Briggs, lived with the Utku, Eskimo people of N. Canada:
“I was first a stranger and curiosity, then a recalcitrant child and finally a confirmed irritant”.
Shuetz notes that strangers have:
- a more critical eye on local practice
- different kinds of habitual thinking
- double (doubtful) loyalty
Strangers are also closely observed.
Fortes working in West Africa distinguished three possible kinds of relationship that could be formed with strangers:
(i) no-relationship – strangers as aliens/spirits, harmful, should be avoided
(ii) relationships of enmity – strangers who are not fully human – need to be subdued, can be drawn into relationships of slavery
(iii) strangers who can be drawn into semi-kinship relations – potential affines.
Akan notions of strangerhood – defined by politics and kinship – not by cultural or residential criteria.
Internal Strangers: Ahoho are non-citizens but have the same cultural and political sensibilities and can become affines.
Outsiders/Aliens: Ntafo live apart in the Zongos (the foreign quarters of Akan towns and even villages).
First Contact
Columbus and the “New World”
1492 Columbus set off in 1492 to find Asia – using maps drawn by Marco Polo and information that came from (i) previous travellers and (ii) from authoritative sources – the Bible and the work of ancient scholars.
Peter Hulme looked at journals of those who accompanied Columbus (notably Las Casas) written over the six and a half month journey from Europe to the so-called “new world” (1492-1493).
Columbus himself never knew that he had “discovered” the Americas –he assumed he was just off the coastline of Cathay –near the island of Cipangu (Japan) and a cluster of smaller islands to the NE. In fact he was in the place we now know as Santo Domingo, off the coast of Cuba.
Captain Cook in Hawaii
Sahlins (the Professor from Chicago) and Obeyesekere (the Professor from Princeton)
Sahlins focus on the mythic beliefs that explain why the Hawaiians killed Cook.
Obeyesekere argues that in fact the Hawaiians are not ruled by myth but use the same sorts of pragmatic considerations as Europeans. People are never tied into world views
Kuper - both men were in fact using quite similar ideas. Sahlins appealed to the power of habitual thinking – but also talked about political realities. Obeyesekere emphasises pragmatic concerns – but relies on a mythic idea of who westerners are (and how they think).
The Australians in the Highlands of Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea
