Richard Rogers
Response Paper
ANTH 407
Due: 2-26-09
What is fear? According to Miriam-Webster’s dictionary, fear is to be afraid of someone or something. What is brotherhood? Miriam-Webster says it is the whole body of people involved in the same business or profession. In Michael Taussig’s book Law in a Lawless Land was written like a diary, where each day is a new chapter. Each day, Taussig records what is going on from sun to sundown and to sun up again. He writes not only about what he sees, but what he encounters, who he talks to, how they feel, he writes about the various groups of people and how they interact, etc.
From Law in a Lawless Land, I chose a section on page 11. On this page, Taussig is quoting Barbara Ehrenreich. Is says, “We ourselves are the War. Its flame burns strongly in us. It envelops our whole being and fascinates us with the enticing urge to destroy.” (Taussig 2003, 11) At the end of the paragraph, Michael Taussig says “Their inclination to cruelty, romance, and anarchy fits them better for what has been called ‘the war machine’ which has few rules or else keeps changing them.” (Taussig 2003, 11)
In Uzodinma Iweala’s book Beasts of No Nation, he writes as if he is a boy going through all these different events in this African Country. This boy is named Agu, and he is found by a military group, and is beaten and coursed into killing people, almost as if they are acculturating killing into Agu. Because it is written from the view of Agu, the language is a stereotype of what a young boy in an African country might sound like when they try to speak English.
From Beasts of No Nation, I chose a section on page 21. The passage I choose writes “He is taking my hand and bringing it down so hard on top of the enemy’s head and I am feeling like electricity is running through my whole body.” “He is annoying me and I am brining the machete up and down and up and down hearing KPWUDA KPUWDA every time and seeing just pink while I am hearing the laughing KEHI, KEHI, KEHI all around me.” “I am vomiting everywhere. I cannot be stopping myself. Commandant is saying it is like falling in love.” “I am growing hard between my leg.” (Iweala 2005, 21-22)
I chose each of these passages because I felt that they had two important underlying themes. They both had to do with fear and brotherhood. In the case in Law in a Lawless Land, people are constantly in fear because of ‘the war machine’. What is meant by ‘the war machine’, is the perpetual cycle of people fighting each other, because its all they know, its all they have been taught, they are fighting for what they believe they deserve, or they fight to survive. Barbara Ehrenreich in Taussig’s book also explains that they have the desire to destroy and kill, but they do it with fellow brothers. I believe it’s because it makes it easier to kill, whether they are egging you on, or doing it with you.
In the case in Beasts of No Nation, Agu has some much fear of the Commandant and his army, that he dares not disobey them for fear of death. In the book right before these passages, the Commandant threatens to kill Agu if he does not stand next to the Commandant and kill the man. Agu goes over to the Commandant and the Commandant starts to help Agu kill a man. In the passage, the Commandant controls Agu’s arms, then eventually lets go and Agu continues to hack at the man with his machete. Agu fears to stop hacking at the man. The other theme, brotherhood, is portrayed when Agu is chopping the man with his machete. The soldiers are laughing, which is showing what Agu is doing is good. So Agu feels he should keep going on chopping at the man. With out fear and brotherhood, I believe that we would not have problems like this. With out fear, there would be a lot of people who would not join these murderous groups. Without brotherhood, people might not feel that they have to join one of these groups going around killing people.
Whether writing a diary about ones experience or writing from the point of view from a child who is enduring these experiences, I feel do these problems justice. These books might be fiction, but they hook the reader, and inform the reader of what is going on in certain parts of the world. I believe that anthropologists should look into writing about issues in modes like these. Not only are they more likely to reach a larger audience, but also it reads easier than reports on issues like these, there fore reaching more people. To put an end to problems like these around the world, we must first inform and educate. And how we do that, may be the key to helping others.
References
Iweala, Uzodinma
2005 Beasts of No Nation. HarperCollins Publishers.
Taussig, Michael
2003 Law in a Lawless Land. The University of Chicago Press.