IS T H E R E A W A Y T O T A L K A B O U T M A K I N G C U L T U R E W I T H O U T

MAKING ENEMIES?

Jean Jackson

Introduction culture." At times, this can result in anthropolo~lists

and pro-Indian activists unwittingly colluding ~ in
This essay 1 discusses the difficulty misrepresenting what is actually going on.
encountered in our attempts to describe, in a non- Anthropologists or activists 4 often find it
offensive manner, how a given group of people academically or politically expedient to use culture
invent, create, package,and sometimes sell their to describe continuities between the past and
culture. It explores a way to think about these present, in cases warranting a more sophisticated
processes derived from pidgin-creole studies. analysis because such continuities may in fact
On-going research on an Indian rights exist only superficially, the underlying meanings
movement in southeastern Colombia 2 has made being radically different.
me acutely aware of how difficult it can be to use It is by now clear that none of the meanings of
neutral language in descriptions of how Indians are culture is entirely apolitical or value-free. Most
refashioning, rethinking, "inventing" their culture. often "traditional culture" is seen as a good thing,
Tukanoans (as the riverine inhabitants of the something that should be safeguarded. But in
Vaup6s are called), in particular members of order to be thought of as good, culture must not
CRIVA (Regional Council of Vaup6s Indians), an be seen as invented or created, except over a long
ethnic federation promoting Indigenous rights in period of time. For the most part, culture is usually
the Vaup6s region, are currently acquiring notions not considered to be something constructed or
about Indianness from non-Tukanoans, both modified by discrete individuals and groups. When
whites and Indians. It is hard not to sound this happens--an example would be the changes
judgmental when describing how Tukanoans are wrought by a messianic leader of a nativist
reconceiving what it means to be Indian as a result movement--it becomes history, and culture is
of input from outsiders. I have concluded that opposed to history in this respect. Small-scale
anthropology has provided us with very few neutral tribal groups like Tukanoans, who are seen as still
terms to describe the processes I am observing. to some extent constituting a separate culture, are
In a forthcoming essay, I discuss how the often considered to be "without history," as
term culture, because of some of the underlying Cowlishaw and Wolf nicely put it.5 When we do
assumptions in its conventional meanings, is speak of people as political actors who are
anything but useful when we try to describe how changing culture, we run the risk of seeming to
people with an indigenist awareness of themselves speak of them in negative terms, the implication
modify their culture as part of their inter-ethnic being that the culture resulting from these
strategies. The topic is a tricky one because words operations is not really authentic.
like culture, whose assumptions can trip up
anthropologists, are also used by members in Tribal C u l t u r e s a n d E t h n i c G r o u p s
movements promoting the preservation of "Indian
Tukanoans, like many other tropical forest
Jean Jackson is P r o f e s s o r o f A n t h r o p o l o g y at the Indian groups, as they are Increasingly
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. incorporated into modern society while remaining
distinctive, are moving from being a tribal "culture"

DialecticalAnthropology, 14: 127-143, 1989.

9 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
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to an ethnic g r o u p . An ethnic group is a criticizes the tendency to speak of societies always

recognizably distinct group of people substantially in terms of either dying or surviving, assimilating or
embedded in a larger society. As such, it is no resisting. 11
longer to be thought of as a separate culture but Tukanoans are beginning to be instructed by
more as a subculture, its inventory of distinct traits outsiders, both whites and Indians, on what it
having been produced to a significant extent means to be an Indian, even on what it means to
through interaction with other sectors of the be a tropical forest Indian. Hence, I have tried to
society. While there have always been problems stress both being and becoming an Indian, 12 and
thinking=of Tukanoans as a traditional tribal tried not to speak of Tukanoans as having been
culture, v present-day Tukanoans are clearly deprived, "without" culture. The title of the book
moving farther and farther away from this ideal Ishi in Two Worlds: The Last Wild Indian in North
type. Thus, to the degree that modern-day America gives the impression that there are no
Amazonian Indian groups can and do choose to more "real" Indians in North America. 13 Tukanoans
remain ethnically distinct as they are increasingly are not "losing" one culture and "acquiring"
i n c o r p o r a t e d into m o d e r n s o c i e t y , t h e i r another; why traditional forms are retained,
distinctiveness changes in its essential nature. modified or dropped is a complex question. For
Even if the content of their ethnicity -- the example, it has sometimes seemed to me that
characteristics that make the group different from Tukanoans are not "maintaining" traditional cultural
other sectors of society -- appears to be identical forms so much as appropriating them as a political
with cultural forms from earlier periods, most often strategy. As noted above, retention of traditional
the underlying meaning is so altered that we forms does not imply that they remain the same; 14
cannot say these forms are the same. 7 apparent continuities can be surface continuities
In my paper on how conventional notions of only. Tukanoan leaders in CRIVA seem to be
culture impede understanding cases like the taking a cure from certain other Indians and whites
current Tukanoan one, I try to indicate that some (politicized highland Indians, leftist priests,
of the inapplicable underlying assumptions about anthropologists, etc.) who are interested in
culture stem from a biological model that likens a promoting Indianness and trying to justify and
culture to a species. 8 Although they change as a revindicate Tukanoan identity. This may be the
response to changing environment and genetic beginning of a process of mobilizing and adapting
mutation, species are never spoken of as inventing =traditional" ethnic identity in order to mediate
themselves. Hence, with a biological model increasing incorporation into, and in some regards
underlying conventional notions of culture, lessen, exploitation and discrimination from the
individuals who actively and at times intentionally white world. But even the verb "to appropriate" can
invent and modify their culture will tend to be seen sound pejorative.
as producing an inauthentic, ersatz culture. A
proper account of what is currently going on in the Examples of Negative Language
Vaup(~s should not depict people possessing,
losing, or acquiring culture, in the way a species Many writers undoubtedly want to describe
possesses fur or claws, but in terms of creating indigenous peoples in a fashion that grants them
and inventing it. Tukanoans are not being "agency, process and social practice, "15 without
amalgamated or assimilated, 9 and yet the cultural having to use Machiavellian language. A number of
forms that are being retained are changing in writers on ethnicity seem to be grappling with --
meaning and purpose, rather radically in some consciously or willy nilly -- this issue. Examples of
i n s t a n c e s . F o x ' s phrase, " c u l t u r e in the negative language in the literature on ethnicity,
making,'captures this idea, as does Layne's even when the author is not necessarily making
"reconceiving culture. .10 Clifford similarly such a value judgment, are easily found.
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Most authors writing about ethnic groups are lackeys of the establishment, fighting on its
agree that ethnicity is "an ascriptive element side in the media and in the courts. Ethnic groups
denoting the fact that certain people are defined, who are making various claims about themselves
or define themselves, as belonging together by and what they are entitled to have resented the
virtue of their presumed origin."~ "Presumed" is seemingly hostile treatment from anthropologists
intended to raise doubts9 Similarly, Barth speaks of who label their justifications for their claims as
a person's most basic identity "presumptively ideology and manipulation. Of course, sometimes
determined by his origin and background," and anthropologists are arguing against such claims.
Cohen's use of the word "putative," when speaking But I am talking about situations when an
of permanent, ascriptive identity features, is anthropologist is primarily concerned with
another instance.17 Vincent states that "ethnic ties description and analysis.
are not primordial ties -- the assumed givens of a One response is to say that analysis and
society, and their actual realized organization in advocacy are different enterprises, even when
any situation have to be demonstrated. "18 The engaged in by the same person, and that
notion that one cannot take a group's word for it, disappointing one's natives is an occupational
but that primordial ties must be demonstrated hazard of being an anthropologist. 27 Cleady, at
through other means, is clear.19 Kahn speaks of times what the natives would like you to say and
ethnicity as an ideology that needs to be explained what you feel you must say will be at odds and
rather than a given, and Bourgois describes there will be no reconciliation; anthropology has
ethnicity as "a form of ideological expression."20 been and will continue to be, on occasion, a highly
The word "ideology" in both quotes can carry a politicized discourse. But I am talking about
negative c o n n o t a t i o n . Cohen speaks of anthropologists who want to describe a social and
"rationalization" and "creating": "Once the ethnic cultural process accurately and who want to find
identities and categories are triggered into being non-negative language with which to do it. I,
salient, cultural rationalizations for the legitimacy of perhaps naively, believe that with a little creating
the mobilized grouping are actively sought for and and inventing of our own, we can come up with
created by those involved. "21 He argues that models and metaphors describing indigenous
ethnicity can "be narrowed or broadened in responses that are acceptable to them, at least to
boundary terms, in relation to the specific needs of some of them some of the time.28
political mobilization. "22 Vincent suggests that
people will manipulate a classificatory system CRIVA
according to needs of the moment: "political actors
9 when articulating ethnic status, are able to Interviews I had with some CRIVA members
define and redefine the rules of interaction and various documents CRIVA has written,
according to their changing interests;"23 ethnicity p r o v i d e d e x a m p l e s of T u k a n o a n self-
is not "a mystic force in itself" but "a tool in the representations being influenced by outside
hands of men."24 notions of what an authentic tropical forest Indian
Even Wolf's admirable notion of a culture as is. I cannot place CRIVA in its proper context here.
"a series of processes that construct, reconstruct, To adequately comprehend the current Tukanoan
and dismantle cultural materials, in response to situation requires background knowledge about
identifiable determinants "25 under some the local Vaup6s scene and the people elsewhere
circumstances might invite an angry response in Colombia who create the legislation and make
from the people described as "constructing" their the policies that affect the region's inhabitants.
culture.ZUThey might see it as another example of One must also know about the history of land
the expert social scientists demonstrating that they reform and Indian-white struggles elsewhere in the
know better or an example of how social scientists country. CRIVA was founded in 1973 with the
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backing of the Prefectura Apost61icade/Vaupds, resguardo implies collective ownership of land by

the Catholic mission headquarters in MitO, the the Indian group. A resguardo of some 3,000,000
capital of the region. ONIC (National Organization hectares was established in the Vaup~s. That so
of Colombian Indians), and some of its member much territory has been ceded to so few Indians,
organizations, in particular CRIC (Regional Council with virtually no pressure coming from the Indians
of Cauca Indians), have greatly influenced CRIVA. themselves is Indeed remarkable. It reflects an
Although relatively few white residents live outside extremely unstable national political situation 29
Mit(J, a town of some 6,000 Inhabitants, colonos and a policy Implemented by a fundamentally
(homesteaders) and other whites (for example, the weak national government that attempts to win
owners of almacenes, or general stores), also play hearts and minds in the countryside and thus
an important role. prevent leftist guerrilla groups from gaining more
CRIVA has had a multitude of problems. The converts. During this time, Indian organizing, with
vast majority of Tukanoans are substantially less the participation of international indigenous rights
politicized than active CRIVA members, and many organizations, led to the establishment of many
Tukanoans are indifferent or hostile to it. pro-Indian organizations, and a great deal of
Tukanoans living far from MitO are not, for the most discussion about Colombian Indians, their current
part, actively involved in the organization, and status and probable future, in the national press.
many apparently do not respect the leaders or the With respect to the second factor, over-
positions they espouse. We can say that most dependence on non-Tukanoans, CRIVA has been
Tukanoans are less self-consciously indigenist treated paternalistically by virtually all the outsiders
than active CRIVA members, and of those it has interacted with. The role of outsiders working
Tukanoans who are interested in indigenous dghts with local Tukanoan leaders - priests, government
organizing, some are not sure that CRIVA best agents, anthropologists, representatives of national
represents their interests in situations of Indian- and international Indian rights organizations,
white conflict. Thus, CRIVA members do not typify lawyers promoting civil and human rights
Tukanoans in general. They may represent the legislation, etc. -- is extremely complex. These
Tukanoan of tomorrow, or they may not -- the various interest groups have divergent goals, and
region is changing so rapidly it is hard to predict while many sincerely want what is best for
what the future will look like. Tukanoans, one result of so many outsiders
A summary of reasons why CRIVA is so weak playing a role in the formation and evolution of
is necessary for understanding its cadet position CRIVA has been CRIVA's inability to grow up. One
vis ~ vis n o n - T u k a n o a n individuals and interviewee in Bogot,~ commented that activist
organizations. The main factors are 1) no urgent Indians who visit the Vaup6s say:
threat to Tukanoan lands or other natural
resources that could unite most Tukanoans ' . . . we're going to work with the genre de base (the
against it; 2) over-dependence on non-Tukanoans; people of the base c o m m u n i t i e s ) . ' But they're
3) internal divisiveness; 4) the effects of coca paste bureaucrats, they speak Spanish, they manage the
trafficking; and 5) co-optation and marginalization white world. Now, it's true the local people may have to
of members, resulting in their losing legitimacy in learn to manage the white world, but they must do so
the eyes of their constituents. for their own interests.
In the 70's, the Colombian government
instituted wide-ranging legislation affecting Indians And a priest commented that the Church should
that included regularization of Indian land claims change its position regarding CRIVA:
into reserves (reservas) and preserves
(resguardos). A reserve is land owned by the state The Church has to leave CRIVA alone, so that it can
with usufruct rights given to the inhabitants, and mature, not be dependent. When a child falls down, you
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haveto give him a handup, but sometimestheyto pick alliances between guerrillas and Tukanoans, and
themselvesup. the inability of Church and government change
agents in the region to develop the region in a
Another factor is the problem of internal manner that would benefit from Tukanoans
divisiveness. The Church, which played a decisive changing into a proletariat sector. Thus, while
role in creating CRIVA, bears some responsibility twenty years ago whites spoke of teaching
for this, due to its divide-and-conquer tactics Tukanoans about the dignity of work and the value
employed over the years in struggles against its of saving money, a number of whites today seem
evangelical Protestant rivals.30 to feel that Tukanoans face grave dangers by
In the late 70's, many Tukanoans quickly acculturating too rapidly. We thus have various
acquired large amounts of cash and trade goods whites -- individuals and organizations -- who are
through coca. To some extent, the rapid change interested in preserving and defining what
and easy cash that coca trafficking brought to the "traditional" Tukanoan culture is all about.
region resulted in many Tukanoans feeling even Outsider Indians are defining what traditional
less militant about protecting their land and Tukanoan culture is as well. These definitions are
customs, and even more inclined to Interact with sometimes incorrect: a book published by a
the white world than before. Various interviewees Tukanoan with the backing of the Prefecture
commented that Tukanoan indigenist organizing (Fundamental Principles of CRIVA, by JesE]s
was as much a response to coca as anything else. Santacruz),31 reveals any number of inaccuracies
One subgroup of CRIVA was described as little about Tukanoan ethnography, and so do
more than a coca-growers' guild, concerned with descriptions of Tukanoans in the newspaper of the
regulating pdces, the amount of land whites could national Indian organization, Unidad Indigena.
cultivate, and the amount of mordida, or payoff, to These, I would argue, are not random
local (and sometimes federal) authorities. inaccuracies, but reveal a systemic bias towards
Finally, participating in ethnic federations like fitting Tukanoans into a generalized, romanticized
CRIVA can b r i n g a b o u t a d e g r e e of picture of tropical forest Indians. Characteristics
bureaucratization, co-optation, and marginalization and traits attributed to Tukanoans are of the kind
of leaders vis-8-vis more traditional sectors. This to provide strong arguments in any future conflicts
process has put CRIVA members in a bind: the over land rights, local political autonomy, labor
more efficient and effective they become at organizing, and so forth. Of course, this process
garnering goodies offered by the system, the more has occurred in the Western Hemisphere
suspect and illegitimate they become to their repeatedly over the last two centuries, involving
constituencies. many Indian groups. What is interesting about the
Various non-Indian Interest groups in the Vaup~s case is that we are witnessing the
Vaup~s have recently been finding it useful to pay beginning stages.
attention and even promote traditional Tukanoan
culture. Quite a number of individuals I interviewed Indigenism with a Capital "1"
criticized CRIVA for not being traditional enough,
saying it was too caught up in the white wodd and This paper's introduction refers to the process
did not care enough about preserving Tukanoan of "becoming an Indian." We have seen that
culture or developing genuine grass-roots recently a new message has appeared in whites'
activism. The reverse would have been the case (and non-Tukanoan Indians') heralding the
twenty years ago. This is probably less due to desirability of Tukanoans remaining the way they
these individuals' having recently acquired respect are in some important respects. But remaining the
for lifeways different from their own than to way they are nevertheless involves significant
concerns about coca paste trafficking, possible change on the part of the Tukanoans, paradoxical
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though it may seem, because definitions of who evolves from something Tukanoans do entirely for
they are increasingly originate in their expanding one another to something they do for outsiders, or
interaction with non-Tukanoans. if Tukanoans perform a ritual for themselves
We have seen that Tukanoans who are because it fosters a self-image that has been
influenced by the national Indian rights movement inspired by outsiders, then despite superficial
are hearing and incorporating into their self-image similarities between traditional rituals and these
several notions foreign to their traditional new ones, they are not traditional in some
understandings of themselves in their society. important respects. Rather, the various ritual forms
CRIVA faces a dilemma: part of its mission is to and underlying meanings stand in a dialogical
represent tropical-forest Indians to an outside relationship with one another.
world, but since it occupies a marginal and How to describe this with our conventional
relatively powerless status in Mitt] and within the notions of culture? We can speak of a ritual having
national Indian movement, its self-representations been folkloricized when it occurs because the
contain non-trivial elements received from participants' involvement in the larger society
outsiders. Although to some extent Tukanoans are significantly influences why the ritual is performed
seen as more authentically Indian, because of and why particular traditional ritual forms have
CRIVA's relative lack of political savvy within ONIC, been retained. As Tukanoans are increasingly
communicating about such authenticity is clearly embedded in Colombian culture and society, they
not always entrusted to Tukanoans. CRIVA leaders are increasingly coming to define themselves in
may in the future develop the political clout and terms of the larger society, even though this
organizational savoir-faire that allow them more definition is not the simple one of "how fast are we
ideological hegemony vis-a-vis outsiders. But the amalgamating?" I have argued that we are seeing
dilemma they face is that when traditional political the very beginnings of a process of folkloricization
forms and expectations differ extensively from of some aspects of culture among the more
new, intrusive ones, the members of an activist acculturated Tukanoans who participate in the
group can experience the conflict and confusion local indigenous rights movement, who are finding
resulting from fence-straddling and the marginality out what it means to be Tukanoan in a new way,
of biculturalism. Tukanoans, coming out of one different from the way Tukanoans revised their
relatively fluid, dispersed local communities, have self-concepts over the past two centuries in
little experience with centralized political structures interaction with whites. 33 Young Tukanoans who
and their bureaucracies. The means for achieving reside in Mitt] and its environs not only are learning
an active role in deciding their own destinies, from outsiders how to be Indian, but also to some
making collective decisions, and learning to extent how to be Tukanoan. The pages of CRIVA's
negotiate with outside groups is not a part of the newspaper, La Voz de la Tribu, that describe
traditional Tukanoan political repertoire. 32 It is Tukanoan traditions in ethnographically incorrect
thus no surprise that foreign notions about Indian fashion are a harbinger of a transformed Tukanoan
identity and culture are Influencing current identity. But "folkloricization" is a negative term for
Tukanoan self-representations. describing this process, and I would prefer to limit
As noted above, traditional cultural forms that its use to Instances of state-imposed maintenance
are retained are not necessarily the same if their of cultural forms. 34 But the element of self-
meaning has changed. This might seem so consciousness is a crucial one, and I have no
obvious as to not warrant comment, but such a other term to offer.
point is often forgotten because anthropologists An important change occurs when, because a
and indigenists alike are often interested in vastly more powerful cultural system is making
discovering the connections between current significant Inroads into an indigenous culture, the
traditions and earlier ones. For example, if a ritual members of that culture become aware of
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themselves as a culture -- here contrasted to being mourn the loss of indigenous cultures and
aware of themselves as a distinct people, which I languages. When we give a particular native
would maintain is how Indigenous cultures people high marks for survMng and adapting by
conceive of the differences between themselves adopting cultural forms from outsiders, we
and their neighbors in pre-contact situations. A nonetheless regret what they lose. Furthermore,
further refinement, a distinction difficult to we know of cases where later generations also
characterize, is that while to some extent regret such losses, to the extent of going to the
indigenism begins with the very first contact with a library and reading earlier anthropological
radically different culture, Indigenism -- indigenism monographs about their ancestors.
with a capital "1," self-conscious indigenism, along Anthropologists -- both those who have carried out
with self-conscious culture -- begins when a group scholarly research in Vaup~s and those involved in
of people begin to appropriate notions of who they more activist enterprises there -- no less than
are from the intrusive dominant culture, albeit in others involved, have opinions about what is good
contradiction to it.35 This is now occurring in the and bad about Tukanoan traditional cultural forms
Vaup0s. Folkloricized, or self-conscious ritual (or and the intrusive values and behaviors from
culture) is ritual whose meaning is derived in part Colombian society. To put it bluntly, we may not
from the fact that the audience (both the audience like at all how Tukanoans are choosing to adapt to
which is physically present and the audience in their new conditions. We may see the new patterns
people's minds) includes people from different of thought and action as counterfeit, less aesthetic,
cultures. The same point can be made about less nutritious, as posing a danger to long-term
"authentic" North American Indian handiwork chances for self-sufficiency, autonomy,
intended primarily for the non-Indian market: to a empowerment, and so forth. And we may be right.
large extent it is the market and the federal I would argue that anthropologists must be moral
government, not the Indians, which determines persons in their profession and that they must
standards of authenticity and excellence. 36 No recognize that no ethnographic practice, however
Tukanoan spoke of nuestra cultura ('our culture') objective in methodology, is ever value-free. But I
in the late '60s in this self-conscious sense, would also argue that indigenous peoples have the
although at that time many complained bittedy right to choose non-nutritious, non-beautiful or
about whites. But they are now beginning to speak non-'authentic" cultural forms as much as we have
in this fashion. a right to deplore them. And that insofar as we are
But how to talk about this transformation, trying to objectively describe choices being made
whether of a ritual or of Indian culture in general, in by Tukanoans (or others), describing them with a
other deprecatory terms? Simply to talk of notion of culture that is deeply conservative 37
"becoming an Indian" suggests something may impede us in these efforts.
inauthentic, insincere, as does the word
"folklodcize." I do not want to give the impression Creole-Pidgins
that I am judging some cultural traits as better than
others simply because they are traditional. I do We are now ready to consider how pidgin-
believe there are criteria with which to make such creole studies might help us talk about Tukanoan
judgments, but they have to do with the effects of culture in a non-pejorative manner. Pidgins are
such preserved or new traits on the well-being of languages which arise to fulfill certain restricted
the group in question -- and sometimes this is communication needs among people who have no
difficult to assess, even in hindsight. common language. 38 If they become the first
One reason why so many negative words are language of a group of people, then they are
used in descriptions of culture change is that considered to be creoles. One cannot thing of
anthropologists -- both as scholars and activists -- pidgin-creoles in static terms; they arise in
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situations of great turbulence, and a particular over time, are revealed to be extremely dynamic
pidgin-creole's rate of change may vary greatly and generative linguistic systems.
over time. We can think of pidgin-creoles as Pidgin-creoles, once created, have a
continuously being constructed and reconstructed backwards and forwards motion. Not only do they
by their users. Pidgin-creoles always arise in the evolve, but speakers also call on them when
context of the state, most often in colonial and speaking the other languages in their repertoires,
neo-colonial situations. The inventors of pidgin- back-translating into these languages. The effect
creoles are "victims in the long process of on these other local languages can be significant.
domination and exploitation which has marked For example, a metaphor in pidgin that is
much of Europe's contact with the rest of the wodd incorporated into another language can introduce
during the past five centuries. "39 Until recently, a new concept. In Tok pisin (New Guinea pidgin),
pidgin-creoles were seen as inferior, broken cutimskin is a metaphor for "gossip" -- similar to
dialects of well-established languages. Some our notion of "taking a swipe at someone." When
scholars still occasionally use stigmatizing this was backtranslated into Kaluli, the literal
language when describing pidgin-creoles; for translation introduced a new way of talking about
example, Whinnom describes pidgins as things; the metaphorical aspect was lost.
"defective" languages, with "inferior" flexibility and Furthermore, when pidgin words are back-
adaptability.40 But he does note that creoles, with translated, they sometimes replace terms in the
their generic plasticity, appear to repair many of other language, or genericize a meaning. An
the deficiencies inherited from their parent pidgin. introduced word can stand as a cover term for
Most other authors, while at times struggling to something that may have four or five terms in the
find neutral words to describe how pidgins are language. Pidgin-creoles, thus, are part of a back
limited, reduced, etc., are quite clear that neither and forth movement among the other languages
pidgins nor creoles are broken, bastardized, they are interacting with: the direction of causality
formless "dialects." They also point out that these is not only one way.43
languages have a lot to teach us about "the nature Another feature of pidgin-creoles is that in
of human interaction through language, and about most places where they exist there is clearly a
man's innate communicative competence."41 distinct register for speaking with outsiders, a
For the most part, non-linguists still see reduced pidgin. In Tok pisin it is called tok masta.
pidgin-creoles in extremely negative terms. Most One hears this register in shops -- it is the
educators in Jamaica, for example, do not "encounter" register. And it is recognized locally as
recognize Jamaican Creole as a language, but a reduced version of the pidgin. Furthermore, in
treat speakers as though they were speaking New Guinea tok masta is recognized as the version
English carelessly and slovenly. In the 1950s, the that is closest to English. When people talk in this
linguist Le Page was savagely attacked by a register, they talk louder, more slowly, and with
Jamaican newspaper columnist who warned that very un-pidgin markers. They will say of someone,
his studies of Jamaican Creole could undermine all "he only understands tok masta." This means that
Jamaican education by encouraging teachers to outsiders will have difficulties discerning the
tolerate the use of creole in the schools.42 complexity of pidgin-creoles if their interactions
Pidgins arise in situations demanding with native speakers are always of the encounter
communication around a limited number of topics. type -- which is most often the case. The
Very specialized and constricted at the Initial complexity of markers of occasion and situation
points, if they survive, as they gain speakers and are masked. For example, DeCamp, discussing
evolve into creoles, they rapidly expand. This Chinese pidgin, notes that "foreigners who claim to
process means that pidgin-creoles, when analyzed speak a pidgin-creole rarely d o . . . it is more likely
only a baby-talk English larded with bits of Chinese
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and real pidgin. "44 He notes that the real speakers difficult to over-privilege the languages; the
treat these attempts with contempt. emphasis is, appropriately, on the actors creating
Several analogies can be drawn between solutions. For example, DeCamp, discussing the
pidgin-creole studies and situations involving pidgin Juba Arabic, shows how its restricted
"inventing" culture9 To begin with, a point made vocabulary is supplemented, whenever the need
above was that pidgin-creoles are constructed and arises, by speakers using words from various
reconstructed by users. Pidgin-creoles are native languages or normal Arabic. 48 As Todd
adaptive and resourceful languages in the process notes, the very nature of pidgin-creoles' structure
of acquiring and retaining native speakers. and lexical resources "compels attention to the
Bakhtin's discussion of dlalogical interaction, the social and cultural circumstances of their origin,
iterative p r o c e s s of r e c e i v i n g and transmission and persistence. "49 We are similarly
reconceptualizing, of continual shaping and re- at tines tempted to overly focus on and reify
shaping of a word, discourse, language or culture, culture, downplaying the actors and their motives
is apt: for adapting themselves to changing social
conditions. Just as people create pidgins because
9 [a word] enters a dialogically agitated and tension- they are actively searching for solutions to
filled environment of alien words, value judgments, and particular circumstances, so are Tukanoans when
a c c e n t s , w e a v e s in a n d o u t of c o m p l e x engaged in their enterprise of creating culture. The
interrelationships, merges with some, recoils from neutral language used to describe how speakers of
others, intersects with yet a third group.45 Juba Arabic create language should inspire us to
find ways to similarly describe people inventing
Linguists encounter difficulties classifying pidgin- culture.
creoles because they change so rapidly and Traugott, commenting on how pidgin-creoles
because of disagreements over the criteria for challenged many traditional concepts in
declaring whether a given pidgin has evolved into c o m p a r a t i v e l i n g u i s t i c s and h isto rical
a creole or not -- some say this occurs when reconstruction, notes that pidginization and
children grow up speaking a pidgin as their native creolization
language, whereas others require structural
features to be present which some pidgin-creoles, 9 present a formidable challenge to the genetic view
although they have acquired native speakers, do of histodcal linguistics. First and foremost, pidginization
not possess. Bickerton notes that "the babies do and creolization, however defined, involve the
not walt" for certain cdterla to be met before they development of new languages out of convergent
acquire a pidgin as a first language. 46 Cultures, contact situations... Equally problematic was the fact
like pidgin-creoles, are also dynamic, and that pidgins are known to develop rapidly . . . this
analogous classificatory problems can be found in suggests that basic vocabulary can be altered and
anthropological practice as well, although they are realtered within a very short pedod of time950
often swept under the rug. For example, Cohen
notes that the "fieldwork greats.., knew they were Pidgin-creoles have a variable rate of change9
often as not creating arbitrary and artificial Pidgins can be relexified and repidginized9 Thus,
boundaries" when describing Indeterminate and pidgin-creoles are changing all the time, and not
shifting groups as separate cultures. 47 necessarily in a single direction. It is our organic
Second, in pidgin-creoles studies we are notion of culture that Impedes us from seeing
constantly reminded that it is the speakers who are culture in similar fashion, that leads us to think in
constructing the pidgin-creole and altering the terms of possession, in terms of quantity retained
other languages in their repertoires in response to versus lost, in terms of continuity versus dispersal.
the pidgin-creole. With pidgin-creoles it is more A genetic model common to both anthropology
136

and historical linguistics does not provide an complexity of Chinese pidgin; English speakers
adequate language for talking about such tend to come away from the encounters with their
processes. If pidgin-creoles can help us stereotypes Intact. A parallel perhaps will occur in
understand something abut how to see present- the Vaup~s where o u t s i d e r s , i n c l u d i n g
day Tukanoan culture, surely it is that seeing anthropologists, may see only simplified versions
culture as something static, primordial, and of new Tukanoan cultural forms, versions targeted
handed down from earlier generations, period, at outsiders, "for public consumption."
must be abandoned. The new Tukanoan cultural forms are, like
Of course, culture change has always been pidgin-creoles, being forged in a situation of social
seen as more susceptible to variable rates of and ethnic turbulence. Tukanoans are finding ways
change than some views of language change (e.g., to communicate about themselves in often
the assumptions of glottochronology). While stressful situations which they do not totally
anthropologists have accepted the notion of understand. They are learning some elements of
culture c o n t a c t and diffusion for decades, these new cultural forms from outsiders. As noted
speaking of syncretization and acculturation, the above, the basic act of forming a group like CRIVA,
underlying notion of culture remains one based on with its bureaucracy and mission, is foreign to
an organic model where cultures either survive, traditional Tukanoan lifeways. A lawyer in Bogotd
die, or are assimilated. The organic model of either involved in Indian land claims cases complained
a language or a culture is, in the last analysis, about CRIVA's lack of authenticity, saying its
inimical to the dialogic notion of "the constant leaders:
interaction between meanings, all of which have
the potential of conditioning others,"51 which I am 9 are waiting for those in power to do something -
suggesting is the way to see what is happening in now it's waiting for a response from the government,
the Vaup6s. Cultures, like nations, b z are not t o m o r r o w w a i t i n g for an investigator to give them
"natural': " . . . an essence that has been fixed by money. It's not an Indian organization at all. Uke most
natural processes and it cannot change.., without Indian organizations, it is conceived and made rational
becoming something else, some other thing. "53 with the rationality of the white.
However, we must bear in mind that, given the
roles ethnic groups play in modern society in inter- Another similarity is the presence of stigma.
ethnic and ethnic-state interactions, cultures will Linguists point out that there is no such thing as a
tend to be spoken of as natural and as something primitive or inferior language. 55 And yet pidgin-
possessed. creoles are marginal "in the circumstances of their
The lesson to be learned from the reduced origin, and in the attitudes towards them on the
"encounter" versions of many pidgins is that since part of those who speak one of the languages from
outsiders will be most likely to come into contact which they derive."56 A parallel can be drawn with
with a significantly reduced version of the the Tukanoan case. Although both whites and non-
language, they will be misled into thinking they Tukanoan Indians are currently celebrating some
understand it far more than they do -- because it is aspects of traditional Tukanoan culture:
simplified, and because these encounter versions Ionghouses, rituals, and artifacts are spoken of
resemble the superstrate language more than any favorably, evidence is also abundant that whites,
other versions9 Whinnom describes how, when Tukanoans, and non-Tukanoan Indians continue to
speaking to English speakers, speakers of Chinese see Indianness, especially tropical-forest
pidgin will "adopt precisely the same measures as Indianness, as inferior. In some pidgin-creole
in the alleged behavior of master to slave, i.e., they situations a "hyper-creolization" is encountered,
speak slowly and distinctly, repeat carefully which is most often a nationalistic reaction against
phrases....54 It is difficult to penetrate into the the oppressive corrective pressures from the
 137

standard language, an "aggressive assertion of misperception. The "hyperforms" in Tukanoan

linguistic discreteness and superior status for culture -- Incorrect notions received from outsiders
creole."57 Hyperforms in languages are mistaken - are being made the correct notions, insofar as
insofar as sp~_kers believe an Incorrect form is the we are paying attention to Tukanoan self-
correct one. 58 An example of a now-accepted representations, rather than current Tukanoan
English hyperform is the use of "premises" to mean ethnographic reality. Tukanoans adopting new
real estate; another hyperform, pronouncing the "t" notions about communal land and labor are
in often, may eventually become the accepted responding to stigmatized visions of Tukanoan
pronunciation. It may be useful to see some of the culture by creating an Image of (hyper-) Indianness
emerging notions about tropical-forest Indlanness distinct from and morally supedor to white culture.
in this manner. Insofar as CRIVA publications On the one hand, clearly at one period in time
describe Tukanoan lifeways in an ethnographically some Tukanoans are making incorrect assertions
Incorrect manner, in order to fit them to received about their traditional communal land and labor
ideas of what being a proper Indian is, the analogy customs, just as the original Kaluli speakers who
with the hyper-creolization process is apt. For back-translated cutimskin from tok plain were not
example, an article in Unidad Indigena describes speaking "correct" Kaluli. But in the final analysis, it
the Vaup~s language groups: is the actors who create linguistic or ethnographic
reality; ethnicity or culture is not some mystical
To each tribe corresponds a territory whose limits are force existing apart from them, even though we
clearly recognized and respected; in keeping with (and they) often speak as though this were the
tradition and mythology, this territory is communal case. In this instance, there is a tension between
property of the entire tdbe. 59 two kinds of accuracies. Our difficulties adse when
we over-privilege historical accuracy because of a
In actuality, an association between land and view of culture and ethnicity as essential and
language group in the Vaup(~s exists in an timeless.61
idealized, symbolic sense only; nor is there any
idea that certain clearly demarcated parcels of Conclusion
land belong to one language group exclusively.60
Local settlements are often intermingled with We are seeing the beginnings of a process of
respect to language group affiliation, and often a foikloricization of various Tukanoan cultural traits.
settlement's closest neighbors belong to other Perhaps in the f u t u r e we shall see the
language groups. Another article in Unidad commoditization of them. Elsewhere in the
Indigena asserts that land is worked communally, hemisphere various interest groups, including
another (current) ethnographic Inaccuracy. It is no Indigenous groups themselves, package and
accident that the generalized Image of traditional promote "lndlanness. "62 The cultural forms that
Indian culture being Introduced to the Vaup6s are retained from eadier traditions can therefore
contains notions of communal ownership of land totally change in meaning. This poses problems
and communal labor; to be able to assert tribal when we talk about cultures using an organic
communal ownership of clearly demarcated lands model, because we find we cannot descdbe these
is to have a strong arguing position in potential processes in other than negative language. Both
future battles over land rights. If all Tukanoans anthropologists and pro-Indian activists at times
eventually come to believe these received notions find it academically and/or politically expedient to
about themselves, we will have a situation talk of culture as enduring over time: while
analogous to the linguistic situation where a changing, these cultures are nonetheless seen as
hyperform becomes the correct form, with only remaining the same in some fundamental ways.
language historians knowing its origin in a But when, as Is beginning to occur in the
138

Tukanoan case, traits are retained, cast aside or these processes without using negative, value-
redefined as part of a self-conscious awareness laden words, even when we especially wish to
and promotion of a particular kind of Indian identity sound as neutral, descriptive, and objective as
as a political strategy, the meaning of these traits possible.
has often radically changed. We cannot use a In Colombia, discussion of Indian culture and
quasi-biological model to account for these identity occurs daily. Present-day Indians are
similarities over time. becoming part of Colombia's national heritage, just
Since resemblances between earlier forms of as the historical Andean Indian groups have been
Tukanoan culture and later forms may be for decades. But the pre-Colombian Indians are
superficial, conceiving of a culture in terms of traits dead and have no say in determining how their
that persist over time can be misleading. We need culture and identity are fashioned by the dominant
to think of culture change over relatively short ideology. Tukanoans, on the other hand, and other
periods of time in a more dynamic fashion, rather living Indians, assume an active role in this
than as either the "same" or "syncretized" or "lost." process. Regardless of the motives of those in the
We need to see Tukanoans and others as creating metropole -- to somewhat paradoxically create
and improvising, rather than possessing, culture. unifying symbols of pluralism, avoid guerrilla-
And we need to create and invent models and Indian alliances, promote tourism, win votes --
metaphors that analyze this process in non- Tukanoans and non-Tukanoans are locked
derogatory terms. together in this ongoing act of creation. We are
Some of the ways in which Tukanoans, over witnessing the beginnings of a self-conscious
the last twenty years, in some respects have come indigenism, wherein Tukanoans' vision of
to represent "authentic" Indians who possess themselves as Indian is generated out of their
moral superiority have been described. However, fundamental embeddedness in the larger society.
Tukanoan culture, like Indian culture in general, will Tukanoans in Mitt~ witnessed bare-breasted
also continue to be seen pejoratively -- as Tukanoan women dancing in a celebration of
backward, foreign, "savage." Tukanoans will MitO's fiftieth anniversary in 1986, even though
respond to these contradictory and ambivalent women have covered their breasts in ceremonies
evaluations and will dialogically derive new self- and everyday life for a number of years. Or they
representations in creative, unforeseen ways. can visit a cultural center in Mitt~whose goal in part
Outsiders will not necessarily be privy to the is to recreate the traditional Ionghouse and the
process of creating these new meanings and may artifacts it contains. The structure and the artifacts
misinterpret some aspects of the new Tukanoan are to some extent "authentic," but the notion of a
self-representations because they will sometimes Ionghouse built for this purpose is utterly foreign.
be encountering only the tok masta version of the Tukanoans also see artifacts on the walls of rooms
culture Tukanoans are inventing, the part for public in the Prefecture and other public buildings in MittS,
consumption. But because these outsiders -- and they themselves manufacture replicas for sale
priests, highland Indians, anthropologists, etc. -- to tourists. Insofar as Tukanoans -- rather than
have their own axes to gdnd about which cultural Catholic missionaries -- come to control these
forms should be valorized and which are better left activities, they will be validating their past with a
where they fell by the wayside, and because form appropriated from the dominant culture. As
interactions between Tukanoans and these such, the meaning of the architecture, the artisanal
outsiders occur in conditions of asymmetrical skills, the dances, etc., will have radically changed.
power relations, these outsiders will have played Tukanoans are appropriating new, politicized and
an important role in the creation of any new folkloricized frameworks, such as CRIVA's
representations of Tukanoan identity. Our newspaper and the culture center, as a means of
analytical language makes it difficult to describe expressing their cultural identity.
 139

Hence, we can see Tukanoans beginning the process, of course, happens in non-Indian
process of coming to see themselves as "having" a contexts, as well. The ambivalence towards
culture. They are learning how to think of Tukanoans as representatives of tropical-forest
themselves in this fashion with Input from both Indians is analogous to how Bedouin symbols are
whites and other Indians. Newly Introduced used In the Jordan valley 66 or images of
notions of Tukanoan culture, such as the Mitt~ traditional villagers in Japan.u/ What we need is a
cultural center, are perhaps a very preliminary more creative language that neither overly
example of Handler's discussion of how nationalist romanticizes nor denigrates this process.
ideologies prove the existence of the nation This essay has suggested looking at pidgin-creole
through possession of a culture.63 studies for Inspiration. Pidgin-creoles were earlier
This essay is about how the meaning of seen as "barbarous dialects," disdained by laymen
Tukanoan culture and identity is constantly being and linguists alike. Only recently have linguists
rethought, reshaped, and negotiated. Meaning is begun to speak of this stepchild as a potential
often spoken of in anthropology in ovedy static Cinderella for linguistic theory. 68 The study of
terms. For example, Geertz speaks of cultural man "inauthentic," "public," "created" culture is now
as "an animal suspended in webs of significance being upgraded, if the=amount of articles and
he himself has spun." As Mattingly notes, this is an books is any indication,u~ Perhaps analogous to
image of meaning as something contained and the contributions pidgin-creoles have made to
held. 64 Pidgin-creole languages offer a useful linguistic theory, we may see an equivalent
way, similar to Bakhtin's notion of dialogics, to see contribution to anthropological theories about
culture and identity as something in flux, culture from understanding "inauthentic" cultural
something negotiated and grasped for, as forms like the Tukanoan examples discussed in
opposed to acquired and possessed. this essay. If we are forced to find new ways to talk
Tukanoans are beginning to formulate self- about situations like the one emerging among
representations in a process similar to other Tukanoans, we may find our theory and method
Indians elsewhere on the two continents.65 This much enhanced.

NOTES

This essay stems from a current research project 3. See Cohen's discussion of how anthropologlsts, as
concerned with changing identity among well as ethnic groups have vested interests in
Tukanoans of Colombia. asserting the existence of boundaries in cases
2. Sources for this paper include twenty-two formal where boundaries are rather indistinct and
interviews conducted in Colombia during March permeable, and of *stable internal constitutions* in
1987. I also engaged in a number of informal rather fluid social formations (1978). This debate
conversations with native leaders, change agents, has a long history in anthropology. See, D. Hymes,
and residents (both Tukanoan and white) of MitO, *Linguistic problems in defining the concept of
the capital of the Vaup6s, and with individuals in 'tribe,' in J. Helm, ed., Essays on the Problem of
Bogot4 who are knowledgeable about Colombian Tribe (Seattle: University of Washington Press,
indigenous rights organizing and development 1968), pp. 23-48; F. Barth, ed., Ethnic Groups and
efforts among Colombian Indian groups. Boundaries (Boston: Little, Brown, 1969), and
Continuing archival work in the Vaults and Bogo',4, Barth's Introduction; M. Fried, The Notion of Tribe
and dissertation fleldwork in 1968-70, have provided (Menlo Park: Cummings, 1975); E. Wolf, "Inventing
other information. society," American Ethnologi~ (1988), Vol. 15, No. 4,
pp. 752-761. Analyses of shifting and/or multiple
140

memberships serve neither the needs of an overly ambiguities of inherited forms, to impart new
scientific anthropology nor a group demonstrating evaluations or valences to them, to borrow forms
its right to exist or to obtain some sort of benefit vis- more expressive of their interests, or to create
b,-visthe state. w h o l l y new f o r m s to answer to changed
4. Of course, anthropologists and advocates of the circumstances (op c/t. [1982], p. 387).
native people's position can be one and the same 15. P. Bourgois, "Conjugated oppression: Class and
person. See, R. Wright, " A n t h r o p o l o g i c a l ethnicity among Guaymi and Kuna banana
presuppositions of indigenous advocacy," Annual workers," American Ethnologist (1988), Vol. 15, No.
Review of Anthropology (1988), Vol. 17, pp. 365-390. 2, pp. 328-348; 329.
5. G. C o w l i s h a w , " C o l o u r , c u l t u r e and the 16. L. Despr6s, "Ethnicity: What data and theory
Aboriginalists," Man (1987), Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 221- portend for plural societies," in D. Maybury-Lewis,
237; E. Wolf, Europe and the People WdhoutHistory ed., The Prospects for Plural Societies (Washington,
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982). D.C.: American Ethnological Society, 1982), p. 10.
6. J. Jackson, The Fish People: Linguisfic Exogamy and 17. F. Barth, op c/t. (1969), p. 13 (emphasis added); R.
Tukanoan Indentity in Northwest Amazonla Cohen, " E t h n i c i t y : Problem and focus in
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983). anthropology," Annual Review of Anthropology
7. See Barth, op r (1989). (1978), Vol. 7, pp. 385-386.
8. J. Jackson, "Changing Tukanoan ethnicity and the 18. Joan Vincent, "The structuring of ethnicity," Human
concept of culture. Paper given at Wenner-Gren Organization (1974), Vol 33, No. 4, pp. 375-379, 377.
s y m p o s i u m on "Amazonian synthesis: an 19. Although authors such as J. Nagata ("What is a
integration of disciplines, paradigms, and Malay? Situational selection of ethnic identity in a
methodologies." Novo Friburgo, Brazil, June 1989. plural society," American Ethnologist [1974], Vol. I,
See L. Layne, "The dialogics of tribal self- pp. 331-344), Barth (op c/t. [1969]), and Cohen, (op
representation in Jordan," American Ethnologist c/t. [1978], p. 387) discuss ethnicity in terms of ties
(1989), Vol. 16, No. I, pp. 24-39; 25, for a similar of descent and blood, origin and background, a
discussion of the "organic" model of tribe. Also see historically derived identity, an "aura of descent,"
J. Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth- they yet eventually indicate in some manner that
Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art ethnicity ultimately involves parameters of
(Cambridge: Harvard, 1988), pp. 60, 337-339, on interethnic confrontation - ideological or economic
asswuming culture is a "natural" or organic entity. (see Bourgois op c/t. [1988], p. 329).
9. See M. Rscher, "Ethnicity and the post-modern arts 20. J. Kahn, "Explaining ethnicity: A review article,"
of memory, in J. Clifford and G. Marcus, eds., Critique of Anthropology (1981) Vol. 16, No. 4, pp.
Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of 43-52; 49; Bourgois, Ibid., p. 329.
Ethnography (Berkeley: University of California 21. Cohen, op c/t. (1978), p. 398.
Press, 1986), pp. 194-233. 22. ibid., pp. 385-386.
10. R. Fox, Lions of the Punjab: Culture in the Making 23. Vincent, op c/t. (1974), p. 378.
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985); 24. J. Vincent, African Elite: The Big Men of a Small
Layne, op cit. 1989. Town (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971),
11. Clifford, op c/t. (1988), p. 342. p. 10; See also, J. O'Brien, "Toward reconstitution of
12. J. Jackson, "Being and becoming an Indian in the ethnicity: Capitalist expansion and cultural
Vaup6s," in G. Urban and J. Sherzer, eds., Nation- dynamics in Sudan," American Anthropologist
State and indian in Latin America, ms. (1986), Vol. 88, pp. 898-907; 898.
13. R. Wagner, The Invention of Culture (Chicago: 25. Wolf, op c/t. (1982), p. 387.
University of Chicago Press, 1975), p. 26. 26. Clifford comments that his analysis of the trial may
14. See, E. Wolf: In the rough and tumble of social be objectionable to Native Americans who do see
interaction, groups are known to exploit the their culture and tradition as continuities rather than
 141

inventions (op c/t. [1988], p. 290); see also, S. 31. J. Santeoruz, Principios Fundamantales del Consejo
Wermeil, "Mashpee Indians - a tribe? Key issue at Regional Indigene del Vaup6s (Comisaria del
tomorrow's trial," Boston GLobe, Oct. 16, 1977, p. Vaul~m, 1985).
24. 32. See, J. Jankson, rl'he Impact of the state on small-
27. For an excellent example of this, see the firestorm scale societies," b'~Jcliesin Comparative Intematfonal
elicited by Smith in the subsequent issues of Development (1984), Vol. 19, No. 2.
Cultural Survival Newsletter. (R. Smith, "A Search for 33. J. Jackson, op c/t. (1989).
Unity Within Diversity: Peasant Unlons, Ethnic 34. See J. Hill, "In Nsca gobiemo de Puebla: Mexicano
Federations, and Indlanist Movements in the penetrations of the Mexican state," in G. Urban and
Andean Republics," In T. Macdonald, ed., Nathe J. Sherzer, eds., Nation-State and Indian in Latin
Peoples and Economic Development: Six Case AmeKca, Me.
Studies from Latin America (Cambridge, MA: 35. I am greafful to Stephen Hugh-Jonas for his well-
Cultural Survival, 1985). thought-out views on this topic.
28. It should be noted that the authors from whom I 36. See, L Belkin, "Of Indian roots, and profits as well,"
draw my examples of negative language are New York 77mes, Thursday, Sept. 29, 1988, p. A-18;
themselves disputing the negative stance of other E. Wade, "The ethnic art market in the Amedcan
authors who see ethnicity as trivial 0Nirth, "The Southwest 1880-1980," in G. Stocking, ed., Objects
Problem of Minodty Groups," in T. Parsons et. el., and Others: Essays on Museums and Material
Theories of Society [New York: Free Press, 1961], Culture (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
pp. 301-305) or as a survival, as a nonrational 1985), pp. 167-191.
attachment (e.g., G. Devereux, "Ethnic Identity: its 37. See, R. Keeaing, "Models, 'folk' and 'cultural':
logical foundations and its dysfunctions," in G. De paradigms regained?" in N. Quinn and D. Holland,
Vos and L. Romanucoi-Ross, eds., Ethnic identity: eds., Cultural Models in Language and Thought
Cultural Continuities and Change [Palo Alto: (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987),
Mayfield, 1975], pp. 42-70; Iseacs, Idols of the Tribe: pp. 369-394; 388.
Group Identity and Political Change [New York: 38, L Todd, Pidgins and Creoles (London: Routledge
Harper and Row, 1975]), a traditional aberration in a and Kegan Paul, 1974), p. 2.
modern world, a consequence of some deep-seated 39. Ibid., p.v.
irrationality (see J. Kahn, op c/t. [1981], p. 49), who 40. K. Whinnom, "Linguistic hybridization and the
describe ethnic confrontations in terms of political 'special case' of pidgins and creoles," in D. Hymes,
lag and false consciousness. Politicians can also ed., Pidginization and Creolization of Languages
criticize ethnicity as being a brake and impediment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971),
to change, netion-building, progress, etc., or as a pp. 91.116; 108.
"tribalism" associated with a colonial past (see D. 41. Todd, op c/t. (1974), p. vi.
Maybury-Lewis, Introduction: Alternatives to 42. D. DeCamp, "The development of pidgin and creole
extinction," in D. Meybury-Lewis, ed., The Prospects studies," in A. Valdman, ed., Pidgin and Creole
for Plural Societies [Washington: American Linguistics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
Ethnological Society, 1982]). 1977), p. 17.
29. See, A. Riding, "Truce between Colombia and rebels 43. I am grateful to Staven Feld for this example.
is unravelling," New York T/rues, Aug. 10, 1987, p. A- 44. D. DeCamp, Introduction: The study of pidgin and
11. creole languages," in D. Hymes, ed., Pidginization
30. See J. Jackson, "Traducciones competitivas del and Creolization of Languages (Cambridge:
evangelico en el Vaup6s, Colombia," Am6rica Cambridge University Press, 1971), p. 22.
Indigene, (1984), Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 49-94. 45. M. Bakhtin, M. H o l q u l s t ed., The Dialogic
Imagina~on: Four essays by M. M. Bakhtin (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1981), p. 276.
142

48. Bickerton, in C. Ferguson end C. DeBose, 59, Unidad Indigene, "El Vaup6s: Geograffa," Nov., No.
"Simplified registers, broken language, and 17, pp. 6-6. For more comprehensive ethbnographic
pidginization," in A. Valdman, ed., Pidgin and Creole treatments of Tukanoan society see K. Arhem,
Linguistics (Bloomington: University of Indiana Makuna Social Organization: A Study in Descent,
Press, 1977), p. 112. Alliance and the Formation of Corporate Groups in
47. Cohen, op c/t. (1978), p. 380. the North-Western Amazon (Uppsala, 1981); J.
48. DeCamp, op c/t. (1977), p. 4. Chernela, Hierarchy and economy among the
49. Todd, op cit. (1974), pp. v-vi. Kotiria (Uanano) Speaking Peoples of the Northwest
50. E. Traugott, "Pidginization, oreolization, and Amazon. Columbia University Ph.D. Dissertation,
language change," in .4. Valdman, ed., Pidgin and 1983, University Microfilms; I. Goldman, The Cubeo:
Creole Linguistics (Bloomington: University of Indians of the Northwest Amazon (Urbane: Illinois
Indiana Press, 1977), pp. 70-98; 73. Studies in Anthropology No, 2, 1963); C. Hugh-
51. L Layne,op c/t. (1989), pp. 24-25. Jones, From the Milk River: Spatial and Temporal
52. See, M. Herzfeld,Anthropology Through the Looking Processes in Northwest Amazonia (Cambridge:
Glass: Critical Ethnography in the Margins of Europe Cambridge University Press, 1979); J. Jackson, op
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). cit. (1983); G. ReicheI-Dolmatoff, Amazonian
53. R. Handler, Nationalism and the politics of culture in Cosmos: The Sexual and Religious Symbolism of the
Quebec (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, Tukano Indians (Chicago: University of Chicago
1988), p. 51. Press, 1971), and A. P. Sorenson, Jr.,
64, Whinnom, op c/t. (1971), p. 103. "Multilingualism in the Northwest Amazon,"
55. Authors differ in discussing the tricky question of American Anthropologist (1967), Vol. 69, pp. 670-
how pidgins are restricted. They clearly are less 682.
redundant than other languages, and most agree 60. Local descent groups do have a territory more
that they are "reduced in structure" (D. Hymes, closely associated with them but this is not clearly
"Preface," in D. Hymes, ed., Pidginization and demarcated either.
Creolization of Languages [C.4mnbridge: Cambridge 61. See, J. Fabian, Time and the Other: How
University Press, 1971], p. 3). But whether reduction Anthropology Makes its Object (New York: Columbia
is a kind of simplification or not is debated: " . . . it is University Press, 1983).
now simpler or more complex than the standard 62. L. Stephen, "Culture as a resource: four cases of
language,* (D. DeCamp, op cit. [1971], p. 15). serf-managed indigenous craft production." Paper
Pidgins are always seen as auxiliary languages in read at LASA annual meetings, New Orleans, 1988;
that they are limited, suitable only for specialized Belkin, op c/t. (1988); C. Hendrickson, "Images of
and limited communication. But authors note that the Indian in Guatemala: The role of indigenous
pidgins range from being restricted or extended. dress in Indian and Ladino constructions," in G.
Todd states that the distinction between a pidgin Urberl and J. Sherzer, eds., Nation-State and Indian
and a creole is a sociological rather than a linguistic in La~inAmerica, ms.
distinciton (L. Todd, op cir. [1974], p. 4), while 63, Handler, op c/t. (1988), p. 51.
DeCamp states that while pidgins are clearly 64. C. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York:
limited, "a creole is inferior to its corresponding Basic, 1973), p. 5; S. Mattingly, "Story and
language only in social status" (op c/t. [1971], p. 16). Experience in Clinical Practice,* Ph.D. Dissertation,
56. Hymas, ibid., p. 3. M.I.T., 1989.
57. DeCamp, op clt. (1971), p. 27. 65. Cf. J. Friedlaender, Being Indian in Hueyapan: A
58. See W.Labov, The social stratification of English in Study of Forced Identity in Contemporary Mexico
New York City (Washington: Center for Applied (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975); Hill, op cit.
Unguistice, 1966). 66. Layne, op c/t. (1988).
 143

67. W. Kelly, "Rationalization and nostalgia: Cultural 69. R. Handler, "On having a culture: Nationalism and
dynamics of new middle-class Japan," American the preservation of Quebec's patromoine," in G.
Ethnologist (1986), Vo113, No. 14, pp. 603-618. Stocking, ed., Objects and Others: Essays on
68. See, Hymes, op clt. (1971), p. 3; *When I myself Museums and Material Culture (Madison, University
began studying Jamaican creole in 1957, I received of Wisconsin Press, 1985), pp. 192-217; B. Jules-
from a colleague a similar warning that I should Rosette, The Messages of Tourist Art (New York:
avoid such quasi-languages and should work on an Plenum, 1984); V. Domlnguez, "The marketing of
American Indian or other "real" language. And a heritage," American Ethnologist (1986), Vol. 13, No.
number of other contemporary linguists.., have 3, pp. 546-55,5.
found in pidgins and creoles ammunition against
the rigid structuralism of Saussurean and
Chomskian theories," (De Camp, op c/t. [1977], p.
17).