ON BEING OTHERED John J. Honigmann Describes Steiermark

Pttidettnta44. 1998
ON BEING OTHERED
JohnJ. HonigmannDescribesSteiermarkandWe Failto R.ecognize
It
VOLKERGOTTOWIK*
'To be an obiectof research
rs neverpleaslng.'
JacquesMaquet
To be able to answerthe question"What doesthe ethnographicgazesbe?"one should
have actually read an ethnographicrepresentationfrom the perspectiveof the one
being represented.The best thing would be, of course,to find one's own region
ethnographicallydescribedin a work entitled either "The Bavarians"or "The Californians."One could then comparethe portrait sketchedby the ethnographerwith one's
own self-portrait and thus appreciatethe extent to which it actually succeedsin
representingthe researchobject "frgm the native'spoint of view."
Nothing but empty theory,the impatientreadermight object here;the Bavariansor
Californians have, so far, not been made an object of a serious ethnographicrepresentation.However, in order to avoid having to abandon a discussionof the
questionraisedat the beginning,Iwill, in the following analysis,substitutea none-toodistant and comparativelywell-investigatedpopulation:the Obersteirer,or Upper
Styrians.l
The Obersteirerfound their ethnographerin John J.Honigmann,who. for his part.
is mostly known as an ethnographerof the aboriginalpopulationof Canada.The field
researchthat Honigmann carriedout jointly with his wife in the Steiermarkregion of
Austria has actually remained by and large unnoticed.But the essaysresulting from
this researchhave,in my opinion, unjustly fallen into oblivion, for they rank with the
very few ethnographic works in which'a non-European researcherdescribesin detail
cultural phenomena observed in a German-speakingpopulation. As unique ethnographic documents,they presentthe desiredexperience,even for the reader unfamiliar
with the geographyof the Steiermark region: namely,to be able to read ethnography
for once from the perspectiveof being represented.
This is a chapter from a dissertationhanded in to the Facultyof Social Sciencesat the Johannes
Gutenberg-University,
Mainzin 1995.The
dissertation
waspublishedunderthetitle "Konstruktionen
des
Anderen. Clifford Geertz und die Krise der ethnographischen
Repräsentation"by Dietrich Reimer
Verlag, Berlin 1997.- The following text was translatedfrom the German by Walter Spitz (Rice
University,Departmentof Linguistics).
Even the British socialanthropologistDiana Forsythedeterminedin her synopticobservationof the
Federal Republic of Germany, that the most densely populated country in Western Europe "is
comparativelyunexplored" and consequentlyappears"proportionally as a white spot on the ethnographicmap" (cf.Forsythe1984:.I24,127).Due
to thesecircumstances,
it becamenecessary
to strainthe
conceptof an "ethnographyof one'sown kind" a bit further than is perhapspermissible.
98
Volker Gottowik
Honigmann's Steiermarkessaysappearedover a period of more than 15 yearsin
variousjournals and collections.Some of the titles rrn"Bauer and Arbeiter" (1963),
"Personality and Socialization" (1964),"Rationality and Fantasy" (1970),"Mixed
Contracts"(I916),"Responsibilityand Nurturance"(1978).Theirsynthesisinto a great
ethnographicwork on the Obersteirerwas preventedonly by the early death of the
ethnographer(for a complete bibliography of Honigmann's works, cf. Gulick et al.
1,918).Out of the altogetherbarely ten publicationson the Steiermarkregion,I have
selected"Dynamics of Drinking" (1963)for an exemplaryreading,sinceit seemsto me
that this essaygrantsus an especiallybroad ethnographiclook at ourselves.2
"Dynamics of Drinking in an Austrian Village" - to give the complete title of the
essay- goesback to Honigmann'ssecondresearchstayin the Obersteirercommunity
of Altirdning. It was first published 1963 in the periodical Ethnology and reprinted
elsewherewithout revision L6 years later (cf. Marshall, ed. 1979:4L4-428).Nothing
remarkable is to be found in this work in terms of its formal aspects,since it stays
within the conventionalboundariesof the ethnographicgenre.All the same,Germanspeakingreadersimmediatelydetect that this text representssomethingspecial:it is
not exactly their world which is being describedthere,but it is neverthelessfamiliar
enough so that they can comparethe describedworld with the one they know from
their own observation.s
In anticipation of being able to see this world for once through the eyes of an
ethnographer,I began to read "Dynamics of Drinking." The essaystarts with a
theoretical introduction in which Honigmann emphasizeshis connection with the
"configurationalmethod" of Ruth Benedictand Margaret Mead, and setsout the two
goalshe is pursuing:
. . . f i r s t ,t o d e m o n s t r a t eh o w d r i n k i n g ( t h e a p p a r e n t l ys i m p l ec u s i o mo f d o w n i n ga l c o h o l i cb e v e r a g e s )
integrateswith other parts of a cultural configuration and,second,in doing so to describedrinking in
a German-speakingCentral European village in Austria (Honigmann 1963:157).
Without lingering too long over thesetheoreticalconstructions,Iquickly skimmed
the first pagesand found at the beginningof the secondchapterwhat actuallyinterests
me in Honigmann's ethnographicrepresentation:a description of the Obersteirer
Gasthaus,an account of the atmospherein the taproom, a list of the topics of
conversationdiscussedat the varioustables,an analysisof the drinking behaviorof the
indigenouspopulation etc. The generalizations,
that Honigmann undertakesin his
F e w e t h n o g r a p h i cw o r k s d e a l w i t h G e r m a n yo r A u s t r i a a n d a n a s t o n i s h i n ga m o u n t o f i h o s ed. e a l w i t h t h e
consumption of alcohol.especizrlly
beer.schnappsand sparkling wine.Works worth reading are those by
Hage (1972) and Thornton ( 1987).* This essaydeals.at leastimplicitly. with the question of how far this
noticeable concentration on the complex of alcohol and drinking habits refers to a culturally specific
" o b s e s s i v ec h a r a c t e rt r a i t " ( K o h l 1 9 8 7 : 3 ) w h i c h N o r t h A m e r i c a n c u l t u r a l a n t h r o p o l o g ya p p l i e sw h e n
d e a l i n gw i t h C e n t r a l E , u r o p e a nt r a d i t i o n sa n d s a y sp e r h a p sm o r e a b o u t t h e P u r i t a n i s mi n t h e U n i t e d
S t a t e st h a n a b o u t t h e d r i n k i n g h a b i t o f t h e d e s c r i b e dp e o p l e .
R e a d i n ga n e t h n o g r a p h i cp o r t r a y a lf r o m t h e p e r s p e c t i v eo f t h e p e o p l ep o r t r a y e dd o e sn o t a i m a t j u d g i n g
t h e o b j e c t i v e c o n t e n t o f t h e d e p i c t e d m a t t e r i n t h e s e n s eo f a c o m p a r i s o nb e t w e e n t r a n s l a t i o na n d
o r i g i n a l t e x t . R a t h e r . i t a i r n s s o l e l y a t f i n d i n - eo u t t o w h a t e x t e n t t h e s e l f - c o n c e p t i o no f t h e e t h n o g r a p h i c i z e da g r e e sw i t h t h e u n d e r s t a n d i n g
o f t h e e t h n o g r a p h e rI.n o t h e r w o r d s .t h e q u e s t i o ni s w h e n d o e s
t l ' r eo b s e r v a t i o no f t h e a n t h r o p o l o g i sct o r r e s p o n dw i t h t h e s e l f - p e r c e p t i o o
n f t h e n a t i v e sa n d w i t h r e s a r d s
to u,l'ricl.r
subjectsdifferencesin standpointsarise-.
On BeingOthered
99
are derivedfroni his researchin two villageinns and
descriptionof this microcosmos,
from unsystematicobservationsin their proximate surroundings.Against the
culture he was struckby the relativelyeasy
backgroundof his own Puritan-stamped
which he wasalsoable to observe
accessto alcoholand its widespreadconsumption,
weddings,and funerals.Honigmannsummarizeshis perceptionsin
at christenings,
referenceto the significanceof alcoholicbeveragesat these eventsas follows:"The
annualround and ceremonialpoints in the individuallife cyclecall for drinking aswar
calls for weapons.Alcohol is an intimate part of a configuration"(Honigmann 1963:
164).
I had secretlyexpectedsomesuchresult after readingthe theoreticalintroduction,
but not sucha martial comparison;itseemsentirely unsuitablefor expressingthe very
associatedwith alcoholwhich Honigmannwould
casualness
and relative carelessness
like to indicate.This failure to convey through languagewhat was observedis not,
however, an isolated slip, which one might safely let pass.Instead, this failure
surprisinglymoves through the entire ethnographicreport like a red thread. The
description too often exhaustsitself in a superficialitywhich tends to distort the
observedeventsby stereotypicallyreducingcomplex socialinteractionsto a certain
predeterminedconduct:
ProcessionDays, notably Corpus Christi. understandablygenerate exceptional thirst; so after the
march the men drop in at a Gasthausbefore going home to dinner.The Markt band, to which several
inhabitants of Altirdning belong, always plays in processionsand then continues in formation to a
favorite tavern where its members can refresh themselves(Honigmann 1963:163).
Even common clich6sabout Alpine pleasuresare put to work, for instance,when it
comes to characterizingthe course of village festivals:"Young men do much of the
drinking.They not only grow increasinglyguy as the afternoon or eveningwearson,
but they also grow bolder and sometimesbecome involved in fights" (Honigmann
19 6 3L: 6 I - 1 6 2 ).
It is especiallyrernarkablehow,in the framework of theseclichds,socialmechanisms
are claimed which recall Pavlovian reflexes and whose dubious character is revealed
in the attempt at a purely linguistic rendering into German:"If drinking continueslong
enough,group singingbreaksout ..." (Honigmann 1963:160).
Side by side with the description of concrete observations,one repeatedly finds
by Honigmann's use
generalizingstatementsthat are reinforced in their grotesqueness
'An
gay.Lustigkeit
filled
with
wit
and
laughter
is
lustig,
evening
of indigenous terms:
or gaiety is what people want from a Gasthausand from alcohol" (Honigmann'l-963:
160).
Finally, the ethnographer attempts a conclusion which should contain a highly
condensedscientific assertion,and which sooner calls to mind a piece of doggerel
worthy of the poet Christian Morgenstern:"Better said, the dynamics of drinking
residesin the total web of drinking itself" (Honigmann1963:169).
Thus endeth the essayby Honigmann, which leavesthe reader with the anxietyridden questionof whether the Tiobriandersor Nuer experiencethe samealienation
in reading their monograph that German-speakingreaders may feel in reading
"Dynamics of Drinking."What hashappenedhere?Are thesedistortions,which cause
100
Volker Gottowik
the representedpopulationto appearasa caricatureof themselves,
a structuralfeature
of every ethnographicwork, or did a field researcherplainly bunglethe job here?Was
John Honigmann actuallyin Altirdning, and what did he do there? Did he at leastsit
together with the Steirer in the pub - or did he just loiter in the farthestcorner of the
taproom, silently sipping his colas and fruit sodas,of which the ethnographerfelt
obliged to report that they were at leastas expensivein Altirdning as beer and wine?
What sort of field researchcould have led to suchresults?
Driven by these questions,the author of these lines set out one day to solve the
riddle at the scene.Not that he would have undertaken the long trip to the beautiful
Enns Valley especiallyfor this purpose.He simply happened to be in the vicinity of
Altirdning, but - as it must be stressed- instead of tracking down Honigmann on this
mild late summer'sday he could alsohave done a little mountain climbing and perhaps
might have foundhis Gipfelglück on the peak of Hochgolling or Gamskarspitze.But
he denied himself this pleasureand insteadmade his way on a Monday afternoonto
drink with the Obersteirerin Honigmann'sregular haunt and, almost incidentally,to
inquire about their ethnographer.a
Now, everychild knows that public housesstayclosedon Monday afternoon,but, as
it sometimeshappens,every ethnographicinvestigationinvolves a bit of luck. The
researcherand his female assistantfound the Gasthausdoor unlocked and were
steeredby a woman from the completelydesertedtaproom directly into the kitchen.
"Yes,what do you need,"askeda secondlady bluntly.
"Two beers,please,"we replied,whereupontwo SchladmingerMärzen were wordlesslyheld out to us,and the scarcelyinitiated dialogueimmediatelydied down.
Payingno further heedto our presence,
both ladiesresumedtheir householdchores.
While the older one embroideredan Alpine motif onto a framed piece of cloth, the
younger one was obviously busy enriching the Gasthausmenu with some culinary
delicacies.
An immensechunk of meatwasbeingsauteedwith quarteredonionson the
range,and hand molded dumplingswere set aside on a tray: venisonwith bread
dumplings- so it flashedthrough the mind of the researchteam seatedon the corner
bench.Maybe we shouldcome back againin the evening,when the taproom would be
open.
We were lost in thought and waitedfor an opportunity to begin our research.When,
after a quarter hour, the stony silencebecametoo oppressive,we called through the
cloud of grillingfumesto the womanstandingat the stove:
"Can you two ladiesperhapsrememberan American ethnologistwho was here in
1960and 7962and..." - "John!" the two blurted out as if from one mouth.And how
they knew him! JohnHonigmannhad cometo Altirdning with his wife Irma'fivetimes
in the summeränd oncein the winterfor severalweeksat a time.A colleaguefrom the
nearbycountyseathad a vacationhome here,and they had alwaysstayedwith him. Whether they had known Honigmannwell, we wantedto know from the two ladies
first.- But of course,they gushed.He had alwayssatnext door in the taproom.- Was
4
T l r e i r o r r i cu n d er t o n e o f t h i sp a r a g r a p he m e r g e sf r o m t h e n o t t o b e d e n i e df a c t t h a t w h a t i s d e s c r i b e dh e r e
h a s l i t t l c t o d o w i t h w h a t a c t u a l l y h a p p e n e d .N e v e r t h e l e s st,h a t w h a t V i n c e n t C r a p a n z a n ot e r m e d
" H e r n t e s ' D i l e n t n t a "a p p l i e sh e r e t o o :" . . . H e r m e sp r o m i s e dt o t e l l n o l i e sb u t d i d n o t p r o n . r i s teo t e l l t h e
w h o l e t r u t h " ( C r a p a n z a n ol 9 i i 6 :7 6 ) .
On BeinsOthered
101
Honigmann able to speakGerman at all, or did he haveto usean interpreter,was our
next question.After all, we knew well the value of languageknowledgefor doing a
solidjob of ethnography.- He spoke German fluently,wasthe answer.As the child of
German parents,he had grown up virtually bilingual.In the final years,he was even
good at understandingthe Steiermark dialect - no easy task, as we frankly had to
admit. - But he had certainly asked strangequestions,was our next bid. - "John?
Never!" He had really been quite sensible.After all, he had alsoworked asa professor
at a renownedAmerican university.- But Honigmannwith his worthy wife must have
had a lazy time here in the mountains- maybewe were beingjust a little too stubborn
in our pursuit.- Not at all! He had participatedin everything:haying,driving the cattle
down from the Alm ... Yes,as for the Alm agriculture,he had alwaysbeen interested
in that, and in everything that was connectedwith it in former times ... He was
constantlygoing up to the Moersbach-Almto assistup there and to have everything
explainedto him by the Sennerin.-Next, we wantedto know whetherhe had alsohad
contactwith the people here in the taproom.- But of course;he had alwayssat at a
table with the locals,just like someonefrom around here.- After we had listened,
incredulous,to all this, we still wanted to know whether they were at all acquainted
with the articlesthat Honigmann had written about Altirdning.- No, indeednot. But
John had presentedthem with a village chronicle,which was lovely with its many
photosof the Alm and of the villagefestival.Shouldthey fetch them ...?s
When,after one and a half hours,we saidgoodbyeand left Altirdning behind,doubt
was no longer possible:Honigmann was in Altirdning and did conduct a field investigationaccordingto all the rules.And not only that:the women we interviewedwere
not only sincerelytaken with their ethnographer,they were downright enthusiastic
about him. However, this knowledge was of little help to us. Since we could not
attribute our irritations with "Dynamics of Drinking" to technicalerrors on the part of
Honigmann and thereby reduce them to an individual ethnographer'sproblem, the
question raised at the beginning stood out only more menacingly:what does the
ethnographicgazesee?
We had initially taken up Honigmann's Steiermark essaysto examine through the
eyes of an ethnographer for once a world otherwise known to us. We wanted to
ascertainhow successfulthe researcherwas in assumingthe position of the locals and
in describingtheir world asthey themselvesseeit.And we had finally hoped to be able
to deduce the productive dimension of the ethnographic gaze from the expected
difference between the natives' self-understandingand the ethnographer'sability to
understandthem. We were, to be sure,everywherestruck by a difference between his
perception and ours,but we could not gain a surplusof insight from this difference in
the culture being represented. Instead, we saw ourselves confronted with superficialities and distortions that turned the describedlifeworld into an imaginary stage
production.But how had it been possibleto arrive at such a distortedrepresentation
when, after all, it was settled beyond doubt that Honigmann had not only done his
work properly, but, on the basis of his knowledge of the indigenous idiom, had
5
Unfortunately, the village chronicle could not be found and neither a second visit to Altirdning nor an
exchange of letters with Dr. Jontes in Leoben (a friend of the Honigmann family) gave any information
about what happened to it.
702
Volker Gottowik
presumablystarted off under ideal conditions?If we had to excludemethodological
mistakesin the performanceof his investigation.how was it that his descriptionof a
world that we knew seemedso alien to us?
We now began to suspectthat we, as readersof Honigmann's ethnographicrepresentation,had been led by our idiosyncraciesand only on that account had
consideredhis remarksabout "fights,""gaiety,"and "group singing"to be so mistaken.
Therefore,we began to look around for somebodywho could confirm our negative
attitude - and the two ladies in Altirdning came immediately to mind. Should we
confront them with the texts of their ethnographerand ask for an opinion?
In our mind's eye, we saw ourselves sitting again on the kitchen bench in the
Gasthaus in Altirdning, reciting a rendition of "Dynamics of Drinking" through the
cloud of grilling fumes.But what would we have proved, if it were now possiblefor us
to quote the two women as critics of Honigmann's ethnographicrepresentation?And
most of all, how would we react to their critique,if for whateverreasonsit turned out
to be positive, that is, if the ones being representedapproved of Honigmann's
representation?
After we had seena world known to us through the eyesof the ethnographerand
not recognizedit, we did not want to disregardour own opinion offhand and subject
ourselvesto the judgement of the ones being represented.Besides,relinquishingthe
decisionabout the adequacyof the representationof them would havemeantascribing
a greater value to the self-interpretationof the ones being representedthan to th;
interpretationsthat Honigmann as author or we as readershad to offer. Similarly,
every other decisionin favor of any one of the three divergentinterpretationswould
have required a detailed explanationof the reasonbehind it, insofar as a reasonfor
such a decisioncould be given at all. Sincethe adequacyof Honigmann'srepresentation could not be denied offhand, other questionsmoved automatically into the
foreground: why Honigmann had thus described the Obersteirer, how he had
describedthem, and what he wanted to sharewith his readerswhen he composedhis
text about them.
As addressees
of his essayson the Steiermarkregion,Honigmann had undoubtedly
had neither his native subjectsnor his German-speaking
readersin mind, but rather
members of the Anglo-American scientific community. To these, the author of
"Dynamics of Drinking" was known not only as a professorof anthropologyat the
University of North Carolina but also as a skilled practitioner of his disciplineand
specialistin alcoholstudies.Honigmann,who died in 7977,had not only conducted
numerousresearchprojects,particularlyin Arctic and SubarcticCanada,he had also
at the same time repeatedlyexploredthe significanceof alcohol in different cultural
contexts.In one of his last works,which appearedposthumouslyin 1980,Honigmann
once again picks up this theme in order to define retrospectivelyhis scientific
contribution to this field by looking back on his approximately30 yearsof research.
SinceHonigmann subjectshimself to this task in a remarkablycritical fashion,he
himself lays the track upon which one should,in the following,attempt to develop
anotherreadingof "Dynamicsof Drinking."
ln 7945, 1965,and 1970,Honigmann had conductedresearchprojectsin three
differentCanadianprovincesand.at the sametime,had alsoexaminedthe outlook of
On BeingOtheled
103
the residentpopulation(Euro-Canadians,
Indians.Inuit)towardalcoholicbeverages.
While, in the first social study,he still deals with this theme from a consistently
culture-relativeposition,in the secondstudy,Honigrnanntakes into consideration
categoriesof culture and personality research.Finally, in the third study. he
investigatesthe same question with a more symbolicallyoriented approach.This
changein the underlying approachproducesdiffering perspectives,
from which the
samephenomenon,which Honigrnanncalls"alcohol behavior,"is describedon the
basisof indigenousconcepts,characterizedas deviant conduct or interpreted as an
e x p r e s s i oonf cu l tu ra ld e n i a l .
Honigmann does not reconstructthese changesin his theoreticalalignment as a
linear development that has led to a continual improvement of the methods and
insights.Instead,he tries to prove that each investigationcould have been conducted
with equal justice by drawing upon each of the other approaches.As Honigmann
admits,he has,in the courseof his many yearsof researchactivity,utilized the same
ethnographicdata with different approachesand hastherefore arrived at quite different results,without being able to decidefor or againstany one of theseinterpretations
on the basisof his current viewpoint. Honigmann stressesthat, instead,each of the
approacheshe employedcan be plausiblyexplainedand merely stressesother aspects
of the samephenomenon.He then drawsthe following conclusion:
But clearly,when the behavior of one community can be describedfrom different perspectivesand
none of these is false in the senseof being contradicted by another, more is involved in ethnography
than just reporting existing phenomena (Honigmann L9B0:280).
With the aid of his own works,which he citesasexamples,Honigmanndoesawaywith
the idea that ethnographyhas somethingto do with a true-to-life picture of foreign
culturesand that every conscientiousethnographerhas to attain comparableresults
when he analysesthe facts.On the contrary,he underscoresthat the perceptionof a
foreign culture is clependentupon methodologicaland theoretical presuppositions
which influence the execution of the research,the interpretation of the ethnographic
data,and the form of the textual representation.Thesepresuppositionscan be read as
messagesthat refer back to the person,time, and culture of the ethnographer:
Thesedecisions,
in turn, reflectfactorslike the stateof anthropologyat a giventime or the stateof the
ethnographer'ssocietythat lead him to selectcertainconceptsfor conceptualizations
of data rather
thanothers(Honigmann1980:281).
Honigmann concludeshis self-reflectiveremarks with the following summary:
The freedom I described in ethnographic conceptualization signifies that the culture patterns
presented in an ethnographic report are not reflections of reality but to a great extent represent
constructsdependent on factors inherent in the ethnographer... (Honigmann 1980:282).
If one now relatestheseviewsof the late Honigmannto the early one of "Dynamicsof
Drinking," that is to say;if one asksto what extent the patterns of the Gasthausand
alcohol consumption in Altirdning that he described represent ethnographic
constructsin which conditions in his own societyare mirrored, what kind of alternative
reading of his ethnography of the Obersteirer is possible?
r04
VolkerGottowik
In "Dynamics of Drinking" there is a passagein which Honigmann explicitly
compares the circumstancesin his country with those he was able to observe in
Altirdning. At the beginningof the chapterentitled'Availability and Consumptionof
Alcohol" he writes:
To a visitor from the United States,where alcohol is treated with nearly the same caution as guns,
drugs, and germs,western Europeans are amazingly casual about drinking, The American realizäs by
comparison how his land is unable to accept drinking easily but instead surrounds it with restrictioni,
curtails it by difficulties, and concealsit from public view (Honigmann 1980:158).
Honigmann here alludes to the ordinances,familiar to American readers, which
regulate the production, distribution, and consumption of alcoholic beveragesin the
USA. Thus,for example,in a state like Texas,alcoholic beveragescould not be retailed
until the end of the sixties;and even today there remains a group of "dry counties"
which continue Prohibition on the basisof the "local drinking laws" and prohibit the
sale of alcohol in general.Honigmann,who has also done ethnographicwork in the
Canadian Frobisher Bay, describesthe restrictions on the purchase of alcoholic
beveragesfor the local people in the mid-sixtiesin the following manner:
They can go to the counter of the Territorial Liquor Store on any of several afternoons and evenings
weekly,show their permit, and order wine,rum, whiskey,gin or beer (including ale) for delivery thräe
weeks later, paying with their order (Honigmann and Honigmann 1965:197).
Restrictionsof this or of a comparablesort,which completelyprohibit the purchaseof
alcohol or make it dependenton rationing permits as well as a three-weekdelivery
interval etc. form the more or less obvious background againstwhich Honigmann
began his ethnographicwork in Altirdning. Apparently under the impressionthat
none of the familiar regulationsapplies,he describesthe accessto alcoholicbeverages
thereas follows
A person living in the Enns valley community of Altirdning, Steiermark,needsno official permit to
buy domesticand French brandies,rum, or schnapps.He can obtain them in the generalstoreslocated
in the community and in the market town two miles distant.In the Markt he can selecta bottle from
the open shelvesof the self-servicestores.Theseestablishmentsalso sell liter bottles of beer and wine
( H o n i g m a n n1 9 6 3 : 1 5 8 ) .
Which Western European researcherwould consider it worth conveying that one
requires no official permit to buy a bottle of schnapps?And who would bother to
observe that one can take one's bottle of beer or wine from the shelf of the
supermarketby oneself?What is perceivedand describedhere derivesfrom differing
"overseas,"
circumstances
that is,in the USA and Canada.The representation
therefore exhibitsa focuson the cultureof the ethnographerwhich must appearpersistently
strange to the readers who are familiar with the circumstancesfrom their own
observations.
Even the very selectionof the topic is influencedby decisionswhich are made on
the basisof a perception of what would constitute a problem in the society of the
ethnographerand of the valuesthat prevail there.Honigmannspeaksin the aforementionedFrobisherBay study of "the North American'straumatized,puritanical
attitudestoward alcohol,attitudesthat picture drinking as noteworthy or special
On Beins Othered
105
behavior,not so much becauseof its capacity to dissolveinhibitions and promote
gaietybut becauseit is fraught with menaceand connotesdepravity"(Honigmannand
Honigmann 1965:201).To the North American readerwho sharesthesepuritannical
values Honigmann's description of Altirdning reveals an exotic world in which a
completelydifferent outlook prevails:"Todrink intoxicantsis relishedfor the release
and the Lustigkeitit brings" (Honigmann1963:162).
Honigmannnow attemptsto demonstratethat sucha naiveoutlook on alcoholneed
not automaticallyopen the door to greatersocialproblems.Sincethe consumptionof
alcoholicbeveragesin the societydescribedby him tiesin with manifold traditionsand
is, along with them, subject to definite rules which can from time to time even
compulsorily prescribe the consumption of beer or schnapps("as war calls for
weapons"), it is also in a way controlled and thus renders a stronger exerciseof
influence on the part of the state superfluous.Even "group singing" and "fights" as
consequences
of excessivepublic enjoyment of alcohol do not provide a reasonfor
requiring more comprehensivestaterestrictionson the saleof alcohol.However,even
while Honigmann thus describesthe culture he is investigating,he is simultaneously
telling his readersyet another story.It is the story of political liberalism.Accordingly,
sociallyacknowledgednorms evolve and guaranteethe liberty of the individual if the
state reducesits infringementson the community to a minimum.This story of a free
and self-accountableassociationwith alcohol ultimately succumbsto the whole
ethnographicreport as allegory.
The conceptof allegory,which was initially the domain of literary theory,was taken
up by JamesClifford and appliedto the interpretationof ethnographicrepresentations
(ct Clifford 1986).0In a seriesof prominent textual examples,Clifford was able to
demonstrate how the question about the allegorical content of a representation
changedthe approachto ethnographictexts:
Allegory draws special attention to the narrative character of cultural representations.to the stories
built into the representational process itself (Clifford 1986:100).
According to Clifford, ethnographic texts do not coincide with what they ostensibly
represent,but insteadsimultaneouslytell other "stories."Thesestoriesare conveyedby
the way ethnographerssystematizetheir observationsand experiencesand prepare
them as literature. Even by detaching certain parts from the totality of the knowable
world and selectinga particular form for their treatment, they begin to construct this
story.What is finally presentedas the result of theseefforts are,accordingto Clifford,
complex rhetorical achievementswhich consistof descriptionsof real events and of
"additional moral, idealogical,and even cosmologicalstatements"(Clifford 1986:98).
6
In his inspirational work "On Ethnographic Allegory" (1986), James Clifford pushes a definition of this
concept forward which is taken from Webster's "New Twentieth Century Dictionary." Therein,
"allegory" is defined as follows: "1. A story in which people, things, and happenings have another
meaning, as in a fable or parable: allegories are used for teaching or explaining.2.The presentation of
ideas by means of such stories ..." (Clifford 1986:98).The other meaning which a text can have along
with the foreground story, and which the concept of allegory refers to is built up in ethnographic
depictions, becausethe debate with the foreign is usually connected with a type of self ascertainment. In
a certain way, one can say:"Ethnographers talk to themselveseven when they are talking about others."
Fritz Kramer (7977) in particular pointed out the connection between perception of foreign and selfascertainment.
106
Volker Gottowik
These "statements" are directed towards the ethnographer'ssociety;they refer to its
themesand problemsand help the text gainits actualmeaning.But they giveno second
meaningto the ethnographicreport, so that it is impossibleto differentiate betweenan
explicit and a figurativelevel.Rather,both levelsare not only inextricablyconnected
with one another as the factualand the allegoricalaspectsof an ethnographictext,but
they are also"conditionsof its meaningfulness"
(Clifford 1986:99).
According to Clifford, the possibilityof getting accessto its allegoriesis one of the
conditionsfor being able to read an ethnographictext as meaningful.In our example
of "Dynamics of Drinking," we attempted such an allegorical reading and interpreted
the text as a "story" about political liberalism. However, such a reading became
possible after we had understood the cultural comparison which is irnplicit in every
ethnographic representation.For the readers of an ethnographic text who belong to
the culture of the ethnographer,suchan approachpresentsno basicdifficulties:against
the backgroundof a given sameness(consumptionof alcohol),they see a difference
(varying rules associatedwith alcohol) ethnographicallydescribed.By connecting
what is being represented(here,that which is alien) with their own kind, they gain
accessto the allegories.However,suchan approachto ethnographicrepresentations
is
not possiblefor the onesbeing represented,who, after all, belong to another culture
than the ethnographer.If they connect what is being represented(here, their own
kind) to their own kind, only the factual aspectsof the ethnographictext become
accessibleto them. The text here becomesa paraphraseof their own world, a paraphrasewhich expressesthe familiar in a complicatedmanner and is describedfrom a
perspectivethat distortsand alienatesthe onesbeing represented.The representation
of their own world must then appear trivial and superficial to those who are
representedif no other allegoricalreferencescan be set up, asis the casein sucha thin
descriptionlike the one discussedat the beginning.
The readings of other cultures that ethnographersdevelop are allegorical.As
allegories,
their representations
exhibit a clearrelationshipto the themesand problems
which their own society is confronted with. These allegories in ethnographic
representationsare not as accessibleto the ones being representedas to the readers
who sharethe culture and languageof the ethnographer.If the onesbeingrepresented
can establish no other allegorical connectionsto the texts, their readings remain
limited to the factual,that is,they are not able to read the texts as meaningful.From
the fact that the allegoriesof the ethnographerare not necessarilycomprehensibleto
the ones being representedemergesa tendencyfor ethnographicrepresentationsto
have no significancefor the membersof the describedculture.
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