Anthropology and the Politics of Representation

4. Subverting Stereotypes: The Visual Politics of Representing Indigenous Modernity

4 Subverting Stereotypes The Visual Politics of Representing Indigenous Modernity Beth A.Conklin In the media politics of contemporary indigenous rights activism and advocacy , representations based on strategic essentialisms are both tools and traps. Positive representations have proven enormously effective to develop solidarity and rally support for indigenous causes. But idealized representations have their downside. However sympathetic their content, such representations constitute a “legislation of authenticity” (Thomas 1994, 179) that can work against native peoples’ interests.Overgeneralized claims about identity create unrealistic expectations that limit indigenous communities’ choices.When in­ di­ vidu­ als or groups fail to live up to impossibly high standards of purity and nobility, critics seize on the gap between image and reality as evidence of inauthenticity and unworthiness. These contradictions plague native movements worldwide, wherever indigenous rights struggles depend heavily on symbolic politics framed around idealized images of indigeneity . In response, indigenous activists have developed a variety of innovative tactics to escape this representational trap.While capitalizing on the utility of certain positive representations of indigeneity, they simultaneously criticize the limits implicit in these representations. Their evolving struggles to change pub­ lic attitudes and broaden understandings of indigenous culture parallel, and add urgency to, anthropologists’ struggles to articulate understandings of culture as dynamic, changing, and constantly in the making. All politics makes use of essentializing representations, such as idealized images of patriotism, the unity of the nation-­ state, or the virtues of a dominant culture or religion. But contemporary indigenous identity politics depend especially heavily on sympathetic imagery. As Roland Niezen (2003, 186–87) notes,indigenous formulations of tradition and nationhood require some degree of pub­ lic approval:“Indigenous nationalism is shaped more sig- Subverting Stereotypes / 67 nificantly by the demands of consumer export than are other forms of group identity. . . . Indigenous nationalism thus usually shapes itself around those core values that resonate most strongly with the nonindigenous public.” In native peoples’ struggle to make themselves and their causes visible to dominant societies that have long ignored them, outsiders’ stereotypes are realities they must deal with: native activists are forced to manage their self-­ representations to work around and through the cultural codes of both racism and romanticism. Marginalized groups mobilize outsiders’ support by framing their causes in terms that appeal to ideas about the virtues of indigenous cultures, deploying the symbolic codes of primitivism, exoticism, and authenticity that identify native cultures with deep spirituality, ancient origins , and distinctive forms of community. Identifying indigenous cultures with principles of West­ ern ecology and the goals of international environmentalism has been especially effective in broadening the base of pub­lic support for environmental causes (Conklin and Graham 1995). The downside of this politics is that again and again, indigenous activists run up against the problem that idealized, unrealistic expectations limit the range of actions open to native people. Niezen describes these pressures: It is not enough that peoples and communities are destroyed, removed from the land, po­ liti­ cally marginalized, unemployed in an unfamiliar formal economy,exposed to addictions,and educated in a way that convinces many in­di­vidu­als of their innate inferiority.To satisfy the pub­lic that can help them—the audiences most concerned with human rights and the environment—they must also be noble,strong,spiritually wise, and,above all,environmentally discreet.The reality of destroyed communities , however, is rarely consistent with the expectations placed upon them. There can be little nobility, wisdom, or environmental friendliness where addictions are rampant, economic desires are unfulfilled ,and po­ liti­ cal frustration pushes regularly against the barriers preventing violence. (2003, 186) No matter how positive,essentialist stereotypes backfire.When native groups or in­di­vidu­als fail to live up to other people’s expectations, their opponents turn these failings into fodder for criticism. However, few successful native activists deal exclusively in the simplistic symbolic currencies of exoticism and nobility. Instead, they try to revalue those currencies,working to change outsiders’ ideas about who native people are and what they want and need.At the same time that activists capitalize on the utility of essentialisms, they also criticize their limitations. Ultimately, 68 / Conklin they aim to challenge and expand pub­ lic ideas about what it means to be indigenous in the contemporary world. One common representational tactic employed by indigenous rights activists worldwide involves foregrounding images that combine elements of tradition and modernity. Such representations aim to escape and transcend the limiting binary categories...