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Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labour of the Negative by Michael Taussig Review by: Raminder Kaur The

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Mar., 2001), pp. 169-170 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2660854 . Accessed: 06/01/2013 13:35
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BOOK REVIEWS

169

of Social minor slips,particularly in regardto his assesssocial science in the Department where ment of the work of James Clifford.) He Relations at Harvard University, to provides excellent background throughoutto Parsons,inspiredby Weber, attempted andpositivism in both the intellectualdebates and the institucreate a synthesis ofidealism of social action'.In tional arrangements his 'voluntaristic theory that favoured the emeraccounts, gence of certain kinds of ideas. However, contrast to most anthropological - and not Kroeber and perhaps the major flaw of the work is the Kupercredits Parsons culture(1986) Kluckhohn, whose famous1951 essaydefin- way it representsthe Writing ing culture is so often cited- withconvinc- moment in particular,and cultural studies ing anthropologists thattheyshouldbe the in general, as indicative of the contemon the conceptof culture(he also porary predicament of the discipline. The experts ofthelatter effect of this is to reproduce a prevalent skims overthecentral importance the notion of and reactionaryvision of contemporaryUS Boasians in systematizing in thework anthropology having devoured itself in a culture as pattern, mostfamously Conseof Ruth Benedict).It was also thanksto 'postmodern' crisis of representation. Parsons's vision, Kuper tellsus, thatanthro- quently, many importantethnographicstratemovedawayfrom a conception of gies of the last decade are ignored,strategies pologists culture as an assemblage of traits and towards thathave by and large absorbed and internaland moved ized the critique of representation a modelof culture as symbolic system. were on to new ways of tracingculture as a situClifford Geertzand David Schneider to ated and negotiatedmedium of practicein an the two most famous anthropologists Department of Social age of globalization (see e.g. Marcus 1998). emerge from Parsons's Geertz's intellec- Nevertheless, Relations. Kuperdocuments account Culture: theanthropologist's from the earlyIndone- is well worth the read, and will be of great tual transformations, sian monographs like Agricultural involution use in both undergraduate and graduate and Papers11, Association of teaching on the history of contemporary (Monographs of California Press, anthropology. AsianStudies; University 1966), concernedlargelywith the grand JENNIFER COLE modernist questions of social and economic approach HarvardUniversity change,to the more humanistic evidentin laterwriting like the essays colof cultures (New lected in The interpretation public secrecy of TAUSSIG, MICHAEL. Defacenment: York: BasicBooks,1973).In hisassessment xv, 311 pp., and the labourof the negative. Kuperfocuses the workof David Schneider, 1999. Univ.Press, Stanford: bibliogr. illus., of a Parsonian on Schneider's development /335.00(cloth)/11.95 (paper) theimportance of framework by emphasizing that is sui generis. as a symbolic kinship system The discussion of MarshallSahlinssituates Inspiredby Elias Canetti'scommentthat lies at the core of power',Michael Sahlinsfirmly withina US debatebetween 'secrecy itssocialarticulasetsout to consider of Taussig andidealist in theshaping materialist forces to thelegacy contribution Sahlins's various transforma-tionsin thislatest sociallife, tracing Secrecy, he tionsfromthe days of Cultureand practical of evocative anthropology. thatcomesout of the is 'an invention reason University Press, 1976) to the argues, (Chicago: (p. 7). Once partof the public controversies by his readingof publicsecret' engendered as a kind of secrecy emerges Captain Cook's death. Kuper's critiqueof consciousness, - it is 'thatwhich in thelight hiding all threeauthorsis similar: theyall reduce spectre be articulated' butcannot known, culture as is generally sociallifeto either culture-as-text, limitsof the the murky In (p. 5), representing or culture-as-code. free-floating symbol, it is to be simultaFurthermore, of economic, socialworld. matters so doing,theyneglect unmasked not knownand disclosed, political,and material importancewhich neously a process wherein paradoxifor or evendefaced, Kuper arguesare equally indispensable potential. callylies itsenchanting socialactionin theworld. understanding on the Owing much to Hegel's insights of the book the last two chapters Finally, in recent 'labor of the negative'(p. 1), Taussig detraceout thefateof culture theory empowerment the effervescent the contributionsmonstrates times. Chapter6 addresses He lists once desecrated. by objects of unleashed of the Writing culture University (Berkeley: - the 'scandals'of California Press, 1986) cohort(Kuperdecries a series of 'happenings' and their consequent of royalty to nakedstatues as text, unrelated itsfocuson ethnography and the use of flag-burning, anda final desecration, there' in theworld), something'out forthe sake of 'art',for currency the challengeof cultural Australian chapteraddresses Taussig lyrically Withsuchvignettes studiesand the role of culturein identity example. us how the object becomesalive persuades politics. when it is on the vergeof 'death', assessesan important precisely Kuper thoughtfully of the object the sanctity enhancing withwitand,for further in US anthropology lineage from different in a waythatis slightly the mostpart, (Thereare a few (albeit compassion.

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acts of sacralization). This entailsa certain the worldcombined witha dreamy floating as a 'dramaof revela- above it' (p. 150) - the pointbeingthatit is described 'unmasking', tion'(p. 51),whichuncovers a 'publicsecret', the'inner' dynamics rather thantheexpressive so thatthe book becomesnot an account forms It might of thisthattake precedent. about Foucauldian constructs of knowledge- have been usefulto have a text immersed but rather how 'activenot-knowing' in the complexities of perhapsone sociopower, (p. 7) makesknowledge powerful. This argu- political to hisother context mascomparable in hisopening mentis further explored by wayof a literary terpieces. As a suggestion: pages to 1980sColumbia, wherehe notes into Death in Venice, he alludes excursion ThomasMann's of 'secret of the 'law of silence' in followed soci- the articulation by a reconsideration eties'and transgressions of'taboo'in so-called thefaceof police and military abuse (p. 6) with not only epistemological 'primitive societies' (usingMartinGusinde's a case-study on the Selk'namand Yamana and socialworlds to chart, butalso an urgent monographs 'anthro-political' people). messagefor contemporary With characteristic self-reflexivity, Taussig times. None the less,the book is littered with arguesthatthereis a 'curious complicity at allusiveimagery. For example: work' between the critic and the object wonderfully is unmasked (p.43).The thesis itself invites a defacing: 'the 'The secret so as to conserve it. in each other's is thatnegation conclusion sobering merely North and southcartwheel the objectof critique and was its embrace all thewaydownthebeachintothe completes Whichalso ofnega- surf and thesetting ofthesun. destiny' (p.43).To this end,a number rays tive pointsmightbe made. First, in his although rises'(p. 93). Elsewhere, writes Taussig a tokendegreeof acknowledgement on 'secret is given critique of functionalist texts socithe processes to context, of defacement '[i]t musthave been a timewhen the are eties', described as if theywere universally similar: love of sheer excess was littleappreciated, is likean'artificial' secret 'thatis either as an end in itself or as the building publicsecret heldto be oftheutmost andmostcompelling block of social institutions' (p. 165). Nowaas if it were the days, wherethere does seemto be a love for importance by the society, ultimatetest of worldy loyalty'(p. 149), and excess,Taussig a variant haselegantly provided this becomes itself way of lookingat old problems on 'taboo', 'society's wayof explaining to itself' withregard 'ritual', and'secret societies'. Likean armchair (p. 161),'mostespecially - 'reminding to thecrucial and theatrical- conductor our anthropologist' place of secrecy a sophisticated ityin human society' (p. 165),and,morepoet- (p. 153) - he leadsus through 'Banishedto homelessness, Whereit lacksin consistency ically, the secret jungle of ideas. and hasfound a homeacross in termsof source materials, it makes up itswings spreads much of the globe' (p. 169). Not only are for in strength of theoretical developments but they also around the plainsongof defacement. But these sweeping statements, an over-reliance on totalizing one wonders whether all of socialactivity is demonstrate He writes suchas 'society', wherean exposition hinged upon thisprimary concept. wholes, of different communities of interests and their 'the secret command overperhas assumed contestedoverlapsmighthave been more sonsand setsthe rulesof the game'(p. 159), apt. Despite a brief foray into gender but thereis a pointwhereTaussigseemsto the differentials of constituenciesbe a victimof such enchantment. dynamics, Strangely thathave accessto publicsecrets or also enough,what were leftas conundrums might have been betterexamined. And can one contradictions in earlier are functionalist texts withdesecration, crit- in a sense levelledout to another really aligndefacement logic of - maskings, and montage, to cite a few constant deferral and icism,ridicule, unmaskings, terms? This not only raisesissuesabout the evenremaskings. nuancesof semantic but also understanding, RAMINDER KAUR cross-cultural thatis onlycursoapplicability attended to in the volume. Manchester rily University of Taussig's appeal, rather, is to a logic which he describes as 'selected wisdom' bya superior ofwisdom' (p.37),or 'morsels (p. 49). Indeed, unlikesome of his earlier work (Shamanism, Gender man and The magicof and the wvild colonialism, the state),it is the 'internals' of defacement thatdominate thistext- the'Hegelianroller
violence and ritual in Gisu society. ix, 192 pp. search for whilst ubiquity onlygiving tangen1999. to expressive London,NewYork:Routledge, tial gestures This phenomena. on is particularly evidentin his discussions a book (on vio'double consciousness', where he prefers to SuzetteHeald has published a quasi-romantic and offer articles on Gisusociety under- lence)and several psychoanalytical byJean following earlier research ofitcharacterized into its culture, standing by'absorption coaster' (p. 38) - in what appears to be a
HEALD, SUZETTE. Manhioodand morality: sex,

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