rsBN1 -900650-84-3 llülillIlll[ffi1ilil Meanings of rranslationin cultural Anthropology DORIS BACHMANN-MEDICK GoettingenBerlin, Germany Translatedby Kate Sturge Abstract: Transrationbetween curtures can be considereda centrarprac_ tice qnd aim of curturar anthroporogt. But are the m'anings of curturar trqnsrqtionconfined '"urturor to urürrtanding,? A h')rmeneutic seems position to imprya commitmentto a trqditionar:singre_sited,anthroporogy qnd does not correspondto the charengesof grobatization.A ,murti_ ionqt anthropoto g1t i, a"ia iili;, jiff.,at öä' ä- or t",not iv e type of Fo'owing a brief account of the dffirent meaningsoJ.transration the histoty.ofc-urturar in anthropoiloglt,^y "rroy to"ot"r"tn" postcoroniar emergenceof a charengeto this newqnthropoiogicar trqnsrationconcept in an epistemorogicarbreak; the crisisof representationand thequestioning o.fa uniraterar westerntrqnsration authority. TransrationoJ.and between curturesis no ronger the centrarconcept, iu, "utiul"-)uerf conceptuarize_d is now being as a processof transration. q As resurt,transration can be definedas a dynamic term of iuttural encounteti^ o n"g**rion ences ofdiffer_ as yelr as a dfficurt process of transformqtion. in tnrs respect,the noversof sa.rmanRushdie qre eye-openersfora newmetaphor ofmigration as transration,which renders transrationinto a mediut) o/.dßpracement and hybrid serf-transration. The cqtegory of transration thus offers anthroporogynot onryan important for 'the arternativeto dichotomousconcepts tike crashof civilizatiois', but it is arso ,;";;:;;,;nrohic indicator t:;,;:!:*ing anthropotogyunder the condifio;;.oj'o gonoruoüon of "It is reportedthat when pepsi-cola enteredthe soft drinks keyed its market in Thailand, it advertisingcampaign to its well_l vou.''"intr'e ref si i"*.uir*; rn" "o,"p unf, to the problematical :xt;ää:liä: Ji:::l;;?ffi , 1';l."; Thai translationoi-that slogan: .pepsi back from brings yo'r ancestors the dead'' The incident i.-" gäprric languages reminderthat äsration across is translation acrosscultures. it i. th" act of translationas a commit_ sat the heart orthe ais ä"#-ffi 1*?i#*ä:Tffi J::li ciprine or anthroporo g;.,' Thesesentences on-the tät" unttropology department,swebsite (2003) the promotion of introduce its anthropologyp.o;;;ä". The mistranslation websiteur".-ri" embarrassing of an aavertling"sl;g; r;;i;re .translation acrosscultures, at the J4 Translating Others Vol. I Bachmann-lu. heart of the anthropologicaldiscipline. Yet in its substance,this quotationactually betweencult saysvery little about the meaningsof translationin anthropology.Even more sur- not simply a prisingly, the translationexample is drawn from the contextof globally networked lem for trans consumption,and not from the traditional anthropologyof locatedarea studies,a importantly, spheresurely much closer to a hermeneuticsof culturalunderstanding. Nevertheless, - haveto be "translation that traditional anthropologyis what is being evokedby the allusionto of a Westen as a commitmentto cultural understanding".The referencealso uncritically carries and actionsi with it the whole, problematichistory of the translationof othercultures through the ethnographir interpretivepower of Westemanthropology. This relapseinto a simple,harmony-based form" (1988 notionoftranslation is peculiar,especially since the currentconditions ofglobalization, Added t< with their transnationalconnections and hybrid creolizations,throw down quite other comparative 'cultural translationalchallenges - challengesthat require not so much understanding' flict, hierarcl asstrategies ofcultural encounteror thenegotiation ofdifferences. culturesma1 Is this to saythat Yale's anthropology department is not at the forefrontof reflection a Westerncr on translationin culturalanthropology? certainly, it doesnot seemto be pursuingan mustitselfb, active,agency-oriented reinterpretation or a local appropriationofglobal phenomena. and epistem It doesnot placetranslation within the field of tensionof culturaldifferences, yet it culturesis cl is preciselythose differences, of course,that triggercritical counter-movements to tionshipsof the dominant,marketing-oriented translational strategies or * as in the caseof Pepsi Consider Cola- prompttranslational resistance to a seamlesslocal assimilationof globalgoods. the 1920so Throughits contradictorypositioning of translation,the Yale introductionthus casts studiesand its own conceptionof anthropologyinto doubt:while that conceptionexemplifies (Wernerand globalopening, its reductionistview of translationis alsoa closingdown. It is a view tion of whol 'multi-sited', of translationthat looksunlikely to managethe leapto a transnational Malinowski anthropologyof the world system(Marcus 1995).on the contrary revertingto the ings - in ten 'single-sited' traditionof a anthropologycan only meanthat the illusionof cultural the function understandingis perpetuated.In this essayI hopeto showthat, in fact, culturalunder- notion of a 'commitments'of standingis only oneof themany meanings or translationin cultural positionin I - anthropology and not eventhe one that's most relevantto present-dayconditions. l97l festscl I will focushere on a paradigmshift and its preconditions:the move from the (Beidelman anthropologicalcritique of representationtowards a more comprehensivecultural paradigmati critique.That is, a changefrom the questioningof translationalauthority - which still 13lff.).Hor dependson a bipolarnotion of translation- towardsa moredynamic, multi-layered notionsof ri andsubversive understanding of'culture astranslation'. In otherwords, I am inter- tions of trar estedin anepistemological rupture which seemsto be crucialfor thereorientation of otherways r culturalanthropology and its openingup to a critical studyof glob alization.wemight objective,la "What adaptthe well-known question asked by Clifford Geerrz, happens to verstehen of rationalit wheneiffihlen disappears"?(Geertz I 983: 56) - in otherwords, what happensto the Theseex 'from anthropologicalideal of empatheticunderstanding, thenative's point of view', tendsfar be' oncewe have abandonedthe notion of a close,transcultural identification with the examplescr "what peoplestudied? happensto verstehenwheneinfiihlen disappears"? well, what 2004);inste happensto translationwhen culturalunderstanding disappears? standardso1 'global Evenlooking at thebackground to the recent turn'in anthropology(Inda to call into c and Rosaldo2002), it is clearly misleadingto narrow translationdown to 'cultural the critique understanding'.If cultural anthropologyembodies knowledge of translationof and debatesince TranslatingOthers Vol.I Bachmann-Medick:Meanings of Translation in Cultural Anthropologt 35 e, this quotationactually betweencultures (without necessarilyhaving reflectedon the fact), that is certainly 'cultural opology.Even more sur- not simply a matterof understanding'.Instead, we know that a major prob- ,xt of globally networked lem for translationin cultural anthropologyis the way the languagesand, even more :f locatedarea studies, a importantly,the ways of thinking of other cultures- especiallythose outside Europe 'translated' .erstanding.Nevertheless, - haveto be into the languages,the categoriesand the conceptualworld te allusionto "translation of a Westernaudience. The difficulty also arisesfrom the fact that oral discourses e alsouncritically carries and actionsare transportedinto a fixed, written form - as JamesClifford hasput it, "writing rthercultures through the ethnographic includes,minimally, a translationof experienceinto textual l a simple,harmony-based form" (1988:25). onditionsof globalization, Added to that, anthropology,as a scienceof cultural comparison,works with is,throw down quite other comparativeterms and analytic conceptssuch as kinship, ritual, power, social con- h'cultural understandins' flict, hierarchy,religion andmany more.The problemis that the translationof other .terences. culturesmay be furtherdistorted by describingindigenous conceptualizations within I theforefront ofreflection a Westemconceptual system. And on yet anotherlevel, anthropologicaltranslation of seemto be pursuingan mustitself be viewedas a specificcultural practice, bound up with specificdiscursive lionof globalphenomena. and epistemologicalenvironments such as colonialismand orientalism.Translating :ulturaldifferences, yet it culturesis closelyintermeshed with powerrelations, and thus in mostcases with rela- ralcounter-movements to tionshipsof cultural inequality(see Tymoczko and Gentzler2002; Niranj ana1992). r - asin thecase o f Pepsi Consideringthis extremelybroad horizon, it was only a very first stepwhen, from rimilationof globalgoods. the 1920sonwards, American cultural anthropologybegan to carry out empirical Lleintroduction thus casts studiesand translationsof other languages,especially Native American languages "transla- rt conceptionexemplifi es (Wernerand Campbell 1973:398). This is alsothe casewith Malinowski's closingdown. It is a view tion of whole contexts"(1966:1lff.). Facedwith the problemof translatingmagic, nulti-sited',transnational Malinowski respondedby calling for a far greatercontextualization of culturalmean- contraryreverting to the ings - in termsboth of moral or aestheticvalues and of specificsituational contexts, ratthe illusion of cultural the functionsof words, activities,interests and speechacts. From the 1950son, this rat,in fact,cultural under- notion of a comprehensivetranslation of culturestook up an increasinglycentral s' of translationin cultural