SIGNS IN SOCIETY - STIBA Malang
SIGNS IN SOCIETY - STIBA Malang
SIGNS IN SOCIETY - STIBA Malang
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uz I Comparative Perspectives on Complex Semiotic Processes Tropical Semiotics I 113<br />
For example, the multitiered analogy set up between sexuality, affinity, and consanguinity<br />
is an emergent rather than a static series of substitutions. At every<br />
point in the ritual sequence when one trope "metaphorizes" the previous one,<br />
that previous metaphor is "rendered apparent" or "obvious" (hence "obviation").<br />
Contrary to Weiner's claim (1988:143) that obviation is a semiotic process<br />
working between the hierarchical levels of conventional-P semantic meaning<br />
and metaphors or tropes, the examples he gives clearly demonstrate that obviation<br />
operates entirely within the second level of semiosis as the process by which<br />
innovative usages fragment, deflect, and "differentiate" conventional-N symbols.<br />
Why is exchange such a productive arena for tropic obviation? Exchange is<br />
a collective social activity involving, on the one hand, individuals and social<br />
groups and, on the other hand, symbolically charged mediational objects (food,<br />
wealth items, persons). These activities are organized so that paradigmatic or<br />
categorical oppositions (male vs. female, wife-givers vs. wife-takers) are realized<br />
in syntagmatic interactional contexts. And, more importantly, the syntagms can<br />
be viewed as "forms of discourse" (Weiner 1988:149) that set up sequential substitutions<br />
which constitute equivalences without denying differential values. They<br />
do this in two senses: (1) equivalences between objects given for each other (e.g.,<br />
valuables for wives) or in replacement for each other (e.g., pearl shells for kara'o<br />
oil) and (2) equivalences between analogous exchange scenarios (e.g., intersexual<br />
and affinal). 2 This is, of course, an elaboration of Jakobson's (1987) famous<br />
principle of poetic projection: in poetry, syntagms are broken up into parallel<br />
linguistic segments and create an artificial "projection" of equivalence, usually<br />
restricted to the paradigmatic axis of conventional-P semanticity, into the syntagmatic<br />
axis. Poetry tropically turns language upon itself, since any and all of<br />
its conventional-P features can be the effective source of parallelism. In Foi exchange,<br />
"the artifice of sociality" (Weiner 1988:139) is created in and by the<br />
playing out of an asymmetrical series of transactions in which various media<br />
invoking conventionally-N defined values are rendered contextually equivalent.<br />
Social roles, categories, and groups are, thus, "differentiated" (Wagner<br />
1974:111) through exchange, a process Weiner describes as "the tropic creation<br />
of the Foi moral universe" (1988:149).<br />
Like the fleeting character of poetic equivalence, Foi affinity is an inherently<br />
contextual relationship, since a man and his wife's brother, opposed foci of the<br />
bridewealth transactions that created his marriage, join together in contributing<br />
bridewealth for his male children and share the wealth brought in as a result of<br />
the marriages of his female children. Yet Foi exchanges are subject to the same<br />
potential for "dying" into stale repetition that can be the fate of even the most<br />
creative poetic metaphors. That is, ritual reenactments necessarily encourage the<br />
"collectivizing" tendency of symbolization (Wagner 1978:29). Fortunately, Foi<br />
exchange, considered as an independent semiotic modality, can also become the<br />
metaphorical tenor for a further innovative semiotic vehicle, storytelling.<br />
Tropes and Narrative<br />
The "heart" of Weiner's ethnography is the analysis of Foi tutti "moral stories,"<br />
which display substitutional sequences parallel to those described for exchange<br />
rituals. Weiner and the earlier ethnographer of the region, Francis Edgar<br />
Williams, both note a functional differentiation between two genres of Foi narratives,<br />
namely, amusing stories told for recreational purposes and cultic myths<br />
associated with magical spells. Williams (1977:302—3) divides Foi narratives<br />
into tuni and hetagho. The former are short tales involving nameless characters<br />
and unspecified locales; they are told by both men and women in various social<br />
contexts and are without magical significance. The latter are "true myths" dealing<br />
with "ancient events of fundamental importance and consequently possess a<br />
religious as well as magical meaning" (Williams 1977:303); although these<br />
myths involve named characters associated with cultic roles, these names are suppressed<br />
in performance. This division suggests a connection between the ideology<br />
of texts and the pragmatics of performance such that greater contextual specificity,<br />
including restriction on utterance (secrecy, name suppression), situational<br />
appropriateness (cultic contexts), and contiguity with other discursive forms<br />
(magical spells) correlates with the higher degree of collectivizing symbolization<br />
of "true myths." In contrast, Foi tuni (corresponding to Daribi namu po "moral<br />
tales" studied by Wagner) are acknowledged to be artificial constructions rather<br />
than cosmologically important myths. The Foi stories typically involve fanciful<br />
plots, imaginary characters (giants, ogresses), magical transformations, and colorful<br />
reversals of conventional morality (Weiner 1988:150).<br />
Whether because the contemporary Foi prefer to keep those myths associated<br />
with magical spells secret or because the cultic situation has declined in importance,<br />
Weiner's data consist primarily of the recreational stories. 3 Weiner uses<br />
one story, "The Hornbill Husband," as a methodological demonstration (although<br />
the particular procedures applied in this case are not, in their entirety,<br />
repeated elsewhere in the book). 4 Fundamental to the method is the determination<br />
of a sequence of thematic substitutions or transformations that ( 1 ) move the<br />
plot along its "actional" path and (2) invoke unspoken cultural presuppositions.<br />
No principled criteria are adopted for identifying these tropical substitutions,<br />
which can involve two actions, characters, values, or categories within the text<br />
whose relationship can be metaphorical equivalence (A equals B), transformation<br />
(A into B), negation (A into not-A), substitution (A replaced by B), or transaction<br />
(A for B, B for A) (cf. Todorov 1971:39). In addition, substitutions are identified<br />
in which the second term exists only as an extra-textual presupposition. The<br />
substititions are selected with an eye toward placing them in an interlocking<br />
pattern such that they alternate between those involving relatively conventional-N,<br />
collectively constituted cultural associations (called, following Wagner