Anthropological Perspectives: On the Management of Knowledge

Author(s): Simon Harrison

Source: Anthropology Today, Vol. 11, No. 5 (Oct., 1995), pp. 10-14
Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2783185
Accessed: 02-03-2016 16:37 UTC

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 further experience, however, more recent contracts take tured somewhat differently each time, depending upon

this into account, and so our unfortunate disjuncture the inquisitive choice of the user. I find that exciting!

need not be repeated, but it is a cautionary tale for any To assist ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY readers reflect

one contemplating the idea. We estimate this entire pro-

upon some of the advantages and disadvantages of the

ject to have cost somewhere in the region of $15,000,

new technology from the perspective of teaching as

for example. This sum covered only the costs of re-

well as research, Joan Huntley has prepared the table

search assistance, software and mastering, not computer

on page 7, in which a number of traditional and con-

hardware or basic video and sound studio equipment,

temporary forms of representation and transmission are

scanners and the like.

compared: a human lecturer; hardcopy print; film; vide-

Looking back upon the process now, I realize just

otape; audiotape; local digital (e.g. CD ROM), and dis-

how radically it has altered my conception of doing

tributed digital (e.g. Internet). Each possesses different

ethnography, in a way I find both liberating and chal-

strengths and weaknesses, advantages and disadvant-

lenging. I do not, however, subscribe to the view pro-

ages, but no one form is universally superior in all con-

moted by proselytizers of the 'virtual campus' who

texts. The major problem we were addressing in desig-

maintain that the arrival of electronic publishing fore-

ning the WIYUTA CD ROM, for example, was one of

casts the end of the book as we know it. Joan Huntley

supporting motion analysis (in this case, Plains Indian

and I agree that it is not necessary to think in either/or

Sign Talk) along with linguistic analysis in both aural

terms, but rather to divide the labour so that books do

and textual modes. Such material was particularly well

the work they do best, while multi-media interactive

suited to a CD ROM format. An additional consider-

formats enrich the possibilities. If the results of scho-

ation that relates as much to design and purpose as it

larly production can be almost as multi-media as cultu-

does to physical/technical constraints is whether to pro-

ral events themselves, then conducting fieldwork with a

vide a linear narrative or allow for interactivity. Nar-

CD ROM in mind means collecting data in as many

ratives that tell a story from beginning to end (be it via

forms as possible - video, sound tape, photographs,

live human, or movies on CD ROM) certainly have

pictures, maps, drawings, songs, interviews - and im-

agining creative ways to re-present them, bearing in their place, but one can also support natural inquisitive-

mind that the ethnography so produced will be struc- ness and move from point to point. C

Anthropological perspectives

on the management of knowledge

Introduction particular type of knowledge one is considering. Most

SIMON

In 1973, Daniel Bell published The Coming of the Post- of us would probably agree that the proper management

HARRISON
Industrial Society, in which he envisaged society mov- of certain kinds of information involves restricting their

ing beyond the industrial stage. He argued that an econ- circulation in some way. Confidential information of a

The author is Reader in

omy is emerging based less on the production of ma- personal nature, military intelligence, pornography, and

Anthropology at the

terial resources than on the production of knowledge or commercial secrets are just a few examples of the sorts

University of Ulster,

information. An anthropologist might perhaps respond of information which, for one reason or another, are

Coleraine, Northern

that there are, or have been, many societies - including usually kept out of the public domain. At the opposite
Ireland, and was recently

appointed Hon. Editor of

some of a sort at one time called 'primitive' - in which extreme, the management of other kinds of information

the Journal of the Royal

the production and distribution of information were seems to call for the greatest possible openness, pub-

Anthropological Institute

vital to the economy (Harrison 1990; Keen 1994; Lind- licity and freedom of access. At least since the seven-

(incorporating Man)

strom 1990). 'Information societies' have probably teenth century philosopher Francis Bacon, scientific

existed for a very long time. knowledge has been regarded as belonging to this ca-

Information with economic value can become a focus tegory. The traditional assumption is that the interests

of proprietary claims. The term 'intellectual property' of science, and of society, are best served by encoura-

refers to rights asserted in the products of the mind ging the freest possible circulation of ideas (see, for in-

(Phillips 1986): in Western economies, these may in- stance, Dicks 1865). This is, of course, a value system

clude such diverse products as inventions, industrial de- with which universities have often identified them-

signs, works of literature or art, trade secrets, commer- selves.

cial brand names, and even fictional personages such as We might then imagine two extreme choices in the

Superman or Sherlock Holmes. To describe trademarks management of knowledge: on the one hand, the maxi-

or cartoon characters as 'knowledge' may appear to mum regulation of the circulation of information and,

stretch the meaning of the term. But the forms of on the other, the maximum deregulation of it. The first

knowledge I wish to discuss encompass any sorts of we might envisage as a system of rationing or sump-

mental products that are, or can be, owned as values, tuary regulation in the field of ideas, with rigid controls

assets or resources. on the distribution and consumption of information.

The question I should like to pose is this: if The second alternative we could picture as an intellec-

knowledge is an important and valuable resource in tual free market, a free-for-all struggle for survival be-

many economies, and perhaps increasingly so in our tween ideas, in which only those that are in some sense

own, what is the best way of managing it? In particular, the 'best' will succeed and spread. I would like to sug-

how ought universities to manage the knowledge they gest that choices of this sort are, at least in part, a mat-

produce? For of course, any answer to my first, more ter of culture. That is, people may operate with con-

general question must depend to some extent on the trasting theories of the correct management of

10 ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 11 No 5, October 1995

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Right: novices from a
to introduce representative local government to the

monastery in Mandalay,

area, but with little success. His attempts to persuade

Upper Burma, c. 1902.

the population of their rights to nominate, and vote for,

The boys are under

representatives met with indifference because he made

instruction and have

the mistake of giving this information to them in pub-

been sent out to beg for

the monastery. (Photo lic. On Barth's advice, he adopted the tactic of divulg-

W.L. Hildburgh. c. 1902,

ing the workings of local democracy in great secrecy to

RAI photo archive no.

a few selected individuals. Unfortunately, they regarded

13013).

this knowledge as having so profound a significance,

and kept it so secret, that elections became impossible

anyway (Barth 1975: 217).

Gregory Bateson carried out anthropological field-

work in New Guinea in the 1930s, and made a similar

?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

observation of the latmul (1958: 231). The Iatmul as-

sume that any knowledge disseminated in public must

either be trivial or untrue. To be considered true, im-

portant or valuable, information must be conveyed in

hushed tones in private. Bateson found that very little

he himself said was taken seriously by any Iatmul indi-

S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

vidual, unless he imparted it confidentially as a weighty

secret intended to create a special bond of trust. This,

then, is a way that people in some cultures manage

knowledge as a resource: namely, they seem to treat it

as an almost concrete finite good, like an area of land

or a sum of money. In this view, the more people it is

distributed among, the lesser the value of each person's

share. Knowledge distributed universally would be

worthless; knowledge of any value is scarce and diffi-

cult to acquire. In such societies, information is a

limited resource to be carefully conserved, hoarded, and

dispensed parsimoniously.

Let me try to contrast this with the other, opposed

approach to managing knowledge. This seems to begin

from the premise that something known only to a few

people is inconsequential, an attitude exemplified by

the Balinese guru who told Barth (1990: 641) that there

is 'no merit from even the deepest religious knowledge

unless you teach it'. Knowledge has to be shared in

Above: male dancer knowledge, and these theories are culturally con- order to acquire value at all, and it grows in signific-

clothed in a tunic of structed.

ance as more people share it. Actually, an unusual

snider's web. with

property of information, considered as a good or re-

artificial hands and

Models of knowledge-management source, is that one does not lose it when one dispenses

arms, as a ghost in a

Barth (1990), for instance, draws a contrast of a similar it. After giving it away, the giver still possesses it (see
performance of a high

nalawan (men's kind between two fundamentally different ways of Gambetta 1994a: 207). This seems to me to make the

association) ceremony,
management of knowledge potentially rather different
managing specifically religious knowledge. One is

Malekula, New Hebrides

from the management of most other resources. In par-

exemplified by the Asian guru, or religious teacher. His

(photo by Bernard

role is to educate, explain and instruct, and his status ticular, knowledge is perhaps one of those few re-

Deacon, c. 1920's, RAI

depends on this ability continually to dispense religious sources whose value to their possessors can actually be

photo archive no. 3851).

increased by conveying them to other people.

knowledge. The opposed mode of managing religious

knowledge is exemplified by the Melanesian ritual An example is knowledge of commercial brand-

adept, whose role is to initiate novices into the mys- names and products. A firm's brand-names and trade-

teries of secret cults. His status depends on his ability marks are an important part of its assets because they

embody its reputation and 'goodwill', or attractiveness

to withhold and conceal knowledge; here, the assump-

tion is that 'the value of knowledge is enhanced by to customers. The value of these intangible assets can

veiling it and sharing it with as few as possible' (Barth be maximized simply by maximizing their public expo-

1990: 641), not by broadcasting it. sure and this is, of course, one important purpose of the

advertising industry. The way that trademarks acquire

In an earlier work, Barth (1975: 217) shows how the

value through publicity is illustrated by an intriguing

Baktaman of New Guinea regard knowledge as worth

case described by Gambetta (1991: 72; 1994b: 359-

something only if it is restricted to a select few, and

assume that knowledge widely shared must have little 360). In the late 1980s, a certain Italian television pro-

gramme regularly featured a satirical sketch in which

or no significance. For the Baktaman, the value of any

information is inversely proportional to the number of dancers performing a samba sang an advertising jingle

in pidgin Portuguese, supposedly promoting a brand of

people who possess it. Moreover, the connection they

posit between the value of knowledge, and its secrecy, chocolate called Cacao Meravigliao. This name was

quite fictitious, and the aim of the sketch was simply to

scarcity or difficulty of access, works in both direc-

poke fun at commercial sponsorship. But as a totally

tions. Valuable information must be restricted because

dispensing it freely would be a senseless waste of an unintended consequence of this publicity, the name

important social resource. And conversely, to restrict Cacao Meravigliao began to acquire a very real com-

mercial value to Italian chocolate producers. They

information can in itself make it important and desir-

started pressing the makers of the programme to sell the

able. A Patrol Officer of Barth's acquaintance had tried

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol I I No 5, October 1995 1 1

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 rights to the name, and a fierce competition erupted tached observer, but they were all intensely significant

within the Italian chocolate industry to acquire the to the islanders as markers of identity. Each group

name of this non-existent but nonetheless highly pres- treated its emblematic practices as precious possessions

tigious chocolate. Although the name signified nothing, it jealously had to safeguard from being usurped or ap-

it became a valuable commodity simply by becoming propriated by outsiders (Schwartz 1975). These groups

well-known and highly publicized. seem to have had much the same relationship with their

I mention this case because it illustrates one approach 'cultures' that medieval craft guilds had with their trade

to the problem of assigning value to ideas and informa- secrets, or that biotechnology companies have with

tion. In this approach, knowledge increases in value by their innovations: namely, they treated them as intan-

being shared. In the other approach, exemplified by the gible yet vital assets needing protection from piracy.

tribespeople in New Guinea, it decreases in value by An ethnic group 'owned' its culture as a kind of

being shared. There seem to be two contradictory patented possession, its patent consisting fundamentally

models here for managing knowledge, and two incom- in the right to control its culture's diffusion. No group

patible theories of its value. allowed outsiders to copy its special practices 'without

securing the right to them through kinship, marriage, or

Western and tribal systems of knowledge- some form of purchase or licensing' (Schwartz 1975:

management 117). There were cases in which the infringement of a

If one were to draw a broad distinction, as anthropolog- group's proprietary rights - its right, for instance, to

ists once habitually did, between Western societies and ornament the prows of canoes in a particular way - re-

the small-scale societies which they themselves tradi- sulted in warfare (Schwartz 1975: 117).

tionally studied, one might arguably discern a contrast In the Admiralties, the power of a social group seems

of just this sort in the way they characteristically man- to have been imagined as the power to keep its cultural

age knowledge. For instance, let us take Morphy's practices to itself; the test of a group's strength was that

(1991) discussion of the art of an Australian Aboriginal it could stop its customs from being stolen by outsiders.

people called the Yolngu. The greater part of Yolngu There is a radical contrast here with the West where,

art consists of relatively fixed designs owned by clans. historically, the power and status of ethnic groups has

These clan designs are considered so sacred that they often been measured by their success in spreading their

can never be displayed in public, and they are produced beliefs and practices and forcing them on often unwill-

and seen as paintings only by initiated men in the ing recipients. The Admiralties exemplify the exact op-

highly restricted context of secret ceremonies. In Abo- posite of this sort of cultural imperialism: far from

riginal society, knowledge of important works of art is seeking to universalize their cultures or expand their

therefore confined to an elite of religious adepts. These boundaries, the islanders' attitudes to their cultures

objects and designs are simply too important and too were highly proprietorial and exclusionary. In the West,

sacred to be revealed to people at large. dominant ethnic groups are those most successful at

Morphy contrasts this with the underlying principles disseminating their cultural practices; in the Admiralties

of the Western art world, where the fundamental as- they were those most able to keep others from adopting

sumption is that art is a public phenomenon. Museums their practices.

and galleries seek to give their collections the widest The contrast I am seeking to draw is perhaps particu-

possible public exposure; their reputations, quite poss- larly clear when we compare Western and tribal reli-

ibly even their livelihoods, depend on disseminating gions. Characteristically, a tribal religion altogether

knowledge of the objects they possess. In the West, the lacks the evangelical and proselytizing drive of

value of a painting is likely to depend on its fame, on religions such as Christianity or Islam. It does not seek

how many people know it. In Aboriginal society, it to spread its message and gain new converts. On the

may depend rather on how few people know it (Morphy contrary, it belongs to a narrow and exclusive social

1991: 21-26). group whose members want to confine its perceived

These differences between Aboriginal and European benefits very much to themselves. The preoccupation of

conceptions of the value of art often give rise to diffi- such religions is more with keeping potential converts

culties nowadays, because Aboriginal paintings are in- out, than with drawing them in.

creasingly finding their way into the Western art world For instance, in many Melanesian societies, such as

and are treated there as public objects. Aborigines may the Baktaman studied by Barth (1975), men have cults

see their art as being thereby profaned and damaged. in which they are initiated during the course of their

To them, its value is not enhanced by being exhibited lives into a series of ritual grades. Women, children and

in galleries, or reproduced in books, but harmed or other outsiders are strictly excluded. In their initiations,

even destroyed by this sort of public exposure (Molphy men are introduced to successively more secret, and

1991: 25). A similar contrast between Western and more sacred, levels of religious knowledge. ;The mere

tribal societies might be made in the field of ethnicity, public exposure of the mysteries of a religion of this

for cultural or ethnic identity can be viewed, from one sort can be enough to destroy it. This was a technique

perspective, as a particular problem in the management used by Christian missionaries to subvert and discredit

the men's cults: they would take cult objects and sacra
of ideas. In New Guinea, a group of islands called the

Admiralties were populated in precolonial times by from their sanctuaries, and publicly expose them to the

about twenty ethnic groups. Some of these groups were view of women and children (see, for instance, Tuzin

tiny, but every one of them assiduously guarded its 1988). These were fragile religions because they could

own distinctive identity and uniqueness. The groups in- be demolished just by being forced into the public do-

teracted with each other through trade, warfare and in- main.

termarriage, and shared many basic features of culture In some religions, the believers seem to treat their

in common. One particular striking shared feature was gods as virtually their property. They may keep the

their deep preoccupation with preserving their dif- names of their gods secret (Cassirer 1953: 48; Frazer

ferences in language, ritual, art, architecture, craft 1967: 342-345), for fear that outsiders who discovered

specialisms and so forth. Many of these diacritical fea- the names could invoke or control these beings for their

tures might well have appeared unimportant to a de- own ends and so, in effect, purloin them. The Romans,

12 ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 11 No 5, October 1995

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 for instance, treated the god of their city in this way. ducts are vulnerable to reverse engineering; that is, no

Rome itself, as a matter of course, appropriated the matter how technically innovative a product may be,

gods of any cities it conquered, and its generals pre- competitors may be able to reconstruct its design and

pared for battle by calling on the enemy gods to turn so market rival versions of their own. Like Manambu

renegade and defect to the Roman side. The Romans clans, most companies pursue a kind of double-edged

had a very real concern that their own god might in strategy. On the one hand, they try to protect their soft-

turn be stolen by their enemies through some similar ware by keeping secret much of their technology and

perfidious means (Fustel de Coulanges 1963: 215). also by safeguarding it with patents. On the other hand,

I seem at this point to have come full circle from my many of them, particularly the most successful, have

discussion of the non-existent Italian chocolate. The fic- realized that it is very much to their advantage to re-

titious chocolate was an entity as imaginary as ancient lease some knowledge of their technology into the pub-

Rome's god; both, after all, were nothing more than lic domain. Of course, a company too open and

names. Yet both of these nominal entities were, in their generous with its ideas risks having them stolen and its

own ways, highly sought after by many would-be pro- products pirated; but just as surely, a company too

prietors. The radical difference between them lies in the miserly and secretive risks marginalizing itself and let-

way their value was created and maintained. One was a ting its competitors take centre stage. Microsoft Corpor-

name made valuable by being publicly exposed; the ation gained intellectual and market leadership of the

other a name made valuable by being kept secret. software industry, and made many of its products into

industry standards, by this sort of shrewd mixture of

Universities, clans and software companies possessiveness and liberality with its inventions (Econ-

I have tried so far to draw a contrast between two op- omist 1989).

posed ways of managing ideas and information. One A Manambu clan and a software company are similar

way seeks to generate value by restricting the circula- in that both are institutions depending for their exist-

tion of ideas, and the other by promoting the circulation ence on the successful management of knowledge and

of ideas. Now, I want to suggest that this contrast is, in ideas, and both can perish if they fail to carry out this

one sense, actually a false one because the management function adequately. Another institution in the same

of knowledge always in practice entails - even in the general category is the university. Universities too seem

cases I have just discussed - using both of these to show in their behaviour the same contradictory

strategies in some kind of combination. In other words, necessity of combining openness with protectiveness.

the 'management' of knowledge is the complicated, The contradiction is perhaps particularly acute in the

precarious and difficult task of trying to operate with case of universities because they, unlike software com-

both of these two theories at the same time. panies or Manambu clans, are officially committed to

For instance, let me point out some similarities - not, an ideal of knowledge as public resource available for

I hope, too far-fetched - between the behaviour of cer- the common good.

tain business corporations and tribal clans. In New Gui- Inevitably, this gives rise to many conflicts between

I would like to thank

nea, a people called the Manambu are divided into theory and practice. At one time, the ideals of knowl-

Dominic Bryan, Harvey

some sixteen clans, each of which owns a corpus of edge as a collective human good were in contradiction

Whitehouse and two

origin-myths, and other religious knowledge, concern- with the actual restriction of university education

anonymous referees for

ing the acts of its ancestors, the creation of animals, largely to an elite. Nowadays, it is perhaps rather that

A.T. for helpful

comments on earlier plants and the landscape, and the proper conduct of universities are under conflicting pressures to make

versions of this article.

ceremonies. These myths are largely secret, and are themselves accessible to an ever-wider public on the

known in full only to a small handful of the clan's sen- one hand and, on the other, to redefine education as a

ior men. They cannot be openly disclosed to outsiders sort of merchandise they must market to consumers.

Barth, F. 1975. Ritual and

because, among other reasons, they are the basis of the That is to say, universities seem under expectations

Knowledge among the

clan's land-rights. If some other clan were to gain pos- now to operate as though education were both a public

Baktaman of New

session of these myths, it could use this knowledge to good and also a commercial product or commodity.
Guinea. New Haven:

Yale U.P.
claim title to its land (Harrison 1990). Nevertheless, a Clearly, these two requirements are in some respects

1990. The Guru and

clan cannot maintain too tight a grip on its sacred lore, contradictory.

the Conjurer:

and has to make its myths at least in part known to The growing involvement of the private sector in

Transactions in

outsiders. It must do so, firstly, in order to have these funding and controlling research gives rise to similar

Knowledge and the

outsiders acknowledge the legitimacy of its territorial conflicts. This involvement may offer mutual benefits,
Shaping of Culture in

Southeast Asia and but it is also raising concerns about its implications for
possessions. They cannot give this acknowledgement

Melanesia. Man (N.S.)

unless they know something of the mythological justifi- academic freedom and impartiality, and appears also to

25(4): 640-653.

cation of the clan's land-rights. Secondly, the clan be creating in some fields of research an atmosphere of

Bateson, G. 1958. Naven.

needs to disclose its myths to some trusted outsiders as commercial competition inimical to the free, circulation

2nd ed. Stanford: U.P.

a way of insuring the myths against loss. Otherwise, it of knowledge among researchers, and therefore inimical

Bell, D. 1973. The

might only take the deaths of one or two of the clan's to the long-term interests of research itself (Nelkin
Coming of the

Post-Industrial Society:
elderly men for all of its sacred knowledge to be lost 1984).

a Venture in Social

forever. This would amount, in effect, to the catastro- But my point is that all institutions producing and

Forecasting London:

managing knowledge are faced with the same basic di-

phic loss of all title to its land. It would therefore be an

Heinemann.

oversimplification to say that a clan restricts access to lemma in one form or another. The dilemma is that

Cassirer, E. 1953.

its religious knowledge. Rather, it tries to maintain a they depend for their existence both on producing and
Language and Myth.

New York: Dover.

delicate balance between restricting it and circulating it. communicating knowledge and on keeping this

Dick, T. 1865. On the

Too much openness, and too little, would both equally knowledge in some respects their property. To put it

Improvement of Society

expose the clan to the risk of being dispossessed of its differently, these institutions seem in their behaviour to

by the Diffusion of

territory (Harrison 1990: 127-132; cf. Morphy 1991: be trying to act simultaneously upon both of the two

Knowledge: or, an

98-99). Seen in this light, there are instructive parallels conflicting theories I outlined earlier. It is as though
Illustration of the

Advantages Which
between the behaviour of these clans, and the behaviour they must operate on the assumption that the value of

Would Result From a

of corporations in the computer software industry. A knowledge increases with openness and accessibility,

More General

problem that software companies face is that their pro- and also on the assumption that it decreases. The cause

Dissemination of

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 11 No 5, October 1995 13

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Rational and Scientific
of this apparent inconsistency is the underlying di- that it performs these rituals at the proper times for the

Information Among all

lemma faced by all these institutions: namely, that their benefit of all other clans (Harrison 1990).

Ranks. Glasgow and

interests can be harmed by too much openness and by A clan has more than just ritual responsibilities to-

London: William

too little. wards the plant and animal species it owns, and looks

Collins.

The 'management' of knowledge seems therefore to after their welfare in quite pragmatically effective ways
Economist 1989. The

Ideas Business:
consist in a sort of balancing act, in an attempt to func- as well. It can interdict an area of land being over-

Economy of the Mind.

tion with some combination of two equally credible, hunted, or an over-fished lagoon, laying a taboo on the

December 23rd, pp.

but contradictory, models of the value of knowledge at land or lagoon until the stocks of game or fish are re-

109-112.

the same time. Academic researchers, whose standing plenished. In Manambu society it is a serious religious

Frazer, J.G. 1967 [1922].

depends on the knowledge they produce and dissem- offence to kill an animal without using it for food or for
The Golden Bough. a

Study in Magic and

inate, may seem the diametrical opposite of Australian some other valid purpose, or to waste fish one has

Religion. Abridged ed.

Aboriginal ritual leaders, whose standing in their caught, or crops one has grown, letting them rot un-

London and Toronto:

society depends on the knowledge they withhold and eaten. It is treated as an injury against the clan owning

Macmillan.

conceal. The secretiveness with which a Manambu clan the species concerned, and is called by a term which

Fustel de Coulanges, N.D

manages information may seem the complete reverse of means to vandalize someone's property or treat some-
1963 [1864]. The

Ancient City. New

the openness with which a university research centre one's belongings in an insulting or threatening way.

York: Doubleday.

does so. But it is more a matter of degree, a difference The clan owning the species would perform magic to

Gambetta, D. 1991. 'In

in the relative emphasis of two contrasting strategies, make it scarce or, as the Manambu say, to 'send it

the Beginning was the

than a difference in kind. In neither situation is know- away', until the wrongdoers have made amends. Of

Word...'. The Symbols

ledge wholly privatized and restricted. And in neither course, we know these beliefs are illusory; but they do
of the Mafia. Archives

Europe'ennes de situation is it wholly free and unowned. shape the way that Manambu people exploit their natu-

Sociologie 32(1): 53-77.

ral environment, and therefore have entirely real conse-

1994a. Godfather's

The nature of ownership and the ownership of quences for their ecology.

Gossip. Archives

nature My point is that living species can rightly be de-

Europe'ennes de

Universities and other organizations involved in re- scribed as property in Manambu society. The Manambu
Sociologie 35: 199-233.

1994b. Inscrutable search seem to be facing increasing difficulties with conceive of these property rights essentially as the

Markets. Rationality and

sustaining, even as an ideology, the Enlightenment con- guardianship of species, as the responsibility for their

Society 6(3): 353-368.

ception of scientific knowledge as a universal free welfare. To 'own' some life-form is to be its steward or

Harrison, S.J. 1990.

good. Rather, their existence is likely to become in- trustee on behalf of the community. These people have

Stealing People's

creasingly dependent upon their securing proprietary concepts of property that rest on assumptions of a cus-

Names: Histoiy and

Politics in a Sepik River rights in the knowledge they produce and exploiting todianship of the natural environment quite extraneous

Cosmology. Cambridge:
this knowledge commercially. If these organizations to Western conceptions of private property. Their own

U.P.

will in the future not just produce and disseminate property rights in living organisms, as the Manambu

Keen, I. 1994. Knowledge

knowledge but will inevitably be forced in some sense define them, do not yield commercial profit but other,

and Secrecy in an

seek to exercise 'ownership' of it, let me ask what more intangible and diffuse rewards such as status, re-

Aboriginal Religion:

models of ownership they should employ. spect and social credit, and their overall effect is to tie
Yolngu of North-East

Arnhem Land Oxford:

I pose this question because anthropologists have together the various groups in the community in a net-

Clarendon P.

found that Western definitions of property rights are by work of mutual indebtedness and interdependence. In

Lindstrom, L. 1990.

no means universal. Let me give an example of how short, these property rights have a moral dimension

Knowledge and Power

concepts of ownership can vary across cultures. Recent lacking from the Western law of industrial patents. For

in a South Pacific

advances in biotechnology have led to the patenting of the Manambu, the ethical dilemmas that property rights
Society. Washington and

London: Smithsonian
genetic material by private companies. A complex de- in life-forms provoke in Western society do not arise

Institution P.

bate with moral, economic and other dimensions has because the Manambu do not have to choose between

Morphy, H. 1991.

arisen over the creation and ownership of life-forms by treating life as a commodity and treating it as a collec-

Ancestral Connections:

business corporations and, more generally, over the tive resource belonging to some universal entity such as

Art and an Aboriginal

ownership of both human and non-human genetic infor- society or the human race. Their concepts of property
System of Knowledge.

Chicago and London: U.

mation (see, for instance, Nuffield Council on Bioethics are framed in terms that do not give rise to these sorts

of Chicago P.

1995). Let us try to clarify precisely what it means to of antinomies.

Nelkin, D. 1984. Science

describe as private property an organism whose genetic

as Intellectual Property:

material is owned by some biotechnology company. To Conclusion

Who Controls

describe it as private property means, above all, that the I have argued that all organizations producing and dis-
Research? New York:

Macmillan.
patent holder has the exclusive right to exploit the or- seminating knowledge inevitably seek in some sense to

Nuffield Council on
ganism commercially. In other words, the rewards of own, or protect, or restrict the use of this knowledge as

Bioethics. 1995. Human

possessing these property rights are commercial profit. well. I have also suggested, however, there is at least

Tissue. Ethical and

All parties to this debate, whether they argue that life one matter in which they do have a degree of choice:

Legal Issues. London:

cannot be owned in this way or that it can, seem to namely, in the concepts of ownership they use. There is
Nuffield Foundation.

Phillips, J. 1986. share this same assumption about the nature of property no necessity for them to employ the categories of con-

Introduction to
rights: namely, that to 'own' the genome of some or- temporary Western commerce. Universities, for in-

Intellectual Property

ganism means the entitlement to control its use for fin- stance, are having to redefine their relationship with the

Law. London:

ancila gain. knowledge they produce. This relationship will prob-

Butterworths.

In other cultures, people may make very different as- ably be more proprietorial than it was in the past. On

Schwartz, T. 1975.

'Cultural Totemism: sumptions about the nature of ownership. The Man- the other hand, it is unlikely to be of the purely com-

Ethnic Identity,
ambu people of New Guinea, whom I referred to ear- mercial sort characteristic of business corporations.

Primitive and Modemn'.

lier, regard virtually every species of plant and animal Universities are organizations dedicated to innovation

In Ethnic identity (eds)

known to them as belonging to one or other of their in ideas, and it would surely be appropriate for them to

G. DeVos and L.

clans. For them, this means that the ancestors of that develop innovative definitions of the ownership of
Romanucci-Ross. Palo

Alto: Mayfield. ideas. Here, perhaps, anthropologists might make an

clan brought the animal or plant into existence in myth-

Tuzin, D.F. 1988.

ical times; that the clan shares kinship or substance important contribution: namely, their own knowledge of

Prospects of Village

with the species; that it owns the magic and ceremonies the culturally diverse ways in which knowledge can be

Death in Ilahita.

necessary for its growth, fertility and well-being; and 'owned'. []

Oceania 59(2): 81-104.

14 ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 11 No 5, October 1995

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