Simulacral, genealogical, auratic and representational failure: Bushman authenticity as methodological collapse

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dc.contributor.authorEllis, William F.
dc.date.accessioned18/08/2017 13:24
dc.date.available18/08/2017 13:24
dc.date.issued2014
dc.description.abstractThis article engages with the concept of authenticity as deployed in anthropology. The first section critiques authenticity as a simple reference to cultural purity, a traditional isomorphism or historical verisimilitude or as an �ethnographic authenticity�. Demarcation of authenticity must take into account philosophical literature that argues that authenticity is an existential question of the �modern� era. Thus, authenticity is offered to us as individuals as a remedy for the maladies of modernity: alienation, anomie and alterity. Authenticity is then discussed as a question of value within an economy of cultural politics that often draws on simulacra, creating cultural relics of dubious origin. The final section discusses various methodological failures and problematiques that are highlighted by the concern for, and scrutiny of, authenticity. The first is the simulacral failure. The subjects of anthropology are mostly real flesh-and-blood people-on-the-ground with real needs. In contrast is the simulacral subject, the brand, the tourist image, the media image or the ever-familiar hyper-real bushmen. Lastly, the article considers what Spivak calls �withholding� � a resistance to authentic representation by the Other. Resistance suggests a need for a radically altered engagement with the Other that includes both a deepening, and an awareness, of anthropology as a process of common ontological unfolding.en_US
dc.identifier.citationEllis, W. F. (2014). Simulacral, genealogical, auratic and representational failure: Bushman authenticity as methodological collapse. Critical Arts: A South-North Journal of Cultural & Media Studies, 28(3): 493-620en_US
dc.identifier.issn0256-0046
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10566/3133
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2014.929213120�133
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherTaylor & Francisen_US
dc.rightsThis is the author-version of the article published online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2014.929213120�133
dc.subjectAnthropologisingen_US
dc.subjectAuthenticityen_US
dc.subjectBushmanen_US
dc.subjectHyperreflexivityen_US
dc.subjectKalaharien_US
dc.subject�Khomanien_US
dc.subjectWithholdingen_US
dc.titleSimulacral, genealogical, auratic and representational failure: Bushman authenticity as methodological collapseen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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