Disciplinary Anthropology? Amateur Ethnography and the Production of ‘Heritage’ in Rural France

Abstract

‘Amateur’ anthropology and ethnography are utopian categories proposed by anthropologists seeking to critique a perceived culture of ‘professionalism’ within the discipline (Grimshaw & Hart, 1993). Yet they have arguably been practised extensively by local intellectuals oblivious to such debates. In rural Europe, this has often involved ‘pastoral’ conservation of ‘local history’, ‘traditions’ and ‘folk customs’, in the context of identity politics. Recent manifestations, however, have enabled the disciplining of cultural practices of indigenous populations by local entrepreneurs for use in heritage tourism. Building on Foucault's concept of a ‘disciplinary programme’, this paper analyses projects from a French Mediterranean village that have ‘borrowed’ discursive forms from French ethnology and historiography to convert local heritages into disciplined archives and booklets, predominantly for use in tourism. It then analyses their approximation to the discipline of anthropology; assesses their problematic distinction from anthropology's own disciplinary programmes; and explores the implications.

Keywords:

• Amateur ethnography
• disciplinary programme
• heritage
• intellectuals
• salvage ethnography
• cultural rupture
• France

Acknowledgements

Initial fieldwork was funded by the ESRC. I am grateful as ever to friends and associates in Monadières. This paper was originally presented at ASA 09, ‘Anthropological and Archaeological Imaginations: Past, Present and Future’, at the panel ‘Imagineering the Past: the (Mis)uses of Anthropology and Archaeology in Tourism’. My thanks to Noel Salazar for convening the panel, and to Nelson Graburn and others present for their insights and feedback.

Notes

‘“Intangible cultural heritage” means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity’ (UNESCO 2003). My adoption of this terminology is not unproblematic, as it can be analysed as the product of a similar process to that which is under analysis here. But it offers a shorthand for the ‘living traditions’ under discussion and, arguably, introduces a ‘distancing effect’ (Verfremdungseffekt) into the article that anthropological terms would not (cf. Brecht 1964). This is of value as terms such as ‘indigenous’, ‘living tradition’, ‘cultural practices’, etc. can be viewed as products of an analogous process of disciplinary objectification and rationalisation by the anthropological project, which it is my intention to problematise.

As Feenberg (2004:97) writes: ‘Deworlding is a salient feature of modern societies, which are constantly engaged in disassembling natural objects and traditional ways of doing things and substituting technically rational ways … Deworlding consists of a process of functionalisation in which objects are torn out of their original contexts and exposed to analysis and manipulation … Disclosure … qualifies functionalisation by orienting it toward a new world containing those same objects and subjects’. These concepts form central components of Feenberg's ‘Instrumentalisation Theory’.

‘The para-ethnographic is that side of diverse discourses and practices that represents the social ground for specific purposes and goals and is done thickly or thinly with considerable consequences for events and actions. This is an ethnographic process of knowledge creation, what anthropologists do, albeit in a more explicit and committed way’ (Holmes & Marcus 2006:54). This ‘pre-existing ethnographic consciousness’ is found in a range of contexts, from expert cultures of banking and NGOs, to art practices, the military, the experimental systems of scientists, to youth cultures, theatre groups, and so on (Holmes & Marcus 2008). It can also be credited with varying degrees of accuracy, from the systematic cultural account, to subversive and fragmentary social discourses, to thinly disguised ideology.

Jenkins (1992:85) glosses Bourdieu's concept of the social field: ‘The boundaries of fields are imprecise and shifting … although they include various institutionally constituted points of entry. The boundary of any given field, the point(s) at which the field ceases to have any impact on practice, is always at stake in the struggles which take place within the field. A field is, by definition, “a field of struggles” in which agents’ strategies are concerned with the preservation or improvement of their positions with respect to the defining capital of the field'.

Censuses of 1946 and 1999.

Lou ***, 1995:11–12.

The French ecomusée movement emerged in the 1970s with the aim of conserving the cultural and material heritage of distinctive regions. It was also concerned to promote interaction and debate with the general public about heritage-related topics, and its influence has subsequently spread overseas. (see http://www.fems.asso.fr/index2.html, accessed 6 January 2011.)

An association loi 1901 is authorised by the Waldeck–Rousseau law of 1 July 1901, which remains the principal statute underwriting the foundation of non-profit associations in France. It grants non-commercial status to them for tax purposes, among other things, while also imposing certain requirements, such as annual meetings, and a registered name and purpose. More than a million, such associations currently exist in France, ranging from small village ‘clubs’ to larger associations with salaried employees.

A fishing ‘cabin’ in English, this particular one being of an older style and hence worth preserving (sic.).

The Service maritime (‘Maritime Service’) is the state coastal authority; the conseil régional (‘regional council’) is the regional elected body; the Direction régional des affaires culturelles (‘Regional Ministry for Cultural Affairs’) is in charge of regional cultural affairs.

The government department responsible for roads and other such public areas.

Translated from a C.P.I.E. pamphlet.

Such navigation methods have been commented on in the regional literature.

Marty and Cassan (1993:5–6); my translation.

Let us recall Harris's (1996:3) analysis: ‘In temporal terms the modernist moment is constituted by the idea of rupture … The identification of the modern is first and foremost a question of temporality, the Neuzeit or le moderne was new with respect to what came before, thus registering a break with the past’. This perspective is often linked with nostalgia for an organic community, as it has been in social theory.

The ‘para-site’ is a staged, collaborative zone of encounter and dialogue between anthropologists and their informants, sometimes involving a return to the university from the field with selected interlocutors to generate new insights before resuming fieldwork (Marcus 2000). It might be further extended to refer to encounters between para-ethnographers such as Cassan, and the subjects of their work.

There is not so great a difference between these practices, perhaps. Heritage tourism ‘deworlds’ (Feenberg 2004) the cultural capital of the village, real estate its material resources, often glossed by heritage-informed publicity and sold to visitors attracted by this image. The price boom has directly increased social inequality in the locality, as young Monadièrois can no longer afford to live there.

See Hart (1997), http://openanthcoop.ning.com/ (accessed 6 January 2011). The ‘small triple-a’ was the ‘amateur anthropological association’, a mocking cousin to the American Anthropological Association. It was founded by Hart and Grimshaw in the early 1990s, although in social terms, it existed primarily as an email discussion list.

To these ends, for several years, I have been engaged in a public anthropology project with the objective of producing a literary novel based on fieldwork in France that casts anthropological insights in accessible local form. Several novels set on the coast of Languedoc were widely read in Monadières – more so than Guiffan's histories, which were purchased but not always read.