Subalternity, Subaltern Agency

Rethinking the subaltern and the question of censorship in Gramsci's Prison Notebooks

by Marcus E. Green

Subalternity and language: Overcoming the fragmentation of common sense

by Marcus E. Green

Co-authored with Peter Ives

Beyond Broken Columns: Mahesh Dattani’s Final Solutions and the Quest for ‘Horizontal Comradeship’

by Abin Chakraborty

Published in The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165

Consuming Colonialism: Curio Dealers’ Catalogues, Souvenir Objects and Indigenous Agency in Oceania

by Rodney Harrison

Harrison, R. (2011) Consuming Colonialism: Curio-seller's catalogues, souvenir objects and Indigenous agency in Oceania. In S. Byrne, A. Clarke, R. Harrison and R. Torrence (eds) Unpacking the Collection: Networks of Material and Social Agency in the Museum. Springer, New York; pp. 55-82.

Available online at http://www.springerlink.com/content/x16473212586l451/

This chapter explores the potential for a study of colonial curio dealers’ catalogues in producing particular forms of... more This chapter explores the potential for a study of colonial curio dealers’ catalogues in producing particular forms of colonial desire that contributed to the production of a market in ethnographic souvenirs in Britain and its colonies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Curio dealers occupied an integral space in a network which connected museums, tourists and indigenous artisans, but have been largely ignored in studies of colonial relations and material culture. Previous work on Kimberley Points has suggested Indigenous Australians produced markets for the sale of certain curios to colonial collectors which fulfilled complex roles within the groups who manufactured them, as well as those who received them through purchase, trade or exchange. Focussing on the 1929 catalogue of a Sydney-based curio dealer, Tyrells Museum (formerly Tost and Rohu Taxidermists, Tanners, Furriers and Island Curio Dealers), this chapter demonstrates that such catalogues not only have the potential to reveal changes in market demand, price and desirability of ethnographic objects, but also how artefacts were transformed from functional objects into ornaments, changes in their method and context of manufacture, as well as changing colonial relations between indigenous and non-indigenous people.

Networks, Agents and Objects: Frameworks for Unpacking Museum Collections

by Rodney Harrison

Byrne, S., A. Clarke, R. Harrison and R. Torrence (2011) Networks, Agents and Objects: Frameworks for Unpacking Museum Collections. In S. Byrne, A. Clarke, R. Harrison and R. Torrence (eds) Unpacking the collection: Museums, identity and agency. Springer, New York; pp. 3-26

Available online at http://www.springerlink.com/content/v5310j3ut12n8mk6/

Although on face value, museum collections are largely perceived as static entities hidden away in storerooms or... more Although on face value, museum collections are largely perceived as static entities hidden away in storerooms or trapped behind glass cases, new research shows that over time and across space interactions between objects and a wide range of people have generated a complex assemblage of material and social networks. Based on a broad collection of source materials, studies examining the people who made, sold, traded, studied, catalogued, exhibited and connected with objects reveal a dynamic set of material and social agencies that have been instrumental in creating, shaping and reworking museum collections. By integrating and reworking theories about agency and materiality and by drawing on insights from Actor-Network Theory, contributors to this volume have uncovered new ways to think about relationships formed between objects and individuals and among diverse groups spread across the globe. The research also demonstrates that ethnographic collections continue to play important roles in supporting and reworking national identities as well as to challenge these through ongoing negotiations and sharing of ideas among both the guardians of these objects and their creator communities. These insights have important implications for designing curatorial practices in the future.

Reassembling Ethnographic Museum Collections

by Rodney Harrison

This is the final submitted version of a review chapter that will appear as the Introduction to Rodney Harrison, Sarah Byrne and Anne Clarke (eds) Reassembling the Collection: Ethnographic Museums and Indigenous Agency, to be published by SAR Press

This volume addresses itself to fundamental questions about the nature, value and efficacy of museum collections in a... more This volume addresses itself to fundamental questions about the nature, value and efficacy of museum collections in a postcolonial world, and the agency of indigenous people in their production. Its primary focus lies with those objects which, by way of their specific histories, have been defined as ‘ethnographic’, however, the question of the contexts in which things are defined as ‘art’ as opposed to ‘artifact’ (e.g. Clifford 1988, 1997; Danto 1988; Putnam 1991; Marcus and Myers 1995; Gell 1998; Thomas 1999; Myers 2001) also constitutes a key concern. The book is most appropriately situated within the context of various postcolonial critiques of the role of museums and museum collections in the politics of indigenous representation (e.g. Clifford 1988; 1995; O’Hanlon 1993; Greenfield 1996; Lidchi 1997; Barringer and Flynn 1998; Russell 2001; Karp and Levine 2001; Fforde, Hubert and Turnbull 2002; Kramer 2006; Cuno 2008; Lonetree and Cobb 2008; Sleeper-Smith 2009), and a reaction to the perception that indigenous people had little or no ‘agency’ in the processes which were responsible for the genesis of ethnographic museum collections (themselves largely a phenomenon of the exercising of asymmetrical colonial power relations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries). Nonetheless, in seeing this book as a product of that literature and its accompanying themes, what sets it apart from much of the current literature is that it makes a significant attempt to move beyond the concerns of the politics of representation which have tended to dominate critical museum studies (Macdonald 2011), to consider the affective qualities of things alongside their representational role within the museum. Similarly, in considering the complex material and social interactions of things, people and institutions which constitute ethnographic collections, we attempt to move beyond the observation that indigenous people and ethnographic objects ‘had (and continue to have) agency’, to consider how concepts of agency and indigeneity need to be reconfigured in the light of their study within the context of the museum. In doing so, the volume develops a series of new concepts and considers their application to historical and contemporary engagements between ethnographic museums and the various individuals and communities who were (and are) involved in their production. The themes of the volume have profound implications not only for understanding the ongoing processes which have formed museum collections in the past and present, but also for developing new and innovative curatorial practices in the future. Key concepts include the idea of museums as meshworks and material/social assemblages; the ways in which the application of an ‘archaeological sensibility’ might inform approaches to understanding the past and present relationships between people, ‘things’ and institutions in relation to museums; and the ‘curatorial responsibility’ which arises from a reconsideration of the nature of museum ‘objects’.

Assembling and Governing Cultures ‘At Risk’: Centers of Collection and Calculation, from the Museum to World Heritage

by Rodney Harrison

This is the final submitted version of a chapter which will be published shortly in Rodney Harrison, Sarah Byrne and Anne Clarke (eds) Reassembling the Collection: Ethnographic Museums and Indigenous Agency (SAR Press)

In this chapter, I argue that the spectre of risk, vulnerability and loss haunts and helps account for the development... more In this chapter, I argue that the spectre of risk, vulnerability and loss haunts and helps account for the development of the salvage paradigm which drove the development of both late nineteenth/early twentieth century ethnographic museum collections, and the various cultural heritage lists and registers which were developed throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first. In doing so, I suggest that both might be understood to represent centers of (and for) collection and calculation as defined by Bruno Latour (1987; see also Bennett this volume). Latour uses this term in his model of the construction of scientific knowledge to describe the production and accumulation of ‘immutable and combinable mobiles’—objects, specimens, charts, maps, tables, field notebooks and other recorded observations—which are collected from the peripheries (or ‘field’) and returned to a centre where they are able to be combined and interpreted in different ways. This allows centers of calculation to ‘act at a distance’ (1987:229) through the same networks of collection and distribution by which the mobiles are returned, as well as new networks that are created as a result of the assembling and reassembling of these mobiles at the centre. In suggesting that both museums and heritage registers can profitably be viewed as centers of collection, I seek to draw the processes and forms of agency involved in the formation of ethnographic museum collections into closer conversation with those which have contributed to the development of the UNESCO World Heritage Lists (including the UNESCO Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage). I argue that they not only share their raison d’être as assemblages which are brought together in response to perceived risk, but that they are also a product of a single genealogy, sharing intellectual and institutional histories. Similarly, they both reflect anthropological debates about ‘culture’ and ways of dealing with the relationship of the universal to the particular. This has broad implications for the way we understand not only the rise of intangible heritage in the late twentieth century in relation to forms of minority and indigenous agency, but also the ways in which we might locate indigenous agency in the formation of ethnographic museum collections in the past and present. In particular, I follow Tony Bennett’s (1995) argument regarding the universal mission of museums to explore the ways in which indigenous people and other ethnic minorities have made counter-claims to representation in World Heritage since its introduction in the 1970s alongside the growth of international indigenous rights movements which mirror earlier developments relating to their representation within ethnographic museums. I also explore the ways in which lists such as the World Heritage List ‘materialize’ and stand in for objects, places, and practices and in doing so, continue older museological forms of governance in relation to the categorization of the boundaries between humans and ‘things’.

L'Autocoscienza dei Dalits-Intoccabili come Subalterni. Riflessioni su Gramsci nel Sud dell'Asia

by Cosimo Zene

ZENE, C. 2010. L'Autocoscienza dei Dalits-Intoccabili come Subalterni. Riflessioni su Gramsci nel Sud dell'Asia. In, Baldussi A. e P. Manduchi, GRAMSCI IN ASIA E IN AFRICA, Cagliari, AIPSA Edizioni, pp. 228-255.

In questo articolo propongo una riflessione sulla categoria gramsciana di 'subalterno' a partire da alcuni contributi... more In questo articolo propongo una riflessione sulla categoria gramsciana di 'subalterno' a partire da alcuni contributi recenti su questa tematica, in particolare quelli di Joseph Buttigieg (1992, 1998), Giorgio Baratta (2007, 2008) e Marcus Green. Quest'ultimo, oltre ad offrire una critica lucida all'articolo di Spivak, 'Can the Subaltern Speak?' (1988, trad. it. 2004), mi permette di intraprendere un ulteriore dialogo con lo scritto di Spivak per inserirlo in un discorso piú ampio destinato a coinvolgere l’esperienza di vari gruppi nel Sud dell’Asia conosciuti col nome collettivo di Intoccabili (Untouchables). O come essi preferiscono definirsi, Dalits. Facendo ritorno alla definizione gramsciana di ‘subalterni’. Chercheró di dimostrare l’importanza e l’influsso di Gramsci per i Dalits, nonce l’ispirazione che essi traggono dal suo pensiero e dalla filosofia della prassi. Tenendo in considerazione le critiche rivolte al Subaltern Studies Collective per aver ‘tradotto’ e adattato in modo acritico il pensiero di Gramsci alla situazione del Sud dell’Asia, questo saggio intende proporre un ritorno alle fonti gramsciane e una radicalizzazione delle sue posizioni in riferimento alla situazione ed esperienza dei Dalits del Sud dell’Asia. Non vi è alcun dubbio che la ‘Questione Subalterna’ in India oggi non puó ignorare la ‘Questione Dalit’ come “l’inconscio politico della società Indiana (Rao 2009:xiii). Il case-study dei Rishi-Dalits del Bangladesh mette in rilievo ulteriormente la posizione precaria di questi gruppi, ma anche la loro aspirazione nel voler superare le condizioni di subalternità.

The Many Headed Hydra: Plebeians in the World c.1660-1820

by William Farrell

This conference explores the role of plebeians in the colonial and commercial expansion across the world from c.1660-1820. Inspired by the themes of Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker’s The Many Headed Hydra (2000) the papers will explore the book’s central themes in the light of new research, as well as taking it into new areas. The role of seas and ships, armies and navies, and commercial interests in creating and regulating a mobile, multi-ethnic workforce will be explored. Research on traditions of popular protest and radical political and religious ideologies will also be presented. As well as the English-speaking Atlantic, there will be papers on French Canada, Brazil, the Middle East and the Cape Colony.

Keynote speaker: Prof. Richard Drayton (KCL).

Date: Thursday, April 12 2012.

Venue: Room 532, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX.

The conference is free to attend, but places are limited. Please email: manyheadedhydra.2012@gmail.com to book a place.

Supported by Dept of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck & History Workshop Journal.

Organisers: William Farrell (Birkbeck), Stephen Dean Jnr (KCL).

La segregacion en accion

by Bastien Bosa

Published in 'Revista de Estudios Sociales' (Colombia), 2009

Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, But Obedient Ones are Rewarded in Heaven: An Examination of the Re-Invention of the Bengali Tradition of Sati By Michele Stopera Freyhauf

by Michele Stopera Freyhauf

originally published on the Feminism and Religion Project

Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History is a book authored by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.  This has become a... more Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History is a book authored by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.  This has become a well-known phrase used by most feminists to imply a meaning of disobedience or stance against the patriarchal structure of society.  Often in error, the credit of the invention of this phrase is attributed Eleanor Roosevelt and Marilyn Monroe.  Their image, and especially the image of Monroe, will often appear with the slogan on merchandise as a means of marketing and raising revenue.  Ironically, reinvention or reuse is prevalent in history when it comes to tradition or ritual for the same reason – monetary gain.  This practice is common and the benefit of reinventing or reinterpreting an old tradition is an automatic connection to the past giving continuity, which, according to Eric Hobsbaum, instills strong “binding social practice,” (p. 10) including loyalty and duty in the members of the group.  This is especially effective in manipulating the poor and uneducated who usually display strict obedience and blind acceptance of tradition. The Bengali reinvented tradition of satî is an example of this.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak looks at the ritual of satî in her essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Examining the historiography of this tradition through post-colonial deconstruction, Spivak reveals that the ritual of satî in Bengali tradition as an invented tradition rooted in hegemony.  Externally, this tradition is a façade, presented to the outside world as an ancient tradition of ritual p

urity and means of cultural preservation.  Internally, it is anything but pure; it is a means of power and control over the subaltern widow, which through self-immolation on her husband’s funeral pyre, results in the forfeiture of inherited property she is entitled to upon her husband’s death.

Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History: An Examination of the Bengali Tradition of Sati

by Michele Stopera Freyhauf

Paper written from a Historiographical standpoint.

This paper was inspired by Spivak's work on the Subaltern and applies theories of Foucault, Althusser, Thompson,... more This paper was inspired by Spivak's work on the Subaltern and applies theories of Foucault, Althusser, Thompson, Barthes, Levi-Strauss, and Gairola to examine why the ritual of Sati was constructed as "tradition" by the Bengali's.  In the end, I suggest that the ritual was invented because of women's ability to inherit from their husbands.  Some theories also hold that the elimination of women eliminated burdens on society for their care.

Living la Inseguridad and Making Sense of Urban Poor

by Jenny Ingridsdotter

Master-thesis.

In this thesis ethnographical interviews with women in Buenos Aires are analyzed with discourse theory in order to... more In this thesis ethnographical interviews with women in Buenos Aires are analyzed with discourse theory in order to examine how discourses of safe/unsafe and urban poor construct places and bodies. A central element of discourse is argued to be the partially fixed inscription of danger in territories and bodies of the urban poor. Neoliberalism´s impact on urban space has meant a transformation of public space and impacts on constructing reality. This transformation of meaning is connected to the neoliberal transformation of the labor market, once invested with rights and security, now deregulated and precarious. Urban poor are visible in every interviewed woman´s everyday life, but the way of constructing them as subjects varies with level of closeness and identification. The Argentine historic construction of Europeaness, modernity and civilization as opposed to Latin Americaness, backwardness and barbarism can be found in many of the women´s constructions of urban poor. So is the othering of them in relationship to motherhood and citizenship. The constructions of the urban poor are also analyzed with the Foucaultian concept of biopower.

"On Gramsci, 'Epistemic Interference' and the Possibilities of Sud-Alternity"

by Christopher Larkosh

In Annali d'italianistica, Volume 24, 2006 ("Negotiating Italian Identities," Bouchard, Norma, ed.)

Call for papers: The Many Headed Hydra 10 years On

by William Farrell

Arguments for Statism, Money Discrimination, Domestic Terrorism seeds demand for products

by Robert Silva

They sabotage the paper to hide their sabotage, to make me look retarded or mentally ill

I swear I go to school for six years, get a masters in International Law, International Relations and Doctorate in... more I swear I go to school for six years, get a masters in International Law, International Relations and Doctorate in Cognitive Psychology the cop needs to stop

Arguments for Statism, Money Discrimination, Domestic Terrorism seeds demand for products

by Robert Silva

It is about social stigma and police harassment how the U.S government agent uses societal expectation to control and manage people. It is more it is social force control and mind control.

It is how we control the situation, it is about risk assessment and manipulation of the vis cogntia to control... more It is how we control the situation, it is about risk assessment and manipulation of the vis cogntia to control situations. Domestic terrorism is aversion therapy for social conditioning and relative power seeking.

Entre désirs et réalités (Sur l'Ottoman Age of Exploration de Giancarlo Casale)

by Güneş Işıksel

To be published in Turcica 43/2011

Le livre récent de Giancarlo Casale sur la découverte ottomane de l’océan Indien au XVIe siècle est riche d’idées... more Le livre récent de Giancarlo Casale sur la découverte ottomane de l’océan Indien au XVIe siècle est riche d’idées nouvelles et de défis à l’historiographie européo-centrée, et doit être salué comme tel . Cependant, il néglige trop souvent les principes de base des bonnes méthodes historiographiques et confond fréquemment ses hypothèses de travail avec la réalité démontrée. Après une brève présentation du livre, nos objections porteront d’abord sur le style et l’architecture générale de l’ouvrage, pour passer à une analyse plus approfondie du cinquième chapitre, « Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and the Apogee of Empire », avant de passer à l’examen des conclusions .

Power and Historical Figuring: Rachael Pringle Polgreen's Troubled Archive

by Marisa J. Fuentes

Rickshawalas´ children and the politics of being ´not quite´: Subaltern youth in north India

by manuela ciotti

Article in preparation for submission to Inter-Asia Cultural Studies