School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemThe discussion of myth in Dialectic Of Enlightenment: myth and the unfinished task of enlightenment( 2014)My thesis examines the discussion of myth in Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s Dialectic Of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. Contesting Habermas’ influential reading of Dialectic Of Enlightenment as a ‘totalising critique of reason,’ I argue that Horkheimer and Adorno entwine two concepts of myth into a highly original study of philosophical self-reflection. I call the first concept of myth ‘allegorical’; it stems from aesthetics. I call the second concept of myth ‘anthropological’. In chapter 1 I first provide a brief outline of Dialectic Of Enlightenment and the mainstream Anglophone commentaries on the book. I then argue that the Anglophone mainstream has largely overlooked a concept of self-reflection which is to be found through a detailed examination of Horkheimer and Adorno’s critique of modern reason, a critique which is built, in large part, around the particular theme of myth. In Chapter 2 I unpack Horkheimer and Adorno’s allegorical reading of myth, a reading which treats the figure of Odysseus sailing past the Sirens as an allegory for the ‘myth’ of instrumental reason. Odysseus is here presented as an exemplar of the isolated, alienated subject of the modern world whose ability for thought and reflection is conditioned by the dehumanising instrumental reason of modern industrialised society. In a line of thought that is modelled upon aesthetics, I argue that this reading of myth illuminates a potential for qualitatively new forms of self-reflection and human solidarity. In chapter 3 I present Horkheimer and Adorno’s anthropological reading of myth. Myth in this reading is ‘myth’ seen through the eyes of the modern anthropologist; it is a kind of symbolic support for customs, traditions and kinship bonds of pre- or non-modern cultures. Through an innovative reading of Homer’s Odyssey as documenting the cultural memory of an early stage of settled European civilisation, Horkheimer and Adorno unravel the Homeric memory of traces of this anthropological concept of myth reaching into our species’ distant past. Upon this basis, I argue that Horkheimer and Adorno’s interpretation of the Odyssey becomes a highly original attempt to establish an anthropological underpinning for the concept of self-reflection which is sketched out in the authors’ allegorical reading of myth. Finally, I conclude that Horkheimer and Adorno’s discussion of myth presents a valuable perspective on philosophical self-reflection which has been largely overlooked in the mainstream secondary literature on Dialectic Of Enlightenment.
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ItemArtifak: the commoditisation, valuation, and authentication of (art) objects in Vanuatu, Southwest Pacific( 2013)This thesis investigates the meaning and value of (art) objects as commodities in differing states of transit and transition: in the local place, on the art market, in the museum. It provides an ethnographic account of commoditisation in a context of revitalisation of culture and the arts in Vanuatu, Southwest Pacific, and the complex issues this generates. Commoditisation and revitalisation occur in response to a number of factors, revolving around notions of value and the authenticity and authentication of things. In the thesis, I analyse a number of key questions in relation to these issues, such as the authenticity of production and consumption of art and performance, the emergence of forms of indigenised copyright and copyright claims, and kastom (custom) mistakes and disputes. I situate these issues within the global monetary value system of art markets and museums and argue that this system is increasingly appropriated by local people in Vanuatu. The category of art is becoming increasingly global, tied up with inherent as well as monetary value and the market. Within the gallery and museum setting, I revaluate the local/global contexts of value(s) and discuss contemporary issues such as requests made by local people for the repatriation of their highly valued things of the past. I also revisit the gallery and museum setting and highlight issues of collection, exhibition, trade, theft, and, in local contexts, that of carving for subsistence. Authentication of people and things takes place in revived ritual performances for audiences: by local people for themselves, to attribute value to their revived rituals and objects, as well as for (buying) visitors. The visitors can be collectors and dealers, but it is tourists who buy most artefacts and who are maturing into some sort of experts on their own terms. Things are authenticated by local people for own use by way of dance. They can also be ‘made authentic’, for sale, in a variety of ways. They are considered inauthentic when they are unused, made ‘just for sale’. These are aspects of commoditisation and revitalisation that do not take place in uniform ways. They are dependent upon people’s opinions about culture and the arts. The commoditisation of revived customary art forms is accepted by certain people in certain places and circumstances, and highly disputed in others. Commoditisation and revival are entangled with socio-political and economic values that work on several levels.
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ItemDeception and disillusionment: fast money schemes in Papua New Guinea( 2011)This thesis examines Papua New Guinean attitudes to money and modernity through an exploration of contemporary “fast money schemes” (Ponzi scams). The largest of these, U-Vistract Financial Systems, collected millions of Kina from 100,000s of “investors” on the promise of monthly returns on deposits of 100%. The scheme was declared bankrupt in 2000 but its founders escaped imprisonment, fleeing first to Solomon Islands and then to the “no go” zone of Bougainville, where the scheme re-established itself as the Royal Kingdom of Papala. U-Vistract claimed to be a Christian reform of global finance systems that would deliver abundant prosperity to Papua New Guineans. U-Vistract cultivated a moral vision of its middle-class investors as compassionate Christian patrons whose coming wealth would deliver “development” to a nation disillusioned with social inequality and the postcolonial state. U-Vistract investors emerge from this study as morally engaged members of a transnational Christian civil society. This is a surprising conclusion to draw from studying fraud but it is all the more surprising in Papua New Guinea where anthropological interest has historically constructed the “village” as the central place where social meanings are generated. Here, urban Melanesians demonstrate moral and relational sensibilities that combine global aspirations for prosperity with Papua New Guinean disillusionment with the nation. In doing so, perhaps a more individualistic rendering of Melanesia emerges but these are individuals who are also more cosmopolitan in sentiment.
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ItemNeuroanthropology: the combined anthropological and neurobiological study of cultural activity( 2007)The main objective of this thesis is to make a contribution toward the development of a partnership between anthropology and neuroscience, a partnership that has been timidly developing during the last 30 years. This partnership has been broadly referred to as neuroanthropology. In this thesis I take some steps toward a demonstration not only of the possibility of neuroanthropology but of how it naturally follows from what we already know about the human condition thanks to anthropology and neuroscience independently. It is argued that the demonstration of the possibility for neuroanthropology rests on the abandonment of the dichotomy that separates the humanities and the sciences. As a result, the ways in which anthropology and neuroscience approach the object of study on which they converge, the individual, are shown to be interdependent. This interdependence leads to reconceptualize neuroanthropology as the study of cultural activity in both its experiential and neurobiological aspects. At the same time, this interdependence requires that methods from anthropology and neuroscience be brought together and coordinated for the purpose of investigating actual problems of research. I thus make the case for neuroanthropology to be more than a theoretical exercise. I argue for a neuroanthropology equally grounded in research.