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TheGoffman
PrizeLecture:
MasculineDominationRevisited1
PierreBourdieu
PrefatoryRemarks
and its Chair,
I would liketo thankthe Sociologydepartment
to speakheretodayin frontof this
forthe opportunity
Neil Fligstein,
impressiveaudience.I would like to thankalso the studentsand the
and
departments
facultyfor theirhospitalityand all the different
in
warm
welcome
for
their
Berkeley.
programs
indeedproud,to be
FirstI mustsaythatI amgenuinely
honored,
the firstrecipientof the GoffinanPrize awardedby the Sociology
was a verydearfriend
ofBerkeley.
ofmine
ErvingGoffman
Department
of Californiain the
fromthe days whenhe taughtat the University
of theman,I wouldlike
sixties.Leavingasidemanypersonalmemories
of thescholarthat,in myview,deserve
to insiston two characteristics
andimitated.
to be celebrated
Firsthe was verymodestwhenitcame to his theoretical
culture.
He oftenexpressedhis regretsat not havingreceivedthe strong
thatsomeEuropeanssocial scientists
training
philosophical
beget.But,
in fact,as you will readilyrealizeby scrutinizing
his footnotesand
had a penetrating
and
especiallythesubstanceof hisanalyses,Goffman
ofthetheoretical
deftmastery
toolshe neededto formulate
andto carry
out his scientificproject. And without"playingthe part" of the
- in particular
he madesignalcontributions
to philosophy
philosopher,
to the philosophyof language,of performative
and
of the self,
acts,
areas.
other
among
had anotherveryrareintellectual
ErvingGoffman
qualitythatis
related
to
his
theoretical
he
had
a
closely
modesty:
unique abilityto
detectanddeciphertheminutedetails,thequasi-invisible
processes,and
theinfinitesimal
featuresof everyday
life.He was thediscovererof the
small" in societyas he raisedto the dignityof scientific
"infinitely
1Thisis thetextofthefirst
Goffinan
PrizeLecture,
delivered
Bourdieu
at
byPierre
theUniversity
ofCalifornia,
onApril4, 1996.Translated
andedited
Berkeley,
by
LocWacquant.
190
191
192
can be
{Erlebnis) of the masculineand the femininewhich,by definition,
neitherfalsifiednor replicated?(I must confess that I also wanted to
avoid writingyet anotherexegesis about exegeses of genderthatwould
add to the profusionof discourses on discourses about gender and sex,
yet anothertexton the canonical textsthatare on everyone's mandatory
list of authors,fromFreud to Lacan and Lvi-Strauss to Mackinnon. I
wanted, to put it bluntly,to avoid the empty speculation of pure
theoreticaldiscourse and its clichs and slogans on "gender and power"
which so farhave done moreto muddlethe issue thanto clarifyit).
To escape this infernalcircle whereinwe unconsciouslytake as
instrumentsof analysis of masculine domination the unconscious
(masculine) categories produced by this domination,I decided to start
fromthe anthropologicalanalysisof one particularhistoricalcase ~ as I
did in my studyo Homo Academicus (Bourdieu, 1984/1988), where I
used an in-depthstudyof the Frenchuniversitysystemin the sixtiesto
tryto uncoverthe invariantsof the modernacademic mindand universe.
This case is the world of the Kabyles of Algeria, among whom I did
fieldworkin the 1950s and 1960s.
To describethe objective structuresof the social universeof the
Kabyles is at the same time to describe the mental structuresof the
observer,that is, my own mentalstructuresas a man born in the neoMediterraneanculturaltradition.Kabylia offersa unique terrainin which
to carryout this experimentalexercise in self socioanalysis, or, if you
allow an expression that will perhaps sound oxymoronicto some, an
exercise in experimentalcriticistphilosophy.For a varietyof historical
reasons thatwould be too long to enumerate,thispeasant societyof the
mountainsof the Atlas was, until recently,a kind of anthropological
sanctuarywhere ancientMediterraneantraditionsand modes of thought
had been preserved at a fairlyhigh degree of practical coherence and
societies
Ethnological studies on honor and shame in different
integrity.
around the Mediterraneanrim,fromGreece to Egypt and fromSpain to
Turkey (Peristiany, 1965), show that Kabylia offers a living,
thatis at
of a masculinecosmogony-in-action
paradigmaticinstantiation
once exotic and familiar because it lies behind our own European and
even Euro-Americanculturaltradition.
It follows that, by studyingup close the ritual and mythical
practices of the Kabyles, we may uncover (or recover) a system of
representationsor, bettera systemof principlesof vision and di-vision
common to the entireMediterraneancivilizationand which survivesto
this day in our own mental structuresand, for a part, in our social
structures.The "phallonarcissistic"cosmology to whichthe Kabyle give
public and collective display haunts our unconscious, including our
scholastic unconscious and the unconscious of the science of the
193
unconscious,thatis, psychoanalysis
(as even a cursoryanalysisof the
ofFreudor Lacan readilyreveals).
writings
Thusto use ethnological
as an instrument
ofrupture,
description
wentto histhousandslidesof genderadvertisement,
I
just as Goffinan
wentbackto theethnographic
dataI had collectedinKabyliabutwhich
I had onlypartially
analyzedin thisregard(see Bourdieu,1980/1990:
Book II). I treatedtheKabylecase as a sortof "aggrandized
picture"
a historicalmodel,but a
throughwhichwe can moreeasilyconstruct
structures
ofthemasculine
visionand
generalmodel,ofthefundamental
divisionof theworld.I soughtto use thismodelto explicatehow the
thatwe can clearlydiscerninthecase of
"phallonarcissistic"
dispositions
theKabylehavebeendeposited,inscribed,
within
thebodiesofthemen
and womenof contemporary
Westernsocietiesbutin distorted,
partial,
mutilated
and
forms,at the cost of gaps, discrepancies,
substitutions,
inconsistencies.
To giveyouan analogy,I hopedto putmyself
inthesituation
of
someonewho is trying
to reassembleand makesenseof theremaining
of a greatmonument,
the Parthenonor the Mausoleumof
fragments
a
or
a
leftbythosewho builtit.In
Helicarnesse,
byusing map
blueprint
thisrespect,theexperiment
was successful
insofar
as itlaterallowedme
to recoverfroma classicof feminist
such
as VirginiaWoolfs
thought
To TheLighthouseanalysesofthemasculine
I couldnothave
that
gaze
detectedhad I not re-readit througheyes informed
by the Kabyle
vision.
Therewas another,
butnevertheless
use of
secondary
important,
thisethnological
detour:to submittheinnumerable
theories
contending
of genderto theacid of theKabyletest,ifI mayput it thus,so as to
discernthose thatare scholasticartifactsof what Barbara Christian
(1988) calls the "race for theory"fromthose that bringto light
new aspectsof sociohistorical
genuinely
reality.At theriskof seeming
arrogant,I will confess that I also hoped that, throughthis
deviceand following
thelogicof a historically
founded
methodological
accountof gender
model,I would be able to propose a systematic
domination
thatwouldintegrate
thebest of the existingworkson this
topic(workswhichI read,formostof them,onlyex post, afterhaving
conductedmy own inquiry,for fear that I would be divertedin
directionsstipulatedby the masculineunconsciousof whichwe all
partake).
Some ProvisionalResultsofthe"Kabyle Experiment'9
I wouldlikenowto mention
someofthemainsubstantive
briefly
194
BOURDIEU:
195
3. Genderedsocializationand thesomatization
ofdomination
The work of socialization closes the circle by reinforcingand
systematizingthe structuringof the experience of a world structured
according to this originary division. Education exercises a
psychosomaticaction leading to the somatizationof sexual difference,
that is, of masculine domination.One particularlyimportantdomain of
application of this work of psychosomaticinculcationis the embodied
construction of social differencesbetween the sexes. It operates
accordingto several modalities.
The firstconsists in rites of institutions(rather than rites of
passage: Bourdieu, 1982/1990), such as circumcision,which mark the
opposition not between a "before" and an "after,"youthand adulthood,
but between those who participatein the rite-men-and those who do
not-women (historically,sports have played this critical role in our
societies).
The second is the constructionof the biological body, thatis the
symbolic remaking of anatomical differences.Here we observe a
surreptitiousinversion of causes and effects,whereby the socially
constructedbody serves as an ideological foundationfor the arbitrary
opposition throughwhich it was itselfconstructed.Thus the schemata
that organize the perception of sexual organs and activityare also
applied to the body itself,both male and female. They differentiate
between the body's high and low parts, the borderbetween thembeing
196
BOURDIEU:
197
198
BERKELEYJOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
BOURDIEU:
199
200
orderor froma
proceedeitherfroma materialist
analysisofthematerial
symbolicanalysisof the symbolicrealm.WhatI proposeto do is to
intotheanalysisofthesymbolic
thematerialist
modeofthinking
import
universe(muchas Max Weberdid forthe sociologyof religion,cf.
Bourdieu, 1987). Indeed, the sociology of masculinedomination
betterthanmosttopicsthesevereshortcomings
of materialist
highlights
theoriesofdomination.
These shortcomings
are especiallyvisible in the case of
form
societiesin whichsymboliccapitalis thepreeminent
precapitalist
of power. Anthropologists
have shownthat one cannotunderstand
in suchsocialformations
withouttaking
sexualpracticesand meanings
intoaccountthefactthatmasculineactionis alwaysorientedtowards
(OrtnerandWhitehead,
1981).Butto drawthefullimplications
prestige
this
we
cannot
on
of
finding,
rely a symbolicanalysisof the symbolic
order.We need a materialist
theoryof theeconomyof symbolic
goods
in
and symbolicexchanges(Bourdieu,1994b).Masculinedomination,
thefinalanalysis,isfoundeduponthelogicof theeconomyofsymbolic
betweenmen and
asymmetry
exchanges,i.e., upon the fundamental
inthesocialconstruction
ofkinship
andmarriage:
that
womeninstituted
It is the relative
betweensubjectand object,agentand instrument.
autonomyof the economyof symboliccapital which explainsthat
in
can perpetuateitselfdespitetransformations
masculinedomination
themodeofproduction.
of womencan come onlyfroma
It followsthatthe liberation
the
collectiveactionaimedat a symbolic
struggle
capableof challenging
and
that
from
of
embodied
immediate
structures,
is,
objective
agreement
theveryfoundations
of the
thatwouldoverturn
a symbolicrevolution
of
and
symbolic
capital.
reproduction
production
ConcludingRemarks
to sayeverything
andto
It is notpossible,in sucha brieflecture,
say it in the rightorder,especiallyon such a thornyand contentious
thatthis
threefunctions
topic.But I wouldliketo close by suggesting
and
when
we
transfer
applyitto the
analysisoftheKabylecase can play
societies.
ofcontemporary
understanding
Firstly,this model can serve as a "detector"to locate and
traces and the scatteredbut ubiquitous
gather the infinitesimal
world view. It allows us to better
of
the
androcentric
fragments
and the
characterof masculinedomination
the systematic
understand
rule
as a
heterosexual
to
constitute
it
comes
male,
processeswhereby
naturalgiven.Secondly,theanalysisof theKabylecase as a "realized
BOURDIEU:
20 1
202
BERKELEYJOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
to realize
becomesocialcritiqueand thatwe muststruggle
collectively
theseconditions
bothinandoutoftheuniversity.
I had with
of a conversation
I will close witha remembrance
in fronttheMaisondes Sciencesde l'homme- how
ErvingGoffinan,
beforehisdeath.He spokeabouttheneedto wage a
apposite-- shortly
collectivebattleagainstthe social abuses of social science.Today we
need to wage this strugglealso againstthe forces that work to
the hegemonyof philosophy
over the social sciencesat a
reestablish
timewhen,morethaneverbefore,we needthetools of criticalreason
ofdomination.
to countertherationalization
References
Bourdieu,Pierre
Press.
1980/1990 TheLogic ofPractice. Stanford:StanfordUniversity
Bourdieu,Pierre
in Language and SymbolicPower. Cambridge:
1982/1990 "RitesofInstitution,"
Press.
HarvardUniversity
Bourdieu,Pierre
Press.
1984/1988 HomoAcademicus.Stanford:StanfordUniversity
Bourdieu,Pierre
1987
"Legitimationand StructuredInterestsin Weber's Sociology of
Religion." in Sam Whimster and Scott Lash, ed., Max Weber,
Rationality,and Modernity.London: Allen and Unwin.
Bourdieu,Pierre
1990
"La dominationmasculine,"Actes de la Recherche en Sciences
Sociales, Vol.84, pp. 2-31.
Bourdieu,Pierre
1994a
"Rethinkingthe State: On the Genesis and Structureof the
BureaucraticField," Sociological Theory,Vol. 12 (March),pp. 1-19.
Bourdieu,Pierre
Raisonspratiques.Sur la thoriede l 'action.Paris: Editionsdu Seuil.
1994b
Bourdieu,Pierreand Jean-ClaudePasseron
1970/1977 Reproductionin Education,Societyand Culture.London: Sage
(paperbackeditionwitha newpreface,1990).
Christian,Barbara
1988
"The Race forTheory,"FeministStudiesVol. 14, No. 1, pp. 67-69.
Dover,K.J.
L 'homosexualit
1982
grecque. Paris: La pensesauvage.
203
Durkheim,Emile
1912/1995 TheElementaryFormsofReligiousLife.Translatedand withan
introduction
byKaren Fields. New York: Free Press.
Goffman,
Erving
1976/1979 GenderAdvertisements.
New York: HarperColophon.
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1966
Ecrits.Paris: Editionsdu Seuil.
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1981
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1965
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