Blinding the Snake: Women's Myths as Insubordinate Discourse in Western Fiji

Abstract

Abstract: How and in what cultural arenas do women contest, contradict or invert dominant ideologies of gender? This article examines how myths told by women in western Viti Levu, Fiji, represent a site of resistance (Abu-Lughod, 1990) wherein hegemonic understandings of gender are contested. This is achieved through a transformation of signs (Hall, Critcher, Jefferson, Clarke and Roberts, 1978) that sees authoritative male figures depicted as powerless, challenges a spatial order that privileges men, and attacks an order of knowledge that declares vision the dominant mode for the apperception of knowledge. By contravening dominant meanings, these myths present a rupture of (Sharpe, 1995) that subverts reigning constructions of truth. I argue that anthropology's understanding of the legitimizing role of myth must be tempered by an appreciation of its potential as a risk to the sense of signs (Sahlins, 1987: 149). Resume: Comment et dans quels domaines culturels est-ce que les femmes contestent, contredisent ou inversent les ideologies liees a la condition sexuelle? Cet article examine comment les mythes racontes par les femmes de l'Ouest de Viti Levu, Fiji, representent un site de resistance (Abu-Lughod, 1990) ou les perceptions hegemoniques de la condition sexuelle sont contestees. Cette contestation s'accomplit par une > (Hall, Critcher, Jefferson, Clarke and Roberts, 1978) qui voit les figures d'autorite masculines depeintes comme sans pouvoir, qui defie un ordre spatial qui privilegie les hommes et attaque un ordre de connaissance qui prend pour acquis le mode dominant de perception de la connaissance. En s'opposant aux significations dominantes, ces mythes presentent une > (Sharpe, 1995) qui subvertit les constructions reconnues de la verite. Je soumets que la comprehension anthropologique du role legitimant du mythe doit etre temperee par une reconnaissance de son potentiel comme > (Sahlins, 1987: 149) Copies that are not copies: But just when it looked so neat and tidy, the ground starts to shift. -- Taussig, 1993: 115IntroductionOver the past 20 years anthropologists have so radically altered their view of culture as an object of study that Jocelyn Linnekin has referred to this change as a paradigm shift within our discipline (1992: 250). Rather than regard culture simply as a consensual, homogeneous system of understanding, it has come to be seen as a socially constructed, sometimes socially imposed and much negotiated discourse. This shift in perspective is reflected in an increased concern with the political processes involved in the production, legitimization and representation of culture. Specifically, where are dominant meanings formulated within a culture? Who wields the power to control the processes of cultural production, elevating some versions and denouncing others?(f.1) How are cultural meanings inscribed and validated or alternatively debated and contested? What media constitute potential sites of discourse (Stallybrass and White, 1986: 194) for the circulation of ideas regarding the nature of society, being used either to forward elite models (Linnekin, 1992: 253) or generate contested renderings of social reality (Williams, 1991: 14)? And finally, how and why are certain versions silenced? Within this field several important issues have been raised concerning the politics of culture as it relates specifically to gender. What role do women as a status group within society play in cultural production, either as consumers of certain versions of reality or as generators of signs (Levi-Strauss, 1969: 496),(f.2) and how and in what cultural arenas do women contest, contradict or resist dominant ideologies of gender? …