Archaeology of Trobriand knowledge: Foucault in the Trobriand Islands
Abstract
This thesis holds that the application of the archaeological
method, developed by the French philosopher Michel
Foucault, to the field of anthropology reveals a hitherto
hidden primitive episteme. Such a project represents a
rejection of a search for a fundamental Truth, available
through the traditional figures of rationality, either
vertically in history or horizontally across cultures. The
form of reason posited by this project does not have a
constant and universal occurrence but is given in the discontinuous
figures of the episteme. The quest for a single
manifestation of the conditions of validity in reason is
replaced by a study of the conditions of possibility of the
truths, discourses and institutions of a primitive peoples.
The conditions of possibility for the emergence of the
elements of primitive knowledge and practices are available
through the application of the explanatory unities of the
archaeological method. These unities replace the traditional
explanatory role of the subject, with all of its psychological
baggage, which has a central role in modern theories of
rationality. The subject-knowledge link that dominates
traditional anthropological analyses is replaced by a powerknowledge
link that postulates the two axes of discursive
and non-discursive concerns. The discursive axis is concerned
with the objects, concepts, statements and discursive
formations of primitive knowledge while the non-discursive
axis is concerned with the systems of power that propagate
and sustain those discourses. These two axes constitute the
nature of the archaeology employed in this study.
This thesis is sustained by both negative and positive
evidence. The negative evidence takes the form of an antisubjectivist
thrust where the subject-dependent explanatory
unities of the tradition are replaced by the positivistic
elements of archaeology. The positive evidence primarily
takes the form of a detailed analysis of the presence of the
guiding codes of the episteme amongst the Trobriand Islanders
that give rise to their primitive knowledge and practices.
In this area, I make extensive use of Malinowski's
ethnographic observations for their breath of detail and
application without employing his subject-dependent psychobiological
conclusions. Further, I am proposing a transformative
position such that orality becomes a feature of the
episteme rather than its condition of possibility.
The guiding codes of the Trobriand episteme take the
form of enclosed oppositional figures that are everywhere
related to space. The Trobriand episteme provides the conditions
for the emergence of primitive discourses and orders
the experiences of the Trobrianders. The guiding figures of
the episteme are based in a form of complementary opposition,
causation as vitality and a dogma of topological space
that give rise to primitive knowledge which is a form of
divination. A significant part of this dissertation is taken
up with an examination of the detail and limitation of these
figures where ideas from Levy-Bruhl, Hallpike, and others
are employed to produce the most appropriate configuration
for my project. A particular form of language as the manipulation
of real signs, rather than ideational signs, has its
possibility in this configuration which has consequences for
the type of knowledge produced. The form of knowledge appropriate
to the presence of such a model of language is magic.
Writing has no possibility for emerging in this episteme
and, therefore, there are significant consequences for the
type of knowledge that can be maintained and propagated in a
context which must utilise static tradition to the detriment
of reflection.
An archaeological analysis of the Trobriand Islanders,
focusing on discourses on sex and marriage, the nature of
tabooed sexual acts, economic relations arising out of
marriage and the role of the polygamous chief, the nature of
love-magic and magic in general, reveals a shared possibility
for all of these discursive realms in the figures of the
episteme. These discourses are regulated by the presence of
a fundamental opposition between a brother and his sister.
This opposition forms the motif for primitive problematizations
and constitutes a vulnerable boundary which is the
appropriate focus of taboos relating to sex and food,
amongst others.
This primitive episteme characterises the unity of the
experiences of the Trobrianders. This experience is discontinuous
with our own and does not involve a role for the
individual ego. This project represents a worthwhile contribution
to an understanding of human experience and knowledge
in general which does not seek to reduce the natural diversity
of man to just the monotonous experience of modern man.
In conclusion, I tentatively speculate about the appropriateness
of the Trobriand figures for primitive experience in
general.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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