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Undoing resistance: East Indians beyond the culture-bound

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 10; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14746689.2012.682866

1474-6697

Narmala Halstead,

Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

Abstract This article draws on ethnographic data on Guyanese East Indians to re-examine a particular research framework of 'culture-bound' people positioned as needing to resist the other and, thus, it critiques a romanticised notion of resistance in relation to cultural imperialism. East Indians interact with an American soap opera, The Young and the Restless, which is positioned through lay discourses as hugely immoral and, at one level, seen as representative of a decadent other. However, the issue of 'different cultures', which arises through specific discourses is unveiled in their everyday interactions to be a concern with 'respect disruptions' to specific domestic spaces rather than resistance to a 'global other.' The article illustrates how East Indians belong within a Western social imaginary and demonstrates paradigmatic shifts by overturning a notion of culture-bound people resisting within static local sites. Notes 1. The term 'East Indian' is an official categorisation and also used in the literature and by East Indians in certain contexts. They are also referred to as Indo-Guyanese. The term in common usage among them is 'Indian,' and they speak of 'Indian culture.' 2. The Young and the Restless was introduced to limited Guyanese audiences in the 1980s in Guyana. Television was vetoed as part of media censorship in the 1980s under the presidency of Forbes Burnham. Two private TV stations were operating with limited signals in the 1980s. 3. See Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi Sreberny-Mohamadi, Annabelle. 1997. "The Many Faces of Cultural Imperialism". In Beyond Cultural Imperialism: Globalization, Communication and the New International Order, Edited by: Golding, Peter and Harris, Phil. 51–68. London: Sage. Print [Google Scholar] for a discussion and critique of cultural imperialism. 4. All persons referred to are East Indians, unless otherwise stated. Pseudonyms are used. 5. This was dissimilar to the content and 'approach' of a BBC soap opera described by Andrew Skuse Skuse, Andrew. 2002. Vagueness, Familiarity and Social Realism: Making Meaning of Radio Soap Opera in South-East Afghanistan. Media, Culture & Society, 24: 409–27. Print[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] in Afghanistan. In his fieldwork on both Afghans and the production of a soap opera, New Life, New Home, Skuse argues for a deliberate vagueness in the storylines, which can then be co-opted by viewers in diverse Afghan settings to fit their specific experiences. See also David Novak (41 Novak, David. 2010. Cosmopolitanism, Remediation and the Ghost world of Bollywood. Cultural Anthropology, 25: 40–72. Print[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) who points to a trend in the 1990 where 'literature demonstrated how media is diversified by the detachment of texts from their original contexts in transnational circulation, and how appropriation creates conflicts around cultural authorship…' 6. The data is drawn from long-term and ongoing fieldwork. I began research in several Guyanese villages and the city in the mid-1990s which continued to 1999 in these locations. My research extended into migration, illegality, violence and related issues. I have made annual return visits to date, meeting with selected families in these sites. 7. This is part of a larger body of work. Some of the participants and their everyday settings are discussed elsewhere in related analysis and discussions. 8. See Hastrup and Olwig Hastrup, Kirsten and Olwig, Karen Fog. 1997. "Introduction". In Siting Culture: The Shifting Anthropological Object, Edited by: Olwig, Karen Fog and Hastrup, Kirsten. 1–47. London: Routledge. Print [Google Scholar] for a discussion of how the site shifts from location to issues. See also Amit-Talai Amit-Talai, Vered. 1997. In Precarious Motion: From Territorial to Transnational Cultures. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 34: 319–32. Print[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. 9. Christine Geraghty (22 Geraghty, Christine. 1992. Women and Soap Opera: A Study of Prime Time Soaps, Cambridge: Polity Press. Print [Google Scholar]–3) noted that contrary to the view that the audience cannot separate the soap opera from real life, their involvement shows an ability to construct a balance between reality and the fictive series in their post-viewing discussions and speculations. But Mario Vieira de Carvalho (55 De Carvalho, Mario Vieira. 1995. From Opera to 'Soap Opera': On Civilizing Processes, the Dialectic of Enlightenment and Postmodernity. Theory, Culture & Society, 12: 41–61. Print[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]–6) points out the view that the soap opera as a genre cannot be distinguished from real life, and offers the 'perfect illusion' is an ideal of the opera from which it was evolved, and was conceived to be by the middle class in the eighteenth century. 10. Politicians' concerns with global programming pre-date the nation-wide entry of television 1992 in Guyana, the year of the first democratic election after 25 years which also marked the introduction of more television stations and wider acquisition of television sets. 11. Mary Ellen Brown (193 Brown, Mary E. 1994. Soap Opera and Women's Talk. The Pleasure of Resistance, London: Sage. Print [Google Scholar]), in her discussion on soap operas, points to how 'resistance is measured in terms of the subordination of women in our culture' and how they act to produce 'resistive meanings.' Graham McKinley (32 McKinley, Graham E. 1997. Beverly Hills 90210: Television, Gender and Identity, Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P. Print[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]–3) discusses the advent of 'resistance' in cultural studies, where early researchers examined sub-cultures, but failed to show that 'subculture and mass culture fuelled effective resistance to dominant ideologies. 12. This quietness is affected by a practice of 'talk name' where villagers have general knowledge of activities and talk about it. 13. This may be considered in relation to Filip De Beock's De Boeck, Filip. 1998. "Place as Cultural and Natural Texture". In Locality and Belonging, Edited by: Lovell, Nadia. 25–52. London: Routledge. Print [Google Scholar] discussion on Luuanda women where he notes a distinction between pre and post-menopausal women, where the latter having come to 'the end of 'birth-giving', are perceived as bodily 'closed' or 'plugged', which allows them to open at the social level and structurally become more like men' (37). 14. In the early stages of my fieldwork, some appreciation of the soap opera being derided for its low cultural capital was evident in the way woman viewers would initially seek to deny their interest although this was often interlinked with a perceived general disapproval for the soap opera on the grounds of moral content. 15. As Miller ("The Young" 175–6) notes this identification with clothing is the opposite of what may be deemed a superficial absorption of the programme. 16. This may be compared to the interest and activity carried out by Trinidadian viewers of The Young and the Restless (Miller Miller, Daniel. 1994. "The Young and the Restless in Trinidad. A Case of the Global and Local in Mass Consumption". In Consuming Technologies: Media and Information in Domestic Spaces, Edited by: Silverstone, Roger and Hirsch, Eric. 163–82. London: Routledge. Print [Google Scholar] "The Young" 175–6). 17. This contrasts with the 'macho approach' where in Trinidadian society, for instance, the custom of a married man having a 'deputy' (lover) has become very much part of local expectations. Miller Miller, Daniel. 1994. Modernity: An Ethnographic Approach: Dualism and Mass Consumption in Trinidad, Oxford: Berg. Print [Google Scholar] (Modernity 197) noted however, that Indian men also had deputies in Trinidad, within that social usage of the term where they were an 'accepted' second partner for socialising. Among Guyanese East Indians, the terms, 'sweetman' and 'sweetwoman' are in usage to denote lovers; there is no 'ready acceptance' of a deputy. 18. The professed interest of these young people was in American sitcoms, 'Warner Brothers' television which were mainly comedies, cartoons and sports. Warner Brothers were mainly televised at weekends. The young people named these schedules WB nights, and would often meet at each other's homes to watch these programmes on occasions.