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political chimeras

chiefs’ talk
fluent in a verbal genre
formalized speeches directed either to leaders of other groups (Southern Amazon in multiethnic and multilingual system of Upper Xingu) or to their own people, depending on the context in which they are delivered
--Guerreiro--> both the chief and his audience are symbolically constructed as “paradoxical” subjects characterized by contradictory predicates
•*how uncertainty can enact an exchange of perspectives* (through which the identities of the group and the chief are produced)

(from a gift-theory perspective) chief: donator of goods and words, and a receiver of spouses <-- unilateral direction ==> “chieftaincy کدخدايى: a place of nonexchange” [~ signs are deprived of their circulation value + reciprocity is denied under the demand that society make visible the foundations of power, maintaining them under the control of the collective body] --> ‘creditor position of chief’ would imprison power and assume control of the place where it could emerge =/= society of the state

ritual polity
public rituals are the main motor of collective life / @apass

chieftaincy <--> ritual

ritual condensation: the simultaneous enactment of nominally contrary modes of relationship:
•affirmations of identity are at the same time testimonies of difference
•displays of authority are also demonstrations of subordination
•the presence of persons or other beings is at once corroborated and denied
•secrets are simultaneously dissimulated and revealed
•
==> combination of contradictions ==> distinctive context of communication

ritual efficacy of images and objects
ritual relation to mnemonic technologies
relations between images and words
--Severi--> concept of chimera helps (an indigenous mode?) in understanding power and dealing with it

(Severi and Lagrou + Guerreiro)
[*]chimera: every image that, by designating a plural being by means of a single representation, mobilizes its invisible parts, by purely optical means or by a set of inferences
-chimerical image associates, in a single visual form, indexes from different beings (a bird and a human being, a serpent and a jaguar, a wolf and a sea lion etc.), provoking a projection by the eye, which gives rise to an image implying at the same time the presence of these different beings
-evokes something that is implicit or absent to the observer
-chimerical images present a specific link between iconic representation (by imitation and convention) and indexical indication (visual, tactile or other) of a presence whose mode of existence, especially mental, is not realized materially
--> game between:
•perception & projection
•iconic representation & indexical indication
==> intensification (of the efficacy of chimeric images) : “capture the eye = capture the imagination” + demand that by projection [the observer] mentally “complete” the image

indexical signs have a causal contiguity (spatiotemporal contiguity) with what they signify

ritual action and artistic creation --Severi--> synesthetic

(my lecture-performances? ~ chimeric image of chiefs’ talk [khotbe خطبه fluent at combining different aesthetic resources] -->) linguistic + extralinguistic media in ritual performance (working/producing visual + mental images)
--> combining of indexical signs in communication acts ==> poetry of identities-in-motion (capable of projecting complex images of a nonvisual kind)
[*]image: an abstract portrait of identity fashioned out of cumulating patterns of congruence across all manner of indexical signs--including visual ones--that addressees and audiences can imaginatively experience, like a hologram
(Silverstein > Guerreiro)
~~--> ***relation between poetics and the production of identities***

chimerical representation: an art of ambiguity

(Strauss's Amazonian ethnology -->) dualism in perpetual disequilibrium: centripetal forces of centralization + centrifugal forces of dispersion

@apass ==> “societies against the state”
complex relations between hierarchy and counterhierarchy
(--> Renan's notion of monologue)


[Clastres's model rooted in Western language ideology looking at Amerindian language:]
metahistorical bond between *power & speech* cannot be conceived of separately
•state societies --> the word is a ‘right’ to power (that may be used to command)
•societies against the state --> the word is a ‘duty’ of the chief (an indigenous leader must be capable of offering society the words that it ‘demands’)
◾Amerindian chief: a voice preaching in the wilderness (literally says nothing, a repetition of “edifying discourse”) <-- his speech is not spoken in order to be listened to (~ ritualized act [=/= act of communication]) ==> chief's speech is transformed into pure value (~= poet's speech for whom words are values before they are signs) --> (for Clastres) language =/= violence: a facet of coercive power

denotative قوه تفکيک ()
predicative (Dickensian aspect)
referential (the efficacy of its context and meaning depends on something else)
enunciation (pragmatic) ==> effects on the enunciator + audience ~~Silverstein--> [*]politics: the dynamic arrangement and rearrangement of people as subjects within structures of actual and potential action of all sort --comprises--> poetics <== everything experienced as effective practice is formed semiotically (~ through sign)
*political oratory [=/= informing the content of a message] uses poetical resources that allow interlocutors to have their identities mutually constructed by means of indexical signs* (that connect the message's form to extralinguistic contextual facts) --> *message ascribes to me [=/= message describes my reality]*

Ali's use of political oratory in the context of ordinary interactions with me --> i forgot that the symbolic procedures that separate ritual speech from ordinary interactions are not necessarily intended to mean something
-what was the pragmatic conditions that define the kind of ‘language game’ Ali was playing?

[*]formalization: reduction of combinatory and creative possibilities of language by the use of formulas, archaic vocabulary, syntactic and stylistic patterns {--> distancing the
discourse from its semantic content ==> attention to its context and performance ==> effects}

ritual action --Severi--> reflexivity: definition of its own meaning and effectiveness within the context of ritual communication

(@apass's) performative and poetic structure
[Guerreiro -->] chief = consanguine kin ابى & potentially dangerous enemy [---> go to transference]
(chief's fellows's both as children & prey)

ritual speech ==> ***complex enunciator*** [~= #feedback]
ambiguity of duality of gestural and verbal [==> exchange of perspectives (=/= exchange of words)] --?--> paradoxical construction of identities
+
chimerical representation --> presence of counterparts (of percepted fragmentary signs) to its audience


beautiful and strong body
serene and generous behavior
linguistic abilities (“made to discourse”)
(we are living with) mythical, aesthetic, and ritual elaboration
guiding them with “good speech”
pleasing them by sponsoring rituals
welcome messengers (“made in order to greet messengers”)

relational and possessive

(possessed form of) asymmetrical relationship between a denominated (individualized) person and an undifferentiated collective

agglutinate
enunciated in the same tone with no pauses to breath
+
expletive ah
+
set of particles
+
deictic ige (evidential [devaluating?] particle that indicates proximity, presence, or existence, fixed to the copula --> piece of advice?)

expletive and particles with no lexical element --> self-derogatory forms of speech (the “humbling effect”)


it's common for men to emit long high-pitched and melodic screams as soon as they wake up ==> to wake the whole village up with joy

present is nothing more than an impoverished form of a previous age idealized as grandiose <-- (chief) to “work on his children” like an ancestor, he must state that he could never do so


*parallelism*
enchainment of repeated verses and themes ==> the shaman is symbolically identified as a paradoxical character (human & nonhuman, here & there, in the present time & in the mythic time)
--> transfer properties from one being to another

(formal =/=) ‘performative parallelism’ between the actual chief and those before him ==> attenuate past & present
-he speaks about ancestors, as an ancestor (using their language), and on ancestors’ behalf (since they are gone)

(antonymic affirmation of) “past =/= present” ~=> shame in the listeners ==> act as the ancient chiefs’ own children
--Austin--> illocutionary force ==gives==> capacity to perform an act in saying something
*hyperbole (contrast) ==> the audience could be aesthetically and morally compelled
to act in some way (perlocutionary acts)


that which had once been human (--> mythical human origin of the plant corn)

chief is weakened ==> people tend to be more egoistic --> “go crazy” + forget about their relatives = (the first step in) producing a witch

(Pir ~= chief's) foundations of kinship = thinking about kin =/= forgetting kin :
•generating and raising children
•producing food
•avoiding witchcraft
==> fabrication of a collective body of kin

imperfections of the present + ideal of social life ==encourage==> people to behave like kin (<-- needs to be actively produced)

[we have to be carefull in art with performances of] words hold within them the positive moral and creative element of power; and contain meaningfulness, value, artistry and affective mass (--> carrying the weight of an order without appearing as such) =/= authoritarian discourse
@Inga

--> ***a brief moment, a world where the difference between chiefs (leader-like speaker, am i like that in my performance lectures?) and nonchiefs (listeners, his children) can be effective***



xxxxxx

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theory (is either): *powerful* (accounting for a limited number of features valid for a great number of cases) {extensionally oriented, for example comparative or statistical analysis} =/= *expressive* (accounting for a great number of features belonging to a limited number of cases) {intentionally oriented, for example clinical case studies}

extensional --> generalizing

‘ethnography ==> reduction of complexity’ =/= complexity is precisely what characterizes ethnography


counterintuitive ==give==> representation its psychological salience

the experience of dreaming is full of counterintuitive representations (rapidly forgotten)

counterintuitive context of ritual communication --> successful propagation of a representation (memorable)
for example recitation of shamanistic chants --construct--> an acoustic mask =/= convey meaningful message

for religion (and marketing?) culturally successful representation : *a counterintuitive representation formulated within counterintuitive conditions of communication*

}--Severi--> we need a more expressive theory of cultural propagation (<-- my try in telegram bestiary text)


doctrinal (semantic memory) and imagistic (episodic memory) religious modes

(how to better be understand the contemporary art's drive to) *ritual communication* --> performed through both action & speech
•the context: establishment of a particular form of interaction (from a series of contradictory connotations, being two things at the same time --> symbolic transformation) ==construct==> a special identity of the participants
--> xxxx جمع گرایانه syncretistic movement @apass (used as an instrument of resistance?)


messianism = intense propagation + paradoxical identification
--> convert entire populations in a short amount of time

pragmatics of communication --> appearance of a paradoxical “I” personified by the prophet

(warrior shaman messiah's) contradictory self-definition ==able==> enunciate paradoxical statements
--Severi--> to be faithful to the local tradition

Appache --> opposition to Christianity take the firm of conceptualizing Christianity as a different religion
•absorbing but not understanding the elements (of Christian religion) ~= being impressed by story {<-- i do this in my artistic work but i don't ask for devotion or trust}
--> using typical imagistic methods, ritual of dance

the old man Arnold

chant (ritual symbolism) -->
•treat illness
•accompany rite of passage
•impart magical powers
-

(amerindian) shamanism --> establishes a metaphorical link, a set of analogies ~= mystical relationships between ritual objects and living being [--> construct its own truthuniverse, supernatural dimension thought of a possible world]

bleeding pearl

parallelism : (a technique of) threading verbal images together

[Severi's early interpretation of] tradition (would need to) preserve the text + instructions to use --by--> verbalizing them (store them in the chant)

Kuna --> description of the position of the speaker (“shaman is now seated there and is saying...”) characterizes the special kind of communication (appropriate for ritual changing)

shaman: novel sort of enunciator (lending his voice to other invisible beings --> plural and contradictory identity)

acoustic mask: a reflexive means to define the ritual identity of the speaker

reflexive application of parallelism

(@Isabel, how to make community without becoming a cult?)

use snake --> capture the imagination of the followers ==> authority

imagistic (iconic mode, sequence of acid) + doctrinal (discursive mode, text, prayer) = pragmatics context of enunciation ==> messianistic religion

both paradoxical & parallelistic

new ways to be faithful...

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exhibition-making and preventive conservation --> inspection and exposition <-- (different understandings and use of) *touch = curatorial*

professionalisation of curating
short-term education
cultural exchange

@apass feedback: (terrain of) peer engagement --> understanding each other’s practices

education, research, literacy, management, networking, custodianship, audience development

research (overdue) relationship with intelligence --✕--> **research: adventure of charismas**

...to be migratory (in thought, praxis, community)

...subjectivities without a heritage in criticality and art

constraint: a source of self-abundance --Renan--> suffering and risk = opportunities to hybridize with life

curating:
•nutrition and extension
•analysis and transplantation
•=/= content historicization
•=/= data


extraterritoriality
being collocated in all the whispers of the world


wild pollination
artificial breeding

Renan: Institutional work carried by a freelancer, a private individual or a civil servant can improve the publicness of art. It gives confidence to the work of art in public service. This institutionality creates new tasks in art that can be sustained by other practitioners.
@apass

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publication of the miracle
[the miraculous in exhibitions + self-exhibiting miracles]
Renan's *exhibitionary heritage* of miracles

seeing (risk of sight) --> passionate misunderstanding, confusion, rejection

cultural engineering of anthropology of heritage

exhibitionary heritage: a scaffolding that times, locates, and proliferates all that is exhibitionary (like a shower, or rainfall)

curatorial subjectivity

exhibitionary complex
•describe the problems of an exhibitionary heritage
•find solutions to artistic problems in the description of exhibitionary complexes

(the bad idea of interpreting exhibitionary heritage as an) exhibitionary solution to problems that are represented by the works of art --> correlate artistic solutions with exhibitionary problems }<--Renan-- consumes the links between art, exhibits, and curation naturally and atheoretically

creation of art <--✕--> birth of exhibition
(artistic problem ~/= exhibitionary problem)

...using the concepts and tools of exhibition history

the bad idea of the artistic is conceived in exhibitions & the exhib[...]