Engaging with Society Study Guide PDF

Engaging with society: meeting the challenges of a changing world Only study guide for EWS2601 University of South Africa Pretoria © 2010 University of South Africa All rights reserved Printed and published by the University of South Africa Mucklneuk, Pretoria EWS2601/1/2011–2014 98748327 InDesign EWS_Style CONTENTS INTRODUCTION vii Theme 1: “US AND THEM”: IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE 1 1 THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF IDENTITY 4 1.1 What is identity? 4 1.2 Categories of identity 5 1.3 Ascribed and achieved identity attributes 11 Conclusion 13 2 SIGNALLING IDENTITY AND ASSERTING DIFFERENCE 14 2.1 Marking identity 15 2.2 Tangible markers of identity 16 2.3 National symbols 21 Conclusion 22 3 “TO BE OR NOT TO BE...”: PERSPECTIVES ON IDENTITIES IN MOTION 23 3.1 Case study: the “retraditionalisation” of Maputaland 24 3.2 Unravelling “retraditionalisation” 26 3.3 Critical questions regarding retraditionalisation 27 Conclusion 29 4 IDENTITY, DIFFERENCE AND CONFLICT 32 4.1 What is xenophobia? 33 4.2 Explaining xenophobia 35 Conclusion 41 Theme 2: WEALTH AND STATUS 43 5 SOCIAL CLASS 45 5.1 The role of income and occupation in establishing class situation 47 5.2 The income and wealth dimension of class situation 49 5.3 The occupation dimension of class situation 50 5.4 Class and social closure 50 5.5 The social relations of production as a basis for class 52 (iii) EWS2601/1 Contents 5.6 The social relations of consumption and class 52 5.7 The reproduction of class position over time and across the generations 56 Conclusion 58 6 POVERTY AND INEQUALITY IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE WORLD 59 6.1 The 1995 and 2000 StatsSA surveys 60 6.2 The controversy concerning post-apartheid trends in income and poverty 62 6.3 Trends in household welfare between 1993 and 2005 65 6.4 Vulnerable households 66 6.5 Social inequality on a global scale 68 Conclusion 71 7 THE CHANGING DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE CHANCES: FROM APARTHEID TO GLOBALISATION 72 7.1 Class and race as factors in poverty and inequality in South Africa 73 7.2 Globalisation and poverty in South Africa 76 7.3 The impact of financialisation on poverty and inequality in the world 82 Conclusion 89 Theme 3: SOCIETY AND THE CHALLENGE OF CRIMINALITY 91 8 THE CONCEPTS OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 96 8.1 The concept of crime 97 8.2 Why we have rules 100 8.3 The determiners and enforcers of rules 101 8.4 Sources of rules 102 8.5 The changing boundaries of crime 104 8.6 The changing nature of punishment 107 Conclusion 109 9 HUMANS AND THEIR ENCOUNTERS WITH CRIME 110 9.1 Forms of and trends in crime 111 9.2 The incidence of crime 119 Conclusion 123 10 THE EFFECT OF CRIME ON HUMANITY 124 10.1 The consequences of crime 125 10.2 Responses to crime 131 Conclusion 137 (iv) Contents Theme 4: LIVING SUSTAINABLY 139 11 LONG-TERM CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE IMPACT OF HUMANS ON THE ENVIRONMENT IN AFRICA 141 11.1 Climate change 142 11.2 Climate change and africa 151 Conclusion 159 12 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 160 12.1 The Brundtland report 161 12.2 Globalisation 163 Conclusion 166 13 GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AND THE NATURAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENTS 167 13.1 Global environmental change 168 13.2 World heritage sites 176 13.3 Biospheres 182 Conclusion 184 Theme 5: ACTIVELY ENGAGING WITH OUR WORLD 187 14 ACTING IN A COMMUNITY 191 14.1 Community development 192 14.2 Jobs and roles 196 Conclusion 196 15 BEING AN ACTIVIST 197 15.1 Social movements and activism 197 15.2 Activism against neoliberal globalisation 199 15.3 Activism for a local people: Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni resistance to Shell Oil in the Niger Delta 204 15.4 Jobs and roles 211 Conclusion 211 16 CARING SUPPORT 212 16.1 Parenting 213 16.2 Care for those living with HIV and AIDS 214 16.3 Jobs and roles 223 Conclusion 223 17 BEING A RESPONSIBLE CITIZEN 224 17.1 Responsible citizenship 224 17.2 Global citizenship 232 (v) EWS2601/1 Contents 17.3 Jobs and roles 233 Conclusion 233 18 DOING GOOD WORK– STRUGGLING FOR GOOD WORK 234 18.1 The notion of good work 235 18.2 A realistic approach to good work 240 18.3 Jobs and roles 241 Conclusion 241 19 ACTION FOR A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT 243 19.1 Becoming informed 244 19.2 Environmentally friendly living 244 19.3 Raising awareness 250 19.4 Jobs and roles 250 Conclusion 251 REFERENCES 252 (vi) INTRODUCTION ENGAGING WITH SOCIETY: MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF A CHANGING WORLD On behalf of the team of study material developers, I have pleasure in welcoming you to this module. My name is Derik Gelderblom, and I am from the Department of Sociology. The other authors are Natalie Swanepoel, Stephné Herselman and Gert Maree of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Susan Botha of the Department of Political Science, Nick Southey and Jane Carruthers of the Department of History and Peter Stewart of the Department of Development Administration. The learning development consultant associated with this project is Paul Prinsloo. In this introduction I am going to tell you what our vision for the development of this module entailed, and what it is that we want you to know and do when you have worked through it. The title of the module is a good starting point for this discussion. When we talk about engaging with society, we mean it in two ways. First, we want you to engage intellectually by increasing your knowledge and comprehension of the world, so that you have the tools to question social arrangements that impair human welfare. We also want you to have a better understanding of yourself and your own place in society, and to appreciate the fact that your own welfare cannot be separated from that of society in general. Because we are a multidisciplinary team that represents those disciplines that are particularly concerned with the nature of society, we are well placed to provide you with the necessary grounding to engage in this, intellectual, sense. Secondly, we want you to be able to engage in terms of taking action to make the world a better place. As you will see in the last theme (theme 5), there are a number of fields in which this is possible, from the family to the work and organisational spheres. We do not prescribe any particular course of action to you; instead, we simply want to sensitise you to the possibilities for action that exist so that you also engage in this, more practical, sense with society. The subtitle of the module is: “Meeting the challenges of a changing world”. You can therefore expect to gain more insight into how the world is changing. I will now give a brief overview of some of the changes that are of interest in the context of this module. In the process I hope to provide a framework that shows you how the issues we discuss relate to one another. The first change is that of globalisation, which is a concept we define on several occasions in the guide. As you will see in theme 2, there is considerable disagreement among scholars about precisely what globalisation means to us. In general, however, the concept refers to the increasing impact of global processes on our everyday lives. Globalisation consists of two dimensions. The first of these relates to the increasing degree of connectedness between people that goes beyond the level of immediate, face- to-face presence. (Giddens 1990:63). According to Giddens, if we compare a hunting and gathering society to a modern society, a significant difference between the two is the extent to which social relationships are based upon what he calls co-presence, or face-to-face interaction. The bushmen of the Kalahari were until recently examples (vii) EWS2601/1 Introduction of a hunting and gathering society. Even though hunting and gathering bands travel considerable distances as they look for food, they generally do so as a group of people who interact face to face. As technologies develop, increasingly effective ways are found to coordinate the actions of people over greater distances. One of these ways is writing, and the development of a postal service. This facilitates communication over greater distances, and makes it possible to transcend the limitations of face-to-face interaction. People can still stay in contact even if they are long distances apart. In the current age, technology has developed to such an extent that interaction can take place, and the actions of people can be coordinated, on a global basis. Increasing numbers of people are connected through means such as the internet and satellite television, which can transmit messages instantaneously all over the world. It is therefore not unusual to be engaged in a face-to-face conversation with somebody, but then have this conversation interrupted by an SMS message from a person on the other side of the globe. Face-to-face interaction, although not unimportant, becomes just one of numerous ways in which social interaction can take place. We have thus come a long way from the hunting and gathering society where interaction could only take place between people when they were all together in the same place. Globalisation is the process by which more and more social interaction takes place on a global scale, thus increasing the interdependence of people over vast distances, and transcending the limitations of co-presence even further than before. As a result, we may find that decisions we make on a local basis have implications on the other side of the globe. For example, the decision to eat red meat tonight could have implications for the ongoing destruction of the Atlantic forest in Paraguay, as the soya meal that is used to fatten cattle in feedlots is imported from places such as Paraguay, thus creating the demand that motivates the farmers to destroy more forest. The second dimension of globalisation, which is closely related to the first, refers to the global scale of events and processes in the current age. As a result, our local world is increasingly influenced by global events. Events such as the inauguration of Barack Obama or the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games are broadcast live all over the world in real time, with the result that they have a global impact. Because of the interconnection of financial markets, events such as the credit crunch of 2008–2009 are similarly propagated all over the world, resulting in job losses in South Africa, even though we had nothing to do with the causes of the crisis. The best example of a global event with local consequences is global warming. This process is discussed in theme 4, and relates to the impact that human beings have on the global climate as a result of the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. As you will see in that theme, this phenomenon has the potential to cause enormous disruption in the form of the spread of disease, famine and forced migrations, and will have a truly global impact, affecting everyone in some way or another. Globalisation is linked to large-scale economic transformations that have produced increased wealth for some, and increased poverty and inequality for others. From the 1960s until the Asian economic crisis of 1997, a group of South East Asian countries such as Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea underwent particularly rapid economic development. This was at least partly due to their successful incorporation into the world economy, and thus the process of globalisation. However, financial globalisation was also the cause of the 1997 crisis, and the significantly lower growth rates experienced by these countries since then. The impact of globalisation can thus be quite contradictory. Following the late 1970s the South East Asian countries were joined by China, and lately China has surpassed them with its rapid growth rate. However, this growth is being achieved at a price: There is increasing inequality within the Chinese population, and enormous amounts of pollution are being generated. China (viii) Introduction is now the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and it is essential that some formula be found for the reduction of these emissions. The increased wealth of the Chinese economy is contrasted with the increased poverty and inequality in many other countries, which have experienced declining wages and increased unemployment in their manufacturing sectors as a result of Chinese competition (as you will see, there is also an opposite effect in terms of growth as a result of Chinese demand for natural resources). In theme 2, which deals with wealth and poverty, we discuss the complex and contradictory impact of globalisation, as well as the accompanying process of financialisation, on the South African and world economy. Globalisation also has an impact on social identities, that is, our sense of who we are and where we belong in terms of group membership. The impact is once again complex and often contradictory, leading to the weakening of rigid social identities such as race, ethnicity and religion among some people, and their strengthening in the form of some sort of fundamentalism in others (Giddens 1994:5–6, 81). Rigid social identities are weakened because of the increasingly cosmopolitan environment in which we live. The environment becomes more cosmopolitan because we come increasingly into contact with people who are unlike us in terms of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religious affiliation as more people migrate to the cities, and as international migration increases as a result of globalisation. This exposure is not only through face-to-face interaction, but also as a result of the media, such as television, which increasingly are international in scope. This cosmopolitan environment can either lead to a questioning of rigid identities, and therefore their relaxation, or cause a defensive reaction in terms of the reassertion of rigid, traditional identities. We see this in the growth of fundamentalist religious identities associated with all the major religions in many parts of the globe. The fundamentalist reaction is strengthened if it takes place in the context of a perceived environment of American imperialism. Because of the strength of the American military, as well as the American domination of global economic institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the power of American media, many people, especially those in the Middle East, have come to see globalisation as unidirectional, and to feel that they are expected to submerge their interests and identities in those of Western countries, particularly America. This can call forth a militant and unquestioning reassertion of own identity. Fundamentalism represents what Giddens (1994:6) calls a refusal to dialogue. Fundamentalists assert the innate superiority of their own values and do not tolerate alternative values and lifestyles. According to Giddens this is a dangerous position to take in the socially heterogeneous societies that are typical in our current global age. In his view it can ultimately lead only to violence, as fundamentalists endeavour to suppress those who are different from themselves. In this respect he is correct. However, it is important to acknowledge that it is not only the fundamentalists who refuse to dialogue. In formerly colonised countries such as those in the Middle East or in Africa, the previous colonisers often developed undialogical and ethnocentric attitudes towards their former subjects. In some cases this took the form of Western governments prescribing to African governments how to run their economies, and what cultural values to adopt, without listening to what the previously colonised have to say. This unwillingness to listen to other viewpoints has also often been a characteristic of the interaction between white and black people in South Africa. From this discussion it is clear that the issue of how to negotiate differences in culture, lifestyle, physical appearance and gender between people is a particular problem of the globalised world. In this respect it is important to avoid identities that are undialogical, in other words identities that refuse to listen to what others have to say. The first theme (ix) EWS2601/1 Introduction of this guide, “Us and them”, deals with the phenomenon of identity. In that theme we give a number of examples of identities that can be described as undialogical. Study unit 4, for example, deals with the notion of xenophobia, which is fear and hatred of foreigners. This topic drew considerable attention in South Africa in 2007 as a result of the violent attacks on foreigners that occurred in many townships all over the country. Xenophobia results from an “us and them” approach, where the differences between groups are overemphasised and the similarities we share as human beings are ignored. Ethnic and racial identities are further examples of identities that are often undialogical and that do not recognise the right of others to be different. These identities tend to present themselves as primordial. This means that they claim to refer to differences between people that have existed since time immemorial. For example, a white racist will say that black people have always been subject to white people, and that this comes all the way from biblical times (with black people being the children of Ham). Ethnic groups often trace their origin to events that happened hundreds of years ago and exclude others from joining the group on the basis of the lack of a shared memory of these events. The picture that ethnic identities present of themselves is not always correct. In fact, social scientists have recently come to understand how traditions that supposedly go back hundreds of years are in many cases recent inventions, and often represent an attempt to fix in stone identities that have been far more undefined and open to change. In study unit 3, we give examples of how identities that claim to be very old, in this case “tribal” identities, have been reinvented in the post-apartheid years to help people ensure access to land. The lesson of this discussion is that we should be sceptical of rigid identities that represent themselves as “natural” and given, and therefore undialogical. We should also be sceptical of identities that overemphasise the differences between people and underplay our essential similarities. In the introduction to theme 1 we point out a significant similarity between all humans: the fact that we share a common ancestry in Africa of some 200 000 years ago. Due to this fact, as well as the constant mixing of the gene pool due to migration and intermarriage, all human beings are remarkably similar in our genetic make-up. This shows racist notions that some races are genetically superior to others to be nonsensical. Modern human beings originated in Africa, and from there spread out over the globe. This fact has a number of implications that are dealt with in numerous places in the guide. First, it indicates the specialness of the landscape of Africa and the important archaeological sites that are found here, as they tell us a story about our own origins. These form part of our own heritage as Africans and South Africans, and should be preserved for the future. (In study unit 13 the issue of heritage sites is discussed.) Secondly, Africa has a history that has its origin in the time long before colonial conquest. We tell some of this history in study unit 11, especially as it relates to the interaction between human beings and the environment. The last implication is that, in a sense, we are all Africans, wherever we live. This idea is important in the light of the expectation that the enterprises of Africans are bound to fail (known as “Afro- pessimism”) which is so common around the world. One aspect of our similarity as human beings relates to certain shared basic needs, such as the need for security in the form of protection from crime and violence. As you will see in theme 4, which is devoted to the topic of crime, the primary responsibility of any state is to ensure the basic safety and security of its citizens. In South Africa, as in many developing countries, this has been problematic due to the very high rates of crime experienced. The causes of crime are very complex and numerous, but one can isolate at least four reasons why crime is so high in South Africa and other developing countries. The first has to do with the weakness of law enforcement structures, due to incompetent and corrupt officials, low pay, and low levels of trust in state structures. The second (x) Introduction relates to the disruption of informal social control mechanisms such as parental discipline and community disapproval as a result of rapid social change. The third reason is the large number of young adult men between the ages of 16 and 35 relative to the rest of the population in these countries. Due to high fertility the population in developing countries is young. Because crime is typically committed by young men, a young population provides a large pool of people who can be recruited for criminal purposes. This is especially the case where unemployment levels are high, as they are in South Africa. The last and probably most important reason is the high levels of inequality that are typical of developing countries. One typically finds that very poor countries have low levels of crime, as do very wealthy countries (except the United States). What these two types of country generally have in common is greater equality in terms of income distribution. In poor countries most people are poor and in wealthy countries most people are better-off. Middle-income countries, on the other hand, have greater inequality in terms of income distribution, and high crime levels. We will give examples of this in unit 4. Given that there is a link between inequality and globalisation, it should be clear that rising crime rates and globalisation are also connected. Globalisation is related to another aspect of the changing world, namely the increasing human impact on nature. We have already referred to global warming, which is one of the many signs that the capacity of the natural environment to absorb the by-products of our high-consumption lifestyles is decreasing. The production and consumption of products create waste products that may be harmful to our health and to the natural environment. Coal-fired power stations, for example, produce carbon dioxide, the most prominent greenhouse gas, as a waste product of the combustion needed to produce energy, as well as numerous other gases, such as sulphur trioxide, which produces acid rain if it mixes with water vapour. Other examples are paper manufacturing, which produces harmful effluents which are poisonous to both animals and human beings, and mining processes, which are generally very dirty and leave behind waste products that can leach into water resources and may be harmful to the health of people and the environment. Nature has ways of purifying the environment and thus of breaking down these harmful products. However, because of the destruction of forests and wetlands, among other things, the ability of nature to remove these waste products from the environment has been reduced, with dangerous consequences for both humans and the environment. At the same time, the quantity of waste products dumped into the environment is growing all the time as the economies and populations of countries grow. We discuss the increasing human impact on nature in theme 4. The United Nations Global Compact Many of the issues we discuss in this guide also resonate with the United Nations Global Compact, to which Unisa is a signatory. By way of conclusion we list some of these principles, and ask you to reflect on the areas of overlap. These principles are directed at businesses and list their responsibilities. Some are self-evident and do not need any further clarification. In other cases we provide more information about the principle. PRINCIPLE ONE Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights. (xi) EWS2601/1 Introduction This includes dealing with consumer concerns, being aware of human rights problems in supply chain management (we learn about global value chains in unit 6) and building good community relationships. Businesses should also take care not to become complicit (accidentally or otherwise) in the commission of crimes, especially if they are transnational companies operating in a foreign environment. PRINCIPLE FIVE Businesses should uphold the effective abolition of child labour. PRINCIPLE SIX Businesses should uphold the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. PRINCIPLE SEVEN Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges. The precautionary approach was first introduced in the Rio Declaration, of which you will hear more in study unit 10. Principle 15 of the 1992 Rio Declaration states that “where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation”. An example is action to stop global warming, which cannot wait until there is full scientific certainty about its causes. PRINCIPLE EIGHT Businesses should undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility. PRINCIPLE NINE Businesses should encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies. (xii) Theme 1 1 “US AND THEM”: IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE Stephné Herselman, Gert Maree, Natalie Swanepoel Orientation to the theme In an M-Net documentary programme entitled So, where do we come from? that appeared on South African television, DNA tests were run on a number of South Africans. In a country that has long been dominated by notions of racial identity, the results were, in some cases, surprising to the tested individuals. Both Nelson Mandela, the country’s first “black” president, and Hannelie de Beer, a young “white” Afrikaner woman, shared Khoisan ancestry, while Tim Modise, a “black” South African, had genetic links to Europe on both his maternal and paternal sides. Pieter Dirk Uys, a “white” South African of Eastern European Jewish descent, was able to trace his maternal line back to Central Africa (Jackson, 2004). While much is made of human difference, what we can note is that, according to our mitochondrial DNA (passed through the maternal line), all humans living on earth today share a common ancestor who lived in Africa a mere 200 000 years ago (Soodyall & Jenkins 2007:79). This is the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms, and it means that, while on the surface humans exhibit a great deal of variation, at a genetic level we are all fairly closely related. And, as the results for the individuals mentioned above illustrate, we cannot always rely on what we look like to reveal our ancestry and 1 EWS2601/1 THEME 1 descent. This is because how we appear, our phenotype (the observable or detectable physical characteristics of an organism (Jurmain, Nelson, Kilgore & Trevathan 1998:381)) is determined as much by environment as by genetics. Humans are not only the product of the genetic mix of our mothers and fathers; we are also social creatures, and as social creatures we form part of different social, cultural and political groups. Some of the most basic categories of identity are based upon our physical appearance (including sex and skin colour). While the importance of skin colour (usually socially encoded as “race”) may differ from place to place, all societies in the world have basic divisions based on the sex (the biological differences between men and women) of an individual. This physical attribute is socially encoded as gender (the social and cultural roles and identity assigned to someone who manifests particular biological sexual characteristics), and the gender role assigned to an individual may dramatically influence all aspects of his or her identity, from how he or she behaves, to the work that he or she does, to what he or she wears, and to the role that he or she fulfils in the family, depending on the broader societal context. In addition, the language(s) we speak, the cultures and traditions we enact and perpetuate, our economic situation, our social and political context, the place we come from, the sports that we play, our hobbies and any number of other factors may play an important role in defining our identity, and in determining the larger social groups to which we belong. Some identities we are born into, others we acquire along the way. Some are fixed, and others are flexible, and change as we move through space and time. While specific categories of identity – race, gender, class, age – exist throughout the world, the way that they are defined and enacted in different societies is determined by social and cultural factors. These cultural factors are determined by society at large. Culture is transmitted within societies and individuals learn culture by learning from (either through observation or by direct instruction), and interacting with, other people. It is in this way that the shared beliefs, values, and attributes that make up different facets of our identity come to be created (Kottak 2006:272). From what you have heard up to now, it should be clear that the focus of this theme is on the groups we belong to and the nature of belonging, as well as on how this helps us to gain our sense of who we are. More specifically, we will tell you more about how groups signal who belongs to the group and who does not, and how this is used to include some and exclude others who are regarded as not belonging. We hope that the knowledge you gain here about the formation of identity will help you to understand yourself better. We also hope to make you more self-aware as you participate in groups as a result of gaining greater insight into how groups function. Further, we encourage you to apply the concepts that you learn in this theme to the world around you as you go about your daily lives. Every day we are bombarded with messages from our friends, family and the media about how to label and categorise those around us. These labels are often based on deeply-held assumptions about each other. This theme will require you to interrogate some of these assumptions and to become aware of how identities are formed, how they change and how they are often manipulated by others so as to be cast in a negative light. Our last aim is thus to give you an appreciation of the suppleness of group membership and the dangers of adhering to fixed identities that target other people in a negative way. In the next four study units we will examine different aspects of identity. This theme is organised as follows: 2 “Us and them”: identity and difference Study unit 1: The building blocks of identity – in which we examine what makes us who we are. Study unit 2: Signalling identity and asserting difference – in which we discuss how we mark and recognise group identity. Study unit 3: “To be or not to be …”: perspectives on identities in motion – in which we highlight the contextual nature of identity and how it can be used to include some and exclude others. Study unit 4: Identity, difference and conflict – in which we reflect on the negative use of identity to exclude and enact violence on specific groups. We will define “identity” in the first study unit, but first complete the activity below. ACTIVITY Identify five aspects of yourself which you think of as crucial to your “identity” and rank them in terms of most important to least important. Choose a family member, or a friend or colleague whom you perceive as belonging to the same group as you, and a friend or colleague whom you perceive as belonging to a different group, and get them to do the same. What aspects of identity do they relate to? Are the aspects of identity and the order of their importance different from or similar to yours? What factors might explain these similarities and differences – generational, political, gender, cultural factors? Note: Examples of these identity aspects include: elements of your physical appearance (skin colour, hair colour); your gender; your home language; the kinship role that you fulfil in your family (mother, son); the job that you hold; or your star sign. In the activity above, it is highly unlikely that any of the participants chose just one aspect to describe themselves. This underscores two very important points. First, all individuals belong to more than one group and are shaped by multiple facets of identity. Secondly, individual identities are shaped in relation to group identities. Group identities play an important role in human culture because they determine who is “us” (included) vs who is “them” (excluded). These categories will, however, change depending on context. For example, the fans of provincial sports teams will oppose one another one weekend but unite behind the national team the next. In other instances, you may choose to foreground one aspect of your identity over another. In some instances your gender or age may be most important, in others the language that you speak. We will discuss this further in the first study unit. 3 EWS2601/1 Study unit 2 1 1 THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF IDENTITY Introduction As demonstrated by the activity in the previous section, we do not possess just one identity. We are all combinations of the various factors that we and others use to define ourselves and our place in society. Commonly, identities include aspects such as gender, race, ethnicity, class, language, occupation, and age. It is impossible to look at these in isolation. They are interactive, not additive – it is their specific combination that makes us who we are (Lawler 2008:3). 2In this study unit we will consider the following key questions: What is identity? What are the various categories of identity that people draw on? How do these identities interact in a situational, malleable manner? 3The study unit is organised as follows: 1.1 what is identity? 1.2 categories of identity 1.3 ascribed and achieved identity attributes Conclusion 1.1 What is identity? Identity is not an easy concept to define. The Concise Oxford Dictionary (Sykes 1982:495), for example, defines it as: “absolute sameness; individuality, personality; condition of being a specified person.” This definition captures the contradiction inherent in the term in that it incorporates both “sameness” and “individuality.” In terms of our social identity, we could argue that we share common identities in that we are all human, or that we belong to the larger groups of “men” or “women” (Lawler 2008:1–2). We are South African, Egyptian, or American; we are speakers of Zulu, French, or Afrikaans. At the same time, we are different from others. Thus it is difficult, if not impossible, to belong to all groups at once. One cannot, for example, be identified as 4 The building blocks of identity both a “man” and a “woman” at the same time. Even when babies are born displaying the physical characteristics of both, they are assigned a sex on their birth certificate and that is the gender that they are brought up to inhabit. This is because it is social and cultural norms that determine how identities are marked and defined. Identities are often relational, that is, you are x (woman), precisely because you are not y (man) (Lawler 2008:3). Identity is also situational, that is, we foreground specific aspects of our identities depending on where we are – at home or at social gatherings we may emphasise our place in our kinship network: we are a father, mother, daughter, or nephew. At work, we fall into a new hierarchy: we are a line worker, a manager, a teacher, or a student. At school we are one of the sporty, nerdy or popular ones. Over time, some of these identities change or accumulate. The son will also become a father, the students will graduate and take on a new identity in their workplace. People move through space – Joburgers become Capetonians and vice versa. ACTIVITY Taking into account the above discussion of what identity is, consult a variety of news sources such as newspapers, the internet, television or radio bulletins, and magazines. Identify at least ten news items that deal with issues relating to identity. You will no doubt find that these items come from all categories of news, including the sections on politics, sport, economics, entertainment, fashion, geography and history. Keep these ten (or more) news items handy, as you will need to consult them later on in this and the next study unit. 1.2 Categories of identity The different facets of identity operate at different levels and can be divided into different categories. Some of these categories can be broadly identified as national, transnational and subnational levels of identity. National identities 2 At the national level, our identities are shaped by the languages, institutions, and overall cultural milieu that we are surrounded by. National identities are also firmly based on a political or perceived emotional link to a specific territory. This is why the President of the Maldives, Mohamad Nasheed, in 2008 announced his intention to establish a fund that would go towards purchasing land for a new Maldives state. This is because the Maldives, which is made up of a chain of over 1200 islands and atolls (of which 200 are inhabited), faces the possibility of having to relocate all 300 000 members of its population because of rising sea levels caused by global warming. While large-scale migration to parts of Africa, Asia and Australia is a distinct possibility, the Maldivians recognised that in order to preserve their unique culture and way of life, they would also need their own sovereign territory (Henley 2008:22). 5 EWS2601/1 STUDY UNIT 1 ACTIVITY Refer back to your news items. Do any of them relate to ongoing or historical conflicts that are based on the desire of a specific group for national self-determination secured by a claim to territory? If not, return to your news sources and find such an example. What factors apart from land feature in those conflicts? Some of your news items may have included coverage of long-running conflicts such as the situation in Israel and Palestine. While some of these conflicts are apparently about territory, they also involve the issue of the rights of a group of people who self-identify as a group to sovereignty (the right to rule over themselves; the right to autonomy). Many modern-day nation states, particularly on the African continent, encompass a wide diversity of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups, who do not always share the same ideas about the correct way to live. Sometimes they are part of that country only because of specific historical circumstances such as colonisation, decolonisation, conquest and incorporation. Recognising this, the nation-state will use ceremonies, celebrations and acts to promote allegiance to a national identity. Examples include the Pledge of Allegiance, recited by schoolchildren in the United States, or the singing of the national anthem at international sporting and other events. Just living in a country does not guarantee citizenship. Rather, specific criteria are used by the state to determine whether or not someone has access to the rights and privileges of citizenship. The key apparatus that states and corporations use is the need to produce identification in the form of official documents to prove that you belong (Lyon & Bennett 2008:3). Think about how many times in the last month you have been asked to produce identification. When and why? What are some of the things that you would be unable to do if you did not have this documentation? As we negotiate our way through life – at the bank, the post office, the pension payout point, or the voting station – we constantly need to provide proof of who we are and that we have a right to access certain state and other resources. The key way of denying or stripping individuals, such as illegal immigrants or enemy combatants, of such rights is by declaring them non- persons in the eyes of the state (Lawler 2008:146). 2Transnational identities Some forms of identity transcend national boundaries. Transnational identities refer to those international communities that form around specific commonalities, such as religion. Thus members of subdivisions of the Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Jewish faiths, for instance, even though they live in different countries, form 6 The building blocks of identity part of their respective global religious communities. There are also many large- scale, secular organisations, for example the Boy Scouts, which also constitute transnational communities. Members of such a transnational community will often participate in the same activities, for example the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, or the Boy Scout Jamboree. Many transnational communities are easily expanded because they rely on taught behaviour and active promotion by existing members (Kottak 2006:279). 2Subnational cultures Within the nation too, there are yet more layers of identity. Subnational cultures are generally based in regionality, language, class, politics, shared history, or religion (Kottak 2006:338). Many of these are bound up in the concept of ethnicity (an identity that is linked to an ethnic group often characterised by shared language and customs, the members of which differentiate themselves from other groups on the basis of culture). Modern-day nation-states are today often composed of a variety of different ethnic groups. Members of such groups often coalesce around shared language, traditions, “race”, histories, and shared geographic origin. Many ethnic groups in the United States, for example, originated in the large-scale (voluntary and forced) migration of Germans, Italians, Chinese, Africans and others. These large-scale movements are called diasporas (the large-scale movement of people with a shared geographical origin to other parts of the world). Ethnic groups will differentiate themselves from one another by their use of a collective name, a shared language, belief in common descent and a shared allegiance (Kottak 2006:290, 302). Often they will assert the right to maintain their cultural traditions as a way of preserving their distinctive identity. This is examined in greater detail in unit three, which looks at the process of “retraditionalisation” in parts of South Africa. ACTIVITY Refer back to your news items. Do any of the stories that you found relate to issues of ethnicity or to the maintenance of cultural traditions? Do they, or any additional news items that you have found, mention things often specifically associated with ethnic identities such as types of food or dress? Are these identities portrayed in a positive or negative light? Make some notes below. As you probably found when completing the activity, groups often choose to assert their identity through specific practices. These are not always accepted by those outside those groups. For example, the Makah people, a Native American group in the United 7 EWS2601/1 STUDY UNIT 1 States, maintain their right to hunt whales despite international bans on the hunting of certain whale species, and despite the fact that they do not rely on whales for subsistence purposes. The Makah people view the hunt as vitally important to the maintenance of their spiritual and cultural identity (Kottak 2006:253), but this reason is not necessarily acceptable to environmentalists (people who, themselves, have taken on a very specific identity). It is not uncommon for ethnic differences to flare into violence. While such conflicts are often portrayed as being the result of primordial differences (differences existing from the beginning of time), they are more likely bred from situations of perceived or actual socio-political and economic inequality (Kottak 2006:306; see study unit 4 of this theme). Ethnic groups can be self-defined or defined by those outside the group. Such identification can therefore be a source of pride within the group or a way of denigrating a group, and marking them as outsiders (Ember et al 2005:325). This is discussed further in study unit 4 of this theme. ACTIVITY South Africa as a nation-state has a great many ethnic and other subgroups. It also has a history of the use of racial classification to define who belongs to what group. Read the excerpt from Mattes (2004:2–6) below and then answer the questions based on it: At the root of the apartheid project was a sustained attempt to manipulate social identities and create new ones. Many scholars predicted that the racial and ethnic identities created and imposed by the apartheid system either were rejected by most South Africans or would be quickly jettisoned with the advent of democracy. Others, however, warned that the consequences of 40 years of social engineering would not be dismissed so easily. Apartheid would leave a heavy imprint on social identities that would constrain the future development of democracy. In this section, we examine evidence about the type and extent of social identities in South Africa as well as the salience with which they are held. To what extent do South Africans still identify, six years into their new non-racial democracy, with identities imposed or encouraged by the apartheid regime? Are social identities widely diverse or consensual? How have they changed, if at all, since 1994? Finally, do they detract from or contribute towards a widespread acceptance of the political entity called South Africa, an acceptance of one’s place in South Africa, and pride in South African citizenship? 8 The building blocks of identity … we asked respondents in the 2000 Afrobarometer survey to tell us, besides being South African, which social group they belonged to first and foremost … The evidence shows that six years into their new democracy, substantial proportions of South Africans still identified themselves in terms of apartheid type categories. In July–September 2000, one-fifth (20 percent) chose an explicit apartheid racial identity: 12 percent said ‘black,’ 5 percent ‘coloured,’ 3 percent ‘Indian,’ 2 percent ‘white,’ and another 1 percent simply answered they thought of themselves in terms of race. Another 9 percent answered ‘African,’ which in the South African context is generally used to connote ‘black,’ and another 1 percent called themselves ‘black African.’ Another one-fifth (20 percent) chose a linguistic or ethnic identity. Seven percent said ‘Zulu,’ 5 percent ‘Xhosa,’ 2 percent ‘Setswana or Tswana,’ and 1 percent each chose ‘Afrikaner,’ Sesotho or Sotho,’ ‘Swazi,’ ‘Boer’ and ‘English.’ However 16 percent chose a religious category, with 13 percent thinking of themselves primarily as ‘Christian,’ 2 percent as a ‘religious person,’ and 1 percent each as ‘Moslem’ and ‘Catholic.’ We can also look to Idasa surveys dating back to 1994 to assess whether these patterns differ substantially from those found immediately after the country’s first open democratic election. … (I)t does appear that there has been a significant drop in the proportion holding racially-based social identities, and marked increases in those adopting religious, class and occupational identities … yet as important as these trends may be, racial and ethnic loyalties are still the most prevalent sources of identity in South Africa. But are these identities mere labels or are they relevant to people’s lives? … The results reveal a fairly strong level of personal attachment to these group identities. In 2000, 92 percent of South Africans said that being a member of their identity group made them ‘feel proud,’ and 90 percent agreed that being a member of that group ‘was a very important part of how you see yourself,’ while 84 percent said that they would want their children to think of themselves in these terms. … As noted above, the second set of items measures a sense of chauvinism [ethnocentrism, the belief that your own group is the best], or exceptionalism, associated with one’s group. In 2000, three-quarters (73 percent) of South Africans said that they felt ‘much closer’ to members of their identity group than to other South Africans. Sixty-four percent said that ‘of all groups in South Africa,’ their group was ‘the best.’ And 49 percent felt that members of their group were ‘very different from other South Africans.’ … 9 EWS2601/1 STUDY UNIT 1 If South Africans exhibit apparently strong attachments to their subnational group identities, does this detract from the creation of a widely shared sense of national identity? The results … suggest the answer is emphatically ‘no.’ South Africans exhibit extremely high levels of national identity. In 2000, 90 percent said it made them ‘proud to be called South African,’ 89 percent agreed that ‘being South African is an important part of how they see’ themselves, and an identical 89 percent say they would want their children to think of themselves as South Africans. Answer the following multiple-choice questions based on the above abstract: (1) The Afrobarometer survey established that in the year 2000 … (a) South Africans mostly identified with their apartheid-era racially-based identity. (b) South Africans had totally rejected apartheid-era racial labels. (c) equal numbers of South Africans identified primarily with racial and ethnolinguistic identities. (d) South Africans could not distinguish between racial, ethnic and linguistic categories of identity. (e) South Africans were highly religious and identified first and foremost with their faith-based identity. (2) An example of national chauvinism is when … (a) your other identities are subordinate to (rated as less important than) your national identity. (b) you believe that your nationality is superior to other nationalities. (c) you are proud to be a citizen of whichever country you live in. (d) you want to emigrate because life in other countries is better than where you are. (e) your ethnic identity is more important to you than your nationality. 2Ethnocentrism One of the sets of questions used in the above survey was designed to test levels of cultural chauvinism or ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view the culture of one’s own group as superior to that of others. Thus, instead of acknowledging the values and beliefs held by others, we judge them in terms of our own. While on the one hand this can contribute to a feeling of group solidarity, on the other it can lead to discrimination and intolerance (Kottak 2006:279). Similarly, racism is the belief that certain groups are inferior because of the set of physical features that they possess (Ember et al 2005:324). Race is discussed in more depth in the next section. 10 The building blocks of identity 1.3 Ascribed and achieved identity attributes There are two kinds of qualities or attributes that determine where and how people belong. We generally distinguish between ascribed attributes (attributes determined at birth) and achieved attributes (attributes acquired over time). Ascribed qualities are those that are determined for an individual at birth by virtue of his or her genetics and/or his or her family. These may include features such as gender and race. Achieved qualities, in contrast, are those that are acquired during a person’s lifetime, for example occupation, or membership of a particular group or association (Ember et al 2005:392). Some of these categories may be regarded as a combination of both ascribed and achieved attributes, depending on the individual circumstances of the person. Thus, while our citizenship (national identity) is generally ascribed to our place of birth, individuals can achieve citizenship in a different country through application. In the same way, age, which is ascribed to our date of birth, is also a gateway to acquiring a range of identity roles as we grow older. Such shifts in identity are often marked by rites of passage – a special ceremony or act, which signifies the taking on of a new identity by an individual. Thus a student will undergo a graduation ceremony, a new citizen will give a pledge of allegiance, a child of a certain age will undergo initiation (Kottak 2006:475). Class, which is ascribed to the situation of our family, is also something that can be changed if you are able to gain a better education, and thus a better paying job. While class is ostensibly changeable, some social scientists would argue that the modern-day class system is actually very difficult to overcome. 2Ascribed attributes: race and gender Race and gender are both good examples of an ascribed identity in that the “race” or “gender” to which one is assigned is determined at birth by the society that you are born into. Although race is nominally based on differences in physical appearance, it is important to remember that it is a social construct, and thus the definition and delineation of different races will differ from society to society depending on social and cultural factors (Kottak 2006:290). It should be noted that scientifically there is no such thing as race. As we have already established, there is very little genetic variation between different human populations. There is, however, variation in human phenotype – our physical appearance – because of a combination of genetic and environmental factors. There are no abrupt breaks in phenotype between different populations because of gene flow and interbreeding (Kottak 2006:83–84). This is not to say that there are not physical differences between people, but rather to argue that the way in which these differences are categorised is a product of society rather than biology. This is clearly evident when we compare how races are defined in different places. For example, in the United States the rule used to be that if one of your eight grandparents was black, so were you (Ember et al 2005:324). In apartheid South Africa there were four “races”: black, white, coloured and Indian. In contrast, Brazilians use over 500 labels to describe different races. In Brazil, an individual’s “race” may change depending on who is classifying them, and whether or not their physical appearance has been altered temporarily because they are more tanned than usual or because their hair texture has changed as a result of humidity (Fish 2003:v277). Now, you may agree that racial classification is largely arbitrary and a social construct, but you would probably argue that gender classification (based on physical sexual characteristics) is a given, in which case you would be surprised to learn that this is not the case. It is generally recognised that while there are two biological sexes (though some would argue that even these exist on a continuum), there are any number of genders. This 11 EWS2601/1 STUDY UNIT 1 is because gender refers to the roles and identity that are attached to a specific physical appearance. While in the West only two primary genders – male and female – are formally recognised, other societies may have more than two formal genders. Amongst some Native American cultures, for example, there is a category of person known as a Berdache (or “Two-spirit”). These are individuals, usually male, who take on certain social characteristics of the opposite gender, such as aspects of dress and work, and often also combine aspects of the two genders (Callender and Kochems 1983). There is much debate among social scientists as to whether or not transgendered or homosexual individuals should be characterised as belonging to third or in some cases fourth gender. Political reality has, however, overtaken academic discussion. In September 2008, a 21-year-old lesbian in Nepal was issued with a government identity card that designated her neither as male or female, but as belonging to a third gender. Previously a transgendered Nepalese man had been issued with an identity card that designated him/ her as “both male and female” (Sindh today 2008). ACTIVITY Write down five characteristics that you identify as societal assumptions about or expectations of men and women respectively. These could be physical or behavioural. Compare these with the reality of men and women you know. To what extent do your subjects conform to social notions of what it means to be a man or woman? (You could do something similar with racial characteristics.) Expectation Reality You may find from completing the above exercise that the ideal differs from the actual. Thus, not all women cry and not all men don’t. This is an important point, as it illustrates the socially constructed nature of these identities. The ideal appearance and attributes attached to a certain identity, in this case gender, are sometimes used by those with a vested interest in the wider society as a form of social control and a way of ensuring that individuals adhere to an accepted code of behaviour. Look at your news items again – do any of them relate to issues of gendered behaviour and/or appearance? A case in point are the spate of attacks that occurred against women at taxi ranks in Johannesburg and elsewhere in South Africa, where women were the target of sexually motivated harassment and attacks because they were “dressed inappropriately and provocatively” in miniskirts. The reasoning presented by the attackers is that they were 12 The building blocks of identity teaching the women a lesson, as women in “African culture” do not wear short skirts and those who dressed in that way were “asking to be raped.” Quite apart from the fact that many traditional ceremonies require women to wear short skirts, or indeed bare their breasts (as was pointed out in a statement by the House of Traditional Leaders), these incidents relate to wider social tensions concerning the relationship between men and women, and the expectation of some (not all) men that they have the right to control what women wear and how they should behave (News24 2008). 2Achieved attributes: membership of associations Achieved status is often derived from membership of an association. Membership of such groups is often voluntary, and associations are usually based on common interests outside of those determined by sex, age, kinship, intermarriage, or the occupation of a specific territory (Haviland 1996:305). Membership of such associations often marks people as being motivated by common interests and goals, and works to exclude others who are seen as not having the same interests. This could include participation in sport, professional associations, or particular hobbies. The kind of work that one does can also be an important foundation for an achieved identity. An important work-related association is the trade union. Trade unions exist in order to capitalise on the collective bargaining power of the workforce. By withholding the labour of their members, unions can invoke a powerful tool to negotiate better terms for their members. Unions, however, also function as social groupings. Membership bestows a certain status, members hold group gatherings at which they display symbols of the union (on flags, T-shirts and banners), and they share a certain language. Workers who choose not to join the union may be marginalised within the workplace. Refer back to your news items. Do any of the stories relate to membership of associations? How do those associations signal their group membership? This, and other matters relating to the assertion of group membership are discussed in the next study unit. ACTIVITY Return to the activity that you completed in the orientation section. Drawing on the information in this study unit, categorise the identity aspects that you and your interviewees identified. Which of them are ascribed or achieved attributes? At what level do they operate – national, subnational, or transnational? Can you cite some instances in your life when you chose to emphasise one of these aspects over another? Conclusion In this study unit we have argued that identity is situational. How, then, do we emphasise one identity over another or recognise in someone else what their identity is? This is dealt with in the next study unit. 13 EWS2601/1 Study unit 3 2 2 SIGNALLING IDENTITY AND ASSERTING DIFFERENCE Introduction The next time you are in a gathering of people, take a moment to look around – what can you tell about people from how they are dressed? From the clothes they are wearing, their display of jewellery, or the cell phone that they are using? What are the signs that you instinctively use to draw conclusions about a person’s gender, class, occupation, or religion? Which of these symbols and signs indicate the person’s individuality as opposed to their group membership? If you have done the exercise described above, you will have realised that as humans we have the ability to read the signals that other humans are sending us, and we use them to negotiate our way through various social and cultural situations. The success of our negotiation is often dependent on the degree to which we are embedded in the symbol system. When you are in a foreign country, for example, you may not be able to recognise the distinctive markers of identity as expressed in clothing, tattoos or jewellery that tell you who and what people are. 2In this study unit we will consider the following key questions: How do humans recognise the individual and group identity of those around them? What are the different kinds of markers that people use? When do identity markers become the cultural property of the group that uses them? How are symbols mobilised at a national level to assert identity? 2The study unit is organised as follows: 2.1 marking identity 2.2 tangible markers of identity 2.3 national symbols Conclusion 14 Signalling identity and asserting difference We will discuss the different ways of marking identity in greater detail shortly, but first complete the activity below. ACTIVITY Refer back to your news items. In describing or discussing issues of identity, what are the names given to different groups in the reports? Were they positive or negative? In South Africa there are many (often derogatory) names used to designate the larger group affiliation of individuals. Examples include: Soutie/Rooinek: Derogatory terms for South Africans of British descent. Coconut: A derogatory term for someone who is regarded as being black on the outside but white on the inside, in other words a black person who has embraced Western values and behaviour. Black diamond: A South African who belongs to the black middle class. Rockspider: A derogatory term for an Afrikaner South African. Can you list any others? (If you are not South African, use examples from your own country.) Possibly one of the most potent forms of marking identity is through the practice of naming. The names that people choose for themselves are often empowering and are frequently a variation on the term “the people” – an example is “Khoekhoen”, which means “men of men.” The names that others give to groups, however, are often derogatory, for example, “Hottentots.” Both “Khoekhoen” and “Hottentot” describe the same group of people, but one is an inside (emic) name chosen by the people themselves and the other an outside (etic) label, placed on them by others. Such names can be used to include or exclude individuals from larger social groupings. For example, the labelling of people in South Africa as makwerekwere (foreigners) has marked them as the subjects of xenophobic attacks (a topic we will explore in study unit 4). 2.1 Marking identity As we have already discussed, identity is about both sameness and difference. One of the ways in which such similarities and differences are marked is through the use of identity markers. Group members may display the same symbols (“Something verbal or non- 15 EWS2601/1 STUDY UNIT 2 verbal, that arbitrarily, and by convention stands for something else, with which it has no necessary or natural connection” (Kottak 2006:G12)) to illustrate their membership of the group. At a sports match we can identify who is supporting which team through the fans’ distinctive display of symbolic markers associated with their team – clothing, flags, banners, headgear and so on. Group members use these markers to differentiate themselves from other groups, that is, to draw boundaries between themselves and others, as a way of declaring who is “us” and who is “them” by means of signs and symbols (Sharer & Ashmore 1993:505). Note that the meanings ascribed to symbols are culturally and contextually determined, and thus the same symbol may mean different things in different contexts. The use of signs and symbols is a uniquely human trait. Symbols are signs that have no self-evident connection to the things for which they stand. Examples are the crescent moon and star, the Star of David, and the cross, which are internationally recognised symbols for the Islamic, Jewish and Christian faiths respectively. Humans, however, have the unique ability to make connections between these symbols and what they signify (Kottak 2006:272). The Christian Cross, the Islamic Star and Crescent Moon and the Jewish Star of David are all common religious symbols. There are two categories of identity markers – nontangible and tangible. While tangible markers are those that can be seen and that may remain behind when the individual is gone, identity may also be embodied in a set of intangible practices, for example in the preparation and consumption of certain foods, in the speaking of a particular language, in the observation of certain customs. This is perhaps most visible in religious communities, where groups of people come together to worship; they may taboo the same foods and observe the same holy days. The practice of naming, as discussed in the introductory activity, is also an example of an intangible marker. The most visible markers of identity, however, are the ones that we wear on our body. 2.2 Tangible markers of identity All human societies use artefacts and other tangible aspects of human behaviour and practices to signal their belonging to a certain group. Archaeologists rely on this fact in order to discern the existence of different groups in the past. Thus, by looking at how people were buried, the clothes that they wore, the different kinds of pots that they made and used, the kinds of structures that they lived in and so on, it is possible to speculate about the existence of different groups in the past. This is very clear if we look at people in the present as well. 16 Signalling identity and asserting difference 2Clothing Much like language or food, clothing is an important aspect of identity. Dress is an important form of nonverbal communication (Arthur 1999:3), allowing one to distinguish who shares similar interests and beliefs. It can work to signify cultural, national, ethnic, religious or subcultural identities (Fernea & Fernea 2003:254). People such as the police or those in the fire department wear uniforms so that they are instantly recognisable and easily identifiable. Clothing and other forms of adornment can be used in a variety of ways to signify identity. ACTIVITY Rubenstein (1985) identifies eight purposes that adornment can fulfil. Five of these are listed below. Can you give specific examples of where adornment is used to meet the following purposes? Look at your news clippings from the previous unit and your own photograph albums if you need inspiration. To separate group members from nonmembers: To place the individual in a gender category: To indicate high status or rank: To control sexual activity: To enhance role performance and to give the individual a sense of identity: While we may think that clothing is such a personal item that it reflects individual identity, at least some of the examples that you have listed above should intersect with broader group identities such as gender, ethnicity, class and closed groups. Clothing is a powerful tool that individuals use to ally themselves with broader group identities. Legal prohibitions are occasionally placed on dress items for precisely these reasons. Today, in nation-states that maintain a strict division between state and church, there is sometimes a ban on the wearing of overt religious symbols in state schools. In France, for instance, there is a ban on Muslim headscarves, and other “conspicuous” religious symbols. Clothing, like other cultural signifiers, operates on two levels – it can have a different meaning to those inside the group from what it has to those outside the group. Thus, to outsiders, the Muslim tradition of veiling may signify the oppression of women and an archaic religious tradition. In some cases, where women are forced to veil and may 17 EWS2601/1 STUDY UNIT 2 be subjected to punishment if caught without it, as was the case in Afghanistan under the Taliban, the veil is an instrument of oppression. This is not the case throughout the Muslim world, however. To some of the women who wear the veil, it is a potent religious symbol, a form of portable seclusion and a way of demonstrating modesty. Significantly, it is a way of signalling their rejection of “Western” values and traditions (Fernea & Fernea 2003:254), and for many women, the wearing of the veil has come to be an active form of resistance against the West (Guindi 1999:xii). Again, this is something that is partially determined by context. Thus rural women in North Africa will choose simply to wear a headscarf unless they are going to the city, at which time they choose to cover themselves more fully, as doing so allows them to move around in their own portable private space, without fear of criticism or recognition (Fernea & Fernea 2003:257). Do you wear a veil? What does it mean to you? If you do not wear a veil, when you see a woman in a full hijab, what is your immediate reaction? Do you make assumptions about the woman wearing the clothing or about her culture as a whole? In other instances particular kinds of clothing may lead to a misidentification of certain groups by outsiders who do not understand the identity that the material marker is supposed to indicate. After the September 11 attacks in New York in 2001, for example, a series of attacks was carried out on Sikhs in the United States. Several were murdered and hundreds of others suffered both verbal and physical assaults. These attacks arose from the common misconception arising from their distinctive dress code, which includes a turban, that Sikhs were Muslims. Sikhs, however, are allied with neither Muslims nor Hindus. In addition to their distinctive headgear they also set themselves apart by their practice of not cutting their hair. They adopted these practices specifically in order to differentiate themselves from Muslim and Hindu adherents as a way of preserving Sikh identity (Do not relate turban with terrorism [sa]). It is not only by dressing and adorning our bodies that we signal identity. The body itself can be used as a canvas to express, establish and maintain personal and social identities, social hierarchies, and social and political power (Arthur 1999:7). In the next section we discuss body modification practices. 2Body modification In 1991 climbers discovered a frozen body in the Alps along the Austrian–Italian border. The body was that of a man, later nicknamed Ötzi, who lived over 5000 years ago. Archaeological and forensic studies of his body have revealed a great deal about what life was like for humans in Europe during the Stone Age, including the fact that people at that time used tattoos, possibly for healing, ritualistic or social purposes (Spindler 1994). Tattooing, the practice of inscribing inked patterns on the body, is thus one of the oldest of a spectrum of body modification and ornamentation practices that can be linked to an assertion of either individual or group identity. Other practices that qualify as body modification include piercing, branding, cutting, binding, scarification, teeth filing, circumcision, the insertion of implants, shaving, bodybuilding, anorexia and fasting, as these all alter the appearance and form of the body (Wohlrab, Stahl & Kappeler 2007:87). While some have argued that most forms of body modification such as tattoos and piercings now function purely as a form of fashion accessory, they have played a very important role throughout the world in helping to delineate individual and group identity. While the practices are common, the meanings and role that they fulfil in different societies and cultures are specific to those cultures. They may be used in initiation rites, to indicate status or social groups, for beautification, or to illustrate 18 Signalling identity and asserting difference membership of a subgroup. An example of the latter can be seen in the practice of prison or gang tattoos (Wohlrab et al 2007:87). Sometimes, practices that are adopted for ostensibly practical reasons can come to be symbolic or highly indicative of a group identity. Thus, while cyclists shave their legs because it makes it easier to take care of them, “[h]airless legs are also a signalling system. They say submissive things: I am part of the tribe, accept me; and dominant things: I have muscles, I train more than you, don’t even think about attacking on that next rise” (Dawes, N. 2008). By shaving their legs, cyclists indicate that they are serious about their cycling and are thus part of the sporting subculture. In the two sections that follow we will examine two case studies that illustrate the link between body modification practices and identity: We will see first how body modification techniques can be used to illuminate past human identities, and secondly, the degree to which such practices can be regarded as cultural property. 2Body modification and past group identity During the early 1950s a shallow mass grave containing the remains of 31 individuals was uncovered during building excavations on the Cape Town foreshore. The burial of this large a number of individuals on the beach in a single grave indicated that they were probably the victims of a shipwreck off the Cape of Storms. But who were they and from which ship did they originate? Researchers (Cox & Sealy 1997:208) used a combination of scientific techniques to answer this question, but the overwhelming indication of the origin of the individuals in the grave came from their distinctive tooth mutilation or decoration. The teeth (mainly the incisors) of a large number of the skeletons were chipped and/ or filed into decorative shapes. This is not a practice common to people who lived at the Cape, and thus indicated that these individuals might have originated further north in Africa. This, coupled with the strong likelihood that they had died as the result of a shipwreck, indicated that they were probably enslaved Africans being transported from central or south-eastern Africa to the Americas (Cox & Sealy 1997:208). Tooth modification of this kind was a common practice among central Africans until the early years of the twentieth century and was usually performed on both males and females as part of a set of puberty rites, to mark an individual’s ethnicity, or for aesthetic reasons (Cox & Sealy 1997:218). By examining the patterns of decoration that were present, the researchers concluded that these individuals were likely to have been members of the Makua, Maravi and Yao groups in Mozambique, who were also known to have fallen victim to the slave trade (Cox & Sealy 1997:218). By correlating this information with the records in the archives, the researchers were able to conclude that these were probably the victims of the wreck of the Pacquet Real, a ship that foundered off the Cape coast in 1818 while transporting 171 slaves from Mozambique to St Salvador. This conclusion was supported by the dietary analysis of their bones (Cox & Sealy 1997:220). While it is impossible at this distance through time to specify exactly which group these individuals would have belonged to, tooth modification as a broad practice is encountered only in certain parts of Africa, and not in South Africa at all, which allowed archaeologists to narrow down their search and ultimately answer the question posed. 19 EWS2601/1 STUDY UNIT 2 2Body-modification practices as cultural property Some body-modification practices, when practised by a specific group for specific purposes, may be regarded as a form of cultural and intellectual property – much like clothing brands. When a set of symbols or practices, for example, are emblematic of a group identity, the question is raised of whether or not outsiders should be able to use those identifying symbols (Pritchard 2000:333). A case in point is that of Ta Moko, the traditional art of Maori tattooing. The practice of tattooing has a long history in the Pacific, but Ta Moko diverged from this overarching tradition and in its particular form has come to be closely associated with the Maori of New Zealand (Kassem 2003:1). It was observed by early European explorers and several European sailors. Individuals who were captured or adopted into Maori society in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were tattooed in order to illustrate their new group membership (Pritchard 2000:332). Moko functioned as a system of communication: The tattoo marks on the face and body of Maori men and women worked to signify rank, status and clan membership. Because of its importance to Maori identity, it was targeted by the colonial government and was outlawed in the early twentieth century by the Tohunga Suppression Act. Ta Moko began to make a reappearance in the 1970s and 1980s, however, when young Maori began to use the Moko to symbolise their cultural identity, and as a form of protest against the socio-political conditions of Maori life in contemporary New Zealand (Kassem 2003:1). The visually striking tattoo designs, however, are no longer being used exclusively by Maori individuals; a number of non-Maori, including numerous celebrities, have had Maori designs tattooed on their bodies and faces. For the Maori, this is an issue relating to the cultural ownership of symbols and practices, and some would argue that non-Maori should not be allowed to use Moko designs in their tattoos (Kassem 2003:3)......................................................................................... This is because Ta Moko is not just a set of tattoo designs, but also the embodiment of a set of cultural and symbolic practices that relate directly to what it is to be Maori. As a Maori, in order to receive a Moko, an individual has to go through a set of protocols and rites, as the act of inscribing the designs onto the face and body is regarded as sacred. Receiving the Moko is a way of allowing individuals to negotiate with powerful forces in the spiritual world, to connect with their ancestors, and to tell the story of their life (Kassem 2003:3). 20 Signalling identity and asserting difference Read the following excerpt from Sharples (2006) and answer the question below. The protection and ownership of the culture and heritage is perhaps best indicated in the instance of tā moko – our traditional Māori tattooing. … The heritage conveyed though its design is specific to the tribal origins and the personal history of the wearer. Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, a Maori professor of the arts, in her analysis “More than Skin Deep: Ta Moko Today,” has described foreign tattooists’ use of Maori designs as “pillaging the spirit of a tribal people to sate the culturally malnourished appetites of the decadent West.” The roll-call of celebrity wearers of Māori moko includes former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, who sports a facial tattoo with a distinctive Maori influence; American singer Ben Harper; US professional cyclist David Clinger, whose moko-inspired tattoo from an Argentinean tattooist covers the upper half of his face and most of its scalp; and, of course, there is Robbie Williams. Robbie Williams has quite a bit on his body. He is notorious for his body art. He has a Celtic cross on his right hip, the message, “Elvis grant me serenity” on his right arm, the symbol of an Egyptian sun god, Beatles’ lyrics on his back, the French words for “Everybody’s got his own taste” on his chest, and now he has a Maori design on his right arm. … I would be the first to agree with Williams’ idea of “Each to your own,” but people should make sure that is their own before they start exploiting or appropriating taonga Maori, even if they acquired it legitimately and legally. In the case of Mr Williams, the cultural heritage – the identity and lineage – expressed in his moko comes from my ancestors, that of Ngati Kahungunu. It appears that recently the rock star has admitted he is bored with looking at the images adorning his physique, and he is considering surgery to remove them. ACTIVITY Write a paragraph on the following topic: The All Blacks, New Zealand’s rugby team, begin each international game with the haka, a Maori war dance, which has come to be emblematic of New Zealand rugby. Why do you think some aspects of Maori traditions can be appropriated for New Zealand (as an emblem of national identity), while other aspects are held separate for Maori only? Can you think of similar examples in South Africa (or in the country in which you live)? 2.3 National symbols In the previous study unit we discussed the concept of national identities. National identities are supported and encouraged by the creation and promotion of specific sets of symbols. These are both tangible and nontangible. There is a national anthem, a national bird, a national tree. There are national emblems, such as the flag, and the coat of arms. In many countries language is also a defining national symbol, though in many others, such as South Africa, the fact that there are a number of national languages reflects the diversity of the population. 21 EWS2601/1 STUDY UNIT 2 In South Africa after the negotiated transition of power, there was also a need to come up with new national symbols. A new flag was designed, along with a new coat of arms. The new South African anthem is interesting in that it is the combination of two existing anthems – Die

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