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+ (presences of art)
Vietnam. Paradise Now øi Apocalypse Now sub aceeaøi plapumæ. O hecatombæ
de trægætori pe nas. E aøteptat mîntuitorul. Va veni lunga reaganomics
– ea fline încæ øi astæzi. Arta, glamorous precum seratele la Morocco.
Se revine mereu la the lost generation, perioada interbelicæ – preistoria
modernæ. Damned and beautiful, la oraø ca øi pe malul mærii. Se plînge,
se pileøte, se face amor, se scrie, se cælætoreøte, se revine and back again.
Hora nemulflumiflilor care se væicæresc, dar cu toate astea o duc mai degrabæ
bine. Nefericifli de lux.
*
Despre antropologie. Acest corp funcflionæresc nu mai pare nici mæcar
motivat, atras de exotism. Se lucreazæ „acasæ“ øi iute, cu susflinerea financiaræ
a enormei maøinærii birocratico-universitare a culturii. Etnism læbærflat
peste tot pe un fundal unanimist. Etnologia e ajunsæ din urmæ de turism,
cu singura deosebire cæ turistul îøi plæteøte sejurul øi cælætoria. În sînul ei
se înmulfleøte o armatæ de apærætori ai „colaborærii dintre culturi“, apærætori
peste care suflæ adierea unui optimism surprinzætor, datæ fiind starea
actualæ a lumii. Forflæ multiplicatæ a instinctului gregar, în privinfla cæruia spiritul
critic regæseøte foarte greu Unicul stirnerian, omul din subteranæ ce
rævæøeøte metafizica, martor al ireversibilei pierderi de demnitate. Dezrædæcinarea
e condiflia suportatæ øi recunoscutæ ca atare – numai cæ-n grup.
Beach-comber-ul (vagabond-al-insulelor), the Ethnologist in charge, colonial,
curiosul gata de orice, aventurierul la care visa suprarealismul (au existat),
øi chiar misionarul à la Kurz sau à la Brazza; acest bunch of fools, club
de poefli øi capete bîntuite, ex-ofifleri øi spleenatici de talent (Griaule, Leiris),
epave iluminate, exilafli din Germania în flinuturile locuite de American Indians
(Boas, Lowie, Goldenweiser, Sapir, Richards, Curt Nimuendaju);
oiflele negre øi rætæcite ale gentry, de „familie bunæ din provincie“ (Cantal,
Pas-de-Calais, Brianza, Oxfordshire), care-øi vîræ nasul, scotocind, între
un templu la Madrastan, siturile cu cranii fidjiene, Saqqarah øi Buckingham
(Hocart); exploratori în marginea convenfliilor, purtîndu-øi ticurile cu anduranfla
unor buni soldafli (Needham, Leach, Rassers); Inventatorii de Teorii,
tot atît de generoøi, de emoflionanfli, de talentafli – øi de ridicoli pe undeva
– precum Courtial al lui Céline (Bateson, Pitt-Rivers, Josselin de Jong,
Radcliffe-Brown, Lévi-Strauss); ambiflioøii de academie, poliglofli, neobosifli
la Tropice øi în campus-uri (Malinowski), care contestæ freudismul, care
se vor, via Marx, fideli darwinismului: toatæ aceastæ adunæturæ de ispravæ,
care face cît un panteon de divinitæfli, a scris un capitol, unul, dens, sclipitor,
al Comediei umane parauniversitare øi universitare. Ea a fost înlocuitæ,
o generaflie dupæ aceea, de înghesuiala turiøtilor.
În felul acesta a avut loc o singularæ anamorfozæ a antropologiei. Cantitativ
mai întîi: nu mai pofli fline socoteala departamentelor, grupurilor de lucru,
seminariilor, institufliilor, colocviilor, încruciøærilor zise interdisciplinare, a
subiectelor de tezæ. Apoi øi-n ce priveøte retorica: nicicînd nu s-a vorbit
atîta despre etnie, diferenflæ, humanrightism, ca în prezent. Argumentele
acestea ræmîn în acelaøi timp tributare øi falsificatoare ale consensului, dependente
de densa omogenitate a affluent society – chiar dacæ jumulite de
cîtva timp încoace (oil peak & al. aøteaptæ la cotituræ) –, de „devalorizarea
tuturor valorilor“ printr-un gregarism spectacular: acela al încæperii
albinei-matcæ, televiziunea (cæreia i se potriveøte aøa de bine cuvîntul „cablu“,
reunindu-le pe ananké, „necesitatea“, nodul – care strînge – øi circuitul
like at the seaside. They cry, they drink, they make love, they write, they travel
and they come back and back again. The choir of the displeased who keep
whining, but do rather well. Deluxe unhappy people.
*
On anthropology. This clerks’ body doesn’t even seem motivated or drawn by
exoticism anymore. They work “at home” and fast, financially supported by the
enormous bureaucratic-academic machine of culture. Ethnicism spread all over
an unanimist background. Ethnology is being overtaken by tourism, with the
only difference that the tourist pays for his trip and stay. Within it, an army
defending the “collaboration of cultures” proliferates, defenders inspired by
the wind of an optimism which is rather surprising, given the state of the world
today. The multiplied force of the gregarious instinct, for which the critical
spirit finds it very difficult to regain the Stirnerian “Singleton”, the subterranean
man who ravages the metaphysics, witness to the irreversible loss of
dignity. Being uproot is the condition endured and recognized as it is – but
collectively.
The colonial beach-comber, the ethnologist in charge, the curious ready for
everything, the adventurer the surrealism dreamt about (they have existed) and
even the missionary à la Kurtz or à la Brazza; this bunch of fools, a club of poets
and haunted minds, former officers and talented spleeners (Griaule, Leiris), illuminateds
wrecks, exiled from Germany to the American Indians’ lands (Boas,
Lowie, Goldenweiser, Sapir, Richards, Curt Nimuendaju); the black and lost
sheep of the gentry, of “a good province family” (Cantal, Pas-de-Calais, Brianza,
Oxfordshire), who stick their scrounging noses among a Madrastan temple, the
Fijian skulls funerary sites, Saqqarah and Buckingham (Hocart); explorers to the
edge of conventions, wearing their tics with the endurance of good soldiers
(Needham, Leach, Rassers); the Theory Inventors, as generous, moving, talented
– and somehow ridiculous – as Céline’s Courtial (Bateson, Pitt-Rivers, Josselin de
Jong, Radcliffe-Brown, Lévi-Strauss); the academy ambitious, polyglots, restless
at the Tropics and in the campuses (Malinowski), contesting Freudism and who
see themselves, via Marx, faithful to Darwinism: this whole worthy bunch, who
can match a pantheon of divinities, has written a dense, bright chapter of the
para-academic and academic Comédie humaine. It was replaced after only one
generation by the tourists’ crowd.
Thus, a unique anamorphosis of the anthropology occurred. First, quantitatively:
one cannot keep up with counting departments, working groups, seminaries,
institutions, colloquia, so called interdisciplinary crossings, thesis topics.
Then with respect to the rhetoric: there has never been so much talk about ethnicity,
difference, humanrightism. These arguments remain, at the same time,
tributary to and falsify the consensus, depending on the dense homogeneity of
“the affluent society” – even though ripped off for some time now (oil peak &
al. are waiting around the corner) –, on the “devaluation of all values” through
a spectacular gregariousness: that of the bee queen room, the television (which
is so well matched by the word “cable”, uniting ananké, “necessity”, the knot
– which ties – and the electric circuit) with its multiple derivates, in the streets,
as well as in the aspirations, ambitions, dreams, fears of the crowds, in cities as
well as in rural areas. The specular [le miroirique] reigns everywhere: each
demands a “self” while watching another one, to imitate it, and overbidding
in this self-projection which is the offspring (a cult of the child, from cradle to
the academy – after that, for those lacking safety nets, precariousness and
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