Review of Anthropology of The Self: The Individual in Cultural Perspective

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Review of Anthropology of the Self: The Individual in

Cultural Perspective
Article in American Ethnologist · January 2008

DOI: 10.1525/ae.1997.24.1.215
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Despite their differing methodologies and theo- culturalist mode of writing and the most sweeping
ries, these three volumes amply demonstrate the claims for historical transformation in the self (cit-
centrality of sexuality in human lives well beyond a ing, for example, the work of Godwin Chu, which is
simple reproductive fitness model. There is good based on a few questionnaire surveys [p. 1 17]).
reason to talk about sex but, as Donald Tuzin re- Undaunted by critiques of the totalizing practices
minds us in Sexual Nature, Sexual Culture, sex will of an anthropology that once endeavored to cap-
always remain undercover in more ways than one ture the essential patternsof whole cultural systems,
(p. 265). It is ultimately a private behavior that Morris works his interpretive way through each of
eludes cultural generalizations, and in this fact lies seven distinct traditions of thought. Separate chap-
both the pleasure and the pain of sexual research. ters deal with "Greek Philosophy," "Buddhism,"
"Hindu," "[Chinese] Taoism and Confucianism,"
"African Philosophy," "Oceania and Melanesia,"
and "Feminist Philosophy." Each chapter synthe-
Anthropology of the Self: The Individual in sizes a complex arrayof observations into a coher-
Cultural Perspective. BRIAN MORRIS. Lon-
don: Pluto Press, 1994. xii + 222 pp., tables, ent account of personhood, reminiscent of configu-
rationistdepictions in Benedict's Patternsof Culture
bibliography, index. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1934).
Intellectual companions for this work are more
GEOFFREY M. WHITE
likely to be found in comparative philosophy and
East-WestCenter, Honolulu
religion than in contemporary anthropology, al-
Brian Morris knows from where he writes. He though the fact that Morris includes both African
opens this volume with some modest statements philosophy and Melanesian cultures in his list of
about his "intellectual ramblings"(p. x), and offers otherwise "great traditions" reveals his anthropo-
several caveats about the book's aims-even ac- logical sensibilities. To one who has been con-
knowledging that, in manuscript form, the book cerned to analyze conceptions of person and self in
was severely criticized by at least one angry re- Melanesia, it is intriguing and, to a certain extent,
viewer. And there is certainly much about this am- gratifying to see the cultural formulations of tiny
bitious project that will antagonize critical readers. Oceanic communities brought into this kind of
To begin with, the author frames his project in comparative project. And yet, what are we to make
strictly culturalist terms, separating off systems of of these highly compact distillations of work on
meaning from both social-communicative practices such diverse societies as the Gahuku Gana (de-
and psychological processes. He states that the scribed by the late Kenneth Read), Bimin Kuskus-
book is concerned with conceptions of the person min (as described by Fitz Poole), and the Ifaluk(as
(worldviews, paradigms, meaning systems) rather described by Lutz and Spiro)? Is it feasible to make
than either "social structure and human praxis" or comparisons using, on the one hand, the writing of
"the self, personal identity or subjectivity" (p. 1). one or two outside observers and, on the other,
This is an admirable attempt at clarity in a murky densely codified regimes that have been inter-
terminological field. But why would a book titled preted, argued, and resisted in diverse media for
Anthropology of the Self disclaim an interest in centuries (as in Confucian philosophy)? Perhaps,
"such psychosocial phenomena as the self, per- but none of the difficulties are addressed.
sonal identity or subjectivity?" To do so requires Ethnographerstoiling in the fields of locally con-
among other things, a certain genealogical slight of textualized description can take heart from this
hand. Irving Hallowell is adopted as an ancestral author's willingness to give serious attention to the
figure interested in "cross-culturalunderstanding of details of ethnographic writing, affirmingthe vision
the person" (p. 2), a kindred spirit of Marcel Mauss of a Boasian anthropology committed to bottom-up
and Meyer Fortes. generalization. The author demonstrates an impres-
Second, the book is unapologetically ahistorical: sive command of a wide range of literature.He is a
"My focus throughout the text is on cultural repre- patient readerof ethnography and philosophy alike,
sentations, and I have not attempted to explain or to and is not at all reluctant to reformulateothers' ma-
fully situate such representations in socio-historical terial for purposes of comparison. Of course, as
context" (p. xi). So, for example, in discussing Hal- many others with less ambitious goals have discov-
lowell's work on the Ojibwa, there is no indication ered, these achievements in generalization come
that Ojibwa conceptions of person might be subject with a cost. Some would say that the cost is too
to the social, political, and material forces of his- high, serving only to reinforce deeply rooted Orien-
tory. They remain a people out of time, frozen in talist impulses in academic institutions and popular
the ethnographic present. Thus: "the world-view of culture. Answering questions about the utility of a
the Ojibwa Indians, a group of nomadic hunters book such as this depends ultimately on its uses.
and fishers living east of Lake Winnipeg, implied a In his preface, the author states that he intends
personalistic or cosmological conception of the this as an introductorytext that can "bridge the di-
universe.... What typifies their mode of thinking is vide between academic scholarship and a lay read-
that they do not make any categorical or sharply de- ership" (p. x). These are worthwhile goals usually
fined differentiation between myth and reality, or eschewed in more elite forms of writing. In this
between dreaming and the waking state" (p. 8). case, the book's ability to align the philosophical
Where history does penetrate the discussion, as in traditions of Asia and the West with those of Africa
reference to the socioeconomic changes in China and Oceania gives it potential value as a text for
that may be affecting Chinese conceptions of self, teachers of undergraduatehumanities courses inter-
the author slips easily back and forth between his ested in broadening their comparative range, al-
reviews 215
though for this purpose, the omission of Islam is a "twelve kimono" style worn by the commoner prin-
serious gap. If the hard-won insights of anthropo- cess in the recent royal wedding.
logical studies of the person are to be brought into Three contributions on Nigeria present redefini-
these forms of teaching-a combination that is tions and reassertionsof collective identities in con-
sorely needed-one can only hope that they will texts of rapid change. Renne shows how the con-
work to unsettle rather than reinforce established tinuation of cloth and garment display in weddings
ideas about timeless differences in culture and per- expresses the continuity of the Bunu community in
son. the face of changes, such as growing economic
gaps between older and younger urban women.
Eicher and Erekosima lay out a process of appro-
Dress and Ethnicity: Change Across Space priation and authentificationof foreign trade goods
and Time. JOANNE B. EICHER,ed. Oxford: in Kalabari material culture, showing how Indian
madras cloth could "become Kalabari." In Sum-
Berg, 1995. xiv + 316 pp., illustrations, maps,
photographs, notes, references, index. berg's essay on the Ijo groups of the Niger Delta, of
which Kalabariis one, dress and language are dif-
ferentiating mechanisms between closely related
HUDITAMUSTAFA
groups.
HarvardUniversity Two authors on Southern Africa present dress as
This collection provides several rich case studies a site for resolution between conflicting pressures.
that address the neglected topic of the expression of In Botswana, Durham argues, Herero view their
ethnic identity through dress. In the introduction Victorian-styledress as a sign of their cosmopolitan-
Eicheremphasizes that "ethnic dress," like the con- ism, which is also evidenced in their current en-
cept of ethnicity, appears to "have a clear referent. gagement with the other world of the Botswana na-
Yet, when examined closely, its use has varied tion-state. Behrman shows how a small minority of
widely" (p. 1). Eicherdefines dress in terms of items colored women in Swaziland become a site of cul-
and modifications "that capture the past ... dis- tural ambivalence toward new gender conflicts
played to signify cultural heritage" (p. 299). My over women's work opportunities or problematic
reading of the volume is that it interrogatesthe rela- morality.
tionship between usages of the past and the con- The contributions that focus on the United States
structionof ethnic identity. demonstrate that dress is a tool of cultural affirma-
The contributions provide rich evidence for the tion in contexts of ethnic domination. For African
contingency of authenticity and the invention of Americans, Griebel provides evidence for the West
tradition. Many focus on women's dress with atten- African origin of the headwrap. She argues that its
tion to intergenerational relationships (Bridgwood, revival by women in the 1970s reflects an identifi-
Griebel, Renne, Sumberg, Suga) or to national iden- cation not only with Africanancestors but also with
tities (Behrman, Durham, Griebel, Lentz, Martinez, slave forebears. Palestinian Americans, according
Seng and Wass, Suga). Several also examine men's to Seng and Wass, consciously revive and recreate
dress (Chapman, Eicher and Erekosima, Lentz, embroidered wedding dresses as symbols of land
Lynch, Sumberg, Welters). Much of the dress is spe- and custom. Lynch claims that Hmong youth mix
cific to special events such as weddings (Bridg- items from different subgroups to assert a unified
wood, Renne, Seng and Wass, Suga), funerals Hmong identity in contexts of exile and discrimina-
(Eicher and Erekosima, Sumberg), and holidays tion. Lentz situates dress in a political economy of
(Lynch). migration, and of regional and ethnic inequality in
Some essays provide fuller socioeconomic analy- Ecuador. Indigenous persons may use Western
ses than others (Behrman, Chapman, Durham, dress to contest their social position, but at other
Eicher and Erekosima, Lentz, Renne). Malcolm times they use Indian dress to affirm their ethnic
Chapman compares the "freezing of the frame" of pride.
tradition in two Celtic communities. He argues that Eicherconcludes by writing that the volume side-
changing regional and metropolitan relations in the steps the debates on ethnicity as "primordialor cir-
late 18th century explain why and when the kilt, cumstantial," and relies on dress as a "visible mark
never a popular dress, was romanticized and pro- of ethnicity" (p. 301). The diversity of the uses and
moted by outsiders as traditional Highland Scottish interpretations of dress and styles, however, sug-
dress. In contrast, the coiffe, a sign of upward mo- gests that the "visibility"of dress is not a "fact,"but
bility and modernity to Bretons,was taken as a sym- is indeed contingent on historical moment, on com-
bol of ruralfolk tradition by Parisian intellectuals in munity, regional, and national relations, on context
the late 19th century. The Greek study includes of use, and on intracommunitydifferentiation.Thus
multiple interpretations of dress styles that may Eicher'scontrast between ethnic dress (which high-
mark regions, rural origins, and linguistic and cul- lights shared pasts and boundaries between inside
tural groups, depending on the context. The essays and outside) and contemporary world fashions of
on naked divers and the Japanese royal wedding Western pants and skirts (which are cosmopolitan
present two cases of how marginal groups-naked and have been adopted into everyday dress around
women divers and the royal household-are foci the world [pp. 300-301]) seems reductive com-
for nostalgia for the real, old Japan. Divers, once pared to the substantive contributions. Further-
thought to be of Korean origin, now find their vil- more, these Western styles are never interrogated
lages being promoted as tourist sites for those seek- for their ethnic statements in their contexts of origin,
ing authenticity. Young brides, seeking to reclaim nor for the projects of colonial rule, missionization,
lost traditions, have revived the old-fashioned and commerce that they accompanied. In fact, this
216 american ethnologist
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Review of Anthropology of the Self: The Individual in

Article in American Ethnologist · January 2008

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

216 american ethnologist

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