{"title":"身体、热量和禁忌:南非低地现代人格的概念化","authors":"I. Niehaus","doi":"10.2307/4153025","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The meta-narrative of modernity often posits an inevitable shift from \"dividual\" to \"individual\" modalities of personhood. This presumes that with growing commodificatiion, persons are no longer enmeshed in networks of reciprocal exchange, but acquire a sense of individual autonomy, and perceive the body as bounded from external influences. The villagers in the Bushbuckridge area of South Africa, however, continue to perceive the body as permeable and partible. They believe that bodies transmit substances to and incorporate substances from other bodies, and that the conjunction of breath, aura, blood, and flesh gives rise to a dangerous condition of heat. By practicing various taboos associated with sex, pregnancy, and death, villagers aim to avoid contamination. This system of taboos is not a relic of the past, but is integral to contemporary situations of life. (Taboos, bodies, personhood, modernity, South Africa) ********** A few years ago, when I worked at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, I received a telephone call from the head of security. In a desperate voice he explained that he had issued each member of the security staff two brand-new uniforms and politely asked them to return their old ones. \"We want to create a good impression,\" he said. \"We don't want our people to go around wearing old shoes, trousers, and shirts.\" But many workers refused, saying that it was taboo to hand in their old clothing. Our security manager had heard that my area of interest was \"South African cultures\" and wanted to know whether the workers were fooling him. \"Are there really such beliefs?\" he asked. My conviction that the university's security staff did not hastily invent culture was based on my fieldwork among Northern Sotho and Shangaan residents of Bushbuckridge, a region of the South African lowveld. (2) This research revealed that in local knowledge one's body was not totally bounded, and that one's aura (seriti) and sweat contaminated one's clothes. This belief was pervasive and serious. Sometimes clothes could be used as a substitute for the owner. I once observed a housewife performing the first-fruit (go loma) ritual at the beginning of the harvest season. Her four children were obliged to bite the fruits from her garden in order of their seniority. But the third daughter was studying in Johannesburg and could not partake. Unperturbed, she still performed the ritual by simply applying a mixture of the fruits on her third daughter's clothes. Throughout my fieldwork people were greatly concerned that items of their clothing might fall into the wrong hands and that witches (baloi) might bewitch them through their clothes. For this reason, men allowed only their mothers and their wives to wash their underwear, sheets, and bedding. Like the security manager, anthropologists frequently have to contend with the anomalous persistence of seemingly traditional beliefs in contemporary settings, such as university campuses. Such beliefs unsettle meta-narratives of modernity, particularly the assumptions they make about bodies and persons. In recent years, several anthropologists have questioned the cross-cultural validity of the individual. In societies where gift logic prevails, they argue, personhood is more appropriately understood in terms of the \"dividual\" (see Dumont 1965; Marriott 1976; Wagner 1986; Strathern 1988; Taylor 1992; LiPuma 1998; and Piot 1999). Of India, Marriott (1976:11) writes: To exist, dividual persons absorb heterogeneous material influences. They must also give out particles of their own coded substances--essences, residues, or other active material influences--that they may then reproduce in others something of the nature of the persons in whom they have originated. The dividual, or fractual, person cannot be expressed in a whole number. He or she is perennially incomplete and forever involved in the process of being added to and built upon by the gifts of others. …","PeriodicalId":81209,"journal":{"name":"Ethnology","volume":"41 1","pages":"189-207"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2002-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/4153025","citationCount":"45","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"BODIES, HEAT, AND TABOOS: CONCEPTUALIZING MODERN PERSONHOOD IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN LOWVELD\",\"authors\":\"I. Niehaus\",\"doi\":\"10.2307/4153025\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"The meta-narrative of modernity often posits an inevitable shift from \\\"dividual\\\" to \\\"individual\\\" modalities of personhood. This presumes that with growing commodificatiion, persons are no longer enmeshed in networks of reciprocal exchange, but acquire a sense of individual autonomy, and perceive the body as bounded from external influences. The villagers in the Bushbuckridge area of South Africa, however, continue to perceive the body as permeable and partible. They believe that bodies transmit substances to and incorporate substances from other bodies, and that the conjunction of breath, aura, blood, and flesh gives rise to a dangerous condition of heat. By practicing various taboos associated with sex, pregnancy, and death, villagers aim to avoid contamination. This system of taboos is not a relic of the past, but is integral to contemporary situations of life. (Taboos, bodies, personhood, modernity, South Africa) ********** A few years ago, when I worked at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, I received a telephone call from the head of security. In a desperate voice he explained that he had issued each member of the security staff two brand-new uniforms and politely asked them to return their old ones. \\\"We want to create a good impression,\\\" he said. \\\"We don't want our people to go around wearing old shoes, trousers, and shirts.\\\" But many workers refused, saying that it was taboo to hand in their old clothing. Our security manager had heard that my area of interest was \\\"South African cultures\\\" and wanted to know whether the workers were fooling him. \\\"Are there really such beliefs?\\\" he asked. My conviction that the university's security staff did not hastily invent culture was based on my fieldwork among Northern Sotho and Shangaan residents of Bushbuckridge, a region of the South African lowveld. (2) This research revealed that in local knowledge one's body was not totally bounded, and that one's aura (seriti) and sweat contaminated one's clothes. This belief was pervasive and serious. Sometimes clothes could be used as a substitute for the owner. I once observed a housewife performing the first-fruit (go loma) ritual at the beginning of the harvest season. Her four children were obliged to bite the fruits from her garden in order of their seniority. But the third daughter was studying in Johannesburg and could not partake. Unperturbed, she still performed the ritual by simply applying a mixture of the fruits on her third daughter's clothes. Throughout my fieldwork people were greatly concerned that items of their clothing might fall into the wrong hands and that witches (baloi) might bewitch them through their clothes. For this reason, men allowed only their mothers and their wives to wash their underwear, sheets, and bedding. Like the security manager, anthropologists frequently have to contend with the anomalous persistence of seemingly traditional beliefs in contemporary settings, such as university campuses. Such beliefs unsettle meta-narratives of modernity, particularly the assumptions they make about bodies and persons. In recent years, several anthropologists have questioned the cross-cultural validity of the individual. In societies where gift logic prevails, they argue, personhood is more appropriately understood in terms of the \\\"dividual\\\" (see Dumont 1965; Marriott 1976; Wagner 1986; Strathern 1988; Taylor 1992; LiPuma 1998; and Piot 1999). Of India, Marriott (1976:11) writes: To exist, dividual persons absorb heterogeneous material influences. They must also give out particles of their own coded substances--essences, residues, or other active material influences--that they may then reproduce in others something of the nature of the persons in whom they have originated. The dividual, or fractual, person cannot be expressed in a whole number. He or she is perennially incomplete and forever involved in the process of being added to and built upon by the gifts of others. …\",\"PeriodicalId\":81209,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Ethnology\",\"volume\":\"41 1\",\"pages\":\"189-207\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.0000,\"publicationDate\":\"2002-06-22\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/4153025\",\"citationCount\":\"45\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Ethnology\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.2307/4153025\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"\",\"JCRName\":\"\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ethnology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2307/4153025","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 45
摘要
现代性的元叙事通常假定一种不可避免的从“个体”到“个体”的人格模式的转变。这假定随着日益增长的商品化,人们不再沉浸在相互交换的网络中,而是获得了一种个人自主的感觉,并认为身体不受外部影响。然而,南非布什巴克里奇地区的村民仍然认为尸体是可渗透和可分割的。他们认为,身体向其他身体传递物质并吸收其他身体的物质,而呼吸、气场、血液和肉体的结合会产生一种危险的热状态。村民们实行各种与性、怀孕和死亡有关的禁忌,目的是避免污染。这种禁忌体系不是过去的遗留物,而是与当代生活状况密不可分的。(禁忌,身体,人格,现代性,南非)**********几年前,我在约翰内斯堡的威特沃特斯兰德大学(University of the Witwatersrand)工作时,接到了安全主管的电话。他绝望地解释说,他给每个保安人员发了两套全新的制服,并礼貌地要求他们把旧的还回去。“我们想给大家留下好印象,”他说。“我们不希望我们的员工穿着旧鞋子、旧裤子和旧衬衫到处走。”但许多工人拒绝了,称上交旧衣服是禁忌。我们的保安经理听说我对“南非文化”感兴趣,想知道这些工作人员是否在愚弄他。“真的有这样的信念吗?”他问道。我确信大学的保安人员并没有匆忙地创造文化,这是基于我对南非低地地区布什巴克里奇的北索托和上海居民的实地调查。(2)本研究揭示了在地方知识中,一个人的身体不是完全有界限的,一个人的气场(seriti)和汗水污染了一个人的衣服。这种信念是普遍而严肃的。有时衣服可以代替主人。我曾经观察过一位家庭主妇在收获季节开始时进行初熟(go loma)仪式。她的四个孩子不得不按年龄顺序啃她花园里的水果。但第三个女儿在约翰内斯堡上学,不能参加。她依然泰然自若地将水果混合物涂在三女儿的衣服上。在我的田野调查中,人们非常担心他们的衣服会落入坏人之手,担心女巫(baloi)会通过他们的衣服对他们施魔法。因此,男人们只允许他们的母亲和妻子洗他们的内衣、床单和被褥。像安全经理一样,人类学家经常不得不与当代环境(如大学校园)中看似传统的信仰的反常持续作斗争。这样的信念扰乱了现代性的元叙事,尤其是它们对身体和人的假设。近年来,一些人类学家对个体的跨文化有效性提出了质疑。他们认为,在礼物逻辑盛行的社会中,用“个体”来理解人格更为恰当(见Dumont 1965;万豪酒店1976;瓦格纳1986;斯特拉斯恩1988;泰勒1992年;LiPuma 1998;和Piot 1999)。关于印度,Marriott(1976:11)写道:为了生存,个体吸收了异质物质的影响。他们还必须释放出他们自己编码的物质的微粒——精华、残留物或其他活跃的物质影响——这样他们就可以在其他人身上复制出一些他们起源的人的本质。个体或分形人不能用整数表示。他或她永远都是不完整的,永远都在被别人的天赋所添加和建立的过程中。…
BODIES, HEAT, AND TABOOS: CONCEPTUALIZING MODERN PERSONHOOD IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN LOWVELD
The meta-narrative of modernity often posits an inevitable shift from "dividual" to "individual" modalities of personhood. This presumes that with growing commodificatiion, persons are no longer enmeshed in networks of reciprocal exchange, but acquire a sense of individual autonomy, and perceive the body as bounded from external influences. The villagers in the Bushbuckridge area of South Africa, however, continue to perceive the body as permeable and partible. They believe that bodies transmit substances to and incorporate substances from other bodies, and that the conjunction of breath, aura, blood, and flesh gives rise to a dangerous condition of heat. By practicing various taboos associated with sex, pregnancy, and death, villagers aim to avoid contamination. This system of taboos is not a relic of the past, but is integral to contemporary situations of life. (Taboos, bodies, personhood, modernity, South Africa) ********** A few years ago, when I worked at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, I received a telephone call from the head of security. In a desperate voice he explained that he had issued each member of the security staff two brand-new uniforms and politely asked them to return their old ones. "We want to create a good impression," he said. "We don't want our people to go around wearing old shoes, trousers, and shirts." But many workers refused, saying that it was taboo to hand in their old clothing. Our security manager had heard that my area of interest was "South African cultures" and wanted to know whether the workers were fooling him. "Are there really such beliefs?" he asked. My conviction that the university's security staff did not hastily invent culture was based on my fieldwork among Northern Sotho and Shangaan residents of Bushbuckridge, a region of the South African lowveld. (2) This research revealed that in local knowledge one's body was not totally bounded, and that one's aura (seriti) and sweat contaminated one's clothes. This belief was pervasive and serious. Sometimes clothes could be used as a substitute for the owner. I once observed a housewife performing the first-fruit (go loma) ritual at the beginning of the harvest season. Her four children were obliged to bite the fruits from her garden in order of their seniority. But the third daughter was studying in Johannesburg and could not partake. Unperturbed, she still performed the ritual by simply applying a mixture of the fruits on her third daughter's clothes. Throughout my fieldwork people were greatly concerned that items of their clothing might fall into the wrong hands and that witches (baloi) might bewitch them through their clothes. For this reason, men allowed only their mothers and their wives to wash their underwear, sheets, and bedding. Like the security manager, anthropologists frequently have to contend with the anomalous persistence of seemingly traditional beliefs in contemporary settings, such as university campuses. Such beliefs unsettle meta-narratives of modernity, particularly the assumptions they make about bodies and persons. In recent years, several anthropologists have questioned the cross-cultural validity of the individual. In societies where gift logic prevails, they argue, personhood is more appropriately understood in terms of the "dividual" (see Dumont 1965; Marriott 1976; Wagner 1986; Strathern 1988; Taylor 1992; LiPuma 1998; and Piot 1999). Of India, Marriott (1976:11) writes: To exist, dividual persons absorb heterogeneous material influences. They must also give out particles of their own coded substances--essences, residues, or other active material influences--that they may then reproduce in others something of the nature of the persons in whom they have originated. The dividual, or fractual, person cannot be expressed in a whole number. He or she is perennially incomplete and forever involved in the process of being added to and built upon by the gifts of others. …