SIGNS IN SOCIETY - STIBA Malang

188 I Social Theory and Social Action
rules of customary behavior are codified only in oral traditions, including myths,
historical narratives, and proverbs, and even then conventions are represented by
exemplification rather than by a regimenting metalanguage. Taken together these
traditions, called literally "words/deeds from ancient times," provide the most
frequently cited reason for the existence of conventions. Interestingly, the origination
of customs is almost invariably the act of mythological or heroic characters
acting alone, in contrast to the myth of collective agreement in our own
culture.
As an island society which existed in relative isolation for at least a millennium,
Belau developed a strong sense of the coherence and self-sufficiency of its
own culture. And Belau's experience as the object of powerful yet passing colonial
regimes (Spanish, German, Japanese, and American) only served to intensify
its sense of historical continuity, stability, and uniqueness. Although possessing
the qualities of totality, consistency, and permanence, the category of culture in
Belau is not interpreted in terms of a category of nature. In fact, the origin myth
describes the transition from the amorphous depth of the sea to a land-based
social existence as the creation of "paths" of migration (Parmentier 19873:127-
37). Bekusn trsdition is, thus, in total accord with Lévi-Strauss's (1969:8) dictum:
"The absence of tules seems to provide the surest criterion for distinguishing
a natural from a cultural process." Second, a pervasive dynamic of
factionalism at all levels of social organization also contributes to the continued
commitment to conventional behavior, since competition between rival segments
normally presupposes rather than challenges social rules and understandings (Parmentier
1985c). Third, the systems of hierarchically ranked institutions interlock
in such a fashion—with high-ranking titleholders heading high-ranking houses
and these houses constituting high-ranking villages which in turn head political
federations—that the exercise of typifying power constantly reinforces the institutional
structure making it possible.
Acting according to conventional norms can signal to others one's knowledge
of the convention, possession of a requisite level of skill for manipulating
complex rules, and a positive valuation of the standard in question. But, in social
contexts where there is a significant asymmetry in the power to establish conventions
or in the availability of training to master them, conventional behavior can
also index one's position in this institutionalized hierarchy. Distinction or differentiation
in terms of conventions is one way that dominant groups can exercise
what Bourdieu (1979) has termed "symbolic power," the ability to manipulate
the arbitrariness of convention to set themselves apart from the general population,
whose everyday behavior seems in contrast inflexible, rustic, and "natural."
An excellent example of this social-indexical function of convention is the
French court of Louis XIV as described by Elias (1982, 1983). As Elias points
out, the florescence of aristocratic court life corresponded to the rise of a middle
class, or bourgeoisie, so that the fine gradations of rank found at court not only
Naturalization of Convention I 189
constituted a class-internal hierarchy but also distinguished courtly civility as a
whole from lower strata of society. The courtly aristocracy is so much more sensitive
to lower-class gestures than was the warrior nobility of the Middle Ages
that it strictly and emphatically excludes everything "vulgar" from its sphere of
life. Finally, this permanently smouldering social fear also constitutes one of the
most powerful driving forces of the social control that members of this courtly
upper class exert over themselves and other people in their circle. It is expressed
in the intense vigilance with which they observe and polish everything that distinguishes
them from people of lower rank: not only the external signs of status,
but also their speech, their gestures, their social amusements and manners. The
constant pressure from below and the fear it induces above are, in a word, one
of the strongest driving forces—though not the only one—of that specifically
civilized refinement which distinguishes the people of this upper class from others
and finally becomes second nature to them (Elias 1982:304). There is, in fact a
contrast between the norms of sincerity, hard work, individualism, enrichment
through education, in short, the idealization of "natural" behavior for the middle
class, and the aristocratic pattern of artificially exaggerated manners, theatrical
ceremonialism, and calculated control of affective impulses. 4 Court conventions
concerning interpersonal etiquette, dress, and speech which might appear trivial,
oppressive, or absurd to us constitute for those involved a coherent guide for establishing
relational identity, as is shown in the following contemporary satirical
passage cited by Elias:
You require a doublet made of four or five layers of different taffetas; stocking
such as you see, frieze and scarlet, accounting, I assure you, for eight ells of
cloth at least; then you need boots, the flesh-side outermost, the heel very high,
and spur-slippers also very high ... the spurs must be gilded When, thus
attired, you have arrived in the Louvre courtyard,—one alights between the
guards, you understand—you begin to laugh at the first person you meet, you
salute one, say a word to anothet: "Brother how you bloom, gorgeous as a
rose. Your mistress treats you well; that cruel rebel has no arms against this
fine brow, this well-curled moustache. And then this charming river-bank, one
could die of admiration." This must be said while flinging the arms, agitating
the head, moving from one foot to the othet, painting with the hand now the
moustache, now the hair. (Agrippa d'Aubigne in Elias i983:23o) 5
Glossing this text, Elias notes a combination of fluctuating convention and the
participants' high degree of commitment to their necessity:
To keep one's place in the intense competition for importance at court, to avoid
being exposed to scorn, contempt, loss of prestige, one must subordinate one's
appearance and gestures, in short oneself, to the fluctuating norms of court
society that increasingly emphasize the difference, the distinction of the people
belonging to it. One must wear certain materials and certain shoes. One must