and an object of understanding, but to this approach, the relationship should be considered as interwoven between noema and noesis, or sensuous with its living environment. and intentional, is what creates the Similarly, in “Phenomenology perceptual experience and may serve of Perception”, Merleau-Ponty argues as an analytical tool in studies of against Descartes’ cogito and describes consciousness and intentionality (Smith body as a ‘setting in relation to the 2007:257-60). world’, and perception as an extension What is relevant in of the body projected into the world Husserl’s phenomenology is an (Csordas 1990:8). He continues that: analytical distinction between acts of consciousness, its content, and object. Analytical perception starts Although he does not break away from our experience of the from the Cartesian separation between world and goes back to the subject and object, his phenomenology subject as to a condition of is based on a kind of structured holism, possibility distinct from that and more importantly he makes an experience, revealing the all- attempt to determine whether it is embracing synthesis as that possible to perceive an object while at without which there would the same time directing the perception be no world. To this extent it toward the mind (Smith 2007:57). In ceases to remain part of our this way, by asking if it is possible to experience and offers, in place monitor our own experience through of an account, a reconstruction self awareness, he set the ground for of it (Merleau-Ponty 2002:x). Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological analysis of the ways in which In this way, Merleau-Ponty hints at experience is centered on consciousness the importance of the preconscious, or of the body (Smith 2007:408). preobjective experience of the world

33 and with this allows for a degree of to its objects and this separation intentionality. Furthermore, he argues may be mediated in the paradigm of that “there exists a unity before the embodiment. object … and intention is ‘lived’ as In his paradigm for ready-made, or already there” (Merleau- embodiment, Csordas combines what he Ponty 2002:xix). Therefore, by placing describes as methodologically different body in the world, he attempts to modes of attention stemming from break away from the traditional Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology and distinction between subject and object. Bourdieu’s “dialectical structuralism” Furthermore, a phenomenology of (1990:12). Therefore, this kind of embodied experience offers a possibility approach draws both from the embodied for an understanding of “body-as- lived experience in habitus and subject” that is in constant interaction Bourdieu’s theory of practice, as well in the field of bodily existence (Jackson as from phenomenological concerns 2006:324). Similarly, in his footnotes, with perception and the influences of Csordas (1990:41) notes how Mauss behavioral environment. In a similar predicted that embodiment might way Rouse (2004:522) notes how most reconcile the duality of mind and body, literature on embodiment considers a and existence and being. At the same combination of processes, such as the time, distinction between existence and influence of social structure, discourse, being is central to Merleau-Ponty’s and signification practices as being phenomenology and existential central to the construction of self- psychology, while in anthropology this awareness.9 Furthermore, she adds falls in the domain of the separation that through the acts of performance between intentionality and previously individuals may exert certain control established cultural forms. in how their subjectivity is read by In addition, Merleau-Ponty others. In this way, an approach that argued against the notion that holds that treats trauma and remembering as there is a point-by-point connection practice and as a performative act, between stimulus and perception. which is grounded in phenomenology Instead, he argues that people’s and serving as an instrument for perception ends in objects, which are construction of identity, may expose products of reflexive thinking. At the how in the process of objectification same time, on the level of perception traumatic memory consolidates and there are no already existing objects, transforms individual and collective and individual bodies are simply identity. “being-in-the-world” (Csordas 1990:9). Therefore, the perception EXPRESSING TRAUMA starts in bodies and ‘ends in objects’ Halbwachs (2006:48) claims that to and the goal of phenomenology is exist, collective memory draws from to locate this preobjective “moment a coherent body of people. However of transcendence” when perception it is individuals who remember and begins. However, Merleau-Ponty’s there are as many collective memories phenomenology still places as there are groups and institutions in consciousness as opposite in relation society. He further speculates how the

34 only sphere of human existence that science involved in interpretation is not rooted in a social context is in of texts and narratives of suffering. people’s dreams (Halbwachs 2006:41). In “narrative text” the story that is In addition, he makes a distinction produced has three different authors: between historical and autobiographical diseased body that is a site of incidents memory. He describes autobiographical and injuries of the story, the patient who memory as consisting of events that supplies the story in a coherent flow of were experienced personally in the narration, and the doctor who directs past. This type of memory, he claims, the flow of the medical discourse fades over time and intervals are lost (Leder 1990:13). What is of particular altogether and may be brought back interest here is the speech elicited from to awareness through fragmented patient’s body and from his experiential associations (Halbwachs 2006:23). In narrative. This distinction echoes contrast, historical memory is recorded Merleau-Ponty’s distinction between in written and visual records and body as lived being-in-the-world and relived through different reenactments objectified body, in this case the object and commemorations. The temporal of the medical gaze. In the same way, space that exists between periods of Leder (1990:14) notes how in the public commemorations and everyday “experiential text of illness” patients life is filled by collective memory evoke the image of their lived-body. through different ceremonial acts, On the other hand, during a physical symbolic displays, or narratives. From exam, this same body is transformed this it follows how there is no real into an object of scientific gaze. void in collective memory. In this The critical moment in the way, Halbwachs outlines the full range process of transformation of the patient of complex relationships between from subject into an object is when the individual and collective performative physician’s lived body does the reading aspects of memory. Even a simplified of the text, which contains the reified description of the relationship between body of the patient. However, in the different types of memory precipitates process of objectification of the patient, a contested field on which acts of physician does not objectify his own remembering may serve to signify and body, but lives it out as an interpretive objectify different identities. tool that is aided with medical training Depending on a particular and the use of technologies that site of expression, performative acts function as extensions to his body of remembering past traumas play (Leder 1990:14) Therefore, in this into creation of individual memories context, the patient’s body is at the and may become expressions of same time a subject from within his collective identity. In the examples own body and an object from outside that follow, I focus on how is trauma under in the scope of the medical gaze. articulated, embodied, and objectified Leder’s account parallels Merleau- in psychotherapy and in narratives of Ponty’s argument that perception individual suffering. ends in objects. However, by only Leder (1990:9) argues that considering an already objectified body, clinical medicine is a hermeneutic the processes that make it objectified

35 remain invisible. Therefore, a more In his discussion of narratives nuanced understanding of the processes of trauma Kirmayer (1996:174-5) that play into creation of subjects contrasts accounts of victims of and objects requires a move toward childhood trauma with the testimonies Bourdieu’s modus operandi. Traumatic of Holocaust survivors. For the memories in the cases of dissociative survivors of childhood sexual abuse it is amnesia and PTSD challenge the usually hard to recall traumatic events, distinction between subject and object while for the Holocaust survivors it is and have a potential to reconnect mind hard to forget, but impossible to speak and body. about their traumatic experiences. He continues how Holocaust survivors, TRAUMATIC MEMORY IN who are mostly diagnosed with PTSD, DISSOCIATIVE AMNSESIA are usually described as burdened with AND PTSD traumatic memories, but are unwilling Leys (1996:104) notes how the first cases to recall their stories because of the of dissociative amnesia were termed as fear of the emotional pain, as well as “male hysteria” and were found among because of the inadequacy of language the soldiers of the First World War. The to communicate the full extent of their symptoms of “male hysteria” included experiences. In this way, the survivors spasmodic convulsions, trembling are not able to provide a coherent of limbs, nightmares, depression etc. chronotopic flow of narrative. On the Furthermore, because individuals were other hand, survivors of childhood unable to express emotions through sexual abuse are described as being speech they materialized into bodily unaware of their traumatic experiences expressions, or symptoms of dissociation and because of that, they are diagnosed and amnesia. The term “male hysteria” with dissociative amnesia. The somatic comes from Freud’s notion of “female manifestations of traumatic memory are hysteria” that was as well characterized usually evident through symptoms of with bodily expressions of “repressed” physical and emotional pain, numbing, emotions (Leys 1996:104). In a similar substance abuse, lapses of memory, way, Kenny (1996:163) argues that if and changes of identity. a woman enters a therapy displaying Kirmayer (1996:175) argues patterns of traumatic disturbance that differences in trauma are caused characteristic of PTSD, she is more by different “landscapes of memory” likely to be diagnosed with borderline which represent a metaphorical ground personality disorder that is defined in on which past traumas are remembered the Diagnostic Statistic Manual (DSM) and create particular conditions as a “pervasive pattern of instability of for being-in-the-world. How these interpersonal relationships, self-image, landscapes are organized is determined and affects, and marked impulsivity by both the significance attributed to that begins in early adulthood and is particular individual and collective present in a variety of contexts”. Kenny memories, as well as by what that adds how this gender bias comes from can be drawn from “meta-memory”. the fact that women are more likely Kirmayer describes this memory as a to be sexually assaulted than men. kind of template that conditions what

36 can be recalled and treated as a “true” have experienced, and recall through memory. Similarly Antze (1996:10) monitoring of how individuals react describes how in a support group of and interpret their reactions as signs people with dissociative amnesia, that signify residues of repressed most of the everyday life is filled with memories. This is significant, because collective exchange of shared meanings in this way representations of internal through recall of past events. In this states are not only direct verbal way, it can be argued that performative connections to past events, but also acts of remembering past traumas that evaluations of how individuals interact are expressed through narratives of with others in a larger social context. suffering are dependent on cultural Antze (1996:10) notes how patients are constructions of personal, as well as in fact expected to relive the past events historical, or collective memory. and through the process learn who they On the other hand, Kirmayer are. During the process they attain (1996:176) notes that contrary to the identity of a survivor. Therefore, popular conceptions, memories are the particular context, or the site of not stored only as “snapshots” that are remembering is the key determinant in readily available for recall. Instead, what type of recall will be elicited from what is recorded is selective and the individual. These sites may range distorted through interpretation and from recorded testimonies and court semantic encoding. Once recalled, proceedings to private acts of recall memories are shaped with re- where memories are communicated interpretations and confabulations. through silence. Another common conceptualization According to the theory is that memories are stored in a time of repression, the emotional impact sequence, which later fulfills the associated with trauma makes these temporal convention of chronotopic memories more deeply engrained that narrative. However, memory for the usual memories (Kirmayer 1996:179). timing of events is not usually linked However, the subsequent repression to the images of the event. In contrast, of meaning of trauma may lead its the act of remembering, especially the somatic aspects to persist even when narrative itself, offers the temporal visual memory is no longer available. sequence. This reflects a separation of sensory, In addition to the effects of emotional, and cognitive aspects interpretation and confabulation, the of memory and a potential creation recall and expression of memories is of different types of memories. heavily dependent on particular sites of Furthermore, this may lead memories recall. In psychotherapy, the narrative to persist and intrude as recalls of reconstruction of past event depends on traumatic events characteristic of the recall of personal historical memory. PTSD. The psychiatric distinction Kirmayer (1996:176-8) describes the between suppression and repression process of recall as consisting of at is in the first case described as a least two related segments: recall of conscious effort to forget and in the declarative memory which contains second as unconscious. This distinction what individuals know and what they conditions different expectations of

37 how the acts of remembering should of dissociation, Holocaust survivors be expressed through different types of claimed to be suffering from anxiety, narratives. numbing, and depersonalization. They Kirmayer (1996:181) notes feel an existence of a different self at that dissociative experiences are the time of the trauma from the self that sometimes expressed as shifts in exists at the present. This simultaneous mental states, or in changes of voice, existence of the two selves makes it and in particular contexts patients difficult to link different narratives. move from one state to another, or Eventually, they are joined through pain from one memory to another. In these and a memory of collective suffering, cases, narrative is dissociative and but the verbal recall cannot replace the fragmented, because of focusing only full range of emotion. on the traumatic event and having no associations to other parts of memory. CONCLUSION: BRIDGING MIND He further adds, how dissociative AND BODY WITH TRAUMA narrative includes the convention Trauma victims may show dissociation of fragmentation, univocality or or recurring memories of past traumas. polivocality and time, which can be By adding a social environment and an progressive, regressive, or stagnant embodied dimension of body as being- (Kirmayer 1996:181). Reconstruction in-the-world to psychological accounts of narrative is complete only when it of trauma, it is evident that narratives are starts to resemble the collective, or “folk constructed and constructing different memory”, but Kirmayer concludes, as identities and are at the same time the landscape metaphor suggests, that individual and a collective practice. the reconstructions of memory are Specific sites of recall determine “not so much managed as is lived in” conventional flows of performative acts (1996:182). of remembering through narratives and In the cases of Holocaust influence what is regarded as relevant, survivors, Kirmayer (1996:182) quotes how symptoms are interpreted, as well a study by Langer who videotaped as determine what is socially acceptable testimonies of number of individuals. to speak and what should stay outside The testimonies show a number of the ‘folk memory’. Depending on the different expressions of memories sites of recall, recurring memories including, deep memory, anguished will be experienced in different memory, humiliated memory, tainted ways. As Kirmayer notes (1996:192), memory, etc. He found that each dissociative amnesia is an embodied of these forms has its own distinct experience that has the capacity for expression and a particular way of neurological function and to construct relating and potentially disrupting a coherent narrative, as well as the ordinary memory. These testimonies psychological capacity to show emotion provide different sites of recalls, as and to fight pain and suffering and, individuals do not have the time nor most importantly, to share traumatic the opportunity for self-composition memories. Furthermore, the concepts or reflection that they might have of remembering, forgetting, and during personal interviews. Instead dissociation are all phenomenologically

38 distinct categories that shape how an analytical component unit is the memory is perceived and understood. concept of “basic-level categories,” Therefore, memory may which are distinguished from other be treated as body projected into the (superordinate) categories by several world and as a site of both practice and aspects of individual bodies: mental meaning. It involves an engagement of images, gestalt perception, sensimotor material properties starting with bodies apparatus, and knowledge structure. and phenomenological metaphors For example, the category chair is whose properties themselves become cognitively “basic” in the hierarchy objectified. In this way, traumatic furniture-chair-rocking chair (Lakoff memory as an embodiment of and Johnson 1999:27). emotional disruption transcends mind 5. Bourdieu refers to a “ceaseless and body and becomes a site of shared generation of collective existence. misrecognitions,” or the forgetting of history as doxa. He adds how doxa is a condition through which certain beliefs NOTES are outside the realm of reflection, 1. Pierre Janet has argued that taken to be self-evident and enacted narrative memories are always through the dispositions of individual reconstructed and often distorted while bodies (Ortner 2005:68). traumatic memories are usually more 6. Before Hallowell, Mauss suggested accurate representations of past events that all humans have a physical and (Young 1995:14). spiritual body. However, according 2. Allan Young (1995:13) adds how to Csordas (1990:7), although he the earliest entry “traumatic” in the attempted to bridge mind and body, Oxford English Dictionary in 1656 subject and object, Mauss in fact read: “belonging to wounds or the cure reproduced it and this failed attempt of wounds” and it was not until the is evident in his epistemological nineteenth century that the term was separation of la notion de personne as extended to include mental injuries. separate from les techniques du corps. 7. 3. Descartes’ understanding of the The idea of essence in consciousness body-self as an intuitive evokes the first person character where consciousness inherent to the human all things experienced by an individual organism, is expressed in his dictum comes to be known and lived from his Cogito, ergo sum – I think, therefore own perspective (Smith 2007:56). In I am (Scheper-Hughes and Lock some ways this resembles Descartes’ 1987:9). dictum – I think, therefore I am. 8. 4. According to the principles of Smith defines Husserl’s noema Gestalt psychology the whole as the “ideal content of the act can be broken into its component of consciousness” and noesis as parts. However, an exploration of “intentional moment of experience” individual parts does not accurately (2007:257-9). represent the whole. One example of 9. However, Rouse (2004:515) is

39 careful not to claim a universality Climo, Jacob J. and Maria G. Cattell of the “agentive self”. In fact, she 2002 Introduction: Meaning in Social argues that cultural symbols that are Memory and History: made available in shaping how one’s Anthropological Perspectives. In Social Memory and History: subjectivity is read will differ from one Anthropological Perspectives. individual to another, depending on Jacob J. Climo and Maria G. their social status, and the role of race Cattell, eds. Pp. 1-36. Walnut and perceived marginality. Creek: Altamira Press. Csordas, Thomas J. 1990 Embodiment as a Paradigm for Anthropology. Ethos. REFERENCES CITED 18(1):5-47. Ahearn, Laura M. 1994 Introduction: The Body as 2001 Language and Agency. Annual Representation and Review of Anthropology Being-in-the-World. In 30:109-137. Embodiment and Experience: Antze, Paul The Existential Ground of 2004 Illness and Irony in Culture and Self. Thomas J. Psychoanalysis. In Illness and Csordas, ed. Pp. 1-26. Irony: On the Ambiguity of Cambridge: Cambridge Suffering in Culture. Paul Antze University Press. and Lambek Michael, eds. Pp. Descartes, Rene 102-121. 1960 [1637] Discourse on Method. In Antze, Paul Discourse on Method and 1996 Telling Stories, Making Selves: Meditations. New York: Memory and Identity in Multiple The Liberal Arts Press. Personality Disorder. In Tense 1960 [1641] Meditations. In Discourse Past: Cultural Essays in Trauma on Method and Meditations. and Memory. Paul Antze and New York: The Liberal Arts Lambek Michael, eds. Pp. 3-23. Press. New York: Routledge. Halbwach, Maurice Antze, Paul and Lambek Michael 1992 [1941] On Collective Memory. 1996 Introduction: Forecasting Chicago: University of Chicago Memory. In Tense Past: Cultural Press. Essays in Trauma and Memory. Holquist, Michael, ed. Paul Antze and Lambek Michael, 1981 Four Essays by M. M. Bakhtin. eds. Pp. xi-xxxviii. New York: Austin: University of Texas Routledge. Press. Berman, Morris Jackson, Michael 1981 The Reenchantment of the 2006 [1983] Knowledge of the Body. In World. Ithaca: Cornell Anthropology in Theory: University Press. Issues in Epistemology. Bourdieu, Pierre Henrietta L. Moore and Todd 1977 Outline of a Theory of Practice. Sanders, eds. Pp. 322-335. Cambridge: Cambridge Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. University Press. Jenkins, Richard 1992 Pierre Bourdieu. London: Routledge.

40 Kenny, Michael G. Rouse, Carolyn 1996 Trauma, Illness, and Culture: An 2004 If she’s a vegetable, we’ll be Anthropological Approach to her garden: Embodiment, Traumatic Memory. In Tense Transcendence, and Citations of Past: Cultural Essays in Trauma Competing Cultural Metaphors and Memory. Paul Antze and in the Case of a Dying Child. Lambek Michael, eds. Pp. 151- American Ethnologist. 171. New York: Routledge. 31(4):514-529. Kyrmayer, Laurence J. Sacks, Oliver 1996 Landscapes of Memory: Trauma, 1998 The Man Who Mistook His Wife Narrative, and Dissociation. In for a Hat and Other Clinical Tense Past: Cultural Essays in Tales. New York: Simon and Trauma and Memory. Paul Antze Schuster. and Lambek Michael, eds. Pp. Scheper-Hughes, Nancy and Margaret 173-198. Lock Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson 1987 The Mindful Body: A 1999 Philosophy in the Flesh: The Prolegomenon to Future Work in Embodied Mind and Its Medical Anthropology. Medical Challenge to Western Thought. Anthropology Quarterly New York: Basic Books. 1(1):6-41. Leder, Drew Smith, David W. 1990 Clinical Interpretation: The 2007 Husserl. New York: Routledge. Hermeneutics of Medicine. Winkler, Cathy with Kate Wininger Theoretical Medicine 11:9-24. 1994 Rape Trauma: Contexts of Leys, Ruth Meaning. In Embodiment and 1996 Traumatic Cures: Shell Shock, Experience: The Existential Janet, and the Question of Ground of Culture and Self. Memory. In Tense Past: Cultural Thomas J . Csordas, ed. Pp. 248- Essays in Trauma and Memory. 268. Cambridge: Cambridge Paul Antze and Lambek Michael, University Press. eds. Pp. 103-145. New York: Young, Allan Routledge. 1995 The Harmony of Illusions: Lock, Margaret Inventing Post-Traumatic 1993 Cultivating the Body: Stress Disorder. Princeton: Anthropology and Princeton University Press. Epistemologies of Bodily Practice and Knowledge. Annual Review of Anthropology 22:133- 155. Ortner, Sherry 2005 Subjectivity and Cultural Critique. Anthropological Theory 5(1):31-52.

41

42 KAZUKO SATO

THE GIFT OF LIFE AND ALTRUISM Organ Transplantation as Cultural Practice in the United States and Canada

Abstract The term “gift of life” is used very often to describe the practice of organ transplantation. Through a closer investigation it becomes clear that the term is not simply a description of the practice, but it is used strategically to mask the disturbing aspects of the practice while encouraging the donation of organs. The article describes those unclear and often upsetting aspects, and gives some explanation of how the gift language can alleviate them. Lastly, the article analyzes the use of the gift language and the concept of altruism as a means of examining the unexpected meanings and relationships created among people involved in organ transplantation.

INTRODUCTION describe a similar situation where Organ transplantation is often described medical students, in the process of as a “medical miracle” (Sharp 1995:357) becoming physicians, are compelled since it can improve the quality of the to achieve two different ideals: lives of seriously ill patients, and can competence, indicating the property save the lives of those whose illnesses of skills and knowledge, and caring, were considered incurable by previous which is associated with the essential, biomedical technology. The term non-technical, quality of humans. The miracle also signifies techno-scientific juxtaposition of these two different progress since it is impossible to remove values with respect to Western organs without the aid of biomedical biomedical practice in part signifies technologies, such as a respirator and “the struggle between technology and the transfusion of fluids, which maintain humanism” (Good and Good 1993:93). the functioning of the donor’s body. Not surprisingly, there are similar There is, however, another frequently tensions inherent to the practice of used term in describing this practice organ transplantation. Not just a practice in the United States and Canada; this that saves lives, organ transplantation is the gift of life, a metaphor which is also unnerving because it involves has a strong implication of altruism. an otherwise culturally inappropriate The following statement from British behaviour: removing organs from one Columbia Transplant Society provides person and replacing them in another. an excellent example: “Give something This tension reveals further questions valuable to a total stranger. It’s the about the relationship between altruism greatest gift you can give – the gift and transplantation: Why is the of life” (British Columbia Transplant transplantation of organs talked about Society 2008). specifically in the light of altruism?; Good and Good (1993:91) Why does it have to be a gift, rather

43 than caring or helping?; Does the gift and independence associated with serve some purpose more adequately paid employment, without threatening than other concepts? her traditional values. Nevertheless, In her study of surrogate surrogate programs and surrogates motherhood, Ragone (1994) themselves are keenly aware that the demonstrates that the notion of the gift practice of surrogacy conflicts with of life reveals how surrogate programs various cultural norms concerning work to disguise a violation of cultural motherhood, reproduction and family norms. In other words, the gift metaphor that are deeply embedded in North masks the reality of reproductive labour American society. Ragone (1994:58- for monetary gain, and normalizes 59) argues that the gift metaphor, is surrogacy by suggesting the shared effectively used to reiterate traditional value of altruism. Following her claim, I ideas like the pricelessness of children, argue in this paper that the gift metaphor functions to normalize surrogacy by has a similar effect in organ donation appealing to shared cultural values. and transplantation in North America, One such cultural norm is more specifically in the United States that reproductive work and family and Canada. In particular, I argue that making should be the results of love, the gift language functions to obscure but not of the desire for remuneration, troubling aspects associated with the as one surrogate says, “The money practice, and further that gift-giving wasn’t enough to be pregnant for nine complicates and creates new meanings months” (Ragone 1994:57). Here the and relationships. The discussion first emphasis underscores an assumption examines the kinds of cultural and that surrogate pregnancy is enacted for social confusions, ambiguities, and reasons which cannot be compensated anxieties generated by the practice of for with money. The framing of organ donation and transplantation, surrogacy as something more than a and how the gift metaphor can function simple economic transaction appears to assuage these concerns. Next, by throughout the language used by women considering definitions of altruism in discussions about their involvement and the gift, I discuss how these with the surrogacy process. Indeed, notions appear in the practice of organ the word ‘gift’ is frequently used to transplantation. Finally, I examine new describe the act of surrogacy. In one meanings and relationships generated such example, a woman characterizes by this gift-giving practice. her reasons for becoming a surrogate as “want[ing] to do the ultimate thing for Ragone’s argument concerning somebody, to give them the ultimate the gift metaphor in surrogacy gift” (Ragone 1994:59). The use of the Ragone (1994:51-68) as part of a phrase “ultimate gift” underlines the careful examination of surrogate perception of many surrogate mothers: mothers’ experiences, concludes that they are interested in the act of selfless surrogacy provides an opportunity for gift-giving, but not an economic gain. a woman who holds traditional values Women also use similar about motherhood, reproduction and language when they talk about other family, to attain a sense of autonomy aspects of surrogacy. In particular,

44 the same expression, “to give them and an Ad hoc Harvard Medical School the ultimate gift” (Ragone 1994:59) Committee submitted a report to define is used by surrogates to describe the brain death in 1968. After extensive handing over of children to couples. discussion, the term was finalized in the Ragone (1994:41) suggests that parting Uniform Determination of Death Act in with a child conflicts with traditionally 1981 to mean the irreversible cessation accepted cultural norms which of the “functions of the whole brain, maintain that keeping and nurturing a including the brain stem” (Fox and child are the best expression of love Swasey 1992:61). In the United States, for that child. However, as Ragone the National Organ Transplantation (1994:41) goes on to point out, the use Act was signed in 1984, which made of gift language nevertheless works to illegal the commercialization of human normalize this act by locating it within vital organs. The act was created in the realm of altruistic behaviour – of response to an incident that occurred in selflessly giving up a child for the 1983 where Virginia physician H. Barry happiness of someone else. Jacobs established a kidney brokering The gift language emphasized company (Joralemon 1995:339). The by Ragone’s work is shared by another commercialization of vital organs is area of medicalized exchange, organ prohibited in Canada as well (Lock donation and transplantation. As Ragone 2002:47). demonstrates, the gift language plays While the number of an important role in normalizing the transplant patients on waiting lists practice of surrogacy. While surrogacy has increased each year, the number and the donation and transplantation of available organs has not. Although of organs are profoundly different, some organizations perceive this they have striking similarities: in both situation as evidence of a shortage in instances, gift language, prevalently the supply of organs (British Columbia used throughout these practices, Transplant Society 2008), research obscures and normalizes socially points to other causes, namely a rise unacceptable aspects of the practice, by in patients. According to Harrison emphasizing the highly valued cultural (1999:23), from 1991 to 1995 the idea of selfless giving. number of Canadian persons waiting to have a transplant increased from Some facts about organ 1,830 to 2,494. The number reached transplantation in the United nearly four thousand in 2001 (Health States and Canada Canada 2001). In the United States, the The “medical miracle” began with a number is much higher; between 1988 kidney transplantation in 1954 between and 1992, the number of Americans identical twins, though the more who were waitlisted increased from sensationalized was the first human-to- 14,742 to 27,000 (Harrison 1999:24). human heart transplantation, performed Currently, the number of the waitlist by South African surgeon Christiaan has risen to 98 thousand as compared Barnard in 1967 (Sharp 1995:358). to 23 thousand, which is the number As a response to the event, the need to of transplants performed from January develop new criteria of death was felt, to October in 2007 (UNOS 2008). In

45 terms of the patient’s rate of survival, utilizing technology, and that this self- Health Canada (Health Canada 2001) control is virtuous. Kahan (1996:138- claims that the one-year survival rate 139) points out the moral aspect of is 98 per cent for kidney transplant, 90 this attitude in the United States where per cent for liver, and 85 per cent for ideally all people are entitled to receive heart transplant although the rate varies health care, but where one has to look depending on organizations. after himself before claiming that right. Ambiguities surrounding organ Muller and Koenig take Lock’s transplantation second assertion even further, stating There are several ambiguous and often that the goal of biomedicine is to save disturbing aspects that people have to life using various kinds of technology, overcome in order to accept the idea and describe this battle against death of organ transplantation. First, in the as “the conquest of death” (Muller and majority of cases, the occurrence of Koenig 1988:367). Nuland calls this transplantation depends on the death of obsession to cure disease “The Riddle of a person, and this makes some people Disease” (1996:39). Through medical uncomfortable partly because in North training, the objective of physicians America in general people seem to have shifts from the relief of a patient’s a tremendous fear and denial of death. suffering to understanding the cause of Lock (2002:201-203) argues that this the disease by looking at the patient’s fear and denial of death can be seen in malfunctioning parts. However, when two aspects, first, the individuals’ effort death becomes inevitable, physicians to fight against disease and death, and may lose interest in patients because second, biomedicine’s preoccupation they now know the Riddle is unsolvable with defeating death. In the former, (Nuland 1996:42). The practice of people are driven to battle against organ donation and transplantation disease and death by employing is based on this loss of interest in the all kinds of “health” practices, and dying patient and to some extent a avoiding “unhealthy” things; for feeling of futility (Lock 2002:376). The example, a variety of vitamin and obsession to control nature, including minerals are sold in every corner of the life and death of the human body, is the local grocery store; yoga classes definitely a significant factor. are popular everywhere; provocative The second ambiguity exists TV commercials repeatedly allege the around the concept of brain death, harmful effects of smoking and urge us the criterion of death used for the to take measures to quit this unhealthy potential donor in the practice of organ habit. The idea that in order to fight procurement. Traditionally, death has against disease, one can strengthen been marked by the cessation of the one’s own immune system through heart, which stops virtually all functions utilizing various health measures, such of the body. Brain death, however, with as diet and exercise, is commonplace the aid of a respirator, allows one to (Martin 1994). This articulates a North maintain the functioning of the heart, American belief that one can control thus enabling the retrieval of organs. nature, including one’s body, through Here, the natural boundary between

46 life and death becomes ambiguous, and mistake would have happened a grey zone is created: we are left with (Lock 2002:260-261). a person who is legally declared “dead” but whose physical body remains Furthermore, Lock (2002:249) states alive. that only six intensivists among thirty- This situation of making a two interviewed have made some form “living cadaver” (Lock 2002:1) is of initiative like signing a donor card to confusing even for professionals, the donate their organs. This shows that the majority of whom have little problem idea of brain death is not yet entirely identifying brain death with human clear or comfortably accepted even death (Youngner 1996:46). Youngner among professionals. (1996:46-47) describes how this This somewhat artificial death confusion manifests itself among confuses not only professionals, but professionals by introducing a case even more so the families of brain- where a pregnant woman is diagnosed dead patients. Since brain dead patients as brain dead, and with massive look as if they are alive, and show medical assistance, delivered a healthy considerable physical movements, baby. In this instance, the woman’s it is difficult for their relatives to hair grew for eight weeks, and she accept that they are indeed “dead.” was bathed by a group of nurses, who Sque and Payne (1996:1362) describe routinely described the brain-dead how confusing this is for donor mother as alive (Youngner 1996:46- families based on their study done in 47). One nurse describes this situation the United Kingdom. Although their as follows: “Our job was to keep the research community is not North mother alive until the baby was born” American, it is worthwhile to note that (Youngner 1996:47). In a similar family members express confusion in example, a Canadian liver and kidney comments such as: “I think that’s the transplant surgeon comments on the worst bit, just seeing them laying there ambivalence about brain death and the but still warm and looking as if he was subsequent organ procurement: asleep,” and “[i]t was interesting, that though that body was not physically we took organs out, and the stable but had some movement in it, resident was tired and wrote was somewhat disorienting”(Sque and down on the chart that ‘the Payne 1996:1362). abdomen was closed and The third problematic aspect the patient was taken to the related to death is the physical violation recovery room!’ That’s what of the donor’s body; different people we always write after ordinary have different views about the body surgery, of course. It was an after death. Some show pragmatic honest mistake of a resident views about the use of their own dead who’d been on duty for body and the donation of organs, twenty-five hours in a row. But saying, “The day I die, I would like to even so, if it had really been be cremated to avoid the worms eating a cadaver in the mind of the me, and I will offer my organs [for resident, then I don’t think that transplantation]. Why would I leave

47 them rot?” (Freidin 2003:66). Others recipients, newly incorporated organs associate the practice negatively with contribute to their sense of completeness mutilation and the emptying of the of self. One lung recipient expresses body (Freidin 2003:67) as one person this by saying, “I wasn’t myself expresses: “[Organ ablation] sounds before…I couldn’t wash my hair, eat, like a mutilation. To be quartered, to be or even talk without quickly losing my cut up is worse when you are dead than breath. My brain couldn’t get enough when you are alive” (Freidin 2003:68). oxygen, and so I couldn’t think straight” Donors’ kin also have different ideas. (Sharp 1995:372). Sometimes, organs Sque and Payne (1996:1364) state that are construed as biographical objects the donor’s relative may feel that the associated with a personal history donor has already suffered so much and meanings. Therefore, for some from an untimely horrifying death and recipients, organ transplantation is not intrusive medical interventions and the mere experience of gaining organs, that organ retrieval is another source of but an experience of incorporating the suffering for the patient and thus seems donors themselves; some recipients unfair. The father of a brain dead patient feel that they have acquired the donors’ commented on his concern about a personal characteristics including post-mortem operation on his daughter: personalities and even food preference. “I did not want her to be cut about. I One transplant patient who received didn’t want her to be injured. You see transplantation twice in the past she was not injured in my eyes, because describes this as follows: there was not marks. So anything done after that would be an operation and I I still think of it as a different couldn’t comprehend that too much” person inside me – yes I do, (Sque and Payne 1996:1364). Youngner still. It’s not all of me, and (1996:49) states that it reminds people it’s not all this other person of another taboo subject, cannibalism. either…I never liked cheese A Canadian physician interviewed and stuff like that, and some by Lock (2002:254) describes his people think I ‘m joking but, experience in the 1970s of how a but all of a sudden I couldn’t transplant team “swarmed in” on the stop eating Kraft slices – that boy, who the physician was trying to was the first kidney. This time save but eventually declared brain around, the first thing I did dead, in order to harvest his organs. was to eat chocolate (Lock For the physician, the team looked like 2002:323). they were cannibalizing the boy, which made him feel considerable revulsion. Joralemon (1995:338) argues Fourth, one of the important that transplantation may take over the values constituting ideal personhood in recipient’s sense of identity; matters North America is individual autonomy like changes in lifestyle, surgical (Joralemon 1995:344). Having a scars, everyday medication, and transplantation may challenge the regular clinic visits constantly remind recipient’s sense of being an individual them that they are “not normal,” but person in various ways. For some surgically rebuilt and always at risk of

48 rejection or other illnesses. A transplant Kirmayer (1988:57), the most important recipient describes his experience in metaphor of biomedicine is that the body the following manner: “I worry about is a biochemical machine. Good and infection. I worry about rejection. You Good (1993:96) show that physicians- walk on eggshells all the time. I look in-training hear this metaphor while at the huge bag of pills I have. I look learning the language about the body at myself, my body, all the bruises and in anatomy, and develop the idea that bumps, the incision. You never forget” the body is a machine. The idea of the (Siminoff and Chillag 1999:37). body as a machine is compatible with Also, many recipients feel the idea of organ transplantation since a tremendous confusion about their transplantation ideology claims that identities in terms of health status. the human body has valuable parts They are commonly referred to as that can be replaceable when they cured and no longer disabled, and stop functioning (Sharp 1995:361). encouraged to “go back to work and get Accordingly, once brain death is back into society” (Sharp 1995:374). established and the donation of organs While many recipients feel physically is decided upon, the donor is no longer better than before the transplant, they viewed as a person, but becomes a likely face difficulties, one of which container of valuable organs. The total is finding employment since, as one emphasis of care shifts from treatment doctor-recipient expresses it, they are of the patient to the maintenance often seen as unreliable employees. of organs and bodily function. The Although their life was prolonged by following is the statement of a nurse the transplantation, they are extremely who describes her discomfort with this vulnerable to infections because of the situation: effect of immunosuppressant drugs, which suppress the occurrence of It’s almost as if you are more rejection. A woman who received a caring, and that just doesn’t kidney transplant about 20 years ago feel right…we send tests for and who has experienced various kinds virology over by taxi, do an of diseases including bone tumours, echocardiogram to see if they an uncommon type of cancer, and can use the heart, do X rays noticeable warts covering her skin. A of the lungs, check on the relative of the recipient describes the kidneys. You do haematology, situation as follows: “She’s almost biochemistry, neurology, the like an AIDS patient, she gets sick so lot (Lock 2002:253). often…we like to say ‘she has a healthy kidney; it’s the rest of her that’s sick’” Finally, the practice of organ (Sharp 1995:374-375). These negative transplantation clearly shows aspects aspects of transplantation are rarely of the commodification of the body. A given attention and are rarely discussed number of authors state that because by medical professionals or transplant of the development of the powerful organizations (Sharp 1995:375; immunosuppressant cyclosporine, Siminoff and Chillag 1999:39). rejection has become less problematic, Moreover, according to and as a result the demand for organs has

49 increased, which in turn has made organs and approximately US$130,000 for precious commodities (Delmonico and liver transplantation. Scheper-Hughes 2003; Harrison 1999). According to the website, This is consistent with the Kopytoff’s their surgeons perform operations in (1986) argument explaining the process the United States, the United Kingdom, of the commoditization in which or in the Philippines. Scheper-Hughes something that originally does not have (2004:56-57) shows that in the commodity value may later acquire the Philippines, people who are willing value as commodity, and it may or may to sell their organs are waitlisted. One not lose the value again. Organs go unemployed man sold a foreigner through a similar process where they his kidney at St. Luke’s Episcopal have no commodity value originally, Hospital, a private hospital of the but later may become valuable for highest class in Manila, for US$1,200 certain people who need them (Lock in order to provide medical care for 1990:47). two of his children. Unfortunately his In the United States, the first children died, so part of the money was website mediated kidney transplant used for their funerals, and the rest was surgery took place in Colorado on used to buy consumer items including October 27, 2004 (CBS News 2004). a radio/boom box. It is not hard for one Through the mediation of the website to see the connection between what the “MatchingDonors” (MatchingDonors website offers in the First World and 2008), a 58-year-old psychologist the sale of organs in the Third World. received a kidney from a 32-year- old part-time photographer and food How the gift metaphor reduces distributor. The recipient was reported anxiety and loss to pay about US$5,000 to the donor for Death is largely medicalized in North his lost wages and travel fees for his America where physicians have become family. The donor claims that nothing the gatekeepers of death and dying. more was paid, but commodification, in With their use of medical technologies, the sense that Kopytoff has suggested, physicians have control over how and of the donor’s kidney obviously took when people die (Muller and Koenig place, even though the donor left an 1988:353). However, accidental death altruistic comment about the website: signifies a loss of control for both “They’re allowing me to do something families and medical professionals not just good for this man” (CBS News only because it comes suddenly, which 2004). allows the family no time to prepare Traffic of human organs for it, but also because there is nothing in the world is the most obvious, that biomedicine can do to reverse the but the least discussed aspect of the prognosis. Considering the donation commodification of the body. The and transplantation of organs as the website “liver4You” (Liver4you 2000) “giving of gifts” may help a person to offers kidney and liver transplantation regain a sense of control by turning the in ten days; it offers both living and confusion into a heroic event, which cadaveric donors from US$65,000 to transforms the apparently meaningless US$95,000 for kidney transplantation, death into something worthwhile

50 (Lock 2002:10). The loss that kin feels The gift metaphor, coupled will never go away, but the idea that with the practice of anonymous someone else received their relative’s donation, seems to function to organ suggests the transcendence of the discourage donor’s family from person which may help in alleviating the searching out and interfering with grief (Siminoff and Chillag 1999:36), recipient’s life, although, as will be and overcoming the sense of violation. discussed below, this is not always The mother of a donor who effective. Furthermore, by emphasizing died at the age of seven expresses how the voluntary aspect of altruistic giving, she was upset about seeing her daughter as the account of the Internet-mediated being subjected to intrusive medical transplantation indicates, the metaphor procedure: “it was nonstop talking diverts people’s attention away from the around us as they were testing, testing, socioeconomic hierarchy and inequality taking blood…they kept coming existing in the flow of organs from the and touching her and taking things poor to the wealthy, and from the Third from her…I was angry that they kept World to the First World. Moreover, touching her” (Lock 2002:233). She the “gift of life” serves to suppress further comments on how she had come concerns about the commodification of to accept her daughter’s death: “I’m the body clearly existing in the practice pleased, I’m finally pleased. If there by emphasizing aspects of altruism and is a little girl living thanks to Martha’s the public good. Also, by proclaiming liver, then that’s wonderful…I suppose it a gift rather than a commodity, the I do think a little bit that she is living on practice of organ transplantation can in those other kids” (Lock 2002:234). remain a sacred, heroic act, rather than For transplant surgeons, the a profane commodification of body- gift metaphor may work in order to self (Belk 1990:141). aid the overcoming of the sense of anxiety and ambiguity surrounding the THE CONCEPT OF ALTRUISM death of the donor and the harvesting AND THE GIFT – ORGAN of organs by allowing them to see the DONATION AS GIFT GIVING procedure as “giving a gift of life” to The Oxford English Dictionary defines others who will, in turn, be saved. At altruism as “devotion to the welfare of the same time, the idea of the “giving others, regard for others, as a principle of life” may help professionals to of action; opposed to egoism or reduce their feeling of violating the selfishness,” and the gift as “something, body (Lock 2002:254). One transplant the possession of which is transferred surgeon says, “[a] child has died, but to another without the expectation of I can make a difference,” and another receipt of an equivalent; a donation, surgeon articulates, “the only thing that present” (Oxford English Dictionary kept me going with the procurement 2000). Gift giving in contemporary was the thought that someone was North America has a strong implication going to benefit from this, even though of altruism. Considered to be a selfless it was a tragic event” (Lock 2002:259- act, as the definition of the gift suggests, 260). These comments clearly express it is used interchangeably with the what the gift language can offer. term “present.” Marcel Mauss (1990),

51 however, argues that gift exchange people are expected to support and is ultimately the making of a social often donate time and money to relationship, which entails various various health causes. Phone calls obligations such as giving, receiving, asking for a donation of money from and reciprocating. An example of this health organizations such as the Heart can be found in Maori law, where a and Stroke Foundation, and race events gift given to someone is considered to organized by those groups are common possess hau, the “spirit of the things” examples. Similarly, Friedman (Mauss 1990:11) of the giver, and (2003:3) explicitly asks for support for therefore, should be somehow returned. the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and for Failure to do so causes hostility since the donation of organs in the journal, it is considered to be the rejection of Policy and Practice of Public Human a social connection. To give somebody Services, presenting his personal something is to give somebody a part account of how his son came to receive of oneself, and to receive something a lung transplant. The following is from somebody is to receive part of his message: “As you search for that somebody. Therefore, the rejection of perfect gift for a loved one this holiday the gift is equivalent to the rejection of season, please also consider the most the giver (Mauss 1990:11-12). precious of all gifts, even if it’s for a Murray (1987) points out total stranger” (Friedman 2003:3). that the gift metaphor has an intended However, the giving of a gift function to promote social solidarity, to a stranger sounds peculiar since, which is threatened in a capitalist system as Mauss claims, the gift implies the such as North America where human making of social relationship, and relationships are regulated mostly by to be able to do so, a stranger has to the market economy. Correspondingly, be known. It would seem that charity Joralemon (1995:344) makes an defined as “[b]enevolence to one’s explicit claim that advocates of the neighbours, especially to the poor; gift ideology in the practice of organ the practical beneficences in which donation bring the practice in line this manifests itself; almsgiving” with cultural ideals highly valued in (Oxford English Dictionary 2000), American society. In particular, the more appropriately describes “giving expression of caring and generosity to to a stranger.” Interestingly, Ohnuki- others, including total strangers who Tierney (1994:241) argues that the are facing difficult situations such as current practice of organ donation natural disasters, without expectation more closely resembles charity than of any return (Joralemon 1995:344). gift giving. This is because the practice, The gift language thus enforces partly because of anonymous donation, North Americans to contribute to the lacks any social relationship, which community and to the public good is the most important aspect of gift (Joralemon 1995:344). giving. The fundamental difference This is seen clearly in between charity and organ donation contemporary North America where, is that in charitable giving, the objects together with the preoccupation with are alienable from the giver, whereas one’s health and battling disease, donated organs are not (Ohnuki-

52 Tierney 1994:241). skills of medical professionals are also Taking these arguments mandatory. Therefore, recipients may into account, it is clear that the gift find themselves in a situation where metaphor complicates the practice of multiple givers demand some kind organ donation and transplantation of reciprocity. Later, I will show how by highlighting two different values. the “giving of organs” is not simply On the one hand, the proponent of the the outcome of an individual decision gift ideology in organ donation seeks based on altruism but is filtered through charitable donation in which donation existing social values and hierarchy. is anonymous, with no expectation of reciprocity involved. The conflict ORGAN DONATION AS GIFT here is that organs are not neutral GIVING – NEW MEANINGS AND items that can be disposed of easily RELATIONSHIPS by the donor’s relatives, who most Koenig (1988) argues that the likely make the decisions. On the technological imperative in other hand, the proponents claim that biomedicine, a strong preference for it is a gift exchange which implies the latest technology, occurs when that the object is a valuable entity with the use of new technology becomes personal meanings attached to it, thus standardized, which further leads to generating potential for obligation the moral imperative, where the use and social connection. This creates of the technology becomes a moral a concept that charity cannot render, obligation in the treatment setting. which is that the donor can continue Since organ transplantation has become living in another person. Therefore, commonplace with the development although current organ donation of cyclosporine, professionals tend to discourages participants to develop view the practice as standard. In tandem social relationships, the language of with the gift ideology, the obligation to the gift is so effectively used that it receive is highlighted. The decision creates the potential for obligations. of the patient not to have a transplant Accordingly, then, participants of the is viewed as unnatural and even transplantation actively seek out the pathological, and is thus disregarded, possibility for social relationships. sometimes causing conflict. This In the next section, I discuss conflict is evident in a description by various obligations associated with Lock (2002:310-314) regarding the gift giving including the obligations case of K’aila Paulette who died at to receive, to reciprocate, and to use eleven months of age from a serious the gift appropriately, which are often liver disease. complicated by confusion surrounding Carefully considering the question of the nature of the possibilities of K’aila’s survival and gift. Organ transplantation is not an quality of life after transplant surgery, exchange between two individuals, his parents decided not to give him the because in the process, the donation liver transplantation (Lock 2002:310- of organs is usually decided by the 312). This apparently upset the medical donor’s kin, the transplant coordinator’s professionals who understood this mediation is usually necessary, and the decision as the “neglect of a child,”

53 the failure to provide the child with suitable for transplantation due to their essential care, and the case was taken use of steroid and immunosuppressant to court (Lock 2002:314). According to drugs (Sharp 1995:375). They may Siminoff and Chillag (1999:40), medical write letters to the donors’ kin but professionals view transplantation as because of the anonymous donation a contract between the patients and and the mediation by the transplant themselves. This gives a rise to the idea organization, the recipients often do among medical professionals that if the not know if their letters are received first transplant fails, retransplantation (Sharp 1995:370). Some recipients get is the only option. Therefore, when the involved with volunteering, including patient refuses to have a retransplant, it public speaking and distributing donor is almost viewed as betrayal. One health cards at shopping malls, to fulfill their care professional expresses disbelief desire to reciprocate (Siminoff and about the decision of a recipient who Chillag 1999:39). refused retransplantation: “He is forty- As stated above, organs are six, he should give it a whirl. Why biographical objects that carry meanings doesn’t he want to? Meanwhile we and have histories for the relatives of spend thousands of dollars working both recipients and donors. However, him up. Nobody bothered to ask him conflicts occur because recipients and if he wanted it or not” (Siminoff and donors often have very different ideas Chillag 1999:40). about the types of biography attached In many cases, organ to transplanted organs. Encouraged by transplantation depends on someone’s professionals to consider the organ as a death. Despite being encouraged to “gift,” the recipients may view the new think of it as a gift, the connotations organ as their own, but the donor’s kin inherent in the procedure make some may have a different idea. Donors’ kin, people uneasy. For example, Siminoff influenced by the idea that their loved and Chillag (1999:37-38) describe one continues to live in the recipient’s the difficulty faced by a patient who body, a notion the gift metaphor actively needed a second transplantation. While promotes, may search for recipients, waiting for the second transplantation and try to establish “kinship” with them. as an inpatient, hoping “his” organ However, the relative success of these would soon arrive at the hospital, attempts depends on the willingness he realised that he was “waiting for of both parties to break the barrier of someone to die” (Siminoff and Chillag anonymity and establish kinship ties 1999:37), which gave him a tremendous with one another. feeling of guilt. This feeling sometimes Sharp (1995:376) describes evolves into an overwhelming feeling a situation where two men who that one cannot reciprocate such a exchanged organs in a domino heart- significant “gift,” a situation Fox and lung transplant, where one person Swasey describe as the “tyranny of the received a cadaveric heart-lung gift” (Fox and Swasey 1992:40). Even transplant and his original heart was if they desire to give back in the same transplanted into the other man, became way, organ donation is not an option friends and now refer themselves as for them because their organs are not “brothers.” However, if establishing

54 kinship is the wish of just one side of transplant who had a struggle with a the party, this causes an uncomfortable health care professional who tried to situation. Ralph, a recipient of exert control: lung transplantation, expresses his confusion about his donor’s widow, The [health care professional] who seems to consider him more than asked me what I had eaten a recipient, even telling Ralph personal for my last meal…I had some matters such as her remarrying with cheese pie, some meat pie. her husband’s best friend: “She wants The [health care professional] to get together sometime, but I don’t said, “We didn’t give you this think I want to meet her, though. She liver so that you could ruin it thinks that her husband lives on in me; clogging your arteries.” This but I feel uncomfortable about that – is a gift? A gift? (Siminoff and I feel they are my lungs now” (Sharp Chillag 1999:40). 1995:376). Murray (1987:32) argues that The same patient also complains that the concept of the gift entails the idea the health care professional asked her if that it has to be used in a manner that she wore a seat-belt, saying, “We didn’t the giver approves of, as opposed to give you a liver so that you could drive the commonsense contemporary North home without a seat-belt and waste the American view of the gift where the gift liver” (Siminoff and Chillag 1999:40). does not involve such obligations. This The gift metaphor further is evident in a situation where living complicates the situation because of the donors may claim ownership of their advocate’s misguided assumption of donated organs, and try to interfere the nature of the gift and the act of gift with the recipients’ behaviour in order giving. Lock (2002:318) asserts that to protect “their” organs. For example, the use of the gift metaphor functions Sharp (1995:371-372) describes the to reinforce the idea that donation is an feeling of frustration of a transplant individual choice, which corresponds patient who received her brother’s to one of the cultural ideals that North kidney. After the transplant, she says, Americans value, that is, the individual her brother considering the kidney is right to discard one’s possessions still his, has been determined to stop when one desires. This is evident in her smoking (Sharp 1995:371). In her the description of a new registration family, everybody except her refers to system to become a donor in British the transplanted kidney as her brother’s Columbia. Based on this system, even though the transplantation after the death of the individual who occurred more than ten years ago has registered as donor, a copy of the (Sharp 1995:371). registration form may be presented to Professionals, who consider the person’s relatives as proof of the the transplant operation as the giving decision, which apparently “removes of life, may also stand on the side of the burden and onus of making a the giver, and pressure recipients to use difficult decision at an already difficult the gift appropriately. The following time, from a grieving family” (British is a comment by a recipient of a liver Columbia Transplant Society 2008).

55 The problem here is that people who tear up their donor cards if they kept sign donor cards may not value their wasting organs by allocating them to own dead body, but the truth is that the mentally impaired individuals. This people who usually decide to donate shows that the decision to donate is are the closest relatives, and they take strongly influenced by ideas about who the death of their relatives differently. deserves the gift, which are shaped by Similarly, Lauritzen et existing social values in North America al. (2001:32) argue that the gift where people with disabilities or metaphor is founded on the notion of mental conditions are associated with autonomous and individual decision little social worth. making, which equates signing the Furthermore, the choice of donor card with to the actual donation. the individual to donate is complicated In practice, however, the donation and by the choices of other parties. Since the subsequent transplantation occur medical professionals may consider after going through many processes. themselves life givers and assume the For example, professionals stand as task of gatekeepers in the practice, their gatekeepers and decide who can become choices have a tremendous impact on the givers and receivers. Therefore, one’s distribution of the gift. The American desire to become a donor is not always Medical Association maintains that a sufficient. Fox and Swasey (1974:11- patient’s social worth should not affect 13) describe a case where a mother’s the selection of transplant candidates zealous desire to donate her kidney (Kutner 1987:29). Correspondingly, to her son was almost turned down an organ transplant organization, the because her motivation, judged by the United Network for Organ Sharing fact that she was the mother of nine (UNOS), explicitly states that organs other children and that she implied to will be distributed/allocated “fairly, the social worker that she intended to efficiently, and effectively” (UNOS use the donation to assume a dominant 2008) based on a combination of position in her marriage, was viewed factors such as the length of the time by physicians as not entirely altruistic. for being waitlisted, tissue types, and Moreover, since it is not whether the potential recipient is a charity but the gift which entails child. However, Kutner (1987:29- various obligations and expectations, 30) claims that the current criteria as was stated above, the decision to of recipient selection is based on the donate is most likely influenced by success of transplantation, meaning the ideas about who should receive the high probability of transplant survival, gift, which is largely shaped by existing and therefore excludes some segment ideas of social worth and hierarchy. of the population, such as patients According to Lock (2002:345-346), with mental, emotional, familial, and when a hospital in Alberta changed its probably financial problems because position and accepted Terry Urquhart, they are viewed to be less likely to a Down Syndrome patient, to their comply with the treatment regimen, waitlist for a lung transplant, the thus reducing the probability of hospital staff received many angry success. phone calls by people threatening to This tendency is clearly

56 recognized in a proposal by House and of organs has been perceived as a crisis. Thompson II (1988:535) suggesting The metaphor of the gift of life has been that psychiatric evaluation of the popular because it is easy to understand, patient is helpful in order to detect and therefore it is thought to be an less ideal candidates with psychiatric effective means to increase donations risks, such as severe mental retardation while obscuring the ambiguities and personality disorders, which may surrounding the practice. However, hamper the successful transplantation, Siminoff and Chillag (1999:41) claim and their rather contradictory statement that while the metaphor seems to work that any form of discrimination should to educate the public about the need for be avoided. Moreover, according to donation, it is not necessarily effective Eggers (1995), in the United States, there in increasing the actual rate of donation. is significant difference in the likelihood Surveys have revealed that even though of being accepted to a waitlist and to the majority of Americans know about receive organ transplantation based on organ donation, and many of them are patient ethnicity. For example, from willing to donate their organs at death, 1988 to 1992, after one year of renal in 1994 less than half families agreed failure, Euro-American patients (22.7 to donate when asked. For this reason, percent) were nearly four times more Siminoff and Chillag (1999:41) further likely to receive a kidney transplant suggest the use of an alternative slogan, than African American patients (six “Share your life, share your decision,” per cent). Kutner (1986:30) also states because this slogan does not connote that her study in Atlanta revealed that any obligations, but instead highlights African American kidney patients (49 the importance of group decision percent) were much more likely than making regarding donation while Euro-American patients (36 percent) to encouraging it at the same time. The claim that nobody had mentioned the slogan, by reducing the potential for possibility of transplantation. These obligations associated with the “gift,” African American patients were less may effectively decrease the burden likely to have completed twelve years of the recipients. However, it does not of education, and more likely to be out address the aspects of social control of a job than their counterparts. This and inequality clearly existing in the discrepancy may partly be rooted in practice of organ transplantation. the physician’s idea that a low level Annas (1988:621) points out of education would affect the patient’s that the practice is full of paradoxes, ability for compliance (Kutner 1986:31). one of which is that as increasing This clearly shows that the problem numbers of older and sicker patients of choice complicates the distribution are now accepted as candidates for of organs, and that the practice itself transplantation, fewer younger and reproduces social inequalities based on healthier people die owing to increased socioeconomic status. safety measures like the use of seat- belts. As a result, the shortage will CONCLUSION continue to rise, and organs will As organ transplantation has become a become increasingly precious items. standard medical practice, the shortage In that case, it will not be surprising to

57 see tighter social control and increased CBS News inequality in the procurement and 2004 Web-KidneyTransplant distribution of these precious objects Underway: Man Who Turned to based on the existing social hierarchy. Web in Hope of Finding Kidney Undergoes Transplant. Does this mean that these problems Electronic document, http:// are inherent to the practice of organ www.cbsnews.com/stories/ transplantation? If this is the case, 2004/10/27/health/main651771. the metaphor of “altruistic giving” shtml, Accessed January 20, will continue to serve the purpose 2008. of obscuring these problems which Delmonico, Francis L., and Nancy trouble many North Americans who Scheper-Hughes place a high value on the fundamental 2003 Why We Should Not Pay For equality of all human beings. Human Organs. Zygon 38(3):689-698. Eggers, Paul W. Acknowledgments 1995 Racial Differences in Access to I would like to thank the reviewers of Kidney Transplantation. my paper for providing me with helpful Health Care Financing Review comments and suggestions. 17(2):89-103 Fox, Renee C., and Judith P. Swasey 1974 The Courage to Fail: a Social REFERENCES CITED View of Organ Transplant Annas, George J. and Dialysis. Chicago: The 1988 The Paradoxes of Organ University of Chicago Press. Transplantation. American 1992 Spare Parts: Organ Replacement Journal of Public Health in American Society. New York: 78(6)621-622. Oxford University Press. Freidin, Betina Belk, Russell W. 1990 Me and Thee Versus Mine and 2003 The Dead Body and Organ Thine: How Perceptions of the Transplantation. In Aging Body Influence Organ Donation Bodies: Images and Everyday and Transplantation. In Organ Experience. Christopher A. Donation and Transplantation: Faircloth ed. Pp. 55-76. New Psychological and Behavioral York: Rowman and Littlefield. Friedman, Jerry W. Factors. James Shanteau and Richard Jackson Harris, eds. 2003 The Most Precious Gift. Policy Pp. 139-149. Washington D.C.: and Practice of Public Human American Psychological Services 61(4):3. Association. British Columbia Transplant Society 2008 Give Life. Electronic document, http://www.transplant.bc.ca/, Accessed January 20, 2008.

58 Good, Byron J. and Mary-Jo DelVecchio Koenig, Barbara A. Good 1988 The Technological Imperative 1993 Learning Medicine: The in Medical Practice: the Social Constructing of Medical Creation of a Routine Treatment. Knowledge at Harvard Medical In Biomedicine Examined. School. In Knowledge, Power Margaret Lock, and Deborah R. and Practice: the Anthropology Gordon eds. Pp. 465-496. of Medicine and Everyday Life. London: Kluwer Academic Shirley Lindenbaum and Publishers. Margaret Lock eds. Pp.81-107. Kopytoff, Igor Berkeley: University of 1986 The Cultural Biography of California Press. Things: Commoditization as Harrison, Trevor Process. In The Social Life of 1999 Globalization And the Trade in Things: Commodities in Human Body Parts. Canadian Cultural Perspective. Arjun Review of Sociology and Appadurai ed. Pp. 64-91. Anthropology 36(1):21-35. Cambridge: Cambridge Health Canada University Press. 2001 Organ Donation in Canada. Kutner, Nancy G. Electronic document, http:// 1987 Issues in the Application of High www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/media/ Cost Medical Technology: the nr-cp/2001/2001_93bk2_e.html, Case of Organ Transplantation. Accessed January 20, 2008. Journal of Health and Social House, Robert M, and Troy L. Behavior 28:23-36. Thompson II Lauritzen, Paul, Michael McClure, 1988 Psychiatric Aspects of Organ Martin L. Smith and Andrew Trew Transplantation. The Journal of 2001 The Gift of Life and the The American Medical Common Good: The Need for Association 260(4):535-539. a Communal Approach to Organ Joralemon, Donald Procurement. Hastings Center 1995 Organ Wars: the Battle for Body Report 31(1):29-35. Parts. Medical Anthropology Liver4you Quarterly 9(3):335-356. 2000 Liver4You. Electronic document, Kahan, Barry D. http://www.liver4you.org/, 1996 Organ Donation and Accessed January 20, 2008. Transplantation – A Surgeon’s Lock, Margaret View. In Organ Transplantation: 2002 Twice Dead: Organ Transplant Meanings and Realities. Stuart J. and the Reinvention of Death. Youngner, Renee C. Fox, and Berkeley: University of Laurence J. O’Connell eds. Pp. California Press. 126-141. Wisconsin: University Martin, Emily of Wisconsin Press. 1994 Flexible Bodies: Tracking Kirmayer, Laurence J. Immunity in American Culture 1988 Mind and Body as Metaphors: from the Days of Polio to the Hidden Values in Biomedicine. Age of AIDS. Boston: Beacon In Biomedicine Examined. Press. Margaret Lock, and Deborah R. Gordon eds. Pp. 57-86. London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

59 MatchingDonors Scheper-Hughes, Nancy 2008 MatchingDonors. Electronic 2004 Parts Unknown: Undercover document, Ethnography of the Organs http://www.matchingdonors. Trafficking Underworld. com/life/index.cfm, Accessed Ethnography 5(1):29-73. January 20, 2008 Sharp, Lesley Mauss, Marcel 1995 Organ Transplantation as a 1990 [1950] The Gift: the Form and Transformative Experience: Reason for Exchange in Archaic Anthropological Insights into the Societies. New York: W. W. Restructuring of the Self. Norton and Company. Medical Anthropology Quarterly Muller, Jessica H., and Barbara A. 9(3):357-389. Koenig Siminoff, Laura A. and Kata Chillag 1988 On the Boundary of Life and 1999 The Fallacy of the “Gift of Life.” Death: the Definition of Dying Hastings Center Report by Medical Residents. In 29(6):34-41. Biomedicine Examined. Sque, Magi, and Sheila A. Payne Margaret Lock, and Deborah R. 1996 Dissonant Loss: the Experiences Gordon eds. Pp. 351-374. of Donor Relatives. Social London: Kluwer Academic Science and Medicine Publishers. 43(9):1359-1370. Murray, Thomas H. UNOS (United Network for Organ 1987 Gifts of the Body and the Needs Sharing) of Strangers Hastings Center 2008 UNOS: Donate Life. Electronic Report 17(2):30-38. document, http://www.unos.org/, Nuland, Sherwin B. Accessed January 20, 2008. 1996 The Doctor’s Role in Death. In Youngner, Stuart J. Facing Death: Where Culture, 1996 Some Must Die. In Organ Religion, and Medicine Meet. Transplantation: Meanings and Howard M. Spiro, Mary G. Realities. Stuart J. Youngner, McCrea, and Lee P. Wandel eds. Renee Fox, Laurence O’Connell Pp. 38- 43. New Haven: Yale eds. Pp. 32-55. Wisconsin: University Press. University of Wisconsin Press. Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko 1994 Brain Death and Organ Transplantation: Cultural Bases of Medical Technology. Current Anthropology 35(3):233-254. Oxford English Dictionary 2000 Oxford English Dictionary. Electronic document, http://dictionary.oed.com, Accessed January 20, 2008. Ragone, Helena 1994 Surrogate Motherhood: Conception in the Heart. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.

60 SOMA W. MORSE

EXCHANGES – THE GIFT, PLACE AND ETHNOGRAPHY Images and Text from Field Research in the Visayan Philippines

Abstract In this article I entwine together discursive strands – ethnography as exchange and the role of place in these substantive practices are used in presenting and discussing the visual and textual dimensions of fieldwork conducted in the Central Philippines. I present three photographs as a means through which knowledge is formed and informed by the visual and textual process of doing ethnography in the context of Mauss’ theory of the gift. Through ethnographic practice these strands knit together a network of places in time and space. These manifestations, constructed through the power of resistance and domination, serve as a potent reminder that as anthropologists we must analyze our own cycle of exchange and its links to ethnography and the world at large.

PRELUDE: ODE TO A INTRODUCTION: SETTING FOOTNOTE THE SCENE A footnote is often considered of less After the 1980s with its concomitant importance than the body of text it crisis in representation, anthropology references. However, the article you see witnessed a number of theoretical shifts before you has its humble beginnings that reshape the study of space and place as a footnote in a paper I wrote for a (Gupta and Ferguson 1999:2-3). This graduate course in anthropological crisis raised the spectre of colonialism, theory.1 The footnote, emerging out of a questioned ethnographic claims to discussion of Mauss’ The Gift: The Form authoritative knowledge and reviewed and Reason for Exchange in Archaic the traditional modernist dualisms Societies,2 pondered the implications of by which ethnography translates the work for ethnography as a practice. ‘the other’ into an apparently willing In the subsequent semester, I took a subject (observer/observed, traditional/ course3 which through its emphasis civilized, objective/subjective, self/ on articles discussing current trends other) (Asad 1986; Ingold 1993). throughout varied topics pertaining to While much of the critique seemed cultural anthropology and ethnography new at the time, in reality however, gave me the impetus to follow up on it echoed earlier and in fact, ongoing the footnote and to extend my thinking questions about practice regarding the about Mauss’ work in The Gift. very what and how of ethnography. In What follows is my working the 1970s, a decade before the ‘crisis’, out of the confluences and contradictions Keesing (1974:93) argued that culture between The Gift and current trends in be viewed as lived and practiced in the ethnography with reference to my own everyday world. ethnographic experiences recorded in During the same era, Godelier textual and visual form. (1978:764; 766) suggested that the

61 analysis of culture meant querying the 1981:408) and a merging of modernist usual separation between the material dualisms, particularly that of the subject and the symbolic as explainable solely and object (Marcus 1995:99-102).4 The in their own terms. Likewise, a decade ethnographic project thus becomes an later Wolf (1988:752-753) argued emergent boundary–crossing endeavor, that culture functionally unbounded a project not simply immersed in culture required a perspective of continual but as a recursive and socially–engaged interaction across boundaries. cultural production (Marcus 1995:99). As a part of recognizing Ethnography in this framework interaction, ethnography witnessed a opens up a reflexive examination of move to include the material, whereby contingencies and constraints without objects, places and practices became giving way to exotic frisson (Wolf the emphasis rather than the traditional 1990:588), in which ethnographers human–centered focus. Moreover, this deal with the ‘big’ questions (Nader meant that any a priori assumptions 617:2001), questions of power – could be abandoned and researchers social, political, economic – and how could “follow how a given element these conditions are experienced and becomes strategic through the number negotiated. of connections it commands and how... In her introduction to the it lose[s] its importance when losing its 1990 translation of Mauss’ The Gift, connections” (Latour 1998:website). Mary Douglas suggests that The Gift In keeping with Marxist and has in general, been neglected as a tool feminist critiques, these shifts not only for analyzing exchange (1990:xvi). open up for analysis the social, political Douglas’ statement with respect to the and historical processes through which emphasis of this paper, is only partially contingent “cultural territorializations” correct. The Gift and the theories (Gupta and Ferguson 1999:4-6) become therein continue to be used and debated emplaced but also move away from etic to this day as a means of analyzing the functionalist or structuralist cultural social contract of exchange between and spatial wholes. In avoiding grand people, things and ideas in a broad set scale narratives, this smaller frame of ethnographic contexts (Godelier of analysis thus contributes to more 1999; Hart 2001; Herrmann 1997; significant wholes, situating knowledge Howell 1989; Mazarella 2003; Miller by exploring its subjectivities 1987; Pertierra 2006; Snellinger (Haraway 189:1991). Place–making 2005; Weiner 1985).5 If anything, in this approach is “conceived less as the extended play of Mauss’ theories a matter of ‘ideas’ than of embodied in these works demonstrates the practices that shape identities and longevity and importance of Mauss to enable resistances” (Gupta and anthropology and the anthropological Ferguson 1999:6). These perspectives practice of “us[ing] the work of our place ethnography in the global predecessors to raise new questions” world, exploring particular practices (Wolf 1990:588). and the unbounded dimensions of Exchange, for Mauss (1990:5), culture (Kearney 1995:557), the role is a ‘total social fact’ that takes place not of capitalism in that dispersal (Nash only between individuals but between

62 collectivities. In the Durkheimian6 2005, I examine place and exchange as sense of the term, “exchange...is the part of the ethnographic process. way that human beings reconcile their Visual culture7 much like individuality with belonging to others ethnography, occupies a proliferate in society” (Hart 2001:website). An yet contentious space; despite its exchange then, is never disinterested ubiquity, “anthropologists have never but negotiated and reciprocated within quite known what to do with the a social, symbolic, political and visual” (MacDougall 217:2006). Anna economic system (Mauss 1990:5-6) Grimshaw, noting the troublesome nature that links together individual and of visual work offers a parsimonious social, institutional, magical, religious and crucial distinction between the and moral realms (1990:5-12). “anthropology of the visual ... [and Further, the links forged the] visualization of anthropology” through reciprocal exchange are (2005:199). Grimshaw’s approach produced not only through movable outlines two potential methodologies objects, but through social events in to decenter the ‘objective gaze’ so which the economic is but one element effectively problematized by Donna (Mauss 1990:5). In Mauss’ perspective Haraway as the “god–trick of seeing then, exchange via reciprocity is everything from nowhere” (1991:189). substantively bound up in social The first approach studies the visual practice (Bourdieu 1990; Snellinger anthropologically, and is often based 2005:32). Ethnography then, is a in discursive, language–based analysis profoundly economic activity when predicated on analytically separating taken in the context of transactions, the visual into component parts: the reciprocity and exchange. what and the how of presentation In clarifying the comparatively (Grimshaw 2005:200). widespread salience of Mauss’ thoughts The second approach on exchange, I should note that Douglas Grimshaw (2005:199) advocates, does accurately characterize, however employs a reflexive ethnographic inadvertently, a certain neglect, which process in which knowledge is this article addresses. This is the relative produced and takes shape within that paucity of analysis relating The Gift to process While Grimshaw characterizes ethnography itself. By this I mean not these approaches as “two distinct exchange in ethnographic settings but constellations” (2005:199), she also rather, ethnography as an exchange. The locates a more crucial question: how “difference which makes a difference” these approaches might form and (Bateson 2001:459), is in thinking of inform one anther within the same ethnography as a dynamic system, not project? Grimshaw highlights a as a singular panoptic gaze, but one ‘situated’ view of ethnography “as a set in which the ethnographer is only one of practices linked to a critical stance participant of many in an embodied toward questions of culture and identity and contingent exchange. Using three [involving] the play of the familiar and photographs from my ethnographic the strange” (Grimshaw 2005:200-201). research in a community in the Central Philippines during April and May of

63 The Scene(s) Imagine yourself in an impoverished What exactly is being exchanged community, near Bacolod City, on the through the ethnographic process the Island of Negros in the Cen- presented here? If we understand that tral Philippines. You are there as a the ethnographic process is a form of research assistant, and it is 31 degrees exchange whereby the ethnographer Celsius, hot, and you are jet–lagged is a participant in and generator of like you’ve never been before. This meaning then within this process is where I am on April 17, 2005. On generally and and my research in that day, we8 met with some of the particular, we can understand place as members of the women’s community central dimension of exchange in the organization KASAKI, and after talk- ethnographic process. Constructions of ing they insist on buying me a pop. place play a central role in how people Choosing a Sprite, I wondered how think about and perceive group identity I might be able to convince them to (Rodman 1992:641-642). In this sense, let me pay for it. Thinking it over, I “place is the fundamental means by decide against that plan, realizing that which we make sense of the world and when a gift is offered, it should not through which we act” (Sack 1992:1). be denied. With the pop finished, they Place then, in the anthropological sense ask, “Why don’t we walk around the as developed by Margaret Rodman, is community you can see where things a physical location which is socially are?” On the tour, thankful for airy constructed through “lived experience” and washable flip–flops, I negotiate (1992:640-641), one that is multilocal wooden planks over the waste–water and multivocal. A single place may canals that run around the periphery evoke multiple voices or perspectives, of the houses. We stop momentarily at as well as multiple locales in time the water pump, it’s a busy morning and space. This brings me to the first and many people are there gathering photograph (Figure 1). water for washing clothes, dishes and bathing.

Figure 1. Bata (kids) at the bay–bay (ocean). Photo by author. © 2005

64 With senses heightened from lack of picture?” When the photo is over, the sleep, there is an onslaught of smells9 kids disperse almost as quickly as they and the sounds of karaoke music arrived, back to swimming, playing playing, and of all things, the instantly and talking with each other. recognizable vocalizations of Cana- In this way, in photographs, dian pop singer Celine Dion wafting as in the purok (neighbourhood), place through the paths between the houses. is multiply exchanged and negotiated After walking through several by adults and children. Both children narrow pathways densely lined with and adults note that crowding, general houses there is an opening, one last pollution, flooding, a lack of basic wooden plank to negotiate and the infrastructure like sewage systems or group of us are at the bay–bay (ocean). garbage pick–up, and the use of the There is a bit more breeze here, and area until 2002 as a location to dump several fishing boats pulled on–shore; city of Bacolod garbage, make the wide and stout double outriggers. purok (neighbourhood) a less than Although it’s already noon, it’s too ideal place to live. However, adults late for fishing, an activity that occurs and children differ in their perspectives much earlier in the day. One of the about the bay–bay (ocean), and women from KASAKI, Violy points these differences often center on the to a house which, due to erosion from activities and practices associated with wave action is very close to the water. place. Adults consider the bay–bay “That’s ‘Nay (short form of nanay, or (ocean) a dangerous place, in part ‘mother’, a term of respect) Lydia’s10 because children are a distance away house. She will have to move soon, or from the watchful eyes of parents, move the house, the water is just too and because the ocean is often close especially in storms or the rainy unpredictable and unsafe. Children season.”The house is very familiar, and however, while acknowledging the I quickly realize I’ve seen it before need for caution, speak with great in a group photos from a field visit in pleasure and exuberance about the 2004, images that I catalogued as part bay–bay (ocean) as a favorite place of my research assistantship months where they swim and have fun with previous to my arrival in Bacolod. their friends. The bay–bay (ocean) Remarking on how much the of the is also a home place, underscored by land has been eroded in just one year, I increasingly tenuous living conditions. ask, “A photo,” I say, nodding towards Elders in the community remember the house, “Can I take a photo to show the bay–bay (ocean) as a place where how much soil has washed away, how natural resources were once abundant, close the house is to the sea?” “Sure, in contrast to the growing pollution of it’s okay,” says Violy. Looking for my the environment and dwindling size camera, there is a brief pause while I and number of fish and shellfish. This organize everything and try to focus in social memory is counter posed with the bright sun. All of a sudden children the memory of the bay–bay (ocean) gather in the viewfinder, jostling, before the crowding, the garbage and laughing and gesturing. “Are you one the pollution. of the Canadians?” “Will you take our These subjectivities create

65 multiple dimensions of place: the purok place, a “mutual ontology between giver (neighbourhood) as it is remembered and receiver” (Pertierra 2006:322). In juxtaposed against the present day addition, these practices link Violy’s and as one differently negotiated and position as a knowledgeable member of constructed by children and adults. the community to her particular sense of There is also the connection between place in relation to her family and other locales or nations in this one place, of people in the purok (neighbourhood) Canada and the Philippines and in the and the KASAKI organization. exchange of those group identities, of One of Mauss’ theories of anthropologist and a group of children. exchange, due to the obligation to At the same time, my place as one of give, receive and to repay (Mauss ‘just observing’ was rightfully usurped. 1990:13-14; 39-41) or the full–circuit Rather, I was observed by participants of reciprocal exchange, maintains that who returned the gaze and in turn the gift is inalienable; metonymically requested my participation. This set of linking the giver to the receiver in relationships to place is the moment relational terms. The tension between recorded in the photograph not the the social relationship and the material house. object found here, is clarified by Mauss The Gift suggests that exchange (1990:10-11) and Werbner’s (1990:267- belies an interested but negotiated 268) distinction that gifts objectify a and reciprocal transfer of things and social relationship and personify an actions (Mauss 1990:5) within a social, inalienable quality or spiritual value symbolic, political and economic imparted through the spirit of the system (Mauss 1990:5-6). Place, giver. As Miller (1987:92) points out, socially constructed and juxtaposed through human projection the gift is is a part of the exchange occurring the frame which inculcates an internal in this ethnographic practice—as we moral order. From this perspective, an talk and walk throughout the purok internal moral order merges the social (neighbourhood), Violy points out new and the material and renders the object houses, old houses, houses rebuilt in and the subject mutable and partible. new locations. She talks of the changes Mauss writes, of the past year and who lives where, the locations that flood. Place in this a tie occurring through things, sense is one of negotiating poverty is one between souls, because and pollution but also of community the thing itself possesses a as a shared and lived experience. Here, soul, is of the soul. Hence it place through social connections is follows that to make a gift of tied to community identity, not as something to someone is to one that is bounded and static, but in make a present of some part constant ebb and flow. These practices of oneself....[t]o retain that of informal talking and walking which thing would be dangerous and was repeated on several occasions over mortal.... [because] the thing the time I was there, and within them given is not inactive...it seeks a blending and exchanging of subject to return to its place of origin and object, observer and observed took (1990:12-13 emphasis mine).

66 Within this vantage, there is no relationship when she suggests that complete disjunction between people exchange occurs in reciprocal manner, and things, a premise supported by but one that is hierarchical and often Howell, who asks “what are all these carefully controlled through distributive people exchanging if not some part mechanisms, or ‘keeping while giving’. of themselves as participants of a This brings me to the next photograph relationship” (Howell 1989:428)? (Figure 2). The neighbourhood of Purok This image was taken as Dagat, as a place and at once a physical part of a walkabout in which Violy reality and a much more abstract ‘thing’ described locations used by the city for also merges the categories of subject and dumping in different years, and without object. In the ethnographic exchange her keen understanding of place as a of communicating about place, and physical reality, keeping the different to an extent becoming a part of that dumping areas separate as they place through social means, one might occurred throughout the years was very assume that place is indeed inalienable. difficult. During a conversation about Yet, while place relationally embodies the increasing number of households in the social connections between objects the community, and where new houses and persons, and between persons were being built considering the lack and persons, it is arguable that any of space in the much of the purok one place is being freely exchanged (neighbourhood), Violy said, “Most of for another in any substantive way. the new places are near where the city Weiner (1987:224) clarifies this was dumping in 2001.” Knowing that the city used the area as a dumpsite for city garbage, and that certain areas were used in certain years, but without a concrete sense of where these places were exactly, we asked Violy to take us on a tour of the different dumping locations. Through the tour I gained a much better sense of where dumping had occurred, and when and how quickly people were moving into these areas. As we walked, we revisited the bay–bay (ocean), where the most recent garbage had been dumped, in 2002. Next, we wound our way through several interconnected narrow pathways which opened up onto a road which is one of the boundaries of the purok (neighbourhood). As we walked along the roadway, Violy Figure 2. Newer houses along road. nodded towards the houses. “Sigay” Photo by author. © 2005 (pronounced seegay, meaning ‘okay’)

67 “This is where they are building now. thousands travel or migrate to cities as There are many houses that have been closer to 80 percent of rural populations built over the last year or two.” Just live in poverty.11 People owning land in as she spoke I noticed a man carrying the purok (neighbourhood) receive a mixed cement in a bucket towards a break on their taxes from the city when house with a concrete block frame. the area was used as a dumping ground, The youth in the photograph is mixing yet residents are also expected to pay the cement, getting it ready for use as rent for the land on which their house mortar between the blocks. is built. Residents often face evictions There are three points I wish to with out much recourse should discuss regarding this particular image, landlords choose to evict them, which place, exchange and ethnography. If occurs frequently (pers. comm. Lisa you look at the picture closely, there Mitchell, April 20, 2005). One resident is little evidence of the garbage from told us while we were there that she had 2001. Nearly all of it has been covered, recently been told to move and in the in part by the gravel roadway, but process had lost all the cement bricks mainly by the houses that line the she bought to create the foundation on entirety of the road. Not only that, that section of land. Working to make residents have gone out of their way ends meet is a joint effort shared by to beautify their yards through the use multiple and often intergenerational of plants. There are plants in large pots family members residing in the same and in the ground at the perimeter of household, for whom the loss of even houses. The plants are of utility, people a few cement bricks is substantial. young and old alike described the In this context, the land is plants as being nami (beautiful) and itself is viewed in competing ways. making the community a nice place Descriptions of gardens, caring for them to live. Youths talked of hauling water as well as the dynamic combination for plants, tending small vegetable of utility and aesthetics, through the patches and harvesting tree–fruits, and landscape are viewed as a gift. Place– locations with plants as places they like making activities are in reciprocal to be. engagement with the land, through While these practices trees, gardens or with plants in pots, underscore actions which are preferred, and people view these as an important many residents do not have either the dimension of their community. This money or room required to purchase or perception and the physical, material grow plants. This stems out of issues presence of gardens are contradicted related to poverty and access to land. and challenged by the view of the city As Morrell (1987:253) points out, it is and landowners. Land is construed in the degree of poverty which acts as a this case as owned, a commodity which near permanent trap which only few forms a part of familial holdings and Filipinos manage to surmount. Over places of wealth distanced socially, half of urban populations through the economically and politically from the Philippines live in poverty, and wealthy purok (neighbourhood). Building on landowners make up a slim two percent Weiner’s (1987:224) characterization, of the population, and additionally place here is less ‘keeping while giving’

68 and more plainly just ‘keeping’. to give are always already superior The difference here is in the requiring “excessive obeisance” expectation of the obligation to repay: (Pertierra 2006:321) from inferiors. to put back into the landscape what During my stay, as Mitchell also notes is socially–construed as valuable. A (2006:332-333) many middle and upper central aspect of gift–giving is delayed class residents of Bacolod spoke of the repayment: poor as just that, as lacking the moral values, skills and knowledge necessary For Mauss, the essence of the to succeed in life rather than noting how gift was that it should not be systemic inequalities might constrain reciprocated immediately. It opportunities for poor people. would be impolite to return Unlike Marxist authors who it at once, since this would view gifts as “innocent” (Bloch and constitute a canceling out of Parry 1989:9-10), the obligatory any interdependence created nature of gifts in the Maussian project by the act of generosity demonstrates an understanding of gifts and therefore no basis for as a decidedly contaminated category. projecting the relationship into In keeping with this perspective, the future (Hart 2001:website). Mauss (1990:5-6; 40-46) suggests that giving gifts does not occur within the The perspective of Hart is in keeping framework of universal equality, but with Bourdieu who writes, rather gifts and the obligation to repay them are predicated on acknowledging The lapse of time that separates the existence of asymmetrical relations the gift from the counter–gift (Douglas 1900:ix). is what allows the deliberate As Hart points out, “[i]f oversight, the collectively we don’t return the gift in kind, then maintained and approved self– we must defer to the giver....[t]he deception, without which the surprising fact of giving therefore is exchange could not function. that the gift generates social inequality” Gift exchange is one of the (2001:website). This inequality is social games that cannot be dynamic and part and parcel of the played unless the players asymmetrical obligations to give refuse to acknowledge the and receive; the act of repayment objective truth of the game provides a marker of social equality or (1990:105). social symmetry. Never being able to repay would then create a long–term What I do not yet know is if landowners asymmetry. In terms of ethnographic view allowing people to rent the land as practice, place is thus of substantial a gift.12 This is a possibility given recent importance. People think about, relate work which considers that “Philippine to and make places in landscapes, society still operates on the basis of and the ways in which this is related gift exchange” (Pertierra 2006:321). If to questions of social inequality, this is the case, gifts operate as a form domination and resistance. What this of social control; those who are able suggests is that gifts take on meaning

69 through the process of exchange, and particular yet all–encompassing. those meanings are context dependent There are two aspects of note or located and negotiated through place in Mauss’ concept total prestations. and time. The first is methodological and linked While Mauss used the to what Mauss terms “total social opposition between gifts and facts” (1990:78). Total prestations are commodities in a romanticist manner systems of exchange, and the actions predicated on civilized and primitive, of people, objects and events in turn capitalist and pre–capitalist, class– make up a totality, or generalizable based versus kin–based, he did so as statements which in turn may be a theoretical and social commentary thematically compared on the basis of the times in which he lived. The of similarity and difference (1990:78- Gift was written in the turbulent years 79). Inherent in Mauss’ methodology is following World War One, and as a an understanding that societal groups socialist13 Mauss I believe, sought in are not simply functional wholes, but his writing to reconfigure a new moral rather an integrated and contingent order out of the morbidity and chaos system in flux to be studied multiply as of those times. In contrast with the political, social, economic, legal, moral modernist standpoint, which proposes and aesthetic (1990:79). The second an innately progressive ‘economic aspect inherent in Mauss’ notion of man’; an autonomous and rational actor total prestations is meant to guide the (read capitalist) who acts to maximize reader into social activism and common scarce resources within a natural or interest. He writes: ‘free–market’, The Gift pointedly positions Mauss as both anti–utilitarian [w]e see it already functioning and anti–formalist.14 in certain economic groupings Another dimension of and in the hearts of the masses, exchange important in the Maussian who possess, very often better project includes total prestations. For than their leaders, a sense of Mauss a “[t]otal prestation [involves]... their own interests, and of the rituals, marriages, inheritance of goods, common interest. Perhaps by legal ties and those of self interest, the studying these obscure aspects ranks of the military and the priests – of social life we shall succeed in short everything is complimentary” in throwing a little light upon (Mauss 1990:6). What makes this the path that our nations must a total prestation is not only the follow, both in their morality obligation to give, receive and to repay and in their economy (Mauss but,and this is key for Mauss, a sense 1990:78 emphasis mine). of social solidarity. He writes, “[t]here is total prestation in the sense that...the For Mauss, to study the world and the whole clan contracts on behalf of all, people in it, is as Keith Hart suggests, a for all that it possesses and all that it vocation—research and writing that is does” (Mauss 1990:6 emphasis mine; existentially and politically motivated cf. 1990:39-46). Mauss’ ideation of (2003:website). With this I turn to the total prestations is important; they are next and final photograph (Figure 3).

70 City. Our guide to the project, JP, studies at a university in Bacolod and as a requirement for his education program, he works with a community development organization Balayan an NGO that operates out of the university.15 This project uses a small vacant lot donated by a landowner as a pilot composting and garden project. Taking a three pronged approach to kitchen and solid waste, the project has initiated a composting program which engages nearly 40 percent of the purok (neighbourhood). Using donated coconut shells from local businesses, the program recycles the ‘furry’ outer Figure 3. Composting and community layer of the coconut shell, producing garden project. Photo by author. © 2005 coir (pronounced choir), used in making a rich soil base for growing orchids. Originally, I was going to incorporate The composted kitchen waste is used a photograph from the last day of my on the gardens, which to date have stay in the Philippines, taken from generated some produce but the overall the back of a jeepney (local public output is low. JP noted that while they transport) on the outskirts of Bacolod have tried to sell the produce at local City. That photo is of miles and miles markets, sales have not been good. fields taken up with sugar cane. Good During our visit, the garden was very for a discussion on the need for land small, containing several rows of basil, reform, I thought. Then, when I got to used to repel insects and a few squash this section I couldn’t add it in; despite and ornamental plants. the overwhelming disparity between Unlike the prospect of a wealthy and impoverished, I didn’t want community garden, the sale of coir to configure the situation as hopeless – is a reasonably lucrative business, as dire perhaps, but not hopeless. My end JP told us and as the sign suggests. point is not simply the rich are staying The success of this part of the project rich, that there is no prospect for social assist other areas of the project. The change, for a common interest as Mauss third prong of the program is to collect puts it. I chose to include this particular from within and outside the purok photograph instead, because it is an (neighbourhood) single–serving drink example of potentially sustainable containers made of strong but flexible development taking place in a purok plastic. A group of women, who have (neighbourhood) nearby to the one in proclaimed themselves the basura which I was working. (garbage) queens, collect these drink The Urban–Agri Demo Area, containers and take them apart, wash as it is called, is located not on the them, and sew them into reusable bags edge, but more centrally in Bacolod of all shapes, sizes and uses: lunch

71 bags, shopping bags, backpacks and community being built on or near small handbags. These bags are making dump–sites.16 However, the Urban–Agri the rounds of local product fairs, with Demo Area offers a perspective on land some interest, although as JP told us the and place based on the social contract main interest thus far remains outside of gifts based on reciprocity that merges the Philippines, in Europe and North and overlaps with commerce – rather America. “Many Filipinos are not as than strictly dichotomized and separate interested, they think, why would I buy categories. The overlapping of these this when I can buy something new? categories questions the traditional So we are trying to convince them,” he distinction between commodities as said, smiling. “manufactured products intended for This third image, unlike the market exchange within the capitalist two discussed previously, refers to a mode of production...while gifts are set of exchanges within the fieldsite socially engaged and a binding force in of Bacolod, rather than an exchange society” (Herrmann 1997:911). between myself and the fieldsite. As Ethnography as an exchange a locally–developed project working constructing place, is a powerful tool on issues of that has met some goals in locating disjunctures regarding and is working towards others, the community identity and competing Urban–Agri Demo Area suggests practices and ideas about the landscape. practices for residents of poorer puroks Importantly, ethnographers themselves (neighbourhoods) to work together in are placed within this equation, not tandem with community development as spectators outside the process, but and research projects. While the land is participants engaged in an interested only donated for as long as the owner exchange while examining the wishes, meaning that the project could political and economic dimensions be cut short and has no guaranteed of everyday life. Capitalist alienation location, the project has manifested a and mass production cannot be denied, use of land in the common interest. That but through the study of every day the landowner was willing to let the land ethnographic exchanges, it is possible be used for free, in combination with to argue that hegemony is never the other attributes, reconfigures place complete. As Mazarella writes, as bound up in social relationships and therefore socially constructed. if anthropology has emerged The project is not a from the so–called crisis of community garden in the sense that I representation that dominated know community gardens, only a few the field...it has not been people garden there and families are not through some miraculous act growing food to eat themselves. Nor of theoretical parthenogenesis. could the project simply be repeated in Rather, it has been through the the purok (neighbourhood) in recognition that the cultural Bacolod where I worked. First, there politics of ethnographic is very little unused land to make a practice are not so cleanly community garden space and second, separable from the cultural there is the issue of much of the politics we take as our object

72 of study. This recognition universal” and is more than simply offers us the foundation for a ‘looking’ (Grimshaw 2001:55). reactivation of the critical force Nevertheless, Malinowski characterizes of... [ethnography] as a locally life in the Western Pacific as a rooted, globally minded and functional whole, timeless, a–historic politically productive project and primitive (Grimshaw 2001:44), a of understanding (Mazarella life fit for explication, publication and 2001:61 emphasis mine). consumption, not for co–participants, but as a resource for the western In keeping, with Mazarella, Mary and mainly academic world. The Douglas, writes: “[i]f we persist in exchange between ethnographer and thinking that gifts ought to be free and ethnographee thus began and ended pure, we will always fail to recognize with participatory observation. our own grand cycles of exchanges, Not long after the 1922 which categories get to be included publication of Argonauts of the and which get to be excluded from our Western Pacific (hereafter shortened hospitality” (Douglas 1990:xv). to Argonauts), Marcel Mauss incorporated Malinowski’s work into FINAL THOUGHTS: his ruminations on gift exchange in The ETHNOGRAPHY PAST AND Gift. In Argonauts, Malinowski focused FUTURE on how the exchange brought about by It is perhaps fitting that ethnography the kula ring functioned to meet the be touted as a process of generating needs of Trobriand society (1920:97- and producing, political, economic 100).17 Faced with the extent and and social awareness—ethnography depth of exchange, and in an effort to did get its start alongside economic differentiate types of trade, Malinowski anthropology in Malinowski’s painstakingly categorized gifts by fieldwork on exchange in Melanesia. their level of altruism and concluded Unlike earlier concatenations of that “practically nothing was given the field process of the late–20th freely” (Douglas 1990:vii-viii) except century, Malinowski privileged the those gifts given man to wife (Mauss experiential dimension of knowledge, 1990:73). As Douglas suggests in her or participatory observation. Thus, introduction, Malinowski “evidently as Grimshaw notes, Malinowksi’s took...[to the field] the idea that “ethnographic understanding emerges commerce and...gift[s] are two separate from experience, bodily and sensory activit[ies]” (Douglas 1990:vii). Mauss, as much as from observation and most likely would have come to the intellectual reflection” (Grimshaw same conclusion, just from the other 2001:53). side of the same coin—he would have While the task of ethnography likewise surmised that through gift here remains revelatory, through the exchange nothing was given freely. ritual dimension of the field, it also While the links between “disrupts the conventional separations the ethnographic past and the of self and other, the subjective and ethnographic present cannot be the objective, the particular and the severed, we can, through what

73 Bourdieu termed participant and Reason for Exchange in Archaic objectivation, attend to a lived experience Societies was published in the Annales and a knowing subject, as well as the Sociologique in French in 1923-24 “social conditions of possibility – and under the title of Essai sur le don. For therefore the effect and limits – of that brevity, I shorten the title to The Gift in experience and, more precisely of the the remainder of this article. Although act of objectivizing itself” (2003:282). there are a few different translations in This article uses Mauss’ theories of English of The Gift, I will be referring exchange in The Gift as a heuristic throughout this text to the 1990 device for examining ethnography version. and place within the context of my 3. Anthropology 501, taught by Dr. own ethnographic experiences. While Peter Stephenson at the University of the data I presented often challenged Victoria. these theories, this does not mean 4. that Mauss’ theory of the gift is no It is possible that these questions longer necessary—on the contrary, it actually lead to the crisis in is more salient than ever. We may pay representation. Or at least fed the tribute to Mauss as individuals and constant kula of critical reflexivity that anthropologists by analyzing our own circulates through anthropology. cycle of exchange and its links through 5. This salience within ethnographic ethnography to the world at large. analyses is a perhaps ironic testament to Mauss’ sensitivity to the reality of everyday lived experience, despite Acknowledgements never ‘doing’ ethnographic fieldwork I would like to thank the families of himself (Fournier 2005:4). Purok Dagat, and especially Violy 6. Nacion for contributing greatly to my As Marcel Fournier (2005:3) research. In addition, I thank Dr. Lisa suggests, it is hard to talk about M. Mitchell, Goran Dokić, and Trudi Mauss without mentioning his uncle Smith for their tremendously helpful Durkheim. comments and suggestions as I revised 7. By visual culture I mean the this paper for publication. Lastly, I give production, consumption and thanks to SSHRC (Social Sciences and circulation of any image (photographs, Humanities Research Council) for the drawings, diagrams, or maps) or funding to pursue graduate coursework visually–based event (theatre, museum and research. exhibits, musical events). 8. When I say we, I mean myself and Dr. Lisa Mitchell, the lead researcher NOTES on the project on which I worked. 1. Anthropology 500, a method and The term KASAKI, the name of the theory course taught by Dr. Hülya women’s group is an abbreviation Demirdirek at the University of of Kababaehan Sa Kinabukasan Victoria. Incorporated, meaning ‘women together’ in the local language Illongo. 2. Originally, The Gift:The Form

74 9. While there is the critique of vision paraphrased from the definition of the as a positivist way of knowing the definition at http://en.wikipedia.org/ world (Grimshaw 2001:44), how does wiki/Economic_anthropology. one adequately convey smell as part of 15. In the Visayan regional dialect, the haptics of place? Bisaya, balay means house, and 10. Pseudonyms are considered a balayan means group of houses. part of hiding one’s identity in the Community, neighbourhood and place Philippines and is associated with are connoted in naming a community criminal behaviour. All participants development NGO Balayan. wanted their real names to be used, as 16. In conversation with Mitchell about they want people to know about the the garbage early on in my involvement hitsura (situation) they experience in with the research, I remember asking their community. Likewise the name if it would be possible to to just clear of the women’s group, KASAKI. away all the landfill. I hadn’t realized However, the name of the neighborhood at that point that the area had been given in this article, Purok Dagat, is a used for several years, and was as she pseudonym used to protect families said invoking the Geertzian metaphor, from the very real perils of eviction and “It’s garbage all the way down.” In relocation. other words, this landscape parts of 11. This information is from the the landscape is literally constructed following website: http://www. out of garbage – removal means taking everyculture.com/No-Sa/ away the very landscape on which the The-Philippines.html neighbourhood sits. 17. 12. I should note here that Negros The kula is a bi–circular inter-island is known as the ‘sugar bowl’ of the exchange system which placed trade– Philippines, due to the intensive objects in constant foment throughout agricultural practices of growing sugar the islands. cane, which started with Spanish colonization in the 1600s. As soon as you travel outside Bacolod City, there REFERENCES CITED are miles of cane fields. This takes up Asad, Talal most of the useful and arable land, and 1986 The Concept of Cultural Translation in British Social is of course owned by wealthy families Anthropology. In Writing with little interest in land reform. So, Culture. J. Clifford and it is in the interest of the wealthy that G. Marcus, eds. Pp. 141-164. they would view the poor much as a Berkeley: University of patron would a client. California Press. Bateson, Gregory 13. Mauss’ political leanings are 2000 Steps to an Ecology of Mind, characterized by Keith Hart in his 2001 Chicago: University of Chicago book entitled, Money in an unequal Press world at http://www.thememorybank. co.uk/papers/intangible_money. 14. This definition of formalism is

75 Bloch, Maurice and Jonathan Parry Hart, Keith 1989 Introduction: Money and the 2003 Studying World Society as a Morality of Exchange. In Money Vocation. Electronic Document, and the Morality of Exchange. J. http://www.thememorybank. Parry and M. Bloch, eds. Pp. co.uk/papers/sws/ 1-32. Cambridge: Cambridge view?searchterm=vocation, University Press. Accessed April, 2, 2008. Bourdieu, Pierre 2001 Money in an Unequal World. 1990 The Logic of Practice. Richard Electronic document, http:// Nice, Trans. Stanford:Stanford www.thememorybank.co.uk/ University papers/intangible_money, 2003 Participant Objectivation. Accessed April, 2, 2008. Huxley Memorial Lecture Haraway, Donna J. Journal of the Royal 1991 Situated Knowledges: The Anthropological Institute Science Question in Feminism 9(2):281-294. and the Privilege of Partial Douglas, Mary Perspective. In Simians, 1990 Introduction. In The gift: The Cyborgs, and Women: the form and reason for exchange in Reinvention of Nature. Pp. 183- archaic societies. W. D. Halls, 201. New York: Routledge trans. New York: Routledge. Herrmann, Gretchen Fournier, Marcel 1997 Gift or Commodity: What 2005 Marcel Mauss. New Jersey: Changes Hands in the U.S. Princeton University Press. Garage Sale? American Godelier, Maurice Ethnologist. 24(4) 910-930. 1978 Infrastructure, Societies, and Howell, Signe History. Current Anthropology 1989 Of Persons and Things: 19(4):763-771. Exchange and Valuables Among 1999 The Engima of the Gift. Trans. the Lio of Eastern Indonesia. Nora Scott. Chicago: Man 24(3):419-438. University of Chicago Press. Ingold, Tim Grimshaw, Anna 1993 The Art of Translation in a 2001 The Ethnographer’s Eye. Ways Continuous World. In Beyond of Seeing in Modern Boundaries: Understanding, Anthropology. Cambridge: Translation and Anthropological Cambridge University Press. Discourse. G. Palsson, ed. Pp. 2005 Art and the Visualization of 210-248. London: Berg. Anthropology. In Anthropologies Kearney, M. of Art. Mariette Westermann, ed. 1995 The Local and the Global: The Pp. 195-220. London: Sterling Anthropology of Globalization and Francis Clarke andTransnationalism. Annual Gupta, Akil and James Ferguson eds. Review of Anthropology 1999 Culture, Power, Place: 24:547-565. Ethnography at the End of an Keesing, Roger M. Era. In Culture, Power, Place: 1974 Theories of Culture. Annual Explorations in Critical Review of Anthropology 3:73- Anthropology. Durham: Duke 97. University Press.

76 Latour, Bruno Mitchell, Lisa 1998 On actor-network theory: A few 2005 Conversation about landlord clarifications. Electronic practices in Purok Dagat. Document, http://amsterdam. April 20, 2005. nettime.org/Lists-Archives/ 2006 Body and Illness: Considering nettime-l-9801/msg00019.html, Visayan Filipino Children’s Accessed April 7, 2008. Perspectives within Local and MacDougall, David Global Relationships of 2006 Film Ethnography and the Inequality. Medical Senses: The Corporeal Image. Anthropology 25:331–373. New Jersey: Princeton Nader, Laura University Press. 2001 Anthropology! American Malinowski, Bronislaw Anthropologist 103(3):609-620. 1961 [1922] Argonauts of the Western Nash, June Pacific. Dutton: New York. 1981 Ethnographic Aspects of the Marcus, George E. World Capitalist System. Annual 1995 Ethnography in/of the World Review of Anthropology Vol. 10 System: The Emergence of Pp. 393-423. Multi-sited Ethnography. Annual Pertierra, Raul Review of Anthropology 2006 The Transformative Capacities 24:95-117. of Mobile Phones and the Marcus, George E. and Michael M.J. Internet - a Philippine Example. Fischer Pp. 314-335. Electronic 1986 Anthropology as Cultural Document, http://asiafuture.org/ Critique: An Experimental csps2006/50pdf/csps2006_6a. Moment in the Human Sciences. pdf, accessed April 01, 2008. Chicago: The University of Rodman, Margaret C. Chicago Press. 1992 Empowering Place: Multilocality Mauss, Marcel and Multivocality. American 1990 [1923-24] The Gift: The form and Anthropologist 94:640-656. reason for exchange in archaic Sack, R. D. societies. W. D. Halls, trans. 1992 Place, modernity, and the New York: Routledge. consumer’s world: A relational Mazarella, William framework for geographic 2003 Very Bombay: Contending with analysis. Baltimore: Johns the Global in an Indian Hopkins University Press. Advertising Agency. Cultural Snellinger, Amanda Anthropology 18(1):33-71. 2005 Union under the Sun: Exchange Miller, Daniel as a Trope of Habitus. 1987 Material Culture and Mass Electronic document, http:// Consumption. Oxford: Basil asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/pages/ Blackwell Ltd. sagar/sagarvol9.pdf, Accessed April 01, 2008. Weiner, Annette 1985 Inalienable Wealth. American Ethnologist 12(2) 210-227.

77

78 ALEX CAMERON

INTERACTION, CONNECTION The Ecology and Zoonotic Transmission of Parasites

Abstract Parasites affect their hosts in many ways, and when the effects are deleterious, they become factors in the conservation not just of non-human primates, but humans as well. The us–them division made by humans with regards to other primates is not honoured by parasites. This paper discusses many of the common vectors of interaction between human and wild non-human primates, with an aim to illustrate the deep interconnection between all primates on this basic level. When considering the health of nonhuman primates, it behooves us to keep in mind that this is an issue of human health as well.

INTRODUCTION humans. While the traditional dangers The sensitivity of parasites to change to primates such as hunting and habitat in the environment and ecology of destruction remain topics of great their hosts and the ease of parasite concern, it is my intent to address a less transmission between different species obvious corollary; that these, and other of primate positions parasites as an activities creating points of contact, excellent indicator of change. The direct and indirect, between human and complexities of interaction between nonhuman primates, act as avenues for humans other animals and the parasitic exchange, and that this is an environment run so deep that fully issue of relevance both to human and understanding the scope of these nonhuman primate health. relationships will likely prove near- Of primary importance among impossible. However, we can pay the issues raised by transmission is careful attention to developments the risk to the health of human and and cues as they appear and use nonhuman primate populations. The these to inform policy regarding the impact on human health planning is management of human and nonhuman apparent when looking at other animals primates. as reservoirs for disease and infection, Anthropozoonotic1 as in Ebola virus outbreaks, which in transmission is an issue of mounting Africa often spread from monkeys and import to conservation efforts aimed at apes to humans (Le Guenno et al. 1999; nonhuman primates; as human (Homo et al. 2004). The risks to nonhuman sapiens) populations expand and as primate health and the impact on the mobility of humans increases, the animal conservation planning are habitat of nonhuman primates becomes heavily tied to the actions humans take increasingly intruded upon and put in coming into contact with nonhuman to human use, and wild nonhuman primates. And, though actions such primates are brought into frequent as logging and hunting have negative contact with parasites spread by effects2 on wild primate populations

79 both in and of themselves and in research. In particular, the current encouraging parasite transmission or methods of conservation, which seek altering the effects of parasitosis, it is to address issues of funding in addition often the case that humans undertake to the protection and preservation of these actions to ensure their own endangered or at-risk wild primates, survival. Though many parasites shared rarely account for parasitic infection between human and wild nonhuman and the deleterious effects thereof primates are of primary concern in the (Chapman et al. 2006a:120); ecotourism tropical, often impoverished countries brings humans and human products where transmission occurs, increasing into contact with wild nonhuman globalization and deterritorialization primates, and reserves (concomitant makes the sharing of parasites such to deforestation) force groups into as the HIV and Ebola viruses between confined areas, where outbreaks primates a pressing, global concern. of infection can be devastating (Le Guenno et al. 1999). Additionally, Basic information and key conservation efforts often overlook the assumptions human realities behind actions harmful ‘Parasite’ is broadly defined as any to wildlife; while illegal timber-trade organism living in or on a host, and the poverty that makes bushmeat encompassing viruses, bacteria, a necessity are rightfully the targets of fungi, and protozoa as well as the demonization, impoverished loggers more usually thought of (nematodes, and consumers or hunters of bushmeat cestodes, trematodes)3 and arthropods are not. (ticks, etc.) ( 2006). Due to the close Parasite transmission is used genetic relationship between human and here to refer to the passing of parasites nonhuman primates and the relatively between individuals or populations similar set of bodies to inhabit, parasites with different intensities or types of are easily exchanged back and forth infection/infestation, with subsequent (Gillespie 2006:1130). Viruses and measurable change in either (or both) bacterial infections endemic among individuals or populations. Crucial in humans can be potentially devastating mitigating the impact of harm caused in other primates, as observed in by such change is understanding which captivity when nonhuman primates human parasites are transmittable have exceed a 90 percent mortality and how they are transmitted to rate upon exposure to influenza, nonhuman primates. Epidemiological tuberculosis, chicken pox, or measles data collected from areas where (Jones-Engel et al. 2001a:171). contact between human and nonhuman The rate of exchange between primates occurs will help to describe human and nonhuman primates the kind and extent of pathogen will likely continue to increase exposure and better understand the proportionate to the increase in contact. routes of transmission (Jones-Engel et Contact is facilitated by any number of al. 2001a). Ultimately, the prevention behaviours and activities, including of epidemic outbreaks due to zoonotic habitat reduction and fragmentation, and anthropozoonotic transmission is bushmeat trade, ecotourism, and field the reason for studies of this nature.

80 Interaction interaction. The topics discussed under It has been established that patterns of interaction are centred on examples of parasitic infection and the effects of such comparisons. parasitosis are impacted by contact, direct and indirect, between human NONHUMAN USE OF HUMAN and nonhuman primates (Gillespie PRODUCTS 2006; Grossberg et al. 2003; Hahn et Crop raiding al. 2003). However, these effects are Nonhuman primates often steal human not demonstrably universal, or even crop foods. Cultivated plants are bred well understood in most cases. Though for size and greater nutritional value, contact and change do correlate, it is making them an attractive alternative sometimes unclear what the outcome is to labour-intensive foraging. When or whether it is an issue for concern. crop plants become the focus of a There are often simultaneous benefits wild primate group’s diet, the group’s and disadvantages in the individual habits change, showing a marked health of those primates involved in difference from the pattern common contact, and the level of benefit and in wild-foraging allopatric groups. disadvantage brought on by the same These changes of habit bring the sort of contact varies greatly across crop raiding groups into contact with species. For example, though logging humans and domesticated animals like will, in the long term, prove to be dogs, as well as potentially increasing harmful for both the humans engaged their vulnerability to predators (et al. in it and the nonhuman primates living 2003). Further, the impact of changes in the areas being logged, the use and in nutritional intake, behaviour, and sale of timber is, in the short term, interaction with humans as a result of tremendously helpful for humans, crop raiding varies across different taxa and the edge habitat created fosters of parasites (Weyher et al. 2006:1524- improvement in the health of some 1527). wild species (Plumptre and Reynolds In Nigeria’s Gashaka Gumti 1994:639; Chapman et al. 2005:141). National Park, Weyher et al. (2006) It is important to study studied groups of olive baboons (Papio parasitic infection for this reason: In anubis) engaged in varying levels of crop order to plan human and nonhuman raiding. Comparisons between a troop primate health to best advantage, an focused on crop raiding and a wholly understanding of how to manage contact wild-foraging troop reveal an obvious in each particular situation is needed. connection between diet/foraging Understanding of the effects of contact behaviour and parasite interaction can be gained by studying groups of (Weyher et al. 2006:1527). Wild- the same primates living in adjacent foragers had more helminth parasites territories, and measuring the variance while crop raiders had acquired the in parasite load and species hosted Balantidium coli4 protozoan, and had associated with variance in contact with an overall higher number of parasites humans. When such comparisons are (Weyher et al. 2006:1524-1525). The made, they highlight the parasitological stomach worms and whipworms found effects of human–nonhuman primate in the wild-foraging groups were

81 likely picked up in the course of eating the main food source of people in this insects functioning as intermediate area, being the number one target and hosts for these helminths, with which receiving the most damage (Ross and the crop raiding group failed to come Warren 2006:408-409). The damage into contact as a result of the change in such cases as this can be extreme, in their diet and daily routine (Weyher with the loss of entire season’s crops et al. 2006:1528). The crop raiding being reported by some farmers troop had a significantly higher mean (Ross and Warren 2006:409). In and output for B. coli and showed as well a around the Budongo Forest Reserve in higher parasitic species richness, with Uganda, 73 percent of farmers report nine species recovered compared to the problems with nonhuman primates seven recorded for the wild-foraging and more than 79 percent name individuals (Weyher et al. 2006:1519). baboons as the most destructive of This is attributed to the increased all crop-raiders (Tweheyo 2006:407). contact with anthropogenic pathogens Crop raiding of this intensity creates in cultivated areas; B. coli is extremely entirely understandable resentment common in humans living in tropical in agricultural and horticultural areas (Weyher et al. 2006:1528), and its communities, focused not only on the spread only to the crop-raiding group primates responsible for the damage, is suggestive of anthropozoonotic but by extension anything seen to be infection. encourage the presence of wildlife, As in this example, more time like restrictions on harming nonhuman spent eating starchy foods and less primates, and park or reserve workers time spent foraging resulted in fewer (Ross and Hill 2006:404). arthropods being eaten and hence In Sulawesi, Jones-Engel et fewer helminth parasite infections al. (2001a) found that among the wild occurring. Though other parasites Tonkean macaques (Macaca tonkeana) are taken in due to increased human in their study area daily ranging through contact, and though these may have coconut and banana plantations and equally undesirable symptoms to those small farms was common, and the parasites being avoided, it is generally monkeys were disliked by villagers due the case that primates eating cultivated to their crop raiding. Farmers in villages crop foods have a nutritional advantage near the macaques drove them away by over wild-foragers, and thus often have throwing stones at them, allowing dogs greater immunological fitness and more to chase them, or by trapping them. Due effective immune responses (Chapman to the resource conflict and subsequent et al. 2006b). contact between humans and monkeys, In and around the Gashaka the wild macaques in the study area Gumti National Park, 96 percent of were exposed to the same parasites and farmers report crop damage caused by pathogens as the pet macaques kept in wildlife in their fields (Ross and Warren villages (Jones-Engel et al. 2001a:174). 2006:408). The two top ranked problem Crop raiding is, in particular, an area animals of the 30 listed were tantalus of contest in the realm of nonhuman monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops primate use of human resources; in tantalus) and baboons, with corn crops, communities farming crops, raiding

82 is often associated with other uses of greater human settlement adjacent to human resources, such as coprophagy wild habitat will become clearer in the and garbage eating. coming years, but in the present we can gauge the short-term outcomes of this Coprophagy form of coprophagy by comparing cases Coprophagy is a behaviour common of allopatric groups of wild nonhuman in many animals as a mechanism for primates engaged in differing levels of maximizing the nutrition taken from human waste consumption. It is changes food; vitamins, proteins, amino acids, in the parasitic load and the hosted minerals and trace elements are all species richness that are most readily excreted before being effectively seen in the short-term, and which can absorbed (Grazyk and Cranfield 2003). act as indicators of any future issues. The consumption of excreta containing In Madagascar’s Beza these nutrients is an effective method Mahafaly Special Reserve, ring- of reprocessing; this is the pattern tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) have been among coprophagous ruminants and observed consuming the faeces of monogastric herbivores (Grazyk and humans, and to a much lesser degree Cranfield 2003:58). With regards to those of cattle and dogs (Fish et al. wild nonhuman primates,the generally 2007; Loudon et al. 2006a). Groups accepted theory5 is that rather of ring-tailed lemurs from the reserve than serving a nutritional purpose, frequented the nearby camp of Malagasy coprophagy signals dietary deficiencies reserve staff families and researchers, in proteins, amino acids and vitamins interacting with humans and foraging (Fish et al. 2007). Parasites transmitted in the open latrine traditional to the directly via faecal ingestion (as opposed Mahafaly (Loudon et al. 2006a). The to indirect, vector born or intermediate camp-foraging groups had greater host-using parasites) benefit from loads of endoparasites than wild- coprophagic behaviour, and the foraging groups, and in particular were inherent potential of infection is great found to have two species of nematodes (Grazyk and Cranfield 2003). with oral transmission routes; the Although coprophagy as an faecal analyses of Verreaux’s sifaka adaptive strategy has benefits that (Propithecus verreauxi), which were have outweighed the risk of parasitic arboreal, generally avoided interaction infection, the recent increase in the with humans, and were not observed accessibility of human waste may engaging in coprophagy, revealed no prove to alter the balance of risk and parasites (Loudon et al. 2006a). gain. Because much, if not all, research The food source provided looking into primate coprophagy and by human waste is important in the correlations in parasitosis lacks time- survival of older and dentally impaired depth, there are no definitive answers group members, and in seasons of on the long-term consequences low food availability (Fish et al. of the consumption of human and 2007:2,4). The lemurs were initially domesticated animal faeces by wild- attracted by discarded food in the camp living nonhuman primates. The effects before beginning their coprophagous of developments like ecotourism and behaviour (Fish et al. 2007:3) – this is

83 much like the cycle occurring in Africa, visible in faecal examination (Graczyk where baboons and other monkeys are and Cranfield 2003). Ongoing and first attracted by crops and then move increasing human contact with naturally on to raiding rubbish bins and urban coprophagous species has the potential areas. to become a difficult issue to navigate; Human-habituated mountain ecotourism, as discussed below, gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei) in the encourages an influx of often careless Virunga Mountains of east and central people into wild habitat (Grossberg Africa and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, et al. 2003:40), and the presence of Uganda, have been observed engaging human hunters, reserve workers, and in coprophagy, by which 71 percent of researchers will increase the amount helminths found in captive and wild of human waste in the environment as gorillas can be directly transmitted well. When coprophagous nonhuman (Graczyk and Cranfield 2003:60). The primates come into contact with gorillas in Graczyk and Cranfield’s human waste, the equilibrium with 2003 study ranged from within their parasites changes, as does their Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of exposure to new parasites to which Congo, and Uganda, inhabiting the their resistance may be low. forests of the Virunga volcano chain. Adult gorillas in this area engage in Garbage eating autocoprophagy and allocoprophagy, Yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) and have been observed doing so and olive baboons in the Amboseli since the 1980s. With these gorillas, National Park region of Kenya have coprophagy is considered normal—a adapted to the influx of tourists, taking method of acquiring beneficial gut advantage of the garbage generated microbes which aid in the digestion by tourist lodges and the associated of plant material, and supplementing settlement of lodge staff families (ahn proteins and amino acids (Graczyk et al. 2003). and Cranfield 2003:58). Populations of In this area, there are wild- mountain gorillas in the study area have foraging troops and troops focused been habituated to humans to facilitate on eating lodge-produced garbage. management and as a side effect of Members of the garbage-foraging increasing ecotourism in the area; the group at Amboseli had higher levels of gorillas experience contact with guards, gastrointestinal and Streptopharagus poachers, tourists, veterinarians, and nematodes than nearby wild-foraging researchers (Graczyk and Cranfield groups (Hahn et al. 2003:272;276); 2003:59). the antibiotic resistant bacteria is Changes have been observed suggestive of the effects of eating in the intestinal parasitofauna of tourist waste and refuse, as human the gorillas; the phylogenetically- tourists in Africa are likely to have, specific and co-evolved relationships and be full of, antibiotics. The garbage- between species and their microbes are foraging group experienced a drop in delicately balanced, and a change such Physaloptera nematodes (stomach as the introduction of human microbes worms), which was not experienced to the gorilla intestinal tract is instantly by the wild-feeding group, likely due

84 to their change in diet and daily path both scarce and costly (Fa et al. 2003). course (Hahn et al. 2003:276). The Wealthier individuals typically report shift in nematode species may likely hunting, butchering, and eating about be due either to exposure to different half as much bushmeat, suggesting intermediate host arthropods (the lodge- bushmeat’s status as an inferior centred group could be encountering substitute for the meat of domesticated cockroaches in the garbage) or to a animals (Wilkie 2006), but wealth change in the number of arthropod is scarce and no alternatives readily hosts encountered (Hahn et al. 2003). present themselves. Simply stopping In this case, it is clear that changes are the trade of bushmeat is impossible, occurring, and the presence of antibiotic and it is with this reality in mind that resistant bacteria seems a likely cause we focus not on the end of the bushmeat for concern. However, as in much trade, but the conditions of bushmeat research concerning the effects of consumption and circulation, and the tourists and ecotourism, the time-depth health status of the animals hunted. necessary for judging repercussions is Common across west and lacking. central Africa is the overhunting of Consuming human products forests near villages, and the subsequent and wastes can provide free-ranging depletion of wildlife stocks (Wilkie primates with significant nutritional 2006). Particularly in the Congo basin benefits, resulting in the decrease of countries of Central Africa, bushmeat is parasitic infection intensity. Increased an important supplement to the dietary nutrition helps the immune system protein of human populations—in defend against pathogen attack. many countries, mass malnutrition Conversely, raiding crops, foraging in would occur if this resource were no dumps, and engaging in coprophagy longer available (Fa et al. 2003:71). may have epizoological costs due to the In a survey across West and Central increased risk of disease transmission, Africa, primates made up 12 percent of directly from humans and indirectly all hunted animals (Fa et al. 2005:167). via transmission through bodily waste, Primates are relatively conspicuous; food, rubbish, and domesticated most are group-living and active animals. Further, in raiding crops and during the day, and some are ground- foraging for human products, nonhuman dwelling, making them a good return primates become pests, sometimes of meat for hunting time invested encountering hostility from the humans (Chapman et al. 2006a). The hunting affected by these activities. and butchering of nonhuman primates in Africa causes outbreaks of the Ebola NONHUMAN PRIMATES AS virus and HIV (Chapman et al. 2005; HUMAN RESOURCE Wilkie 2006) and the monkeypox virus Bushmeat (LeBreton et al. 2006) in humans. As Bushmeat is the flesh of forest well, contact between hunters and mammals, as well as some reptiles nonhuman primates, and the presence and birds (Fa et al. 2003). It is a cheap of nonhuman primate bodies in markets supply of protein in regions where and villages, increases the potential meat from domesticated animals is for the transmission of other kinds of

85 parasites. conservation efforts ignore the realities A common thread in the of poverty in favour of demonizing most recent conservation literature is those who hunt, sell, and buy the flesh public education in areas of bushmeat of wild animals, and because hunting harvesting (Monroe and Willcox 2006; bushmeat in part circumvents the need Wilkie 2006). Understanding whether for increased aid in many areas, it may there exists the perception that hunting, be ignored by those whose concern butchering and eating wild animals is is with the poverty experienced a legitimate health risk is important throughout east and central Africa. in this, because it may prove that the Public health education seems at this risk is deemed sufficient to merit a time to be of little help in avoiding change in behaviour (Wilkie 2006). zoonotic infection and the hunting of It is suggested that studies looking at endangered or at-risk species, like the the zoonotic transmission of viruses apes, because the perception of risk and other parasites may result in an from bushmeat pales when compared to increase in concern for public health, the risk of going without. Though new and even a reduction in unsustainable research into disease transmission is hunting practices (Wilkie 2006). heralded by conservation organizations Estimating the number of contact as a concrete, persuasive new thread events that may or must take place for to be integrated into campaigns, the zoonotic transmission to occur and real issues are of food supply, poverty, thereby become established in a human and the corruption of governments and population is key to making any real enforcement agencies (Chapman et inroads to convincing people dependent al. 2006A:117; Monroe and Willcox on bushmeat that it is a legitimate 2006:368). risk to the public and to themselves individually. Wilkie suggests that, if Taboos against eating and/or the probability of transmission is one in harming two hundred contacts with bushmeat, The converse issue to bushmeat is “it is an acute public health risk and when people, due to their beliefs about may be perceived as a personal risk by the primates local to them, have taboos individual hunters, butchers, traders and against eating and/or harming them. consumers” (2006:370). However, if Much of the research on this subject the risk is one in five hundred thousand concerns how these taboos play out when it is, while still a concern, unlikely to people do not defend their resources inspire a change in behaviour even to from the culturally protected primates. the extent of taking precautions (Wilkie Those in agricultural areas are put at a 2006:371). disadvantage due to crop raiding, as is The legitimate need for the case in Indonesia, where Balinese bushmeat should not be confused Hinduism extends protected status with a failure to perceive the risks of to long-tailed macaques (Macaca parasite and disease transmission or the fascicularis) (Loudon et al. 2006b). severity thereof; more likely is that the In Thailand, Thai Buddhism prohibits alternatives (malnutrition, starvation) the harming of local macaques, and are less preferable. Too often Buddhist temple compounds provision

86 macaques and provide a safe refuge for these cases, there may be prohibitions the animals, attracting and maintaining preventing irate locals from harming a population which, when away the animals, which subsequently from the temple, are killed both for makes them a greater nuisance as meat and because they are pests that they beg more and become aggressive destroy crops (Aggimarangsee and (Fuentes 2005:893). In contexts Brockelman 2005). Temple sites in generating interactions with tourists, Kathmandu, Nepal, are also home to the behaviour encouraged of nonhuman groups of macaques; Jones-Engel et al. primates (approachableness, interest (2006b) suggest that there is a need for in humans) can quickly escalate into public health and primate management unwanted behaviour (aggressiveness, strategies focused on the reduction doggedness) (Fuentes 2005). Overly of contact at temple sites, based on aggressive individuals, for instance, their findings indicating a heavy rate may be terminated in such situations, of zoonotic and anthropozoonotic turning what was, for the nonhuman transmission of patently harmful primates, initially a beneficial situation parasites at temples. into a risky one. In all contexts Nonhuman primates are often where interaction is encouraged and exempt from harm in areas where they nonhuman primates are socialized to are included in local cultural stories. expect food or other resources from The Mahafaly Malagasy around the humans, the transmission of parasites Beza-Mahafaly Special Reserve in and rapid changes in host-parasite Madagascar have an myth describing ecology can become a major problem how ring-tailed lemurs and Verreaux’s for both the nonhuman primates and sifaka are all descended from two the humans with which they come into quarrelling wives who, while fighting, contact. became a ring-tailed lemur and Verreaux’s sifaka respectively (Loudon ANTHROPOGENIC et al. 2006a). The Mahafaly do not harm ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE the ring-tailed lemurs and sifaka living Logging and edge in the area, and, as described above, Changes to natural habitats can have groups of ring-tailed lemurs make any number of serious consequences, use of the camp and village, foraging including alteration to host–parasite among the garbage and open latrine interactions (Chapman et al. 2005). areas, and stealing food from livestock Given this, there is a surprisingly small as well as eating crops (Loudon et al. amount of research devoted to looking 2006a). The ring-tailed lemurs carry at the links between prevalence of many socially transmitted ectoparasites infection, parasite species richness, including ticks and scabies (Loudon and logged habitat. This is likely to et al. 2006a:63), and it is likely that change, as the issue of anthropogenic humans, dogs and livestock in the area environmental change, and logging are affected. in particular, is of increasing In Indonesia and Japan, importance to conservationists, and monkeys are nuisances even as they to researchers whose study areas are function as tourist attractions. In increasingly surrounded by, or made

87 up of, logged habitat. Tropical forest monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis), redtail management policies and practices are monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius) and anthropocentric and capitalistic, based grey-cheeked mangabeys (Lophocebus on serving the goals of a powerful albigena) were all negatively affected minority of people (Struhsaker by logging, while black-and-white 1997:2). The impact of changes in the colobus (Colobus guereza) appeared host–parasite ecologies of both human to do well in some disturbed habitats. and nonhuman primates are unlikely Black-and-white colobus, like ring- to be factored in to such management tailed lemurs, are considered a ‘weed systems. species,’ (Chapman et al. 2006b:404; Logging, forest fragmentation Loudon et al. 2006a:65) that is, they and edge habitat are all closely related are adaptable and opportunistic, able to issues. Forest fragmentation is often the take advantage of the benefits present direct result of logging, which creates in new habitats like edge zones. edges. Edge-zones occur around forest Somewhat to the contrary, a fragments. As loggers produce warren- 1994 study by Plumptre & Reynolds like road systems into the forest, they found that in Budongo Forest Reserve, open up both forested and deforested which is just a few hundred kilometers areas to a range of large and small- away from Kibale National Park, blue scale economic interests—ranchers, monkeys and redtails as well as black- miners, bushmeat hunters and slash- and-white colobus were more abundant and-burn farmers (Lawrence 2001:4-5). in logged than in unlogged areas. As logging opens the forest in Africa, This particularized variation between it is more likely that people collecting populations of the same species exposed wood for fuel, rather than loggers, will to edge makes it difficult to assess what come into contact with primates; in the general changes could be implemented Kibale region in particular, wood is the to benefit a given forest interior sole energy source for the vast majority species. What these results suggest is local people, and 90-95 percent of all a need for population-specific and in- wood consumed is for fuel (Struhsaker depth studies regarding edge aversion. 1997:316). There are many aspects of The implication this holds for policy- logging, fragmentation, and edge that making is daunting. increase the points of contact between human and nonhuman primates, and Edge habitat change parasite species richness and Defined in Lehman et al. as “the the effects of parasitosis. penetration (to varying depths and Chapman et al. (2005) censused intensities) of conditions from the primates in logged and unlogged areas surrounding environment into the forest of Kibale National Park, Uganda. They interior” (2006:293), edge habitat can found that selective logging and the be natural or artificial (as when edge resultant forest fragmentation changed is the result of logging), and is often dynamics in the gastrointestinal parasite a zone of heightened contact between infection of local primate populations, human and nonhuman primates. both human and nonhuman. Rcolobus Ubiquitous of human disturbance in (Piliocolobus tephrosceles), blue particular, edges can affect nonhuman

88 primates (and other forest animals) in in edge zones than immunological a number of ways, which vary greatly stress. Several of the parasites infecting according to species. Heightened the colobus have the capacity to cause contact between nonhuman primates considerable problems when the and humans, as well as domesticated individual load is heavy; two species animals, occurs in edge zones, as do of stomach nematodes in particular can alterations in the abundance of food cause ulcers, dysentery, weight loss, resources and the species of parasites and death (Chapman et al. 2006b:407). encountered by primates (Chapman The forests of Madagascar et al. 2005:139,141). Edges may have been reduced by 80-90 percent enhance the access of wild nonhuman from their original size, and are now primates to agricultural crops, which highly fragmented (Lehman et al. often decreases the intensity of 2006:294). The high edge-to-interior parasitism (Weyher et al. 2006:1527- ratio of Madagascar’s forests is highly 1528). Conversely, edges can increase relevant to the health and population dietary stress in wild-feeding species6 densities of various species of lemurs (populations, or individuals), reducing across the island, as lemurs are the effectiveness of the immune system susceptible to a number of edge effects and affecting resistance to parasitic (Lehman et al. 2006:296-297). infection (Chapman et al. 2006b:405; In Lehman et al.’s 2006 study Wasserman et al. 2006:112). on lemur responses to edge in the Chapman et al. (2006b:401- Vohibola III classified forest, brown 402, 405) found that edge-inhabiting mouse lemurs (Microcebus rufus) and red colobus and and-white colobus in Milne-Edwards’ sifaka (Propithecus Uganda had a higher of individuals diadema edwardsi) exhibited positive with multiple infections than those edge responses including higher from the interior of the forest. The densities in edge habitat, while greater prevalence of specific parasites also dwarf lemurs (Cheirogaleus major) varied between edge and forest interior exhibited negative edge responses, groups. Nodular worms, which can be occurring at lower densities in edge quite harmful, were 7.4 times more areas. Lehman et al. (2006:297) prevalent in red colobus on the edge hypothesize that the negative edge than in those in the forest (Chapman response of the greater dwarf lemur et al. 2006b:401). Black-and-white may be due to the increased ambient colobus experience less severe temperature experienced in edge infections than the red colobus, likely habitats, which could potentially inhibit because they engage in crop raiding, torpor7 as has been demonstrated in while red colobus do not (Chapman et other small lemur species. al. 2006b:404). The higher proportion The positive edge responses of individual black-and-white colobus of brown mouse lemurs and Milne- with multiple infections, despite the Edwards’ sifaka may be related to nutritional benefits received from crop increased food abundance or quality raiding, suggest that with this species in particular edge habitats (Lehman patterns of parasitic infection are more et al. 2006); positive responses may closely tied to interactions with humans prove detrimental to these lemurs

89 due to overhunting by local people8 When the level of constant background or increased contact with fuel wood infection is low, wild primates may harvesters or domesticated animals become more susceptible to virulent like dogs. These factors may, in fact, infections. Likewise, evidence has contribute to the lower densities of recently been presented suggesting greater dwarf lemurs in edge areas that in isolated reserve populations of (Lehman et al. 2006:296). lemurs in Madagascar, genetic health Insight into the edge responses and variation is low (Morelli and Louis of different species may help us to 2007:194); if this is a common or arrive at an understanding of how some pernicious trend in nonhuman primates, species survive, or even flourish, after it will likely become an issue of great dramatic changes occur in their habitat. importance in conservation plans. It seems increasingly to be the case that Outbreaks of viruses can rip many species are not influenced to any through a clustered reserve population great extent by forest fragmentation; with devastating speed and mortality, Lehman et al. (2006) found that eastern as has been the case in Africa, where wooly lemurs (Avahi laniger), lesser upon introduction of the Ebola virus bamboo lemurs (Hapalemur griseus to populations of reserve gorillas griseus), and red-bellied lemurs death rates climb to 91 percent (Eulemur rubriventer) exhibited neutral (Bradbury 2007:9). The death rates edge responses, seeming essentially for Ebola among nonhuman primates unaffected by forest fragmentation or are staggering, particularly when alteration in forest matrix conditions. considering the comparatively few However, Lehman and Wright human deaths (1,200) that are known to (2000:23-25) found that in the region have been caused by Ebola (Bradbury immediately north of Vohibola III, 2007:9). The much lower risk to snare traps for lemurs were in close humans likely factors into the poor proximity to the forest edge. The results from many public educations increased contact between humans and campaigns suggesting the dangers of lemurs via trapping is encouraged by contact with bushmeat. the prevalence of edge, and the higher Of note also is the issue densities in these areas of brown mouse of resentment among communities lemurs and Milne-Edwards’ sifaka will surrounding reserves; crop raiding likely prove detrimental regardless of reserve primates frustrate farmers, and any increased resource accessibility. being barred from the wood source presented by reserve and park forests Reserves and parks frustrates those engaged in the timber Animals are often found in unnaturally trade or needing fuel wood (Struhsaker high concentrations in reserves, which 1997). In areas where local people have are frequently surrounded by settled been unable to access the resources land (Leroy et al. 2004:388-389). of forests, subsequent disintegration When hosts live in isolated pockets, of regulation or enforcement may total parasite species richness, across result in a deluge of abuse; in Uganda, helminths, protozoa and viruses, can agricultural trespass, timber and become low (Altizer et al. 2007:311). wood theft, and poaching occurred

90 in reserves subsequent to a collapse changes of various magnitudes, the of governmental law enforcement most intense resulting in unmanageable (Struhsaker 1997:320). As reserves parasitic infection and population and parks increasingly become the decline. Conservation of at-risk or most significant sites of resources in endangered wild species is likewise many landscapes, particularly in the a matter of balancing benefit and tropics, the wild animals within them detriment; ecotourism, for instance, can will come under intense anthropogenic be simultaneously helpful and harmful pressure; susceptibility to parasitic to nonhuman primates. Concerns infection under such circumstances will regarding the impact of tourists have increase, as will the rate of exposure to been growing as reports surface of human-borne parasites, as will, finally, ecological change coincidental with the zoonotic transmission of parasites. ecotourism. As humans force their way into wild Tourists bring with them nonhuman primate habitat, they will unfamiliar parasites, and as discussed infect and be infected. above, cause both directly and In all cases, evidence of the indirectly an increase in the waste and impact of anthropogenic changes to the garbage accessible to primates. Direct environment generally fails to signal a contact between humans and nonhuman definitive patterning to the transmission primates is, as discussed above, a of parasites, or the ways in which tourist draw in and of itself, common primates respond. While the importance in Japan, and in Indonesia, where of parasites to primate populations is Balinese monkey temples are the site clear, understanding, as Chapman et al. of constant contact and back-and-forth put it, “the interplay between alteration parasite transmission and infection of ecosystems and disease transmission (Fuentes 2006). Likewise, Grossberg probabilities” (2006b:398) is thus et al. (2003:49) found that the presence far beyond the scope, or scale, of of tourists can be costly for black the research being done. Given howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya) in the reality of human-to-nonhuman Belize; by responding to tourists with primate parasite transmission, and increased vigilance, foraging time is of the influence land clearance has wasted, and other activities requiring on the interactions between primates visual attention are neglected. Human and their parasites, it is of great presence and provocation encourages consequence that our understanding of howlers to descend to the ground, these dynamics increase. Nonhuman putting them at risk of predation and primate conservation and human health increasing the likelihood of parasite planning will not be effective without transmission with humans. such understanding. Graczyk and Cranfield (2003:59) suspect, likewise, that Conservation planning changes in intestinal helminth and Parasites and hosts generally coevolve protozoan parasite assemblages in into equilibrium (Altizer et al. 2007), gorillas habituated to humans for the and as the examples in this paper purposes of facilitating ecotourism are show, shifts in the balance can trigger due to anthropozoonotic transmission.

91 Further, as discussed above, viruses CONCLUSION common in humans – measles, influenza In looking at the zoonotic and – can be devastating in wild nonhuman anthropozoonotic transmission of primates (Jones-Engel et al. 2001), parasites we develop a new sense of and ecotourists are likely unaware the deep connectedness of all primates. of their potential to harm primates As well, we might think of humans and in this manner. While ecotourism parasites as conceptually similar; the can be deleterious to primate health, ecological relationships that necessarily international pressure combined with develop through interaction with either income from tourism may impact are a strong force for change and practices like unsustainable hunting morbidity. As the most widespread, and logging. Generally, ecotourism populous, and environmentally may make harm against primates on influential primate, humans must, like a local level more conspicuous and parasites, find some way to balance our potentially bad for business. current demands on other primates and Conservation is a difficult our shared habitat with the demands issue. It has been suggested that of our own species’ future survival. combining development plans with Just as a well-adapted parasite lives or wildlife conservation plans is a poor dies by its host, humans live or die by choice, as when international agencies the sustainability of our practices. By sever development aid, the conservation looking at parasites as a barometer of our aid packaged with it is cut as well impact, we might forestall the decline (Hart and Hart 1997:308). However, of other primate species, and ultimately, this underlies the interplay between the decline of our own species; it is development and wildlife conservation; political and economic stability that it is development that creates will be the lasting solutions to issues sustainable practices, particularly in of animal conservation, rather than the areas where people eke out a living designation of more ‘protected’ areas by making use of the resources that and enhanced anti-harm regulation conservationists are trying to protect. for endangered species. Though the An integrated approach, destructive cycles in which we find combining poverty alleviation and ourselves with other animals and the conservation, is successfully in place environment may eventually be broken at a number of primate field research free from, we can begin by repeating sites in Africa. Aid to alleviate local those cycles at a gentler pace. rural poverty is included in the funds The immediate needs of of the site, bypassing the many cracks human and nonhuman primates are for money to fall through that are increasingly at odds, and will continue built in to more official international to be so until satisfactory solutions to channels (Reynolds 2006:220). This the contests over space and resources more grass-roots approach from are found. Ideally, these solutions would research primatologists may be useful not privilege either group, humans or in establishing a new case-specific nonhumans, over the other. However, paradigm of aid management. as humans are in the position of power, and make up the majority of primates

92 worldwide, it falls to the human desire more aggressive individuals, or even for the continued presence of other more overall aggressive groups, are primates to keep those primates alive. more likely to pursue this alternate resource (Sapolsky 2006). 7. Many smaller species of lemur enter NOTES a daily state of torpor to inhibit energy 1. As in Graczyk and Cranfield (2003): expenditure (Strier 2003). human-to-other transmission (rather 8. Though the Mahafaly, as mentioned than the broader ‘zoonotic’ which does above, generally do not hunt lemurs, not strictly state directionality, though other Malagasy ethnic groups do it carries the connotation of other-to- (Loudon et al. 2006a), though possibly human). only on an occasional basis (Lehman et 2. Speaking in the long term; the short- al. 2006). term effects of logging or increased contact with humans (as when stealing garbage and making use of other human products) can be beneficial REFERENCES CITED for individual groups of nonhuman Altizer, Sonia with Charles L. Nunn and Patrik Lindenfors primates. Some species flourish in edge 2007 Do threatened hosts have habitat, for instance, even as increasing fewer parasites? A comparative edge habitat heralds shrinking forests study in primates. Journal of and the inevitably negative long-term Animal Ecology 76(2):304–314. consequences thereof. Aggimarangsee, N. and W. T. 3. More commonly, roundworms, Brockelman tapeworms, and flukes (Fleisher 2006). 2005 Monkey-human Interactions 4. in Thailand. American Journal of Balantidium coli (B. coli) is the Physical Anthropology 126 largest protozoan found in humans; it (Suppl. 40):62-63. causes colitis (essentially, colon ulcers) Bradbury, Jane and can have a variety of unpleasant 2007 Gorilla Ebola deaths. Lancet symptoms such as fever and bleeding Infectious Diseases 7(1):9. (Garcia 1999). Chapman, Colin A. with Thomas R. 5. The consensus with regards to Gillespie and Tony L. Goldberg 2005 Primates and the Ecology of captive nonhuman primates is that Their Infectious Diseases: How behavioural problems such as boredom will Anthropogenic Change are the cause of coprophagy. However, Affect Host-Parasite this is generally in reference to zoos, Interactions? Evolutionary where a dietary deficiency explanation Anthropology 14(4):134–144. is less likely (Graczyk and Cranfield Chapman, Colin A. with Michael J. 2003). Lawes, and Harriet A. Eeley 6. 2006a What hope for African primate It is not uncommon for individual diversity? African Journal of members of wild nonhuman primate Ecology 44(2):116-133. groups to vary in their willingness to engage in crop raiding; it may be that

93 Chapman, Colin A. with Michaela L. Gillespie, Thomas R. Speirs, Thomas R. Gillespie, Timothy 2006 Noninvasive Assessment of Hollands and Kiersten M. Austad Gastrointestinal Parasite 2006b Life on the Edge: Infections in Free-Ranging Gastrointestinal Parasites Primates. International Journal From the Forest Edge and of Primatology 27(4):1129-1143. Interior Primate Groups. Graczyk, Thaddeus K. and Michael R. American Journal of Cranfield Primatology 68(4):397–409. 2003 Coprophagy and Intestinal Fa, John E. with Dominic Currie and Parasites: Implications to Jessica Meeuwig Human-habituated Mountain 2003 Bushmeat and food security Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla in the Congo Basin: Linkages beringei) of the Virunga between wildlife and people’s Mountains and Bwindi future. Environmental Conservation 30(1):71-78. Impenetrable Forest. Primate Fa, John E. with S. F. Ryan and D. J. Conservation 19:58-64. Bell Grossberg, Rebecca with Adrian Treves 2005 Hunting vulnerability, ecological and Lisa Naughton-Treves characteristics and harvest rates 2003 The incidental ecotourist: of bushmeat species in measuring visitor impacts on afrotropical forests. Biological endangered howler monkeys at a Conservation 121(22):167-176. Belizean archaeological site. Fish, Krista D. with Michelle L. Sauther, Environmental Conservation James E. Loudon and Frank P. Cuozzo 30(1):40–51. 2007 Coprophagy by Wild Ring- Hahn, Nina E. with David Proulx, Philip Tailed Lemurs (Lemur catta) M. Muruthi, Susan Alberts, and Jeanne in Human-Disturbed Locations Altmann Adjacent to the Beza Mahafaly 2003 Gastrointestinal Parasites in Free-ranging Kenyan Baboons Special Reserve, Madagascar. (Papio cynocephalus and P. American Journal of anubis). International Journal of Primatology 69(1):1-6. Primatology 24(2):271-279. Fleisher, Paul Hart, Terese and John Hart 2006 Parasites: Latching On to a 1997 Zaire: New Models for an Free Lunch. New York: Emerging State. Conservation Twenty-First Century Books. Biology 11(2):308-309. Fuentes, Agustín Jones-Engel, Lisa with Gregory A. 2005 Human Culture and Monkey Engel, Michael A. Schillaci, Rosnany Behavior: Assessing the Babo, and Jeffery Froehlich Contexts of Potential Pathogen 2001a Detection of Antibodies to Transmission Between Selected Human Pathogens Macaques and Humans. Among Wild and Pet Macaques American Journal of (Macaca tonkeana) in Sulawesi, Primatology 68(9):880–896. Indonesia. American Journal of Garcia, Lynne S. Primatology 54(3):171-178. 1999 Practical Guide to Diagnostic Parasitology. Washington DC: ASM Press.

94 Jones-Engel, Lisa with Gregory A. Leroy, Eric M. with Pierre Rouquet, Engel, John Heidrich, Mukesh Chalise, Pierre Formenty, Sandrine Souquière, Narayan Poudel, Raphael Viscidi, Peter Annelisa Kilbourne, Jean-Marc A. Barry, Jonathan S. Allan, Richard Froment, Magdalena Bermejo, Grant and Randy Kyes Sheilag Smit, William Karesh, Robert 2001b Temple Monkeys and Health Swanepoel, Sherif R. Zaki, and Pierre Implications of Commensalism, E. Rollin Kathmandu, Nepal. Emerging 2004 Multiple Ebola Virus Infectious Diseases 12(6):900- Transmission Events and Rapid 906. Decline of Central African Le Guenno, B. with P. Formenty and C. Wildlife. Science Boesch 303(5656):387–390. 1999 Ebola virus outbreaks in the Loudon, James E. with Michelle L. Ivory Coast and Liberia, 1994- Sauther, Krista D. Fish, Mandala 1995. Current Topics In Hunter-Ishikawa, and Youssouf Jacky Microbiology And Immunology Ibrahim 235:77-84. 2006a One reserve, three primates: Lawrence, William F. applying a holistic approach 2001 Tropical Logging and Human to understand the Invasions. Conservation Biology interconnections among 15(1):4-5. ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur LeBreton, M., with A. T. Prosser, U. catta), Verreaux’s sifaka Tamoufe, W. Sateren, E. Mpoudi-Ngole, (Propithecus verreauxi), and J. L. D. Diffo, D. S. Burke and N. D. humans (Homo sapiens) at Wolfe Beza Mahafaly Special 2006 Healthy hunting in central Reserve, Madagascar. Ecological Africa. Animal Conservation and Environmental 9(4):372-374. Lehman, Shawn M. and Patricia C. Anthropology 2(2):54-74. Wright Loudon, James E. with Michaela E. Howells and Agustin Fuentes 2000 Preliminary Description of the 2006b The Importance of Integrative Conservation Status of Lemur Anthropology: A Preliminary Communities in the Investigation Employing Betsakafandrika Region of Primatological and Cultural Eastern Madagascar. Lemur Anthropological Data Collection News 5:23–25. Electronic Methods in Assessing Human- document http://www.dpz. Monkey Co-existence in Bali, gwdg.de/lnews/lemur5u1. Indonesia. Ecological and htm. Accessed April 10, 2007. Lehman, Shawn M. with Andry Environmental Anthropology Rajoanson and Sabine Day 2(1)2-13. Monroe, M. C. and A. S. Willcox 2006 Lemur Responses to Edge 2006 Could risk of disease change Effects in the Vohibola III bushmeat-butchering behavior? Classified Forest, Madagascar. Animal Conservation 9(4):368- American Journal of 369. Primatology 68(3):293–299.

95 Morelli, T. L. and E. E. Louis Wasserman, M. D. with Colin A. 2007 Are protected areas really Chapman, Thomas R. Gillespie, M. L. protecting lemurs? A Look at the Speirs, M. J. Lawes and T. E. Ziegler Genetic Diversity in and Around 2006 Red Colobus Abundance in Forest Fragments: The Role of Ranomafana National Park, Nutrition, Parasitism, and Stress. Madagascar. International International Journal of Journal of Primatology Primatology 27(Suppl.1):111- 27(Suppl.1):193-194. 112. Plumptre and Reynolds, V. Weyher, Anna H. with Caroline Ross, 1994 The effects of selective logging and Stuart Semple on the primate populations in the 2006 Gastrointestinal Parasites in Budongo Forest Reserve, Crop Raiding and Wild Foraging Uganda. Journal of Applied Papio anubis in Nigeria. Ecology 31(4):631-641. International Journal of Reynolds, V. Primatology 27( 6):1519-1534. 2006 Can Poverty Alleviation Assist Wilkie, D. Conservation? International 2006 Bushmeat: a disease risk worth Journal of Primatology taking to put food on the table? 27(Suppl.1):220-221. Animal Conservation 9(4):370– Ross, Caroline and C. M. Hill 371. 2006 Non-human Primates as Pests: Variation in Primate Species and Human Cultures. International Journal of Primatology 27(Suppl.1):404. Ross, Caroline and Y. Warren 2006 Primate and Other Mammalian Maize Pests in Gashaka, Nigeria. International Journal of Primatology 27(Suppl. 1):408- 409. Struhsaker, Thomas T. 1997 Ecology of an African Rain Forest: Logging in Kibale and the Conflict between Conservation and Exploitation. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Tweheyo, M. 2006 Farmers’ Response to Patterns of Crop Raiding by Primates Around the Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda. International Journal of Primatology 27(Suppl.1):406-407.

96 KISHA SUPERNANT

CULTURAL LANDSCAPES CONCEPTUALIZED A Cross-disciplinary Genealogical History

Abstract In the past twenty years, archaeological analyses of cultural landscapes have appeared with increasing frequency, and are currently being applied to all types of societies, from small-scale fisher-gatherer-hunters of the Northwest Coast to the complex empires of the Inca and Maya. This concept, however, is ambiguous inasmuch as few archaeologists clearly define what they mean when they discuss a cultural landscape. In order to resolve, or at least unpack, some of these ambiguities, I trace the intellectual genealogy of this idea from its first introduction into English through its divergent and convergent histories in both geography and archaeology. The diversity of approaches to landscapes in archaeology today is a product of this history, and as the term becomes increasingly relevant in First Nations communities, it is important for archaeologists to understand the historical antecedents of this idea. INTRODUCTION reflection within the discipline” Archaeologists have often adopted (Thomas 2001:165). Archaeology has theories from other disciplines only recently adopted the concept of a without comprehending all the various cultural landscape from geography and nuances of how these theories were applied it to studies of past societies, generated in the first place. Although leading some to claim that landscape it is neither necessary nor desirable for archaeology is still in its infancy (Fisher archaeologists to explore the complex and Thurston 1999:630). The idea of a genealogical history of the concepts cultural landscape has been successful they use in every circumstance, it is in diverse disciplines because it nevertheless an important endeavour inherently bridges the nature-culture to step back from time to time and divide and provides a way to undermine reflect upon the origin of an idea. this dichotomy (Knapp and Ashmore With this in mind, I trace in this paper 1999; Layton and Ucko 1999). The the intellectual history of an idea term cultural landscape has undergone that has become a significant part of a number of significant changes since archaeological analysis in the past its inception into the social sciences in two decades: the concept of a cultural 1925 and has been subject to critiques landscape. of both positivism (Norton 1989) and The landscape concept has post-modernism (Cosgrove 2000b). Its a long history in archaeology as part flexibility, ambiguity and inclusivity of the way researchers analyze the have allowed it to endure and adapt relationship between sites on the to this criticism. From the adoption physical landscape, but “it has only been of cultural landscape as a form of in the past decade or so that landscape World Heritage site to the increasing has emerged as an object of theoretical use of the concept to describe the

97 reciprocal relationship between First represent the cognitive map of a Nations communities and the physical community. environment, this term is more Feinman (1999), writing relevant and more widely used than slightly earlier, presents a different ever before. yet interrelated discussion about In this paper, I follow the what he terms the “three tenets” of development of cultural landscape the landscape approach: (1) a study through the social sciences, with a of the natural environment guided by particular focus on how, where and social science research questions; (2) why it was adopted into archaeological a recognition that the relationships thought. One of the difficulties with between humans and their environment this analysis is that a unified definition is historically situated and dynamic, of a cultural landscape is lacking, as it shaped by human action and cultural has been defined in a multitude of ways perception; and (3) a realization that through time (Godsen and Head 1994). the human environment is a product However, I will work from what I or construction of human behaviour consider the range of current meanings (1999:685). In the same section of of cultural landscape as employed Antiquity, Fisher and Thurston avoid by archaeologists. The process of a list of tenets or premises but instead constructing the intellectual history of emphasise the scope of what they term an idea as complex and multifaceted a “landscape archaeology” – which is as cultural landscape involves three “a broad, inclusive, holistic concept important steps, which are: (1) created intentionally to include humans, discussing how the term first came their anthropogenic ecosystem and into being at a particular historical the manner in which these landscapes moment; (2) tracing the evolution of are conceptualized, experienced and cultural landscape in geography and symbolized” (1999:630). the parallel theoretical developments Knapp and Ashmore (1999) in archaeology; and (3) identifying share a similar view in recognizing when cultural landscapes took on the that “a landscape embodies more meanings and applications that they than a neutral, binary relationship currently have in archaeology today. between people and nature, along any single dimension… space is both a Landscape Defined medium for and the outcome of human In a recent review of the concept of activity” (1999:8). In discussing the landscape in archaeology, Anschuetz et usefulness of the ambiguity of the al. identify four foundational ideas for landscape, Godsen and Head echo the “landscape paradigm” (2001:160- this idea, stating, “landscape is more 161): (1) landscapes represent cultural than the stage setting for human systems interacting with natural action… landscapes are both created environments; (2) landscapes are and creating” (1994:114). Ayres and created as places through cultural Mauricio note that “archaeological activities, beliefs and values; (3) landscapes represent a distinct form of landscapes contain all human activity; cultural landscape because they develop and (4) landscapes are dynamic and over long periods of time” (1999:298),

98 an idea which is also found in the work The Birth of “Landscape” and of Tim Ingold, who emphasises the “Culture” impossibility of separating the concept There are two recognized sources for of landscape from that of time, as the origin of the word ‘landscape’, landscape is relational and experiential and represent aspects of either the (Ingold 1993:154). physical land (Landschaft) or a sense A few themes arise from of perspective in painting (Landschap). this multitude of definitions that are The first term is German and was important in understanding why the adopted in England during the Middle concept of cultural landscape is so Ages to refer either to an area inhabited attractive to archaeologists. First, the by a group of people or to the land idea of cultural landscape implies a controlled by a lord (Daniels 2000a) cultural process (Hirsch 1995:5; Ingold and simply represents the concept 1994:738) and represents a dynamic of “area” or “region” without any and changing relationship either aesthetic or visual connotations between experiences of place/space (Cosgrove 1985:56). The usage of or humans/environment, depending on landscape to refer to property had the theoretical approach of the author. nearly disappeared in the late sixteenth Time and place are inherent in cultural and early seventeenth century when landscapes, making them compelling to landschap, from Dutch, entered the archaeologists concerned with change English language, primarily through through time in a particular place landscape painters (Hirsch 1995). or places. Another theme of cultural Landschap and Landschaft were landscape as constructed through combined, and ‘landscape’ came “to human action, in which cultural refer to the appearance of an area, landscapes are created primarily within more particularly to the representation the social world of a particular culture of scenery” (Daniels 2000). It was not at a particular time. until the word landscape was combined Perhaps the most compelling with another etymologically complex reason that archaeologists have been term, namely culture, that cultural drawn to this concept is the fact that landscape was born. it is inherently holistic, encompassing Conceptual roots of many other types of archaeological the culture can be traced back to data such as sites, households and cultura, originally from Latin, and artifacts. During the 1980s and 1990s, in its earliest uses, it was “a noun of archaeology was criticized for viewing process” (Williams 1972:87) usually cultures merely as adaptive systems referring to cultivation. In French and and ignoring the role of the individual German, however, the word came to be in the past (Hodder 1992). A cultural synonymous with ‘civilization’. Tylor’s landscape perspective allows humans definition of culture in Primitive Mind to be active agents in their relationships (1871) established the anthropological with the physical environment, instead meaning of the word and was adopted of passive bystanders adapting to primarily from German (Kroeber and geomorphological and environmental Kluckhohn 1952:11). His definition changes. remains relevant – “that complex whole

99 which includes knowledge, belief, art, humans and their physical environment, morals, law, custom, and any other a point of view that was not shared capabilities and habits acquired by by French geographers who forcibly man as a member of society” (1871:1). rejected environmental determinism Many later definitions have drawn upon (Atlin 2007:428; Norton 1989:35). or reworked these ideas, but Tylor’s Sauer, an American geographer, argued conception of culture stands up as one that the true realm of geographers was of the major forces in how culture has the cultural landscape, although he been considered since. recognized the natural environment as a significant force in human culture DIVERGENT DISCIPLINES, (Cosgrove 2000b). His monograph, DIVERGENT LAND The Morphology of the Landscape, Archaeology and cultural geography formed the basis for cultural landscape both came into being in the intellectual as an area of study within geography in atmosphere of late nineteenth century North America. Europe, primarily as sub-disciplines of In his monograph, Sauer a larger field of study – anthropology sought to define the “nature of and geography respectively. The geography” (1963:313). He argued specific focus of this paper – the term the three primary fields of inquiry cultural landscape – also traces its roots in geography should be the study of to the intellectual framework of the the physical environment, the study burgeoning social sciences at the turn of humans as subject to the physical of the nineteenth century. Carl Sauer, environment, and the study of habitats who was the first to employ cultural of the earth (Sauer 1963:316). Further, landscape as a concept in English, Sauer defines landscape as “a land wrote his seminal work in response to shape, in which the process of shaping a debate between two major schools is by no means thought of as simply of thought – the first was the school physical…it may be defined, therefore, of Anthropogeographie headed by as an area made up of a distinct Friedrich Ratzel in Germany, which association of forms, both physical and gave the environment a primary cultural” (1963:321, emphasis mine). role in shaping human experience, Sauer’s explicit recognition of both and the second was the geography the human and the natural aspect of the that was developing in France under landscape was a major leap that was Paul Vidal de la Blache (Atlin 2007; made in a dynamic intellectual context. Norton 1989). Buttimer (1971:28) In his presentation of the landscape as notes that the Durkheim school of a land shape, Sauer connected the idea sociology developed at this time and to its etymological roots as a way of likely influenced this particular debate, viewing (Cosgrove 1985), although he since Ratzel considered society from distinguished between the landscape a biological standpoint and Durkheim as “an actual scene viewed by an considered society in terms of collective observer” (Sauer 1963:322) and the consciousness. In geographical circles, broader idea of a general geographical Ratzel and his colleagues were interested landscape. The natural landscape, in the ecological relationships between according to Sauer, can be considered

100 as the physical earth before it is touched have studied the human past, they by human action, and is to be known have been interested in space, and, by the “totality of its forms”, including consequently, in landscapes” (Knapp topography and climate (1963:337). and Ashmore 1999:1). Archaeology The cultural landscape, on the other developed through an increasing hand, is the transformations of the interest in biological and cultural natural landscape by humans – since origins of humankind in the second man “by his cultures… makes use of half of the nineteenth century, along the natural forms, in many cases alters with the recognition of a deep antiquity them, in some destroys them” (Sauer of humankind (Trigger 1989:148). 1963:341). The natural landscape, Ideas of diffusion and therefore, was the medium for cultural migration in culture change developed factors to create cultural forms, and out of geography in Germany and were “supplies the materials out of which brought over to North America through the cultural landscape is formed” the works of Franz Boas (Trigger (Sauer 1963:343). One of the important 1989:151), who trained as a physical features of Sauer’s presentation of the geographer under Ratzel and turned cultural landscape as the object of study to anthropology later in his career. for geography is his implicit assumption Archaeologists in Britain in the early that a physical, natural landscape twentieth century worked jointly with existed as a tablua rasa and that geographers to develop distribution cultural natural landscape was where maps, whereby archaeological “culture” was imposed upon “nature” remains could be located in relation (Cosgrove 2000b). An emphasis on to geographic features (Anschuetz the visual is another important aspect et al. 2001; Crawford 1922). These of his argument, as the visible forms of distribution maps worked within the the landscape as modified by humans prevailing ideas of environmental were the objects of geographical study. determinism and allowed early These aspects of his paradigm came archaeologists to examine culture under fire during the ‘new geography” change in relation to environmental of the 1960s and the 1970s as well as changes. As this technique became during the post-modern critique of the more sophisticated, archaeologists 1980s and 1990s. Regardless of later began to use geographical patterning of challenges, The Morphology of the archaeological remains to understand Landscape remains a brilliant synthesis concepts of ethnicity (Trigger of a number of ideas about culture, 1989). It was during this period that landscape, and geography that were archaeologists began to focus their developing at the time on both sides of analysis on defined areas, following the Atlantic Ocean. the work of Pitt Rivers in England Before Sauer defined cultural (Thomas 2001). geography as the study of cultural Geographical interests on the landscapes, a foundation for the use part of archaeologists were also evident of landscape in archaeology was in North America, where fascination being developed in Europe and North with the mounds of the Southeastern America, for “as long as archaeologists United States was foundational

101 to the development of systematic “between social processes and biological archaeological practices. As greater or organic processes” (Norton 1989:15 concern for chronology and culture after Kroeber 1917:169). Subsequent history rose in the early twentieth neo-evolutionary developments century, the geographic distribution brought the idea of cultural ecology remained central, when migration and into anthropology (Steward 1936), diffusion were the two primary means where culture and the environment for understanding both change through were linked in a functional relationship. time and space (Norton 1989:12-13; Human ecology was also being explored Trigger 1989). However, unlike most during the same period in cultural geographers of the time, anthropologists geography (Thornthwaite 1940), akin and archaeologists considered to but distinct from cultural ecological diffusion and migration to be two approaches in anthropology. distinct processes (Norton 1989:105). Even though cultural and The genealogical connections between human ecology explore the functional anthropology, archaeology and relationship between humans and the geography are foundational to all three environment, neither explicitly uses a disciplines, although anthropology and landscape approach. Archaeology, on archaeology have generally borrowed the other hand, adopted these materialist more than they have given (Earle and concepts and applied them to the study Preucel 1987). of settlements (Trigger 1989:279-282). The early periods of both Steward engaged in archaeological geography and archaeology were research, using settlement patterns in the characterized by the “natural science” Southwest to discuss the relationships approach that explicitly focused on between culture and environment classification and categorization, not (1937), which inspired Willey’s study interpretation (Wagstaff 1987:2). of the Viru Valley in Peru (1953), the Although interested in human activity, first major work that can be classified neither discipline developed any social as settlement archaeology. Willey theory, choosing instead to focus moved beyond simple classification on physical evidence (Norton 1989; by discussing how “settlement patterns Wagstaff 1987). In the 1940s and are… directly shaped by held cultural 1950s, archaeologists began to move needs [and] offer a strategic point beyond simple artifact classification and for the functional interpretation of historical reconstruction to the study archaeological cultures” (1953:1). of settlements and aspects of human Settlement pattern archaeology became patterns over the physical landscape. widespread after this time, with a This shift was tied into developments number of settlement surveys carried in both anthropology and geography. out in the 1960s and 1970s (Adams Sauer, at Berkeley, was intellectually and Nissen 1972; for discussion close to Kroeber, who was developing see Anschuetz et al 2001:169) and his ideas about the superorganic became a favoured method by the character of cultural development at the New Archaeologists, discussed further time (1917). Kroeber’s ideas resonated below. In China, K.C. Chang expanded in geography, particularly his division on these ideas by pioneering studies on

102 different scales of analysis in settlement introduction to his phenomenological studies – the household, the local consideration of the idea of landscape, group, and the community (see Chang notes that during this period, both 1958, 1967). Methodologies that focus geographers and archaeologists dealt on how people live on the landscape with abstract space, not human space – have endured through a number of “space as container, surface and volume different paradigms in archaeology was substantial inasmuch as it existed and have direct implications for in itself and for itself, external to and the later adoption of the concept of indifferent to human affairs” (1994:12- cultural landscapes into the discipline. 13). This represented a significant The importance of these ideas in this break from the Sauerian ideas of the discussion is that they set the stage cultural landscape. for the next major revolution in both The ‘New Archaeology’ was disciplines – the rise of the “new” and born in 1959, with Caldwell’s article the turn to positivism. in Science. Caldwell identified a shift in archaeology from questions of when NEW GEOGRAPHY, NEW and where – the focus of the culture ARCHAEOLOGY: history paradigm – to questions of NEW LANDSCAPES? “cultural processes and situations” In the 1960s, new approaches to (1959:304) and interpretation. He landscape analysis arose in both cites examples of a growing concern geography and archaeology (Trigger for ecology and settlement patterns 1989; Wagstaff 1987:26-360). This of indicative of this paradigm shift – particular time was one of increasing landscape remains a major concern. interest in the social sciences, This article was followed three years following the tremendous growth of later by Binford’s Archaeology as university departments post-WWII. Anthropology (1962), where he Geography moved towards a deductive, presented the idea that culture should positivist methodology, where specific be studied through various systems – hypotheses were formulated and social, ideological and technological tested through statistical analysis and (1962). For Binford, generating other quantitative methods (Wagstaff hypotheses and testing them against 1987:27), leading this to be called past human behaviour was the way to the “quantitative revolution” (Burton understand culture (1968). Material 1963, in Earle and Preucel 1987:503). remains, according to Binford, reflected Cultural landscapes became secondary all three cultural systems, and therefore to the positivistic spatial analyses the goal of archaeological inquiry was that were paramount during this time “to be understood in terms of many (Norton 1989:44), as the environment, causally relevant variables which may not culture, was the focus. Both physical function independently or in varying and human geographers downplayed combinations” by examining patterns the importance of history in their work, of material culture (1965:205). One of leading to what was perhaps its largest the major data sets against which to test intellectual break from archaeology these hypotheses and examine these as a discipline. Tilley (1994), in the patterns were regional analyses of

103 settlement systems. Spatial analysis as Smith 2003), structural geography a methodology for understanding past and the study of social and symbolic cultures continued to develop into the landscapes, associated with the British idea that came to be known as processual school (Darvill 1999; Thomas 1993). archaeology. In fact, much of Binford’s In archaeology, a similar work (notably 1980, 1982) was although again slightly later concerned with studying a concept very development was taking place. similar to Sauer’s cultural landscape, Drawing from both the theoretical and although with a particular focus on methodological changes in geography, change, process and adaptation. As as well as anthropology and sociology, Anschuetz et al. observe, “[settlement] scholars within the discipline began studies contribute varied insights into to question some of the foundations the diversity, the complexity, and the of processual archaeology (Earle dynamic interdependence upon humans’ and Preucel 1987; Hodder 1982). technological structures, their social, Dissatisfied with the study of cultures political and religious organizations, as adaptive systems, archaeologists and the physical environments in which began to look towards other theories they live” (2001:171) – in other words, to explain sociocultural interaction, cultural landscapes. power relationships, inequality and The Sauerian-defined cultural human agency. As archaeologists began landscape remained intact in cultural to look beyond processualism, a new geography until the late 1970s, when space opened for cultural landscapes the discipline began to experience to be integrated into archaeological “stirrings of dissatisfaction” (Wagstaff analysis, especially as this concept was 1987:29). Wagstaff, discussing being redeveloped in geography. both archaeology and geography’s involvement in the cultural landscape LANDSCAPES CONVERGED discourse, notes three major sources In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the for this dissatisfaction – a realization social sciences as a whole were coming of the weaknesses of statistics, a under the influence of postmodernism. re-evaluation of positivism and the Post-processual archaeology was hypothetico-deductive method, and a the particular manifestation of “the recognition that the study of modern appropriation of post-structural patterns was not diachronically valid thought and critical theory by (1987:30). Explicitly discussing archaeologists” and the interaction of cultural geography as a sub-discipline, archaeologists with post modernity Norton makes a break between pre- (Patterson 1989:556). One of the most 1970 and post-1970, particularly in significant challenges of postprocessual terms of methodology and the need archaeology in relation to the adoption to “reinstate human intentionality, of a cultural landscape as a unit of humans and culture into geography” analysis was the critique of objectivity. and into the landscape (1989:42). This History and culture were conceived of eventually led to the adoption of new in broader terms, which allows for an ways of understanding the landscape, exploration of the interrelationships including Marxism (see Olwig 2002; between these two constructions

104 (Patterson 1989:558). Interest in the archaeology, with two of the most human experience and subjectivity led significant being Bender’s edited volume some archaeologists to look beyond Landscape: Politics and Perspectives their discipline for new theories and (1993a) and Tilley’s A Phenomenology ideas. of Landscape (1994). Both of these Cultural geography began to authors are from Britain, where interest evaluate the idea of landscape from a in new cultural landscapes was most humanist perspective, as studies began readily adopted, due to a long history to focus on landscapes as politically, of collaboration between geographers historically and socially constituted and archaeologists. Bender’s volume (Cosgrove 2000a). Livingstone (1992) contains discussions of how landscapes challenged the dichotomy of nature are political, especially as related and culture as epistemic categories. to memory and colonialism, with Other geographers began to realize contributions from archaeologists, that humans were active agents in anthropologists and geographers. the formation of both culture and Although conceptually new, many nature. One of the major figures in of the units of analysis employed by this reconsideration of the Sauerian the contributors to this volume have landscape was Cosgrove (1984;1985), long histories in archaeology – spatial who recast the history of landscape in analysis (Bender 1993b), monuments relationship to production and capitalism (Tilley 1993) and the division between in Europe (1985). Landscapes became public and private space (Bodenhorn politicized realms with human actors 1993). Tilley’s work draws on creating culture, place and self within phenomenological constructions to humanized space (Tilley 1994). The analyse landscapes as subjects: fluid, dynamic and subjective aspects of landscape negotiation and creation People and environment are became the focus (Schein 1997). constitutive components of Cultural landscapes were no longer the same world, which it the result of culture working through is unhelpful to think of in the medium of nature to create forms terms of a binary nature/ – they were complex, flexible, and culture distinction. In the constructed through social and political perception of the world and in interactions. At this intellectual the consumption of resources juncture, with the reformulation (utilitarian or symbolic) of cultural landscape in geography from that world of meanings and the post-processual critique in embodied in environmental archaeology, archaeologists drew upon object are drawn into the a long tradition of adopting ideas from experience of subjects (Tilley their colleagues in geography. It was 1994:23). at this time that cultural landscape, in its new form, became integrated into Tilley uses the Heideggerian concept archaeological research. of “dwelling” to understand the In the 1990s, there was a human experience and transformation proliferation of landscape studies in of space to place (1994:13). Not all

105 archaeologists have taken the study of for knowledge, a teaching tool, and a cultural landscapes to this abstract of a spiritual or sacred place (Basso 1996). level. To return to the varied definitions Cultural landscapes, therefore, of landscape presented earlier in this are inherent to the worldview of paper, there is a continued emphasis on many Aboriginal communities. the environment as an important part of Archaeologists have begun to work the study of landscapes in what has come with these communities to try to access to be known as landscape archaeology. the cultural landscapes of the past and to Current work emphasises a variety of connect the past with the present. This cultural landscape approaches such approach requires an understanding as monuments and ritual landscapes of where the term originates, because (Bender 1993b), mortuary analysis although the structuring of space in (Buikstra and Charles 1999) and the the past created a built environment relationship between cultural identity that can be studied, finding meaning in and landscape (Basso 1996). those landscapes often requires a more nuanced approach, grounded in theory DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION and non-material sources (Cutright- The current applications of cultural Smith 2007:15). The exploration of landscapes in archaeology reflect its past cultural landscapes benefits from diverse histories, as there are elements in collaborative relationships with living landscape analysis that remain staunchly descent communities, and research empiricist (Dooley 2006), as well as into past landscapes can contribute to those that present cultural landscapes the political issues faced by Aboriginal as perception and little else (Tilley communities today. 1994). Cultural landscape as a concept On a world scale, cultural has deep intellectual roots as well as landscapes are now a category of an ongoing influence in archaeology, World Heritage sites as defined by both in academic and increasingly UNESCO, as the term “embraces in political realms. Archaeological a diversity of manifestations of the research on cultural landscapes interaction between humankind and continues to have close ties with other the natural environment” (WHC 2005 disciplines, particularly geography, as in Aplin 2007:433). Mapping projects new mapping technologies adapted and traditional use studies both refer to from GIS have allowed archaeologists cultural landscapes as part of the living to create much more complete pictures heritage of First Nations in Canada and of past landscapes, both from a physical the United States, and are used to argue and cultural perspective. Within North for the protection and perseveration of America, the term cultural landscape large tracts of land beyond individual is currently being employed by First archaeological sites around the Nations communities as part of rights globe. Understanding the intellectual and title claims, as they argue that their genealogy of this concept can enhance connection to place goes beyond mere our use of a term that can otherwise functional use or modification of the have different meanings to different physical land. For many Aboriginal researchers. Some authors have groups, the landscape is a container claimed that landscape archaeology is

106 still in its infancy (Fisher and Thurston Ashmore, Wendy, and A. Bernard 1999:630), but as we have seen in Knapp, eds. this paper, it has a long and complex 1999 Archaeologies of Landscape: history, only partially excavated here. Contemporary Perspectives. Malden: Blackwell Publishers. It is a usefully ambiguous concept, as Ayres, William. and Rufino Mauricio succinctly presented by Gosden and 1999 Definition, Ownership, and Head: Conservation of Indigenous Landscapes at Salapwuk, The thread that binds Pohnpei, Micronesia. In The geography, archaeology and Archaeology and Anthropology anthropology together around of Landscape: Shaping your the theme of landscape is the landscape. Peter J. Ucko and notion of history that can be Robert Layton, eds. Pp. 298-321. London: Routledge. derived from it. The concept of Basso, Keith. H. landscape stretches between the 1996 Wisdom Sits in Places: physical shape and properties Landscape and Language Among of the land to the human use the Western Apache. and conceptions of that land, Albuquerque: University of New bringing together themes that Mexico Press. are vital to an understanding Bender, Barbara. of human history and which 1993 Stonehenge—contested would normally remain landscape (medieval to present- day). In Landscape: Politics and separated (1994:116). Perspectives. Barbara Bender, ed. Pp 45-279. Oxford: Berg. 1999 Subverting the Western Gaze: mapping alternative worlds. REFERENCES CITED In The Archaeology and Anschuetz, Kurt., Richard. H. Anthropology of Landscape: Wilshusen, and Cherie. L. Scheick Shaping your landscape. Peter J. 2001 An Archaeology of Landscapes: Ucko and Robert Layton, eds. Perspectives and Directions. Pp. 31-45. London: Routledge. Journal of Archaeological Binford, Lewis. R. Research 9(2):157-211. 1962 Archaeology as Anthropology. Adams, Robert. McC., and Nissen, Hans American Antiquity 28: 217- J. 225. 1972 The Uruk Countryside: The 1965 Archaeological Systematics and Natural Setting of Urban the Study of Culture Process. Societies. Chicago: University of American Antiquity 31: 203-210. Chicago Press. 1968 Some comments on historical Aplin, Graeme versus processual archaeology. 2007 World Heritage Cultural Southwestern Journal of Landscapes. International Anthropology 24:267-275. Journal of Heritage Studies 1980 Willow smoke and dog’s tails: 13(6):427-466. Hunter–gatherer settlement sys tems and archaeological site formation. American Antiquity 45:4–20.

107 1982 The archaeology of place. 2000a Cultural geography. In The Journal of Anthropological Dictionary of Human Archaeology 1:5–31. Geography. R.J. Johnston, Bodenhorn, Barbara. Derek Gregory, Geraldine Pratt 1993 Gendered spaces, public spaces: and Michael Watts, eds. Public and private revisited on Pp. 131-138. Oxford: Blackwell. the North Slope of Alaska. In 2000b Cultural landscape. In The Landscape: Politics and Dictionary of Human Perspectives. Barbara Bender, Geography. R.J. Johnston, Derek ed. Pp 169–203. Oxford: Berg. Gregory, Geraldine Pratt and Buikstra, Jane. E. and Douglas K. Michael Watts, eds. Pp. 138-141. Charles Oxford: Blackwell. 1999 Centering the Ancestors: Cosgrove, Denis and Stephen Daniels Cemeteries, Mounds and Sacred 1988 The Iconography of Landscape: Landscapes of the Ancient Essays on the Symbolic North American Midcontinent. Representation, Design and Use In Archaeologies of Landscape: of Past Environments. Contemporary Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge Wendy Ashmore and A. Bernard University Press. Knapp, eds. Pp. 201-228. Crawford, Osbert Malden: Blackwell Publishers. 1922 Prehistoric geography. Buttimer, Anne Geographical Review 12:257– 1971 Society and Milieu in the French 263. Geographic Tradition. Chicago: Crumley, Carole and Marquardt, Association of American William Geographers. 1990 Landscape: A unifying concept Caldwell, Jospeh. R. in regional analysis. In 1959 The new American archaeology. Interpreting Space: GIS and Science 129:303–307. Archaeology. Kathleen Allen, Chang, Kwang-chih Stanton Green, and Ezra Zubrow 1958 Study of the Neolithic social eds. Pp. 73–79. London: Taylor grouping: Examples from the and Francis. New World. American Darvill, Tim Anthropologist 60:298–334. 1999 The historic environment, 1967 Major aspects of the historic landscapes, and interrelationship of archaeology spacetime-action models and ethnography. Current in landscape archaeology. Anthropology 8:227–243. In The Archaeology and Chorley, Richard J. and Peter Haggett Anthropology of Landscape: 1967 Models in Geography. London: Shaping your landscape. Methuen. Peter J. Ucko and Robert Layton, Cosgrove, Denis eds. Pp. 104-118. London: 1984 Social Formation and Symbolic Routledge. Landscape. London: Croom Deetz, James Helm. 1990 Landscapes as cultural 1985 Prospect, perspective and the statements. In Earth Patterns: evolution of the landscape idea. Essays in Landscape Archaeology. Transactions of the Institute of W. Kelso and R. Most, eds. Pp. British Geographers 10:45–62. 2–4. London: University Press of Virginia.

108 Dooley, Mathew Goudie, Andrew 2006 Multi-temporal land-use 1987 Geography and Archaeology: patterning in the Western The growth of a relationship. Papagueria: A geoarchaeological In Landscape and Culture: analysis of pre-Columbian Geographical and cultural landscapes. PhD Archaeological Perspectives . J. Dissertation, Department of Wagstaff, ed. Pp. 11-25. New Anthropology, University of York: Basil Blackwell. Nebraska. Gregory, Derek. Duncan, James 2000 Landschaft. In The Dictionary of 2000 Landscape. In The Dictionary of Human Geography. R.J. Human Geography. R.J. Johnston, Derek Gregory, Johnston, Derek Gregory, Geraldine Pratt and Michael Geraldine Pratt and Michael Watts, eds. Pp. 41-432. Oxford: Watts, eds. Pp. 429-431. Oxford: Blackwell. Blackwell. Hirsch, Eric Earle, Tim and Robert Preucel 1995 Landscape: Between place and 1987 Processual archaeology and the space. In The Archaeology of radical critique. Current Landscape: Perspectives on Anthropology 28:501–538. Place and Space. Eric Hirsch and Feinman, Gary Michael O’Hanlon, eds. Pp. 1999 Defining a contemporary 1-30. Oxford: Clarendon Press. landscape approach: Concluding Hirsch, Eric. and Michael O’Hanlon, thoughts. Antiquity 73:684–685. eds. Fisher, Cristopher and Tina Thurston, 1995 The Archaeology of Landscape: eds. Perspectives on Place and 1999a Dynamic landscapes and Space. Oxford: Clarendon Press. sociopolitical process: The Hodder, Ian. topography of anthropogenic 1982 Symbols in Action. Cambridge: environments in global Cambridge University Press. perspective. Theme Issue, Hoskins, W. G. Antiquity 73(281). 1955 The Making of the English 1999b Forward to Dynamic Landscapes Landscape. London: Hodder and and Sociopolitical Process: The Stoughton. Topography of Anthropogenic Environments in Global Ingold, Tim. Perspective. Theme issue, 1993 The temporality of landscape. Dynamic landscapes and World Archaeology 25:152–174. sociopolitical process: The Knapp, A. Bernard and Wendy topography of anthropogenic Ashmore environments in global 1999 Archaeological landscapes: perspective, Antiquity Constructed, conceptualized, 73(281):630–632. ideational. In Archaeologies of Gosden, Chris and Leslie Head Landscape: Contemporary 1994 Landscape - a usefully Perspectives. Wendy Ashmore ambiguous concept. Archaeology and A. Bernard Knapp, eds. Pp. in Oceania 29:113-116. 1–30. Malden: Blackwell Publishers.

109 Kroeber, Alfred Smith, Adam 1917 The superorganic. American 2003 The Political Landscape: Anthropologist 19:163-213 Constellations of Authority in Kroeber, Alfred and Clyde Kluckhohn Early Complex Polities. 1952 Culture: A critical Review of Berkeley University of Concepts and Definitions. Papers California Press. of the Peabody Museum of Steward, Julian American Archaeology and 1936 The economic and social basis of Ethnology, No. 47. Cambridge: primitive bands. In Essays in Harvard University. anthropology presented to A. L. Kuchler, Susanne Kroeber. Robert H. Lowie, 1993 Landscape as memory: The ed. Pp. 331-345 Berkeley: mapping of process and its University of California Press. representation in a Melanesian 1937 Ecological aspects of society. In Landscape: Politics southwestern society. Anthropos and Perspectives. Barbara 32:87–104. Bender, ed. Pp 85–106. Oxford: Thomas, Julian Berg. 1993 The politics of vision and the Layton, Robert and Peter Ucko archaeologies of landscape. 1999 Introduction: gazing on the In Landscape: Politics and landscape and encountering the Perspectives. Barbara Bender, environment. In The ed. Pp. 19–48. Oxford: Berg. Archaeology and Anthropology 2001 Archaeologies of Place and of Landscape: Shaping your Landscape. In Archaeological landscape. Peter J. Ucko and Theory Today. Ian Hodder, ed. Robert Layton, eds. Pp. 1-20. Pp. 165-186. Cambridge: Polity London: Routledge. Press. Norton, William Thornthwaite, C., Warren 1989 Explorations in the 1940 The relation of geography to Understanding of Landscape: A human ecology. Ecological Cultural Geography. Monograph,10. Pp. 343-348. Contributions in Sociology, No. Tilley, Christopher 77. New York: Greenwood 1994 A Phenomenology of Landscape: Press. Places, Paths, and Monu Olwig, Kenneth ments. Oxford: Berg. 2002 Landscape, Nature and the Body Trigger, Bruce. G. Politic. Madison: University of 1989 A History of Archaeological Wisconsin Press. Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge Patterson, Tim. University Press. 1989 History and the Post-Processual Tylor, Edward Archaeologies. Man 1871 Primitive Culture: Researches 24(4):555-566. into the Development of Sauer, Carl Mythology, Philosophy, 1963[1925] The Morphology of the Religion, Language, Art and Landscape. In Land and Life: A Custom. London: John Murray. selection from the writings of Peter Ucko and Robert Layton, eds. Carl Ortwin Sauer. John Leigh 1999 The Archaeology and ley ed. Pp. 315-350. Berkeley: Anthropology of Landscape: University of California Press. Shaping Your Landscape, London: Routledge.

110 Wagstaff, J. M., ed. 1987 Landscape and Culture: Geographical and Archaeological Perspectives. New York: Basil Blackwell. Williams, Raymond 1972 Culture. In Keywords. Raymond Williams, ed. Pp. 87-93. New York: Oxford University Press. 1975 The Country and the City. London: Chatto and Windus. Willey, Gordon 1953 Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Vir´u Valley, Peru. Bulletin, No. 155. Washington, DC: Bureau of American Ethnology.

111

112 CLOE WHITTAKER

DRAWING POWER Conflict Between Western Cartography and Indigenous Illustration

Abstract The way people represent land through visual and symbolic means communicates values that are deeply entrenched in their culture. This article looks at the values embedded in Western cartography as well as those in rock and body painting and tattooing of the Nlaka’pamux. The article also explores the power structures that are inherent in the production and performance of each visual representation. It also examines the power structures that result from the use of these two uniquely developed symbolic representations of lands between culture groups.

INTRODUCTION power dynamics enacted over time Maps, like other methods of representing between groups. The understanding and landscape, are fabricated within the acceptance of these cultural differences cultural value systems of their creators. may prove useful in working towards a This culturally relative knowledge can respectful relationship. make visual representations of land unrecognizable to outside societies. HOW WESTERN The way a society portrays territory CARTOGRAPHY DRAWS reflects its relationship to the land as POWER well as its cultural values. It is important Certain realities are revealed about a to contrast Western cartographic group’s culture through the content, traditions with Indigenous illustrations, style, and use of their portrayal of such as those of the Nlaka’pamux (or landscapes. The essence of Western “Thompson”) from the Fraser River cartography demonstrates the Western Canyon, Thompson River, and Nicola value of order and “putting everything Valley of southern British Columbia in its place.” Cartography builds from a (Figure 1). Doing so reveals two notion of “boundary” which is marked incompatible power structures that have either in the content of the map or by the sustained conflict since the time of first physical product itself.1 “Boundary” encounters. Information on Indigenous emphasizes a value of separation such illustrations discussed in this paper as in the relationship of Westerners comes from Teit’s early 20th century to ecology. This disconnection is also research with Indigenous informants apparent in a map’s ability to be mass in the Thompson area. In this paper I produced in a factory and therefore in will show how different eco-cultural its capacity to be removed from original relationships held by local Indigenous context. The value of objectivity2 that peoples and recent colonizers shape a is prevalent in Western science is also set of unique symbolic imagery that can portrayed by the culture’s value in the be analyzed in relation to conflicting reproducible character of maps.

113 What cartographers choose to case drew a new practice regarding visually portray in their depictions of a actual land use. Maps strengthened the landscape is a result of enculturation- notion that Indigenous people were an engagement with the values of a living within European owned land certain worldview. For example, the and under foreign law rather than the fact that Western maps commonly plot reality of the reverse. resources that can be commoditized, These reserve maps often such as: roads, rivers, lakes, elevations, fostered a power inequality by and natural resources is because these plotting the land as an entity apart aspects of landscape are valued in from its surroundings.4 “Creating” this culture. Content, and its careful new territories assigned colonizers selection, is explicitly connected to further authority while simultaneously concepts of power. Some historical stripping Indigenous people of any maps of British Columbia prove that power that could be gained from power can be effectively derived their sense of meaning, history, and through its selective lack of content. knowledge embedded in the ancestral The cartographer of one map in lands. Reserve maps were further particular3 chose to omit any reference manipulated by Western newcomers to Indigenous occupants or villages in to gain power, or more accurately, to order to paint the picture of open land separate people from place and weaken (“Terra Nullius”) that was “available” Indigenous solidarity. Emphasizing for European settlers and American certain spaces could make an area of prospectors. reserve land appear larger than it actually As colonization expanded was. This technique was employed to and contest of lands and resources take advantage of Indigenous People in increased, the exertion of power was what is now called British Columbia. not so passive. Alfred Waddington, in This manipulation was experienced by his map entitled Sketch Map for the Willie Munro, a member of the Zeht Chilcotin War (1863), emphasized Reserve, and is documented in the selective events and places that served Royal Commission transcripts:5 to “other” the Ts’ilhqot’in nation. The racist image that resulted was of the This Reserve that I ... talk Ts’ilhqot’in as “rebels, indiscriminately about is very large, but there murdering law-abiding Europeans” is very little of it that is fit (Brealey 1995:146). for cultivation. It is a pretty Cartography became a means big piece on the map, but it is “not only to express the will towards, only a small piece that I can but [to] actually serve to create, real cultivate, and the rest is all territorial control” (Brealey 1995:141). sidehills. And you are not able Maps served to figuratively enclose to run the water to it; and there Indigenous people within a politicized is a little bit of a place which and colonial worldview and were then is above, outside the Reserve applied, in the reservation map style, (Lytton Agency:249). to physically contain their living and dwelling activities. Cartography in this Though the mapped land was a large

114 area and may have appeared generous, paddle, a fir branch, human figures, the land was obviously not all useable. and animal figures (Figure 2).6 Many This situation either demonstrates the of the illustrations denote the figure general idea that Westerners appreciate in context such as “snake going over quantity before quality which is the ground,” “woodworm boring in a valued more so by Indigenous people log,” “moon in his house,” or “clouds or that there was an attempt to cede crossing each other” (Teit 1930:412- quality lands away from Indigenous 413). The known meanings of facial groups towards Western agrarian tattoos (Figure 3), which are straight communities. As both groups must or curved lines on the face, are sparse. understand the value of land area in However, Teit documented that they relation to usefulness and productivity, can denote such things as “rain coming this situation, as explained by Willie from the sky,” “eagle’s tail,” “rainbow,” Munro, may be another example of and “sun rays” (1930:410). attempted manipulation via maps. Nlaka’pamux Body Painting NLAKA’PAMUX BODY Face and body painting is not dependent ILLUSTRATIONS AS SYMBOLIC on certain figures as in tattooing, but VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF on the application of different colors LAND to meaningful areas of the body (Teit Indigenous forms of representing land 1930:419). Patterns of color in certain in a socially meaningful way contrast areas, however, are interpreted to from that of Western cartography and denote similar things to tattoos such are intimately connected to the value as clouds, lakes, loons, cliffs, valleys, systems performed by each group. mountains, the moon, the sky, etc. For instance, it was popular for the (Figure 4). The interpretations of Nlaka’pamux bands to represent most of the facial paintings include landscape by way of tattooing and body context such as “cloud resting on a painting. These practices quickly lost lake,” “loon on the lake,” or “rays their popularity with European contact. of light penetrating through cloud” The last generation of “Thompson” (Teit 1930:421). Color symbolism is people with first-hand knowledge of an important aspect of interpreting these practices acted as informants to meanings in the paintings.7 James A. Teit (1930) who documented Face and body painting were their meanings. part of the ritual dances that were performed at numerous ceremonials. Nlaka’pamux Tattoos Most people had their faces painted red Cultural tattoos of the Nlaka’pamux which generally signified “goodness” or were simple geometric drawings that “life” or “self” among other meanings. signified such things as: an earth line, Some warriors would use black paint a mountain range, a river and its bank, which had opposite meaning to red. It a cliff, a lake, crossing of trails, a sweat meant “evil,” “death,” and “enemy” house, the sun, the moon, a rainbow, (Teit 1930:419). Chiefs as well as some tracks, stars, a cloud, a flower, snakes, men and women would distinguish woodworms, a bark canoe, a bow, a themselves by wearing perpendicular

115 stripes on their face which was made addition to during other important by wiping some paint off with their life experiences such as depicting the fingers. Chiefs were always red while hunt, vision quests, etc. Pictographs men and women sometimes alternated made by women commonly include fir- colors. A dancer’s facial designs branches, cross-trails, lodges, baskets, such as those specific to the ghost and figures of men. These are found on dance (Teit 1900:350) were open to boulders and small stones. Men paint various interpretations. Informants figures of animals, birds, fish, arrows, described one design (Figure 5, top fir-branches, lakes, sun, thunder, and left) as meaning “clouds and rain, rays figures of women onto rock on cliffs, descending from above, something in canyons, and near waterfalls. These good or beneficial descending, such areas are believed to have high energy as health or something prayed for. The and are thus where Nature’s power and extension to the ear may show that it knowledge are concentrated. “Wilder” has some reference to hearing” (Teit locations are commonly chosen for 1930:424). paintings because the Nlaka’pamux people believe that they can absorb this POWER IN INDIGENOUS energy through the paintings (Corner ILLUSTRATIONS 1968, Teit 1896). Similarly, rocks that Reasons for participating in body are shaped like animals or worn into tattooing are similar to those for unique formations are often thought engaging in face and body painting. to be metamorphosis beings and are These practices visually depict land painted to obtain power from them or but not as their goal. Tattoos and their spirits. body paintings act as ornamentation Rock paintings are created to to attract the opposite sex; records of record significant events in the puberty a particular event or ceremony; and ceremonies of adolescents and in the are intimately connected with puberty everyday lives of adults. Sometimes and the acquirement of guardians (or they denote the specific location of spirits) to ensure success, health, or where a significant event took place. protection (Teit 1930:406). They are The symbols of animals, guardian inseparable from the dances, dreams, spirits, and natural phenomena are religious beliefs, and ideas of power in such things that are painted if they’d the lives of the Nlaka’pamux people. been seen or obtained. Making rock The dances and their paintings is believed to ensure long life, particular painting designs were protect those who painted them, and believed to invite power into the band. strengthen powers that were obtained Dream designs seemed more personal during ceremonies (Teit 1896, 1900, in nature. These designs resulted from 1930). Paintings of human figures the advice of a guardian spirit to carry might represent a desired marriage out a certain body painting. The goal of partner while a painting of a basket such experiences is to protect, heal, or or an arrow might represent a wish to empower the subject.8 be a proficient basket maker or hunter. Men and women made rock paintings The Nlaka’pamux believe that the during puberty ceremonies in realization of these wishes is dependent

116 on the careful selection of the location Power as Culturally Constituted of the painting. Product Symbolizing Land These cultural realities help in Indigenous Representations of exploring the power structure in the Land and Cultural Values Nlaka’pamux way of life. In this Tattooing and painting practices, framework, power is drawn through included among what I call “Indigenous personal experience and the value of illustrations,” visually represent land interconnection with the land. With in an interpretable way. Like Western every tattoo or painting, an individual cartography, they serve to illuminate is expressing a personal connection culturally constituted meanings. with power. Contrary to cartography Indigenous illustrations are integrated where the dominant power dynamic into all aspects of Nlaka’pamux life is drawn between culture groups, in the same way that the Nlaka’pamux power in the Indigenous framework, people themselves are an inseparable as illustrated by Teit’s research is more part of the land.9 This union of commonly individually expressed. The ecology and culture is reflected in the varying power-creating techniques of Nlaka’pamux visual representations of these two cultures are the result of their land. The content that is represented differences in values that are portrayed in both media (tattooing and painting) through their experiences with and shows that ecology is of major value representations of land. and that its connection to culture is The making of maps and significant. Furthermore, Nlaka’pamux illustrations as well as their content and people represent land and environment how they are used demonstrate different through tattoos and paintings directly kinds of desired power. Western maps on their bodies as well as on objects and Indigenous illustration are created that are a permanent part of their land. very differently. Western maps are Indigenous illustration, therefore, is a fabricated by selecting certain content borderless entity. As is most evident that is meaningful to emphasize a in rock pictography, value is spread particular group-oriented goal or idea. beyond the drawings themselves and In this process, the vision portrayed, onto the “canvas,” the landscape, which and therefore the power gained, is not reflects the Nlaka’pamux perspective complete and therefore not entirely that connection to place is equally forthright. Certain rock paintings of the important to the visual work itself. Nlaka’pamux, however, are a layered Nlaka’pamux illustration accumulation of the ceremonies, demonstrates their value in social visions, and records of different people cohesion. This is seen in many who have been empowered through instances such as paintings with the the process. In this way, meaning and goals of protection, health, and desire power are cumulative. for marriage partners. Social cohesion The content, or what is shown is reinforced directly through the in these two representations of land, is practice of tattooing and painting as it presented through two different points is a broadly participatory activity that of view which produce two different is carried out daily. power dynamics. Indigenous paintings

117 are of a “lived in” or horizontal point to accomplishment which contrast of view and depict landscape laterally. immensely. The sky is often portrayed in paintings and tattoos to denote context and Participation and Interpretation dimension to the drawn figures. It helps Participation and interpretation are two to depict an experienced vision of the ideas that further contrast the ways that land. Likewise, power is constructed to power is created in Western cartography function in a horizontal, non-imposing and Indigenous illustrations. While manner. Western maps, on the other maps create limited power by excluding hand, are of a “bird’s eye” or vertical participants, Indigenous illustrations point of view where sky is not depicted can strengthen a broad range of at all and landscape is valued as a individuals by encouraging many vision from above. This omniscient different interpretations. The McKenna/ and controlling position echoes the McBride Royal Commission transcripts dominating and hierarchical power demonstrate how cartography’s power exerted by foreign colonial government is employed through exclusion. at this time. During several interviews, such as between Mr. Commissioner Shaw and CULTURALLY RELATIVE USES “Antoine” (below), an Indigenous OF POWER person was asked to locate an area on Each culture employs its vision a map and he/she was unable to.11 “Mr. of land for gaining power but for Commissioner Shaw: Can you show different reasons. The use of these us on this map where this piece of representations is therefore culturally land is that you have been cultivating? relative. As mentioned previously, Antoine: No; I don’t understand the Western maps are often manipulated map” (Lytton Agency:271). to exert ownership and boundaries It is not only the Indigenous onto a landscape. Maps as discussed community, however, that was here act as ideological weapons for excluded in the utilization of maps: one cultural group to gain power and “Mr. Commissioner McKenna: Could domination over another. Indigenous it be possible for you to locate the 160 tattooing and painting as I’ve explored acres that you recommend? Agent them through Teit’s documentation H. Graham: On the ground it would, are also used to gain power but more but not on the map. I have been up often for the advancement of oneself there and I know the place” (Lytton within an intra-group social context Agency:493). rather than inter-group domination.10 As Western maps attempt It is evident that these illustrations to be objective, there is no room for draw power by way of being employed interpretation; therefore, only those for protecting, healing, recording who understand how to read Western significant events, and proclaiming maps have the power to participate in desires. Both Indigenous and Western their use. The Nlaka’pamux however, symbolic representations of land are valued community participation in used to attain certain desires or goals. tattooing and painting. Since the It is these goals and the actual mean illustrations were personal and open

118 to different interpretations, everyone life. The fact that power is drawn could participate and gain power from through the context of the products the symbols in different ways. furthers this idea that power of the Nlaka’pamux is drawn not only from Varying Notions of “Distance” the illustration itself, but from how it A central theme that contrasts Western relates to the land in which it rests. To cartography and Indigenous illustration the Nlaka’pamux, achieving power is is that of “distance” i.e. separated largely an individual endeavour, but boundary vs. close connection. is dependent on the participation of Western cartography punctuates the the whole community. Strength in this cultural value of detachment while organization cycles between individual Indigenous illustration highlights an and group to create a web of power. emphasis on “connection.” “Distance” These connective proponents of body in cartography is demonstrated by the painting and tattooing demonstrate process in which maps are made as a system of power contrary to the well as by the actual product itself. objectification of lands that Western Active participants, in the construction cartographic methods employ. of a map, are exclusive to a group of specially trained people - cartographers. CONCLUSION It is not necessary for the community Conflict between these two groups has in to be involved. Furthermore, Western part been marked by their incompatible maps depict an area of land from a power structures in regards to people- removed or “bird’s-eye” position. The land relations. In my initial exploration end product- a commoditized map- can of the relationship between Western be easily reproduced by machinery cartography and Indigenous use of which further distances people from illustrations, it appeared that the the process. It can then be quickly former was a hierarchical structure distributed to various regions around enacted between culture groups while the world. The sense of distance Indigenous illustration was a system of that is manifested in the practice of individualistic focus. When exploring cartography is mirrored in the design the resulting power dynamics, however, of Western power structure. In this Western cartography proves to be more design a few select and empowered individually biased while Indigenous individuals meet at a centralized illustration embodies group cohesion. location to make decisions that will In this analysis I became aware that one affect a broader group. Countries of the dominant Western expressions that employ democratic governments of power during the contact period therefore abide by a governing method discussed was drawn from rewriting and power structure that is propelled by landscape using cartographic methods. “distance.” Indigenous power was evidently Indigenous illustration, on the drawn directly from the landscape. other hand, cannot even be discussed As Westerners altered the landscape as a practice or as a product without by using maps as means to apply a making reference to its connections hierarchical ordering of space, they with other significant aspects of reconstituted the once balanced web

119 of power created by Indigenous People such as the Nlaka’pamux.

FIGURES

Figure 1. Map of Thompson Indians (Teit 1900:166).

120

Figure 2. Interpretation of Indigeneous Tattoos (Teit:1930:411-14) 1) earth line 11) tracks 25) rainbow known 2) snakes 12) string of dentalia 26) woodworm/bor- 35) flower 3)woodworm/snake/ and beads ings of the wood- 36) root digger rattlesnake 13-14) stars worm 37-40) meaning 4) snake going over 15) cloud 27) grizzly bear/bear unknown the ground/snake 16) lake/mountain foot/bear tracks 41) marked bone used tracks on the ground pond 28) tipis in the lehal game 5) mountains 17) ring/wheel 29) lake/lake and 42) stones used by 6) arrowheads/moun- 18) ring/sweat house shore adolescent youths tains 19) sun 30) crossing of trails/ when sweat bathing 7) arrowhead 20) moon the cardinal points/ 43-44) meaning 8) arrow 21) moon and halo/ log across a stream/ unknown 9) mountains/wood- moon in its house clouds crossing each 45) bow worm boring in a log/ 22) moon other/star 46) bark canoe borings of a wood 23) hill/mound/rain- 31) star 47) paddle worm bow/earth line 32-33) morning star 48) fir branch 10) river and its bank 24) rainbow/rock/cliff 34) meaning un-

121 Figure 3. Interpretations of Indigenous Facial Tattoos (Teit 1930:410).

M) rainbow C) eagle’s tail/rays N) rain coming from the sky

Figure 4. Facial Paintings of Nlaka’pamux (Teit 1930:Plate 5).

122 a) Lower part of face from nos- by men (Teit 1930:421). trils down red, rest of face blue. Across d) The forehead and temples the brow from temple to temple two above the eyebrows red, or in other parallel red stripes inclosing about cases yellow. Painted blue, it meant the six red dots. The hair above the ears sky or a large cloud. Painted yellow or daubed with red. This design is said to red, it stood for a large mountain. Used represent a headband, probably of loon by men (Teit 1930:421). skin. The blue is a cloud and the red e) Lower part of face to level a lake (possibly meaning cloud resting with mouth red. From it on the left side on a lake). A variation of this painting four vertical lines in the same color ex- had yellow instead of blue. In the lat- tending to a little above the level of the ter case the design on the brow might nostrils. On the right side four similar not be a representation of a headband lines in yellow (sometimes in blue). but a symbol of the loon itself (possibly This painting represented the earth or the loon on the lake or on water). The a valley with trees. According to one red might then stand for the earth or a person the lines might also mean cliffs. cliff near the lake. Used by men (Teit Used by men (Teit 1930:421). 1930:421). f) Both sides of face red from c, c’) The right side of the face red, eyes down, excluding nose, mouth, and including the side of the nose and ex- chin. Four to eight horizontal stripes cluding the nose. On the brow and chin scratched out of the paint on both sides. the painting extended a little to the left. Some say this painting signifies rays of Some said it represented the “moon,” light penetrating through clouds (shin- while others suggested a “lake” or a ing out of the clouds). Used by men” “gulch” as the probably meaning. Used (Teit 1930:421-422).

Figure 5. Facial Paintings of Nlaka’pamux (Teit 1900:350).

123 Figure 6. Dream Design (Teit 1930:Plate 8).

A man wounded by a grizzly bear was instructed by his guardian how to paint in order to make the wound heal quick- ly. He placed the figure of a bear in yel- low on the back, with the head toward the left shoulder, where the principal wound was. Streaks of red paint were drawn with the finger tips. They were arranged irregularly, most of them ver- tical and covering the whole face, and the left side of the body down to the hips including the upper left arm. This represented blood or blood flowing (Teit 1930:428).

NOTES 5. 1. The Royal Land Commission was a “Boundary” is shown in the group that was formed by the Dominion formatting of Western maps in the government to designate reserve land choice to represent such things for Indigenous populations in British as ownership (“who owns what”) Columbia. They relied on maps and or geography (“land vs. water”). their colonial power to further their International border lines are usually own mandates. The McKenna/McBride clearly demarcated on Western maps. transcripts (1912-1915) are records of These arbitrary boundaries further dialogue between commissioners and demonstrate the separation between Indigenous people to negotiate land people and geography/ecological ownership. systems. See short story “Borders” 6. (1993) by Thomas King An earth line is a straight, horizontal 2. line; a mountain range is a wavy or I refer to objectivity as the goal of zigzag line with a straight line touching science, where scientists strive to prove the bottom of the wavy line; a river and theories by separating the experiment its bank is three parallel lines with the from all other biases. middle one thicker than the others; a 3. George Vancouver’s contributions cliff is an arched line resembling an to the folio atlas entitled: A Chart inverted U; a lake is two concentric shewing [sic] part of the Coast of N.W. circles; crossing of trails is two crossed America. lines; a sweat house is a large circle 4. Peter O’Reilly’s Plan of the Bella with two crossed lines inside; the sun Coola Indian Reserves, Coast District is a circle with four radiating lines, one 1889. opposite the other, which may or may

124 not have a dot inside; the moon is a “environment,” “nature,” “art,” or circle with a line across it; a rainbow “music.” is a line forming a half circle with its 10. In my research I did not encounter ends pointing toward a straight line, data on Indigenous practices to employ and may also mean ‘hill’ or ‘mound’. power over another Indigenous group. See Figure 1 for illustrations and I do not deny that this happens, but the interpretations of tattoos. For further purpose of this paper is to focus on the explanations of tattoo designs see Teit relationship between power dynamics (1930: 411-415). of Indigenous People and Westerners. 7. A color’s inherent meaning is based 11. A more frequent occurrence, on what figure it indicated as well as however, is that when a commissioner where on the body it was applied. Red asked, the interviewee was able to indicated “goodness” and was said to show a specific area on a map. This is be expressive of life, self, existence, undoubtedly because the Indigenous friendship, success, blood, heat, fire, community understood that they light, and day. Brown had this same must use the commissioners’ tools to significance. Black is red’s opposite gain land. This need is underlined by and denoted evil, death, coldness, this statement by Mr. Commissioner darkness, night, and the underworld. Carmichael to Joe Brown: “[i]f you will Yellow depicted the earth and whatever let us know where you want the land, was connected with it such as grass, we will consider the question. Can you trees, vegetation, stones, soil, and show us on this map where the land water. Green was rarely used but was you want is?” (Lytton Agency:263). said to be more strictly an earth color. Blue was a sky color and was used to depict the sky, the upper world, clouds, or sometimes sun, moon, stars, REFERENCES CITED lightning, and rainbows. White was a Brealey, K. G. spirit color and stood for ghosts, the 1995 Mapping them out: Euro- spirit world, the dead, skeletons, bones, Canadian cartography and the and sickness. Gray had these meanings apropriation of the Nuxalk and as well. Ts’ilhqot’in First Nations’ 8. Territories, 1793-1916. Canadian Some of the dream designs Geographer 39(2):140-156. documented by Teit (1930:428-429, Canada, Royal Commission on Indian Plate 8) include: the body painting of a Affairs for the Province of British sick man as instructed by his guardian Columbia spirit in order to become well (Figure 1916 Agency Testimonies from the 6). Another was in order to heal a Royal Commission on Indian grizzly bear wound whereas another Affairs for the Province of painting was to protect a man from British Columbia, 1913-1916. Lytton Agency Willie Munro harm after he dreamt of giants. Zeht Reserve November 16, 9. It is an interesting point that in 1914. Victoria: Union of BC the language of the Nlaka’pamux, Indian Chiefs. Nłe?kepmxcín, there isn’t a word for

125 Corner, John 1968 Pictographs (Indian rock paintings) in the interior and British Columbia. Vernon: Wayside Press. Teit, James 1896 A rock painting of the Thompson River Indians, British Columbia Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 8(12):227-230. Teit, James 1900 The Thompson Indians of British Columbia. Merritt, B.C.: Nicola Valley Museum Archives Association. Teit, James 1930 Tattooing and Face and Body Painting of the Thompson Indians British Columbia. Washington: United States Government Printing Office.

126 ADRIAN SANDERS AND MORGAN RITCHIE

ANCIENT SETTLEMENTS ON THE HARRISON RIVER A Salishan Gateway Between two Regions

Abstract This article documents nearly three years of investigations concerned with locating, mapping, and analyzing the spatial configuration of residential pithouse and plankhouse features in Chehalis territory. We propose that the Chehalis people organized their houses and settlements along a four kilometer stretch of the Harrison River in order to control socio-economic activities occurring within their territory. We provide theories borrowed from the disciplines of human ecology and cultural ecology and document ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and oral historical evidence to show that the Chehalis occupied a key locale on the Harrison-Lillooet interaction corridor. The Chehalis’ role in this trade and navigation corridor linking the coast and interior was that of economic middlemen.

INTRODUCTION our hypothesis that the ancestors of Located along the banks of the the contemporary Chehalis people Harrison River in southwest British oriented their settlements on the Columbia, the traditional territory of Harrison River to monitor resource use the Chehalis First Nation is situated and trade at this central node within a at a strategic point along the Harrison- major transportation corridor (Sanders Lillooet Interaction Corridor (Figure 2006).1 Ethnographic literature 1). This natural corridor connects two documents strong trade relations distinct ecological zones and culture between the Chehalis and their Coast areas, the Pacific Northwest Coast Salish neighbors on the Fraser River and the North American interior and the Gulf of Georgia, as well as Plateau. Archaeological discoveries with their Interior Salish neighbors to along the central Harrison River from the north (Duff 1952; Hill-Tout 1905; 2005-2007 have yielded 11 separate Teit 1906). villages (Sanders and Ritchie 2005; The Chehalis were seen as Ritchie 2007). Chehalis’ settlement ‘middlemen’ for trade and exchange design shows a pattern of intensive during the early historic period and into pithouse, plankhouse and burial the contemporary ethnographic era. mound distribution that covers both Data from our ongoing archaeological banks of the Harrison River, as well survey support these observations as mid-river islands, stretching four and indicates that the community of continuous kilometers. The ‘aggregated Chehalis maintained a position of community’ at Chehalis represents the socio-economic advantage in the region largest known clustering of pithouses up until the historic period. in the entire Northwest coast culture To test our hypothesis of area. Chehalis’ precontact control over This paper will explore one of the most practical transportation several lines of evidence that support corridors linking coastal and interior

127 Figure 1. Harrison-Lillooet Interaction Corridor (R.C. Mayne 1861).2 populations, we investigate evidence have allowed them to consolidate their from archaeological, ethnohistorical, control. It is our interpretation that the ethnographical, cultural ecological, intensive distribution of houses along and geographical sources. Interestingly, the banks of the Harrison River in both the ethnographic record and Chehalis territory arose, in part, from archaeological literature pertaining an emergent trend in long distance to the Northwest Coast and interior trade and interaction. This alternative Plateau emphasize human interactions trade route to the Fraser River has occurring along the Fraser River. To date, significant implications for the larger a paucity of data exists for the Harrison- socio-economic sphere of interregional Lillooet Interaction Corridor. Our interaction between zones. paper is primarily concerned with how In attempting to understand the Chehalis community arranged their the importance of the Chehalis’ role residential structures and settlements to in the interregional interaction sphere, best control socio-economic activities we have borrowed the “gateway along this section of the Harrison- community” model from human Lillooet Interaction Corridor. Central geography (Burghardt 1971), and the to this inquiry is whether or not the “ecological and cultural edges” model separate villages at Chehalis operated from cultural ecology (Turner et al. as a collective, and how becoming an 2003). Both models have been devised aggregated community of villages may to help analyze complex relationships

128 between groups of people occupying plants. Expansive forests with diverse “key locales” or “zones” towards tree species provided the Chehalis with an economic benefit. The “gateway more than enough wood and other community” model states that “large and products for their own industry, plant important settlements” (Hirth 1978:35) food, and medicine. The mountains and control key geographical locales. surrounding lowlands is a refuge for Chehalis is an ‘edge community’ as many of British Columbia’s mammal defined by Turneret al. (2003) because species. Each of these resources is it has access to many different zones readily accessible from the main of species abundance and is exposed Chehalis settlements on the middle to diverse external cultural influences. Harrison River. Richard Stoffle of the University of Arizona (pers. comm. 2006) points out THE HARRISON-LILLOOET that “such edges in nature and society INTERACTION CORRIDOR are key places to study the processes – A SOCIO-ECONOMIC of social and natural change” – be TRANSPORTATION ROUTE they ecological, socio-economic, or The Harrison-Lillooet Interaction socio-political. This dovetailing of Corridor connected the community of interdisciplinary evidence helps to Chehalis with populations situated on explain the archaeological record at the coast and interior Plateau through a Chehalis, where the spatial patterning series of waterways that were navigable and configuration of houses suggest a by canoe. This natural transportation strategy for monitoring and controlling corridor is comprised of a nearly a wide range of socio-economic continuous network of rivers and lakes activities along the Harrison River. including Gulf of Georgia, Fraser River, Chehalis’ traditional territory is Harrison River, Harrison Lake, Lillooet vast and ecologically diverse. It centers River, Lillooet Lake, Birkenhead River, on the Chehalis and Harrison Lakes Gates Lake and River, and Anderson and Rivers, but encompasses many and Seton Lakes (Figure 1). A short smaller rivers and streams, mountains portage (<5 km) was necessary for hosting diverse forests, and extensive groups navigating the section of this marshlands. The Harrison River is the route between Birkenhead River and largest tributary of the Fraser River and Gates Lake. However, Poole Creek hosts a significant percentage of the total runs nearly the length of this section number of salmon in the Fraser system and would have assisted in the portage. (Kew 1992). Other desirable fish such Not surprisingly, the “Birken” Lillooet as trout and sturgeon are also abundant have a traditional place name for this in the waters of the Harrison. Both route, Qulpautlen (qulpualt meaning ends of the four kilometer settlement ‘to haul a canoe over the ground’) (Hill- zone (where the Chehalis River feeds Tout 1978:100-103; See also Figure 2 into the Harrison River in the south and of this article). where Morris creek feeds the Harrison in the north) are bounded by vast ETHNOGRAPHIC HISTORY AND marshlands teeming with a wealth of CHEHALIS CULTURAL IDENTITY avian species and edible water resistant The Chehalis benefited from socio

129 cultural traditions, knowledge, the Douglas,” a practice suggesting technologies, resource exchange and extensive trade relations. In contrast to marriage partners from both the coast these alliance relations, their neighbors, and interior Plateau without being the Douglas and the Yale, were not directly connected geographically on trading terms during the historic or politically to either. The cultural era as they were engaged in some of identity of Chehalis has long been of the last warring feuds to continue in interest to anthropologists, starting the Salish territory (Duff 1952:96). with Boas (1895) in the late nineteenth In fact, while Chehalis’ close trading century (Cole 2001:149). This interest partners the Douglas are mentioned as continued with the work of Charles Hill- also having warring relationships with Tout (1905), Wilson Duff (1949, 1952) the Tait, and Lower Thompson (Duff and most recently Chehalis Heritage 1952:96), nowhere in the literature Advisor Gordon Mohs (2003). are the Chehalis considered a nation The decision by the Chehalis given to intense conflict and especially not to join the Sto:lo tribal council of to warfare. Hill-Tout (1978:101), amalgamated bands during the present referring to congregations of visiting era speaks partly to the contemporary bands frequenting Chehalis territory socio-political dynamic stressing during the fishing season, noted that independence and autonomy, but also “sometimes disturbances and fights has deep historical significance. The would occur, but the Chehalis were a community of Chehalis is somewhat strong and populous tribe and seem to of an enigma in that they are both have been able to more than hold their geographically and culturally ‘isolated’ own with their visitors”. These socio- from their Coast Salish, Sto:lo political dynamics between interior neighbors to their south (distributed Plateau and coastal cultures suggest the along the banks of the Lower Fraser edge community of Chehalis acted as River), and their Interior Salish, Lower mediator in economic affairs. Lillooet neighbors 72 km to the north NAVIGATING THE HARRISON- (at Port Douglas). LILLOOET AND FRASER RIVER CHEHALIS’ REGIONAL ROUTES RELATIONSHIPS The Harrison-Lillooet route to the The Harrison-Lillooet Interaction interior has long been known to be Corridor offers insight into a socio- important because the Fraser Canyon economic and political dynamic, route was so difficult to navigate. For stressing interregional interaction instance, in stressing the dangers of between ecological and cultural zones, navigating the Fraser Canyon, Simon rather than em phasizing separation Fraser wrote, “I have been for a long between these two distinct regional period in the Rocky Mountains, but interac- tion spheres (see Hayden and have never seen anything equal to this Schulting 1997:79). country. I cannot find words to describe Wilson Duff (1952:95) our situation at times… we had to pass pointed out that “the Chehalis where no human being should venture” commonly exchanged wives with (1960:96). The Hudson Bay’s plans to

130 use the Fraser River as a transport route interpretation concurs that the were abandoned early when, in 1828, navigability of the Harrison-Lillooet Governor Simpson descended the river Interaction Corridor “made travel and deemed it “nearly impassible” northward into the Lillooet country (MacLachlan 1998:10, 17). Another an easy matter from a physical point reference to the treacherous waters of view”. He also suggests that hostile of the Fraser Canyon came from relations between the Upper Stalo tribes Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) clerk, and the Lillooets acted as a cultural A.C. Anderson who wrote, “at the barrier inhibiting interaction, lending higher stages of the water, they [the credence to the ‘Chehalis-as- waters] present a difficulty almost middlemen’ theory. insurmountable” (1858:6). An abundance of ethnographic The ethnohistoric evidence and ethnohistoric evidence suggesting from the 1858 flood of gold miners knowledge and utilization of this seeking access to the interior Plateau interaction corridor by First Nation supports the preference for the groups occupying its territory should Harrison-Lillooet Interaction Corridor come as no surprise. In 1858, A.C to that of the Fraser River. For instance, Anderson produced a hand-book that local historian Sleigh, notes the “most included a map proposing potential popular route to the upper gold fields routes to the gold fields in the went right through Harrison Indian interior. His support for the Harrison- territory: up Harrison River and Lake, Lillooet route was based heavily on on along a hastily constructed trail to the recommendations of ‘Indian’ Lillooet Lake, and then via Anderson informants (1858). On his map shown and Seaton Lakes to Lillooet” (1990:16). below (Figure 2), Anderson explicitly Ultimately, it was the Harrison-Lillooet documents the ‘Indian Trail’ connecting Interaction Corridor described in this the upper Lillooet River to Anderson paper that was chosen by the HBC Lake. for human and cargo transportation to In 1861, when construction on the gold fields of the interior, thereby the Harrison-Lillooet road was already constituting British Columbia’s underway, R.C. Mayne traveled the first ‘highway’ (see B.C. Archives). Harrison-Lillooet route and remarked The Harrison-Lillooet on how “considerable quantities of Interaction Corridor model is supported goods were brought up the river in by the fact that groups of both cultural canoes…from Port Douglas to Port and ecological zones, and particularly [Lillooet]” (1861:219). It was the local the coastal groups, showed a ‘climax’ ‘Indians’ who had the experience and adaptation that preferred almost at all were able to navigate the river, albeit at costs travel by boat than foot (Duff certain times of year (1861:219). 1964:41; Arnold 1995). In the Gulf A more comprehensive look of Georgia and Fraser River regions, at the possible phonetic continuities canoe transport was essential for between place names throughout the the movement of large numbers of Harrison-Lillooet Interaction Corridor people and quantities of goods across could reveal a shared route identity in vast distances. Duff’s (1952:16) the memory of groups ‘wayfinding’

131 Figure 2. A. C. Anderson’s 1858 map showing the ‘Indian Trail’ between the upper Lillooet River and Anderson Lake.

(see Golledge 1999) between the coast Chehalis were strategically positioned and interior Plateau. For instance, as an edge community, negotiating bits of evidence on place names were interaction between two larger culture provided to men from the Hudson’s groups who did not always get along. Bay Company which has the Harrison From the perspective of Duff, writing and Lillooet Lake and River systems as over half a century ago, “[t]he Chehalis Pinkslitsa, and Anderson and Seaton of the Harrison were the only Sta:lo Lakes on the other end of the interaction group on friendly terms with the corridor as Pishalcoe and Peselive. Lillooets, and it is probably through Our hope is that future toponym them that any cultural influences from studies may flesh out further signs of the north have penetrated into Sta:lo common language usage for different culture” (1952:16). This description of geographical segments of this corridor, interaction reveals the effects achieved confirming that the people who utilized by a “gateway community” controlling it considered the individual sections a strategic geographical node towards part of a larger whole. an economic advantage. The Hudson’s Bay Company also noted that the THE CHEHALIS AS ECONOMIC Chehalis were the logical group to MIDDLEMEN trade with during the early trade era In keeping with the models and (1820’s–1830’s), as it was through thesis proposed within this paper, the them that trade with neighboring groups

132 occurred (Sleigh 1990). This position people because of their famous fishing of economic centrality is expressed by grounds, where tribes from up and down Sleigh (1990:15) who states that once the Fraser River would congregate the Upper Lillooets began trapping during the salmon season, paying some for the fort, they were not permitted kind of royalty to do so” (1990:7). to trade directly, and so sold their furs to the Lower Lillooets who then sold A ONCE THRIVING COMMUNITY again to the Chehalis. The affluence of the Chehalis was not In a sense, the boundaries immune to instability, and the diseases of the Chehalis’ traditional waters contracted prior to and during the were both fluid and concrete at the contact period exacted a severe toll same time. For example, as stewards on the Chehalis (Boyd 1990; Harris of these territories they monitored 1994). Importantly, information used their highly regarded fishing locations by Duff (1964) in his population census strictly. However, simultaneously, the for First Nations bands in British complex interconnections between Columbia came at a time when native families, corporate groups, and bands communities throughout the province engaged in intercommunity marriages, had already been severely affected and trade and exchange relationships by diseases originating with contact. extended rights to ‘outsiders’. Nevertheless, at this juncture (1963) Chehalis’ contemporary rights to of post-episodic socio-cultural distress, waters outside their own territory on the Chehalis numbered 325 members, the Fraser River speak to a heritage of more than any other of the 27 Sta:lo negotiating efficacious trade relations communities (Duff 1964:27-52). with neighboring groups. While the archaeological In order to appreciate the record (discussed below) of Chehalis intensive network of economic is only now beginning to assist in the interaction Chehalis attracted by reconstruction of settlement patterning occupying this key locale, it is useful through residential house features, the to draw on a quote from Hill-Tout oral history of Chehalis speaks of a that indicates “[t]he settlements or thriving community in the thousands territories of the Chehalis were regarded (pers. comm. Willie Charlie 2005; with envious eyes by the surrounding James Leon 2005; Gordon Mohs 2005). tribes…so famous indeed was their The ethnographic evidence presented territory for its plentiful supplies of above also portrays the Chehalis as a salmon that outside tribes from long once populous group able to manage distances used to come every salmon all the affairs of the Harrison River by season and pay the Chehalis a kind of sheer presence and numbers (Hill-Tout tribute or royalty to be permitted to fish 1978:100-101; Sleigh 1990:7). in their waters” (1978:100-101). Long time Fraser Valley historian Daphne ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE Sleigh draws a similar conclusion from FOR THE HARRISON-LILLOOET her research, stating, “[t]he village of INTERACTION CORRIDOR Chehalis was quite extensive in size, To examine Chehalis’ influence upon for they were a large and prosperous the Harrison-Lillooet Interaction

133 Corridor, we apply three scales of in southwest British Columbia remains analysis: the village, the aggregated Fraser River-centric. For instance, in village community, and the region. It is Teit’s account of the Lillooet Indians our contention that the spatial patterning he documents settlements distributed of residential features on the landscape frequently along the corridor between reveals economic motivations related to the north end of Harrison Lake and monitoring and controlling the Harrison the Fraser Canyon (1906:196-198). River. Only now, after recent intensive Although current evidence does indicate archaeological survey and mapping that villages and strategic posts exist at projects are we able to evaluate the key locales throughout the corridor, patterning of houses along the Harrison much more research is needed in order River (Sanders and Ritchie 2005) and to fully comprehend the distribution of compare it to the Fraser River (Schaepe settlements along the Harrison-Lillooet 2006). Corridor. Settlement data along the While the frequency of non- Harrison-Lillooet Corridor reflects the local materials in the archaeological pattern presented within the “gateway record from the Scowlitz site does not community” model. It is significant reflect intensive trade, it does reflect that the known settlements are located complex trade relations with far away at key locales, but none are nearly territories along the Pacific Coast and the size of those along the central from the interior Plateau as far away Harrison River. Archaeologically, as Idaho (Blake 2004). This evidence the only documented village sites we lends credence to our hypothesis that are aware of on the Harrison-Lillooet the Harrison River was involved in Corridor are the five ancestral to the a series of extensive interregional Chehalis along the shores of Harrison trading networks cross-cutting distinct Lake (pers. comm. Charlie 2007), Port ecological and cultural zones. Douglas (pers. comm. Douglas Hudson 2007), Nequatque village on Anderson Lake (pers. comm. Michael Blake 2005 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH and visited by Sanders 2005), Seton IN THE HARRISON RIVER Portage (Derek Wales 1974) and Seton VALLEY River and Lake (Stryd 1974). Context and Survey A preliminary survey of the The archaeological record of the south shore of Anderson Lake by Harrison River suggests a long-term, Sanders also showed that the area was continuous occupation by the ancestors a significant travel route, as evidenced of the Chehalis people who inhabit by multiple pictograph sites. We argue the territory today. The main Chehalis that the paucity of data showing for this settlements are located 12 km upriver on area to date is in part a reflection of the the Harrison River from its confluence type of research that has occurred in with the Fraser River, and 125 km from the region, represented by a patchwork its outflow into the Gulf of Georgia, of small-scale investigations stemming southwest British Columbia (Figure 1). from consulting archaeology while Despite early anthropological interest more involved archaeological research in the area (Boas 1895; Hill-Tout 1978;

134 Duff 1953), very little was known (Sanders and Ritchie 2005; Ritchie archaeologically about the Harrison 2007). The distribution of pithouses River Valley until recently, and little along the northwestern bank of the remains known for the Harrison- Harrison River is virtually continuous Lillooet Corridor. The summer of 2005 between Morris Creek and the Chehalis heralded the first archaeological survey, River (Figure 3). Numerous sloughs mapping and test excavation project running perpendicular to the Harrison carried out within traditional Chehalis River provide natural boundaries territory (Lepofsky et al. 2005; Sanders to distinguish between settlements. and Ritchie 2005). These slough channels also served as The Harrison River offers excellent spawning habitats, places to a more conducive geography for keep canoes out of the main channel investigating archaeological visibility and a desirable location to collect of precontact settlement orientation marshland resources. along waterways than elsewhere in the lower Fraser Valley. Although other areas may have been as intensively Mapping occupied, evidence from these locations Settlements on the Harrison River range is lacking due to postcontact residential considerably in size, between eighteen and industrial development including residential features. Settlements also vast tracts of agricultural lands. As a differ in the composition of features result, settlements along the Harrison and their arrangement on the landscape. River discussed in this paper provide All of the settlements that have the invaluable archaeological evidence full suite of archaeological features for extensive occupation, social described in the regional survey zone organization and interaction unequaled share the same general pattern of by any other currently known locale in plankhouses in the centre of the village the Northwest Coast. During our survey, facing the water, pithouses immediately we noted that settlements often had a flanking them, and cultural depressions range of features, including pithouses, and burial mounds further back plankhouses, burial mounds, cultural from the river’s edge. This past year, depressions and earthenworks (Sanders Ritchie, with assistance of the Fraser and Ritchie 2005). The presence of Valley Archaeology Project, and the both plankhouses and pithouses at Simon Fraser University field school, settlements on the Harrison River mapped three settlements, Hiqelem visibly demonstrate how the Chehalis (Figure 4), Government Island, and community had influences from both to its west the seasonally flooded little coastal and interior culture areas.3 Government Island. The John Mack Our regional survey focused Slough site (Figure 5) was mapped along the banks of the Harrison River by Sue Formosa, Michael Blake and bounded by Morris Creek to the the University of British Columbia northeast and the Chehalis River to field school in 2005 (Schaepe 2007). the southwest (Figure 3). In total, we Between these maps and have documented eleven settlements others created by the authors in 2005, within our four kilometer project area we can see the internal arrangement of

135 Figure 3. Area showing territories surveyed during the 2005 summer field season and follow-up surveys in the fall and winter of 2005-07. This map shows the general settlement pattern along the Harrison River in Chehalis territory. The high degree of monitorability following from the near proximity of pithouses to the Harrison River should be noted. settlements on both banks of the Harrison a surface map from the data points River and on mid-river Islands (Figure we collected at Hiqelem allows us to 3). Total station mapping has allowed us see the entirety of the built landform to look at precise spatial relationships along with all of the see see associated between features at the site and also archaeological features (Figure 4). between features and landforms. The Construction material is derived from most remarkable culturally modified utilized rocks that crack when they landscape on the Harrison River is have been heated (fire altered rock). Hiqelem. In what has been thousands of years of intensive occupation at this Excavation and location, its inhabitants have built-up and Contemporaneity modified the landscape to such a degree Very few of the pithouses or that it is no longer prone to flooding - plankhouses along the Harrison River unlike any other settlement on the river. have been dated; archaeological In some places this terracing is two inquiry only began three years ago meters above sterile deposits. Creating and a chronological sequence for the

136 settlements or the features has not separate pithouses at Hiqelem and a been established. However, judging single housepit at John Mack Slough by landform analyses and temporal (Lepofsky et al. 2005). The dates indicators such as burial mounds, from two houses at Hiqelem show a many of the sites had contemporaneous long-term occupation at the site which components. Six of the settlements was likely continuous judging by the have mortuary features behind the consecutive hearth deposits in the house features suggesting a degree stratigraphic profiles. Housepit 1 dated of contemporaneity between 1600- between 1090 +/- 40 BP (1070 – 940 1100 BP (Lepofsky et al. 2000; Thom cal BP; Beta 208884), and housepit 4 1995). dated between 550+/- 40 BP (540-460 In 2005, several radiocarbon cal BP; Beta 208883) (Lepofsky et al. samples were extracted from two 2005).

F C P R la n m C a c h e P i t k o h u o n us d e B u k r e ia e M l M r o o d u C e n 's P r n d l a s n n C a k e h m m o d u e a s ta e r e y D Pithouse C luster

C a F C R m o u n d H c h a P e r la -P r n i is k ts o h P l a n k h o u s e o n u P R s it i e ho ve u P l a n k h o u s e r s e C lu s t er F C R m o u n d

S c a le ( m )

0 50 100 150 200

Figure 4. Map showing the complex, multi-component site of Hiqelem located on IR6 in the extreme northeast zone of the regional survey. (Map used with permission of the Fraser Valley Project).

137

Figure 5. Map of John Mack Slough showing settlement design in relation to Harrison River. Note ‘sentry pithouse.’ (Map used with permission of the Fraser Valley Project.)

Subsequent testing of housepit 1 at is much different than Hiqelem as it is Hiqelem by Sanders and Heonjong located on the Harrison River floodplain Lee yielded a date of (1090+/-40 BP and subject to seasonal flooding. The Beta 32268)4 from only 22 cm below only date recovered from a housepit at the surface. This evidently reflects John Mack Slough places the feature the rapid accumulation of deposits during the protohistoric era (pers. (namely fire-altered rock) in the comm. Schaepe 2006). Based on a housepit because the previous date of suite of ethnographic and ethnohistoric the same approximate age was from 48 knowledge, it is assumed that this date cm below the surface. does not accurately reflect the actual These samples from Hiqelem antiquity of the settlement. As no were taken mid-stratigraphic sequence, excavation of burial mounds were between 22 cm – 48 cm when cultural conducted in Chehalis territory, the layers and anthropogenic soils are still antiquity of burial mounds flanking present at 120 cm below the surface the house features can be measured (high water levels prevented us from using proxy information from nearby extracting a sample from the earliest archaeology of this feature class. At occupation layer). Based on historic least some component of the site, or an matierals found in other pithouses at earlier manifestation of it would likely Hiqelem, the site has been occupied date between 1600 and 1100 BP as up until the historic period. Temporal reflected in the well documented burial evidence from radiocarbon dating, mound complex 12 km to the south combined with the depth of deposits at Scowlitz (Lepofsky et al. 2000), suggests that the settlement has been making it contemporaneous with intensively inhabited for a much greater Hiqelem. Most of the larger settlements time than the present dates reveal. have burial features which provide The site of John Mack Slough a minimum antiquity; some sites, in

138 addition to Hiqelem and John Mack and were built in prominent locations Slough also show continued use of the near the front of the settlements. site until very recently. The Billy Harris In addition to the plankhouses we settlement has been inhabited within knew about at Hiqelem, John Mack living memory (pers. comm. Charlie Slough, Billy Harris and Wilson Duff 2007), and the settlements of Wilson #1 from our 2005 survey, we have Duff #1 and DhRl-T8 have uncharred recently found that plankhouses extend wood associated with structural nearly 150 continuous meters along remains. It is our contention that the Government Island (DhRl-T7) and settlements on the Harrison River have across the front of Little Government a high degree of occupation overlap in Island (DhRl-T8). These plankhouses accord with the continuity of landscape are in prominent locations at settlements use available in the ethnographic on both sides of the Harrison River as and archaeological evidence. well as on mid-river islands. Unlike pithouses, plankhouses do not blend CHEHALIS SETTLEMENT into the natural landscape; rather, their ANALYSIS presence at the front of all of these Inter-settlement Perspective settlements makes a loud statement. Due to the number of non-local groups The Chehalis controlled access along visiting Chehalis territories to engage in the Harrison River and everyone who diverse interregional trade and exchange traveled its course knew it. relationships, it is reasonable to expect Monitoring of activities in the that the Chehalis devised certain area would also have occurred from organizational strategies to monitor and high vantage points along the river. The control the river. Archaeological data physiography of the area is conducive suggests that the Chehalis were able to such phenomenon, with numerous to monitor their entire section of the of these promontories having been river from settlements and/or natural located; the most strategic of these promontories. is Lho:leqwet (DhRl 2), a natural Six of the eleven villages promontory nearly one hundred meters have at least one pithouse strategically high. Located at the northeastern orientated on jutties protruding into portion of IR5, where Morris Creek the Harrison River at different slough meets the Harrison River (Figure 3), channels. These ‘sentry’ pithouses this barren granite cliff marks a natural provide the best viewscape of the geographical pinch-point along the Harrison waterway and allow for close Harrison River that separates the monitoring of transportation activities northern ‘canyon’ section with the wider, on the river without having each habitable southern section. From this pithouse lining its banks. We suspect location, a large section of the Harrison that members of these houses would River corridor can be viewed (Figure 6). have been responsible for alerting other During the historic period, community members of immanent Hill-Tout (1978) describes the Chehalis danger, notification of safety, the need people as being united under a grand for alliance, and other responses. Chief with lesser Chiefs for every Plankhouses also line the river village or family group. Working under

139 the model that the Chehalis people design well suited to monitoring and acted as a cohesive whole towards controlling the movement of people a collective benefit, we believe the and goods. Other sites along the overall settlement design at Chehalis Fraser system, such as Xelhalh, show proves strategic for controlling and a different pattern (Schaepe 2006). managing this section of waterway These sites seem to suggest a strategy and territory. The distribution of of economic interaction different than spatially distinct ‘micro-villages’ of that at Chehalis, tending to be more dispersed populations and resources ‘defensive’, than ‘offensive’ in design. creates an extreme challenge to any We agree with both Duff (1952) and potential incursions or raids. Without a Kidd (1968) who suggest that villages ‘central place’ in which to attack, but located up high from the river are interconnected in terms of distance “situated so as to avoid attacks”. In and accessibility with which to unite so doing, these communities decrease rapidly, the community of Chehalis their ability to influence activities was well oriented on the landscape for occurring on the river in comparison to offence or defense alike. communities monopolizing the near- shore landscape of an extensive stretch CHEHALIS SETTLEMENT of waterway. ANALYSIS Historic documentation and Inter-regional Perspective anthropological literature research According to Hirth (1978:42), shows there are no analogous settlement his Mesoamerican example of clusters to the Chehalis villages within Chalcatzingo was one in a “series of the social sphere utilizing the Harrison- scattered gateway communities” for Lillooet Interaction Corridor. This may which long distance trade with the in part be a function of a lack of site Gulf Coast may have been conducted. preservation in more developed areas, In contrast to this “multiple gateway or lack of survey, but it can certainly case” with a dendritic hinterland, the also be attributed to the physiographic physiography and archaeology of setting. The Chehalis have a relatively Chehalis territory and the Harrison- narrow channel to monitor, with Lillooet Interaction Corridor indicate habitable banks on both sides of the that Chehalis holds a strategic Harrison River and mid-river islands, monopoly position to this natural whereas the lower section of the Fraser corridor. In this case, access points to River (East Chilliwack to the Georgia the interaction corridor are limited to Straight) is too wide and has too many a finite number of ‘gateways’; trade channels for one group to effectively at Chehalis and along the Harrison- monitor. The canyon section of the Lillooet Interaction Corridor has little Fraser River (Hope to Lillooet) has competition outside the Fraser River navigational hazards which would system. necessitate a different approach to We have argued that the controlling traffic. This is not to say spatial arrangement of the settlements that extensive trade and the attempt to comprising the aggregated village influence it did not occur along the community at Chehalis reveal a Fraser River – it did, it is merely to

140 Figure 6. View south, southwest from the top of Lho:leqwet looking over the regional survey territories of Chehalis IR5 and the Harrison River. suggest that physiographical constraints communities can emerge from a dictated the cultural response of Fraser group’s ability to effectively manipulate River groups and others who visited. its physiographic location and the No single community held an influence resources obtained from its immediate over the Fraser River in the same environment and through trade. manner Chehalis did with the Harrison The Chehalis fit the “gateway River. community” model in relation to the larger nexus of socio-economic CHEHALIS AS A “GATEWAY interaction within the coastal-interior COMMUNITY” Plateau sphere. Accordingly, Hirth’s We have adopted the ‘gateway’ model model is used as an analogy to help from human geography (see Burghardt explain the archaeological pattern 1971) as per Hirth’s archaeological of settlements at Chehalis along the application at Chalcatzingo in Morelos, Harrison River. Hirth (1978)argues that Mexico (1978). However, unlike economically powerful communities Hirth’s interest in the relationship established large settlements along between interregional trade and natural transportation corridors for the the emergence of internal social purpose of controlling commerce. His inequality within a community, descriptions of “politically complex our analysis of Chehalis settlement groups” located at “natural corridors of history is more suited to a discussion communication” and critical passages on interregional hierarchies between between areas of rich resources and communities. Community hierarchy, production (1978:37) are analogous as it applies to the theme of developing to the type of interaction dynamics social complexity, is beyond the scope proposed between Chehalis and of this paper, though we believe the groups traveling along the Harrison- development of socio-economic Lillooet Corridor. Chehalis’ position hierarchical relations between of economic advantage is due to its

141 position on a trade and transportation because the people have access to many corridor that is also one of the different zones of species abundance wealthiest salmon bearing rivers in the and are exposed to diverse external world (Kew 1992). cultural influences through trade and The aggregated community exchange. of Chehalis is compatible with Edge ecologies are species- Hirth’s gateway model in that it is rich transitional zones formed where oriented geographically to maximize two distinct ecological zones meet management of trade in a variety of (Turner et al. 2003). Chehalis is also exotic resources between at least two an “edge community” in the sense that disparate socio-cultural and ecological it is a cultural transition zone where zones. Evidence exists of trade in “two or more cultures converge and exotics between zones from surface interact” (Turner et al. 2003:439). finds discovered during our regional Edge communities are often successful survey and from recent excavations at because they have access to such a Chehalis, in addition to the extensive wide variety of economically important research at the Scowlitz site (Blake resources throughout the year, 2004; Lepofsky et al. 2000), located encouraging a “greater capacity for only 12 km down the Harrison River flexibility” (Turneret al. 2003:439). from Chehalis. Furthermore, Hirth Highlighting the attributes argues that these communities arise of socio-cultural resilience, Turner et in response to high levels of demand al. state, “human communities benefit or supply for ecology specific from association with and exploitation resources at socio-cultural, ecological, of ecological edges”, and furthermore or technological interfaces. This “societies seek to expand their use of paraphrase highlights the strength ecological edges” (2003:442). We agree of dovetailing Turner’s et al. (2003) with this assessment and believe that model of ecological and cultural edge the distribution of settlements on the communities. The “edge community” Harrison River reflects the Chehalis’ of Chehalis is oriented at an ecological desire to effectively utilize and control and socio-cultural interface where the local ecology and the flow of people from coastal and interior Plateau resources from outside their ecological zones interact. zone, making them a cultural edge community. CHEHALIS AS AN “EDGE COMMUNITY” SUMMARY The Harrison-Lillooet Interaction We have argued that the Chehalis Corridor offers access between two occupied a strategic physiographic unique ecological zones. One of the position and managed this natural greatest benefits to this long-distance advantage by orientating their houses on transportation network lies in its ability the landscape in an effort to best control to connect people and their resources the southern end of the Harrison-Lillooet across vast tracts of territory. We argue Interaction Corridor. Ethnographic and that Chehalis is an “edge community” ethnohistoric documents validate claims as defined by Turner et al. (2003) that the Chehalis people had strong

142 bonds through intermarriage and trade propose that archaeological data with neighboring groups in the past as from the Harrison River in southwest they do today. British Columbia could have important In this paper we have presented implications for understanding the the Chehalis community as ‘on the edge’ emergence of complex, interregional between distinct ecological zones and socio-economic strategies of hunter- also as an edge community, situated in fisher-gatherer societies elsewhere in a cultural transitional zone between the the Northwest Coast and beyond. coast and interior Plateau (Turner et al. 2003; Stoffle and Stoffle 2007). Edge communities have a natural advantage Acknowledgements because they benefit from an abundance We are indebted to many people for of natural resources as well as from their assistance with this ongoing knowledge, technologies and foreign project. Over the months and years resources through trade, interaction and we have spent on the Harrison River, intermarriage. members of the Chehalis community We also adapted the have welcomed and helped in geographical model of “gateway innumerable ways. Willy Charlie, communities” (Burghardt 1971; Ryan Charlie and James Leon deserve Hirth 1978) to explore how economic special recognition for their time both relationships form between long in the field and in conversation. We are distance exchange partners with respect grateful to Gordon Mohs who had the to control over “key locales”. Applied vision to invite us to do research with the to the geographical context of the Chehalis and who has since provided Harrison-Lillooet Interaction Corridor, us with his time and experience. Dr. it is clear how through the close Dana Lepofsky deserves credit for governance of their wealthy salmon providing financial support, equipment spawning grounds, and by monitoring and tireless energy, and Dr. Michael access to the Harrison-Lillooet Blake for his ongoing mentorship and Interaction Corridor, the Chehalis contributions in both an academic and were organized so as to benefit from field capacity, the results of which are economic activities occurring within reflected in this paper. Thanks are their territory. also due to the 2007 Simon Fraser The archaeological data field school that spent their summer at from the Harrison River provides the Hiqelem. Most importantly, and thanks necessary material record for discussing to all, this project has been fun! Chehalis’ role within the dynamic interregional interaction sphere between populations from coastal and NOTES interior Plateau zones. After mapping 1. No further references will be made to the settlements, we believe that the this source as this article is a revision of Chehalis had a cohesive strategy for Sanders’ 2006 Honours Thesis written close stewarding, monitoring, and for the University of British Columbia controlling socio-economic activities Anthropology Department. along the Harrison River. We also

143 2. All images and maps are the work of Boas, Franz the authors unless cited otherwise. 1895 Indianishe Sagon von der Nord- Pacifischen Kuste Amerikas, 3. The authors recognize that evidence trans. Dietrich Bertz for the for the geographical origins of pithouse British Columbia Indian technology remains inconclusive, but Language Project as “ Indian work from the historic understanding myths and legends from the within the discipline that this technology north Pacific coast of America” Typescript, 1977. was perpetuated in transitional zones Boyd, R. like the Fraser Valley by interior 1990 Demographic History, 1774- Plateau influences. 1874, vol. 7: The Handbook of 4. This AMS radiocarbon date was North American Indians. Wayne obtained with support by the fund Suttles, ed. 135-148. Washington DC: Smithsonian of Long Term Research Program of Institution Press. Mokpo National University, South Burghardt, A. F. Korea. 1971 A hypothesis about gateway cities. Annals, Association of American Geographers 61:269- 285. REFERENCES CITED Cole, Douglas Anderson, A. C. 2001 Franz Boas: The Early Years, 1858 Handbook and Map to the Gold 1858-1906. Vancouver: Region, J.J. LeCount, San McIntyre. Francisco, California. Duff, Wilson Arnold, Jeanne 1949 Archaeological Survey of the 1995 Transportation Innovation and Hope-Chilliwack Area. Victoria: Social Complexity Among Provincial Museum of Natural Maritime Hunter-Gatherer History and Anthropology. Societies. American 1952 The Upper Stalo Indians of the Anthropologist 97(4):733-747. Fraser Valley, British Columbia. B.C. Archives. Anthropology in British 2006 People of Yale: A.C. Anderson. Columbia, memoir 1. Victoria: Electronic Document. British Columbia Provincial http://collections.ic.gc.ca/yale/ Museum. people/anderson.htm, Accessed 1964 The Indian History of British January 8, 2006. Columbia, Vol. 1: The Impact of Blake, Michael the White Man. Anthropology in 2004 Fraser Valley Trade and Prestige British Columbia. Memoirs 5. as Seen from Scowlitz. Victoria. In Complex Hunter-Gatherers; Golledge, R.G. Evolution and Organization 1999 Human Wayfinding and of Prehistoric Communities of Cognitive Maps. In Wayfinding the Plateau of Northwestern Behavior: Cognitive Mapping North America. William C. and Other Spatial Processes. Prentiss and Ian Kuijt, eds. Pp. R.G. Golledge, ed. Baltimore: 103-112. Salt Lake: University Johns Hopkins University Press. of Utah Press.

144 Harris, Cole Lepofsky, Dana, Sue Formosa, Ian 1994 Voices of Disaster: Smallpox McKechnie, Morgan Ritchie, around the Gulf of Georgia in Adrian Sanders, and Naoko Endo. 1782. Ethnohistory 41(4): 591- 2005 Report of Mapping and Test 626. Excavations at Hiqelem (IR Hayden, Brian 6). Prepared for Chehalis First 2005 The Pithouses of Keatley Creek. Nation.MacLachlan, Morag, ed. Burnaby: Archaeology Press. 1998 The Fort Langley Journals 1827- Hayden, Brian and Rick Schulting 30. Vancouver: UBC Press. 1997 The Plateau Interaction Sphere Mayne, Richard C. and Late Prehistoric Cultural 1861 Report on a Journey in British Complexity. American Antiquity Columbia in the Districts 62(1): 51-85. Bordering on the Thompson, Hill-Tout, Charles Fraser, and Harrison Rivers. 1978 Ethnological Report on the Journal of the Royal Stseelis [Chehalis] and Skaulitz Geographical Society of [Scowlitz] Tribes of the London 31:213- 223. Halkomelem Division of the Mohs, Gordon Salish of British Columbia. In 2003 Background to the Chehalis. On The Salish People, The Local file, Chehalis Indian Band. Contribution of Charles Muad, Ralph ed. Hill-Tout, Volume III: The 1978 ‘The Salish People’, The Local Mainland Halkomelem, Ralph Contribution of Charles Hill- Maud, ed. Pp. 311-376. Tout, Volume III: The Mainland Vancouver: Talon books. Halkomelem. Vancouver: Hirth, Kenneth Talonbooks. 1978 Interregional Trade and the Ritchie, Morgan Formation of Prehistoric 2007 Simon Fraser University Field Gateway Communities. School in the Harrison River. American Antiquity 43(1): 35- The Midden 39(4):7-9. 45. Sanders, Adrian Kew, Michael 2006 Ancient Settlements on the 1992 Salmon Availability, Technology, Harrison River: A Coast Salish and Cultural Adaptation on the Gateway Between two Regions. Fraser Watershed. In A Complex Honours Thesis, Department Culture of British Columbia of Anthropology, University of Plateau: Traditional Stl’atl’imx British Columbia. Resource Use, Brian Sanders, Adrian, and Morgan Ritchie Hayden, ed. Vancouver: UBC 2005 Archaeological Sites in the Press. Chehalis Territory. The Midden Lepofsky, Dana, Michael Blake, Douglas 37(4): 9-17. Brown, Sandra Morrison, Nicole Oaks, Shaepe, David and Natasha Lyons 2006 Rock Fortifications: 2000 Archaeology of the Scowlitz Archaeological Insights into Site, sw British Columbia. Field Precontact Warfare and Journal of Archaeology 27(4): Sociopolitical Organization 391-416. Among the Sto:lo of the Lower Fraser Canyon, B.C. American Antiquity 71(4):671- 705.

145 Stoffle, Brent W. and Richard Stoffle 2007 At the Sea’s Edge: Edlers and Children in the Littorals of Barbados and the Bahamas. Human Ecology 35(5):554-558. Stryd, Arnould 1974 Lillooet Archaeological Project: 1974 Field Season. Carriboo College Papers in Archaeology, Number 1. Cariboo College. Teit, James 1906 The Lillooet Indians. Publications of the Jesup North Expedition. New York: Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 2(5). Thom, Brian 1995 The Dead and the Living: Burial Mounds & Cairns and the Development of Social Classes in the Gulf of Georgia Region. MA Thesis, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of British Columbia. Turner, Nancy, Iain Davidson-Hunt, and Michael O’Flaherty 2003 Living on the Edge: Ecological and Cultural Edges as Sources of Diversity for Social- Ecological Resilience. Human Ecology 31(3):439-461. Wales, Derek 1974 The Survey and Excavation: Seaton Portage – Shalalth A Preliminary Report. Cariboo College Papers in Archaeology, Number 3. Cariboo College.

146 LINDA OUTCALT

ANTHROPOLOGY AND COUNTERINSURGENCY Collaborators in Neoliberal Imperialism

Abstract Shrouded in fear and secrecy, the “Global War on Terror”, with its foundation firmly planted in the politics of neoliberalism, has created an ideal atmosphere for the reengagement of anthropology in counterinsurgency and warfare in the twenty-first century. As the neoliberal ideology of “choice” normalizes this par- ticipation, the usefulness of anthropological knowledge has been rediscovered by the military who have begun overt recruitment of anthropologists into the intelli- gence community. This paper will examine the historical background and present day realities of anthropological collaboration in counterinsurgency, highlight- ing its similarities and differences. Most importantly, the implications of such involvement by the discipline will be discussed, raising questions about academic freedom, as well as the ethics and morality of anthropological participation in warfare and counterinsurgency.

INTRODUCTION anthropology as a potentially Anthropology has had an ambivalent valuable counterinsurgency tool. Of relationship with the “warfare state” most interest is fieldwork, cultural and counterinsurgency for almost anthropology’s core methodological one hundred years. In both WWI and principle. A practice that combines WWII, a number of anthropologists linguistic fluency with an ability to willingly contributed to the war effort, build rapport in unfamiliar situations while in the counterculture decade through “cultural immersion” is very of the 1960s, anthropologists funded appealing to the military (Gonzalez by the Pentagon conducted secret 2007:B20). Overt recruitment of counterinsurgency research for CIA anthropologists is replacing the operations in Chile and Thailand secrecy of the past as anthropologists (Gusterman and Price 2005:np). The once again enter the mainstream of the 1980s ushered in neoliberalism and intelligence community in Canada and its ideological rhetoric of personal the United States, raising questions freedom, individual responsibility about the ethics and morality of and choice (Harvey 2005:23-5). anthropological participation in warfare Neoliberalism, combined with the and counterinsurgency. current political climate of fear and insecurity invoked by the “Global War DEFINITIONS: on Terror” (GWOT), has created an COUNTERINSURGENCY AND ideal atmosphere for the reengagement THE GWOT of anthropology in counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency and the GWOT are in the twenty-first century. nebulous, yet highly charged terms. Military and intelligence Following the events of September 11, agencies have rediscovered 2001 the U.S., under the leadership of

147 the Bush administration, took a course for hire. of action that has had far-reaching global consequences. Realizing that ACADEMIC COLLABORATION the 9/11 attack opened up a business Many Canadian and American opportunity in the Middle East, the universities are now directly and administration seized the moment, indirectly contributing to intelligence reinforced fear in an environment work through a variety of means already heavy with anxiety, and including: research funding, specialized fabricated the so-called “war on terror,” university centers, and scholarship later expanded into the GWOT. This programs (Gusterson and Price new war, not unlike the Cold War of 2005:np). In Canada, the Canadian the 1950s, polarized issues of religion, Centre of Intelligence and Security national values, and morality through Studies (CCISS) at Carlton University propagandistic rhetoric generated by in Ottawa is directly linked to the government and its media collaborators. Canadian Security Intelligence Service As opposition mounted in Iraq to the (CSIS), endorsing Carlton’s acceptance American invasion, the American of a university role in government media began to refer to the War in Iraq security operations and subsequently in as a “counterinsurgency.” However, counterinsurgency (CCISS 2002:np). what does this term mean, and more American scholarship programs like the importantly, what does it imply? Pat Robinson Intelligence Community The New Oxford American Scholars Program (PRISP) and the Dictionary defines counterinsurgency National Security Education Program as: “military or political action taken (NSEP) offer lucrative, full university against the activities of guerrillas scholarships for social science or revolutionaries.” But in this graduate students in the disciplines of situation, who are the guerillas or anthropology and foreign languages. revolutionaries, often referred to as Acceptance is based on the condition “insurgents”? Corporate media usually that students, after pursuing the study imply that “insurgents” are engaged of “cultures” or foreign languages, in guerilla warfare against legitimate agree to work for American intelligence governments, which may sometimes agencies after graduation for a stipulated be correct. However, more often than period of time (Gusterson and Price not insurgents are fighting against 2005:np). Furthermore, the identity of governments that have been created by students in the Intelligence Community military coups or Western sanctioned Scholars Program (ISP) is concealed (and assisted) powers. In the Iraq War, and universities are not informed about the “insurgents” are engaged in guerillas the status of these student “spies in our warfare against a government created by midst” (Gusterson and Price 2005:np). the Americans and the GWOT. In this Scholarship programs like PRISP and instance, the definitions of insurgency ISP, now in their third year of operation, and counterinsurgency have been are problematic for two primary inverted, transforming anthropological reasons: 1) “debt bondage” locks in participation in counterinsurgency into students after they graduate, with a collaborator of war—just another gun “draconian penalties” for students who

148 renege on their contracts with the CIA; of Defense, the Department of State, and 2) the aspect of secrecy undermines and the CIA. The Chief Strategist in the “open circulation of knowledge” on the Office for Counterterrorism in university campuses, while unlocking Washington and editor of the Military’s the doors once again (as in the Cold Counterinsurgency Manual at the War) to university collaboration in present time is Australian born David warfare through these clandestine Kilcullen, a Lieutenant Colonel with scholarship placements (Gusterton and a PhD in Political Anthropology Price 2005:np). Although the recipients (Kilcullen 2006:111). of these scholarships remain hidden In Canada, CSIS recruits to universities at the present time, social science graduates on many with neoliberalism becoming more university campuses, often through entrenched in our society everyday, that Career Fairs. In the winter of 2007 and secrecy, which is no longer a necessity 2008, CSIS recruitment posters could in anthropological recruitment be found throughout the University into the intelligence community, of Victoria while both CSIS and the may also fade away in academia. Canadian Armed Forces Recruiting Centre operated a booth at the 2008 THE ROLE OF THE AMERICAN Career Fair on campus (University of ANTHROPOLOGICAL Victoria 2008:29-30). In addition, in ASSOCIATION February 2008 CSIS held information Finally, the American Anthropological sessions at the University of Victoria Association (AAA) is itself implicated for students interested in becoming in counterinsurgency. Although agency Intelligence Operators. The there are vocal individuals within sessions were conducted during the association who have expressed school hours using classrooms in the their opposition to participation in MacLauren and Cornett buildings. counterinsurgency, the AAA has MacLauren houses the education maintained a position of silence on the faculty and the school of music, while GWOT. It has remained silent about the Cornett is home to the departments damage that this “long war” has inflicted of anthropology, geography, political on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, science, psychology and sociology. as well as the impact the war is having The AAA’s Statements on on academic freedom and dissent Ethics – Principles of Professional (Price 2004:353). The association Responsibility (PPR) outlines a code of has even been openly supportive ethics for the discipline of anthropology. of the counterinsurgency through a First and foremost in that code, is an posting of a CIA job recruitment ad emphasis on the responsibility to, and in several of the AAA journals in protection of the people studied by October 2005. Only after considerable anthropologists: discussion and complaints within the association, were the ads eventually In research, anthropologists' withdrawn (Gonzalez 2007:B20). In paramount responsibility is the United States, anthropologists are to those they study. When working openly in the Department there is a conflict of interest,

149 these individuals must come By 1984, this emphasis on first. Anthropologists must do public accountability began to dwindle. everything in their power to Gerald Berreman sums up the revisions protect the physical, social, and made to the Principles of Professional psychological welfare and to Responsibility as marking an era of a honor the dignity and privacy of “new Reaganethics” within the AAA those studied (AAA 1986:np). (Berreman 1991:311-314). David Price characterizes these alterations, This “responsibility to the which took place in the Reagan era public” suggests that anthropologists of deregulation and privatization, also have an obligation to the public, as a shift in the responsibility of to whom they owe “a commitment to the ethical review process from the candor and to truth in the dissemination association (AAA) to the individual of their research results and in the (Price 2000:26). Laura Nader argues statement of their opinions as students that these changes to the Code of of humanity” (AAA 1986:np). The Ethics primarily served to protect Statement on Ethics further outlines academic careers at the expense of the anthropology’s responsibility to the people they studied (Nader 1997:np). discipline, its students, their sponsors A mere decade later, in 1995, ethical and one’s own and host governments. responsibility was further loosened. The 1971 Code of Ethics emphasized At the completion of the AAA’s Ethics integrity, open inquiry, and Commission Review it was concluded responsibility in engaging in ethical that: and honest research that reflects a “concern for the welfare and privacy the committee on ethics had of informants” (AAA 1971:np). When neither the authority nor the the PPR was drafted in 1971, the resources to investigate or AAA’s general position on clandestine arbitrate complaints of ethical and secret research under the section violations and would ‘no longer “Responsibility to the Discipline” adjudicate claims of unethical was: behavior and [would instead] focus its efforts and resources a. Anthropologists should on an ethics education undertake no secret research program’ (AAA 1995:np). or any research whose results cannot be fully derived Ethical dilemmas and debates have not and publicly reported; and been absent in anthropological research, b. Anthropologists should the Tierney/Chagnon “Darkness in El avoid even the appearance Dorado” dispute over Chagnon’s work of engaging in clandestine with the Yanomamo in the Amazon research, by fully and in the 1960s being one of the main freely disclosing the aims controversies (Slutka 2006:271). But and sponsorship of all according to Berreman: “in its twenty research (AAA 1971:np). year history, the Committee on Ethics has pursued only one case …to the

150 Executive Board, and no case went any controversial involvement in warfare further than that” (Berreman 1991:308). for over one hundred years—practically As a result of revisions made since its conception as a discipline in in the 1980s and 1990s the current the early nineteenth century. American AAA’s Code of Ethics no longer Anthropologist, Montgomery McFate, contains prohibitions against espionage writing in the Military Review in or clandestine research. Cracks in the 2005, explains the utility of such ethical code are intensifying with involvement: During the 1900s, recent anthropological participation in knowledge of the anthropological counterinsurgency operations and the variety “was frequently useful, GWOT. The presence of anthropologists especially in understanding the power on the team of the Department of dynamics in traditional societies” Defense’s newly created pilot project in (McFate 2005:28). Not surprisingly, Iraq, the 2007 Human Terrain System colonialism provided the framework (HTS) provides a recent example of this and the funding for anthropologists participation (Gonzalez 2007:20). The such as Bronislaw Malinowski and Code of Ethics now functions to enable, E.E. Evans-Pritchard to conduct and even encourage, the engagement of their fieldwork. While these early anthropologists in military intelligence anthropologists certainly aided the work if they so desire, bringing a whole development of exploitative colonial new meaning to the field of “applied” regimes around the globe, their intent anthropology. Rather than being a remained one of presenting the ‘native moral, ethical or practical question, view’ to administrators and policy participation in counterinsurgency makers of the day in the name of better operations has simply become an issue governance. of individual responsibility, one left to Although often profoundly the neoliberal “choice” of individual damaging, this early work was not academics. Recent anthropological explicitly connected to war efforts. participation in counterinsurgency The intentionality shifted in both demonstrates that current research has WWI and WWII when numerous benefited not only from the fractures anthropologists willingly contributed in the Code of Ethics but also from the both overtly and covertly to the war culture of fear brought about by the effort. During World War I, a number GWOT. of anthropologists worked as secret agents, including Sylvanus Morley, COLONIALISM AND the Harvard-trained archaeologist best WORLD WARS known for directing the excavation Upon close examination of the history of Chichén Itzá (McFate 2005:25). of the discipline, the association of While some may have deemed these anthropology and counterinsurgency covert actions allowable and even is hardly new or recent. Described necessary, it is important to note that by Kathleen Gough in 1968 as the oppositional voices have been raised “handmaid of colonialism” and the against anthropology’s participation in “child of Western imperialism,” counterinsurgency from the beginnings anthropology has had a long and of the discipline.

151 Franz Boas was one of As a result of his protests, the first outspoken opponents to the AAA censured Boas, a move that anthropological support of warfare, effectively removed him from his when in 1919 in a letter to The Nation, position on the governing council (Price he expressed a largely unpopular 2000a:24). All four of the accused point of view condemning any kind spies, whose names are now known, of anthropological participation in Samuel Lothrop, Sylvanus Morley, the war effort as being unethical and Herbert Spinden and John Mason damaging to the discipline’s reputation. were all present at the annual AAA In this letter, Boas argued that unlike meeting when this disciplinary action the soldier, diplomat, politician and took place and all but one of these men businessman who “may be excused voted for Boas’s censure. John Mason, if they set patriotic devotion above the anthropologist who did not vote for common everyday decency and this motion, later wrote an apologetic perform services as spies,” the scientist letter to Boas, explaining that he had must be held accountable for such spied “out of a sense of patriotic duty” actions (Boas 1973:51-2). In addition (Price 2000a:24). to distinguishing science as patently The disciplinary action taken accountable, Boas brought attention to by the AAA in 1919 against Boas the actions of four unnamed American sent a message to anthropologists like anthropologists claiming that they had Morley, Spinden and Lothrop (who abused their professional research continued his military intelligence positions by conducting espionage in career into the Second World War) that Central America during the First World “espionage under cover of science in War (Price 2000a:24). Boas strongly the service of the state was acceptable” emphasized that for the scientist (Price 2000a:24). As a result, these [anthropologist]: same issues have surfaced and have been suppressed by anthropologists The very essence of his life in all of the military conflicts that is the service of truth. A have taken place since WWI (Price person, however, who uses 2000a:25-6). In writing about science as a cover for political anthropology’s historical participation spying, who demeans himself in warfare, David Price, like Boas, to pose before a foreign also distinguishes between two types government as an investigator of anthropological participation - and asks for assistance in his covert and overt counterinsurgency. alleged researches in order Price asserts that while the majority to carry on, under this cloak, of anthropologists produced work his political machinations, for government intelligence agencies prostitutes science in an openly during World War I, a minority unpardonable way and forfeits worked in intelligence under false the right to be classed as a pretenses (Price 2000a:25). Samuel scientist (Boas 1973:51-2). Lothrop, for example, used the facade of managing non-existent archaeological excavations in Peru as

152 a cover for his espionage activities in (McFate 2005:30-31). After the war, Central and South America in WWII Bateson expressed regret about his (Price 2000a:24-5). intelligence work with OSS, primarily Cooperative and eager because of the harm that had been anthropologists continued to inflicted upon the native peoples in contribute directly and indirectly to the areas where intelligence work had warfare research during World War been carried out (Price 2005:3). Even II. In the U.S., numerous prominent during World War II, a war widely anthropologists worked for agencies sanctioned and accepted by the general such as the Office of Strategic public, there were anthropologists like Services (OSS), the precursor to the Laura Thompson who were concerned CIA, the Office of Naval Intelligence, that anthropological participation the Office of War Information, the in the war effort was “transforming Ethnogeographic Board and the Military anthropologists into technicians for Intelligence Division (Gusterson and hire to the highest bidder” (Price Price 2005:np). Ruth Benedict’s story 2000a:25). of Japanese culture ‘at a distance,’ later published as The Chrysanthemum THE COLD WAR, McCARTHYISM, and the Sword (1946), has the dubious PROJECT CAMELOT AND THE distinction as being “the most famous THAILAND CONTROVERSY anthropological contribution to the war The controversial entanglement of effort in WWII” (Gusterson and Price anthropology with counterinsurgency 2005:np). gathered momentum during the Yet at times anthropologists beginnings of the Cold War1 in the have demonstrated regret about their mid 1940s into the 1950s—this time complicity in warfare while others the war was against Communism. To “expressed bitterness at the ways their facilitate the goal of the Cold War, contributions were ignored or used in the containment of communism at all ways against their will” (Gusterson and cost, the U.S. established a number of Price 2005:np). Margaret Mead and agencies to exercise its global power, her husband Gregory Bateson worked and in 1947 the executive agency known for OSS and Special Forces during as CIA was created (McCoy 1990). In WWII. Mead produced pamphlets for order to conduct its crusade against the War Office as well as assisting communism, the CIA was willing to “the OSS to establish a psychological construct alliances with anyone or any warfare training unit for the Far East” group who could help their campaign. (McFate 2005:31). Bateson conducted The agency offered employment to a intelligence analysis in Burma where number of anthropologists who had he “designed and produced ‘black contributed to the war effort during propaganda’ radio broadcasts intended WWII, thus paving the way for to undermine Japanese propaganda in engagement in the decades to follow. the Pacific Theatre”; and later worked David Price explains the far-reaching with the CIA developing “experimental relationship between anthropology psychological warfare initiatives, and the intelligence community in including mind-control research” his article, Anthropologists as Spies

153 (2000): FBI, under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover, continued its surveillance In the following decades [after of social scientists and academics for WWII] there were numerous the next twenty years, culminating in private and public interactions the McCarthy witch-hunt trails of the between anthropologists and 1950’s. the intelligence community. Price argues that “committed Some anthropologists applied social activism” by anthropologists, their skills at the CIA after its such as fighting against entrenched inception in 1947 and may still racial prejudice in American society, be doing so today. For some and not their Communist, Marxist of them this was a logical or Socialist connections was what transition from their wartime attracted the most intense scrutiny espionage work with the OSS from the FBI and the McCarthy and other organizations; others congressional committees (Price regarded the CIA as an agency 2004:2). Through his extensive use concerned with gathering of archival material and 30,000 pages information to assist policy- of government documents obtained makers rather than a secret through the Freedom of Information branch of government that Act, Price provides a thorough analysis subverted foreign governments of the repercussions of the witch-hunts, and waged clandestine war on demonstrating that the atmosphere the Soviet Union and its allies. of fear and censorship during the Still other anthropologists McCarthy era impacted anthropology unwittingly received research far beyond the lives of those who lost funding from CIA fronts like their jobs. Anthropology was a threat to the Human Ecology Fund the policies and practices of McCarthy (Price 2000:25). era politics. Price powerfully describes anthropology’s “threatening” position: The war against communism was in large part responsible for When practiced properly, McCarthyism, which according to Price anthropology is a threatening was “part of a long, ignoble American science. Its dictums of equality tradition of repressing the rights of free and its distinct view of association, inquiry, and advocacy of stratification threaten claims those that would threaten the status of legitimacy and dominance; quo of America’s stratified political but in the mid-century its economic system” (Price 2004:2). In critique of the abuses of race Threatening Anthropology (2004), in contemporary society was David Price discusses the impact a direct threat to America’s of this tradition on anthropology, status quo (Price 2004:29). beginning in the 1920s with the FBI surveillance and investigation of McCarthyism transformed anthropologists suspected of ties to the anthropological theory and practice. Communist Party (Price 2004:15). The Social activism, focused on domestic

154 systems of inequality and injustice was by the Student Mobilization Committee stifled, while scholarship that examined to End the War in Vietnam (SMC) the basis of hegemonic power was implicating American social scientists curtailed (Price 2004:349). Cold War in counterinsurgency operations in communist hysteria and the subsequent Thailand (Wolf 1970:26). suppression of social activism laid As details of this secret the foundation for the clandestine collaboration (funded by the US counterinsurgency research that took government and organizations such place in South America and Southeast as the Ford Foundation) were made Asia in the counterculture decade that public, anthropology fell into disgrace followed. (Gusterson and Price 2005:np). The Anthropologists, funded by Ethics Committee conducted an inquiry the U.S. government, provided direct that resulted in the creation of a code of and willing participation in secret ethics for the discipline of anthropology research projects in the 1960’s - Project by the American Anthropological Camelot in Chile (1964-1965) and the Association (AAA) – Statements on Thailand Controversy2 (1961-1969) Ethics – Principles of Professional (Wakin 1992:1-2). Project Camelot Responsibility (PPR) in 1971. Section was a social science research project two, of the PPR, Responsibility to the “whose objective was to determine Discipline stated that: the feasibility of developing a general social systems model which would a. Anthropologists should make it possible to predict and influence undertake no secret research politically significant aspects of social or any research whose results change in the developing nations of cannot be freely derived the world” (Wakin 1992:27). The and publicly reported; and Thailand Controversy involved the b. Anthropologists should participation of anthropologists in secret avoid even the appearance counterinsurgency operations designed of engaging in clandestine to defeat the growing communist-led research, by fully and freely insurgency in Thailand. Employed by disclosing the aims and the Advanced Research Projects Agency sponsorship of all research” (ARPA) under the U.S. Department (AAA 1971:np). of Defense, social scientists worked to actively spread counterinsurgency For a number of years, the practices in Thailand. As well as 1971 version of the PPR encouraged involvement in Thailand, APRA was anthropologists to distance themselves active in Vietnam and was responsible from the military, from war, and even for the application of the first use of from an analysis of war itself (which defoliants in Vietnam (Wakin 1992:96). may have been a disservice to political However, this was also a time of anthropology). Following the events of increasing student activism. And in 9/11 and the subsequent GWOT, ethical 1970, documents were sent to the AAA guidance and the application of ethical Ethics committee chairman Eric Wolf rules of conduct were truly needed. and board member Joseph Jorgensen Unfortunately, additional amendments

155 made to the AAA’s Code of Ethics in of the Cold War atmosphere of paranoia the 1980s and 1990s, combined with a and fear, it also mirrors the patriotic shift of focus from adjudicating claims climate of the publicly sanctioned two of unethical behaviour to education, World Wars, which justified warfare further weakened the influence of the and spurred participation by social organization. scientists. As the current war in Iraq and conflict in Afghanistan sinks further ANTHROPOLOGY AND into chaos, the U.S. administration, COUNTERINSURGENCY TODAY aware that its military actions have The counterculture activism of the been ineffective, is looking for other 1960s and 1970s drew attention to the strategies to win its war. Included in question of professional ethics and in these strategies is the vigilant and open the process discredited and stigmatized recruitment of anthropologists and anthropological involvement in other social scientists into the military military intelligence operations for intelligence community. McFate a short time, but anthropologists and Kilcullen, working within the today, finding themselves located in a intelligence community in the U.S., political atmosphere of patriotism and are promoting the connection between propaganda similar to that of the two a successful counterinsurgency and World Wars, are slowly being lulled an understanding of other people and into participation in counterinsurgency cultures. McFate, whose dissertation operations orchestrated by the United in cultural anthropology focused on States. This time, their engagement is the British counterinsurgency policy in very much out in the open. Northern Ireland, advised the military The neoliberal sociopolitical that: “Successful counterinsurgency ideology of “choice” and “personal depends on attaining a holistic, freedom” has diminished the ethical total understanding of local culture. questions around participation in This cultural understanding must counterinsurgency and the need for be thorough and deep if it is to have secrecy. Although U.S. scholarship any practical benefit at all” (McFate programs connected to the intelligence 2005:37). community remain cloaked in secrecy, In his article in the recruitment into organizations like Military Review, “Best Practices in 3 CSIS and the CIA are today much Counterinsurgency,” Kalev Sepp cites more visible and acceptable, now a the work of the American cultural “career choice” rather than a moral anthropologist Lucien Pye during 4 or ethical decision. According to the 1950’s Malayan Emergency as Gonzalez and Price, anthropology research that helps to understand how has recently been described as a to develop successful “operational “counterinsurgency related field” in practices” in counterinsurgency (Sepp employment advertisements by one 2005:10). The military now refers to of the top 10 US defense contractors the understanding of the socio-cultural (Gonzalez and Price 2007:np). environment of the population as one While today’s political of the “best practices” in counter- environment has a strong undercurrent counterinsurgency operations.

156 According to Kyle Teamey and Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Lieutenant Jonathan Sweet, in the Security Studies (CCISS),5 “the only appendix to the U.S. military’s manual university centre in Canada dedicated on counterinsurgency, Organizing to research in Intelligence and Intelligence for Counterinsurgency National Security Studies” (CCISS (2006): 2002). CCISS trains students for future employment in intelligence with Practical experience and CSIS, the Communications Security research indicate six major Establishment (CSE), the RCMP factors that make intelligence Criminal Intelligence Directorate, in counterinsurgency different and the Intelligence Division (J2) of than in other forms of warfare. the Department of National Defense/ First and foremost, intelligence Canadian Forces (CCISS 2002:np). It is in counterinsurgency is about not known how many anthropologists people. Commanders must now work in counterinsurgency in the understand the host nations United States and Canada. people and government, the people involved in the SECRECY, PROPAGANDA insurgency, and the conditions AND NEOLIBERALISM driving the insurgency. They Secrecy in intelligence gathering must have insight into the and recruitment, imperative to perceptions, values, beliefs, anthropological involvement and interests, and decision-making intelligence work from the 1930’s to the processes of individuals and 1960’s, is no longer an issue. In terms groups. These requirements of the collection of intelligence data, are the basis for collection Kilcullen explains the changes that have and analysis efforts (Teamey taken place in intelligence gathering 2006:24 emphasis mine). for modern counterinsurgency:

Numerous articles in military Secret intelligence is often magazines urge the acceptance and less relevant than information recruitment of more anthropologists which is not classified by any and other social scientists into the war government, but is located effort. The U.S. Cultural Operations in denied areas…in modern Research Human Terrain System (HTS) counterinsurgency, where has been recruiting social scientists, there is no single insurgent including at least one anthropologist, network to be penetrated to serve as cultural advisors in Iraq but rather a cultural and and Afghanistan (Gonzalez 2007). The demographic jungle of purpose of the HTS team is to collect population groups to be “local population knowledge” and navigated, ‘basic intelligence’ disseminate and explain that knowledge – detailed knowledge of to combat troups (Gonzalez and Price physical, human, cultural and 2007:np). In Canada in 2002, Carlton informational terrain based University in Ottawa established the on a combination of open

157 source research and ‘denied Citizens in the U.S. and area ethnography’ – will be Canada are being encouraged once even more critical (Kilcullen again to embrace patriotism and 2006:11 emphasis mine). believe that the “war on terror” is a just and essential war. This Secondly, the need for secrecy propaganda implicitly reinforces the in recruitment is fading rapidly due to idea that any and all involvement in the successfully embedded propaganda counterinsurgency is acceptable and campaign of the “war on terror” that even desirable. While it is clear that the is permeating popular consciousness. military and the intelligence community Utilized by corporate media, have recognized the value of “cultural propaganda is a highly effective tool knowledge” in counterinsurgency of social control. Along with increased and are doing their utmost to recruit control over what the public sees in social scientists, the implications of respect to war footage, various forms of anthropological participation in these popular culture, (including music, film counterinsurgency operations are very and television), endorse and promote disturbing. patriotism and the hegemonic goals of the U.S. while demonizing “the other,” CONCLUSION: OPPOSITION all under the guise of entertainment. AND RESISTANCE References to “terrorism,” “the war on Perhaps this is a time when terror” and the War in Iraq are casually anthropologists should reconsider inserted into the background storylines the issues raised by some of the of highly popular television programs anthropologists writing in the 1960s- such as CSI, South Park and WWE 1970s. Kathleen Gough in 1968 asked (World Wrestling Entertainment). The why anthropologists had not “studied Toronto Globe and Mail and CBC’s Western imperialism as a social system hip infotainment program, The Hour, or even adequately explored the bring viewers personal stories from effects of imperialism on the societies “the Mission in Afghanistan” and [they] studied” (Gough 1968:405). interviews with returned Canadian Anthropology has remained reluctant soldiers. On another level, big budget to shift its gaze to issues of state- Hollywood films like the Bond and systems, power and warfare. According Bourne franchises glamorize terror, to Krohn-Hansen and Nustad, writing torture and espionage. Popular culture in State Formation - Anthropological thus transforms the GWOT and the Perspectives: “This lack of focus on War in Iraq into just another part of the modern state has weakened our acceptable, but exciting everyday discipline. It continues to undermine life. Through this constant hum of anthropologists’ capacity to deal propaganda, counterinsurgency and satisfactorily with important forms of intelligence operations are normalized power and politics in the contemporary and glamorized, subconsciously world” (Krohn-Hansen and Nustad connected to notions of progress, 2005:21). development, employment and The GWOT and the consumerism. counterinsurgency are extending the

158 militaristic and corporate tentacles of learn how to dissociate their past US neoliberalism into other areas of the and present actions from embedded globe. Not surprisingly, many question political events” (Nader 1997:141). the legitimacy of these actions and The political climate of the GWOT anthropology’s participation in them. is generating the same kind of fog, In an article posted in May 2005 on the a colonization of the mind and self- online site, Savage Minds: Notes and censorship in which confusion is erasing Questions in Anthropology, the author clarity and ambiguity is replacing “Oneman” stated that: “The bottom activism. If anthropologists continue line is that the needs of anthropology to engage in actions that covertly and and the needs of military action are overtly support the war on terror and radically at odds. [Anthropologists] like counterinsurgency, anthropology - the McFate are arguing for an enlightened “child of imperialism” - is in danger tyranny, but a tyranny nonetheless” of evolving into the adult partner of (Savage Minds 2005:np). Writing in neoliberal globalization. the 1970’s, Joseph Jorgensen and Eric C o n t e m p o r a r y Wolf express the ethical dilemmas anthropologists must join with the facing contemporary anthropologists whistleblowers of thirty years ago – very clearly: the counterculture student activists and anthropologists including Gough, Behind an appeal, a research Wolf and Jorgensen, along with current grant, a consultant's fee, an anthropological activists including appeal to personal vanity or to academics, practicing anthropologists patriotism, is a government that and students and promote alternatives may well use the knowledge to this partnership. Active engagement gained to damage the subjects and collective action are required. As among whom it was gathered. stated by David Price: “theory without Perhaps this is the grimmest action is only theory. Activism is lesson of all the events of important because it is action” (Price the past years: many a naive 2004:349). anthropologist has become, Fortunately, dissent exists wittingly or unwittingly, an today against anthropological informer (Jorgensen and Wolf collaboration in warfare as it has in 1970:30). past decades. David Price, Roberto Gonzalez, Hugh Gusterson and Laura Yet this emphasis on political naivety Nader represent a growing number misses the additional problem of self- of anthropologists who are concerned censorship. Describing her McCarthy about the escalating militarization of era student days as a time of “living anthropology. In a recent 2007 article in a fog,” Laura Nader, explains how in The Chronicle of Higher Education, self-censorship prevents engagement Gonzalez discusses the purpose behind in social activism: “anthropology’s the accumulation of anthropological intersection with politics is made data by the military: invisible through processes of ‘mind colonization,’ whereby anthropologists The fact that Kilcullen and

159 others are eager to commit Laboratories), David Price (St. Martin’s social-science knowledge University), Monica Heller (University to goals established by the of Toronto), and Alan Goodman, ex- Defense Department and the officio (Hampshire College) (AAA CIA is indicative of a new 2007a:np). Unfortunately, the outcome anthropology of insurgency. of the committee report completed in Anthropology under these November 2007 is vague, reflecting circumstances appears as just neoliberal attitudes of personal another weapon [italics added] responsibility. According to the AAA’s to be used on the battlefield website, The Executive Summary states — not as a tool for building that: bridges between peoples, much less as a mirror that The Commission recognizes we might use to reflect upon both opportunities and risks the nature of our own society to those anthropologists (Gonzalez 2007:20). choosing to engage with the work of the military, security Opposition to contemporary and intelligence arenas. We anthropological involvement in do not recommend non- counterinsurgency is coming from engagement, but instead individuals within professional emphasize differences in organizations, media and online kinds of engagement and publications, and through newly accompanying ethical formed networks. In 2005, as a result considerations. We advise of debates and opposition within careful analysis of specific the discipline on this issue, the roles, activities, and AAA created a special nine-member institutional contexts of commission, the Commission on the engagement in order to Engagement of Anthropologists with ascertain ethical consequences. the US Security and Intelligence These ethical considerations Communities, to “investigate the begin with the admonition to issues, ethics, and methodological do no harm to those one studies concerns regarding the engagement of (or with whom one works, anthropology in military and security in an applied setting) and to communities” and provide a report to be honest and transparent in the AAA Executive in November 2007 communicating what one is (AAA 2007a:np). Committee members doing (AAA 2007b:4). include: James Peacock, Chair, (University of North Carolina), Robert Lacking confidence that Albro (American University), Carolyn the AAA Commission would take a Fluehr-Lobban (Rhode Island College), strong position on anthropological Kerry Fosher (Dartmouth College and participation in counterinsurgency, Syracuse University), George Marcus a small group of individual (University of California, Irvine, anthropologists created another avenue Laura McNamara (Sandia National of opposition to counterinsurgency. In

160 the fall of 2007, eleven anthropologists position on this question. A silent or formed the Network of Concerned neutral position is still a position, Anthropologists, an independent ad hoc one that implicitly supports the network whose intention is to “promote counterinsurgency. Instead of silence an ethical anthropology” that rejects or complicity, David Price stresses involvement in any counterinsurgency the urgency of the present situation operations in the “war on terror” (NCA and emphasizes that “anthropologists 2007:np). According to their website must join the voices speaking out the NCA believes that: against the war on terror’s threats to the world’s indigenous peoples, Anthropologists should not the threats to academic freedom, and engage in research and other threats posed by intelligence agencies activities that contribute to to our life, liberty, and inalienable counterinsurgency operations rights” (Price 2004:353). Collectively in Iraq or in related theatres and individually, anthropologists in the ‘war on terror’. must continue to speak out against Furthermore, we believe that the growing militarization of the anthropologists should refrain discipline and promote alternatives to from directly assisting the this collaboration: an outright refusal US military in combat, be it to participate in counterinsurgency through torture, interrogation operations of any form, and a shift in or tactical advice (NCA focus to analysis and critique of the 2007:np). power behind the counterinsurgency – the corporate state and global The eleven founding members of imperialism of the twenty-first the network who include: Catherine century. Besteman, Andrew Bickford, Greg Feldman, Gustaaf Houtman, Roberto Gonzalez, Hugh Gusterson, Jean NOTES Jackson, Kanhong Lin, Catherine Lutz, 1. The Cold War refers to the conflict David Price and David Vine have all between the two superpowers of the agreed to a Pledge of Non-participation era—the US and the Soviet Union, who in Counterinsurgency “not to undertake gradually involved their allied satellites research or other activities in support in this political standoff, not unlike of counterinsurgency work in Iraq or the “Coalition of the Willing” in the related theatre in the ‘war on terror,’ and GWOT. [they] appeal to colleagues everywhere 2. to make the same commitment” (NCA The “Thailand Controversy” 2007:np). specifically refers to the controversy Anthropologists must keep surrounding the AAA’s ad hoc up the pressure on their professional Mead Committee Report (chaired by organizations, including the AAA, to Margaret Mead), which was released take a strong position on the GWOT on November 19, 1971. The report in order to protect the freedom contested an earlier public denunciation of inquiry. There is no neutral of anthropological involvement in

161 warfare and argued for the legitimacy 1998 Code of Ethics of the American of anthropological participation in Anthropological Association. counterinsurgency. These views were Online. Internet. Accessed: 30 debated and rejected at the AAA’s March 2007 Available 1971 (Watkin 1992:2). 2007a Commission on the Engagement 3. Dr. Sepp is an assistant professor at of Anthropology with the US the Department of Defense Analysis, Security and Intelligence Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Communities. Online. Internet. Accessed: 11 Oct. 2007 California. Available . that took place from 1948-1960. The 2007b Final Report: Commission on the insurgents were eventually defeated Engagement of Anthropology with the US Security and through the use of new “jungle tactics” Intelligence Communities. (counterinsurgency) and the disruption Online. Internet. Accessed: 15 of their supply network (Oxford Jan. 2008 Available . Berreman, Gerald D. Canadian universities that offer a full 1991 Ethics versus ‘Realism’ in program in Intelligence Studies and Anthropology. In Ethnographic only a few offer any undergraduate or Fieldwork an Anthropological graduate courses in Intelligence Studies Reader. C.G. M Robben and (CCISS 2002:np). Jeffrey A. Sluka, eds. Maine: Blackwell Publishing. Pp. 298- 315. Boas, Franz REFERENCES CITED 1919 Correspondence: Scientists as Spies. The Nation, 109. In To American Anthropological Association See Ourselves: Anthropology (AAA) and Modern Social Issues. 1971 Statements on Ethics: Principles Thomas Weaver ed. Glenview of Professional Responsibility. Il: Scott, Foresman, 1973. Pp. Online. Internet. Accessed: 8 51-52. Feb. 2007 Available 2002 Information: Canadian Centre of 1986 Statements on Ethics: Principles Intelligence and Security of Professional Responsibility. Studies at Carlton University. Online. Internet. Accessed: 8 Online. Internet. Accessed: 8 Feb. 2007 Available . htm>

162 Gonzalez, Roberto J. Lamont, Mark 2007 We Must Fight the Militarization 2007 Lectures in Political of Anthropology. Chronicle Anthropology. The University of of Higher Education 53(22):20. Victoria. Gonzalez, Roberto J. and David Price McCoy, Alfred W. 2007 “When Anthropologists Become 1972 The Politics of Heroin in Counterinsurgents.” Southeast Asia. New York: Counterpunch, Alexander Harper and Row. Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair, McFate, Montgomery, J.D. eds. September 28, 2007. Online. 2005 Anthropology and Internet. Accessed: 20 Jan. 2008 Counterinsurgency: The Available Relationship. The Military Gough, Kathleen Review. March-A24-38. 1968 New Proposals for McKean, Erin, ed. Anthropologists. Current 2005 Oxford Reference Online. In The Anthropology. 9(5):403-435. New Oxford American Gusterson, Hugh and David Price Dictionary, second edition. 2005 Spies in our Midst. In American Oxford University Press. Online. Anthropology Association. Internet. Accessed: 16 Jan. 2008 Online. Internet. Accessed: 22 Available subview= Main&entry= t183.e Harvey, David 17309> 2005 A Brief History of Nader, Laura Neoliberalism. Oxford: 1997 The Phantom Factor: Impact of University Press. Horowitz, the Cold War on Anthropology Louis Irving, ed. In The Cold War and the 1967 Document Number I. In The University. Pp. 107-46. New Rise and Fall of Project York: New Press. Camelot: Studies in the Network of Concerned Anthropologists Relationship Between Social 2007 Pledge of Non-participation on Science and Practical Politics. Counterinsurgency. Online. Cambridge: MIT Press. Pp. 47- Internet. Accessed: 11 Oct. 2007 49 and 232-336. Available Thailand. In New York Review Packer, George of Books. November 19: 26-35. 2006 Knowing the Enemy: Can Social Kilcullen, David Scientists Redefine the ‘War 2006 Counterinsurgency Redux. on Terror’? New Yorker Survival. Winter 2006-2007. December:60-69. 48(4):111-130. Krohn-Hansen, Christian and Knut G. Nustad, eds. 2005 Introduction in State Formation: Anthropological Perspectives. London: Pluto Press: 3-26.

163 Price, David University of Victoria 2000a Anthropologists as Spies.” The 2008 University of Victoria Career Nation, November Fair 2008: Your Future at Work. 20:271(16):24-27. Pp. 2, 29-30. 2000b The AAA and the CIA? In Wakin, Eric Anthropology News. November 1992 Anthropology Goes to War: 20:13-14. Online. Internet. Professional Ethics and Accessed: 30 March 2007 Counterinsurgency in Thailand. Available Savage Minds 2005 Anthropologists as Counterinsurgents. Academia, Culture Notes. Posted by Oneman. Online. Internet. Accessed: 14 Feb. 2007 Available Sepp, Kalev I. 2005 Best Practices in Counterinsurgency. Military Review. May-June: 8-12. Sluka, Jeffrey A. 2007 Part VI: Fieldwork Ethics. In Ethnographic Fieldwork an Anthropological Reader. C.G. M Robben and Jeffrey A. Sluka, eds. Maine: Blackwell Publishing. Pp. 271-275. Teamey, Kyle and Jonathan Sweet 2006 Organizing Intelligence for Counterinsurgency. Military Review. September-October: 24- 29.

164

PlatForum VOLUME 9/2008