The Invention of Culture by Roy Wagner Review by: John Beattie RAIN, No. 13 (Mar. - Apr., 1976), p.

10 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3032626 . Accessed: 05/04/2012 20:12
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to RAIN.

http://www.jstor.org

water rice, which yields a smallerincome than other varieties.For this reason, Man farmersand landlordswere badly placed to cope with the risingfactor of productioncosts createdby the 'vegetable revolution'of the late-1950s and 1960s. In their own eyes, their lands became uneconomic to work. One of the merits of Watson'sexposiwhat might tion is that it distinguishes be termed 'objective'economic circumstances from actors'perceptionsof the choices available.TheMans could have convertedat least some of their fields to vegetableproduction throughinvestment of labour and capital. They could have rented these fields to immigrant farmers,as had been done elsewherein the New Territories.But this alternative was rejectedfor reasonsof cultural conservatismratherthan economic necessity. It then became an urgent matter to find anothermode of livelihood for the productivemale population. In the absenceof opportunitiesin Hong Kong the solution hit upon was emigration, primarilyto Britain,and work in the Chineserestauranttrade. The centralportion of the book describes the developmentof this pattern of and discussesits consequences migratiocn for Manworkersin Britainand for those left behind. Here, the resultsmust be Roy Wagner:TheInvention of summarised.San Tin experiencesun?5.85) Culture(Prentice-Hall, paralleledprosperity.Indicationsare the Modernsocial anthropologistsare more high standardof living enjoyed by its worriedthan their predecessorswere residentsand the largenumberof new about the difficulty, perhapsthe impossi'sterlinghouses' built in recent years. bility, of being truly 'objective'in their However,the price paid for affluence is descriptionsof culturesother than their also evident. Most males of productive own. Since their analysesare bound, age are abroadand family and household initially at any rate, to be framedin the relationshave to be adjustedaccordingly. categories,linguisticand otherwise,of Apartfrom festivalperiods, the experitheir own cultures(whicheverthese are), enced quality of social life is drabcomthe dangeris that they may hopelessly paredto formertimes. Perhapsmost JamesL. Watson:Emigrationand the the probablyvery different misrepresent Chinese Lineage:the Mansin Hong Kong important,the occupationalexpectacategoriesof those other culturesthey tions of the school-agedyoung now centre and London (Universityof Califomia are studying. Since unfortunately(or upon a continuanceof migration. Press,?5.50) perhapsfortunately) for us, we cannot This is a valuablebook: it makes a useful jump completely out of our own conUnlike priorgenerationsof Chinese addition to the ethnographyof Chinese ceptual skins, all we can really do about migrants,the Manshave not lost touch this is to be as open-minded,sympathetic lineages,describesthe developmentand with their village.Whileabroadthey are consequencesof a migratorypattern and and self-criticalas we can in our efforts able to read Hong Kong Chinesenewsof providesneeded informationabout the to reachan adequateunderstanding papersand periodicvisits to Gerrard social and economic organisationof a the unfamiliarways of thinkingand in Street, an emergent'Chinatown' Chineseimmigrantgroupin Britain. behavingthat we are concernedwith. London'sSoho District, providesaddiThe authoris concernedwith members tional information.Further,the flow of And this is a very much more complex of a CantoneselineagesunamedMan and difficult task than it sounds. remittancesis accompaniedat regular recognisingas most and residentat San Tin in the New ProfessorWagner, intervalsby the wage-earners themTerritoriesof Hong Kong. They, together selves, retuminghome by chartered of us do that 'we must give up hope of jet with kinsmenelsewhere,constitute one for festive occasions,particularlythe absolute objectivity',goes to the other of the historic 'five greatclans' of the extreme and suggests,or at least seems New Year. As a result,Man migrants region. Two, the Tangsand the Liaos, to suggest, that we abandonhope of participatein shapingthe social policies have been describedby Potter (Capitalachievingany degreeof objectivityat all. of their villageand are accordeda status ism and the ChinesePeasant:Social and For every culture, includingour own, is in lineagedeliberationsconsistent with Economic Changein a Hong Kong 'invented'.'An anthropologist"invents" their economic importance.Migrant Village,1968), and by Baker(A Chinese influence is on the whole conservative the culturehe believeshimself to be Lineage Village:SheungShui, 1968). studying',he writes, though he adds that and overseasearningsare devoted to Watson'sintroductorychaptersneatly what he invents is or should be 'alongthe realisationof the good life accordingto supplementthe alreadyavailableinforma- traditionalcriteria,ratherthan servingas lines of observingand learning'(p 4: does this imply that what is observedand tion. The three works together allow a stimulusfor furtherchange. with some confidence generalisation learnedis not invented?).Again, 'the Whileoverseas,the Mansmake little about lineageorganisation in this part of tendency of cultureis to sustainitself, effort to achieveintegrationwith their by inventingitself' (p 60); 'people literally south easternChina. host society. Pursuinga specialisedoccuAlthough the Manshave social and [sic] invent themselves . . .' (p 105); and pation and without indigenouscompeti'man createshis realities'(p 150). The culturalfeaturesin common with the tors, they live in a relativelyself-contained Tangsand Liaos, their circumstances people the anthropologiststudies are Chineseworld duringthe time that they differ from those of the latter in an busy inventingtheir culturestoo; Profesare in Britain.As with many of their importantrespect.Man rice lands are sor Wagner's New Guineafriends, the predecessors,such migrantsaremost suitable only for cultivationof brackish Daribi,'invent the deceased [members appropriately describedas 'sojourners'
10

disaffectedopen ethnic group, such that any isolated and disaffectedurbanite mightbecome Nubian: as Painputs it 'the basickit they need is to speak Nubi, become a Moslem,and not be integrated into anothercommunity, and the Nubian worldlies at their feet, with glimpses throughthe mists to the peaks of Uganda society.' It is precisely from this group that PresidentAmin has drawnmuch of his support. Manyaspects of the ethnic politics of Uganda,such as the conflict between the Baganda and others, receivelittle mention in this volume, nor is there much detailedconsiderationof the role of the British,either as an ethnic group, or in political and economic terms: all this would certainlybe needed for a comprehensivesociological discussion.However, that is not the centralpurposeof this volume, which is a useful work of referenceon the recent events in Uganda. It has perhapsbeen preparedtoo hastily to allow the contributorsto stand back sufficiently from the traumaticevents they discuss. Roger Ballard

of their community] in the form of ghosts, so that they are not wholly lost' (p 26). This observationgives rise to the interestingquestion, is their (the Daribi's) invention reallyjust his (the anthropologist's) invention? Though one sympathiseswith the rejectionof author'suncompromising a naive philosophicalrealism,all this reallygoes a bit too far. Of course the knower contributessomethingto what he knows, and his culture as well as his human rationalitydeterminewhat he contributes.But that does not mean that what he knows is just his invention. did not 'invent'either ProfessorWagner the Daribior their culture;both were there before he visited them, and to suggestotherwiseis misleading,to say the least. Also, it is not alwaysvery clearwho or what it is that the author supposesis doing all this 'inventing'.Sometimesit is said to be the anthropologist,sometimes the membersof the culture studied, sometimes,it seems, a reified 'Culture' itself. has some shrewd, ProfessorWagner sensibleand importantthings to say, and the 'shock' impact of his approachmay provoke thought (though his book is not all that easy to read). But after all the paradoxand pyrotechnic,his conclusions (pp 158-9) are surprisingly Anthropologistsshould uncontroversial. be more explicit than they are about their values, theories and methods, and the differencesbetween them. And they should, as far as possible, let the peoples and the culturesthey study speak for themselves.Fair, and familiar,enough. John Beattie