SC2218: Anthropology and the SC2218: Anthropology and the Human ConditionHuman Condition

Lecture 11: The Poetry of Culture Lecture 11: The Poetry of Culture (Poststructuralism & Discourse)(Poststructuralism & Discourse)

Eric C. ThompsonEric C. Thompson

Semester 1, 2011/2012Semester 1, 2011/2012

Where Are We Going?Where Are We Going?

• Part 1: What is Anthropology?– Strangers Abroad, Race, Culture

• Part 2: What do Anthropologists Study?– Kinship, Gender, Economy, Community

• Part 3: Current Debates and Trends– The “Crisis of Representation”– The Poetry of Culture– World Anthropologies YOU ARE

HERE

Anthropology and the Human ConditionAnthropology and the Human ConditionPart 3: Anthropology NowPart 3: Anthropology Now

• Lectures 10-12, key questions:– What is the “Crisis of Representation” in

Anthropology?– What is the shift from studying Culture to

Discourse?– What are World Anthropologies?

Today’s Lecture: OutlineToday’s Lecture: Outline• What is “Structural-Functionalism”?• What is “Discourse”?• What is “Poststructuralism”?• Examples of poststructuralist analysis:

– Bedouin Poetry– Malaysian Rock-and-Roll– Ju/’hoansi Complaint– Singaporean Culture… Does it exist??

• Culture: A Complex, Adaptive System

CULTURE & SOCIETYCULTURE & SOCIETYin 20in 20thth Century Anthropology Century Anthropology

• Culture = systems or structures of meaning (“webs of significance”)

• Society = systems or structures of (exchange) relationships

• Structural-Functionalism– Cultures and societies have a structure,

different parts related to each other.– The different parts have functions, they “do”

something in the structure/system.

The Problem with StructuralismThe Problem with Structuralism

• Fixed stereotypes & categories• Problem of change.

– If structures (e.g. kinship, language) are persistent, how do we account for change?

– Is a culture (e.g. “Chinese culture”) always the same at different times, in different places?

• Problem of human agency.– Are people’s lives determined by culture?

Post-structuralism and Agency

How do we move beyond analytical structures, categories, and stereotypes that limit our ability to see an understand contemporary realities?

How do we account for human agency – the potential of peopleto affect and change their social conditions of life?

POST-STRUCTURALISM: an attempt to move anthropologicalanalysis beyond the analytical confines of structures and categories.

Here’s the Problem . . .Here’s the Problem . . .

If language & culture are changing all the

time, how do we ever know what anything

means??

“. . .There's glory for you!"

"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,'" Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't--till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"

"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected.

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less."

“The question is,“ said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master--that's all."

http://sundials.org/about/humpty.htm

Do Language and Meaning really work like this?

Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll 1871

““Humpty-Dumpty” MeaningHumpty-Dumpty” Meaning

Encoding and DecodingEncoding and Decoding• Discourse is a matter of ongoing exchange.• Discourse is back-and-forth, not one-way.• Speakers/listeners; writers/readers cannot fix

meaning.

http://planet.tvi.cc.nm.us/ba122/What%20is%20Communication.htm

Language, Culture, DiscourseLanguage, Culture, Discourse• Language and Culture are closely related.

• Culture includes Language and Linguistic systems of meaning; but also many systems or elements that we do not usually think of as “Linguistic”, for example:– Flags, Maps, Architecture, Food– Skin Color, Eye Shape and other “Signs” of Race– Body Language and Gestures

• Discourse can refer to both Language and/or Culture “in use” (process)

The Idea of “Discourse”*The Idea of “Discourse”*Language as a System

“Langue” (language)

Form

Structuralism

Culture (mid-20th c.)

Language in Use

“Parole” (speech)

History

Poststructuralism

Discourse (late-20th c.)

*These ideas come from Ferdinand de Saussure, Jacque Derrida, and others.

Structure and MeaningStructure and MeaningConsider the following sentences:Consider the following sentences:

(1) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

(2) Sleep ideas green furiously colorless.

Are either of these sentences meaningful?

Why or Why Not?

Structure and Meaning:Structure and Meaning:Colorless Green IdeasColorless Green Ideas

(1) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.*– Structurally (grammatically) sound.

(2) Sleep ideas green furiously colorless.– Structurally unsound.

Are either of these sentences meaningful?

Why or Why Not?

*Famous example used by linguist Noam Chomsky.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

  And the mome raths outgrabe.

Is “Jabberwocky” meaningful, or just nonsense?

Structure and Meaning:Structure and Meaning:JabberwockyJabberwocky

http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/jabber/jabberwocky.html

Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll 1871

JabberwockyJabberwocky

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun  The frumious Bandersnatch!

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought.

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,   And stood awhile in thought.

JabberwockyJabberwocky

And, as in uffish thought he stood,  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,  And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through & through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.

JabberwockyJabberwocky

‘And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’

He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves,

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

What “Structures” are What “Structures” are found in Jabberwocky?found in Jabberwocky?

What “Structures” are found in What “Structures” are found in Jabberwocky?Jabberwocky?

• Poetic structure• English language

(words and grammar)• Adventure story• Kinship (!)

– Father & Son

• Others?

He took his vorpal sword in hand:  Long time the

manxome foe he sought.

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

These STRUCTURES allow us to interpret Jabberwocky’s “nonsense”

Structure, Discourse, MeaningStructure, Discourse, Meaning

• Structure enables meaning, but does not (completely) determine it.

• Meaning emerges through discourse – between subjects (it is “intersubjective”).– Encoding and decoding.– Speaking and interpreting.– Writing and reading.

• Because it is intersubjective, meaning is never fixed.

Post-StructuralismPost-Structuralism

• Examining the emergence of meaning.• “Post –” (after, beyond, out of).

– Going beyond “structure” to understand, interpret meaning.

– But, this does not mean there is no structure!

• Poststructuralism is a mode of analysis, not a quality of things (such as cultural practices, social relationships, etc.).

• Examples of poststructuralist analysis . . .

Bedouin PoetryBedouin Poetry

• Abu-Lughod examines “traditional” Bedouin Poetry.

• Are the women reciting these poems merely echoing hundreds of years of tradition?

• What about Abu-Lughod’s analysis is “poststructural”?

INTERMISSION…INTERMISSION…

ELLAELLA: Malaysia’s : Malaysia’s Ratu RockRatu Rock (Queen of Rock-and Roll) (Queen of Rock-and Roll)

• Is Ella’s music just a copy of American rock-and-roll?

• What structures is she drawing on?

• How is she transforming those structures?

• What does USA stand for?

Ala AmerikaAla Amerika• Semalam kau kata kau cinta

• Hari ini sudah lain pula jadinya, • Kau kata kepadaku kita bercinta• Ala Amerika . . .

• Kita hidup dengan budaya• Jangan terpengaruh dengan• Cara mereka, • Barat dan Timur jauh berbeza . . .

• Yesterday you said you were in love• Today it’s (another story)• You say to me that we are in love• A la America (American style)

• We live with culture,• Don’t be swayed by• Their ways,• West and East are far different . . .

USA…USA…

Unik

Sugoi

Asli

"When I use a word . . . it means just what I choose it to mean--neither

more nor less."

Ju/’hoansi Complaint DiscourseJu/’hoansi Complaint Discourse

• What does complaining among elderly Ju/’hoansi have to do with poetry and song?

• Complaint (and styles of complaint) is a cultural resource among Ju/’hoansi.

• Elderly Ju/’hoansi draw on this resource discursively to express their feelings and influence their kin.

Culture and DiscourseCulture and Discourse

• CULTURE is a Complex Adaptive System– A “web of meanings”

• DISCOURSE is the Process through which Culture Changes– How do we weave that web?

• “It’s a mistake to name a process after a product… you can still go fishing if you never catching a fish…” (from “Sight Unseen”)

1st GenerationCultural Structures

(Grammars, Words, Styles, Signifiers)

1st GenerationAgents (Subjects/Individuals)

(Drawing on the Structures to relate to others, influence action, interpret meanings – their own and others)

Culture as an Iterative Process

Agents are “Subjects” of (“subject to”) cultural structures – they cannot operate meaningfully outside of the structure.Cultural Structures are emergent structures, dependent on the agents for their existence.

1st GenerationCultural Structures

1st GenerationAgents (Subjects)

2nd GenerationAgents (Subjects)

2nd GenerationCultural Structures

Culture always changes,because agents never reproduce it “perfectly”

Singapore… Ain’t Got No Culture?Singapore… Ain’t Got No Culture?

• “In the old days… you had the time and the isolation to develop your own (culture) and create something distinctive… Now you have to synthesize all the time…

• “The basis of our culture is what we inherited from our original countries, our original cultures. So every Chinese Singaporean takes that as his heritage. It doesn’t belong to China, it belongs as much to you as to me…”

• MM Lee Kuan Yew (Straits Times, 2008)

What is Authentic Culture?What is Authentic Culture?

• What is Authentic Chinese, Malay, Indian or Other Culture?

• What is Authentic Singaporean Culture?

• Culture is what we make it and make of it.

What is “authentic Chinese culture”?What is “authentic Chinese culture”?What is “authentic Singapore culture”?What is “authentic Singapore culture”?

Royston Tan – director of “15” and other films.

Li Po (701-762); T’ang Dynasty Poet

What is “authentic Malay culture”?What is “authentic Malay culture”?What is “authentic Singapore culture”?What is “authentic Singapore culture”?

• Malay Culture... Singapore 2007

• MALAY MASTERPLAN:– Ketupat + Hang Jebat + Wau Bulan +

Sampan + Minah + Kebaya + Vespa + Soccer + Guitar + Void Deck + Laid Back + Aim Hereafter + Humble + Modest + Kampung + Sopan + Adat + Gotong + Royong + Peaceful + Loving + Siti . . . That’s Malay to Me…

Singapore’s National CultureSingapore’s National Culture• National Day Parade and Songs

– Education, Propaganda

• “We Live in Singapura”– Parody, Humor

• Both of these and all our mundane, everyday thoughts, practices and communication (discourse) are continually producing, reproducing, creating and changing “Singaporean Culture”

Yesterday’s Innovation

Tomorrow’s Tradition

Today’s Innovation

Culture always changes,Yesterday’s Innovation is Today’s Tradition; Today’s Innovation is

Tomorrow’s Tradition

Today’s Tradition

Final Thoughts…Final Thoughts…• Review this lecture… do you see how we moved from

“structural-functionalism” to “post-structuralism”?

• In your project interviews… did you focus on each other’s actual experiences and how they used and performed “culture” (discourse) or on cultural traditions (structures)?

• How do you use culture in your everyday life? How do you reproduce culture? How do you change it? Can you think of specific examples?

• You cannot “escape” culture, but you can live it intentionally and creatively not just passively.