You do not stand in one place to watch a masquerade.

-AN IGBO SAYING

9 . Histories of the Tribal

and the Modem

DURING THE WINTER of 1 984 - 8 5 one cou ld encou nter tribal objects
in an u n u s u a l n u m ber of locations around New York C ity. T h i s chapter
su rveys a half-dozen, foc u s i n g on the most controversi a l : the major ex­
h i bition held at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), " ' Pri m itivism' i n
2 0th Centu ry A rt : Affi n ity of t h e Tri ba l a n d the Modern ." The chapter's
"eth nogra p h i c present" is l ate December 1 984 .

The "tri ba l " objects gathered on West F i fty-th i rd Street have been a rou n d .
They are travelers-some a rriv i n g from fo l klore a n d ethnograph i c m u ­
s e u m s i n E u rope, others from a rt ga l l eries a n d private co l l ections. They
have trave l ed fi rst c l ass to the Museum of Modern Art, e l aboratel y c rated
and i ns u red for i m portant s u m s . Previous accommodations have been
l ess l uxurious: some were stolen, others " p u rc hased" for a song by co­
lon i a l ad m i n i strators, trave lers, anthropologists, m i ssionaries, sa i l ors i n
African ports . These non -Western objects have been by tu rns c u riosities,
eth nograph i c spec i mens, major art creations. After 1 900 they began to
turn u p i n E u ropean flea m arkets, thereafter mov i ng between avant-garde

1 89
1 90 COLLECTIONS

stud ios and co l l ectors' apartments . Some came to rest i n the u n h eated
basements or " l a boratories" of a nth ropology museums, su rrounded by
objects m ade in the same region of the worl d . Others encountered odd
fel low trave lers, l ighted and l abel ed i n strange d isplay cases. Now on
West Fifty-th i rd Street they interm i ngle with works by E u ropean mas­
ters- Picasso, G iacomett i , B ranc usi, and others . A th ree-d i mensional
Eskimo mask with twel ve arms and a n u m ber of holes hangs beside a
canvas on w h i c h joan M i r6 has pai nted colored shapes. The people i n
N ew York look a t the two objects and see that they are a l i ke.
Travelers tel l d i fferent stories i n d i fferent places, and on West F i fty­
th i rd Street an origi n story of moder n i sm is featu red . Aro u nd 1 9 1 0 Pi­
casso and his cohort sudden l y, i ntu itive l y recogn ize that "pri m i tive" ob­
jects a re in fact powerfu l "art." They col l ect, i m itate, and are affected by
these objects . Thei r own work, even when not d i rectly i nfl uenced , seems
odd l y rem i n i scent of non-Western forms. The modern and the pri m itive
converse across the centu ries and conti nents. At the M useum of Modern
Art a n exact h i story i s to ld featu ring i nd ividual artists and objects, the i r
encou nters i n spec ific stud ios a t prec i se moments. Photographs docu­
ment the cruci a l i nfl uences of non-Western artifacts on the pioneer mod­
ern ists . T h i s focused story is surrou nded and infused with another-a
loose a l l egory of re l ations h i p centeri ng on the word affinity. The word is
a k i nsh i p term , suggesti n g a deeper or more natu ral rel ationsh i p than
mere resemblance or j uxtaposition . It con notes a com mon q u a l ity or es­
sence joi n i n g the tri bal to the modern . A Fam i ly of A rt is brought to­
gether, globa l , d i verse, rich l y i nventive, and m i racu lously u n i fied , for
every object d i s p l ayed on West Fifty-th i rd Street looks modern .
The exh i b ition at MOMA is h i storica l and d idactic. It is com ple­
mented by a comprehensive, scholarly cata l ogue, which i n c l udes d i ver­
gent views of its topic and i n which the show's organ izers, Wi l l iam Rubin
and K i rk Varnedoe, argue at length its u nderl ying premises (Rubin 1 984) .
One of the v i rtues of an exh i b i tion that bl atantly makes a case or tel ls a
story is that it encou rages debate and makes possible the suggestion of
other stories. Th u s i n what fol l ows d i fferent h i stories of the tribal and the
modern wi l l be proposed in response to the sharply foc used h i story on
d isplay at the Museum of Modern Art. But before that h i story can be seen
for what it is, however-a spec ific story that exc l udes other stories-the
u n iversal i z i n g al legory of affi n i ty must be cleared away.
Th is a l legory, the story of the Modern i st Fam i l y of Art, is not rigo r­
ously argued at MOMA . (That wou ld req u i re some expl icit form of either
 H I S TO R I E S O F TH E T R I B A L A N D TH E M O D E R N 191

an archetypal or structu ral analys i s . ) The a l legory i s , rather, bu i lt i nto the

exh i bition's form , featu red suggestive l y i n its p u b l i c i ty, left u ncontra­
d i cted, repetitio us ly asserted - "Affi n i ty of the Tri ba l and the Modern ."
The a l l egory has a hero , whose v i rtuoso work, an exh i bi t caption tel l s
u s , conta i n s more affi n ities with the tri bal than that o f any other pioneer
modern ist. These affi n ities "meas u re the depth of Picasso's grasp of the
i nform i ng pri n c i p l es of tribal scu l pt u re, and reflect his profo u nd identity
of s p i rit with the tribal peoples." Modern ism is thus presented as a search
for " i n form i n g pri n c i p l es" that transcend cu ltu re, pol itics, and h i story.
Beneath t h i s generous u m b re l l a the tribal is modern and the modern
more r i c h l y, m ore d iversel y h u m a n .

T h e power o f t h e affi n ity idea i s s u c h ( i t becomes a l most self-evident i n

the MOMA j u xtapos itions) that i t i s worth reviewing the major objections
to it. Anthropologists, long fam i l iar with the issue of c u ltura l d i ffusion
versus i ndependent i nvention, a re not l i kely to find a nyth i n g spec i a l i n
the s i m i l arities between selected triba l and modern obj ects. A n estab­
l i shed pri n c i p l e of anthropologica l com parative method asserts that the
greater the range of c u l t u res, the more l i kely one is to find s i m i lar tra its .
MOMA's samp l e is very l arge, embrac i ng African, Ocea n i a n , North
America n , and Arctic "tri ba l " gro u ps . 1 A second pri n c i p l e, that of the
" l i m itatio n of poss i b i l ities," recogn izes that i nvention, w h i l e h i gh l y d i ­
verse, is not i nfi n ite . The h uman body, for exam ple, w i t h its two eyes,
fou r l i m bs, b i l atera l a rrangement of features, front and back, and so on,
wi l l be represented and styl i zed i n a l i m ited n u m ber of ways . 2 There i s
th u s a priori no reason t o c l a i m evidence for affi n i ty (rather than mere

1 . The term tribal i s used here with considerable rel uctance. It denotes a
kind of soc iety (and a rt) that cannot be coherently spec ified. A catchal l , the con­
cept of tribe has its source in Western projection and adm i n i strative necessi ty
rather than i n any essential qual ity or group of traits. The term is now common l y
used i nstead of primitive i n ph rases s u c h as tribal art. T h e category t h u s denoted ,
as th i s essay a rgues, is a product of h i stori ca l l y l i m i ted Western taxonom ies.
Wh i l e the term was orig i n a l l y a n i m position, however, certai n non-Western
groups have embraced it. Tri ba l status is in many cases a crucial strategic ground
for identity. I n thi� essay my use of tribe and tribal reflects common usage wh i l e
suggesting ways i n w h i c h t h e concept is systematica l l y d i storting. See Fried 1 9 75
and Stu rtevant 1 98 3 .
2 . These poi nts were made b y Wi l l iam Stu rtevant a t t h e sympos i u m o f an­
thropologi sts and art h i storians held at the Museum of Modern Art i n New York
on November 3 , 1 984.
1 92 COLLE CTI O N S

resembl ance o r coi nc idence) because an exh i b ition of tribal works that
seem i m pressi vely " modern" in sty l e can be gathered . An eq u a l l y stri king
col lection cou ld be made demonstrating sharp d i ssi m i l arities between
tribal and modern objects.
The q u a l ities most often said to l i n k these objects are the i r "concep­
tua l ism" and "abstraction" (but a very long and u lti mate l y incoherent l ist
of s hared tra i ts, i n c l u d i n g "magic," "ritua l ism," "envi ron menta l ism," use
of "natura l " materials, and so on, can be derived from the show and
espec i a l l y from its cata l ogue) . Actual ly the tri bal and modern a rtifacts
are si m i lar o n l y in that they do not featu re the pictorial i l l usion ism or
scu l ptu ra l natura l ism that came to dom i nate Western European art after
the Renaissance. Abstraction and conceptual i sm are, of cou rse, perva­
sive in the arts of the non-Western World . To say that they share with
modern i s m a rejection of certai n natura l ist projects is not to show a ny­
th i n g l i ke an affin ity. 3 I ndeed the "triba l i sm " selected in the exh i bition to
resemble modern ism i s itself a construction designed to accom pl ish the
task of resembl ance. lfe and Ben i n scu l ptures, h ighly natura l i stic in style,
are exc l uded from the "tri ba l " and pl aced i n a somewhat arbitrary cate­
gory of "court" soc i ety (wh i c h does not, however, i n c l ude large c h i eftan­
sh i ps) . Moreover, pre-Co l umbian works, though they have a pl ace in the
cata logue, are large l y omitted from the exh i bition . One can q uestion
other selections and exc l usions that result i n a col lection of only " mod­
ern" - looki ng tribal objects . Why, for example, are there relative ly few
" i m p u re" obj ects constructed from the debri s of colo n i a l cu lture con­
tacts? And i s there not an overa l l bias toward c lean, abstract forms as
aga i n st rough or crude work?
The "Affin ities" room of the exhi bition i s an i ntrigu ing but enti rely
problematic exerc i se i n formal m i x-and-matc h . The short i ntroductory

3. A more rigorous formu l ation than that of affi nity is suggested in Le iris
1 95 3 . H ow, Leiris asks, can we speak of African scu l ptu re as a single category ?
He warns of "a danger that we may u nderestimate the variety of African scu l p­
ture; as we are less able to appreciate the respects in which cultures or th i ngs
unfa m i l iar to u s differ from one another than the respects in which they differ
from those to which we are used , we tend to see a certa i n resemblance between
them, which l ies, in point of fact, merely in the i r common differentness" (p. 3 5 ) .
Thus, t o speak o f African scu l pture o n e i nevitably shuts one's eyes "to t h e rich
diversity actua l l y to be found i n th is scu l ptu re in order to concentrate on the
respects i n which it is not what our own scu lptu re genera l l y i s ." The affin ity of
the tribal and the modern is, in this logic, an i m portant optical i l lusion-the
measure of a common differentness from artistic modes that dom inated in the
West from the Renaissance to the late n i neteenth centu ry.
HISTORIES O F THE TRIBAL AND THE MODERN 1 93

text beg i n s wel l : " A F F I N ITI ES presents a group of tribal obj ects notable for
the i r a ppea l to modern taste." I ndeed th i s i s a l l that can rigorously be said
of the objects in this room. The text conti n u es, however, "Se lected pai r­
i ngs of modern and triba l obj ects demonstrate common denominators of
these a rts that a re i ndependent of d i rect i nfluence." The ph rase common
denominators i m p l i es someth i n g more systematic than i ntrigu i ng resem­
blance. What can it poss i b l y mea n ? Th i s i ntrod uctory text, cited i n its
enti rety, i s e m b l ematic of the MOMA u ndertaki ng as a whole. Statements
carefu l l y l i m iting its p u rv iew (spec ify i n g a concern o n l y with modern i st
pri m itivism and not with tribal l ife) coexi st with freq uent i m p l i cations of
someth i n g more. The affi n ity idea itself i s wide-ranging a nd pro m i sc u ­
ous, as a re a l l u s i o n s t o u n i versa l h u m a n capac ities retrieved i n the en­
cou nter between modern and tri ba l o r invocations of the expans i ve h u ­
man m i nd-the hea l thy capac ity of modern ist consciousness t o q u estion
its l i m its and engage otherness.4
N owhere, h owever, does the exh i b ition or cata logue u nderl ine a
more d isqu ieti n g q u a l ity of modern ism : its taste for appropri ati ng or re­
deem i ng otherness, for constituti ng non-Western a rts in its own i mage,
for d i scoveri n g u n iversa l , a h i storical " h uman" capacities. The search for
s i m i l a rity itse lf req u i res j ustification, for even if one accepts the l i m ited
task of exploring " modernist primitivism," why cou ld one not learn as
m u c h about Picasso's or Ernst's creative processes by analyzing the dif­
ferences separat i n g the i r a rt from tri bal models or by trac i ng the ways
the i r a rt moved away from, gave new twists to, non-Western forms ? 5 T h i s
s i d e of t h e process is u nexpl ored i n t h e exh i b ition . T h e preva i l i n g view­
point is made a l l too clear in one of the "affi n ities" featu red on the cata­
logue's cove r, a j u xtapos ition of Picasso's Girl before a Mirror ( 1 932) with
a Kwakiutl half-mask, a type q u ite rare among Northwest Coast c rea­
tions. Its task here is s i m p l y to prod uce an effect of resemblance (an effect
actu a l l y c reated by the camera angle) . I n th i s exh i bition a u n i versal mes­
sage, "Affi n ity of the Tri ba l and the Modern ," is prod uced by carefu l se­
l ection and the m a i ntenance of a speci fic angle of vision .
The notion of affi n i ty, an a l legory of kinsh i p, has an expans ive, eel-

4 . See, for exa mple, Rubi n's d i scussion of the myth ic u n i versals shared by
a Picasso pa inting and a Northwest Coast half-mask (Rubin 1 984 : 3 28-330). See
a l so K i rk Varnedoe's assoc iation of modern i st pri mitivism with rationa l , scientific
exp loration (Rubin 1 984 : 2 0 1 -203, 652-65 3 ) .
5 . This point was made by C l i fford Geertz a t t h e November 3 , 1 984, sym­
pos i u m at the Museum of Modern Art (see n . 2 ) .
1 94 CO LLECTI ONS

(a) (b)

The Making of an Affinity

(a) Pablo Picasso, G i rl before a
Mirror, 1 932 (detail)
(b) Kwakiutl mask
(c) Picasso, Girl before a Mirror
The detail from the Picasso paint­
ing and the Kwakiutl mask were
juxtaposed on the cover of the ex­
hibition catalog "Primitivism"
in 20th Cen tury Art: Affinity
of the Tribal and the Modern,
volume I.

(c)
HISTORIES OF THE TRIBAL AND THE MODERN 195

ebratory task to perform . T h e affi n ities shown a t MOMA are a l l on mod­

ern i st terms. The great modern ist "pioneers" (and the i r m useum) are
shown promoti n g formerly despised triba l "fetishes" or mere eth no­
gra p h i c "spec i mens" to the status of h igh art and in the process d iscov­
ering new d i mensions of the i r ("our") creative potential . The capacity of
art to transcend its c u ltura l and h i storical context is asserted repeated ly
( R u b i n 1 984 : x , 73). In the cata logue R u b i n tends to be more i nterested
in a recovery of e lementa l expressi ve modes, whereas Varnedoe stresses
the rationa l , forward-loo k i n g i nte l lect (wh ich he opposes to an u n healthy
pri m itivism, i rratio n a l and escap ist) . Both celebrate the generous spirit of
modern ism, p i tched now at a globa l sca l e but exc l ud i ng-as we shal l
see-Th i rd World modern isms.
At West F i fty-th i rd Street modern ist prim itivism is a goi ng Western
concern . It is, Varnedoe tel ls us, s u m m i n g u p in the l ast se ntence of the
cata logue's second vo l u me , "a process of revo l ution that begins and ends
in modern c u lture, and because of that- not i n sp ite of it-can conti n­
u a l l y expand and deepen ou r contact with that which i s remote and d if­
ferent from us, and conti n u a l l y th reate n , c h a l l e nge, and reform o u r sense
of self" ( R u b i n 1 984 : 682 ) . A s kepti c may doubt the abi l ity of the mod­
ern ist pri m itivism exh i b i ted at MOMA to th reaten or chal l enge what i s
b y n o w a thorough l y i nstitutiona l i zed system o f aesthetic (and market)
val u e ; but it is appropriate, and i n a sense rigorous, that this massive
co l l ection span n i ng the globe sho u l d end with the word self.
I ndeed an u n i ntended effect of the exh i b ition's comprehensive cat­
a l ogue is to show once and for a l l the i n coherence of the modern Ror­
schach of "the pri m itive ." From Robert Goldwater's formal ism to the
tra n sform i n g "magic" of Picasso (accord i ng to R u b i n ) ; from Levy-Bruh l 's
mystical m en tal ite primitive ( i nfl ue n c i ng a generation of modern a rti sts
and writers) to Levi-Strau ss's pensee sauvage (resonating w i th "systems
a rt" and the cyberneti c b i n arism of the m i n imal i sts) ; from D u buffet's fas­
c i n ation with i nsan ity and the c h i ld i s h to the en l i ghtened ration a l sense
of a Gaugu i n , the p l ayfu l experi menta l ism of a Picasso or the new "scien­
tific" s p i r i t of a J a mes Tu rre l l (the l ast th ree approved by Varnedoe but
cha l len ged by Rosa l i nd Krauss, who i s more attached to Bata i l le's decap­
itation, bassesse, and bod i l y deformations6) ; from fetish to icon and back

6. The c l ash between Krauss's and Varnedoe's dark and l ight versions of
pri m itivism is the most stri king i ncongru ity with i n the cata logue . For Krauss the
cru c i a l task is to shatter predom i nant European forms of power and subjectivity;
for Varnedoe the task i s to expand the i r purview, to q uestion, and to innovate.
1 96 C O LLE CTI O N S

aga i n ; from aborigi nal bark pa i nti ngs (Kiee) to massive pre-Co l umbian
monu ments (Henry Moore) ; from weightless Eskimo masks to Stone­
henge-the cata logue succeeds in demonstrating not any essenti a l affin­
ity between tri bal and modern or even a coherent modern ist attitude to­
ward the pri miti ve but rather the restl ess des i re and power of the modern
West to col l ect the world .

Setting aside the a l l egory of affi n ity, we are left with a "factua l ," narrowl y
foc u sed h i story-that o f t h e "d iscovery" o f pri mitive art b y Picasso a n d
h i s generation . It is tem pti ng t o s a y that t h e " H i story" section o f t h e ex­
h i bition is, after a l l , the rigorous part and the rest mere l y suggesti ve as­
soc i ation . U nden i a b l y a great deal of sc holarly research in the best
Kunstgesch ich te trad ition has been brought to bear on this specific h i s­
tory. N u merous myths a re usefu l l y q uestioned ; i m portant facts are spec­
ified (what mask was in whose studio when); and the pervasiveness of
tri ba l i nfl uences on early modern ist a rt- E u ropean, Engl ish, and Ameri­
can - i s shown more a m p l y than ever before . The cata logue has the merit
of i n c l ud i ng a n u m ber of articles that dampen the celebratory mood of
the exhi bition : notably the essay by Krauss and usefu l contri butions by
Christian Feest, P h i l i ppe Peltier, and Jean-Lo u i s Pa ud rat deta i l i ng the a r­
rival of non-Western artifacts i n Europe . These h i storical artic les i l l u mi­
n ate the less ed ify i ng i m perial ist contexts that su rrou nded the "di scov­
ery" of tri ba l obj ects by modern i st artists at the moment of h igh
colon i a l ism .
If we ignore the "Affi n ities" room at MOMA, however, and focus on
the "serious" h i storica l part of the exh i bition, new critical questions
emerge. What is exc l uded by the spec ific foc us of the h i story? Isn't th is
factual narration sti l l i nfused with the affinity a l legory, si nce it is cast as
a story of c reative gen i u s recogn izing the greatness of triba l works, dis­
coveri ng common art i stic " i nform i ng pri nciples" ? Cou ld the story of th i s
i ntercu ltural encou nter b e told differently? I t is worth m a k i n g the effort to
extract another story from the materials i n the exh i bition-a h i story not
of redemption or of d i scovery but of rec lassification . This other h i story
assumes that "art" is not u n i versa l but is a changing Western cu ltural
category. The fact that rather abru ptly, in the space of a few decades, a
l a rge c l ass of non-Western a rtifacts came to be redefi ned as a rt is a tax­
onomic sh ift that req u i res critica l h i storica l d i scussion, not ce lebration .
That this construction of a generous category of art pitched at a globa l
H I S T O R I E S O F T H E T R I B A L A N D TH E M O D E R N 1 97

sca l e occu rred j ust as the planet's tri ba l peoples came massively u nder
E u ropean po l itica l , economic, and evange l ical domi nion can not be i r­
relevant. But there i s no room for such complexities at the MOMA show.
Obviously the modern ist a ppropriation of triba l prod uctions as art i s not
s i m p l y i m perial ist. The project i nvol ves too many strong critiq ues of co­
l o n i a l ist, evo l uti o n i st assu m ptions. As we s h a l l see, though , the scope
and u nderlyi n g logic of the "d iscovery" of tri bal a rt reprod uces hege­
m o n i c Western ass u m ptions rooted in the colon ial and neoco l o n i a l
epoch .
Picasso, Leger, Apo l l i n a i re, and many others came to recogn ize the
e l ementa l , "magica l " power of African scu l ptu res i n a period of growing
negrophilie, a context that wou l d see the i rru ption onto the E u ropean
scene of other evocative black figu res : the j azzman, the boxer (AI
B rown), the sauvage joseph i ne Bake r. To tel l the h i story of modern ism's
recognition of Afri can "art" i n th is broader context wou ld ra ise ambigu­
ous and d i sturb i n g q u estions about aesthetic appropriation of non­
Western others, issues of race, gender, and power. Th i s other story is
large ly i nv i s i bl e at MOMA, give n the exh i bition's narrow focu s . It can be
g l i m psed o n l y in the sma l l section devoted to " La c reation du monde,"
the Afr i can cosmogony staged i n 1 92 3 by Leger, Cend rars, and M i l haud,
and i n the broad ly pitc h ed if sti l l largely u ncritical catal ogue a rticle by
Lau ra Rosenstock devoted to it. Overa l l one wou ld be hard p ressed to
ded uce from the exh i bition that a l l the enth usiasm for t h i ngs negre, for
the "magic" of African art, had anyth ing to do with race. Art in th i s
focused h i sto ry h a s n o essential l i n k w i t h coded perceptions o f black
bod ies-the i r vita l ism, rhythm, magic, eroti c power, etc . -as seen by
w h i tes. The modern i s m represented here is concerned o n l y with artistic
i nvention, a positive category separable from a negative pri m itivism of
the i rrationa l , the savage, the base, the fl ight from civi l i zation .
A d i ffe rent h istorical focu s m ight bring a photograph of j osep h i n e
Baker i n to the v i c i n ity o f t h e African statues that were exciting t h e Pari­
sian avant-garde i n the 1 9 1 Os and 1 920s; but such a j u xtaposition wou l d
b e unth i n kable i n t h e MOMA h istory, for it evokes different affi n i ties from
those contributing to the category of great art. The black body i n Paris of
the twenties was an ideo l ogical a rtifact. Archaic Africa (wh ich came to
Paris by way of the futu re-that is, America) was sexed , gendered , and
invested with "magic" in specific ways . Standard poses adopted by " La
Bakai re," l i ke Leger's designs and costumes, evoked a recogn izable "Af­
rican ity"-the naked form emphas i z i ng pelvis and buttocks, a seg-
1 98 COLLECTIONS

mented sty l i zation suggesting a strangely mechan i ca l vital ity. The inclu­
sion of so ideologica l ly loaded a form as the body of Josephine Baker
among the figu res c l assified as a rt on West Fifty-th i rd Street wou ld sug­
gest a different account of modernist primitivism, a d i fferent analysis of
the category negre in /'art negre, and an exploration of the "taste" that
was someth i ng more than j ust a backd rop for the d iscovery of tribal art
i n the open i ng decades of th i s centu ry. 7
Such a focus wou ld treat art as a category defined and redefi ned i n
specific h i storical contexts and re lations of power. Seen from this angle
and read somewhat agai nst the gra i n , the MOMA ex h i bition docu ments
a taxonom ic moment: the status of non-Western objects and "h igh" art
are i m porta ntly redefined , but there is noth i ng permanent or transcen­
dent about the categories at stake. The appreciation and i nterpretation of
tri ba l objects takes place with i n a modern "system of objects" which
confers va l u e o n certa i n th i ngs and withholds it from others (Baudri l lard
1 968). Modern ist pri mitivism, with its claims to deeper humanist sym­
pathies and a w ider aesthetic sense, goes hand-i n-hand with a developed
ma rket i n tribal art and with defi n itions of arti stic and cu ltural authentic­
ity that are now widely contested .
S i nce 1 900 non-Western objects have genera l l y been c lass ified as
either pri m i tive art or eth n ographic spec i mens. Before the modern i st rev­
o l ution assoc iated with Picasso and the s i m u ltaneous rise of c u ltural an­
thropo logy assoc i ated with Boas and Ma l i nowski, these objects were d if-

7. On negrophilie see Laude 1 968; for paral lel trends i n l i teratu re see B la­
chere 1 98 1 and Lev i n 1 984 . The d iscovery of thi ngs " negre" by the E u ropean
avant-garde was med i ated by an i magi nary America, a land of noble savages
s i m u ltaneously standing for the past and future of human ity-a perfect affi n ity of
prim itive and modern . For example, jazz was associated with primal sources
(wi ld, erotic passions) and with technology (the mechan ical rhyth m of brushed
drums, the g leam i n g saxophone). Le Corbusier's reaction was characteristic : " I n
a stupid variety show, joseph i ne Baker sang ' Baby' with such an intense and
d ramatic sensibi l ity that I was moved to tears . There is in this Ameri can Negro
music a lyrical 'contem porary' mass so invincible that I cou ld see the fou ndation
of a new sentiment of music capable of being the expression of the new epoch
and also capable of c l assifying its E u ropean origins as stone age-just as has
happened with the new architecture" (quoted in Jencks 1 973 : 1 02). As a sou rce
of modern ist i nspiration for Le Corbusier, the figu re of Josephine Baker was
matched only by monumenta l , almost Egyptian, concrete gra i n elevators, rising
from the American plains and built by nameless "pri m i tive" engi neers (Banham
1 986: 1 6) . The h i stori cal n arrative impl icit here has been a feature of twentieth­
century l i terary and artistic i n novation, as a redemptive modernism pers istently
"di scovers" the pri m itive that can justify its own sense of emergence.
HISTO R I E S OF THE TRIBAL AND THE MODERN 199

Affinities Not Included in the MOMA "Primitivism " Show.

1 . Bodies
(a) Josephine Baker in a famous pose, Paris, ca. 1 929
(b) Wooden figure (Chokwe, Angola)
(c) Fernand Leger, costume design for The Creation of
the World, 1 922-23

ferently sorted-as anti q u ities, exotic curiosities, orienta l ia, the remains
of early man, and so o n . With the emergence of twentieth-century mod­
ern ism and anth ropology figu res formerly ca l l ed "fetishes" (to ta ke j ust
one c lass of object) became works either of "sc u l ptu re" or of "materia l
cu ltu re ." The d i sti nction between the aesthetic and the anthropological
was soon i n stitutiona l l y rei nforced . I n art ga l leries non-Western objects
were d isplayed for the i r formal and aesthetic q u a l ities; in eth nograph i c
m u s e u m s they were represented i n a "cu ltura l " context . I n t h e l atter an
African statue was a ritual object belonging to a d i sti nct group; it was
d i splayed in ways that e l ucidated its use, sym bol ism, and fu nct ion . The
i nstitutiona l i zed d i sti nction between aesthetic and anthropo logical d i s­
cou rses took form d u r i ng the years documented at MOMA, years that
saw the com pl eme ntary d iscovery of pri m i tive "art" and of an anth ropo-
200 COLLE CTI O N S

logica l concept of "culture" (Wi l l iams 1 966) . 8 Though there was from
the start (and cont i n ues to be) a regu l a r traffic between the two domains,
th i s d i sti nction is u n c h a l l enged in the ex h i bition . At MOMA treating
tribal objects as art means exc l ud i ng the origi nal cu ltura l context. Con­
s ideration of context, we are fi rm ly told at the exh i b ition's entrance, i s
the busi ness o f anth ropologists. Cu ltural background i s not essential to
correct aesthetic apprec iation and analysis: good a rt, the masterpiece, i s
u n i versa l l y recogn izable.9 The pioneer modern ists themsel ves knew l i ttle
or noth i n g of these objects' eth nographic meani ng. What was good
enough for Picasso is good enough for MOMA. I ndeed an ignorance of
c u l t u ra l context seems a l most a precondition for artistic apprec iatio n . I n
th i s object system a tri ba l piece i s detached from one m i l ieu i n order to
c i rc u l ate freely i n a nother, a world of art-of museums, markets, and
connoi sseurs h i p .
S i nce t h e early years o f modern ism a n d cultural anth ropo logy non­
Western objects have found a " home" either with i n the d i scourses and
i nstitutions of a rt or with i n those of anthropology. The two dom a i ns have
exc l uded and confi rmed eac h other, inventive l y d isputing the right to
contextual ize, to represent these objects. As we shal l see, the aesthetic­
anth ropo l ogical opposition is systematic, presuppos i ng an u nderl y i ng set
of attitudes towa rd the "tri bal ." Both d i scou rses assume a prim itive world
in need of preservation, redem ption, and representation . The concrete,
i n ventive existence of tribal cu ltures and artists is suppressed in the pro­
cess of e ither constituting authentic, "trad itiona l " worlds or appreciati ng
the i r prod ucts i n the t i meless category of "art."

Noth i ng on West F i fty-th i rd Street suggests that good triba l art is being
produced i n the 1 980s . The non-Western artifacts on d i splay are l ocated

8. The twentieth-century developments traced here redeploy these ideas i n

a n i ntercu ltural domai n wh i l e preserving their older eth ical a n d po l itical charge.
See Chapter 1 0, section 2 .
9 . O n the recogn ition o f masterpieces see Rubin's confident claims
( 1 984 : 20-2 1 ) . H e i s given to statements such as the fol lowi n g on tribal and mod­
ern art: "The sol utions of gen i u s in the plastic arts are a l l essential ly i n sti nctual"
(p. 78, n . 80). A stubborn rejection of the supposed views of anthropologists (who
bel ieve in the col lective prod uction of works of tri bal art) characterizes Rubin's
attempts to clear out an autonomous space for aesthetic judgment. Suggest ions
that he may be projecting Western aesthetic categories onto trad itions with d i f­
ferent defi n itions of art are made to seem simpl istic (for example p. 28).
H I STORIES OF THE TRIBAL AND THE MODERN 20 1

either i n a vague past (remi n i scent of the l abel " n i neteenth-twentieth

centu ry" that accom pan ies African and Ocea n ian pieces in the Metro­
pol itan M u seum's Rockefe l ler Wi ng) or in a pure l y conceptua l space de­
fi n ed by "prim itive" q u a l ities : magic, ritu a l i sm, c l oseness to natu re,
myth ic or cosmological a i m s (see R u b i n 1 984 : 1 0, 6 6 1 -689) . In this re l ­
egat ion of t h e tri bal or prim itive t o either a van i s h i n g past or an a h i stori­
cal, conceptua l present, modern i st apprec iation reprod uces common
eth nogra p h i c categories.
The same structu re can be seen i n the H a l l of Pacific Peoples, ded­
icated to Margaret Mead, at the American Museum of N atura l H istory.
This new permanent ha l l i s a superbly refu rbished anthro po l ogical stop­
ping p l ace for non-Western obj ects . In Rotunda ( December 1 984), the
m u seum's p u b l i cati o n , a n arti c l e anno uncing the i nsta l l ation conta i n s
t h e fol lowi n g paragraph :

Margaret Mead once referred to the cu ltures of Paci fic peoples as "a
world that once was and now is no more." Prior to her death in 1 9 78
she approved the basic plans for the new Hall of Pacific Peoples. (p. 1 )

We are offered treasu res saved from a destructive h i story, rel i cs of a

van i s h i ng world . Visitors to the i nsta l l ation (and espec i a l l y members of
present Pac ific c u ltures) may fi nd a "world that is no more" more appro­
priately evoked in two ch arm i n g d i sp l ay cases j u st outside the hal l . It i s
t h e world o f a dated anth ropology. Here one finds a neatly typed page of
notes from Mead's m uch-di sputed Samoan research , a picture of the
fieldworker i n teracting "closely" with Mel anesians (she is carrying a
c h i ld on her back), a box of brightly col ored d i scs and triangles once
u sed for psyc hological testing, a copy of Mead 's col u m n in Redbook. I n
the H a l l o f Pac ific Peo p l es artifacts suggest i n g change and syncretism a re
set apart i n a smal l d i s p l ay entitled "Cu lt u re Contact." It i s noted that
Western i nfl uence and i n d i genous response have been active in the Pa­
c i fic s i nce the e ighteenth centu ry. Yet few signs of th is i n vo l vement a p­
pear anywhere e l se i n the l arge h a l l , despite the fact that many of the
objects were made in the past 1 50 years in s ituations of contact, and
despite the fact that the museum's ethnographic explanations reflect
q u i te recent researc h on the cu ltures of the Pac ific. The h i storical con­
tacts and i m p u rities that are part of ethnographic work-and that may
signal the l i fe, n ot the death , of soc ieties-are systematica l l y excl uded .
The tenses of the h a l l 's explanatory captions are revea l i ng. A recent
color photograph of a Samoan kava ceremony is accompa n i ed by the
202 COLLECTI ONS

word s : " STATUS and RAN K were [sic] i m po rtant featu res of Samoan soci­
ety," a statement that wi l l seem strange to anyone who knows how i m­
portant they remai n i n Samoa today. E lsewhere in the hal l a blac k-and­
wh ite photograph of an Austra l ian Aru nta woman and c h i ld, taken
a round 1 900 by the pioneer eth nographers Spencer and G i l len, is cap­
tioned in the present tense. Aboriginals apparently must a l ways i n habit
a myth ic time. Many other examp les of tem pora l i ncoherence cou ld be
c i ted-old Sepi k objects descri bed in the present, recent Trobriand pho­
tos labeled in the past, and so forth .
The poi nt is not s i mply that the i m age of Samoan kava d r i n k i ng and
status soc iety presented here is a d i stortion or that in most of the Ha l l of
Pac ific Peoples h i story has been a i rbrushed out. (No Samoan men at the
kava ceremony are wearing wri stwatches; Trobriand face pa i nting is
shown without noti ng that it i s worn at cricket matches . ) Beyond such
q uestions of accu racy i s an i ssue of systematic ideological cod i ng. To
locate "triba l " peoples i n a non h i storical t i me and ourselves i n a d i ffer­
ent, h i storical t i me is c learly tendentious and no longer c red i ble (Fabian
1 98 3 ) . This recogn ition throws doubt on the perception of a van i s h i ng
tribal world, resc ued , made val uable and mean ingfu l , either as eth no­
graph ic "c u l tu re" or as prim itive/modern "art." For in th i s tem poral or­
dering the rea l or gen u i ne l ife of tri bal works always precedes the i r col­
lection, a n act of salvage that repeats an a l l-too-fam i l iar story of death
and redem ption . In this pervasive a l l egory the non-Western world is a l ­
ways va n i sh i ng and modern i z i ng-as i n Wa lter Benjam i n 's a l legory of
modernity, the tribal world is conceived as a ru i n . (Benjam i n 1 9 77) . At
the H a l l of Pac ific Peoples or the Rockefe l ler Wi ng the actual ongo i ng
l ife and " i mpure" i nventions of tri ba l peoples are erased in the name of
c u l tu ra l or a rtistic "authentic ity." S i m i larly at MOMA the prod uction of
tribal "art" is enti rely i n the past. Tu rn i ng up in the flea markets and
museums of l ate n i neteenth-centu ry E u rope, these objects are desti ned
to be aesthetica l ly redeemed , given new va l ue in the object system of a
generous modern ism .

The story reto ld at MOMA, the struggle to ga i n recogn ition for tribal art,
for its capac ity " l i ke a l l great art . . . to show i mages of man that tran­
scend the parti c u l a r l ives and ti mes of the i r creators" (Rubi n 1 984 : 73), is
taken for granted at another stoppi ng place for triba l travelers i n Manhat­
tan , the Center for African A rt on East Sixty-eighth Street. Susan Vogel ,
HISTORIES OF THE TR I B A L AND THE M ODERN 203

the executive d i rector, procl a i m s i n her i ntrod uction to the catal ogue of
its i naugural exh i b ition, "African Masterpieces from the Musee de
! ' H o m me," that the "aestheti c-anthropological debate" has been re­
so lved . It is now widely accepted that "ethnographic speci mens" can be
d i stinguished from "works of art" and that with i n the l atter category a
l i m ited n u mber of " masterpieces" are to be fou n d . Vogel correctl y notes
that the aesthetic recogn ition of tribal objects depends on changes i n
Western taste . For example i t took the work o f Francis Bacon, Lucas Sa­
maras, and others to m a ke it poss i b l e to exhibit as art " rough and horri­
fyi n g [African) works as we l l as refined and lyrical ones" (Vogel
1 985 : 1 1 ) . Once recogn i zed, though, art is apparentl y a rt. Thus the se­
lection at the Cente r i s made on aesthetic criteria alone. A pro m i nent
p l acard affi rms that the abi l ity of these objects "to transcend the l i m ita­
tions of t i me and p l ace, to s peak to us across time and c u lture . . . p laces
them among the h i ghest poi nts of h u m an ac h ievement. It is as works of
a rt that we regard them here and as a testament to the greatness of thei r
creators."
There could be no c learer statement of one side of the aesthetic
anthropo logical "debate" (or better, system) . On the other (anth ropo l og­
i c a l ) side, ac ross town, the H a l l of Pac ific Peoples presents co l lective
rather than i nd i v i d u a l prod uctions-the work of "c u lt u res." But with i n
a n i nstitutiona l i zed pol arity interpenetration o f d i scou rses becomes pos­
s i b l e . Sc i ence can be aestheticized, art made anth ropo logi ca l . At the
American M useu m of N atura l H istory ethnographic exh i bits have come
i n c reas i n g l y to rese m b l e a rt shows. I ndeed the H a l l of Pac ific Peoples
rep resents the l atest i n aestheticized scienti sm . Objects are d ispl ayed in
ways that h i g h l i ght the i r formal properties. They are suspended i n l ight,
held in s pace by the i ngen ious use of Plexiglas. (One is sudden l y aston­
i shed by the sheer wei rd ness of a smal l Ocea n i c figu rine perched atop a
th ree-foot-ta l l transparent rod . ) Wh i l e these artisti ca l l y d i splayed artifacts
are sc ientifical l y exp l a i ned , an older, functional ist attempt to present an
i ntegrated picture of spec i fic soc i eties or c u lture areas is no l onge r seri­
ously p u rsued . There i s a n a l most d adaist q u a l ity to the labe l s on eight
cases devoted to Austra l i a n aborigi nal soc iety (I c ite the com plete series
in order) : " C E R EMONY, S P I R I T F I G U R E , MAG I C I A N S AND SORC E R E RS, SAC R E D
ART, S P E A R TH ROW E RS, STO N E A X E S A N D KN IVES, WOM E N , BOOM E RA N G S . "
E l sewhere the h a l l 's pieces of c u lture have been recontextual ized with i n
a new cybernetic, anthropo l ogical d i scourse. For i nstance fl utes and
str i n ged i n struments are captioned : " M U S I C is a system of organized
204 COLLECTIONS

Affinities Not Included in the MOMA "Primitivism " Show.

2. Collections
(a) Interior of Chief Shake 's House, Wrangel. Alaska, 1 909

sound i n man's [sic) a u ra l environ ment" or nearby : " COMM U N I CAT ION is
an i m portant fu nction of organized sou nd ."
I n the anthropological H a l l of Pacific Peoples non-Western objects
sti l l have primari ly scientific va l ue . They a re in add ition beautifu l . 1 ° Con­
verse ly, at the Center for African Art artifacts are essentia l ly defi ned as
"masterpieces," the i r makers as great artists . The d i scourse of connois­
seu rsh i p reigns. Yet once the story of art told at MOMA becomes dogma,

1 0 . At the November 3 , 1 984, sympos i u m (see n . 2) Christian Feest pointed

out that the tendency to reclass ify objects in eth nographic col lections as "art" i s
i n part a response t o t h e much greater amount of fu nding ava i l able for art (rather
than anthropological) exh i b itions.
H ISTORIES OF THE TRIBAL AND THE MODERN 205

(b) View of the Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples

it is poss i b l e to rei ntroduce and co-opt the d i scou rse of eth nography. At
the Center tribal contexts and fu nctions are descri bed a l ong with i nd ivid­
u a l h i stories of the objects on d i sp l ay. N ow firm ly c l assified as m aster­
pieces, African objects escape the vague, a h i storical location of the
"tri ba l " or the "prim itive ." The cata logue, a sort of c atalogu e raisonne,
d i scusses each work i ntensive l y. The category of the masterpiece i nd ivid­
uates : the pieces on d i splay are not typica l ; some are one of a kind . The
famous Fan god of wa r o r the Abomey shark-man lend themse l ves to
precise h i stories of i nd ividual creation and appropriation in v i s i b l e co­
l o n i a l situations. Captions spec ify which Griau l e exped ition to West Af­
rica i n the 1 9 3 0s acq u i red eac h Dogan statue (see Le i ri s 1 934 and Chap­
ter 2 ) . We learn in the cata logue that a su perb Bam i l eke mother and c h i l d
was carved b y a n artist named Kwayep, that t h e statue was bought by
the colon i a l ad m i n istrator and anthropo l ogist Henri Labou ret from K i ng
206 COLLECTIONS

N 'J i ke . Wh i le tribal names predom i nate at MOMA, the Rockefel ler Wi ng,
and the American Museum of Natu ra l H i story, here personal names make
thei r appearance.
I n the "African Masterpieces" cata logue we learn of an eth nogra­
pher's exc i tement on fi nding a Dogan hermaphrod ite figu re that wou ld
l ater become famous. The letter record i ng th i s exc itement, written by
Den i se Pau l me in 1 93 5 , serves as evidence of the aesthetic concerns of
many early eth nographic col l ectors (Vogel and N'diaye 1 985 : 1 2 2 ) .
These i nd i v i d u a l s, w e a re to ld, cou ld i ntu itively d i stinguish masterpieces
from mere art or eth nographic spec i mens. (Actua l l y many of the i nd ivid­
ual eth nographers beh i nd the Musee de I ' Homme col l ection, such as
Pau l me, M ichel Le i ris, Marcel Griau le, and Andre Schaeffner, were
friends and col laborators of the same "pioneer modernist" arti sts who, i n
the story told a t MOMA, constructed the category o f prim itive art. Thus
the i ntu itive aesthetic sense i n q uestion i s the product of a h istorica l l y
spec ific m i l ie u . See Chapter 4 . ) T h e "African Masterpieces" catal ogue
i n s i sts that the fou nders of the Musee de I ' Homme were art con noisseu rs,
that th is great anthropological m u se u m never treated a l l its contents as
"ethnograph ic spec i mens." The Musee de I ' Homme was and is secretly
an a rt m u se u m (Voge l 1 985 : 1 1 ) . The taxonom ic spl it between art and
artifact i s thus hea l ed, at least for se lf-evident "masterpieces," enti rely i n
terms o f the aesthetic code. Art is art i n any m useum .
I n th i s exh i bition, a s opposed to the others i n New York, i nformation
can be provided about each i nd i vidual masterpiece's h istory. We learn
that a Kiwara n i a ntel ope mask studded with m i rrors was acq u i red at a
dance given for the colon i a l ad m i n istration i n Ma l i on Basti l le Day 1 9 3 1 .
A rabbit mask was pu rchased from Dogan dancers at a ga l a so i ree i n
Par i s d u ri ng the Colo n i a l Exh i bition of the same year. These are no longer
the datel ess "authentic" triba l forms seen at MOMA. At the Center for
African Art a d i fferent h istory documents both the artwork's u n i q ueness
and the ach i evement of the d i scern i ng col lector. By featuring rar ity, ge­
n i us, and con noisseu rs h i p the Center confirms the exi stence of autono­
mous a rtworks able to c i rc u l ate, to be bought and sold, in the same way
as works by Picasso or G iacomett i . The Center traces i ts l i neage, appro­
priately, to the former Rockefe l ler Museum of Pri m itive Art, with i ts c lose
ties to col lectors and the art market.
I n its i naugura l exh i b ition the Center confi rms the predomi nant
aesthetic-eth nographic view of tribal art as someth ing located i n the past,
good for bei ng col l ected and given aesthetic val ue. Its second show
(March 1 2 J u ne 1 6 , 1 985) is devoted to " l gbo Arts : Com m u n ity and Cos-
-
H I STO R I E S OF THE TRIBAL AND THE MODERN 207

mos ." It te l l s another story, l ocating art forms, ritua l l i fe, and cosmo logy
in a s pec ific, changing African soc iety-a past and present heritage.
Photographs show "trad ition a l " masks worn i n danced masquerades
a round 1 98 3 . (These i n c l ude sati ri c figu res of w h i te colon i sts. ) A deta i l ed
h istory of c u ltura l c h ange, struggle, and reviva l i s provided . In the cata­
logue C h i ke C. A n i a kor, an l gbo scholar, writes along with co-ed i tor H e r­
bert M . Cole of "the conti n u a l ly evo l v i ng lgbo aesthetic" : " I t is i l l usory
to th i n k that w h i c h we comfortably l abel 'trad itiona l ' art was i n an earl ier
time i m m u ne to changes i n sty le and form; it i s th us u n p roductive to
lament changes that reflect c u rrent rea l ities. Conti n u ity with earl ier forms
w i l l a l ways be fou n d ; the p resent-day pers i stence of fam i ly and com­
m u n ity va l ues e n s u res that the arts w i l l thri ve . And as a l ways, the l gbo
w i l l c reate new art forms out of the i r i nventive spi rit, reflecting the i r dy­
nam i c i nteractions with the environment and the i r neighbors and ex­
pressing c u ltu ra l ideals" (Cole and A n i akor 1 984 : 1 4) .
Cole and A n i akor p rovide a q u ite d i fferent h i story o f "the tri ba l " and
"the modern " from that tol d at the Museum of Modern Art-a story of
i nvention, not of rede m ption . In his foreword to the cata logue C h i n u a
Achebe offers a v i s i o n o f c u lture a n d o f objects that sharply c h a l lenges
the ideology of the art co l lection and the masterpiece. l gbo, he tel l s us,
do not l i ke col l ecti ons.

The pu rposeful neglect of the pai nstakingly and devoutly accom­

pl i shed mbari houses with a l l the art objects in them as soon as the
primary mandate of their c reation has been served, provides a signifi­
cant i n s i ght i nto the l gbo aesthetic va lue as process rather than prod­
uct. Process is motion wh i l e product is rest . When the prod u ct is
preserved or venerated, the i m pu l se to repeat the process is com pro­
m i sed . Therefore the l gbo choose to e l i m i nate the prod uct and reta i n
t h e process s o that every occas ion a n d every generation wi l l receive its
own i m p u l se and experience of creation . Interestingly th is aesthetic
d ispos ition receives powerfu l endorsement from the tropical c l i mate
which provides an abu ndance of materials for making art, such as
wood , as wel l as form idable agencies of d issol ution, such as h u m i d ity
and the term ite . Vi sitors to lgboland are shocked to see that arti­
facts a re ra rely accorded any particular value on the basis of age
alone. (Ac hebe 1 984 : ix)

Achebe's i mage of a "ru i n " suggests not the modern i st a l l egory of re­
dem ption (a yearn i ng to make thi ngs whole, to th i n k archaeo logica l ly)
208 C O LLECTI O N S

The Earth Deity, Ala, with her "children " in her mbari
house. Obube Ulakwo, southeast Nigeria, 1 966.
H I ST O R I E S O F THE TR I B A L A N D THE M O D E R N 209

but an acceptance of e n d l ess seri a l i ty, a des i re to keep th i n gs apart, dy­

namic, and h i storica l .

The aesthetic-anth ropo l ogica l object systems of the West a re c u rrently

u nder chal lenge, and the pol itics of col l ecting and exh ibiting occasion­
ally become v i s i b l e . Even at MOMA evidence of l iv i ng tri ba l peoples has
not been enti re l y exc l uded . One sma l l text breaks the spel l . A s pecial
labe l exp l a i n s the absence of a Z u n i war god figu re c urrently housed i n
the Ber l i n M u s e u m fu r Vol kerunde. We learn that l ate i n its preparati ons
for the show MOMA "was i nformed by know l edgeable authorities that
Zu n i people consider any p u b l i c exhi bition of the i r wa r gods to be sac­
ri legiou s ." T h u s, the l abel conti n ues, although such figu res a re routinely
d i spl ayed e lsewhere, the m u seu m dec ided not to bri ng the war god (an
i nfl u ence on Pau l K l ee) from Berl i n . The terse note ra i ses more q uestions
than it answers, but it does at l east establ i s h that the objects on d i splay
may i n fact "belong" somewhere other than i n an art or an eth nograph ic
m u seu m . Livi n g trad itions have claims on them, contesting (with a d i s­
tant but i nc reasingly pa l pable power) the i r present home i n the i n stitu­
tiona l systems of the modern West. 1 1
E l sewhere i n New York th is power has been made eve n more vis­
i b l e . "Te Maori ," a show visiting the Metropo l ita n , c learly establ ishes that
the "art" on d isplay i s sti l l sacred , o n loan not mere l y from certa i n New
Zea l and m useu m s but a lso from the Maori people. I n deed tri ba l art is
pol i tical th rough and th rough . The Maori have a l lowed their trad ition to
be exploited as "art" by major Western c u ltura l i nstitutions and their cor­
porate sponsors i n order to en hance thei r own i nternational prestige and

1 1 . The sh ifting balance of power i s evident i n the case of the Zun i war
gods, or Ahauuta . Zuni vehemently object to the d isplay of these figures (terrify­
ing and of great sacred force) as "art." They are the only trad itional objects
si ngled out for th is objection . After passage of the N ative American Freedom of
Rel i gion Act of 1 9 78 Z u n i i n itiated th ree forma l legal actions c l a i m i n g return of
the Ahauuta (wh ich as comm u n a l property are, in Zuni eyes, by defin ition stolen
goods). A sale at Sotheby Parke-Bernet i n 1 9 78 was interru pted, and the figure
was eventua l ly retu rned to the Zu n i . The Denver Art Museum was forced to
repatriate its Ahau utas in 1 98 1 . A c l a i m agai nst the Sm ithsonian remains u n re­
solved as of this writing. Other pressu res have been appl ied elsewhere in a n
ongoing campaign . I n these new conditions Zun i Ahauuta c a n no longer b e rou ­
t i n e l y displayed . I ndeed t h e figure Pau l Klee saw i n Berl i n wou l d have run the
risk of being seized as contraband h ad it been s h ipped to New York for the
MOMA show. For general background see Tal bot 1 98 5 .
2 10 C O LLECTI O N S

Affinities Not Included in the MOMA "Primitivism " Show.

3. Appropriations
(a) Mrs. Pierre Loeb in her family apartment with modern
and tribal works, rue Desbordes-Valmore, Paris, 1 929

th us contri bute to the i r c u rrent resu rgence i n New Zealand soc iety (Mead
1 984) . 1 2 Tri bal authorities gave perm ission for the exh i bition to travel ,
and they partici pated i n its open i ng ceremonies i n a visible, d isti nctive
man ner. So d id Asante l eaders at the exh ibi tion of the i r art and cu ltu re at
the Muse u m of Natural H i story (October 1 6, 1 984 -March 1 7, 1 98 5 ) .
Although t h e Asa nte display centers on eighteenth- a n d n i neteenth­
centu ry artifacts, evidence of the twentieth-century colonial suppression
and recent renewa l of Asante cu lture is incl uded , a long with color photos

1 2 . An article on corporate fund ing of the arts in the New York Times, Feb.
5, 1 985, p. 27, reported that Mob i l O i l sponsored the Maori show in large part
to please the New Zea l and government, with which it was col laborating on the
construction of a natural gas convers ion plant.
H I STO R I E S O F THE TRIBAL AND THE MODERN 2ll

(b) New Guinea girl with photographer's flash bulbs

of modern ceremon i es and newly made "trad itiona l " objects brought to
New York as gifts for the m useu m . I n th i s exh i b ition the location of the
art o n d i splay-the sense of where, to whom, and in what ti me(s) it be­
longs- i s q u ite d ifferent from the location of the African objects at
MOMA or i n the Rockefe l ler Wi ng. The tri bal is fu l ly h i storica l .
Sti l l a nother representation of tribal l ife and art can be encountered
at the Northwest Coast co l lection at the I BM Gal lery (October 1 0 -De­
cem ber 2 9 , 1 984), whose obj ects have traveled downtown from the Mu­
seu m of the American I n d i a n . They are d i splayed i n poo ls of i ntense l ight
(the beautifyi ng "boutique" decor that seems to be modern ism's gift to
m useum d i spl ays, both eth nographi c and artisti c) . But th i s exh i bition of
trad itiona l masterpieces ends with works by l iv i n g Northwest Coast art­
i sts . Outside the ga l lery i n the I BM atri u m two large totem poles have
been i nsta l l ed . One i s a weathered spec i men from the Museum of the
American I n d i a n , and the other has been carved for the show by the
2 12 COLLECTI ONS

Kwaki utl Ca l v i n H u nt. The artist put the fi n is h i ng touches on h i s creation

where it sta nds i n the atr i u m ; fresh wood c h i ps are l eft scattered around
the base. Noth i n g l i ke th i s i s possi b l e or even th i n kable at West Fifty-th i rd
Street.
The orga n i zers of the MOMA exh i bition have been c l ear about its
l i m itations, and they have repeated l y spec ified what they do not c l a i m to
show. It i s thus i n a sense unfa i r to ask why they did not construct a
d i fferently focused h istory of re lations between "the tribal " and "the mod­
ern ." Yet the exc l usions bu i l t i nto any col l ection or na rration are l egiti­
mate objects of critiq ue, and the i nsistent, d idactic tone of the MOMA
show o n l y makes its focus more debatable. If the non-Western objects on
West Fifty-th i rd Street never rea l l y question but conti n u a l l y confirm es­
tabl i shed aesthetic va l ues, this raises q uestions about "modern i st primi­
tivism's" pu rported l y revo l utionary potenti a l . The absence of any ex­
amples of Th i rd World modern ism or of recent tri ba l work reflects a
pervasive "se l f-evident" al legory of redemption .
The final room of the MOMA exh i bition, "Contemporary Explora­
tions," w h i c h m ight h ave been used to refocus the h istorical story of mod­
ern ism and the triba l , i nstead strai ns to find contemporary Western arti sts
whose work has a "prim itive feel ." 1 3 Diverse criteria a re asserted : a use
of rough or "natu ra l " materials, a ritua l i stic attitude, ecological concern,
archaeological i n s p i rati on, certa i n tec h n iq ues of assembl age, a concep­
tion of the artist as shaman, or some fam i l i arity with "the m i nd of pri mi­
tive man i n h i s [sic] science and mytho l ogy" (deri ved perhaps from read­
i ng Lev i-Strauss) . Such c riteria, added to a l l the other "pri m itivist"
q u a l ities i nvoked i n the ex h i bition and its cata logue, u n ravel for good the
category of the pri m i tive, exposi ng it as an incoherent c l u ster of q u a l ities
that at d i fferent ti mes have been used to construct a sou rce, origin, or
alter ego confi rm i ng some new "d iscovery" with i n the territory of the
Western self . The exh i b ition i s at best a h i storical account of a certa i n
moment i n th i s relent less process. B y the end the fee l i ng created is one
of claustrophobi a .

1 3 . I n places the search becomes sel f-parod ic, a s i n the caption for works
by jackie Winsor: "Wi nsor's work has a prim itivist feel , not only in the raw phys­
ical presence of her materi a l s, but a l so in the way she fabri cates. Her labor­
driving nails, b i n d i ng twi ne-moves beyond simple systematic repet ition to take
on the expressive character of ritua l i zed action."
HISTORIES OF THE TRIBAL AND THE MODERN 213

The non-Western objects that exc ited Picasso, Dera i n , and Leger
broke i nto the rea l m of offi c i a l Western art from outside. They were
q u ickly integrated , recogn i zed as masterpieces, given homes with i n an
anthropological -aesthetic object system . By now th i s process has been
suffi c iently ce lebrated . We need ex h i bitions that question the boundaries
of art and of the art world, an i nfl ux of tru l y i n d i gesti ble "outside" arti­
facts. The rel ations of power whereby one portion of h u ma n ity can se­
lect, va l ue, and col l ect the pure prod ucts of others need to be criticized
and transformed . T h i s i s no sma l l task . I n the meanti me one can at least
i magi ne shows that featu re the i m pu re, " i nauthentic" productions of past
and prese nt tribal l ife; exh i bitions rad i ca l ly heterogeneo us in the i r global
mix of styles; exh i bitions that locate themselves i n spec ific m u lticu ltura l
j u nctu res ; exh i bitions i n w h i c h nature rema i n s " u n natu ra l " ; exh i b itions
whose pri n c i p l es of i ncorporation are open ly q uestionable. The fol low­
i n g wou ld be my contri bution to a d i fferent show on "affi n ities of the
tribal and the postmodern ." I offer j ust the fi rst paragraph from Ba rbara
Ted l ock's su perb descr i ption of the Z u n i Shal ako ceremony, a fest ival that
is o n l y part of a com plex, l iv i ng trad ition ( 1 984 : 246) :

Imagine a sma l l western New Mex ican v i l l age, its snow- l i t streets
l i ned with white Mercedes, q uarter-ton pickups and Dodge vans. Vi l­
l agers wra pped i n black blankets and flowered shaw l s are stand ing
next to visitors i n blue velveteen blouses with rows of d i me buttons
and volu m i nous sat i n skirts. The i r men are in black Stetson s i l ver­
banded h ats, pressed jeans, Tony Lama boots and m u lticolored Pen­
dleton blan kets . Strangers d ressed in dayglo orange, p i n k and green
ski jackets, stocking caps, h i k i n g boots and m i ttens. Al l crowded to­
gether they are looking i nto newl y constructed houses i l l u m i nated by
ba re l i ght b u l bs dangl i n g from raw rafters edged with Woolworth's red
fabric and flowered b l ue print cal ico. Ci nderblock and pl asterboard
white wa l l s are layered with str i ped serapes, C h i mayo blankets, Nav­
ajo rugs, flowered fri n ged em broidered shawls, black si l k from Mex i co
and purple, red and b l u e rayon from Czechoslovakia. Rows 'of Hopi
cotta � dance k i l ts and ra i n sashes; I s leta woven red and green belts;
Navajo and Zuni s i lver concha belts and black mantas covered with
si lver brooches set with ca rved lapidary, ra i n bow mosa ic, channel in­
lay, turquoise need lepoi nt, pink agate, alabaster, bl ack cannel coal
and bakel ite from old ' 78s, cora l , abalone shel l , mother-of-pearl and
horned oyster hang from poles suspended from the cei l i ng. Mule and
2 14 COLLECTIONS

white-ta i led deer trophy-heads wearing squash-blossom , cora l and

chunk-tu rquoise neckl aces are hammered up around the room over
rearing buckskins above Arabian tapestries of Mart i n Luther King and
the Kennedy brothers, The Last Su pper, a herd of sheep with a haloed
herder, horses, peacocks.
Copyright © 1 988 by the President and Fellows of Harvard Col l ege
All rights rese rved
Pri nted in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Desig n ed by Joyce C. Weston

This book is printed on acid-free paper, and its b i n d i n g materials have been chosen
for strength and d u ra b i l i ty.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Clifford, j a mes, 1 945-

The predicament of c u l t u re twentieth-ce n t u ry eth nography,
l i t e ratu re, and art I James Clifford .
p. em.
B i b l iography: p .
I ncl udes index.
ISBN 0 -674-69842-8 (al k. paper) ISBN 0 -674-69843-6 ( p b k . : alk. pape r)
1 . Ethnology-H istory-20th century. 2. Ethnology-Philosop hy.
I . Title.
GN308.C55 1 988 87-241 73
306'.09-dc1 9 CIP
CONTENTS

Introduction: The Pure Products Go Crazy 1

Part One: Discourses 19

1. On Ethnographic Authority 21
2. Power and Dialogue in Ethnography: Marcel Griaule's
Initiation 55
3. On Ethnographic Self-Fashioning: Conrad and
Malinowski 92

Part 1\vo: Displacements 1 15

4. On Ethnographic Surrealism 1 17
5. A Poetics of Displacement: Victor Segalen 1 52
6. Tell about Your Trip: Michelleiris 1 65
7. A Politics of Neologism: Aime Cesaire 1 75
8. The Jardin des PI antes: Postcards 1 82

Part Three: Collections 1 87

9. Histories of the Tribal and the Modern 1 89
10. On Collecting Art and Culture 215

Part Four: Histories 253

11. On Orienta/ism 255
12. Identity in Mashpee 277

References 349
Sources 37 1
Index 373