Treasures Untarnished



















                             Belinda Garcia
                             Global Culture
                          Prof. Martin Roberts
                            October 27, 1995

	In 1955, Claude Levi-Strauss boldly claimed that journeys "will never
again yield up their treasures untarnished."  If we choose to confine
the meaning of "untarnished treasures" to a literal one (i.e., tangible
items which have not previously surrendered their luster or curiosity to
other "civilized" eyes), then Levi-Strauss' assessment of global
development remains a fairly accurate one even forty years later.  If
present day travelers journeyed solely in search  of "undiscovered"
peoples or material "treasures," it is highly unlikely that they would
find either.  There seems not to exist an area of the globe unmapped by
"civilized" man.  Several films and photographic images work to support
this theory.
	In the 1970s, for example, Jerry Leach's film "Trobriand Cricket:  An
Ingenious Response to Colonialism" allowed Western spectators to observe
and admire the creativity of a people as remote as the Trobriand
Islanders in their successful adoption and adaptation of traditional
English cricket.  Observing a people through film automatically
disqualifies the subject from being "undiscovered," since at least the
filmmaker had to "discover" the people before immortalizing them in
celluloid.*  
	Not only has Western man effectively captured "treasures" on film and
shared these tarnished gems with the rest of "civilization", he has also
succeeded in "tainting" native cultures with symbols and items which
undoubtedly originated in the Western world.  In a picture of a
Panamanian weaving, for example, anyone who has ever owned a record disc
produced by RCA Records can clearly recognize the company's logo in the
pattern of the weave.   The presence of this logo in an object as native
to the people as an intricately woven garment exhibits the extent to
which Western culture has permeated the lives of non-Western people.  
	This strange phenomenon by no means confines itself to indigenous
cultures of Latin America.  A second image underlining the extent of
this permeation is one of a man who appears to be an African native
wearing traditional tribal garments and carrying a spear.  The image,
upon first glance, can easily trick the viewer into believing he is
observing a man "untouched" by Western society (with the exception of
the photographer), but a closer inspection reveals the fallacy of this
conclusion.  The man's right ear sports a rather large piece of jewelry,
perhaps an earring.  It is not the cylindrical shape of the earring that
will disappoint a viewer in search of an "untarnished" image, but
instead it is the print across the cylinder which reads, "'Ideal' Milk",
and a line beneath the first continues, "A Nestle's ..." (the print
becomes unreadable after "Nestle's" because of the curvature of the
can).  Clearly the man has encountered "civilization" by the time the
photograph was taken, supporting Levi-Strauss' claim.
	Surprisingly, this infiltration does not confine itself to continents
on which a large Western population resides.  For example in Leach's
film, which concentrates on a specific population on a Trobriand Island,
a viewer using traditional dress and language as metrics in an attempt
to disprove the existence of cultural "dilution" (ignoring the influence
of the camera crew) of the native population is bound to experience
disappointment when he discovers that the umpire totes a bright blue
Adidas gym bag for storing cricket match equipment.  His disappointment
will be compounded by the translation of various chants sung by the
natives, some of which pay tribute to commercial Western products.
	Finally, a film that drives Levi-Strauss' point home, and
indeed could be described as existing for no other reason than to confirm
Levi-Strauss' claim, is Dennis O'Rourke's "Cannibal Tours."  O'Rourke's
filmic invitation to Westerners to enter the world of the "cannibal"
reveals to us by the end of the film that we play the role of the
cannibal, for as tourists we have consumed a once "primitive" and
life-embracing people (MacCannell, p.25) and turned them into
ex-primitives, doomed to forever playing the role of "primitive" for our
entertainment.   This stinging point is made especially clear by several
of the film's most memorable scenes.  
	In the first scene, an ageing and obviously wealthy German man
discusses with a native of Papua New Guinea the significance of a
particular site which once served as a decapitation center for the
"tribe."  The tourist is obviously enthralled by the notion of such a
"savage" way of life, and to "capture" the novelty, he asks the native
to join him in a photograph as he stands next to a spike upon which once
perched the lifeless head of a tribal enemy.  This act on the part of
the tourist merely trivializes a ritual that most likely spanned
generations of natives and carried with it significant meaning
understood only by the natives.
	In another scene, O'Rourke interviews a wealthy Italian family
on the Western cruise ship traveling the Sepik River.  With regard to 
the natives, the head of the family states 

> We must enter their villages as the missionaries did.  We must make them
> desire our values, our convictions, to teach them something, to do
> things for themselves, to teach them to desire our point of view, to
> make them want to wear our kind of clothes. (MacCannell, 	p.46)

No interest is shown in attempting to learn about and understand the
natives' customs or philosophies, and perhaps compare their way of life
to Western life.  The tourist simply presumes that the Western way of
life is the correct way, and that non-Western people must be forced to
accept it as such.
	Lastly, the scene most supportive of Levi-Strauss' claim occurs 
during an interview of a young native man by O'Rourke.  As the interview
occurs, camera-toting tourists surround the young man like buzzards
swooping down upon carrion.  They snap photographs before the young man
has completed the interview with O'Rourke.  When O'Rourke points out the
tourists to the man, the expression in his face tells us that he is
already aware of their presence, but does not react, because there is no
"proper" way for him to react.  His village relies on the monetary
contribution from tourists.   For him to react in response to his true
feelings (which can be read in his defeated facial expression) could
upset the tourists and endanger the financial position of the entire
village, so he cannot react.  His expression is surely that of a
"tarnished" human being, and is most likely a common one among others in
his village. 
	Leach's and O'Rourke's films combined with the photographic images
previously described provide support for the claim set forth by
Levi-Stauss.  By examining these images we can find truth in his
assertion that "treasures untarnished" no longer exist, but only to the
extent that we limit our definition of treasures to those of a material
nature.  If we expand the definition of "treasures" to include
philosophies and cultural values, then there exist a multitude of
treasures untarnished in the world yet to be discovered by Western man.  
 

Endnotes

* Interestingly, this uni-directional observation could occur without
the viewer ever having to leave his or her homeland, perhaps even his or
her city.  Films similar to this have virtually obviated the need for
actual travel.  Compound this with the growing expansion of digital
communication networks, and travel on this planet could one day be a
curiosity of the past.
 

  Works Cited


Leach, Jerry W. 1973. "Trobriand Cricket:  An Ingenious Response to
	Colonialism."  


MacCannell, Dean.  1992. Cannibalism Today.  In 
	Empty Meeting-Grounds:  The Tourist Papers.	New York:
	Routledge.


O'Rourke, Dennis.  "Cannibal Tours."