麻豆视频

Keyword: Material Witness

The concept of material witness has been articulated by researcher, documentary filmmaker, and artist, Dr. Susan Schuppli, in her book Material Witness as 鈥渘onhuman entities and machinic ecologies鈥� that archive their complex interactions with the world, producing ontological transformations and informatic dispositions that can be forensically decoded and reassembled back into a history [3]

Schuppli has primarily defined this concept as 鈥渆vidence of an event鈥� and as the 鈥渆vent of evidence鈥� of acts of violence, but with further qualification that material witnesses are not just archival materials. In order to become material witnesses, rather than simply materials, the 鈥渃omplex histories entangled within objects鈥� must be 鈥渦nfolded鈥� and their information must 鈥渢estify鈥� in public [18]. Some examples of material witnesses from Schuppli鈥檚 work include a 鈥榙ead鈥� CCTV monitor from the infamous Long Kesh Detention Centre in Northern Ireland, which has an image of the hallway of the now defunct prison burned onto its non-functioning screen; the administrative documents of the Nazi regime in Germany; and Liri Loshi鈥檚 videotaped evidence of the aftermath of the massacre at Izbica, Kosovo in 1999.

Though her concept centers around information that has borne testimony in trials, Schuppli is not interested in exploring the concept of the material witness through a legal framework, nor the question of justice within the various contexts she is examining [13]. Rather, she is concerned with the 鈥渋ntertwined relations鈥� between 鈥渉uman and nonhuman forms of testimony鈥� and their ability to 鈥渂ear witness to powerful events鈥� as they act as 鈥渁gents endowed with the capacity of (technical) speech鈥� [13]. She asserts that artifacts can 鈥渋nduce the affective register of testimony鈥� and that indeed materials can bear witness [14].

As a linguist working within the domain of language revitalization and reclamation, reading Schuppli鈥檚 concept articulated as materials bearing witness brought to mind Hupa feminist scholar Dr. Cutcha Risling-Baldy鈥檚 book We Are Dancing for You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women鈥檚 Coming-of-Age Ceremonies. In her book, Risling-Baldy articulates the continuity of Native peoples鈥� relationships with relatives and other than human relations, including language, songs, and dances, and discusses her own experiences with contending with material witnesses of a sort.

In chapter 3, entitled 鈥滐豢Wung-xowidilik Concerning It鈥擶hat Has Been Told ANTHROPOLOGY AND SALVAGE ETHNOGRAPHY鈥�, Risling-Baldy gives her account of working with archived field notes of anthropologist Alfred Kroeber. Explaining Kroeber鈥檚 legacy, Risling-Baldy quotes noted Hupa scholar Jack Norton that Alfred Kroeber is one of the worst-perceived 鈥榣iars鈥� for California Indian peoples, stating that the compromised figure can be noted for his prolific work, even as his 鈥渋nterpretations of social, economic, and religious factors鈥� need to be 鈥渞eevaluated as ethnocentric, anthropocentric and in some cases鈥�racist鈥� [73].

Risling-Baldy explicates how despite his belief in his own objectivity and cultural relativism, Kroeber鈥檚 worked is layered with his colonial point of view and the interpretation that Kroeber imposed on his accountings of Native peoples. Particular to this view is also the documentation of the 鈥榗ultures鈥� of Indigenous peoples as a form of salvage ethnography. Kroeber and his contemporaries viewed any information they could learn from their Native 鈥榠nformants鈥� as an effort at gleaning a more 鈥榩ure鈥� account of precolonial ways of life from their modern consultants. Risling-Baldy deftly articulates how such anthropological accounts have been used to invisibilize Native peoples and citing Lakota scholar Vine Deloria Jr., how these anthropological portrayals of Native peoples have actually deeply influenced colonial law and certainly Federal Indian Policy in the US [79].

Risling-Baldy asserts that in spite of these layers and certainly unbeknownst to him, his notes themselves contain a 鈥渃ontinued negotiation of refusal鈥� by his ethnographic consultants and demonstrate their 鈥渟elf-determination鈥� [75]. As Risling-Baldy states

鈥�it is not that Native consultants wanted recognition from anthropologists and ethnographers in regard to the importance or centrality of women鈥檚 coming-of-age ceremonies but rather, in my view, that they insisted on documenting these ceremonies because they were leaving a record for future Native peoples鈥�After having survived brutal attempts 锘縯o annihilate their culture and ways of life, Native people must have been conscious of how women鈥檚 ceremonies were continuously threatened by settler colonial policies of genocide, assimilation, and termination. The ethnographic record became one way for them to build an informed documentation of these ceremonies. [76-77]

聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Nevertheless, as Risling-Baldy explains, the ethnographic record, despite containing inaccuracies stemming from the biases of scholars like Kroeber and others, also contains the information that Native people would not leave out and that remains there, even as the narratives of disappearing Native peoples and their ways of life still try to erase them [97]. Thinking through Hupa women鈥檚 work before her own and through her own work, Risling-Baldy gives the summation that the Flower Dance ceremony

鈥�never disappeared and would never disappear, go extinct, or be forgotten. The ceremony could be none of those things because this ceremony was in the memories of our elders, in the records and stories left by our ancestors in the ethnographic record, and being danced for all time in the heavens above, waiting for us to recall it [99].

I see Schuppli鈥檚 concept of the material witness as useful in conversation with accounts like Risling-Baldy鈥檚 in viewing the field notes of a deeply flawed figure like Kroeber for their potential to act as a witness to the biases of a researcher like Kroeber, and by extension the colonial apparatus鈥檚 attempts to place Native peoples and their lifeways in the past. As agentive and affective and in considering the public witnessing component of Schuppli鈥檚 concept, however, it would seem that the notion of material witness does not place enough agency with the Native peoples whom Kroeber and others learned from. Informed by Risling-Baldy, rather than casting the human parties solely in terms of the actors of violence and its victims, these notes testify to the self-determination and refusal of Native people, who bear witness through these notes to future generations. Through these notes, past generations are able to speak to future generations.

Works Cited:

Risling-Baldy, Cutcha. We Are Dancing for You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women鈥檚 Coming-of-Age Ceremonies. University of Washington Press, 2018.

Schuppli, Susan. Material Witness: Media, Forensics, Evidence. MIT Press, 2020.