Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social by Deborah E. Reed-DanahayReview by: Neni PanourgiaAmerican Ethnologist, Vol. 27, No. 2 (May, 2000), pp. 551-553Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/647225 .Accessed: 16/03/2012 20:15

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is driven by the many smallish firms that are family oriented but connected horizontally to each other through relations of trust (guanxi). These smallish firms are sources of capital and producers of different pieces of the whole, which is assembled, packaged, and exported by the "final" company in the chain (pp. 64-65). Hamilton explains why he thinks fam- ily firms did not become large and hierarchi- cal. Why did they in Java? Could the growth of family firms in Indonesia have something to do with the Indonesian state-often accused of al- liances with Chinese merchants, a quid pro quo arrangement in which state officials bene- fitted from an economy in which the 4 percent Sinolndonesian population is estimated to control 70-75 percent of private capital (Hefner, p. 229)? Hefner does not address this, as his subject is rising Islamic nationalism, al- though he identifies Chinese commercial domination as a cause of these movements. The dissatisfaction of the marginalized Indone- sian Muslim majority is the direct result of Chi- nese success.

All of these southeast Asian indigenous populations presumably construct their identi- ties in relation to Chinese in their countries. A constant theme in all the articles is the self-ful- filling prophecy in ethnic stereotypes. Thus, Japanese in Japan may have taken to capitial- ism like ducks to water; but, in Hawaii, where they coexist with the Chinese, they respond to the belief that commerce is a Chinese monop- oly by entering the professions. David Szanton writes about an ethnic division of labor be- tween Filipinos and Chinese that is resistant to many changes. In a Philippine commercial fishing village, Filipino entrepreneurs own boats and their crews are Filipino while Chi- nese supply the venture capital and purchase and market the catches. Filipino entrepreneurs urge their children to enter the professions while Chinese merchants expecttheir children to continue in the business. Here, in contrastto other settings in the book, the church rather than the state reinforces stereotypes.

A secondary theme pursued by several authors deals with the implications of gen- dered economic activities. Jennifer Alexander discusses women in the pasar trade of rural Java. Shaun Malarme and Hy Van Luong ad- dress changing women's engagement in enter- prise in Vietnam, where traditionally males were educated for the Mandarinate. This sys- tem freed females to engage in commerce and

is driven by the many smallish firms that are family oriented but connected horizontally to each other through relations of trust (guanxi). These smallish firms are sources of capital and producers of different pieces of the whole, which is assembled, packaged, and exported by the "final" company in the chain (pp. 64-65). Hamilton explains why he thinks fam- ily firms did not become large and hierarchi- cal. Why did they in Java? Could the growth of family firms in Indonesia have something to do with the Indonesian state-often accused of al- liances with Chinese merchants, a quid pro quo arrangement in which state officials bene- fitted from an economy in which the 4 percent Sinolndonesian population is estimated to control 70-75 percent of private capital (Hefner, p. 229)? Hefner does not address this, as his subject is rising Islamic nationalism, al- though he identifies Chinese commercial domination as a cause of these movements. The dissatisfaction of the marginalized Indone- sian Muslim majority is the direct result of Chi- nese success.

All of these southeast Asian indigenous populations presumably construct their identi- ties in relation to Chinese in their countries. A constant theme in all the articles is the self-ful- filling prophecy in ethnic stereotypes. Thus, Japanese in Japan may have taken to capitial- ism like ducks to water; but, in Hawaii, where they coexist with the Chinese, they respond to the belief that commerce is a Chinese monop- oly by entering the professions. David Szanton writes about an ethnic division of labor be- tween Filipinos and Chinese that is resistant to many changes. In a Philippine commercial fishing village, Filipino entrepreneurs own boats and their crews are Filipino while Chi- nese supply the venture capital and purchase and market the catches. Filipino entrepreneurs urge their children to enter the professions while Chinese merchants expecttheir children to continue in the business. Here, in contrastto other settings in the book, the church rather than the state reinforces stereotypes.

A secondary theme pursued by several authors deals with the implications of gen- dered economic activities. Jennifer Alexander discusses women in the pasar trade of rural Java. Shaun Malarme and Hy Van Luong ad- dress changing women's engagement in enter- prise in Vietnam, where traditionally males were educated for the Mandarinate. This sys- tem freed females to engage in commerce and

manufacturing, which were economically im- portant but low prestige. Colonial policies and socialism undermined female entrepreneur- ship. Michael Peletz links the ambiguous hus- band role in matrilineal Negiri Sembilan in Malaysia to male incentives to enter politics and enterprise; he attributes the greater degree of entrepreneurialism among matrilineal Mi- nangkabau of Sumatra compared to Malays to colonial differences between British (who im- ported Chinese and restrained Malay enter- prise) and Dutch (who did neither).

Ethnic stereotypes prompt Singapore Ma- lays, according to Tania Lee (p. 153), to view Chinese as "natural entrepreneurs," an activity for which Malays' morality badly suits them; on the other hand, I recall a 1980s seminar in Singapore aimed at correcting the low level of entrepre-neurship among Chinese (a result of prosperity and high salaries), and Li admits most Chinese are satisfied to be salaried.

Market Cultures is a useful text even though it recycles old arguments and much of the in- formation is published elsewhere. The contri- butions of Hamilton, Hefner, and Szanton alone justify its publication.

Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social. Deborah E. Reed-Danahay, ed. New York: Berg, 1997. xiv + 277 pp., contributors, notes, bibliography, index.

NENI PANOURGIA Rutgers University

In the words of editor Deborah Reed-Dana- hay, this collection of essays "responds to two major developments in cultural studies: debates about representation . . . and the increasing trend toward self-reflexivity" (p. 1). The collec- tion's nine essays are distributed equally among three sections: "Power, Documentation, and Resistance," "Exile, Memory, and Iden- tity," and "Voice, Representation, and Genre." In the introductory chapter, Reed-Danahay states that the collection concerns and limits it- self to "contemporary literate societies" (p. 1); but, in actuality, and with the exception of an essay by Kay Warren on pan-Mayan writers, its breadth encompasses only the circum- European region-meaning here, Eastern and Western Europe-the postcolony (represented by Algeria), and Israel. This self-imposed limi- tation has, of course, its own interdictions, since it has excluded "auto-ethnographers"

manufacturing, which were economically im- portant but low prestige. Colonial policies and socialism undermined female entrepreneur- ship. Michael Peletz links the ambiguous hus- band role in matrilineal Negiri Sembilan in Malaysia to male incentives to enter politics and enterprise; he attributes the greater degree of entrepreneurialism among matrilineal Mi- nangkabau of Sumatra compared to Malays to colonial differences between British (who im- ported Chinese and restrained Malay enter- prise) and Dutch (who did neither).

Ethnic stereotypes prompt Singapore Ma- lays, according to Tania Lee (p. 153), to view Chinese as "natural entrepreneurs," an activity for which Malays' morality badly suits them; on the other hand, I recall a 1980s seminar in Singapore aimed at correcting the low level of entrepre-neurship among Chinese (a result of prosperity and high salaries), and Li admits most Chinese are satisfied to be salaried.

Market Cultures is a useful text even though it recycles old arguments and much of the in- formation is published elsewhere. The contri- butions of Hamilton, Hefner, and Szanton alone justify its publication.

Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social. Deborah E. Reed-Danahay, ed. New York: Berg, 1997. xiv + 277 pp., contributors, notes, bibliography, index.

NENI PANOURGIA Rutgers University

In the words of editor Deborah Reed-Dana- hay, this collection of essays "responds to two major developments in cultural studies: debates about representation . . . and the increasing trend toward self-reflexivity" (p. 1). The collec- tion's nine essays are distributed equally among three sections: "Power, Documentation, and Resistance," "Exile, Memory, and Iden- tity," and "Voice, Representation, and Genre." In the introductory chapter, Reed-Danahay states that the collection concerns and limits it- self to "contemporary literate societies" (p. 1); but, in actuality, and with the exception of an essay by Kay Warren on pan-Mayan writers, its breadth encompasses only the circum- European region-meaning here, Eastern and Western Europe-the postcolony (represented by Algeria), and Israel. This self-imposed limi- tation has, of course, its own interdictions, since it has excluded "auto-ethnographers"

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who work and publish in other parts of the world that are just as literate and contemporary as the region chosen for this collection. A great opportunity has been lost here to include the work of people such as Valentine Daniel, Dor- inne Kondo, Jose Lim6n, and Kath Weston, to name only a few.

In the same introductory chapter Reed- Danahay also explores the permutations of the term and concept of auto/ethnography. She first deals with the concept, which she catego- rizes according to genre as "native anthropol- ogy," "ethnic autobiography," and "autobio- graphical ethnography" (p. 2). Then she goes on to explore the term itself from its introduc- tion by Karl Heider ("What Do People Do? Dani-Auto-Ethnography," Journal of Anthro- pological Research 31:3-17, 1975) who re- ported on the New Guinean Dani concepts of "what Dani do" based on responses by 60 Dani schoolchildren, which he termed "Dani autoethnography" (p. 4); through David Hay- ano's 1979 definition ("Auto-Ethnography: Paradigms, Problems and Prospects," Social Or- ganization 38[1 ]:99-104, 1979) of the term "as a set of issues relating to studies by anthropolo- gists of their 'own people'" (p. 5); to Mary Louise Pratt ("Arts of the Contact Zone" MLA Profession London: Tavistock Publications: 33-40, 1991) and Marilyn Strathern ("Limits of Auto-Anthropology," in Anthropology at Home, A. Jackson, ed., pp. 16-37, 1987), among oth- ers. What connects previous writers is the sim- ple use of a rather nebulous conceptualization of self-representation (not even the term itself, since they have introduced other terms, such as Marilyn Strathern's auto-anthropology) without any stated agreement as to what the concept and the term constitute. It is curious, therefore, why Reed-Danahay, without really explaining her reasons, chose from among the multitude of (epistemological) options the par- ticular genre of auto-ethnography that she presents in this collection-"a form of self- narrative that places the self within a social context" (p. 9).

Auto-ethnography, as explained by David Hayano, is a term first coined by Raymond Firth in his seminar in 1956 where he re- counted the by then famous story of an en- counter and argument between L. S. B. Leakey and Jomo Kenyatta concerning some Kikuyu practices to which each man laid claims of in- side knowledge as a "native" of the area-an argument which, as Hayano notes, soon

lapsed into Kikuyu and was carried out exclu- sively between Leakey and Kenyatta. This an- ecdote and the use of the term auto/ethnogra- phy in this particular context has set the parameters for its use: a self-representation by trained anthropologists that includes a critique of privileged points of view from the outside and which incorporates a resistance to struc- tures of knowledge as power. This position is one that always recognizes the multiplicity of identities inhabited by the auto/ethnographer, the person who is simultaneously and always already not only a native, not simply an eth- nographer, and not innocently European or Af- rican. Reed-Danahay attempts to fix that multi- plicity when she recognizes the dislocation of the anthropological subject: "whether the auto-ethnographer is the anthropologist study- ing his or her own kind [sic], the native telling us his or her Iife story, or the native anthropolo- gist, this figure is not completely 'at home.' The ability to transcend everyday conceptions of selfhood and social life is related to the ability to write or do auto/ethnography" (p. 4). Given this particular categorization of the term, it is curious why Reed-Danahay has opted to use "auto/ethnography" as a referent that conflates it with anthropological reflexivity, a concept in which the ethnographer understands and ac- knowledges the power relations inevitably present in any ethnographic encounter and her or his role and presence in the process of de- coding native actions and meanings. Reflexiv- ity is an important concept in anthropology, but not the same as auto-ethnography.

In light of this, the selection of these essays under this title becomes problematic. Despite the disclaimers noted above and given by the editor with regards to the term, Reed-Danahay has opted not to include any of the auto-eth- nographers who have published in this genre. The last two essays of the volume, by Pnina Motzafi- Haller ("Writing Birthright: On Native Anthropologists and the Politics of Represen- tation") and, especiallythat by Caroline Brettell ("Blurred Genres and Blended Voices: Life History, Biography, Autobiography, and the Auto/Ethnography of Women's Lives") are the closest one would come to the problematic of native or, in the case of Motzafi-Haller, "halfie" anthropology (L. Abu-Lughod, "Writ- ing Against Culture" in Recapturing Anthro- pology, Robin Fox, ed., Santa Fe: School of American Research Press. 1991, p. 137). Pre- cisely for that reason, their inclusion in this

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volume becomes even more curious, almost token. Readers do not really see any "anthro- pologist[s] studying his or her own kind"-a most peculiar choice of term, especially com- ing from a cultural anthropologist (p. 4, em- phasis added)-nor any native anthropologists (and the difference between this category and one's own kind is lost, at least to this reviewer). Readers do see in abundance native reflections on the native condition mediated by the an- thropologist. One could wonder how, other- wise, these texts would have become known in the anglophone literature without the media- tion of the anthropologists. I would argue that such an endeavor would, indeed, be worth- while, and its results bold and intriguing. Rather than the anthropologists commenting on the natives, the editor could have requested that the same anthropologists make the same texts available to her. In such a case, the an- thropologists would have been the agents of communication, rather than the brokers of knowledge. But there is another problem, one that is encoded in the selection of the mediated texts. Only two of the texts presented and com- mented upon by these anthropologists come from professional, trained anthropologists and ethnographers (the ones by Pnina Motzafi-Hal- ler, who brilliantly explores the political di- mensions of the act of representation, and by Caroline Brettell, whose piece is an ethnogra- phy of her mother, not a sociocultural unit, that she wrote after becoming an established scholar of Portugal).

I have used most of these essays in this col- lection with great success in undergraduate courses on the anthropology and ethnography of Europe, on political anthropology, and on the anthropology of the body. The ones by Bir- gitta Svensson ("The Power of Biography: Criminal Policy, Prison Life, and the Formation of Criminal Identities in the Swedish Welfare State"); Henk Driessen ("Lives Writ Large: Kabyle Self-Portraits and the Question of Iden- tity"); Alexandra Jaffe ("Narrating the 'I' versus Narrating the 'Isle': Life Histories and the Prob- lem of Representation on Corsica"); and Bret- tell have been exceptionally helpful and thought-provoking, and always enthusiasti- cally received by students. This is to the credit of the contributors themselves for presenting readers with texts that can be used informa- tively and critically in the classroom; however, every time I read this collection as a whole-as a project-I cannot butthink that there is a mis-

volume becomes even more curious, almost token. Readers do not really see any "anthro- pologist[s] studying his or her own kind"-a most peculiar choice of term, especially com- ing from a cultural anthropologist (p. 4, em- phasis added)-nor any native anthropologists (and the difference between this category and one's own kind is lost, at least to this reviewer). Readers do see in abundance native reflections on the native condition mediated by the an- thropologist. One could wonder how, other- wise, these texts would have become known in the anglophone literature without the media- tion of the anthropologists. I would argue that such an endeavor would, indeed, be worth- while, and its results bold and intriguing. Rather than the anthropologists commenting on the natives, the editor could have requested that the same anthropologists make the same texts available to her. In such a case, the an- thropologists would have been the agents of communication, rather than the brokers of knowledge. But there is another problem, one that is encoded in the selection of the mediated texts. Only two of the texts presented and com- mented upon by these anthropologists come from professional, trained anthropologists and ethnographers (the ones by Pnina Motzafi-Hal- ler, who brilliantly explores the political di- mensions of the act of representation, and by Caroline Brettell, whose piece is an ethnogra- phy of her mother, not a sociocultural unit, that she wrote after becoming an established scholar of Portugal).

I have used most of these essays in this col- lection with great success in undergraduate courses on the anthropology and ethnography of Europe, on political anthropology, and on the anthropology of the body. The ones by Bir- gitta Svensson ("The Power of Biography: Criminal Policy, Prison Life, and the Formation of Criminal Identities in the Swedish Welfare State"); Henk Driessen ("Lives Writ Large: Kabyle Self-Portraits and the Question of Iden- tity"); Alexandra Jaffe ("Narrating the 'I' versus Narrating the 'Isle': Life Histories and the Prob- lem of Representation on Corsica"); and Bret- tell have been exceptionally helpful and thought-provoking, and always enthusiasti- cally received by students. This is to the credit of the contributors themselves for presenting readers with texts that can be used informa- tively and critically in the classroom; however, every time I read this collection as a whole-as a project-I cannot butthink that there is a mis-

match between its contents and its title. They do not belong together. Perhaps the book should be retitled "What We Can Do with Na- tive Texts."

People Are Not the Same: Leprosy and Iden- tity in 20th-Century Mali. Eric Silla. Ports- mouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998. vi + 220 pp., photographs, maps, sources, index.

JOHN JANZEN University of Kansas

Here is finally a book about leprosy in Africa thattells the story like it is, like it was, and like it may become. Eric Silla gives leprosy-a dis- ease that has long been an icon of otherness in the third world, especially Africa-the schol- arly treatment it deserves. In addition, this work should become a model for social histo- ries of particular diseases, especially those that transform their sufferers' identities. After an opening section on recent social scientific and historical studies of illness in Africa, Silla re- views approaches to stigmatizing and identity- transforming diseases, as well as the biology and global distribution of leprosy. Silla's ap- proach is to privilege the individual suf- ferer-he rejects the idea of a homogeneous leprosy experience in Mali or anywhere else.

Silla has organized his material well and written clearly. Chapter 1 is exclusively de- voted to developing the life story of Saran Kieta, a Malian woman who, before she con- tracted leprosy, was fully involved in her soci- ety as woman, wife, mother, and grandmother. In describing one who fills all these roles, Silla points out that those persons who happen to acquire leprosy are first and foremost social persons. He also argues forcefully that there is no need to isolate those infected with the sev- eral types of leprosy. Treatment is relatively easy and available, contagion is very low com- pared to other diseases, and all of the stigma- producing reasons for giving lepers their spe- cial image of otherness are invalid. Silla's particularization of the experience of leprosy in Mali in the book's initial chapter promotes correct scholarship and will no doubt lead Mali as a national society to push for complete destigmatization of the disease.

Remaining chapters move from the individ- ual person perspective to present the history of leprosy in Mali and west Africa. In chapter 2, Silla offers historic Arabic texts that use words,

match between its contents and its title. They do not belong together. Perhaps the book should be retitled "What We Can Do with Na- tive Texts."

People Are Not the Same: Leprosy and Iden- tity in 20th-Century Mali. Eric Silla. Ports- mouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998. vi + 220 pp., photographs, maps, sources, index.

JOHN JANZEN University of Kansas

Here is finally a book about leprosy in Africa thattells the story like it is, like it was, and like it may become. Eric Silla gives leprosy-a dis- ease that has long been an icon of otherness in the third world, especially Africa-the schol- arly treatment it deserves. In addition, this work should become a model for social histo- ries of particular diseases, especially those that transform their sufferers' identities. After an opening section on recent social scientific and historical studies of illness in Africa, Silla re- views approaches to stigmatizing and identity- transforming diseases, as well as the biology and global distribution of leprosy. Silla's ap- proach is to privilege the individual suf- ferer-he rejects the idea of a homogeneous leprosy experience in Mali or anywhere else.

Silla has organized his material well and written clearly. Chapter 1 is exclusively de- voted to developing the life story of Saran Kieta, a Malian woman who, before she con- tracted leprosy, was fully involved in her soci- ety as woman, wife, mother, and grandmother. In describing one who fills all these roles, Silla points out that those persons who happen to acquire leprosy are first and foremost social persons. He also argues forcefully that there is no need to isolate those infected with the sev- eral types of leprosy. Treatment is relatively easy and available, contagion is very low com- pared to other diseases, and all of the stigma- producing reasons for giving lepers their spe- cial image of otherness are invalid. Silla's particularization of the experience of leprosy in Mali in the book's initial chapter promotes correct scholarship and will no doubt lead Mali as a national society to push for complete destigmatization of the disease.

Remaining chapters move from the individ- ual person perspective to present the history of leprosy in Mali and west Africa. In chapter 2, Silla offers historic Arabic texts that use words,

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Article Contentsp. 551p. 552p. 553

Issue Table of ContentsAmerican Ethnologist, Vol. 27, No. 2 (May, 2000), pp. 233-564Front Matter [pp. 233 - 236]"1998 AES Keynote Address": Global Capitalism: What's Race Got to Do with It? [pp. 237 - 256]Crossing Borders: Globalization as Myth and Charter in American Transnational Consumer Marketing [pp. 257 - 282]Black like This: Race, Generation, and Rock in the Post-Civil Rights Era [pp. 283 - 311]The White Edge of the Margin: Textuality and Authority in Biak, Irian Jaya, Indonesia [pp. 312 - 339]Enslaving History: Narratives on Local Whiteness in a Black Atlantic Port [pp. 340 - 370]Transformations in Trade and the Constitution of Gender and Rank in Northeast India [pp. 371 - 399]Custom, Courts, and Class Formation: Constructing the Hegemonic Process Through the Petty Sessions of a Southeastern Irish Parish, 1828-1884 [pp. 400 - 430]Crafting the Public Sphere in the Forests of West Bengal: Democracy, Development, and Political Action [pp. 431 - 461]Permeable Homes: Domestic Service, Household Space, and the Vulnerability of Class Boundaries in Urban India [pp. 462 - 489]Book Reviewsuntitled [pp. 490 - 491]untitled [pp. 491 - 492]untitled [pp. 492 - 494]untitled [pp. 494 - 495]untitled [pp. 495 - 496]untitled [pp. 496 - 498]untitled [pp. 498 - 499]untitled [pp. 499 - 500]untitled [pp. 500 - 502]untitled [pp. 502 - 503]untitled [pp. 503 - 504]untitled [pp. 504 - 505]untitled [pp. 506 - 507]untitled [pp. 507 - 508]untitled [pp. 508 - 509]untitled [pp. 510 - 511]untitled [pp. 511 - 512]untitled [pp. 512 - 513]untitled [pp. 513 - 515]untitled [pp. 515 - 516]untitled [pp. 517 - 518]untitled [pp. 518 - 520]untitled [pp. 520 - 521]untitled [pp. 521 - 523]untitled [pp. 523 - 524]untitled [pp. 524 - 525]untitled [pp. 526 - 527]untitled [pp. 527 - 528]untitled [pp. 528 - 529]untitled [pp. 529 - 531]untitled [pp. 531 - 532]untitled [pp. 532 - 534]untitled [pp. 534 - 536]untitled [pp. 536 - 538]untitled [pp. 538 - 539]untitled [pp. 539 - 540]untitled [pp. 540 - 541]untitled [pp. 542 - 543]untitled [pp. 543 - 544]untitled [pp. 544 - 545]untitled [pp. 545 - 546]untitled [pp. 546 - 548]untitled [pp. 548 - 550]untitled [pp. 550 - 551]untitled [pp. 551 - 553]untitled [pp. 553 - 554]untitled [pp. 554 - 556]untitled [pp. 556 - 557]untitled [pp. 557 - 558]

Back Matter [pp. 559 - 564]