Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology

373 Pages·1997·13.79 MB·English

by  Akhil Gupta, James Ferguson (eds.)

CULTURE, POWER, PLACE

C U L T U R E
POW E R
P LAC E
EXPLORATIONS IN CRITICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
EDITED BY AKHIL GUPTA AND JAMES FERGUSON
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS DURHAM AND LONDON 1997
ThirdPrinting,2001
©1997DukeUniversityPress
Allrightsreserved
Printedin theUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper00
TypesetinBaskervillebyKeystoneTypesetting,Inc.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationDataappear
on thelastprintedpageofthisbook.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Culture,Power,Place:EthnographyattheEndofanEra
AkhilGuptaandJamesFerguson I
PART I: SPACE, CULTURE, IDENTITY
Beyond "Culture":Space, Identity,andthePoliticsofDifference
AkhilGuptaandJamesFerguson 33
NationalGeographic:
TheRootingofPeoplesandtheTerritorialization
ofNationalIdentityamongScholarsandRefugees
LiisaH. Malkki 52
SeeingBifocally: Media,Place,Culture
JohnDurhamPeters 75
State,Territory, and NationalIdentityFormation
intheTwoBerlins,1945-1995
JohnBorneman 93
FindingOne'sOwnPlace:
Asian LandscapesRe-visioned inRuralCalifornia
KarenLeonard I I8
TheCountryandtheCityontheCopperbelt
JamesFerguson I37
vi CONTENTS
Rethinking Modernity:SpaceandFactory DisciplineinChina
LisaRolel I55
TheSongoftheNonalignedWorld:TransnationalIdentities
andtheReinscriptionofSpacein LateCapitalism
AkhilGupta I79
PART II: CULTURE, POWER, RESISTANCE
ExiletoCompatriot:Transformationsinthe
SocialIdentityofPalestinianRefugeesintheWestBank
GeorgeE. Bisharat 203
Third-WorldingatHome
KristinKoptiuch 234
The DemonicPlaceoftheuNotThere":
TrademarkRumorsinthePostindustrialImaginary
Rosemary] Coombe 249
Bombs,Bikinis,andthePopesofRock'n'Roll:
ReflectionsonResistance,thePlayofSubordinations,and
Liberalism inAndalusiaandAcademia,1983-1995
RichardMaddox 277
TheRemakingofanAndalusianPilgrimageTradition:
DebatesRegardingVisual(Re)presentation
andthe MeaningsofuLocality"ina GlobalEra
MaryM. Crain 29I
WorksCited 3I3
Index 347
Contributors 359
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thiscollectionofessaysoriginallygrewoutofthreeorganizedsessions
presentedsomeyearsagoatmeetingsoftheAmericanAnthropologi
calAssociation (AAA). One, organizedbyAkhilGuptaandLisaRofel,
dealtwith "TheCultureandPoliticsofSpace"; another, organizedby
Liisa Malkki andJames Ferguson, concerned "Themes ofPlace and
Locality in the Collective Identity ofMobile and Displaced Popula
tions"; while a third, organized by Roger Rouse, was titled "Trans
formers:TheCulturalPoliticsofBricolage."Earlyversionsofallessays
in this collectionwere originallypresentedin these sessions,with the
exceptionofGupta's"TheSongoftheNonalignedWorld" andGupta
andFerguson's "Culture,Power, Place: Ethnographyatthe Endofan
Era,"whichwerewrittenlater.
The papers by Malkki, Borneman, Ferguson, Rofel, Gupta, and
Gupta and Ferguson ("Beyond 'Culture'") all appeared in a special
1992 issue of C1!-lturalAnthropology (7 [1]) devoted to the theme of
spaceandplaceinanthropology.Theyarereprintedhere (insubstan
tiallyrevisedform) withthekindpermissionoftheAAA.Wealsothank
MichaelWattsfor contributing a thoughtful commentary to the Cul
tural Anthropology volume, which we have found stimulating in the
continuingdevelopmentofourownthinkingaboutspaceandplace.
ItwasArjunAppaduraiwhofirst suggested thatthe themeswe had
originally developed as AAA sessions might be brought together and
whofirstputusintouchwithoneanother.Forthat,hehasourthanks
and appreciation.Akhil Guptawouldalso like to thankLisaRofelfor
co-organizing the original panel, and PurnimaMankekar, whose crit
ical reading and commentary throughout has contributed much to
the project.JamesFergusonwouldlike to acknowledge the influence
ofLiisaMalkki'sthinkingin shapinghisideasaboutspace, place, and
identity. Heracutecommentsandimaginativediscussioncontributed
greatlytothisproject.HealsothanksRogerRouseforalong, thought
ful conversation about the themes integrating the volume. We are
both grateful toJohn Petersfor a helpful critical reading ofboth the
viii ACKNOWL.a£DGM£NTS
introductory essay and "Beyond 'Culture' " at a late stage. We thank
KenWissokeratDukeUniversityPressfor hisunflaggingsupportand
confidence in the project, through what has been a sometimes diffi
cultprocess. Finally, we are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers
for Duke University Press for a host of unusually valuable and con
structivesuggestionsthathavehelpedtomakethisabetterbook.
Culture,Power,Place:EthnographyattheEndofanEra
AKHIL GUPTA AND JAMES FERGUSON
AFTER "PEOPLES AND CULTURES"
.It has become usual to assert that the theoretical thread linking
twentieth-centuryAmericanculturalanthropologythroughitsvarious
moodsandmanifestationshasbeentheconceptofculture.Inasense,
this is true. Certainly, the Boasian success in establishing the auton
omy ofthe cultural from biological-cum-racial determination set the
stage for the mostimportant theoretical developments to follow. But
perhapsjustas central as the conceptof"culture" has been whatwe
mightcall the conceptof"cultures": the idea thata world ofhuman
differencesis to be conceptualizedas a diversityofseparate societies,
eachwithitsownculture.Itwasthiskeyconceptualmovethatmadeit
possible,intheearlyyearsofthecentury,tobeginspeakingnotonlyof
culture butalso of"aculture"- a separate, individuated cultural en
tity, typicallyassociatedwith "apeople," "atribe," "anation," and so
forth (Stocking 1982:202-3).1 It was this entity ("a culture") that
providedthe theoreticalbasisforcross-culturalcomparison, aswellas
the normal frame for ethnographic description (hence accounts of
"Hopi culture," fieldwork "among the Ndembu," and so on). This
often implicit conceptualization ofthe world as a mosaic ofseparate
cultures is what made it possible to bound the ethnographic object
andtoseekgeneralizationfrom amultiplicityofseparatecases.2
The later development ofthe idea of"a culture" as forming a sys
tem ofmeaning only reinforced this vision ofthe world.3 A culture,
whether pictured as a semiotic system to be deciphered (Marshall
Sahlins) orasatexttoberead (CliffordGeertz),requireddescription