I

1

Here and Now

Modcrnity belongs 10 ha! small fam ily of hcorks hal bolh declares

tvn::veT ln~land ~Udl Me dn: hule dd cae_ ehal cxpl'lIn how Ll1ijl.lnd l u~t Ihe Emplre in POSlcololllal Bombay

1 did nOI know Ihen Iha! 1 ""as dnftmg lrom one SOrt 01 poslcolonial subjectivity (Anglophone diction, fantasi~ of debat~ in Ihe Oxford Unon, borrowed ~eks al Ellcol/llltr, a patriclan mtereSI in Ihe humaniti~) 10 another: the harsher, sexier, more addictive Ne .... World 01 Humphrey Bogart reruos, Harold Robbins, lJlIII', and social SClence, Amencan,slyle. By the time 11aunched myself into the pleasur~ 01 cosmopolitamsm in El phinslone College, I ""as equipped with the Righl Stuff-an Anijlophone educalion, an up~r.class Bombay address (a1thou8h a middlc:class lamily income), SOCial connc:clions 10 Ihe big men and .... omen 01 Ihe college, a famous (no"" dc:ceased) brolher as an alumnUi', a sisler wilh beauliful gir! . lriends already in Ihe college. But lhe: American hug had bit me. I found mysell lauoched on Ihe journcy thal took me 10 Brandeis University (in 1967, ""hen SlUdenlS ""ere an unsettling elhme cale:gory in lhe United Stales) and Ihen on 10 Ihe University of Chicago . In 1970, I was slill drift ing loward a rendezvous wilh American social science, area studi~, and Ihat triumphal lorm 01 modernizadon thc:ory Ihat was slill a secure article 01 Amerianism In a bipolar ""orld.

The chaplers Ihat follow can be sc:c:n as an dlort 10 make sense 01 a journey tha! began wlh modernily as embodied sensalion in the movies in Bomb"y and ended lacelolace ""ith modernity.as thc:ory in my soci,,1 selence cI"ssc:s al the University 01 Chiogo In Ihe early 1970s In thc:sc: ch"pters, 1 have soughl to themati~e certain cultural faeti and use Ihem 10 open up Ihe rc:lationship between moderni~ation as lacI and as Ihe ory.1 This reversal 01 Ihe process through which 1 c:xperienced Ihe modo em mighl aecount lor whal might othef"W"lse seem like an arbltrary dlsci plinary pnvile8ing of Ihe cultural, a mere profc:sslonal anlhropological bias.

TIH Global NOID All major social forces have prttursors, precedents, 3nalogs, and ~ources in Ihe pasto It is these: deep and mulllple gene"logi~ (see chapo 3) that have lrustralc:d the aspiralions 01 modeml~eT'S In very dllferenl societles to ~yn chroni~e cheir historieal willch~. 111is book, 100, arguc:s for a general rup ture in Ihe tenor 01 intersociet"l relallons in Ihe past lew decades. This view of changc:-indc:c:d, 01 ruplure needs 10 be explicated and distio guishc:d from sorne earlier theori~ of radic"l transformation.

One 01 Ihe most problemalic legacics of grand W~lem social science

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\ Au!!U~IC ComlC, "-.u l Marx, I crdmanu Toennles, Max Weber, tml le Durkhelm) .s thal II has steadlly relnforced the ~nsc: 01 sorne Single mo ment--c"n ji Ihe modern momenl- Ihu by liS appearance creal~ a dr matlC and unprc:cedenled break betwc:c:n past and presenl. Reincamated as the break belween Iradlllon and modcrni ly and Iypologl~ed as Ihe ddler eoce between oslensibly tradltlon,,1 and modero $OClehes, Ih.s view has bc:c:n shown repealedly 10 dlstort Ihe me"nlngs of chanlfl!: and lhe poltllcS 01 pastnc:ss. Vel the ""orld in whlch we now Itve-in .... hlch modernlty 15 dc:cislVc:ly al large, Irregularly selfconsclous, and unevenly experienced-surely doc:s involve a general break wllh all SOrt5 01 pas15. What son of bre"k is Ihis, if.t 15 not Ihe one .denllAed by moderm~ahon theory (and cTllici~ed in chap 7)1

Implicit in Ihis book IS a thcory of ~pture that takes media and migra -tion as its two majar, and inlerconnecled, dlacrillCS and explores the.r Join! effect on Ihe IOOr~ o/ tbt IIII

,

"-~

Mo~ pcople: Ihan e:ver before: scem 10 ImaSlne roullIlC:ly Ihe po5slbdlly Ihlt Ihcy or Iheir children will Uve and work In place:s Olher than where

[h~ Wer(: bom: thls is [he wdlspring of Ihe IIlcreascd rates of mgration at every level of social, nalional, and globallife. Olhers are dragged into ne:w settinss, as the ~fugee camps of Thailand, Ethl0pla, Tami ! Nadu, and Palestine remind uso FOT these people, Ihey move and must drag IheiT imaginalion for new ways of living along wllh Ihem . And Ihen lhere are those who move in scarch of worlc: , wealfh, ilnd opponuOlty ohen because their current circumstances ue: intolerable. Slightly trandorming and ex-tendins Alben Hirschman's imponanl terms IOY

-J Thc third distincllon 15 betwccn Ihe mdlviduill and collectivc ~nses of Ihe imagina don. It Is important 10 stress here thal I am spcakmg 01 Ihe imagination no"" as a property of collectives, and no! mcrc:ly as a faculty 01

I~ gihcd individual (lIS ten ~nsc sincc t~ flowcring of European Ro-milnlidsm). Pan 01 .,.,hal Ihe mass med,a makc posstblc, becausc 01 Ihe coodilions 01 col1ectivc rcading, critiClsm, and plcasure, is what 1 have: c1scwhcrc: alkd a community 01 scoliment- (AppaduA.i 1990);-a group

,

thal begins 10 imagine and fed Ihings logcthcr. As ncdiel Anclcrsoo ( 1983) has show" so .,.,dl . print capitaltsm can be one 1m 'Lway ln which groups .,.,ho have ncvcr becn in ncc- Io-facc COnlaCI can begin 10 think 01 tMmsdves as Indonesian or Indian or Malaysian. BUI olhcT fonns of declronic cilpitalism can nave similar, and ('ven mo~ powerful effects, for they do nOI work only ,11 the leve! of the nat ion-Slale. Colleclive expe riences of the mass media, especially Alm and video, can c~ale sodali ties of wo~hip and charisma, such as Ihose that fonned regionally nound the Indian remale deity Santoshi Ma in Ihe seventies and eighties and lromsna 'ionally around Ayatollah Khomeini in roughly the same periodo Similar sodalilies can fonn around sport and internationalism, as the tnnsnalional effects of the Olympics so clearly show. Tenemenls and buildings house vidw clubs in places Ilke Kathmandu and Bombay. hn clubs and polilical fo llowings emerge from small-town media cultures, as in South India.

Thesc: sodallties ~semble whal Diana Crome ( 1972) has called -inVISI -ble collegcs" in reference to Ihe world of science, bul they a~ mo~ volal ile, Icss professionalizw, less subJecl 10 colleclive!y shared cri leria of

pleasu~ , laste, or mutual re!evance. Thq art: communities in themsdvc:s but always potentially communilies for themselvc:s capable, of moving from shared imaginalion 10 collective aclion. Most importanl, as I will argue in ,he cooclusion 10 this chapter, thesc sod;.litic:s are ohen lrans nalional, evcn pounational, ami thcy frt-quently operate beyond ,he bound-mes of the nation. Thesc mass-mediated sodalities have the addilional complexity that , in them, diverse local experiences of laste, pleasurt:, and polilia can crisscross with one another, thus creating the possibility of convergences m tnnslocal social aClion thal wCH1ld olherwise be hard 10 imagine.

No single episode captures Ihese realities beller than the now mmd-numbing Salman Rushdie affair, involving a banned book, a rehgiously mandated de:ath sentence, and an author committed to pe~onal voke and aeslhet ic freedom. 1M Salanjc Vmts provoked Muslims (and olhe~) aeross Ihe world to debate ,he polilics of reading, the cultura l re!evance of een-sorship, the dlgnity of rehglon, and Ihe freedom of some groups 10 ;udije

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Jut hors wll houl IIldcpcnclent lnuw lecl.(t" ,,1 dll' Il'\1 IIK Ku,hJ,c .lH.lII l' about a text-m mOhon, whose commodltlzed traJcllury broughl 11 outsldc

th~ ~afe haven of W~lem nomlS about arhSllC Ireedom and acsthetic rights mo the space of rehglous rage and Ihe authoflty 01 rcllglous schol-ars In their own tran~natiooa l spher~ Her~, Ihe traosnat lO nilll worlds 01 liberal a~lhetics aod radical Islam mel hcadon, In the very d,ffcrenl set . liogs of Bradford and Karachi, New York aod New Dclhl In thls episode, we can also se~ how global proc~ses Involvmg moblle textS and mlgram audlences create implosive evenls Ihat fo ld global prnsurn Imo smal l, al-ready polltlcized ilIrcnas (sec chap 7), produclng local lty (chap 9 ) m new, globalized ways.

This thcory of a. breaJ--or rupturc:-wilh liS slrong emphasis on elec-trone mcdialion and mass migralion, i5 ncc~sarily a Iheory 01 Ihe recenl pan (or Ihe extended present) because il i5 only in Ihe pasl two decades or M) Ihal media aod migrarion hav~ become so massive!y globa lized, Ihat IS 10 say, active: across large and irregular ransnatlonal terralns Why do J con51der Ihis Iheory 10 be anylhmg more Ihan an updau: of older SOCial theories of the rupture5 01 modermzalioni Fm:t, mine i5 nOI a leleological thcory, wi th a recipe for how modernization wl ll universally Yle!d ratlon.l . ity, punctualily, democracy, th~ free markel, and a higher gross nalional produet. Second, the plVOI 01 my Iheo ry 15 nOI any large-scale prOJccl of wclal engineering (whelher orgamz~d by Sl

and fa mlly life, obscured the lines betwttn temporary locales and Imaglo nary nadonal auachments. Modemity now sc:ems more practical and less pedagogic, more experiential and less disciplmary than in the hles and sixtics, when it was mostly experienced (espcclally for those: outslde the national dite) through the propaganda apparatuscs o, the n~ly indepen-dent na tion~ tates i1nd thci r grc:at Icadcrs, like lawaharlal Nehru, Camal Abdd Nasser, Kwame Nkrumah, and Sukamo. Thc megarhetonc of devd-opmental modemization (

Illy (~ chap 7) Th,lI IS, fJlhe r Ih.oo lallmlo; pll:y lu Ihe a ~,ulupII Ull . .. 1 leasl as old as Weber, Ihal ethnlcllY TeSIS on sorne son of eXlenSlon of Ihe primordial idea of kinship (which is in furn biologcal and genealogieal), the idea of ethnicily I propase takes fhe conscious and ima:inative con-muelion and mobilization of differenccs as lIS eo~. Culture 1, constitut-mg a virrually opcn-ended archIve of dlffe~nces 15 eonsciously shapcd into Cultu~ 2, thal subsct of thcsc dlffe~nccs Ihat eonslitulCS lhe diacrit-ies of group idenli ty.

BU! th is proccss of mobilizlng certJm dlffercnccs and linking Ihem ro :roup idenlity i5 also unlike ethnicity, at h::aSI in an o rder understanding, bccause it docs nol depcnd on che extension of primordial scntimenls 10 larger and largcr units in sorne son of umdm~elional proccss, nor docs il make Ihe mistake of supposing Ihat larger social units slmply drilw on the scntiments of fJmily and kinship 10 glve emocional force 10 large-scale group idenlil ics. Thus, m chapter j i show IhJt far fmm drilwing on he ex-Islmg repcrtoi~ of emotions and movlng them inlO a larger a~na , Indian crickel i5 a largescale form that comes 10 be inscribcd on the body through a variety of prilClces of inc~asingly smaller scale. This logie is jusI the rcver5(" of the old primordiallst (or exu: nSlomsl) Idea of ethnic identity

The idea of cultu~ as involving the nalurahzw organizallon of eertaln d lfferc nces In Ihe mte~sts of group Idenllly, Ihrough and In Ihe hlstorieal proccss, and through and in the lensions bctween agenlS and structures, comes closer to what has been called Ihe instrumental coneepllon of eth nicity, as opposed 10 Ihe primordial one [have IWO qualiAcalions about Ihis convergence, qualiAcat ions that lead 10 my dlscuSSlon of culturalism. One IS tha t Ihe ends 10 whlch Instrumental conceptions of eth mc identity

a~ formed may Ihemselvcs be counterstruelural ~sponses 10 eXlslmg valorizations of dl fference: thcy may Ihus be value-rillional rlher than instrumental-rational, in Weber's scnsc. They may have a pu~ly tdentity-oriented inslrumentality rilther Ihan al1 1l1SIrumentality Ihat, as IS so onen implied, is eXlraeultural (cconomic or pollllcal o r emoliona!). PUl anOlher way, the mobiltzalion of markers of group dlfference may ilsclf be part of a conlcstation of valucs aboolt diffe~nce , as disllOe( from the conse-quenccs of dlfference lor wealth, 5eCunty, or power. My second qualifka-Ilon about mOSI IOSlrumental accounl5 IS thal they do nOI explam Ihe proccss by wh ich cenain e ri teria of dlfferenee, mobilized fo r group iden-Ilty (in tum inslrumental 10 other goal5) are (~)inscribed intO bodily sub-jecls, thus to be expcrienced as both natural and profoundly IOcendiary al the same lime .

We have now moved one step furlher, fmm culture as substance 10 cul-

hll ~ _I~ 111\ .II1I1U""'1I "1.1,11.,, " ., lo ,,,h,,,, .,. ~", '1' "lo-"lI t ~ b,I .... 1 , .11 diffen:nce , lO cuhure a ~ Ihc procc)s 01 n il lUraltZlll~ a sub!>Ct 01 dltterem .. ~ Ihat have becn moblllzed 10 artlculalc group tdenllty We are al IhlS polOt 10 a posillon 10 move 10 Ihe quCSllOn of ~turalt~1l1 .

We rilrely eneounler Ihl:: word (lIhurall!". by tbe1(;IIS usua!1y hllched as a noun 10 certain preAxes l1ke br, "'111ft , and ,nltr. 10 name Ihe most proml nenl Bul il may be usefullO begll1 10 use OIhurdlrslII 10 desrnale a fealU~ of movcmenlS IIlVolvmg idenllllCS consciously m Ihe makmg. Thcsc movc-ments, whelher m Ihe Uniu:d Slatcs or e1sewhere, are usually direcled at modl::rn natlon-statI::S, whICh dlSlnbUle various enl111erncnlS, SOmellrneS lOc1uding llfe and death , in accordance wilh c1assihcal lons and pollcles re-garding group identity Throughout Ihe world, faced wllh Ihe actlvllles of SlalCS Ihal a~ concemed wllh encompassing thelr elhmc dlversn,cs lotO AXl::d and closcd sets of cuhurill caleones 10 WhlCh IOdlvlduals a~ oflen assrgned forclbly, many groups are eonsciously mobrkz:mg Ihemselvcs ac -cordln 10 rdenlitarian cntena. Cuhuralism, pUl snnply, IS idenllty polll1es mobrllud allhl:: levd 01 the nallon-stale

ThlS SOr! of culturaltsm 15 my pnncipal locu5 m chapter 7, wherc 1 mounl a 5UslalOed Crtllquc of Ihe pnmordlaltst VII::W of the ethnic vio1cnce of the pasl dc:c:ade What appc:ars 10 be a worldwlde reblrth of ethmc na Ilonal lsms and scparallsms is nOI really ""hal Journallsls and pund115 allloo frcqucntly refer 10 as "trtballsm, lmplying o ld hlsloncs, local nvalncs, and deep hatreds. Ralher, Ihe clhlllC vlolcnee we ice lO many places 15 pan of a wder transformatlOn Ihal 15 suggesled by the Icrm cu]urall5ll1 Cullural i5m, as I have al ready 5uggesled, is the COno>ClOUS mobr1tzal lon of cultural dlffe~nccs lO {he servlce of a larger nalional o r Iransnatronal polltles h IS

f~quently associated wr th eXlraternlOrial h lslorles and memOrlCS, sorne -limes wilh rcfug sta tus and extle, and almosl always w,th slruggles fo r slmnger rc:eognlllon f10m c:xlstmg na l10n -SlateS or from vanous lransna liooal bodlcs.

Cu!turillisl movemenlS (for Ihey are almosl always efforts 10 moblllze) are the mosl general fo rm of lhe work of Ihe I1nagmallon aod draw fre-Quently on Ihe fael or posslblllty of mlgrill10n or seC~Slon . Mosl Imponam, they are scll.eonscrous about Idenllty, culture , and herilage, al1 of whreh tend \O be part 01 (he dellbcrilte vocabulary 01 culturallst movemenlS a~ Ihey slruggle wrth sfateS and olher cu!turallsl focuses and roups h IS Ihrs deliberate, stra tegic, and popul lsl mobllzatlon of cultural malerial thal Jusl1Aes calling 5Uch movemenlS culturaltSI, though they mily vary In many ways. Cu!turillst movemenl5, whelher Ihey mvolve Afncan-Arnerreans, Paklstanis 10 Bnlain, Algenans m France, nallve Hawallans, Srkhs, or French

s~ake'B in Canada, tend to be coumematlo nal and metacuhural. In the: broadest scnse, as I .. hall WggC5t in the last part o f this book, cuhuralism is the fonn that cultural differences tend 10 take in the era of mass mcdlation, migration , and globali%ation .

How Art'QS Ctl SlwJirJ

The anlhropologieal stress on the cultural, whlch is he mam InACClion I wish 10 give 10 Ihe debale on globali%atlon , is In my case funhersuslained by my training and practice as a seholar of arca 5ludles, specifleally of South Asian "ludies in the Uniled 5 tales The~ has not yel been a sus-tained critical analysis of thc link, in the United 5tatC5, between thc emcr-gence of the idea of culture areas in anthropology betwttn the World Wars and Che full -Acdgcd formation aher World War 11 of arca slUdies as Ihe majar way tO look at the str.uegically signifkam pans of che dcvdop-ing world. Yet Iherc is liUle doubt thin bolh ~rspective5 indine one 10 a particular sort o f map in which groups and their ways of Jife are marked by differenccs of culture, and in Ihe area -studies fonnation thcsc differ-enees dide into a topography of nalional cultural differenees. Thus geo-graphical divlsions, cultural differences, and nalional boundaries lended 10 bccome isomorphic, and there grew a slrong tendency tO refracl world processes through this son of nalional-cultural map of the world. Area studies adds to this spalial imaginary a strong, if sometimes tacit , sense of the strategic importance o f information gained in Ihis perspeclive. This is Ihe reason for the o ften nOled links belween the Cold War, govemment fundmg , and university expansion 111 the orgam%alion of area-studies ccn-ters aher World War 11 . Neverthdess, area sludles has provlded the maJor eOllnterpoinl 10 the ddusions 01 Ihe view fmm nowhere Iha! underwntes much canonieal social seience. II is th is aspccl of my Iralning thal com-pelled me to situate my genealogy of the global presem in the arca I know beS!: India.

There is a spccial al1)Clety that now surrounds the struClUres and ideolo-giC5 of arca sludies 10 the Unit~ Stales Rccognizing that arca studies IS somehow dttply tied up wlth a straleglzing world p icture dnven by U 5 . foreign-policy needs bctween 1945 and 1989, leadmg figures in the world 01 uniyersit ies, faundatlOns, th ink lanks, and even the govemment have made il dear Ihat the old way of doing arca studies docs not make scnse in the world after 1989. Thus Icfl-wing crilics of arca slUdies, much inAu-coced by ,he important work of Edward $ald on onentalism, have hn joincd by IT-man..eteers and advocates of liberalization, who are Impa-

H". ~"J N . ... - 16 ...

tlent wlth whal they dende as the n

surch and can hardly pr~l~nd 10 be a simpl~ mlrror of Ih~ ClvlhUlIonal Oth~r. What does I)ttd 10 ~ Tei:ogrnze:d, if Ihe: are:a-studies tradluon IS 10 be r~italized, i5 thu locallty itsdf is a historlcal product and thal Ihe h is-lories thrOllgh which localities emer:e ar~ eventually subject to Ihe dy-nam ics of the global. Thls argument, which culminatcs in a re:minder thal there is nothing mere about the: local, is the burden of the Anal chapter of this book.

This mixed rc:v;e:w of are:a StUdles, a tradllion in whlch I have been 1m -merscd for Ihe paSI twenty-five: yean;, underlies the: presence: at the cenler of this book of two chaplers about India , These chaptcn;, on Ihe ce:nsus and on cricket, are: a cOllnterpoint to those thal mighl otherwise sc:e:m, well , too global. But I haste:n to picad that India-in thls book-is nO! 10

~ read as a me:re case, examplc, 01' instance of SOmethinglarger Ihan Ilsdf. It ls, ralher a sirr ror the examination of how locality emerges in a globaliz-ng world, ofhow coloillal processes undcrwrite conlemporary pol1IICS, of how his tory and gencalogy mAecl one: anolher, and of how global facts lake: local form.l In Ihis sense: these chaptcrs-and the: (rcquent invoca-lions of India IhroughOllt Ihe book-are: nOI about India (Iaken as a natural fae l ) but about Ihe processes thmugh which eontemporary India has emerged. I arn aware of Ihe rony (c:ven the eontradletlOn) m havlng a nation-state be Ihe anehoring referenl of a book de:voted 10 globalizalion and anirnated by a sense of the cnd of Ihe en of the nauonstate. BUI here my expc:rtise and my limilalions are two sides of the same coin, and I urge Ihe reader to see: India as an optie, and nOI as a reified social faet or a enlde nationaliSI reAex.

1 make thls de:IOllr in recognitlon of Ihe {ael thal any book about glob-alization i5 a mild exert:ise m me:galomana, espc:dally when Jt is produced in Ihe re:lalivdy privileged crcumstances of the American ~arch umver-sity. It sc:cms important 10 idemify the knowledge forms thmugh whlCh any such megalomania comes to articula le Itsdf. In my case, these forms--anlhropology and area studlC5--predisposc: me by hahn 10 Ihe fixing of praelices, spaees, aod eOllntries mIO a map of stallc dlfferences Thls IS, counterintuillvdy, a danger even in a book such as this, which is con-sciously shapc:d by a conce:m with diaspora, detelTitOnalization, and the: in-egularity of the ties between nations, Ideologics, and social movements

Socild ScinlCf aflfr Patrioli5m The Anal part o, the: here and now IS a fact about Ihe modem world tha! has exercised sorne of Ihe besl contemporary thmkers In Ihe: social and

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human 5cie:nces, I! 15 Ihe Issue 01 the nallon-5Ia:. It~ hlstory, ItS currCIlI LTI S15, lIS prospcc:ts I dld not begin tO wrlte: Ihls book wlth Ihe: CTlSIS of the nation-sute as my principal concern. Bul m Ihe six years ove:r whlch lIS chapters were: written , I have come 10 be convmced thal the nationslate, as a complex modern political fonn , 15 on its last legs. The evidenee is by no means clear, and the relurns are hardly allm I am awa~ lhal all nallon-Slales are not the: same: in respc:ct 10 Ihe: nalional Imaginary, the appara-luses of lhe slale, 01' lhe sturdincss of the hyphen between them Yellhere is sorne justiflcatlon for whal might somellmcs seem Ilke a reified view of tbe nation-state: in Ihis book. Nation-Slales, for all their important differ-ences (and only a fool wOllld conAale $ri lanka with Creal Brila;n ), make sense only as parts of a 5)'1:lem. Thls system (even when secn as a system of dlfferences) appc:ars peorly eqUlpped 10 deal wlth the mte:rhnked diaspo-ras of people and mages that mark Ihe here and now. Nation-states, as units in a complex inleraelive system, are nOI ve:ry likdy 10 ~ the long-lerm arbiten; of the: relallonship between globality and modemuy Thal 15 why, in my title, I imply thal modemity is at large.

The idea thal sorne nal;on-states are in crisis 15 a uaple of Ihe Acld of eomparative polilia and WilS 111 sorne ~nse Ihe Jusllfkat ion for much of mode:mizalion Ihe:ory, espe

seems plagued by endemlC dlsease_ As 10 altcrnalive social fonm and passibili lie-;, there are actually exisling social forms and arrangemenlS that mighl contain the seeds of more dispersed md diverse forms of trans-nallonal allegiance and affilialion. This is part of Ihe argument of chapter 8, although l readily admil Ihat the road from various transnational move-ments 10 suslainable forms of transnational govemance i5 hardly clear. I prefer, however, the exerdse of looking for-indeed, imagining-Ihese al-lernalive passibilities tO the strategy of denning sorne nation-states as healthier than others and then suggesting various mechanisms of ideology tTansfer. This lalter strategy replays modernization-cum-devdopment poi-iey al! over again, with the same triumphalist underpinnings and the same unhea1thy prospeets.

If the ethieal fronl of my il rgumen! IS neeessarily fuuy, the imalytic fron t is somewha sharper. Even a cursory inspeclion of the reliltionships within and ilmong he more than 150 nation-states thal are now memben of the United Nations shows thal border wars, culture wars, runaway inHa-tion, massive lmmigrant populalions, or ~rious f1ights of capital IhTeaten sovereignty in many of them. Even where Slate sovereignty is apPilTently intact, state legitimacy 15 frequently insecuTe. Even in nation-states as ap-parently secure as the United States, Japan, and Cermany, debates aboul Tace and rights , membership and 10ya1ty, cilizenship and authority are no longer culturally periphera1. While one argument for Ihe longevity of the nation-Slate foon is based on these apparently secure and legilimale in-stances, the o ther argument ii an inverse one and bases itsdl on the new ethnonationalisms of the world, notably those of Eastern Europe_ Bosnia-Herzegovina is almost always pointed 10 in the Uniled States as IIx princi-pal symptom of the fael Ihat nationalism Is ave and siek, while the rich democracies are simultaneously invoked la show Ihal the nation-slate is alive and wd1.

Civen the freQueney with which Eilslem Europe i~ used 10 show thal lribaHsm is deeply human, that ot her people's naliona!ism is tribalism wril large, ~nd thal territorial sovereignty is stilllhe major go~1 of many large ethnic groups, lel me propase iln illternative interprelat ion. In my judg-ment, Eastem Europe has been singularly disloned in popu!ilr arguments ilhaUt nationalism in Ihe press and in the academy in the Uniled Slate5. Ralher Ihan being Ihe modal instilnce 01 lhe eomplexilies of al! contempo-rary elhnonationahsms, EaSlem Europe, and 115 Serblan face 10 panieulilr, has been used as a demonstration 01 Ihe continued vigor 01 nationa[isms 111 which land, Janguage, reHgion, history, and blood are congruem, a texl-book case of whal nationalism is all about. 01 course, what is fa~naling

H,,, ~"J No,," .. 20 ..

aboul EaSlern Europe I ~ hat sorne 01115 own ngh-wlOg I deologue~ have eonvlOced the liberal Western press lhat nallonillism '1 a polltlcs 01 pn-

mordi~ whereas the real Questlon is how it has been milde to IIp/>Cllr lhal , way_ This eertainly milkes Eastern Europe a fa~inilling ~nd urgent case from many points of Vlew, induding the faellhat we need 10 be skeptieal when experts daim 10 have elleounlered idea! types in actual cases.

In mos! cases of counternatlonalism, seeession, s.upranillionalism, or elh-nlc revivill on a large seille, the common thread is ~1f-detenmnation ralher than teTTitoTlill sovereignty as sueh. Even 10 Ihose cases where terrilm)' seems 10 be a fundamental issuc, sueh as 10 Palcstine, II eould be argued thal debates about land and lerritory are in (ael fUllClional SPIO-Of{S 01 argu-mems Ihat are substantially about powcr, Justice, and seH-detennination In a world 01 people on the move, 01 global eommodlllzation and states 111-eilpable of delivering basle righls ('ven 10 thelr majority ethnie populatlon~ (see ehap. 2), territorial soverelgnty is an inereasingly diffieult Justlficatlon lor those natlon-s tates that are lOereasingly dependent on lorelgn I ~bor, expertise, anns, or soldiers For eounternationalist movements, lerTItorial sovereignty IS ~ plaUSible Idiom for thcir asplratlOns, bUI II should not be mistaken for Ihei r foundmg logie or ,helr ul timile eoneem. To do so 15 to commit what 1 would call Ihe Bosniil Fallaey, an error that involves (a) mis-understand ing Eastern European ethnie battles as tribahst and primordial , an error in whieh the Nro' York n", ts is the leader, ilnd (b) eompounding Ihe mistake by tabng the Eastem Europeiln case 10 be the modal case 01 all emergent nalionalisms. To move ilwily from the Bosnia Fallaey requlTes twO diffieult eoncessions: fim , that the politlcill syslemS of the wealthy northem nations may themselves be in crisis, and seeond, that the emer-gent nationahsms of many parts olthe world may be founded on patflo-tisms Ihal are not either exclusively or fundamentally lerrlloriill. Argu-ments for making these eoneesslons animate many 01 the ehapters 111 thlS book. In making thcm, I have not always fOllnd It easy to maintam lhe dls-tinct ion belween the analYlie and the ethieal perspeetives on the future of Ihe nationstate, although 1 hlVe tried 10 do so.

As Ihe niltion-slate enters a temlina! CriSIS ( { my prognostlcallons prove to be correet ), we can eertainly expect that the malerials for a post-nalional imaginary muSI be aTOund us already. Here, I lhink we need 10 pay special atte ntion 10 Ihe rdallon between mass mcdiation and migra-tion, the two faels {hal um[erplll my sense of he. cultural politles of .lhe global modern In particular, we need 10 !ook doscly al the vilnety of what have emerged ilS ailll~ori( mblic s~hrrrs . Benediet Anderson dld us a service in identifying Ihe way in whieh cen a in forms of mass mediation . notably

Hit, ".J N o", ... 21 -

I

I those involving ncwspapcrs, novds. and Olncr prml media, playcd a kcy role in imaginmg he natlon and In foacll l lilung Ih(' spn:ad of hi .. fonn 10 he colonl\ world in ASia and c1scwhcrc My general argumcnt is hal there 15 a similar link 10 be- found Ixtwn t~ ..... on. of Ihc imagination and he cml."rgcoCf: of iI p

PAR T I

Global

F I o w s

I I

2

Disjuncture and Difference in the

Global Cultural Economy

It takes only the meres! acquaintancc wlth ,he faCI~ of ,he modem world 10 note hal jI is now an nleraellve system m a scnse Ihalls slTlkingly ncw Hlstorians i\nd sociologisls, cspa:ially hose conccrnecl wnh tranSlocal processcs (Hodgson 1974) ilnd ,he world systcms assOClaled wllh cap'tal . lsm (Abu-Lughod 1989; SraudelI981 - 84, Cunm 1984 ,' Wal1efStctn 1974, Wolf 1982), havc long ~en aw,ue ,ha' the world has bttn a congenes of Jarge-scalc intcractions for !llany ccntum:) Ye! {oclay's world Involves in -leractions of a ncw order and iotcnSllY CuhuT;ltransaCl10nS octwecn O -Clal groups In ,he past havc gcnerally bn rrstrictcd, sometlmcs by ,he fael'> of gcography and ecology, and ,n Olhcr times by acuve f"eSISlancc: 10 mteractlons with Ihe Olhcr (ilS in China for much of HS h1s1Ory illld 111 )apall before Ihe MeiJ1 Resloration) . Where nere: nave been sustained cul -tural tnnsactiolls across large parts of the globe, they have usually In-volved the long-dislance Journey of commodlllts (and of Ihe merchanlS mest concemed w1lh them) and of travelers and e:tplorers of every typc: (Helms 1988; Schaler 1963)_ The twO ma1l1 forces lor susla1l1ed cultural interaellon before: Inis cemury have: becn warlare (and the large-scale po-ltiCal systems somelm1es generated by it) ilnd re:l1glOns of conveTS1on, whlch nave somellmes, as 111 the case 01 Islam, taken warfare as one of tne kgll1mate 1I1strumenlS 01 Ihel f expan~lon Thus, betwc:en travele:rs and

.. 27 '"

I ,

m~rdanls , pilgrims and eonquerors, lhe world has Sttn much long-dlstanc~ (and long.tenn) cultural trafAe. This mueh Sttms scllevld~nt.

Bul f~w will deny Ihat given Ihe problerns 01 time, dtstance, md 11m tled technologies lor Ihe command 01 resources aeross vaSI spaees, cul tural dcalings bctween sacially and spatially separated groups hav~ , unti l the paSI few centunes, ocen brldged al great COSI and suslained over lime only with sreal effort. The forces 01 cultural gravity seemed always to pull away from Ihe fonnation 01 large.scale ecumenes, whelher rcligious, cornmercial , or political, toward smallerscale acc~tlOns of mtlmacy and Inlernl .

Somelime In the pasl few eentuncs, Ihe natu~ 01 this gravltattonal flcld Sttms 10 have ehanged. Panly bccause 01 Ihe spirit 01 Ihe expanSlOn 01 Westem marit ime intercsts alter 1500, and panly bccausc 01 Ihe rclatlvdy autonomous devclopments 01 large and a88resslve social fonnallOns in the Amerieas (sueh as the AZlees and the locas), in Eurasia (5ueh as Ihe Mon . 80lS and their descendants, Ihe MU8hals and Ottomans), in island Seulh east Asia (5ueh as Ihe Buginesc), and in the klngdoms 01 prccolonial Afnca (sueh as Dahorney), an overlapping sel 01 :lImenes began 10 emerge, in whieh eongcnes 01 money, eommerce, conquest, and migrat ion besan 10 create durable cross-socielal bonds. Thls process was aeeclefilled by the lcehnology translers and mnovations 01 the late eishleenth and mne lcenlh cenlurics (c.s ., Bayly 1989), whleh en:ated complex colonial orders centen:d on European capllals and spread throughoul Ihe non.European world. Thls mlrleale and overlapplns set 01 Eurocolonial worlds (tlrst Spanish and Ponuguese, later princlpally Engltsh, French, and DUleh) set Ihe basis for a pennanenl lrafflc in td~as 01 peoplehood and selfhood, which cn:aled the imagined communilie5 (Anderson [983 ) 01 recent na. tionalisms Ihroughoul Ihe world.

Wilh what Bcnedict Anderson has called ' print capitalism," a new power was unleashed in the world, the power 01 mass literacy and IS at lendanl la~scale production 01 proJccts 01 elhnic afflnity Ihat wen: re mukably frtt 01 the need lor I~elolaee communicalion or !:Ven 01 indl ' reel eommumcatlon betwttn persons and groups. The aCI 01 n:admg Ihings logether sel the stage lor mov~ments based on a paradoX- lhe paradox 01 eonstrueted primordialtsm. There 15, 01 coursc, a gn:at deal clse Ihat is nvolved in che story 01 eolonialism and its dia lcrtically generated nationalisms (Chalterjtt 1986), but Ihe tssue 01 constructed elhn1clties 15 sun:ly a crucial slrand in this lale.

BUllhe revolution 01 prinl u;pilallsm and Ihe cultural alflnities and dla logues unle.lsncd by II wel"C" only modesl precursors 10 Ihe world we live tn

Di'Jw r." ~ D,II".~ 28

now for 111 Ihe pase cenlury, Ihel"C" has bttn a Icchnological exploslon, largely rn Ihe domam 01 transpon.ltion and II1l0nnalion, Ihat makes the 111 teractlOns 01 .11 pnnl.dominaled world seem as hardwon and as easlly erased as Ihe print rcvolulion molde earlier lorms 01 cultural traffle appear For with the advent of Ihe sleamship, Ihe aUlomobile, the alrplane, Ihe camera, the compuler, and Ihe tclephone, we hav~ enlered into an alto gelher new conditioll 01 ncighborliness, !:Ven wrth those most distanl from oursdves. Marshal1 Mcluhan, amoog olhers, soughl 10 Iheorize aboullhis world as a "global vil1a81=: bu! Iheortes 5uch as McLuhan's appear 10 have ovefC"Stmlaled che eommunitarian implleatlons 01 the new media o rder (MeLuhan and Powers 1989). We are now aware Ihal with media, u eh lime we are templed 10 speak 01 Ihe global vlllage, we mUSI be rcmlnded Ihat media cn:ale communities wllh "no sellsc of place" (MeyrowlI:Z: 1985) The world we hve m now rtms rhizomlc (Dcleuze and Guallan 1987), even schizophrenic, calling lor Iheones 01 rool lessness, allenalion, and psychological distance bctween IIldividua ls and groups on Ihe one hand, and fanlasies (or nighlmares) of deetrollle proptnquity 00 che other Here, we an: dose 10 the central problematic 01 cultural processcs in loday's world.

Thus, Ihe curioslty lhal recenl'y drove PICO Iyer 10 ASIa ( 1988) is In sorne ways the product 01 a confuSlon between sorne tneffable Me-Donaldlzauon 01 the world and Ihe much subtler play of tndigenaus Ira cetones 01 desln: and fear wilh global Ro....,; 01 pcoplc and things lndttd, lyCl"s own impn:sslons are teslimony 10 Ihe lael Ihat, il 4 global cul lural syslem is emergtng, it is filled wlth ronles and reslstances, some:llmes cam ouRaged as passivity and a boltomless appC:lile 111 Ihe Asian world lor Ihmgs Westem.

lyCl"s own accounl 01 Ihe: uncanny Phillppine alflnity for Amenean popular muslc is rich teslimony lO Ihe global culture 01 the hyperrcal , lor somehow Philippinc n:nditions 01 American popular song5 are bolh more widespread m lhe PhilippillC'i, and more dlsturbingly la;thful 10 Ihelr oflg nals, than Ihey an: in Ihe Untted Statcs today. An entin: nallon Sttm5 10 have leamed 10 mimic Kenny Rogers and Ihe Lennon slslers, Il k~ a vasl Asian MOlown chorus. BUI AIlttr!r4111U1lroll IS cenall1ly a pallid lenTl 10 apply 10 5uch a sttuation, lor nOI only are Ihere more Flltpinos smging perlect renditions 01 sorne: American songs (ohen lrom the American past) Ihan Ihere are Americans doing so, there 1$ also, of course, the lacI [hal Ihe resl 01 Iheir Hves IS nOI in complete synehrony wnh Ihe n:lerentlal world Ihal flrst gave binh to hese songs

In a funher globali:Z:ing twist on whal Frednc Jameson has reeently

O"J eI ... ~J 0,1/" " - 29 ..

I

1

cal!ed "nostalgIa for the p~scnt" ( 1989), thcsc Filipinos look back to a world they have never lost. Thl$ 1$ one of Ihe cenlrallronies of the poliucs of global cultural Aows, espcclally in the arena of entenalOmenl and leisurc. It plays havoc wilh the hcgcmony of Eurochronology. American nostalgIa fccds on FIlIpino desirc rcprescmed as a hypercompelem repro. duclion Herc:, we have nostalgia wllhout mC'mory. Thc paradox, of COUBC', has ils explanalions, and Ihcy are hislorical unpackC'd, lhcy lay

ba~ lhe SIOry 01 Ihe American missionizalian and polltical rape af the Philippines, ane resull 01 whlch has bttn the creallon of a nauan af make beheve Americans, who 101craled for so long a lC'ading Idy who played the piano while Ihe s1ums 01 Mamla expanded and dC'cayC'd. Perhaps Ihe mOSI radical postmodemlSls would rgue lhat this is hardly surprismg be-cause in Ihe peculiar chronicilles 01 lale capltalism, paslIChe and nostalgia are cenlral modes of malle produclion and rcception. Americans IhC'm . selves are hilTdly m thc prcscnl anymore as they slumble into Ihe mega. tcchnologies 01 IhC' Iwenty-Ars t century garbed in the film-noif seenilrios of sixties' chi lls, Mlies' diners, lonic:s' clolhing, thirliC's' hooses, twenties' dances, and so on ad infinitum.

As far as the Unlled Stale5 15 concemed, one might suggest thal the issue i5 no longer one of nostalgia but of a social illlagillalr( bulh largely around reruns. Jameson was bold 10 link Ihe politi~ 01 nostalgia 10 the poslmodem commodity scnslblhty, and surely he was right ( 1983). The drug wars in ColombIa rttapitulale Ihe tropIcal sweal of Vlelnam wlth

Ollie North and his succession of masks-Jlmmy Stewan concealing John Wayne conceallng Splro Agnew and all of thcm lransmogrifying into SylvC'Sler Slallone, wha wloS in Afghanlstan--Ihus slmuhaneoosly fulAII -inS lhe secrcl American envy 01 Sovie l imperiallsm and the rc:run (Ihls time wllh a happy ending) of Ihe VIetnam War. The Rolling Slones, ap-proachmg Ihelr Mties, gyrate be:fore elghlccn-year-olds who do nOI ap-pear 10 nccd Ihe machlnery of nostalgia to be: sold on Ihelr parems' heroes Paul McCanney is sellmg thc Beatles 10 a new udicocc by hllchmg hls oblique noslalgia tO Iheir deslre lor Ihe new that smacks of the old. Omglttt is back m ninelies' drag, and 50 is AJalll-ll, nol to spcak 01 Bntlllalt and MII-sjO" llllpouiblt. all dressed up tcchnologically but remarkably faithful to the almospherics of Iheir origi nals.

The past is now not a land 10 return 10 in a simple polilic~ of nlemory. It has bccome a synchronic wa~housc of cultural seenarios, a kind of temo poral central casting, 10 which fC'(;ourse can be laken as appropriate, de-pendng on Ihe- movie to be: made, Ihe seene to be: cnacted, Ihe hostages 10 be rescued. AII this is par for Ihe course, if yoo follow Jean Budrillard or

D "J ~.ctw" 01 D , j j",. " .. 30 ..

Jean-Frao

The eentr.11 problem o f today's g lobal inle rae lio ns is the le nSlo n bct .... een cultur.11 ho mo ge nizatlo n a nd cultural hele rogenizatlOn. A vast array of empirieal facts eould be broug ht 10 bcar o n the side of the homogeniz.. tlon argumenl, and mue h o f 1I has come from the Id l e nd of the spcclrum of media studlcs (Hamd m k 1983; Maltdart 1983; $chilb 1976), and some (ro m other perspcctivcs (Cans 1985; Iyer 1988). M osl ohen , Ihe ho-mogcmnuon argume nl subspcclales into ci ther an argume nl about Amer-icanizal ion or an arR\lme nl aboul eommodm zauon, and very ohen Ihe two argumcnts are doscly linked Whal lhese arR\lmems faillO eonslde r IS thal al leasl as rapldly as forces from variou5 metropoliSC'> are brooghl m IO nc .... societics Ihey lend to bccome Ind lge nizcd in one o r anolher .... ay: Ihl5 15 Ime of musle and housmg sly[es as much as II is tme o f seienee and ter-ro rism , spcctacles and const1tu lions. The dynamies o f such indigenization have jusI begun to be explored syslemieally (Baroer 1987; Fd d 1988; H an-nerz 1987, 1989 ; Ivy 1988; N ieo1l 1989, Yoshimo lo 1989), and mue h mo re needs 10 be done . BUI il is .... o rth noticing Ihal for the people of trian Jaya , Indo nesianizal ion may be more worrisome than Americanizallo n, as ) apanlzat lon may be for Ko reans, Ind ianization for Sri Lankans, Vie t-namizatlon fo r the Cambodlans, and Russianization fo r Ihe peo ple o f So-viet Anne nia and the Ba[l ie republies. Suc h a Ilsl o f altemal ive fea rs 10 Amencani:u.tio n cou[d be greally e xpanded, bul II is nOI a shapcless in -venlOry: for poll t lC~s of smalle r seale, Ihere is al .... ays afear o f cultural ab-sorptio n by poll tics o f larger seale, espccially Ihose thal are nearby. O ne man's Imainro community IS ano lher man's pol llical pnson

This scalar dy namic, .... h ie h has .... idespread global manlfeslatio ns, 15 also tied 10 the relatio nsh lp bcl"'ccn nat io ns and slatcs, to which I shall re-IUro laler. f o r the momenlle l us note thal the simplifiealion o f IheS!: ma ny forces (and fears) o f ho mo ge nizalio n can also be exploi ted by nallo n-.. tales in relalio n 10 Iheir o wn minori tles, by poSlng global commodltlza-tion (or capiullsm , o r some o lhe r such eXlernal enemy) as more rea[ than the threat of lIS o .... n hegemo nic strateg lcs.

The ne'" glo ba[ eultur.11 ccono my has 10 be secn as a com plex, overlap . ping, d isjuncllve orde r thal ean not Olny lo ngcr be understood In lenns o f existing eenler-periphery modd s (even those that might aceounl fo r mul-liple eenlers and pcriphe rics). Nor is il susceptible 10 simple mo de1s of push and pull (I n lenns o f migra tion Iheory), o rof surpluscs and de~ci ts (as in tr.1dit ional mo dc!s o f balance of trade), o r o f eonsumers and producers (as in most neo -Marxlsll heo ries o f devc!opment) . Even Ihe mOSt comp[ex

D" J ~o < I ... g.J D,jj"tM~t .. 32 '"

and flexible Iheorics of globa[ devclopmenl that have come OUI 01 the Marxlst trad,t ion (Amln 1980; Mande! 1978,. Wallerslem 1974; Wolf 1982) are inadequately qUlrky and have falled 10 come 10 tenns "'Ith whal Seott Lash and John Urry have called dlsorgalllzed eapl tallsm ( 1987). The complexlty of he currenl global cconomy has 10 do wllh eenam funda menlal d lsJunctures bcl",ccn cconomy, culture, a nd polltlcs th.1I we havc on[y begun 10 Iheorize.I

I propase thal an clementary framework for explonng suc h dlsJunctu~ IS 10 look 011 Ihe rd a uonship among Ave dlmenslons of global cultura[ Ro~ Ihat can be tenned (a) tlh"oscQ/Iff. (b ) ,"tJ,QS(QpN. (el ttcbttoS(Qpn. (d ) JI. IIIIH,m-Qpn, and (e) ,,uOSCQpn.l The suffix -S(lIpt allows u~ to poml 10 the flUid , Irregular shapcs of thesel!.andscapc-s, shapcs thal eharacterl zc: mler na tlonal capi tal as deep[y as thcy.do mtcrnationil l clolhmg slyles. These tenns wll h the commo n suffix .o,cQft also mdlcale thal theS!: are not obJfi: ' IIvely given rd allo ns tha t look the same from cvcry angle of VISIOn bul, ra lhe r, thal Ihcy_a r.t:. c.kc:pJx.pcrspectlval conSU\JCIS, Inflected by 111(; h,s torlcal, [mgu ist ic, and po[\le al situaleuness o'td,fferent sarts 01 actorsl na hon-SI01 teS, mu[l in01 tionals, diasponc commUrllllcs. as well as subnallOrlal groupmgs and movcments ( .... hclhcr rdlg'ous, pohl,ea!, or economle). and even Int lmate face ro-face groups, sueh as vlllaucs. nelgh borhoods, and faml[ies. Indeed , Ihe Ind lvldua[ actor 15 Ihe [.151 locus of Ihls perspectlval set 01 landscapcs, fo r Ihcse landscapes are evenlually navIgilled by agenlS who bolh expcne nce and consti tute larer formallons , m part fro m thelr own sensc of whal thcsc landscapes oHef

Thcsc landscapcs !hus are Ihe buildIng b[ocks of what (cxlendlng Bcnedie t Anderson) I wou[d Ike 10 ea11 ImagllltJ worlJs, tha! IS, Ihe muhlple worlds that aTe consllluted by he hl~ toncally sltualed Imagmallons of per-sons and groopi spread around he globe (c hal'. L). An Important facI of the world we IIve m today 15 that milny pcrsons o n Ihe globc I .... e m such Imaglned .... o rlds (and nOI Just lO Imagmed eommunltlCS) a nd hu .. are able to contesl and somellmcs even subvert Ihe Imagmed wor[ds of the ofAe,a! mmd and of Ihe entrcp reneunal mentallty Ihal surround them

By tlImOSCQ/lt", [ mean Ihe landscape of persan .. who conSlltute Ihe shlftlng wor[d LO which .... e [ivc: loun SIS, IfllOllgranb. rdugt:cs , CXI[CS, guest workers, and olher moving groups and indlvldua[s co nShttlle an csscnt,al feature of the world and appc:ar \O affeet he polit les of (and belwcen) nallons to a hilherto unprccedented dq:ree. 111'5 is nOI 10 say thal Ihcrc are no rela-tlve!y slable communltles and nelworks of kinship , frlendshlp, work, and Ictsure, as wel1 as of blrth , residenee, and o lher flt.iI\ fonns . But It IS 10 !>ay that Ihe warp o f thcse slabit.ucs 15 evcrywhere shol lh rough wlth the woof

D "J MOct O" .~ J D, jj".o .. - 33 '"

of human motion, as mon: ~~ons and groups dcal with the n:ali ties of hav-ing 10 move o r Ihe fan lasies of wanting to move. Whal 15 mOIl: , bOlh Ihc:sc 1l:i11lities and fanlasics 00 ..... fuoctloo 00 larger scales, as meo aod womeo from villagc:s in India think nOI jusI of moving 10 Poona or Madras but 01 moving lO Dubai and HouslOn, and rc:fugecs from Sr; Lanka ~nd themselves in South Ind ia as wc:ll as 10 S ..... il'zerland, jusI as the Hmong are: dnl/cn to London as wcll ilS to Philadclphia. And as intemational capital shlns its nccds, as produclion and tcchnology generate differc:nl needs, as nation-statcs shin thci r policics on rc:l.Jgee populalions, thcsc: moving groups can nc:ver afford 10 let thci r imaglOations rest too long, even if they wish 10

By 1rC1Mosc4/1f, 1 mean the gl~1 cooflguralloo, Iso eve!" fluid of lechllOl-

ogy ilnd he bel that technology, both hlgh and low, both mechamCil! and infoTTTliltional , now mOl/es at hlgh speeds across various kinds of previOllSly impcrvious boundarics. Many counlrics no ..... arc: the roolS of muhinational cnlerprise: a hugc sttel complex in libya may IOvolve interc:sls from India

China, Russia, and lapan, providing differe:nt componenlS of nc:w Icchno-logical conflgurat ions. The odd dist ribution of te

">(' ( ~() I !tlC ( ; p l ll"~ hy wlm h pC OJI,k I'~ " I I ,.I." II .m.l 1 "lm~"" " 11101." Ifln hdp 10 conSlItute narrJIIVe~ 01 (he Otlu:: r alJu pro tnarrall VC:S 01 po~slhlc hv~, fantasies Ihal coold bc1:ome proleijomena lO Ihe dCSlfC for acqulsl-tion and movement

lJwsc"pn are also concate:nations of Imag~, bUl rhe:y are: ofte:n dlR~ctly polillcal and f~quently have to do w,th the Ideologie:s of sta tes and he counterideologi~ of movements exphcl lly oriented 10 capturing state power 01' a piCCe of it . TheS

the home state. Deterritorialization, whether of Hindus, Sikhs, Paleslini -ans, or Ukrainians, is now at the core of a variety of global fundamen-talisms, iocluding Islamic and Hiodu fuodamentalism . lo the Hindu case, forexa mple, il is clear Ihat the overseas movemenl of Indians has been ex-ploited by a variety of interests both wilhin and oUlside India 10 create a complicated nelwork of floancCli and religious identiflcalions, by which the problem of cultural reproductioo for Hindus abroad has bCi:ome tied 10 Ihe politics of Hindu fuodamentalism al home.

At Ihe same time, deterritorialization creates new markets for film com-panies, art impresarios, and travel agencies, which thrive on the need of the delerritorialized population for contacl wilh its homeland. Nalurally, Ihesc invented homelaods, which constitute the mediascapcs of deteTrito-rialized groups, can ohen become sufflciently f.mtastic and one-sided thal they provide [he material for new ideoscapes In which ethnic conAicts can begin to crup!. The creation of Khalistan, an invented homeland of the de-territorial ized Sikh population of England, Canada, and Ihe United Stales, is one example of Ihe bloody potential in such mediascapes as they inter-ael with Ihe internal colonialisms of the nationstate (e.g ., Hechter 1975). The Wesl Bank, Namibia, and Eritrea are other theaters for Ihe enactmenl of the bloody negot iat ion between existing nation-stales and various de-tenitorial ized groupiogs.

1I is in the fertile ground of deterritorialization , in which money, com-modilies, and persons are nvolved in cC!aseless!y chasing each other around the 'Norld, thal Ihe mediascapes and ideoscapes of the modern world fln d Iheir fractured and fragmented counterpart. For the ideas and images produced by mass media often are only partal guides 10 the goods and experiences Ihat deterritorialized populations trans(er to one anolher_ In Mira Nair's brillant film /lIdia Ca~,mt, we see the multiple loops of this fractu red delerritorialization as young women, barely competent in Bom-bay's metropolitan glitz, come 10 seek their fortunes as cabaret dancers and prostitutes in Bombay, entertaining men in clubs with dance fonnats de-riv~d wholly from che prurienl danc~ sequences of Hindi flIms. TItese scenes in turn cat~r to ideas aboul Western and foreign women aod their looseness, while they provide tawd!)' career alibis for these women. Sorne 01 thClie women come from Kerala, where cabaret clubs and the pomo-graphie Alm ndust!)' have blossorned, partly in response to the purses and tastes of Keralites re tumed from the Middle Easl, where their diasporic Uves away from women distort their ve!)' scnse of what the relations ~. tween men and women mighl be. These Iragedies of displacement could certainly be replayed in a more detailed analysis 01 the rdations between

D"j ."

jecls wilhin Ihe nalronSlale. Al anOlher level, th rs disJuneuve relalionshrp rs deeply entangled wilh the global disJunetures dlscussed throughoullhrs ehapter: ideas of nationhood appear 10 be sleadily increasing in scale and rcgularly crossrng exislin: Slale boundaries, somelrmcs, as wrlh Ihe Kurds, because previous rdenlit rcs slrelehed across vasl nalional spaecs or, as wrlh Ihe Tamils in Sri lanka, Ihe dormanl Ihreads of a lransnallOnal d iaospora have been aet ivil1ed to ignite the mICropolrtrcs of a nalionstate.

In discussrng the cultural porillcs Ihat have subvcrted Ihe hyphcn that Irnks Ihe nation 10 lhe Stale, il is especial1y rmportanl nOI to forgel Ihe mooring of such politrcs In Ihe irregularities Ihal now charaelerize drsorga . nized capital (Kolhari 1989c, lash and Urry 1987). Becausc labor, Ananee, and lechnology are now so wtdely separaled, Ihe volalililics thilt unde rlie movements for nat ionhood (as large as transnalionallslam on Ihe one hand, or as smaU as Ihe movement of Ihe Curlchas for a separate Slate m Northe,iISI India) grind agamsl Ihe vulnerabr!rlres Ihill eharaclel1ze Ihe relationshrps belween SUles. Stil tes And Ihemsclves pressed 10 slay open by Ihe forces of media, technology, and travd Ihal have fueled consumensm IhroughooI Ihe world and ha~ increased the cravmg, even in Ihe non Westem world, for new commodilies and spectacles. On Ihe other hand, I~e very crav. ing5 can become caught up in new elhnoscapcs, mediascapcs, and, eventu. ally, idcoscapes, such as democracy in Chma, that Ihe Slale cannot lo lerale as thrcats 10 ils own control over rdeas of nal ronhood and pcoprehood. Stales IhroughooI the world are under srC'ge, especlal1y wh('re contC)IS Over Ihe idcoscapes of democracy are /leree and fundamental , and where Ihere are radical disJurrcturcs belween rdeoscapes and technoscapcs (as In Ihe case of very smal1 counlrlCS thal lack contemporary lechnologles of pro. duct ion and mformation), or betwecn ideosca pes and Ananccscapes (as In counlrles such as Mexlco or Brazrl, wherc inlema.tional lendmg innuencC"'i nillional politlcs 10 iI vc:ry large degree); or between id~apes and elhnoscapes (ilS in Beirut, where diasponc, local , and trans!ocal Alalions are suicidal1y at banle); or bet .... een Ideoscape5 and mediascape5 (as In many coonlriC"'i in the Mlddle East and ASia) where Ihe lifcstylC"'i rcprescnted on bolh naliOnill and international"TV and cinema comp[ele1y overwhe1m and undermine Ihe metorie of na.tlonal polllres. In the Indran case, Ihe mylh of Ihe law.breaking hero has emerged 10 mediale Ihl5 naked struggle belWttn the pieties and realitics of Indian pol ltics, .... hich has grown incrcil~in!!ly brutalized and COrTUpl (Vachani 1989).

The tr.msnalronill movemenl of Ihe martial arts, partICularly Ihrough Asiil , as mediat'ed by Ihe Holly .... ood and Hong Kong 111m industries (Zanlli 1995 ) is a rich illustration of the wilys in which long.standlng mar.

D'I} ~I .U ,J D'fl"tR ~ t .. 40 ..

Ilal arts tradrllons, rdormulated 10 meel the fanlasles of conlemporary (someUIlICS lumpen) yooth populiltlons, c reale new cultures of masculrouy and vrolence, .... hich are in tum Ihe fuel for ine rea.scd violence in nallonal and inlemational polilics Such violence is in tum Ihe spur 10 an increas ingly raprd and ilmoral arms lrade thal penetrales the entire .... orld The worldwrde spread of Ihe AK47 and Ihe Uzr, ro Alms, ro corporatC' and state security, in lerror, and In police and military a.ctivily, rs a remmder Ihill apparently srmple technlcal unHormllies ohen coneea! an rnereasrngly complex set of loops, Irnking rmages of vlolence 10 aSpirallons for com mu nily in some irnagllled world.

Reluming Ihen 10 Ihe elhnoscapes .... ilh wh,ch l be:an, Ihe cC'nlra! pill"ildox of ethnrc politics in loday's world rs Ihat prrmordla (whethcr of language or skrn color o r nelghborhood Of kinshlp) have become global . ized. Thal is, scnlimenls, .... hose greillest force is in Iheir abrlity 10 Ignlle inlrmacy miO a pohlical 51ate and lurn locillny 11110 a. Slagrng ground for ldenllty, have become spread over vas t and Irregular spaces as groups move yel stay linked 10 one another Ihroogh sophlslicatC'd media capabil-Ilres Thrs is nOI 10 deny thal such pnmordiil are often Ihe prodUCI of in vented lraditlons (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983) or TClrospective affilla-tions, hui 10 emphasize thal bccause of Ihe dlsJuncllve a.nd unstable inlerplay of commerce, media. , natlonal policiC"'i, and consumer fa.nlasres, ethnicrty, once a genie conlarned in Ihe bonle of sorne SOrt of localuy (however large), has now become a global force . forever slipprng m a.nd Ihrough Ihe cracks betwn slatcs and borders.

BUI Ihe re1atlonshlp belween the cultural and economrc lt'Vels of Ihrs new sel of global drsJuncmres 1~ nOI a SImple oneway street m which Ihe lerms of global cultural polrtlcs are set wholly by, or conRned wholly wrlhrn, Ihe vicisSltudes of inlernallonill 110 .... s of lechnology, labor, and R nance, demilndrng only a modest modl /lcal ron of C'xisllI1g neo-Manust modcls of uneven development and Slale form illlon There IS a deepc:r changc, rtse!f dnven by Ihe drsjunctures among al1lhe landscapes I have dlscussed and constrluled by Ihclr contrnuously nUld and uncertall1 mler-play, thal concems Ihe relatlonship belween producllon and consumplion 10 loday's global economy. Here, I begrn with Manc's famous (and often mined) vre .... of Ihe fe lishrsm of Ihe commoduy and suBges! Ihal Ihrs fet ish,sllI has been replaced m Ihe world al Jarge (now seetng Ihe world as one lar8e, inleractive syslern, composed of many complex subsyslerns) by two mUlually supponive dcscendanls, Ihe /lrst of which I call producllon fetlshlsrn and Ihe second, Ihe fetishism of the consumero

By produclicmJtli!hism J mean an il1usion crealed by conlemporary transo

D " J".er"" J D l fft1

national production loci that masks translocal capital, transnational ~ammg flOWl, global managem~nt , ilnd oft~n faTaway work~rs (~ngaged in vaT-

i~ kinds of high-tcch puuing-out opcnnlons) In Ihe id iom and s>eCtilde of IOCill (som~times ev~n work~r) control, nation1I productivity, and t~ni torial sov~reignty, To the ex t~nt that various kinds of fTe~ - lrade zones

hav~ bccome the mode\s for production at large, espedally of high-tcch commodilies, product.on has itse\f become a felish, obscunng nOI social rdations as such bul th~ relatlons of produellon, whieh aTe ncreaslngly transnalional. The localily (both in t h~ scnse of the local faetory or si te of production and In Ihe exlended sense of Ihe nation-stale) becomes a f~lish Ihal dlsguises lhe global1y disperseThus the central feature 01 global eullure today IS lhe politlcs of the mUlual efion of samencss and dilferenc~ 10 canOlbal.ze one another and thereby prodalm Ihe.r succesdul hiJackmg of the IWIO Enllghtenment Ideas of the tnumphantly universal and Ihe resll.ent1y particular. Thls mutual eannibal,zatlOn shows its ugly face in nots, refugee /lows, Slate-sponrored torture, and e thnocldc (wHh or wlthout slale support ). Its bnghter slde IS in the expanslon of many mdivldual honzons of hope and fantaS)', 10 Ihe global spread of o ral r~hydra tlOn therapy and other low-lech instrumcnls of well-belOlo:, In the suseeptibihly even of South Alrica 10 th(' force of global oplOlon, in the mabtluy 01 Ihe Pollsh slate 10 repTess liS own workmg dasscs, and m Ihe growth of a wlde range of progresslV~, Iransnallonal all.ances_ Examples of hoth 50ns could be mulllphed The critieal point 15 that both sides of th~ eom of global cultural proc~ss today are producls of the infinuely yaned mutual COntes t of sameness and dlffer-cnce on a stage characlenzed by rad.cal dlsJunclur~s between d.fferen! sons of global flows and the uncenam landscapes c reated 111 and through these dlsJunctures

Tht Work of Rr/l,oJllchol' il! 1/11 Agc af MtcbaHiml Arf I have 1IIvened Ihe key Icrms of the tille o( Wlter Uenamm's lamous essay ( 1969) 10 relum this rather hlgh-flying dlscusslon to a more managc:able leve! . Theh: 15 a dassle human problem thal Wtl1 not d isappear however much global cultural processc:s mlghl ehange thelr dynamlcs, and thlS .5 Ihe problem today Iyplcally dlscussed under th~ rubric of rc:produclion (and Iradll1onal1y Teferrcd \O m tenn5 of Ihe lransmlssion of culture). In el-ther caS(', Ihe questton 15 , how do small groups, especially famtllC'S, Ihe dasslcalloc; of social.zal.on, deal w.lh these new global realltlcs as they sc:ek to reproduce Ihc:mselves and, in so domg, by acclden! reproduce cul-tural forms themsclves' In Iradlhonal anlhropologleal lerms, Ihls could be phrased as lhe problem of enculturatlon in a penod of rapld culture change. So the problem 15 hardly noyel. BUI 11 dces take on som~ novel di -mensions under the global condlllOns dlscussed so far in thls chapter

FIT'it , the SOr! of transenerallonal slablllty o/ knowledge Ihal was pre-supposcd 10 mesl Iheones of encuhuratlOn (or, In sllghtly broadcr lenns, of sociallzatlon) can no longer be assumcd. As familles move 10 new loca-tlons, or as chddren moye before older generatlons, or as grown sons and daughters relurn from time spenl In strange pans of Ihe world, famlly rela-110nsh.ps can become yolal.le, new commodity pattems a~ negol.ated, debts and obl lgalions ar~ recalibrated, and rumors and fantasies .. hout Ihe

D"/~otl.,. .~J D,//,,..Ct .. 43 ..

,

n~w ~lting are miln~uv~r~d mIo ~x.s"ng re~nores of knowledg~ and practc~ . Oft~n, gloha.l lilbar diuporas rnvolv~ Immenst: strains on milr riages in gen~ral ilnd on wom~n m pilniculilr, as marrlilges 1xcom~ the meeting points of his toriCill paw:rns of socialization and n~w id~as 01

pro~r behavior. Cenel"iltons Nsdy dvid~ , as ideas aboul propcny, pro priety, and colleclive obligalion wither under the siege 01 distance and time. Most important, Ihe work 01 cultural ~produclion in new ~ttmgs is profoundly complicaled by the polilics of represc:nting a family as nomal (panicularly lor the young) to n~,ghbors and pcers in the ~w 10C.11~ All th.$ s, of coursc, nOI n~w to the cultural sludy of immigration.

What s ncw s that th.s .s a world in whlCh both points of d~nrtur~ and pornts of ,urival are in cultural Rux, and thus th~ search for sl~ady poinls 01 ref~r~nc~ , as c rilicall ife choices a~ made, can be v~ry difficull . 11 is in this atmosph ... r ... that th~ nvenlion 01 lradition (and of elhnicilY, km ship, and oth~r identity mao:ers) can become slippcry, as the search lor c~rtainties is regularly frustrat ... d by the Auiditi ... s of transnational commu-nicallon. As group pasts bccome increasinijly parts of mus ... ums, ~xhibiIS, and collC"Clions, both in nal.onal and lransnat,onal spcctac1es, culture be-comes less what Piem: Bourdieu would have called a habilus (a taCI! ~alm of r~produc.ble pracI.c~s and djsposiuons) and more an a~na for con sc.ous choice:, juslification, and rcpresental.on, Ih~ lalter o ften 10 mull.pl ... and snl.ally dislocau:d aud .... nces

Th ... task of cultural reproducuon, ev~n in its mosl intimat ... arenas, such as husband-wife and parent-child rdations, becomes both po l iticiz~d and

ex~d lo the traumas of de territonalization as fam ily mernbcrs pool and negotal~ th~ir mutual understandings and aspirations in somelimes fra c lured spalial arrangements. Al larg~r levds, such as community, ndghbor-hood, and temtory, Ihis polit.cizalion is often the emotional fud ror more explicilly violent polil.cS of Idemity, JUSt as Ihese larg~r politics som~tim~s

pcnetrat~ and ignit ... domeslic pollllcs Whcn, lor exampl~, IWO offspnng In a hou~hold spli t wilh the.r lath~r on a key miltter o f political id~ntifi calion in il transniltional scning, pre..-xlstmij local.zed norm~ Cilrry liltl~ force . Thus a son who hasjo.ned Ihe Hezbollah group In ll"banon may no longer g~1 along .... ith Pilrents o r sibhng5 who ar ... ilfRlial~d with Amal or sorne oth~r branch of Shn ~Ihn ic pol.tical identity in l.ebanon . Women in particular bear the brun t of this sort of fricllon, for they bc:come pawlls in (he heritag~ po!ilics of (he household ilnd ilre o ften ~ubjecI to the abuse and vioknce of m~n who are Ihem~lvcs 10m about the relation bet .... een

h~ritilge and opponunity in shifting spatial and political formations . The paios of cultur.al rcproduclion m a d.s;unctiv ... global world ue, of

O"j c l." J o. .... c . 44

coursc, not eilst:d by (h ... effccls of mechamcal iln (o r ma~s m~d.a), ror Ih~~ media afford powerful resourccs for countemodes of Id~nu!y that youlh can projecl agamst parent il l wIshes or dcsires At larger levels o f o ro ganiZiltion, Ihere can bt: many forms of cultural polllics within d.splaced populations (wh ... th~r of refugees or of voluntary immigrants), al1 of wh.ch are inflccled in importilnt ways by media (and the rnediascapcs ilnd ideoscapes Ihey offer). A central link between the lragilit.es 01 cultural re. production and Ihe rok of th~ milSS media in today's world is the politics of gender and violence. As filntas,C"S of genden:d vlolcncc dommate he 8 grade film industries Ihilt blanket he world, Ihey bolh reAcct and refin~ gcndered violence at home and m th~ Str' ts, as young men (in panicular) are sway~d by the milcho polilles of ~If- asst:rtion In eontexts where they are fr ... quently dellled real agency, and women ar~ forc ... d 10 enter the labor force in n~w ways on the one hilnd, and eont inuc Ihe maintenance of fa . mllial heri tage on the olher. Thus Ihe honor of wom ... n becornes nOI Just an armature of slable (if inhuman) systcrns uf cultural reproduction but a new arenil for Ihe formation 01 sexual idenlity and lamily polit.es, as men and women filee new pressures at work and Ilew fantasics 01 le.sure

8c-caus ... both work and le.sure hilV~ lost none of Ihdr gendcred qualt-t.~s in th,s new global ord~r bul hav~ Kqu.red ev ... r subtler fetlshtz~d rep ' reSent"llOns, the honor uf women bec.ornes .ncreaslIlgly a surrogate fo r lhe Idenuty of ~mha.ltled communit. C"S 01 males, wh,le th~.r women In realuy have 10 n~gO\lille increaslIlgly harsh cond.llOns of woo: ill home ilnd In the nondornest.c workplac~ In sho rt , deterrttonahzed communil les and displaced populations, however much Ihey may ~njoy he frui ts of new kinds o f earning and new dispositions of captal and tcchnology, have 10 play out he desircs and fantas.es of these new ethnoscapes, whil~ slrivllla 10 reproduc~ Ihe farnily.as -m.crocosrn of culture As the shapes of cultures gro .... less bounded and tac,t , more flUid and poliucizcd, thc work 01 cul-tu,...1 r~produc\lon 1xcomes a dally hazard Far mo~ could , and should be said about Ihe woo: of reproduclion In an age of mcchalllcal art Ih ... pre. cedilla d.scuss.on .5 meant 10 ind lCate the contours of the problcm~ Ihal a

n~w, globally infonned theory of cullural reproduction w. 1I hav~ 10 fac~

Sha/}t and Pro

Aows along whlch cultural mat~T1a l may be: secn to be: mov1I1g across na Ilonal boundarie:s. I have: also soughl lO exemplify Ihe ways tn wh.ch Ihese various flows (o r tandscapcs, from the sublltzmg persxctves of any g lven

imagi~d world) are in fundam~ntal dlsJllnclure: w.th respcct 10 onc ano Olhcr. Whal funhe:r steps can we take: toward a ge:ne:ral theory of globar cultural procc:sscs ba~d on thcse proposals7

The firsl ;5 10 note: Ihal our vcry models of cultural shape wllI have: 10 alte:r, as configur.1l10ns of people, place:, alld he:ritage: lose: all semblanc~ of isomolllhism. Rece:nt work in anlhropoloS)' has done much 10 free: us of the shackles of highly localized, boundaryonenled, holistlc, prirnordla ltSt images of cultural form and substance (Ha nnerz 1989; Marcus and Flscher 1986; Thomton 1988 )_ &.11 not v~ry much has been pul in the:irplacc. ex CCpl som~what large:r if less mhanlcal ve:rslons of Ihcsc irnag~s, as In Enc Wolf's work on the re:lalionshlp of Europe 10 the: rest of Ihe world ( 1982 ). Wh,iII [ would I,ke: 10 proposc is that we: bcgin lO Ihtnk 01 Ih~ configurallon of cultural forms in today's world as fundamemally fractal, that is, as pos SC'Ssing no Eudidean boundarie:s, slruclurcs, 01' regularit;es. Second, r would sug~t Ihat Ihesc cullural forms, which w~ should stnvc to repre: senl as fully frac lal, are: also ovc:rlapping in ways that have: been dlscusscd only in pure mathematics (in se:t theory, 101' cxample:) and in bioloS)' (in the language: of polYlh~tlc dasslficalions). Thus w~ nttd la combmc a fractal metaphor for Ihe sha~ of cultures (m the plural) with a po ly thctic accounl o , Ih~lr overlaps and rescmblanccs. Wtthout thls ta llcr Sl~p , we: shall rcmam mlre:d m comparallve: woO:. Ihal rcl,es on Ihe cle:arseparatton of the ~nt;tics 10 be compared before scrious comparison can begin. How are w~ lo compare: fraclally shapcd cultural fomlS tha! are .lIso polYlhetl. cally ove:rl .. ppmg m ,he;r coverage o( te:lTCSlrial space7

Finally, in ord~r for the lhe:m)' of global culturalmtcractions predicaled on disjunctive: Aows 10 have any force g~ater than Ihat of .. mc:chamcal mctaphor, it wlll have 10 rnove Imo some:thmg Itke a human ve:rsion of the theory Ihat sorne scle:ntislS are callmg chaos Iheory. That 15, we: wllI nced to ask nol how these complex, ove:rlapplng, fraClal shapes conSUlule: a sim pIe, slabl~ (~ven If large.scal~ ) system, OOt 10 ask whal its dynamics are, Why do e:thnic nOls occur wh~n and whe:re: Ihe:y d07 Why do states wlther al grtaler ratcs m sorne: placcs and times Ihan In others? Why do sorne countries flouI conventio ns of ml'ematlonal de:bt re:payment wl!h so rnuch lcss .. ppare:nl worry than others' How are mternallonal anns flows dnvmg e:lhnic bautes and genocides? Why are: sornc sutcs exiling Ihe global stage while othe:rs art clarnoring to get m? Why do key ev~nts occur al a cenam poinl in a cenain place ralhe:r than in o the:rs' The:!iC ar~ , of coursc, Ihe

D'II.~cr ." ".J D,Jf"t. ~ t .. 46 ..

grcu lradlllonal qu~SlIons of causaluy, conlmgency, and pr~dl(:llon 10 Ihe human sciences, bUl m a world of disJuncl1V~ global Aows, II IS perhaps im-porta nl 10 Slart asking Ih~m m way Ihal rd lCS on Imagcs of How and un-ccnainty, he~ CMOS, ralher Ihan on old~r images of o rder, stabl luy, and syslemalicness Oth~rwise , we wlll have gone (ar loward a theory of global cultural systems 001 Ihrown out proccss in the bargalO And thal would make thesc notcs part of a joumc:y IOward Ihe kmd of iIIuSlon of o rder that

w~ u n no longer afford 10 Impose on a world Ihat i5 so lransparently volatlle.

Whatc:ver the dlre:clions in whtCh we ciln push thesc macrometaphors (fractals, polythelic d assincal ions, and chaos), we need lO ask one olher oldfashio~d qucslion out of th~ Manl1s1 paradigm: i5 Ih~re: sorne pre-glven order to he rdative dc:terminini! force of thesc global flows? (k. cause I hav~ postul.lIed Ihe dynamics 01 global cultu1

3

Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a

Transnational Anthropology

In c hapler 2, I use Ihe lerm dm.oscuPt Thls neologism has certam amhigui-ties dehbe:ntc:ly built into il . II refers, flrst, 10 Ihe: dilemmas 01 perspc:ctivc and represc:ntallon that all e lhnographers musI confront, and It admils that (as with landscapes tn visual aTl) traditions 01 pc:rception and pc:rspc:ctive, as well as varialions in the sitmtion of the obse:rver, may aUccI the process and product o( n!presenlatlOn. But l also lntend th is tcml 10 indicale that there are wme brute facls about Ihe world 01 the twentieth century Ihat any ethnography must confronto Centnl amon!! thesc: facts is the c hang-ina social, territorial, and cultural reprorluct,on 01 group identi ty. As groups migrate, regroup in new locations, reconstruCI thcir histories, and rcconflgure their ethnic projecls, Ihe rI~ in ethnography takes on a sltp-pc:ry, nonlocaliled quality, to which the descriptive pnctices of anlh ll). pology will have 10 r~pond. The landscapes 01 group Idenlity-the elhnoscapc:s around Ihe world are no longer familiar anthropol.ogical objects, insofar as ~ps are no longer tighl ly temlorialiled~ spalially bounded, historically unselfconsclous, or culturally homogeneous. We have fewe r cultures in the world and more Intemal cultunl debales (Parktn 1978). ' In this chapter, Ihrough a series of notes, queries, and vignettes, I sc:ck 10 re:posiuon wme of our disdplinary conventlons, while trying 10 show that Ihe ethnoscapes 01 IOday's world are profoundly interactlve.

-

- 48

A c~ntral chalt~n8~ for curren! anthropology is 10 sludy he: cosmopolitan (Rablnow 1986) cultural ronm of the contemporary world ",hou! log1 ' cally or chronologlCal1y pr~pposmg either (he aUlhonl)' oi he Westem experiencc: Of he models denved irom tha! expencnce. 11 sccms 1mpasS1-ble to sludy thcsc I'1CW cosmopolllanlsms frui!fully withOllI analy'Zlng Ihe IransnallOnal cultural Oows withln which hey thrivc. compete, ilnd fecd off one anothcr In ways ha! defea! and confound many vcmks of tht' human SClcnccs today. One such truth concems ,he link belwcen space, slilb.lny, ;md cultural reproduction There 15 ;10 urgenl ncc:d 10 focus on Ihe o;ullural dy"namics Df whal.l!.F0w callcd ~~~itOriah'Z:itIOh ThlS ICon applics nOI only 10 obvious cxamplcs such as mlnilltOnal corporatlons and money markets bul also 10 ethnic groups, sectaria n movemenlS, and politlCilI formatlons , whlch mcreasmgly operale in ways Iha! transcend specilk teITiton,!1 boundarJCS and Ideolitles Deterritonal ilatlon (of whlch 1 01lCr some elhnographlC proAles m chapo 2) aff:ts [he loyalhes of groups (especially m lhe context of complex diasporas), theLr transna tlonal mampulatlon of currencies and other forms of weahh and mvest mem, and the stralegies 01 states The loo~ning of the holds belWttn people, wealth, and territones fundamentally ahe~ Ihe: haSLS of cultural rcproducliqn.

Al the same lime, detemtonallzalton creates new mark-ets for fil m com-panies, impreSilnos, and ravel agencu~'S, which thove: on the ncc:d of lhe relQCated populallon for contacl with tI!> home:land. BUI the homdand is partly invemed, existing only in Ihe imagmation of the de temtorialtled groups, and ti can some:l1mes be:come so fantasttC and one:-slde:d that It provldes the lud lor ncw ethnlc confhCIS.

The idea 01 detemtorialllallon mily also be: applled to money and A-nance, as money managers seek the best markets lor the tr mvestme:nts, m de:pc:ndent 01 nallonal boundaries. In tum, Ihc:sc movementS 01 mone:ys are: Ihe: hasls lor new kmds 01 conflict, as Los Angdenos wony about he Japanesc: buymg up Iheir cily, and pc:ople m Bombay wony aboul the nch Arahs from Ihe Gulf Slates, who have not only transformed Ihe: pnce: o( mangoes lO Bombay huI have also substantially al tered Ihe profl1c: of ho -Ic:lS, res taurants, and Olher services in Ihe eyes 01 Ihe local populatloll-Just as Ihc:y have in London . Ve! masl n!Slde:nIS 01 Bombay are ambtvalenl about the Arabs there, lor !he flip side 01 Ihelr prc:sc:nce 15 [he absent Ine:nrls and ktnsfolk earntng blg moncy in Ihe Mlddle Ea51 and hrlngmH hack holh money and luxury commodl ltes 10 Bombay iIInd othcr Ct"ti In

(;J I E t .. .. c ottll 41) -

I India. Such commodities transfonn consumer taste In these e itles. T hey ohen end up smuggled through air- and seaports ilnd peddled in he gray markcts af Bombay's streets. In these gray markets (a coi nage that allow~ me to capture the quasi-Iegal characterislic of such settings), sorne memo bc:rs af Bombay's middle dasses and jls lumpen proletaria! can buy goods, ranging from canons of Marlboro cigarettes 10 Old Spice shaving cream and tapes of Madonna. Similar gray routes, often subsidized by moon-lighting sailors, d iplomats, and airline stcwardesses, who gel 10 move in and out of the country rcgularly, keep the gray markets of Bumbay, Madras, and Catculta filled with goods nOI only from the Wcst, bul also from he Middle East, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It is also 5uch profes-sional transients who are increasingly implicated in the transnational spread of disease, not the least of which i5 AtOS.

TIte visioo of transnational cultural studies sugge5ted by he discussion so far appears al first sight to involve only model;! adjustments of anthro. pologists' !ldditional approaches to culture. In my view, however, a gen uinely cosmopolitan ethnographic practice requires an interpretation of the tenain of cultur.ll studies in he United Sta tes today and of the status of anthropology within such a tenain.

'

Cw/rwml Stwdjrs ill a Global Trrraill As this volume concems anthropologies of the present, it my be impor. tant to ask about the status of anthropology in he present and in panicu-lar about its now embattled monopoly over the study of culture" (from now on, wilhout quotation marks). The folJowing discussion seIS he stage for the cri tique of ethnography contained in subsequent sections.

As a topie, culture has many histories, sorne disciplinary, sorne that function outside the academy. Within the acaderny, there are certai n dif. ferences between disciplines in the degree to which culture has been an explicit topie of investigation and the degree to which il has been under-stood tacitly. In the social sciences, anlhropo!ogy (especially in the United States bUl less so in England) has rnade culture its centr.ll concept, defining il as sorne son of human substance--even though ideas ahout this sub. stance have shifted, over the course of a ceotury, roughly from E. B. Tylor's ideas about custom 10 Clifford Ceenz's ideas about meaning. Sorne an-thropolog1sts have worried thal the meanings given to C"whllrt have beeo far 100 diverse for a technical tenn; o lhers have made vinue of thal diversty. Al he same time, the other social sdences have not been uncollCerned with culture: in sociology, Max Weber's seme of urrslrlm! and Ceorge Si m-

c roh.' Et&MOH~~ .. ... 50 ..

mcl's vanous Ideas havc rnedlaled between the Cennan neoKantian Ideas of the la te nineteenth century and socio!ogy as a social science discipline. As in many other casts, culture is now a subfidd within sociology, nd the American Socio[ogical Assocition has legitimized this segregaton by crealing a subunit in the sociology of culture, where persons concerned wilh the production and distrbution 01 cuhure, especiaHy in Westem sel -tings, may fredy associate wilh one another.

Al Ihe epicenler of current debates in and abou cululre, many diverse streams Row into a single, rather turbulem river of many pOstslr\lctural isms (Iargely French) of )acques Lacan, )acques Derrida , Mlchd Foucault , Pierre Bourdieu, and heir many subschools. Sorne of these streams are selfconscious about language as heir rneans and their model , wh!le others are Icss so. The current multplicity of uses hat surrounds he Ihree words m(aH;H;. JjsC"oursr. and I()(j should be sufflcienl 10 indicate that we are not only in n era of blurred genres (as Ceenz [ 19801 said prescitntly more than a decade ago), but we are in a peculiar state hat I would like to call poslblurring, in which ecumenism has-happily, in my opimon- given way to sharp debates about Ihe word, Ihe world, and Ihe rdationship be. tween them .

In thi5 postb!ur blur, it 15 crucial to note Ihat the hgh round has been seized by English literature (as a diSCipline) in particular and by literary studies in geneld!. This i5 Ihe nexus where Ihe word Imory, a r.llher prosaic lenn in many flelds lor many cenlmies, suddenfy took on Ihe sexy rng of a Irend For an anlhropologist in the United States today, wht tS mosl slriking aboul Ihe pasl decade in the acdemy is the hijack of culture by !iterary studies-a!though we no longer have a onc -sided Amoldian gaze . bUI a many-sided hijack (where a hundred Blooms flower) wlth many in-lernal debales about lexts and antile:

Iwn Ihe word and Ihe world mIO a producuve ~Ihnograph,c Slralegy rt:~ quim a new und~nlandmg of the delerTilorial.:z:ed world Ihal many pcrsons inhabil and Ihe posslbl~ lives that many pcrsons are today able 10 envision. The temu of the negotiation between imaglned l""es and dctcrritorialized worlcls are complex, and Ihey surdy cannot be captured by th~ localizing Slntegies of lraditional ethnography alon

I throughout Ihe .... o rld see Ihdr [,ves through Ihe prism~ a f Ihe poss.blt: [ves offered by mass media in all thdr forms Tha! s, fantasy i5 no \\! a so-c ial practicc; il c:nters, in a hosl of ways, 01O Ihe fabrication af sociallives for many peoplc: 10 maoy SOClcties.

I should be quid. 10 note thal ,his i5 not a chc:c:rful observation, in-tended 10 imply thal Ihe wOTld 15 no .... a happier place: ..... Ih more: choices (in Ihe: utilitarian ~nse) for more pcople, and wlh more mobiHty and more: happy endings. Instead, what 15 implicd 15 thal c:ven Ihe meanc:st and mas! hopdess of 1ves, Ihe: mosl brutal and dc:humanizing af cireum-lances Ihe harshesl of .ved inequalll1c:s are now a peo to Ihe play of Ihe: , imagination. Prisoncrs af conscic:ncc:, ch.ld laborc:rs, \O/amen who t011 in Ihe Adds and f;ctories of Ihe world, and others who~ 101 is hilrsh no lonller SCC Ihcir l1Ves ilS mere outcomes 01 the givenness 01 thing, but often u the ironic compromisc- betwn what Ihey could imilgine and whal social lile wlll permit, Thus, Ihe biognphles of ordinary people are conSlructions (or fabric.alions) m wh1Ch Ihe Im.aginallon plays an impor-tan! role. Nor is Ihis role a simple malter 01 escape (holding sleady the conventions thal govem Ihe rest of sociallife), lor in Ihe grinding 01 gt'aJ's between unfolding lives and their imagined countc:rparts a vant'ty 01 Ima.g-ined communilies (Anderson 1983) is formc:d, communities that genc:rate new kinds of polilies, new kinds 01 collt'Clive expression, and new needs lor social diSCIpline and surveillance on Ihe part 01 eli lcs.

All Ihis has many contexts and impl iClions that cannOI be pursued here. But wh.at docs il imply lor elhnography 11 Implies thal elhnogra phers can no longer slmply be conlent wilh Ihe !hlckness Ihey bring 10 Ihe local and Ihe particular, nor can Ihey aS5U11le thal as t!ley approach Ihe loca.l, they approach sornelhing more elementary, more: cOnlingenl, and Ihus more real than lile secn in largerscale perspcctives. For wh:n is real a},out oroina.ry IIVes 15 now rc:alm many ways thal range Irom Ihe sheeT contingency 01 indIVidual Uves a.nd Ihe vaganes 01 compctt'nce and talenl Iha.t dlslinguish persens in a.11 socielies to Ihe realisms thal individuals are exposcd 10 ilnd draw on in thdr daily livcs,

Thesc complex, partly imagined lives musl now lorm Ihe bcdrock 01 elhnography, al leul 01 Ihe son 01 elhnography Ihat wishes to retain a spccial voiee in a lransnalional , dele!Titonalized world. For Ihe new power 01 lhe- imaginalion in the fabrication 01 social IlVes is mcscapably lied up with .mages, ideas, and opportunilles Iha. come lrom eI~where:, ohen moved around by the vehides of mass medIa. Thus, Slilndard cultural re produclion (llke standard English) is now an endangened act ivity thal suco cecds only by conscious deslgn and polllical w.n, where 1I succecds al all.

GI.~.I EI~ ".~

I liv~. Thcn: has beco a general changc in ,he IIloba! conditions 01 Hle-worlds, pul simply, .,.,here once improvisation was snatchcd out 01 Ihe glacial unclcnow 01 habilus, habitus no .... has 10 be painst;kmgly rein-foreed in the: lace 01 lifc-worlds Ihal are ~ucnlly in RWL

Thrct' cumpl~ will suggest somclhmg 01 what I have in mind. In Jan-uary 1988. my wfe ( ..... ho is a .... hite American f('male hislorian 01 India) and I (.11 Tamil Brahman male, broughl up lO Bombay and lumcd inlo ~(I "c"Jfl/liClIs in the Unit('d Sues). along .... un our son, Ihrc:c mcmbers 01 rny cldes! brolher's bmity, and an cntouragc 01 his col1cagues and cmployttS, deciclcd to visil the: Mccnak.si Temple In Madurai, one 01 the gJl:;Jt pil . grimagc c..-nters 01 South India. My ..... ife has done ~arc:h Ihere off and on lor the pasE two decacles.

Our pur-posn in goinS .... trt' various. My bmther and his wile were wor-ned abollt the mamage 01 Iheir eldest daughler and we~ concemed \O have the good wishes 01 as many powerful deities as possible in Iheir sc:an::;h lor a good a11iance, For my brother, Madurai was a spt:cial p lace be cause he spc:nt mast 01 his Arst twenl)' years Ihere with my mother's ex tended family, He thus had o ld friends and memories in a l1 the streelS around the temple. Now he had come to Madurai as a senior rai lway off cial, with business tO condUCI with severa! private businessmen who wished 10 persuade him 01 Ihe qualily 01 their bids. Ind:d, one 01 Ihese polential clienls had arranged lor us 10 be accommodated in a garishly modem hOlel in Madurai, a stone's throw Irom the temple, and drove h im around in a Mercedes, while Ihe resl 01 us look in our own Madurai

Our c:lc:ven-yearold son, fresh from Philadc:lphLa, knc:w that he was in the prescnce 01 the pl'Klkes 01 herilage and dove to Ihe ground rnanful1y, in Ihe Hindu prac l;ce 01 prOSlration before dders and dcities, whenever he was asked. He pul up graelously wLlh the meredLble noisc, erowding, and scnsory rush Ihal a maJor Hmdu temple lnvolves. For mysell, I was there 10 embclJ.sh my brother's entourage, to add sorne vague moral force \O Ihcir wishes lor a happy mamage lor their daughler, 10 reabsorb {he dI)' in which my mOlher grew up (1 had been Ihere severallimes before), 10 share in my wile's excilemenl aboul retumlng lo a clty--and a temple Ihal are pos. sibly the mOSI imponant pans 01 her imaginalion, and \O fish lor cos mopolitanism in the raw

So we enlered the founeen -acre temple compound as an mponanl en lourage, a1though one among many, and \o/ere soon approached by one 01 Ihe several priests who officiate then:. This one recognized my wHe , who asked him where Thangam 8haltar was. Thangam Bhattar was the priest with whom she had worked most closely. The answer was "Thangam Bhal

el 1 :I .... c._ .. ... 56 ...

lar 15 m Houston .~ Thls puneh line look us all a whlle 10 absorb, and lhen il all came fOgether in a fbsh . The Indlan commumty m HouslOn, " ke many eommunuies 01 Asian Indlans m the United States, had budt a Hmdu lemple, th ls one dcvoted 10 MeenaRsi, the ru lmg deny m Madural Thangam Bhanar had becn persuaded 10 go there, leaving hls fam lly be. hind. H e leads a londy life 10 Houston, aSSISIIn 111 Ihe eomple cultural poliucs of reproductiol1 in an ave~as Indlan commumty, presumably eamms a moclest income, whlle his wile and chlldren stay on In lheir small home near the temple T he neXI mommg my wlfe and nlcefe vl~lted Thangam Bhattar's home, where Ihey were told of hls travalls m Houston

and they to ld ,he family whal had gane On wlth us m Ihe mtervenll1g years. There 15 a transnational Lrony here, 01 eou~: Carol Breckenndge, Amencan hlstonan, amves m Madurai wa i11118 wlth bated brcalh 10 !iCe her closest infonnam and friend, a priesl, and d iscoven that he IS In faro away H ouslon, which is far way even from faraway Philadclphla

Bul thls transnational irony has many Ihreads Ihat ul1wmd backward and forward in tLme 10 large and fluid Structures o f mfeaning and conlmUIlL. cal ion. Among these threads are my brOlher's hOpe5 for hls daughler, who subsc:quenlly mamed a Ph.D . candidate m physieal chemislry 111 an up. stale New York unlvers il)' and recendy carne lo Syracuse hersclf; my wlfe's reconte tua!izm8 of her Madural epenenets in a world that al leasl for

sorne 01 lts cenlral actors , now mdudes HOuston, and my own realizatlOn Ihat Madural's hlSloTlcal cosmopohtam5m has aequlred new global di -mension and that sorne xey lives that constttule Ihe heart of Ihe temple's ntual praetieC'i now have Houston in thelr nnaginecl b lographles Each af these threads eould and should be unwound Thcy Icad 10 al1 undentand . mg 01 the globalizalion 01 HindUlsm, the '~l1sfonnallon 01 "natlves" lOto cosmopolll ts o f ,heir awn son, and the laet that ,he temple now nOI only attracts pc:rsons lrom al! over the world bu, also nseH reaches out. The Soddess M~naksi has a living presenee m Houston

Meanwhile, our son now has In hls repenOl~ 01 e!X'nellces a Journey 01 the Rool! variety. H e may remembcr this a~ he 'abncales his own Ilfe as an American of panly India n descent. BUI he may remembcr more vlvldly h is sudden need to go 10 Ihe bathroom whlle we were gomg fmm sanctum 10 sanelum in a visillO anOlher majar temple 10 January 1989 and the bathroom al Ihe gues,house of a chanlable found allon In wlllch he lound blissf'ul rclease. BUI here, too, i5 an unAnished story, whlch mvolves Ih" dy. nam ies 01 lamily, memory, and 10Uflsm, lor al1 elcven-year.old hyphenated American who has to go pc:riodieally 10 India, whether he Ilkes lt or nOI, and eneouncer che many webs 01 sh iftmg b lography that he nnds ,here

G I ~ ~~ r fl.~o !(,,~ .. ... 57

I ,

l,s Kcount , I,ke Ihe on~~ that 10110101 nccd, 1101 "nlv tu 1)(' th" .. ~ (;n('d 1'I\1t tO b!: SI1TT~d, but .t muS( serve lor now as on~ :Iunpsc 01 an ~Ihnography Ihal lacuses on t h~ unyoking 01 Imagmatlo n Irom plac~.

My sccond vign~tt~ com~s lrom a colltttlon of pl~Ces of on~ kmd 01 ma:lcal realism, a book by Julio Cortzar calkd A Ctrk/;" LII'''s ( 1984 ). Be cause t h~ re has bn mueh borruwing 01 l,terary models and metaphors in

rec~nt anthropology bul relalively li!tle anlhropology 0 1 litera ture , a word aboul th is choice 01 example scems appropriate. FictlOn , like myth, 15 part of Ihe cooccptual re~rtore of conlemporary societies. Readers 01 novds and p

meditalion on good, eVII, and Islam, and ended up a weapon In groop vio-lence in many pans of the world.

The vignelle is also about Ihe mlernatlonallzallon of spon and Ihe splr-itual ..-xhaustion Ihal comcs from Icchmcal obscssion with small differ-ences in performance. Dlfferenl aclOrs can brinl! Ihdr imagmallons 10 bear on Ihe problem of sport m various wa~. The Olympic Games of the past are: full of jncldenlS Ihal meal complex ways in whlch indviduals sllualC'd wllhin spccific naljonal and cultural trajcctories imposed Ihelr Imagma-tlOns on gl~1 audiences. In ScOllI in 1988, for instance , ,he dcfcated Ko-rean boxer who sal In Ihe flng for several hours to publidy prodaim his shame as a Korean and he Kore:an offlcials ..... ho swarmed into Ihe rng 10 assault a New Zc:aland I'derc:e for whal thcy thOllght was a blascd dccision were bringing thdr imagined lives 10 bear on the of~cial Olympic nalTil-Ilves of fair play, good sportsmanship, and clean compclition. The whole question of steroids, includmg the case of Canadian runner Ben lonnson (sce MacAloon 1990), 15 also nOI far from Ihe lechnieal absurdities of Corthar's SIOry, in wh leh Ihe body IS manipulaled 10 yield new results in a .... orld of eompetilive and commodilized spcctade. The vision of 5even AUSlTallan children's divina 1010 a pool of grlls md dytng also deservcs to be drawn OUt into Ihe many storics of individual abnegation and physical abuse Ihal sornelimes po .... er Ihe spcctacles of global sport.

Cortzar is also meditatlOg on Ihe problems of imitation and cuhural transfer, suggcstmg Ihal thcy can lead to vlolent and cullUrally peculiar 10 novations. Thc adJccllve ( MlllmJI appcars gratullous here and needs sorne jusli!k,tion Th'1 Tokyo ,nd nbc:rra, Baghdad and Mexico City are all IOvolved in the story docs nOI mean thal they nave bccome funl!ible preces of an ,rbitranly shlftlng, dc:locahzed world. E.1ch of these places docs have complex local re,liIICS, such thal dealh 10 a sWlmming pool has one kmd of meaning in nberra, as do hasting large spectades in lraq and malting bizam tcchnical innovatlons 10 Japan. Whalever Cortzar's idea aboul these differences, they remain cultural, but no longer in the inenial mode thal Ihe word pmioosly implied. Cul lure docs imply dfference, bul the differences oow are no