SIGNS IN SOCIETY - STIBA Malang

i)8 I Comparative Perspectives on Complex Semiotic Processes
times have changed," meaning that horrid conditions and arbitrary justice no
longer characterize our penal system; a man next to me disagreed, muttering,
"It's a better system than we have now."
Only after visiting a range of differejr^xhibitions did I Begin to realize that,
in addition to the[ pervasiveness of tHe enscriptiSr^ of differejhce at the level of
manifest content, there was a subtler regimenting meclianism at work at the
"phenomenojogical" level of touristic experience. The exhibition sites can be
loosely arranged in a hierarchy of regimentation, using several intersecting variables,
including financial outlay for admission, relative restriction of visiting
hours, difficulty of access, rigidity of interpretative program, and comprehensiveness
of textual material provided. This phenomenological hierarchy corresponds
to the position on the hierarchy of eighteenth-century society instantiated
at each exhibition.
The streets and lawns of the Historic Area are open to the walking public
at all hours of the day and night and require no admission fee. One can, for this
minimal level of engagement, see the outsides of buildings, enjoy the gardens, and
mingle with other tourists. Having traveled all the way to Colonial Williamsburg,
however, few will fail to purchase one of three general admission passes: the Basic
Admission, the more expensive—though tainted with a loyalist label—Royal
Governor's Pass, and the still more expensive valid-for-a-year Patriot's Pass. The
Basic Admission allows one to see the orientation film at the Visitor Center, to
visit various everyday sites such as the Blacksmith, the Wigmaker, the Gunsmith,
and the Wheelwright, and to tour the (democratically inexpensive) Capitol building;
the Royal Governor's Pass is good for all these plus entry to the Governor's
Palace and the Wallace Gallery; but only equipped with the Patriot's Pass can
you enter Carter's Grove Plantation or the Rockefeller mansion, Bassett Hall.
Additional special admission tickets are required for special programs, films, musical
concerts, theatrical productions, lectures, seminars, and other activities.
Tourists with either limited time or specific interests can also enter some of the
more popular exhibits such as the Governor's Palace and Carter's Grove Plantation
by purchasing a Separate Ticket. There is, I understand, an additional Museum
Ticket, designed for those visitors who want nothing of historical reconstruction
and desire only to see the formal galleries and the Rockefeller
homestead, itself housing a private collection of American folk art. Like the fine
gradations in eighteenth-century fashion, the ticketing system at Colonial Williamsburg
requires careful study and practice.
The hierarchical regimentation of touristic experience can also be seen in the
regulations stipulating visiting hours and reservation requirements. The orientation
film is shown continuously and tickets may be obtained moments before a
showing. Most of the craft buildings are open all day, though every other day—
requiring the diligent tourist to spend more than one day in local hotels, restaurants,
and shops—without reservation and without the presence of a special in-
The Semiotic Regimentation of Social Life I 139
terpreter other than the craftsperson working the exhibition. Tourists are free to
wander around, talk with the craftspersons, and stay for as long or as little as
they want. Domestic houses are staffed by costumed interpreters who informally
assemble a small group of tourists and guide the group around the house and
grounds; their discourse is conversational rather than scripted, and they do not
act the role of eighteenth-century persons. The one-hour Patriot Tour requires
advance reservations to join a group of about twenty people, all wearing distinctive
badges, who are led around the city on foot and in bus by one tour guide,
whose monotone recitation varies little from group to group.
In contrast, lines form outside the Capitol and there is no possibily of visiting
this site without delay or apart from a numerically limited group. Visitors are
accompanied at all times by an interpretive guide who engages in scripted conversations
with costumed actors playing eighteenth-century roles. The Governor's
Palace is much like the Capitol, except that the lines are longer and the
entry ticket is more expensive; a separate guide pamphlet is distributed indicating
the significance of every room, describing the experience the tourist is supposed
to have, and justifying the imaginative "living interpretation" of the reconstruction—a
touchy point since the original building was destroyed in 1781 and all
researchers had to go on was an image on a copper plate found in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford.
Still higher on the scale of regimentation and distinction is Carter's Grove
Plantation, located on the James River about eight miles from the city. To get
there one must have a private car or hire a limo. The Country Road itself, described
and mapped in a separate pamphlet, is designed as a touristic experience:
"You have set off on a drive that will take you through the woodlands, ravines,
meadows, and marshlands that compose a landscape typical of tidewater Virginia."
The journey is not only through space and time, but also through social
class, since at the end stands the plantation, whose masters, like the flora along
the road, emerged naturally from the scenery. As the official guide brochure
states:
The Country Road has brought you from prehistory through the first years of
European settlement and into the eighteenth century. By the middle of that
century a class of wealthy planters appeared in Virginia. Because they had sufficient
capital to invest in vast acreage and many slaves, the biggest planters
profited greatly by producing tobacco.
Carter's Grove Plantation is like Colonial Williamsburg in miniature. A lavishly
illustrated orientation display welcomes the traveler at the Reception Center,
where I watched interpreters-in-training preparing for a competence exam by
transcribing the information in the display windows—an excellent example of
the circularity of the habitus—and where a brief film provides the overview of
the experience about to be experienced. This heavy interpretation contrasts with