Indigenous societies along the temperate Pacific coast of North America embody diverse cultural institutions. This variation is conventionally classified into two distinct cultural areas: the Northwest Coast (NWC) and California (CAL). Discussion of the environmental, material, social, and ideological variation in these societies has a long and continuing history in anthropology. In the last few years, two divergent accounts of this variation have appeared. One, proposed by Wengrow and Graeber, drawing on the concept of schismogenesis - 'progressive differentiation' at points of culture contact - posits a sharp contrast between Northwest Coast 'Fisher-kings' and Californian 'Protestant foragers'. The second views variation across the region as more continuous, focusing on how differential resource control and patron-client dynamics can generate asymmetries in wealth and power. Our review of Wengrow and Graeber's proposal identifies several flaws: it portrays NWC culture in an over-simplified and reductive manner, exaggerates the differences between CAL and NWC societies (particularly in the boundary region), and fails to provide convincing evidence that those differences result from oppositional differentiation (schismogenesis). We then explain why we believe opportunities for resource control offer a more empirically valid and theoretically coherent explanation for variation in political economy across these two culture areas.
This article analyses the ways characteristics associated with the 'Schedule Tribe' ('ST') category in India shape situated acts of relating to others with either deference or assumed superiority. Ethnography shows how within an indigenous Adivasi community the traits that determine identification within the group generate feelings of entitlement and stigma, and provide frameworks for ascribing status distinctions to others, as equal, superior, or inferior. The ethnography of interaction between members of an 'ST' community captures the interpellative process of social actors continually placing each other into subjectively constituted maps of association and relatedness that are informed by longer discourses of classification. The material illuminates how characteristics associated with 'ST' identities that are valorized in one context may be stigmatized in another, suggesting that literatures on politics of recognition must be more attentive to the contextual variability of such frameworks in different spaces. L'article analyse comment des caract & eacute;ristiques associ & eacute;es au statut de & laquo; Scheduled Tribe & raquo; (ST) en Inde orientent des actes relationnels situ & eacute;s soit vers la d & eacute;f & eacute;rence envers son vis-& agrave;-vis, soit vers un a priori de sup & eacute;riorit & eacute;. L'ethnographie montre comment, dans une communaut & eacute; autochtone adivasi, les traits qui d & eacute;terminent l'identification au sein du groupe g & eacute;n & egrave;rent des sentiments de privil & egrave;ge et de stigmatisation et cr & eacute;ent un cadre pour & eacute;tablir les diff & eacute;rences de statut assign & eacute;es & agrave; autrui : & eacute;galit & eacute;, sup & eacute;riorit & eacute; ou inf & eacute;riorit & eacute;. L'ethnographie des interactions entre des membres d'une communaut & eacute; & laquo; ST & raquo; met en lumi & egrave;re le processus interpellatif d'acteurs sociaux qui passent leur temps & agrave; se situer mutuellement sur des sch & eacute;mas d'association et de parent & eacute; constitu & eacute;s subjectivement et influenc & eacute;s par des discours de classification plus anciens. Le mat & eacute;riel & eacute;claire la mani & egrave;re dont les caract & eacute;ristiques associ & eacute;es aux identit & eacute;s & laquo; ST & raquo; qui sont valoris & eacute;es dans un contexte peuvent & ecirc;tre stigmatis & eacute;es dans un autre, ce qui sugg & egrave;re que la litt & eacute;rature sur la politique de la reconnaissance doit accorder davantage d'attention & agrave; la variabilit & eacute; de ces cadres en fonction du contexte dans diff & eacute;rents espaces.
This article reconstructs the history of E.N. Fallaize, a member of the Royal Anthropological Society and the British Association for the Advancement of Science, during the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, in order to assess his collection of mostly nude images. The collection exemplifies an uncomfortable ambiguity between ethnographic and pornographic images in the documentary record, the consideration of which makes visible an aspect of collecting and archiving visual images that has mostly been rendered opaque. It further explores the value of such collections, especially those associated with sexuality, at a critical moment in the history of archives, museums, and anthropology, because calls to de-colonize anthropology have raised ethical and legal concerns about making such materials available for use. Le pr & eacute;sent article reconstitue l'histoire d'E.N. Fallaize, membre de la Royal Anthropological Society et de la British Association for the Advancement of Science, entre les ann & eacute;es 1910 et 1930, et examine notamment sa collection d'images, compos & eacute;e en grande majorit & eacute; de nus. La collection de Fallaize est un bon exemple de l'inconfortable ambigu & iuml;t & eacute; entre images ethnographiques et pornographie dans les archives documentaires, dont l'examen met au jour un aspect de la collecte et de l'archivage des images qui a g & eacute;n & eacute;ralement & eacute;t & eacute; occult & eacute;. L'article explore en outre la valeur de telles collections, notamment lorsqu'elles sont associ & eacute;es & agrave; la sexualit & eacute;, & agrave; un moment critique de l'histoire des archives, des mus & eacute;es et de l'anthropologie o & ugrave; les appels & agrave; d & eacute;coloniser l'anthropologie ont fait appara & icirc;tre que la mise & agrave; disposition de ces documents en vue de leur exploitation soulevait des probl & egrave;mes & eacute;thiques et juridiques.
For over a century, anthropologists have documented the many institutions that exist to respond to witchcraft and the uncanny that it names: oracles that attempt to produce certainty by naming the witch; moots in which grievances are aired; trials in magistrates' courts that attempt to satisfy the community while preserving the life of the accused; Christian purification crusades that cleanse blackened souls to unify riven communities. But can the uncanny be contained by any of these institutions? Extending existing anthropological work on doubt and scepticism, I argue that the effort to know and contain witchcraft through ritual means is always premised on scepticism. It is a restless quest for conviction rather than a violent response to certainty. In the central highlands of Papua New Guinea today, self-consciously modern witch trials involving torture have become the ultimate oracular authority for revealing and countering kumo witchcraft. Confessions made under torture seem to be uniquely satisfying, offering surer 'proofs' and 'evidence' in the place of indeterminate signs. However, alongside progressivist discourses, people denounce torture as abuse and point out the futility and hubris of seeking to know and contain witchcraft. Bringing together scholarship on witchcraft and scepticism from the anthropology of witchcraft (which has undertheorized torture) and work on torture and scepticism from history (which has extensively theorized torture), I argue that scepticism often redoubles violence in the pursuit of its resolution. Depuis plus d'un si & egrave;cle, les anthropologues recensent les nombreuses institutions dont le r & ocirc;le est de lutter contre la sorcellerie et l'& eacute;trange sur lequel celle-ci met un nom : devins qui cherchent la certitude en d & eacute;signant les sorci & egrave;res, audiences o & ugrave; les griefs s'expriment, proc & egrave;s devant les tribunaux qui tentent de satisfaire la communaut & eacute; tout en & eacute;pargnant la vie des personnes point & eacute;es du doigt, croisades chr & eacute;tiennes pour la purification des & acirc;mes souill & eacute;es et l'unification des communaut & eacute;s divis & eacute;es. On peut cependant se demander si l'& eacute;trange peut & ecirc;tre circonscrit par aucune de ces institutions. En prolongeant le travail anthropologique existant sur le doute et le scepticisme, l'autrice avance que les efforts d & eacute;ploy & eacute;s pour conna & icirc;tre la sorcellerie et la contenir par des moyens rituels s'appuient toujours sur le scepticisme. Ils sont une qu & ecirc;te sans fin de conviction plut & ocirc;t qu'une r & eacute;ponse violente & agrave; la certitude. Aujourd'hui, dans les hautes terres du centre de la Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guin & eacute;e, des proc & egrave;s en sorcellerie qui se veulent modernes et recourent & agrave; la torture sont devenus l'autorit & eacute; oraculaire supr & ecirc;me pour r & eacute;v & eacute;ler et battre en br & egrave;che la sorcellerie kumo. Les aveux faits sous la torture semblent exceptionnellement satisfaisants, offrant des & laquo; preuves & raquo; et des & laquo; pi & egrave;ces & agrave; conviction & raquo; solides au lieu d'indices ind & eacute;termin & eacute;s. N & eacute;anmoins, dans le sillage de discours progressistes, des voix s'& eacute;l & egrave;vent pour d & eacute;noncer la torture et pointer l'inutilit & eacute; et l'arrogance qu'il y aurait & agrave; vouloir conna & icirc;tre et contenir la sorcellerie. En r & eacute;unissant, d'une part, les & eacute;tudes de la sorcellerie et du scepticisme produites par l'anthropologie de la sorcellerie (qui n'a pas suffisamment th & eacute;oris & eacute; la torture) et, d'autre part, les travaux d'historiens sur la torture et le scepticisme (et l'histoire a largement th & eacute;oris & eacute; la torture), l'autrice soutient que le scepticisme exacerbe souvent la violence en cherchant & agrave; la r & eacute;gler.
This article studies Indian-Bangladeshi friendship ethnographically, as a contested political imaginary, claim, and relation, from the vantage of its shared borderlands. Staging friendship, I show, is a geopolitical project that engages equally the highest echelons of the Indian and Bangladeshi states and ordinary residents of its marginalized borderlands. In conversation with the anthropological and interdisciplinary scholarship on friendship and the political aesthetics of nationalism, I develop an ethnographic frame to study friendship in and as geopolitics. Zooming in on friendship as political aesthetic and ethical practice allows us to grapple with the hegemonies and hierarchies, the elasticity and the power of such histories, and the everyday practices that constitute the geopolitical as a lively horizon. Moving beyond a traditional conception of geopolitics, this article is an invitation to imagine instead a geopolitics of friendship that centres and takes seriously the difficult work of living solidarity through differences, that many communities are not only engaged in, not as occasional, but as everyday acts of making a liveable world.
