Anticipating Individuals: Modes of Vision and Their Social Consequence in a Papua New Guinean Prison - Study Notes

ANTICIPATING INDIVIDUALS: MODES OF VISION AND THEIR SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES IN A PAPUA NEW GUINEAN PRISON

Author and Institution

  • Author: Adam Reed

  • Affiliation: University of Cambridge

Subject of the Article

  • Focus: The article delves into the experiences of vision in Bomana prison, Papua New Guinea.

  • Goal: It explores how prisoners perceive the visual limits and capacities of their incarceration, proposing a distinct understanding of vision contrasting with Western philosophical traditions.

Theoretical Background

  • Foucault's Influence:

    • Describes the role of penal surveillance technologies in shaping modern subjectivity in Europe and America.

    • Contrasts with the experiences of prisoners in Bomana who recognize various modes of vision with significant implications.

Modern Subjectivity and Vision

  • Foucault's Perspective:

    • Foucault positions modern subjectivity as related to an Enlightenment mode of vision characterized by:

    • A disinterested gaze.

    • A separation between subject and object, wherein the subject possesses an objectifying gaze.

    • This gaze eliminates dialogue, denying the connection between the seer and the seen.

  • Resistance to Hegemony:

    • Foucault aims to challenge the dominance of the objectifying gaze through examination of alternatives.

Historical Context of Vision in Prisons

  • Transformation in Penitentiary Architecture:

    • Late 18th-century developments lead to prisons emphasizing visibility:

    • Principles of the Enlightenment reflected in prison design aimed to make all individuals visible.

    • Example: The Panopticon, designed by Jeremy Bentham, which ensures inmates are always aware they might be observed, promoting self-surveillance.

    • Foucault critiques this architecture, arguing it enforces a hegemony of transparency that compels individuals to conform.

Anthropology of Melanesia

  • Cultural Perspectives on Vision:

    • Levin suggests engaging with multiple cultural perceptions of vision, emphasizing an anthropological responsibility to recognize different modes of being.

  • Sound vs. Vision:

    • Anthropologist Feld denotes how social worlds may prioritize auditory senses over visual ones, particularly among the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea.

    • Implication: In contexts where vision is limited, sound serves as a more integral sensory experience, enabling participation and dialogue.

  • Alternative Visual Experiences:

    • Gell discusses environments where the landscape affects visual perception, arguing the eye becomes an organ of intimacy rather than mere observation.

Strathern's Influence

  • Disturbing Traditional Analysis:

    • Strathern critiques conventional social analytical models, emphasizing relational ties over the isolated individualistic perceptions that dominate Western thought.

    • Proposes that social understandings among Melanesians reveal persons as always interconnected socially rather than alone or autonomous.

Research Focus: Bomana Prison

  • Prison Environment:

    • Bomana prison situated on cleared land near the Laloki River, fenced with various facilities, including a soccer pitch and chapel.

    • Prisoners live in dormitory-style cells that hold between 20-40 individuals, characterized by a harsh outdoor environment.

  • Classifications Within the Prison:

    • Structure follows colonial classifications: divisions of convicts, remand inmates, and juveniles, informed by perceived 'risk factors'.

Experiences of Prisoners

  • Visual Characteristics They Express:

    • Prisoners describe Bomana as a 'dark place' (dak ples), feeling disconnected from loved ones and familiar landscapes.

    • The sense of isolation is accompanied by a profound feeling of grief, regret, and loss due to separation.

  • Aesthetic of Concealment:

    • Despite the physical surveillance infrastructure, prisoners articulate a preference for the aesthetics of darkness, valuing the hidden aspects of their existence as significant in their growth and identity.

Growth Through Concealment

  • Physical Growth:

    • Prisoners report a paradoxical growth in their bodies due to enforced rest and nourishment, framed within the context of being hidden from the outside world.

  • Cultural Analogies of Growth and Concealment:

    • Strathern and other anthropologists emphasize a cultural understanding where concealment, rather than lack or absence, contributes to growth.

    • For example, among the Gimi, the act of incubation allows for fetal growth to occur in an unseen way.

Prisoner Perspectives on Relationships

  • Role of Absence in Identity:

    • Inmates equate their incarceration with other forms of separation, drawing parallels with mourning and previous cultural practices of men’s ceremonial houses designed to promote growth through isolation.

  • Anticipation and Release:

    • The mental preparation for release is impacted by anticipation of familial reunion and public judgment, leading to physical transformations noted post-release.

Modes of Vision

  • Engagement with Darkness and Light:

    • Prisoners navigate different modes of vision that are rooted in their experiences of social relations, where darkness and concealment coexist alongside the expectation of divinity and light.

  • Soccer Competition Example:

    • An examination of sociocultural activities like soccer reveals how prisoners construct their environments to enhance identity and unity through the act of concealment prior to public display.

The Role of Personal Spaces (Cubes)

  • Creating Privacy:

    • Prisoners construct personal spaces or cubes from blankets to shield themselves from visibility, which helps manage social dynamics and mitigate conflicts.

    • These cubes afford an escape from observation and regulation, and allow illicit behaviors to flourish within the safety of hidden spaces.

Theological Dimensions of Vision

  • Divine Gaze:

    • Inmates hold a theological understanding that God encompasses all, possessing the capacity to observe without reciprocation.

    • Engagement with God is not described as reciprocal; rather, it focuses on anticipation of divine judgment without expectation of dialogue.

Theology vs. Modern Subjectivity

  • Contrast with Foucault's View of Modernity:

    • This divine relation transcends Foucault's assertion that individuals must become self-assured subjects of their own visibility through surveillance, suggesting a different lens from which to assess subjectivity in prison.

  • Character of Acts:

    • The actions of prisoners are perceived not as self-authored but as responses in relation to the anticipated gaze of divine figures or societal laws, echoing Strathern's view on agency.

Conclusion

  • Vision as Mirror:

    • Prisoners liken law, custom, and religious beliefs to mirrors that reflect one's behavior, underscoring the relationship between gaze and action.

  • Enduring Connection:

    • The article concludes that in Bomana, the connections among prisoners, their expectations of visibility, and the anticipatory nature of their identities reveal profound insights into both the social fabric of Melanesia and the conceptualization of agency and subjectivity in contemporary settings.

Ethical Considerations

  • The account acknowledges the deeply situated ethics entwined within the prisoners’ narratives, denoting the significance of visual acknowledgment in relation to personal and communal identity formation in a constrained environment.

References

  • An extensive list of academic works cited to support arguments, including authors like Foucault, Levin, Strathern, and relevant anthropological literature.

Adam Reed's article, "ANTICIPATING INDIVIDUALS: MODES OF VISION AND THEIR SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES IN A PAPUA NEW GUINEAN PRISON," explores how prisoners in Bomana prison, Papua New Guinea, experience and perceive vision during their incarceration. The research challenges Western philosophical traditions, particularly Foucault's understanding of surveillance and modern subjectivity, by highlighting alternative modes of vision. The article integrates Foucault's theories on penal surveillance and the Panopticon with Melanesian anthropological perspectives on cultural perceptions of vision and an emphasis on relational ties (Strathern's influence).

Prisoners describe Bomana as a "dark place" (dak ples), emphasizing feelings of isolation, grief, and loss. Paradoxically, they value the aesthetics of concealment, finding that being hidden from the outside world contributes to their physical and personal growth, drawing parallels to cultural analogies of incubation and unseen development. They create personal spaces, or "cubes," from blankets to shield themselves from observation, affording privacy and enabling illicit behaviors.

The study also reveals a theological dimension of vision, where inmates understand God as an omnipresent observer whose gaze is non-reciprocal. This divine relation contrasts with Foucault's assertion that individuals become self-assured subjects through surveillance. The article concludes that prisoners' experiences of vision in Bomana, rooted in social relations and anticipatory identities, offer deep