Women and Economic Change: ‘Andean Perspectives Edited by Ann Miles and Hans Buechler This fourteenth volume in the SLA the position women occupy “The essays, produced by cultural anthropologists experience of extensive and deep pat legacy of colonialism. Recor berween Andean and Hispanic t the region. Ever awa changing, roles that women play essays do not relegate women f0 only a private or domestic Sphere. Rather. women are shown to be cash income earners anc cennibutors to market economies, while their positions are seen to be highly variable in time and space. Perhaps portant: ty, women and their changing roles are presented ni esulting product of hegemonic forces but as active agents in the [processes of the very changes described. Contributots: Florence E. Babb, Hans Buechler, Judith-Maria Buechier, Lauris McKee, Ann Miles, Mary }. Welsmantel $8.00 (AAA members) $10.00 (nonmembers) (SBN 0-913167-80-0 Volume 14: Society for Latin American Anthropology Pubtication Series ‘American Anthropological Association 640 Aslington, VA 22203 * (70: hitps/wrew.ameranthassn. org, The Antisocial Skin: Structure, Resistance, and “Modern Primitive” Adornment in the United Statesferences between appeals ving in the heart of the inom the West ;ge, and Iwasa part of one ofthe knew people who engaged in body modification inowgh Thave not myself ‘efnprimiivism began to emer heh I should the nasil ert ‘by placing them in their cultural an hi ya xample to make a ge about ion to existing social and cu oth basic We ‘bodied in cosmogonic my and more immediate and historically particular American jen 1988). Ia the process, [deploy a conee them less 2s determinants of for such act Figure 1 le published in Piercing Fans Internationcl Quarteriy of ‘of meaning. It is these “conditions of meaningfulness the practices represented in Modern Pri rom this perspective, the interview texts in Modern Pri particularly valuable: the ways people talk abou os offer excpeses piercing that are attempts to fix the meaning of those ‘same overall effort 10 express a certain viewpoi nd notin response to the inquiries of the Conversely. there are certain things T ons and practices come to have me: setions and prepresent community” andthe way they constructitin practice.nor will [be cx pects of the positionality (Clifford 1986) of the terviews { am analyzing.* To the extent th the community of people engaged fed, and U have, for the there inves in mind. However, Ferences between the way piecing is seen by say male “Feather” toners (see also G, Rubin 1994). By contra hight heteroglossia 1992), but to apprehend eertsin aspects k treatments of partie! fe attempts o situate the particular in the gener ining the Former as merely an instantiation ofthe latter. I begin by looking ooking at some of the ways Western ideas of the pit they have been put. I argue that certain fereate a space in whieh: In particular, I concer ns between form and content, means and ends wa partof) aquest fork razor lade can come to effect ble to use adornment to act upon the "self."and attempt to describe the ns under which such acts become both 2 way of reacting to the experience of life in an industrial capitalist society andan attempt to effect change. ANTISOCIAL SKIN 291 “Culture” Movements and Cultural Structure tsname from Hobsbawm and Ranger's Handler and Linnekin 1984; Keesing 1949: Lin. rickin and Poyer 1990). Ur much of the work int ‘0 impressed by the Fact that tention to the structural conte possible and effective, Hanson (1989) and Nicholas Thomas (1992) concept of culture in analyzing the construction their work seeks ture movements” (cevivals of traditional culture) ‘within the context of coloniat history, but x does 8 it seems sible cost of failing to diseuss or recognize the rela to what had gone before—-as thou made by it. Writing on the cartent revival of Maori ci Hanson (1989) argues that 2 number practice in fact derived from the co ‘always subject to being refigured in terms of present-day con ‘becomes an argument in favor ofa postmodernist and cultural systems wit smprehensible. Taking the work of Der ion, Hanson ergues that cultural inventions show that meaning ly unstable and open to contest “play” of sign substitutions (1989-898), Hanson's argument isolates one side of a two-sided process: while itis true present in terms ofthe past by writing the past in terms of | }982:317, quoted in Hanson 1989:8 0 true thar the present has a real historical and existential connection with the past. When people “invent” traditions as interested ‘hat are meaningful to themselves and others, out of ex: purposes that were shaped by a particular hi292 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY ical have argued that an anal is a necessary part of un ANTISOCIAL SKIN 25% 19” as opposed 0 “reproduct | presuppose aspeets of the system they sec lenge bbe meaningless. Explicating the ways in which modem tions are acts of resistance requi ural structures in which they become such. In particular, in order, to society? What kind of ives”? Ethnographical answers ‘have long had ahold on de rigueur these days to p (oF more a product of th ‘number of recent works discus iting concepts of “otherness” that of ourselves, Im an article about the 1984-1985 exhibition, Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern,’ ‘Modem Art in New York, James: concentration on formal resemblances between objects proxh century modernists and the “tril insulates us from the real challenge that lished Westem ideas. For him, accepting this challenge —hearing what veto say t0 oF about us—is pat of broad strugele to end the bution of power that has resulted from Western col ‘whereby one of others need(999), Marianna Tongonik exes nts of tthnographies of romance?) nograpie romances Coma er fararet Meats Coming of Ae in Some (961 rtneme one bok ths way nich West preep- ‘ ty in a process that serves engined peje ope of hisrrehy they dup reproducing src HB. Staley autor the Westem mistreatment of actual peo- ‘seers somehow to miss the main point of see Niehof educa a 1¢ effects that Westem imaginings of the nen it nas been shown how a socioes frequent incantation that our notions ofthe pr Mr ouelve than abo ote eo on with the primitive nation has had on others, jsms together, and Lam ‘a people have in various times and places pot the notion of the ANTISOCIAL SKIN 295 sted uses, At one point in her book Torgovnick asks, “Why the cor ion of tribal art by European artist, aes- (orgovnick 1990:125). We she notes) the presence of thos in tof abloody history of expropriation, subjugs- original incarnation, the primitivism of artists such ay Gauguin, Picasso, Kandinsky. or Grosz was politcal in another sense: it wes conceived as ares ions within Europe in the early part ofthe cen. the eyesof ts defenders, such as Ernst Bloch inhu- lest artists turned to an imagined pri ionalism obviously participates in t underlying much ofthe calor tof order to indigenous popul 201 grounds o avtomal ists Suggests, notions ofthe pri Here, with those who pierce, ism” (Stocking 1976:3 connection between 30% me of human nature and more one way of living among many possible ones (1988:239-240), Ruth Benedict's Parierns of Cul, 934 work that became tremendously popular as o- writer). Marshall Shlins's Culture and Practical Rea- tnd The Use and Abuse of Biology (19760) also argue against ny ‘grounding of our social order in the material or Biological worl ly valued aspects of out is Stanley Diamond's fn Search of the (1974), 2 book that itself has become an source for modern primitives. Critiques such as Diamond's often take of countermarratives to Western narratives of progress—with which, it ‘must be emphasized, they share a great deal.296 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1ed or modern. This tempo “them” and “us” allows us to experience such 3 coun- temnarrative 8s a critique of our own order, The primitive is perfectly suited to function as an alternative vision of the world for us because it has been con- structed in opposition to our conceptions of ourselves, Cr based on a vision of some primitive pastoral thus have an to notions of progress, and seem to have bee st since the Et * anthropologists seck among “primitives 18 of the potencies ofthe human 5 3" was a noble savage, un ry philozophes imagined 8 purer reaton. By the superstition had come to seem the dominant feature of 0- ifferent view ofthe oth-century tion ofthe primitive I he was not a primi of those countercurrents—that there is a siructural basis for the recurrent arn- bivalence about our own system that underlies the repeated tendency to use the primitive to criticize it, This may be seen by comparing certain Christian con- ANTISOCIAL SKIN. 267 was the Fall and origi ‘world in which unending labor was the By cutting humanity off from God, the demned us to know the world only in an instrumental fashion. The: labor ‘was also central to the thinking of authors like Thomas Hobbes, John ‘Adam Smith, For them, progress resulted from the struggle fore larly play perience of our own society and the ways in which we eo In this sense, primitivisms do resemble kastom movements in th they respond to the folk experience of capitalism and draw upon of exis pose alternatives, which are in both cases located ‘understanding of primitivism we ean move the United States today, formation that tattoos have undergone tattoos changed from something that art students and cultural ra A Celebration of Leathersexual ct. Geoff Mains’ Urban Aboriginals: 1984) provides insight into the gay malemove in mal Aver community. While not coextensive with the “modern prim ‘frameworks. Accordingly, should emphasize that this article is not iment, this community is cenainly a source of much of the current interest tempt to explain body modification ia general, but rather an attempt to dis body piercing. As the Mains’s book suggests, members of this sexuat ‘cass the conditions (cul torical) under which it has been possible to fen sce themselves as exploring something primitive or basic thu ‘make it speak in a particular way. piercing, and sea id Juno have already in a sense le Modern Primitives makes a assertion, First, by terpiece of the gay leather commun what poople are doing today in San Fran [At this event, some 200,000 people wandered the streets drink lation t things that no0-Weste Second, by calling thems "medern to speak) of our nor the world By doubly situating my ewa discussion of these pra of Wester primitivisa Iam also. i. sense, alteady interpreting then Fi discussing body ’ ig that aetual people once part selfconse by franving the examina ley give for their acts. As mach as they strive to connect wi hey express peculiarly Wester concerns with the rel self” and the social whole, This shared concern selPis one unites the practices grouped under the heading "modern prim ship between the book Modern Primitives and tices itexplores. The term modern pri who engage in ses and p make to “body dece see getting my nose pierced, but | really wouldn't made by people with, say, t y endorses their practices as forms of re book is perhaps best understood as anative metacommentary. and mately involved with the practices. Fora in the gay male Jn meant 10 the Amsterdam» artist Hanky Panky, wl ied non ethnographic sources fr tatoo designs ed and understood ted for particular styles of piereings, and some 's interviewed in Modern Primitives00 CULTURAL ANTI x Western prt an Ghost Dance (Vale and Jono 1989). ives have gone so far as to aitempt wo reenact such rites asthe Na- ‘ceptions of modernity, and something general about social and ly constructed) social and pol the way in which these ip between the 5 ves employ a number of key ppologist who wants to understand both something specific about Western con- 10 take on emotional ang intellectual meaning for the participants. Af- construction of the relationship between society tein A. Rubin 1988b:237) 1008, rarely was there any sort of large-scale signia, of some other design. While som in tatooing began in the 1960s and accelerated dur igh gas station attendants, 99.9% jst of the work was “flash” off the iegrated de- ANTISOCIAL SINC 301 petus for these changes eame from ty rowing awareness of Japanese-style ‘rience would suggest that inthe 1980s, kinds of people to tattoos Lyle Tuttle in San Francisco was the ‘of sorts. During the 1960s, he tattooed Ja Atiggering a minor fad in tantooing among th 1989:14). This was one of the ously as an at, and drew Japan, to argue against bring Japanese designs to tst working in Haw ‘States was Saitor His work and the Japanese style seem to have inspired a number of the most prominent artists working today, Vyvyn Lazonga,an anist who got he ‘nan old-fashioned street shop in Seattle, recalls the impact Japanese designs had on re foremost artists in the U States today, emphasizes the respect given to tat ‘drew him to study Japanese work: Japanese art and the pinnael ‘world at And through ‘corresponding witha Japanese tattoo a“teated him like royalty." He was given a chief's name and a kava ceremony, the existence of a kind of transcendent humanity that is cen of the primitive as a source of alter: Dan Thome, a former merchant seaman, settled for a time in Micronesia and eared to tatoo using waditional hand techniques. He now sees part of his mis- sion as helping people preserve thei techniques and designs. In adeition to trav- ing around the islands tatoving people in exchange for fish, sleeping mats, 1g to record the remaining “authent 's very difficult for a foreigner in Microne- ‘mistakes you can make” (quoted in Vale and ‘ough his tatooing practice and having tattoos, he feels, be has found a way to connect with Micronesi ability to establish such connections between disaffected Westemers and the victims of colonial expansion. Because tattooing was frowned upon and suppressed by missionaries and colon ike Thome was able 1 escape to some extent the categories of people and rela- tion. The difference established in theeyos tum helps esta that is seen as responsible for both colonialism abroad and cultural yy at home, “The links that have been constructed between tatoo in the United States ) came to be seen as something wi human practice. Don Ed Hardy 0 tance of tatoo’s ancientness for him inthe following excerpt. Hi ANTISOCIAL SKIN 303 1. because they bring together a number of themes that ruo through current tattoo practice, frozen tattooed Seythian co the docu 's healthy for people to again feel they're connecting wi ‘Of that frame of reference were the worl human: tooing is need for ritual 18. Therefore. when someone i ‘States today a anects them to the rest of hum: Bd Hardy, quoted in Vale and Juno 1989:53) because they ae pat spiritual quest in common with people from all ofthe other culeures tattooing. I seems clear from Hardy's remarks and those of Dan Thome above akind of cultural pluralism that does not recognize a single scale for ‘snot so much that members of other culivres ate explic- ike our own ancestors, but thatthe qual primitives” on the basis of such an evolutionary mapping—a certain connec tion to basic human impulkes, a respect for tradition, and a magical as opposed to a rational view of the world—have been applied to the non-Western world304 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, ted with evolutionary schemas organize the thinking of many modern [uoted in Vale snd Juno 1989:9] In identifying an empiricist epistemology as the basi for scientific pro- reserables that of the Enlightenment philosophes who story as a progress toward truth. For Musafar and other the road to “Truth,” but a road 10 other modes of knowing powers interes ately than we do. (queted in Vale and Juno 1989:99], 12 goes on to suggest that these symbols can stimulate correspondences on the part ofthe wearer and that tattoos can thus be educational those who get them. The relationship between an individual and her or his T want to crs with reer history. can represent other forms of knowledge, other (non-Western) ‘ways of being in the world, then their current popul ANTISOCIAL SKIN. 208 ‘and Greg Kulz, a San Francisco tat whose own tattoos include a large skeleton-like figure running the length of his back: Vale: There's a lot more girs getting tetooed now. Kot Judeo- Christin tradition frowns on 100810 signify an identifi thinking. For example, tery with a tattoo is one of those emblem ‘one seems to know. That tatoos are see filement of the body popularity least alternative ways of jn an Orthodox lewish ceme- snippets of information that every.Mie CLLfonal MeiWorShav ‘ates comment that Western colonial expansion has eft the world “ess restingplace captures oe heme rnnig though common i ‘me that the net of effect of modernization is to homogenize daily ‘Americana ‘become emblems of an atl tie folk culture at odds iags and shat differ 19 material being worked. In out their ate act. When people talk peopl aio tions, and of a place in a collec ik about ther tattoos, these two aspects esas complemen: ANTISOCIAL SKIN 307 biggest differences between the “new” tat traditional tattooing of isthe '00 being “personal.” As I noted in discussing the ‘country and having happens (Sanders 198), many tat ive creative effort between the artist and the client. Don Ed Hardy in Vale and Juno 1989-50-67) emphasize ‘modern pri held notion that such an identity can only be an ap which is thought of as preexisting any standardized Hence, while tattoos in general are about marking ide sance has fostered an emphasis on more private and. identity —on the use of tattos to represe the categories of society For many people. getting a tattoo is part of a larger process of self- ‘exploration. Jane Handel is a photographer, seulp Be ‘who has writen a “hard boiled navel which in part explores th Aesbian underground in San Francisco” (Vale and Juno 1989:76), Several yeurs ago she began getting tattoos, and now she gets one each yeat. She describes her feelings about108 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Te pecs of recisng#pemanent engraved 30 be conf protective barrier or shield aga ‘who Fam as well asa form of Juno 1989-78}, sf knowledge. Vyvyn Lazonga reports ing of stripes across her back and arms 1 represent ac ‘Vale and Juno 1989:126)2" Before her u Don Ed Hardy, was perhaps the fore- (ooing, She saw her art ascentered on the dlvelopment of in terms, Working with Helen Palmer, a om Bartley, she developed dvgn rongh an ended esis of ference, ange with Fakir Musafar, Andrea Juno notes tattoos” trans formative properties: se pher working out of Los Angeles, devotes much of her work to documenting the fartoo community and the sexual underground, Discussing her latest pro} Under My Skin, which deals with women and tattoos, she posits an ionship between taking control over one’s body and re ANTISOCIAL SKIN 709112 Goi TURAL ANeHROPOLOGY, ippe pi ‘connections fo that community, genital piercing is probably confined to people who also practice hard-core S/M, Ac~ cording to Jim Ward, “Ninety percent of modem people do x tenhunce their enjoyment of sex” (quoted ip Vale and Juno 1989:1 part of SIM, and much S/M makes no exe ith reviving particular “primitive” practices. Yet the op- jms made by proponents of piercing gad its connection to the and Western f piercing must be understood in this contex hhausted by i In my experien pain, but pleasure. The appeal. they say, tween the two: both bad sensation. People who practice S/M in the context o today emphasize that itis not that they enjoy pain per se. Rath toachieve a state in I sensation can be experienced as pleasure. ways the p 1 S/M can be compared 10 the pursui riences through such things as transcendental meditation, shamanic dream jo seys! ‘of hallucinogenic drugs during the 1960s as. self and as.a potential tool for achieving s pants to reflect a less repressed conception of Sexuality that is common in parts of the world that have not been overrun by ‘Westernization. In general, the blame for the repressive character of the West is ANTISOCIAL SKIN. 313 is exchange between Andrea Juno and Sheree rere the non-Westem world 9F explorations they are engaging in would not lead the kind of ostracism that occurs in our society. Genesis P-Orridge, # musician, performance artist, and devotce of piescing and primitivism, sees prim cites as actually sophisticated tegrate diferent aspects 0 ‘and psychology” and do not reject the mentally ill but accept ther differences as tives as more open to sexuality than Jn general, p ‘ban Aboriginals (Mai ciated loosely with either our “anim: Many people talk about S/M as source of relief from the alienation Ns his amusement at having flashbacks le feele that his leather 8 it helps him when 1984:38), For many leathermen, ‘conventional aspects of and getting ahead inthe world is no longer your Number One concern” (quoted114 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY hey are alive. Genesis 1 are compensation ‘and by modem explorations of the (ying due to our “cultural conditioning’ [ANTISOCIAL SKIN {As [have noted nipple and genital piercings are distinct from other aspects ‘of SM in that they not only evoke some generalized notion of| sexually repressed and thus more other places. Sheree Rose notes th ‘through the head ofthe penis, witha small ball protruding on eithe ‘ommended in the Kama Suira (Vale and Juno 1989:109); Doug Malloy, an ec- centric millionaire whom Fakir Musafar describes a piercing” (quoted in Vale and Juno 1989:24), notes i ‘mon throughout the areas surrounding the Indian Ocean and ‘sometimes demanded by women in Borneo at a condition for having sex w' ‘man (Vale and Juno 1989:25).” Thus piercing is able to represent sd knowledge ofthe self obtained through participation inc bul particular esoteric bodies of knowledge about sexuality and ices are being given 2 so that they do not have in thei contexis. Bizarre Ris broader understanding of than is current in this culture (Fakir Musafar, in Vale and6 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY ‘ance from serving as a reminder of the experience of being cut.” Like | culting isrepresented as an act of asserting the nd you hve ectiming to's tof peopl. [quod in Vale ad ano 1989 105, rmphasis| 1 people's Wesie by most of the people interviewed in Modern Primitives and mest of the 1zand piercing are abo ely thatthe popularity of scarring among, negative connotations Noteworthy here isthe charac the term rite of passage. Despite the fact ANTISOCIAL SKIN 317 8 that supposedly do not deny the bod} ‘Western t favor of the spirit. non-Westem techniques of adorning and transforming the body. ploy a number of key symbolic dor selfexpression as and transgressive vers ‘What kinds of selves are invoked by these pr relate to received ideat ofthe pri iy a wh: tooing, piercing, and scarification are seen as doing to the self, or saying abo the self, before moving on (in the next section) to look at why selves are scen 0 problematic in the contemporary United States, and how acting on them right be seen to be of acting on socie‘AL ANTHROPOLOGY. inition and magic, and to allow people to express a greater degree of indivi than is permissible here in the West. Thus, when x Westerner receives only beeause the tattoo makes him source of power for the individual who gains access ice of power that does not depend on existing econom ‘amore harmonious relationship rs. Mis too contributes tothe way in which the tat 1. since differences between people are seen is conceived of as socially imposed. “That they act on the body is also central to how tattoos me "ways, Modem primitives see tattoos a way of expressing, ‘ceive of 2s personal and presocial: by marking the skin, having an existence prior to ‘a part ofa process by whi has taken place in the las 25 ye ‘emphasis on iduality of the designs themselves, which are often the protluct of broader explorations of non-Western cultures or of collaboration be- rather than (as formerly) mass-produced designs. This [Not only are they a permanent taken away from the individual. dual can assert control overeven central themes in modern primi- ofthe body are not unique to modern primitives: dieting id plastic surgery spring readily t ies that also (9 more fully realize the self.On the one hand. these ceptions of soci ‘On the other hand, Aerstanding of the body than the more mainstream practices enumerst ‘and they respond to «different set of aesthetic principles. The more mainstream practices assert contral over the body in order to make attractive to oth- ANTISOCIAL SKIN’ 319 the conjunction of individual desites and exists i society glossed a¢ “n at hop oes oon tne n which sex sare nd conse ond become plenos A key to the power and 7 ‘people not only articulate the critique but ena habit 2 past of them. By going through the process of receiving a pierced, or being cut, people write the critique oa thei ow pret obi ine critique on their own bodies, transforming0 CULTURAL asmiROROLOGY ‘The practices that make up modem prit bringing some personal inner self out into the world and makin, cial self. By acting on the skin, modern primitives are contradictions between these jivisn are all fundamentally about rough the physical at of breaking the ansform those who engage in xd here is magic: as Cliff Raven said of rato ieve we areal struggling toward... isthe one armed the jackass into the acbra” (quoted by Don Ed Hardy in Vale and Juno 1949.51), In modifying (and thus seizing control over) their bodies, people seek to transform—and thus seize control over—themselves. Primitivism and Cay [At this point, having explored what tatooing, piercing, and scarfication mean to modem primitives, it should be possible to return to some ofthe larger issues I raised in the opening of this article. In particular | want to examine the relationship between the acts by which people resist power structures and the thove same structures. As Thave use of existing systems of sistance. Inmy view, by contrast, that resistance is engaged in by, and must bave meaning for them. In what ing connections between tnd the ways in which tattooing, piercing, and scarifica strongly inthe ways people talk abou they find them to be power ANTISOCIAL SKIN 300 experiences. Their emotional power is critical to their ability to express resis- ago. How can we understand that power? facts power is expressed in par mark the event, people sec part of what constitues these act /ew—is their supposed connection any persons in a formal pos inthe act. The heightened formality ofthe occasion mark ‘everyday life and gives the acts mote than ordinary sgt ‘rituals create relationships between people, they ate seen to (and infact do) help tivist rites the body is submited to someone whose aut tioned by the state~someane who may stand for esot agressive authority. Again, in medical terms the body is a biologieal rather than a vessel forthe spi ‘commitments breaches ofthe skin, an so on. Yet part oftheir emotional power‘have emphasized the way in which the practices under examina~ to the existing order by reference toa ve. These include the association of that exists prior to so- "ag asource lence about ‘general. Part he narrative of po: es. While few among. ly the fruits of what we see as “our pro- en gained at the expense of losing other realized human beings. re grew up alongside the figuring of our his- tory asa progress, and it participated in defining the nature of that progress. AS ‘many commentators have by now pointed out (Kuper 1988: Torgovaick 1990), if anything, to do with actual “others” in symbol of opposition to the mainstream. derives ‘an appropriate and powerful vehicle If this suggest they undergo an experience that bears ac ‘changes as occurring around the turn of change occurred wit 8 shift fom a Procestant ethos of tation through self-denial towards there iis world—an ethos characterized by an ‘Dayehie and physical health defined in sweeping “This therapeutic ethos was also characterized by “peculiarly modem” emo: tional needs in particular the need to renew a s fragmented and diffu that was increasingly seen as for authentic experience felt tobe lacking in three main causes for these (1983:6-17), Fist, urbanization led toa sense of anony: advance brought an unprecedented degree of com class, While convenient, these changes led to somehow unreal. Second, ket economy. success or forces outside the individe. * became the key to advancement. Whi ‘various social masks had been commonplace for some ingly began to have trouble locating the “simple, genuine se ized Protestant theology be rapeutic ets, and the de sis on prudence to an emphasis on self-tea more a vehicle For providing a sense of meaning and fulfillment impulse promoted growth and pr this ethos was a response tothe increasing rational ess as ends in themsclve is because these groups have mor to.admit. They do so because324 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY ucture developed in this yween resistance move~ the necessary condi ive practices of fan alternative explore why particular features ofthis been not simply sequence ofthe biblical bodies come to be objectified tokens of the self which are explored the ways in which Wester no- ifioad as prior to and outside of society; and suggested thatthe way these kinds of bodily manipulations become political an be w ns ofthe development ofa therapeutic ethos based ‘on the recovery of the self in response tothe experience of consumer capitalism. ‘was nto address explicitly he epigraph from Lenin at The implied question—whether or not particular prac- ices figured as resistance ‘possibility of changing the nature of the sys- tem ay a whole—strikes me a irrelevant to an account of how resistance ments come into being and the nature oftheir appezl. Yet becaus the question is always aleady there, feel a need to pose it (by graph) and to address it hee, at least briely. practices such as those employed by mod to predict, or even to specify after the fact. The vehicles people tobe appropriate as resistance because the i where power comes ‘consciousness as a regime are not necessarily places where an alteration Wil upset the batance of the larger system. Thus, while Foucault has shown us thatthe body is certainly a focus for the exercise of power that contributes ‘maintenance of the it does not follow that resisting the exé such power ‘again be drawn with culture movements in the Pacific. While i is cera ‘cae that people's desire for Western goods made possible the cultural 3t people postpone the ful labor, and forgo consumption in favor of accumulation of investment capit economy they must instead surrond credit and before they have ac ‘verstcin 1981; Tambiah 1985). By these practices, modem primitives may have{326 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, ‘Cobn-Bendit and Cohn-Bendi face of a widespread view of the failures of is] their own ends a force that the larger society encourages at e ‘Should they have any lasting effect on the larger society I suspe ‘cause of this people not ofthe West—who have had the (dubi in Westem consumer society, may find ovr soci is achieved not so much by manipulating the self as by land by finding roles for communal and tribal institutions in ‘When Maori get tattooed it generally expresses an more than an exploration of the self; or if itis the later ves gaining knowledge of gencal Notes Acknowledgmems. This article grew out of coursework with Jean Comaroff aed “Andsewr Apr, and has benefited from ther comments on carter draft, Ira Boshkow with me about the significance of ‘Salmond and other members of the rand by 2 anonymous reviewer taught me that anthropology has something uni met my appreath have helped re think ab ‘methodological and theoreti cations of what I was doing. George Mareus tone feo agreed to look ata paper that was ( long, and Dan Segal bas poited out several feresting resources and forced me o refine my positions and my prose: problems to use "scare quotes” is complicated (and perhaps polit ANTISOCIAL SKIN. 377 constrtion ofthe category is one ofthe topes oft have general is article, Lhave generally rained from using qaotes when the referent seems to be ou category. When, instead, the a8 what is shared by modern primitives and other members of our gociely, and by looking st the way culture provides428 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY. anihropologies leave unnamed art fe: he organization of practice by es hod that (as Freud taught vs) where sometimes we can percive only fre may nevertholess be patterns thermany who have ec he widespread desire by some posed order 1 a product of ight to Marshall Salins (personal communication. jm hae been examined by a aumber of writers. AS We society was pl 0 use by “imperialists and Is and Marniss” (988:239-240), and ames fhoor (1982) notes the others about iy of primitvism wo the modernist projet and Tor bath the processes by whic Whe primitive was con Shee in conceptions of the ma Iv antbropology, such attempts often rey secording othe same logic a8 0uF cof these spel 15, While completing ngumnent in Osher Tribes. Siudyafe totes Rel ro.3$ to make volume. lke highlights the sense in which “lifestyle” choices are 1d of "shopping in which people choose among, Iso ange father on) tha thi ANTISOCIAL SKN 828 ye that ats of sre fully ‘consumption play in our def anexpression ofthe desire ‘he people of Papua New sh to tke up the subject in this atic is powrly understood, What Iam sugee of belief has more todo with self-construction than foal statement about the world son's rasa nes City of Gee (Benenson 19841461), "2. According to Gayle Rubin, the accuracy of Malloy’sethnographic inform fs open to question (Gayle Rubin, converttion withthe author. Washington, D.C. rather than the experience, i primary. While many fboat"imemory."it isin the sense that the content of de design signifies something else that the oviieot wishes to be remind of rather than # the experience of being tattooed. Tattoos may also be about memory i the sense that by their permanence they halt the Row of (bographic 26, "Play” plscings are temporary piercings wsvally dor hypodermic nesses. Smalt weights may be hang fom ther Ua seen.” They are removed afterwards. 27. Terence Turner (1980) has argv that skin in most or all social systems, ‘of our steReferences Cited 1 Against Culture, dn Recaptoring Anthzopoiogy: Working inthe Pres- Richard G. Fon dh Pp. 137-162. Sana Fe, NM: School of American Research Appacinai, Arun 1997 Modernity st Large: Cultural Dimensions of Oictatization, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press ‘Anderson, Benedict | Communities: Reflection onthe Origin and Spread of Naticnaism. Barkin, Esra, and Ronald Bush 1995. Prehstoies of the Future: The PriiivistProjct and the Cxltre of Modern- ford, CA: Stanford University Press. x: Symbolic Anthropology In tie Comparative sand Texts. 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Northwestern Tanzania on a Single Shilling: Sociality, Embodiment, Valuation Brad Weiss Deparment of nthropotony College of Willa and Mary ‘An Aesthetic of Objects and Bodies ‘The process of ferm isan elaborate craft ‘afin lengthy procedar {any told me oftheir concem that fone and the same in Haya neighborhoods) would spoi Kerosene into the frothy mixture during the night. But Haya evaluations of the Sine points of the bres imited to anxious attempts to safeguard day). Over the course of these days and ni ‘mixture are frequently tasted scrutinize and savor portant to test the beer on the second sugars out of the banana juice but has not yet amples from the developing isnot only enjoyed ala tiem 1393