pitt-rivers, ethnology and history

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Ethnology and History

Author(s): Julian Pitt-Rivers and Robert JaulinSource: RAIN, No. 3 (Jul. - Aug., 1974), pp. 1-3Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3032060

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ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICALINSTITUTE NEWSLETTER D RADEJuly/August974Number Every month Y. IPublishedyRAI,36 Craventreet,ondonWC2NNG

ETHNOLOGYAND.HISTORYLastMay,Robert aulinpoke t a jointmeetingrganisedytheRA and theFrenchnstitutenLondon.Wehavetranslatedshort rticle yJaulinettingouthis views, ndwe nvitednEnglishanthropologistamiliar ith iswork ocontributeome ntroductoryomments.RobertJaulin sknown s theauthor fLa PaixBlanche Seuil,1970) andLa Mort ara andGensdusoi, gensde 'autre (Un onGene-raled'Editions, 971 and 1973). Heisalso known s an activeorganiserofthemovementgainst thnocideand wasresponsible or conferencea fewyears go at the CentreNat-ionalde la Recherche cientifique,Paris, n the ubject fethnocidentheAmericas.He pushes hecritique f imper-ialism o its ogical xtreme,rguingnotmerelyhat hephysical estru-ction genocide)ofa people iswrong utthat he destructionftheirwayoflife ethnocide) s nobetter.He maintainsmoreover hatmodernwestern ivilsationwhichisreally n hisview decivilisation'-thedestructionfourownculturebyourselves-is hegeneratingorceofethnocide hroughoutheworld;andthat tderives rom he denialoftheexistence fothers,which stheequivalent fdeath, or t sonlythroughthers hatwe realiseourselvess individuals,nd notonly s individuals utas collectivi-tieswith achone itsownwayoflife.Centralisationndstandardisa-tion rethereforemeans fauto-destruction,hedestruction f ourownculture romwithin. ur no-tionofprogressstheoppositeofwhat tclaims o be and all forms f'do-goodery'owards heotherpeoplesoftheworldhave lethalintentioneneath he evelofaw-areness fthewould-be enefactors,for o impose ur deology nanyform ponthoseofanother ultureisan infringementftheir ight olive s theywish.Byattemptingomake hem onform o ournotionsofwhat hey houldbe, we are

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merely emonstratingurowninternalnadequacy nd the lustfordominance hatgoeswith t: allpower orrupts!Jaulinwould beworthy fourattentionfonlyfor he moral on-sistencyf his demonstrationfethnocentrismI'envers; butmorethan his,hisvoice has thepowerofpassion,nd his rhetoric ibrateswith new elf-consciousness.Anglo-SaxoneadersmayfindJaulin's rose lliptical r over-allu-sive, speciallyntranslation,utany ackofclarityscompensatedforbyother ualities.Withhisanguishnd indignation,ishatredofhypocrisyndhis oveofnature,he is,very recisely,he Jeremiahofmodern nthropology.JulianPitt-RiversEthnology nd Historyby RobertJaulin(Note:The French sage f ethnology'correspondsoughlyo theEnglish ermJsocialanthropology').Notveryong go, financeompanywascontrastingts wndynamismiththat f civilsations hich ave easedto innovate.uchpublicityxpressesclimatenwhichweare teeped nd towhich thousand ther igns estify.To sayof civilisationhat thasceasedto innovatemplieshat t s half-dead, ndthatwemay uitablynnovateon itsbehalf. hisreasoningswhat hebankiingublicitymplicitlyuggests:'You are avages,moribund,nd deepdownyouknowt; etus civilise ou,getusto invent ays f ivingnyouraccount, pen naccount.Wewillmakeyoubear ruitletusbear ruiturselves),we will etyou out of the ethargyfthese others",hedeadcivilisations;then he reat ewworldwillbebuilt,the nlyworld, hat fUnitary an,innovation,ife.'On allsides,we arereminded,emust ecome ur money,nvestur-selves,ockourselvesn omewherelse,beyond urselvesndbeyond urdailyacts f existencend ubsistence.Letusplace urselvesnthehands fremotebusinesses, arketconomies, ompe-tent owers, eliable tates, tates f

everykind,progressive tates; let us relyon theState of Civilisation, etusplace ourselves nother handsthan ourown; let us leave our smallness,which san enclosure melling f death. Qan onereallymistake or ifewhatonly amountsto relationships etween men offlesh,relationships ith palpable universe,not a universe n paper butconcreterelationshipsmeasuredby the humanscale or limited o the visiblehorizon?No-let's be serious.Those worlds aredead, thosecivilisations ave well andtruly eased to innovate-of their wnaccord, it is implied.''Of their wn accord'; it is an unspok-en implcation.Th scal s for pause anda moment's hought.Weremember, erhapswithpride, hata good partofour History s thatofnumerouswars,noble conquestsat theend of which Nations nd Empireswereforged.This is far way,but it is nearathandtoo because history ooks andschool primers re near at hand. It is as ifNations nd Empireshad existed onlyfrom ightingach other,had onlymadethemselves yunmaking ach other.Theyall follow the same model.Theirwarswere the expression f their ommonmovement, heir ommonlogic, thedynamism f UniversalHistory by their'wars', letus understand he affirmationof structures f power and not ust theexchangeof blows and shots). CertainlyEuropean wars,warsclose to us, betweenwhites ndwhites, mongourselves,wereeasilyreducible o this mage-andso History,Humanity n themarch,werepresented o us.Distantwarson theperiphery, arswaged againstothers, coloured' people,could be lesseasilygrasped. t could not,to beginwith,be denied that therewasconflictbetweenone civilisation ndothers. deologywas called to therescue,to raise mpudent quivocationsand des-troy ll doubts about the legitimacy fourcampaigns.By deology,lmean philo-sophyand theology; nd I am thinkingofthecontroversynthe 16thCenturybetween Las Casas ** and manyof hiscontemporaries. also meansociology(which stingedwiththeology)and themanyunitary heorieswhose impactwehave suffered rom.And I mean ethno-logy, r ethno-theology, ith ts inearconstructions,ts earchformythicaluniversals-fromrain-size o incest,pass-

ing hrough he sole ofthefoot, anguage,and (mostrecently) he universal mile.I am thinkingoo of thesilencesandco mpl cities f ethnology.The ideologywhich I mean scertainly matter fpolitics.This civilisation f ours-or rather,this movement f emptying, r Decivili-sation-was not always presented n thesame way. Christian' hey tressed nthe16th Centurywhen theywere butcheringAmerican ndians. Formed by nationsand the fatherland' hey houtedduringthe French Revolutionwhich was lostto Hitlerism.In thenameof liberty ndprogress' hey tel us today,with bombsto back up tleir argument n case we areindanger f not understanding,s wasproved n Vietnam. Howeverdifferentthese proceduresmaybe, they are onlydiverse nstances f one and the sameworld,one and thesame coherence'.Thatthis coherence' is a coherence of death,and so an incoherence, s obvious intheeyesof those who aredying, nd intheeyesof themultiple estroyedmodes oflife nd civilisations.This obviousness sspreading ast. Butwhat about here? Shouldn't this ncoher-ence concern us as well? Isn't it inscribedin our everyday ife, n ourmultipleconstructions, rogressivend innovativemachines, n the heavy ocial theorieswithwhichwe are sated and leftwith nempty tomach?A sortof discomfortaccompaniestodaythecurrent roposi-tionaccording o which there s a progre-ssive civilisation n the one hand, savager-ies on the other hand.Things re reversed:oneasks: Did not Civilisationonsistfthosemultiplenddistinct ivilisations,and wasnot theirrocedurefdeath urowncommon nd unitaryecivilisation?'Let's go back to History.The conquestofthe new worldandthe colonisationofAfrica nd Asia madeclear the confrontation fmultiplehumanhistorieswith A History hatwecall western r white.These multiplehistorieswere absorbed intoour History.Our warswere, nd are, onlyone aspectamongothers f theirdestruction:amongothers,because abuse and destruc-tion took place at every evel,because itis important or theuniquenessof thewestto giveoccupation to our consciencesand our knowledge, o be everywhere,absolutely he sole survivor. hose civili-sations had to die of their wn accord,2


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notthroughurperfidy;ndwemadethem itherur ancestors'relsetheattemptsnd rrors hichmadepossibleourown xistence,venpartial ndridi-culous xpressionsfHumanUniversality.Distant ars id notpose problemsorlong, hanksothepolicing nd nstitut-ionalisingfthoughtndknowledge. asCasas ould nly ose hegame.Allthatremained as he pparentogic f thewarsnear ohand; verythingappenedwithinhewest. he comedy hat urhistoryrimerslay ut for s-a comedybecause he cene sentirely estern-isnot nly farce, mere idelightnhistory,ut lso,withoutoubt, thno-cide.The bsorption,egunnthe Renaiss-ance, f the dentitiesf the ther,distant,ivilisationsnto he dentityfthewest,was certainlymeans funify-ingEurope t the evel fpoliticsndideology.t sas if, ince hatperiod,ourclose-at-handarswere nly matteroffiefs gainstiefs, owers gainstpowers, ationsgainst ations,apitalismagainstocialism,n hortheunderhandjobberyfHistory,he earch or ne andthe ameheaven,rhell, nearth. hiswas ll nothingut cover. heHistoryofthewest s not he trugglefwarringfactions,he pposition as notone be-tweenmen r betweenrmies. heinternalontradictionsre econdary.The apparent dversarieswere alwayswithin he ame amp.Theirointcam-paignwas imed t thedestructionfmultipleumaniivilisations,nd itpartlyrealised hat estruction.It often appened,ertainly,h-atdamagedivilisationsook heoffensiveand rmed heirmen, ut hewestwastomake pfor hese truggles.xamplesaretheBolivianevolution,n SouthAmerica,he French evolution, ere;today's uerrilla ovementsnBlackAfrica. hepeasantsn 1 89 sawtheirlands hrink-lands hichwerepart fpeasant ivilsations,ommunalandswhich ermittedhese ivilisations.hebourgeoisieppropriated ore nd moreof them; t the ame ime t cut tselfffmore rom hepeasants, eld tselflooffromhem,ndexploited hem.Morethan hepeasantshemselves-but adebythem evertheless--theirivilisationtried ofightack.We know heresults.Ofthe creage f France eforeheRevolution,0 or45% wascommonland rsmall-holdings.ow s t ppor-tioned oday?History,r the ense fevents, lays n a long ime-scale,ndFrangoisuret ssurely ighto givecenturyfexistence o theFrench evo-lution, utwe must urely xtendhetime tillmore ndrephrasehequestionswe ask.Then hemovementeallyc-quires meaning.It s true hat n precedingenturies,the nstitutionsf ChurchndMonarchy,and conq ests f foreignands, adpre-pared or r madepossible' heRevo-lution. ut his xpressedtself y naccelerationf theWesternempo.Norhas his ccelerationiminishedincethen-quite he ontrary. ithoutoubtParis, r tspeople, ried everalimes orise gainst he entral owers whichrenotParis); ut twas never ackedup.

The peasantworlds id notrecoverromtheir efeat,heir oldiersnrolled iththe nemy,hey ecame hemartyrsrpioneersf ndustry,f colonial on-quest,werekilled or emocracyrtheNation eforeettinghemselvesakepartnthe stablishmentf a society fthe olitarynd/or eak,under hebannerof either ocialismr iberty.hesediverseoverswere ignificantf an ideaof progressnd an ideaof equalitywhichconcernedeitherhe uality f exis-tence, or hevalue f everydayelation-ships etween man ndpeople imilarto him, r ratheretween man ndpeopledifferentrom im.Even oday,nthemanifoldircuitsof oureverydayife,weare remindedfour avageryndof theneed o abandonourselves,oenter urselvesnto heaccount fa civilisationhat s alien ous(includingnaccount tthebank).Thisloss f ourselvesoes notbring shappi-ness nly;we doubt urhappiness; eare ven eriouslyickened y t.

Thiswe', with ur ongingorbeing,istheother reat act hat hewest upp-resses. he mplications that t swellandtruly ead,dead of tself,lmost o

ourgreat egret-forre notmuseums,folklorend ethnologyur xpressionsof condolence?t eaves s dreamingndis also a nuisance.Ethnologylaimed ocomprehendotherness,ot o rejectt.So one wouldlike o imaginet happynd committedto confrontingrtificialisationithits oncern or ther eople.This s notthe ase by nymeans, nd one can hard-ly xpect tto be. If hiswere ver ohappen twouldmean hat hefabric fthewestwasbeginningofray.However,nothingalls romhe ky.Wecan ma-gine he thnologistctually aking artin movementf happiness,hehappi-ness fbeing imselfnd there-discoveryoftheother. his sthe hange o bebuilt p, victoryo be wongradually.RobertJaulin(translatedrom heFrench)** Bartolome' e las Casas (1 474-1566)was Dominicannd for timeBishopofChiapas,Guatemala. ecampaignedagainstheforced abour f IndiansnHispaniola, utfailedn an attempt fhisown o introduce eacefulolonisationhimself.

FORTHCOMINGACONFERENCESANCOUSEThe Role of theOld in SocietyFridaySeptember20th-SaturdaySeptember21stWhats therole f theold inour ociety?Howmuch ariationsthere etweendifferentulturesntheirreatmentfthe ld? Arewewasting preciousresourcey writingff' urelders, hentheirxperienceas o much o teachtheyoung?What an we learn romb-servingherole f old people nothercultures-andub-culturesnourownsociety-that e mighte abletoapplyinpractice?

Just ow,when here s widespreaddisillusionbout he 1960s cultofyouth',eems goodtime o stimulateinterestnthisneglectedocial uestion.TheRAI is organisingshortweek-endconferencenon-residential)n20th nd21stSeptember974 at theRoyalSociety fMedicinenWimpoletreet,LondonWI. It s ntendedor ocialworkers,octors,ocial cientistsndthegeneral ublic. he co-organiseriththeRAI is Dr.JohnKeet,MRCP, ectur-er n medical erontologyt UniversityCollegeHospitalMedical chool.Speakerswill nclude:Professor.N. Exton-Smith,ro-

fessor f geriatrics,niversityollegeHospitalMedical chool;Dr. Arthur igot,enior esearchfellow n psycho-socialerontologytNottinghamniversity;ProfessorucyMair,HonorarySecretaryfthe RAIand a specialistnAfrica;

Dr. PaulSpencer, na 'gerontocra-tic' ociety,BarbaraWard, specialist n China.

The role f old peoplevarieswidelyfromne society o another,nd the on-tributionsy nthropologistsillreflectthis ariety.The conference illbegin t 6pmonFriday eptember0thwith buffetsupper nd an eveningession t 1Wim-poleStreet,WI. It willresumen themorningf Saturday,eptember1st,closingt about5.30pm.The ConferenceFee of?4.50wfl nclude upper ntheFriday,nd morningoffeend afternoonteaon the aturday.Non-RAImembers:F5.50).Bookingsnd enquirieshould e senttotheDirector ftheRAI,36 CravenStreet, ondonWC2N NG

Vanishing eoples of theWorldFridayNovember1st-Sunday November3rdAweekend esidentialourse tAtting-hamPark, heShropshiredultCollege,nr. hrewsbury,hropshire.ee: ?7.50for hose oming romhropshirendother ontributinguthorities,8.50 forthose utside hat rea applicantsanfind utfrom heCollegewhetherheybelong oa contributinguthorityrnot).NoreductionorRAI members,utPRIORITYBOOKING:MAKE CLEARIN WRITINGYOU AREAN RAI MEM-BER.Applicationshould e sentdirect-ly o theWardenf theCollege,ddress.asabove, _ continued3

pitt-rivers, ethnology and history

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