Cultural Studies and African Culture. - article ; n°101 ; vol.26, pg 257-263

Les Switzer

Description

Cahiers d'études africaines - Année 1986 - Volume 26 - Numéro 101 - Pages 257-263
7 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: CAHIERS_D-ETUDES_AFRICAINES
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1986
• Nombre de lectures: 183
• Langue: English

Extrait

Monsieur Les Switzer
Cultural Studies and African Culture.
In: Cahiers d'études africaines. Vol. 26 N°101-102. 1986. pp. 257-263.
Résumé
L. Switzer — Éthologie culturelle et culture africaine.
Partant de la recension de l'étude monographique d'un groupe tswana d'Afrique du Sud par un auteur se réclamant du marxisme,
L. S. critique, par implication, l'abus, fréquent dans la littérature contemporaine, d'une certaine langue de bois et d'automatismes
stéréotypiques tenant lieu d'explication.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Switzer Les. Cultural Studies and African Culture. In: Cahiers d'études africaines. Vol. 26 N°101-102. 1986. pp. 257-263.
doi : 10.3406/cea.1986.2177
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cea_0008-0055_1986_num_26_101_2177Les Switzer
Cultural Studies
and African Culture*
Critical other periphery struggles Marxist the Developed dichotomous opaque years material is at power perspective Comaroff and formidable complex methodology African The her Tswana not times The In audience encounter history Tshidi other present cultural Marxist and in merely the within structures introductory research workers compelling and trying interplay of political ever simply chief end the over challenge of metropole and one on forms notions the critique between in few dom passive however social such backdrop Southern contradictory to in cannot studies period the Tshidi beyond density of and expropriating between in unravel African located power analysis even chapter of organization anthropologist the and in penetration economic communicate of dominance the at theorists to particular of ritualized Africa this forces as in 150 one underdeveloping studies the culture community book those of her on African well the levels case years level reactions theory struggle from of writing rural saturates is as and who of The has reciprocal dominance study practices and of seriously the as consciousness continent has Western offers her material But periphery abstraction are become and language structures conscious subordination metaphor often begun and story the many reasonably It Comaroff these methodology periphery Barolong relationship flawed penetrating of is colonialism responses and increasingly obscures in the Culture to of pages are used of ideological and dependency Southern principal way focus Tshidi by She moves resistance above the positioned familiar boo class is weaknesses but the of that in meaning offers between world analysis for more turgid capitalism Ratshidi this from the far preoccupied all Comaroff one Africa in arena example will with in are an beyond manifestation context mass capitalist narrowly in the ca ever feeding and be intriguing conceptualized material of the writing in of The or struggles 1800-1830 accessible the and neo-colonial of She rarely theory active combat frequently revisionist presents simplistic Tshidi history however in ordinary argot cultural culture system off depicts on recent forces style feels and the for to of
Concerning Jean COMAROFF Body of Power Spirit of Resistance The Culture
and History of South African People Chicago II London University of
Chicago Press) 1985 xii-296 p. ill. bibi. index
Cahiers tudes africaines 101-102 XXV 1-1-2 ig86 pp 257-263 LES SWITZER 258
the need to express the content of their ideas in ways that might be enlightening to
the reader
Terms like social human practice and signifying practice or
cultural mediation vs symbolic synchronie models vs teleological
body body body are not denned at the
outset and it is not immediately clear whether these phrases mean the same thing
Tortuous sentences/paragraphs intrude in ways that obscure rather than clarify
the theoretical concepts the author is trying to elucidate as in the following
passage outlining the main theme of the book
have focused primarily upon social action as communicative process
which the pragmatic and semantic dimensions are fused It is in practice
that the principles governing objective orders of power relations take cultural
form playing upon the capacity of signs their polysemie quality for instance
and the meaning they acquire through positioning in relation to each
other in sequences or texts But this process of construction involves
the reciprocal interaction of subjects and their objective context and it may
serve both to consolidate existing hegemonies ruling definitions of the natu
ral and to give shape to resistance or reform pp 5-6)
Comaroff tries to convince the reader in the last sentence of this chapter that
the very purpose of this introduction has been to render my perspectives as unam
biguous as possible 14 Unfortunately this attempt at theoretical framework
has cast prisonhouse of as it were on the rest of the book
Consider the notions of hegemony and ideology crucial components of analysis
Comaroff does not bother to define or develop these concepts Hegemony and
seminal role in constructing theory of cultural hegemony to suggest
how dominant social groups might win the allegiance of the dominated masses in
given social formation is virtually ignored The theorists employed to
develop theory of ideology moreover are lumped together without due consid
eration of their differences Althusser and Foucault Key approaches to the
study of cultural texts such as hermeneutics and contributing scholars like Hall
and Habermas are also largely ignored
Hegemony
The concept of hegemony for example should have been clarified for the reader
at the outset because it is crucial to analysis Hegemonic crises occurred
in Tshidi society moreover during the precolonial precapitalist as well as the
colonial and neocolonial periods
In Gramscian terms the hegemonic State contains forces that are both consen
sual and coercive and one or the other might feature more prominently in any
given historical epoch point that Comaroff never addresses for example in
relation to the South African State In contemporary capitalist States only the
weakest resort to coercion For Gramsci the hegemonic State is more of unifying
force mediating conflict while actively and positively seeking to gain support
from all the constituted classes in the social formation hegemonic State then
is primarily dependent on the consent of the governed
The cultural institutions of given society are the arbiters of hegemonic
consensus These agencies are private as well as public and they include the
family schools churches political parties labor unions sports associations and
of course the mass media They represent the agencies of persuasion in the
social formation and they can be contrasted with the of coercion controlled
more directly by the State including the administrative bureaucracy military
policy judiciary and penal system CULTURAL STUDIES AND AFRICAN CULTURE 259
The main task of these cultural institutions is to legitimate the social order in
the consciousness and in the actions of the subordinate masses vision
of the hegemonic State however also embraced the concept of ambiguity The
process of legitimation which he called abstract consciousness was in conflict
with objective reality he situational The resulting
contradictory consciousness of man-in-the-mass was both an expression of
commitment and ambivalence to the status quo For Granisci hegemony did not
require the active support of the subordinate masses Compliance was sufficient
In the situational however could be discerned the seeds of both
accommodation with and resistance against the hegemonic State Femia 1975)
In the Gramscian schema hegemonic cultures are situated in continuum In
closed hegemonic cultures subordinate groups lack the language necessary even
to conceive concerted resistance In open hegemonic cultures the capability
for resistance flourishes and may lead to the creation of counterhegemonic alter
natives Lears 1985 574 All contemporary States then are hegemonic to some
degree For Gramsci the modern capitalist State is hegemony protected by
coercion cited by Lears 1985 570)
Ideology for Comarof is the coercive dimension of society and culture and most
effective when it remains interred in habit and hence has no need of words
She also indicates she will rethink the relationship between ideology as explicit
discourse and as lived experience But she really consider the
contradictions generated by the use of ideology in Marxist cultural studies Above
all we are not given succinct definition of the term and we are not told explicitly
how it will be employed in relation to the Tshidi
One must assume that Comaroff favors what has been called the discursive
approach to the interpretation of cultural texts All material and non-material
elements of Tshidi culture whether it be the use of the plow the growing of grain
the acquiring of literacy the making of money or the rites of manhood are ideolog
ical referents The struggle within and between these cultural texts represents
struggle over the power to constitute as Grossberg for example
puts it Culture is both the structures of experience and experience itself
Grossberg 1984 409)
Structures of power of dominance and subordination do not appear to
exist outside these texts In the base-superstructure metaphor the discursive
strategy essentially collapses base into superstructure and positio