Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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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
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
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
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
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-
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
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
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Right: novices from a
to introduce representative local government to the
monastery in Mandalay,
the monastery. (Photo lic. On Barth's advice, he adopted the tactic of divulg-
13013).
?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dispensed parsimoniously.
the Balinese guru who told Barth (1990: 641) that there
Above: male dancer knowledge, and these theories are culturally con- order to acquire value at all, and it grows in signific-
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
(photo by Bernard
role is to educate, explain and instruct, and his status ticular, knowledge is perhaps one of those few re-
depends on this ability continually to dispense religious sources whose value to their possessors can actually be
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
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
assume that knowledge widely shared must have little 360). In the late 1980s, a certain Italian television pro-
information is inversely proportional to the number of dancers performing a samba sang an advertising jingle
posit between the value of knowledge, and its secrecy, chocolate called Cacao Meravigliao. This name was
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-
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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
Western and tribal systems of knowledge- some form of purchase or licensing' (Schwartz 1975:
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
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
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,
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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
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
some sixteen clans, each of which owns a corpus of edge as a collective human good were in contradiction
origin-myths, and other religious knowledge, concern- with the actual restriction of university education
ing the acts of its ancestors, the creation of animals, largely to an elite. Nowadays, it is perhaps rather that
comments on earlier plants and the landscape, and the proper conduct of universities are under conflicting pressures to make
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.
because, among other reasons, they are the basis of the That is to say, universities seem under expectations
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
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
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
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
needs to disclose its myths to some trusted outsiders as commercial competition inimical to the free, circulation
a way of insuring the myths against loss. Otherwise, it of knowledge among researchers, and therefore inimical
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:
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.
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
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
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Rational and Scientific
of this apparent inconsistency is the underlying di- that it performs these rituals at the proper times for the
lemma faced by all these institutions: namely, that their benefit of all other clans (Harrison 1990).
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-
tion with some combination of two equally credible, hunted, or an over-fished lagoon, laying a taboo on the
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
depends on the knowledge they produce and dissem- offence to kill an animal without using it for food or for
The Golden Bough. a
Aboriginal ritual leaders, whose standing in their caught, or crops one has grown, letting them rot un-
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
manages information may seem the complete reverse of means to vandalize someone's property or treat some-
1963 [1864]. The
York: Doubleday.
does so. But it is more a matter of degree, a difference The clan owning the species would perform magic to
in the relative emphasis of two contrasting strategies, make it scarce or, as the Manambu say, to 'send it
than a difference in kind. In neither situation is know- away', until the wrongdoers have made amends. Of
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-
1994a. Godfather's
The nature of ownership and the ownership of quences for their ecology.
Gossip. Archives
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
ception of scientific knowledge as a universal free welfare. To 'own' some life-form is to be its steward or
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-
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
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
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
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
ownership of both human and non-human genetic infor- society or the human race. Their concepts of property
System of Knowledge.
of Chicago P.
as Intellectual Property:
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
possessing these property rights are commercial profit. well. I have also suggested, however, there is at least
All parties to this debate, whether they argue that life one matter in which they do have a degree of choice:
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:
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.
lier, regard virtually every species of plant and animal Universities are organizations dedicated to innovation
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
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.
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