Review: [untitled] Author(s): Eduardo Viveiros de Castro Source: Man, New Series, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Mar.

, 1993), pp. 182-183 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2804457 . Accessed: 16/09/2011 11:52
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BOOK REVIEWS making a Namibian of underclass. 304 pp., xvi, illus,maps, tables,bibliogr.Boulder, Oxford: WestviewPress,1992. ?36.95

draw on the specifics his position vis-a-vis. of otherwriters, even thoughhis own statements are clearenough withinthe contextof his own historico-ethnographic framework. is at his He bestimmersed detail- witherudite in presentaThis is Gordon'sdefinitive in statement the ontions and explications of the contents of going 'BushmanDebate', thoughit is directed travellers'narratives, missionarycorrespondmore towards understanding perceptions the of Bushmenby outsiders thantowards uncovering ence, magistrates'reports, and newspaper accountstouching Bushmenand their on interof any 'true'nature Bushmansociety itself. actionwithothers. Like much of Gordon'swork,thebook is supremely scholarlyif somewhat idiosyncratic. We all conjure images. Gordon's conjuring producesa lessattractive image thansome,perGordon emphasizeswhat is in the archives, haps,becauseitbetrays reality a whichnotmany which with regard Bushmenis all too often to wantto see. He endshisbook witha plea to beand stocktheft, he conof reports raiding and ware of the uses to which anthropological data of centrates aspects Bushmanlifewhichmost can be on put, and to use them to championthe anthropologists would probablyregardas less cause of peoples such as thosecalled 'Bushmen' thansavoury and certainly the stuff first- or 'San'. His closingsentences not of begin: 'As an anyear anthropologycourses. Nevertheless,he thropologist...', and 'As a Namnibian gives the best portrayal anyone of !Kung Gordon has done well in puttingtogether of his aulwa and +AuIlei), Haillom, and Nharo own professional and national identities. Bushmenas seen through eyes of colonists Though it fallsmore easilyin the tradition the of and indigenous of oppressors thenineteenth and history than anthropology, book should be his centuries.He also bringsthe widely read by anthropologists early twentieth interested in of transformationsthisportrayal to the pres- conceptions 'otherness'. will certainly of up of It be ent and, in particular, to great significance those who share his regives due attention to perceptions Bushmentodayand to their of am- gional specialization and specific political biguous position in Namibia's recent war of commitment. Gordondoes not purport presto independence. ent an ethnographic picture of the Bushmen Gordon'scentral is argument thatin orderto themselves, rather, elucidationof their but an understand imageswe need to know theso- portrayal others. thishe is successfiul. the In by cial contextswhich gave rise to them. This ALANBARNARD means we need to examine,for example,the UniversityEdinburgh of role of Bushmenin the coppertradein the late nineteenth century, theiremployment camp as followers hunters, for traders naturalists, and and Gow, PETER. Ofmixed blood: kinship history and their pursuitof (to others)unsocial activities inPeruvian Amazonia(Oxf. Stud.socialcult. such as banditry. has indeed been a Banditry Anthrop.). xii, 331 pp., illus.,maps,tables, themein several Gordon'swritings Bushof on bibliogr. Oxford: Univ. Press, 1991. men,and it is an activity whichhe hassought to ,?40.00 'make respectable' pointing by out itscausesin This book is an ethnography of the native theinitial theft Bushmanlandsby pastoralists, people of the lower Rio Urubambain eastern of farmers colonial authorities, and even in quite Peru. The meaning theterm'nativepeople' of recent times. as the nativepeople themselves understand it Whatmakes 7heBushman myth unique among is preciselyone of Gow's main themes.The southern African is communities which he did his fieldwork anthropological monographs in are that it blends two important themeshitherto mainlyassociatedwith the ethnic label 'Piro' and distinct. seen as separate One of theseis the (Sub-AndeanArawaks),but the categories and 'revisionist' political-economy critique (by contextsfor identity the region are highly in Edwin N. Wilmsen and others)of the tradi- complexand varyalonggeographical, historical, tional 'isolationist' Bushmanethnography. The ethnic, economicand sociologicallines,revolvother is a parallel'revisionism' among literary ing around the 'mixed blood' motif. It is a critics suchas Dorian Haarhoff theNamibian population (in that stresses mestizocondition its and context)or MaryLouise Pratt(better knownin itsdifference relation whatis presumed in to to to who havetried frame be an ethnically anthropological circles), and culturally pure past, thus European imagesof the Kalahariand theBush- appearing be clearly to 'acculturated': articulated men in terms notionsofsavageinnocence.In with the creditand debt system habilitaci6n, of of fact,both critiquesare more concernedwith fluentin Spanish,wearing Western clothing. European or Westem thoughtthan they are The focal symbols of community identity withBushmanthought. Gordon'sbook is too, underscore apparent this orientation towards asbut he seemsmore awarethanmostof the limi- similationinto Peruvian society: the school tations of the 'revisionism' he implicitly system legislation and passedin 1974 establishing contributes Indeed, Gordon is difficult to. to the Comunidades Nativas ('nativecommunities').
GORDON, ROBERT J. The Bushman myth:the

BOOK REVIEWS Thingsare of coursemuch morecomplicated thanthis.Of mixed blood showshow the native cultureof the Urubamba revealsits profound kinshipwith the 'pure' indigenous Amazonian cultures precisely through outwardorientaits that tion,itsapparent 'lackoftradition' expresses difa perfectly traditional way of administering well-written ferences.Gow's book, admirably inwith brilliant theoretical and highlighted sights,is not a complacentdenouncementof in ethnicoppression Amazonia,searching avidly of for symptoms alienationamong the native it of peoples. On the contrary, is a construction the Piro's historical agency,of the idioms that allow thepeople oftheBajo Urubambato exerconditions cise control overtheir own symbolic of existence. whetherby a Contemporary anthropology, classicaltransformation necessity of into virtue seemsto feelthat or a certain perverse snobbism, the study of non-Western, 'acculturated' than thatof peoples is much more interesting 'pure' ones- and it hasthusadhered a nouvelle to cuisine to thatattempts disguisethe tediumof and references theWorld System, to Capitalism Historywith the abundant use of polyphonies, and otherhermeneutic dialogisms sauces. It is thissame trendthatunderlies the curiouscurrent obsession with history:as if we had (dialectically...) accepted the Hegelian decree the denying Spirit non-Western to peoples that 'do not have' history, and therefore found it necessary proveat all coststhattheydo 'have to it'. Fortunately, Gow's book on an 'acculturated' people's historical conceptionis a farcry fromsuch anthropological bad conscience. In thefirst hisplace,it is a workthatsubordinates tory to culture and historiographyto thus to ethnography, avoidingtheuse ofhistory own hisexpropriate indigenous peoplesoftheir toricalagency.In thesecondplace, Gow makes a decisive choice: he takes as his comparative horizonnot the studieson acculturation inor terethnic contactbut the ethnographic corpus on 'traditional'Amazonian societies. In so the of doing,Gow demonstrates pertinence the 'acculturated' Piros to the Amazonian sociocosmologicallandscape and at the same time dissolvesthis filse antinomybetween 'traditional'and 'acculturated'. This is notbecause Of mixedbloodends up salvaging traditional a essence underneath an appearance of acculturation, because it succeedsin revealbut ing structures that are common to lowland Amerindiansocietiesand which explain how and why- undercertain circumstancescertain Amerindian peoplesdecideto 'acculturate' themselves and how this movement expresses a determinedrelationship with their culturally own culture and withthe forces thatare external to it. Like the people it studies, mixed Of blood also a establishes paradoxical withtradirelationship

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in 'acculturated' the tion.Gow's book, perfectly (interest ethnography issuesofcurrent dominant of criticism thenotionof 'rules'in in historicity, on favourof emphasis 'practice',elucidationof takesas its the idioms of genderconstruction), centraltheme nothingless than kinship,the of object of the anthropology 'traditraditional tional'peoples,which in recentyearshas been authby deconstructed repentant frenetically persuasion.Gow oritiesof sundrytheoretical in succeeds in renewinginterest the theme of it kinship,reconstructing froma sophisticated that perspective does not rephenomenological fuse dialogue with classicalapproachesof the or type. In similar functionalist structuralist of his fashion, readingof Piro kinshipin terms an economy of desireand memoryprovidesa criticalcomplementto recent atstimulating political an temptsat determining Amerindian economy in termsof categoriessuch as exchangeand controlof women by men. Finally of Gow's book, in speaking history, and happily, ritually assassinate to does not findit necessary it on Levi-Strauss; the contrary, sees verywell hands thatstructuralismat leastin itscreator's - is able to furnish set of intuitions history on a richer than the platitudes that are infinitely to counterposed it. usually itselfon the native comThe ethnography munitiesof the Bajo Urubamba has several example is points. An outstanding interesting betweentwo wideestablished the relationship spreadphenomenain Amazonia,a 'shallowness' favouring of genealogiesand an epistemology knowledge obtained throughpersonalexperiof ence. See also the interpretation another the classicus, couvade, or the deregionallocus scriptionof the Piros' compadrazgo system, withtheAmerinit situating in clearcontinuity Last but not friendship. dian figures formal of of least,see Gow's superbanalysis memoryas for leadingto thebook's thefoundation kinship, is blood a 'history kinship'.Cf mixed is leitmotiv: of to welcome contribution the ethnology lowland South America and to anthropological in theory general.
EDUARDO VIVEIROS DE CASTRO

Rio Mus'eu Nacional, dejaneiro in studies the complexity: HANNERZ,ULF. Cultural

x, of organizationmeaning. 347 pp., bibsocial liogr. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1992. $40.50 would an anthrodifferent How fundamentally pology have to be if its main focus were on complex societies,not simple ones? Hannerz posesthisquestionand thenproceedsto answer in and example, thisvolume. it,bothbyprecept to conceptof culture comTo applythe central it plex social worlds,Hannerz reformulates as of consisting a stream,or flow, of meanings. of understanding culture',as This 'distributive