TABLE
OF CONTENTS
|
Multi-Sited Ethnography Project
Performative
Mercantilism: A multi-sited ethnography
of ulterior personality constructs within the marketplace
Introduction
During
my voyage on Semester at Sea I sailed around the world stopping at ten
ports
for an average of five days each. During
those five days I struggled to understand the complex culture in which
I found
myself. While I found many of these
cultures to be distinct and unlike any society I have seen, I became
intrigued
with the universals I noticed between them. Anthropologist
George E. Marcus describes in his article
“Ethnography
In/Of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography” that
the key
question is perhaps: What among local subjects is iconic with or
parallel to a
‘worlds apart’ site? In every port,
in
every country that I visited there was a marketplace.
However, while their existence in each
country was universal, not all of them were the same.
There were those created by and for locals
where food stuffs and necessities were sold, and then there were
markets
designed
for visitors, collectively known as the “other.”
What
I focused on in my research across these nations were primarily the
markets
designed for this “other.” I
investigated how the local people presented themselves and their
country to travelers. What I discovered
was the formation of an
ulterior personality construct by the merchant in accordance with the
perceived
wants of the buyer. I have included case
studies from China
where I discuss the female merchant’s performative marketing strategies
that
target the feminine shopper. Items like
imitation designer hand bags and manicures were frequently advertised. Secondly, I included a piece from Turkey
where,
alternatively, men dominated the merchant class. A
notable difference in the strategies
between these two genders is revealed but the performative aspect of
their
marketing strategies remained. Lastly, I
included what I observed in a brothel in Burma.
While this may seem unrelated, a brothel is essentially
another form of market within the service industry.
In this ethnography I do not discuss the
merchant. Instead, I focus on the
product: the women who are selling themselves. I
comment on their removal of personality as opposed to
the addition of
an ulterior personality construct. I
focus on the facelessness of these women.
Underneath
the discussion of performative mercantilism I hope to explore gender
relations
between the merchant and the customer as well as compare merchant to
merchant strategies
across transnational boundaries. I had
not expected these gender distinctions, but they are inevitably
intertwined
with ideas of identity and have come to play a large role in the
marketing strategies
of the marketplace.
China: Missy
Turkey: Performing for the West
Burma: One Night in Yangon
Analysis
Burma,
Turkey and China
are very distinct. They have different
political organizations,
religions, languages, and cultures. I
found comparing these marketplaces that are situated on different sides
of the
world a daunting task, and I often felt like Eric J. Haanstad who
traveled to Bangkok
and wrote in his article, "The Other City of Angels: Ethnogrpahy with
the Bangkok Police", about his own doubts in his
abilities
as an anthropologist. Just as he thought
he was prepared to enter a foreign country since he had read so much
about
culture shock but then found himself in a total breakdown, I too found
myself
standing in the middle of a marketplace at a loss about where I should
even
begin. While I stood surrounded by
people, I tried to compose myself and stay focused on a topic. Everything was chaos as people swarmed about
me. Locals would systematically approach
me while I tried to write and kept insisting I needed to buy another
evil eye
bracelet for 2 lira.
As I looked back
and began making comparisons between the markets that I had visited, I
not only
found similarities between the merchants of different countries but
between the
sellers and myself. I had to change my
personality in order to adapt to my surroundings while doing fieldwork. I tried to disappear into the streets of Cairo or Istanbul
by wearing a headscarf to hide my blonde hair, or I would attempt to
use only
the local language even though English was widely understood. The women I saw in the Burmese sex club were
participants in a market that removed their identies.
They became faceless. While
in the shopping centers of Turkey
and China
merchants adopted a new
facade, one aimed at the customer's perceived wants, and I was simply
trying to fit in with the hopes of eventually understanding their
societies.
Just as
anthropologist Elizabeth Vann discusses the selling of mimic goods in
her
article “The Limits of Authenticity in Vietnamese Consumer Markets,”
the
merchants in Turkey
and China
present a
mimicked character to the customer. A street
merchant
would often attempt to talk to me about American topics like Hollywood
stars or American singers. They would
mimic
a Westerner as a strategy to make the customer feel more relaxed in an
otherwise alien environment. Often
merchants would tell me about their distant relative that lives in New
York as
if that somehow established a bond between the two of us that would
make me
liable to reciprocate our instantaneous friendship by purchasing a
souvenir
coffee mug.
Conclusion
What
started as an observational based account of performative sales tactics
by
merchants in multisited marketplaces has turned into a complex
discussion of
identity, gender, and how we present ourselves to the “other.” The adaptation of personalities or even the
removal of one, as seen in Burma,
is a universal in how we as humans interact with each other. I had chosen this topic because I saw it as
exotic. Back home in the United States
I
was never approached by a seller, never engaged in a bargain exchange
that
lasted almost half an hour, and I certainly was never flirted with as a
sales
tactic. I thought that all of these
encounters
in the marketplace were somehow unique to foreign countries, but I
disproved
myself when I began adopting my own ulterior personality while visiting
the
markets. I changed the way in which I
presented myself to fit the preconceived notion of what I thought the
society
that I was visiting would respond the best to. I
am left wondering if in our attempts to become the
“other” the
merchant and the buyer cross and meet in the middle where
transnationalism is
born.
|
