Seeing Another Side of Other

Seeing Another Side of Other By Marguerite L. De Loney

The otherness of the fetish has become an increasingly contested subject of debate among scholars for its archaic use of legitimizing colonial stereotypes of native peoples. In the eyes of Homi Bhaba, the ideological construction of otherness commonly displayed in colonial discourse is dependent upon the concept of ‘fixity,’ a concept which Bhaba believes “connotes rigidity and an unchanging order as well as disorder, degeneracy, and daemonic repetition” that misrepresents cultural, historical, and racial differences (2004: 94). However, there are means of studying the fetish without relying on former methods of colonial discourse that ignore the historical and cross-cultural contexts of objects. William Pietz’s (1987, 1981, 1991) study of the origin of the idea of fetishism takes into consideration such contexts and serves as an excellent platform to base further study of the various uses and beliefs surrounding fetishes.

Although Pietz’s main focus of study is in colonial texts and travelogues, the ideas he presents are very applicable when considering fetishes as objects. One of the underlying themes of Pietz’s work is that it is possible to view fetishes as “productions resulting from the abrupt encounter of radically heterogeneous worlds” and recognize them as “remnants of the creative enactment of new forms of social consciousness (1987: 6).” Peitz identifies four themes that he sees as consistently informing the idea of fetish: (1) the materiality of the fetish; (2) the embodiment of an amalgamation of heterogeneous events into a singular identity in the fetish; (3) the dependency of the value of the fetish upon social order and constructs; and (4) the fetish, as an object, has an active relation with, and power over, the body and personhood of an individual (1985: 24).

Two of these themes, the theme of the fetish as the embodiment of heterogeneous events into one cohesive unit and the theme of fetish’s meanings’ dependency upon social order, are especially important when looking at the issue of otherness. The analysis of African portrayals of the Portuguese in Benin ivories conducted by Barbara W. Blackmun (1988) and Suzanne Preston Blier (1993) demonstrate that the notion of otherness is not a one-dimensional affair, but is rather a shared idea between different cultures as they come into contact with each other and experience ongoing cultural exchange. Beyond exhibiting the heterogeneous nature of fetishes and their otherness in midst of historical change, an exploration of the Benin ivories further reveals how the understanding and portrayal of otherness in fetishes is largely a reflection of social ideals and structures already in place.

Both Blackmun and Blier take a look at the Benin ivories and their iconography within a historical context. (It is important to note that Blackmun and Blier as art historians assign agency to the Benin ivories in terms of the symbolism of their iconography, not in terms of the object themselves, such as is seen with Elisha P. Renne’s (1984) analysis of Bunu Yoruba masquerades.) In Blackmun’s study of the Benin ivories, she noted a gradual conversion of the motifs displayed on the ivories correlating to changing circumstances. One of these changing motifs is that of a European trader in sixteenth- century garb, which after 200 years transformed into the image of an African priest, yet still with European characteristics. The historical context for such a change, explains Blacknum, centers on the increasing European presence in the Benin kingdom, disintegrating local political control, and economic instability that occurred at the turn of the nineteenth century.

The ivories were a source of legitimization for the Benin kingdom and its rulers. Tusks prior to the nineteenth century celebrated the conquests of the Europeanized Oba, Esigie of the fifteenth century, who encouraged Portuguese visitors to increase the wealth of his kingdom through foreign trade. The placement of the foreign trader in tusks of the later eighteenth century courts recalled the glorious days of the Esigie kingdom, legitimizing the line of succession to the throne through cultural pride. But in the early twentieth century, notes Blacknum, “as the Benin court struggled to reestablish royal prestige after the humiliation of foreign conquest, the figure of foreign allies had no further relevance to cultural pride” and the image changed from one of trader to priest, a reference to the legitimization of power restored through supernatural means (1988: 135). These interpretations of the Benin ivories’ iconography places representation of the other with in their historical contexts, but such images have both supernatural and historical associations. To understand the supernatural ones, it is necessary to assess the social/cultural contexts of the motifs, something that Blier’s work addresses.

Blier’s thesis is that the African kingdoms of the coast understood and depicted the otherness of the Portuguese within their own body of already present cultural knowledge. It is for this reason that images of the Portuguese, and the objects those images were inscribed, were imbued with supernatural powers. For example, Blier discusses the spirituality of the African peoples as being focused on the powers of death and the world of ancestors. Two very prominent symbols associated with such realms are the sea/water and the color white, which represents the life once held in bones. When the African peoples came into contact with a completely foreign entity, the Portuguese, they identified and interpreted the characteristics of that foreign entity in terms of the contemporary perceptions and traditions of the societies in which they lived. Thus, the Portuguese, arriving by sea and having white skin, allowed for image of them to represent the supernatural. Blier remarks that the Bini ivory carvers, having to complete objects for external patrons using foreign models and motifs, must have had to “approach such forms with their own cultural assumptions, creating in turn striking images of the Portuguese as stranger humans and spiritual others” (1993: 385).

Taking a look at the work done on the Benin ivories and the themes of fetishes presented by Peitz, it is possible to begin to think of otherness not a singular concept unique to any one culture. In fact, if one were to consider the historical and social contexts behind the meanings given to fetishes or their images, it may be possible to say that otherness is not unique at all, for as is seen in the ivory depictions otherness is a mixture of the known and unknown, of this culture and that. Perhaps Blier’s assessment of the Africa ivories best demonstrate such a point:

Africa ivories from this period make us aware of the historic boundaries of here and there, selfhood and other…These works make visible an ongoing dialogue of mutual appropriation and investment—of money, meaning, value, and power, and in the process, the production of new Portuguese and African identities as they articulate each other…African ivories now also can be admired for the provocative insights they encode about exchange between Africans and Europeans during the initial period of contact (1193: 360).

Otherness is a process; it is not static. To fully understand it, one must think about Peitz’s themes of heterogeneity and the social values of objects, and follow his methodology in viewing objects as they are perceived and change through time and contexts. Maybe then will there be more of an understanding of cultural values and less stereotypical colonial discourse.

References Cited

Bhabha, Homi; 2004. “ The other question: stereotype, discrimination and the discourse of colonialism" in The location of culture. London and New York: Routledge, 94-120.

Blackmun, Barbara W.; 1988. “From trader to priest in two hundred years: the transformation of a foreign figure on Benin ivories,” Art Journal 47: 128-138.

Blier, Suzanne Preston; 1993. “ Imagining otherness in ivory: African portrayals of the Portuguese ca 1492” Art Bulletin 75: 375-396.

Pietz, William; 1985-88. “ The problem of the fetish” Part I, Res 9 (1985) 5-17; Part II Res 13 (1987) 23-45; Part III Res 16 (1988) 105-23.

Renna, Elisha P.; 1984. "Things that threaten: a symbolic analysis of Bunu Yoruba masquerades," Res 26: 99-112.