BOURDIEU
ALGERIA
COLONIAL POLITICS,
ETHNOGRAPHIC PRACTICES,
THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENTS
ited and with an introduction by
j@ E, Goodman and
A, Silverstein
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nenology and Ethnography
le Habitus in the Work
lerre Bourdieu
“Trardatee byTretn Jan
duction
(ong, Bourdicu’s contributions to the social sciences, the concept
ubitus is certainly the most widely discussed, even—I would
routine-ized. However, there is an angle from which habitus
iiever truly been reconsidered: the angle of ethnographic practice.
absence of discussion on this point is all the more suprising,
as iis well known—Bourdieu elaborated the essentials of his
son practice—“fields,” “habitus,” “temporality,” and “symbolic
ital” —on the basis of his Kabyle ethnology.
i following the development of the notion of habitus in Bourdiew’s
nological work, T want to reflect on his ethnographic approach
its epistemological underpinnings.‘ It is not my purpose to deny
{ Bourdieu’s studies on Algeria represented a breakthrough, nor
Ininimize the productive character of his conceptual elaboration
ring the interpretation of Maghrebi societies and their trans-
mations (Hammoudi 2000a). Nonetheless, a close look at his
thod opens the question of the fit between his ethnography on
‘one hand, and his theoretical project on the other,
During the course of Bourdieu’s works on Algeria, the concept ofwannouD! ’ FHINOMENOVOG AND ETHNOGRAPHY
habitus comes to supplant that of tradition, iden Of hiv ethnographic practice and its consequences
question of whether the former retains some of th ani inalysis of his writings (as has been done by Hammoudi
latter. And indeed, Kabyle tradition, as Bourdieu pt i Hourdiew and Wacquant 1992: 2045 Dortier 2002: 7, 9)2 A
monolithic, static, and limited to a restricted space: that ol
whose contours and physiognomy were constrained by:
nitions, So much so that, in the case at hand, a (colonial)
tradition, it would seem, had instilled a certain Kabyle
This is nor all that surprising; indeed, whether in the Mi
elsewhere, dominant discourses granted specific and well:
traditions to dominated societies.
Wook at Bourdieu's writings shows one such consequence, one
ificane relation between ethnogeaphic practice and theory that can
Wumnmarized as follows: Bourdiew’s ethnographic practice failed to
fer the tensions, contradictions, and debate within the so-called
ulitional society.” For, having uncritically borrowed much from
nial ethnography, Bourdieu’s theoretical innovations left intact
y of the simplifying schemata of his predecessors.
Having been an assiduous reader of Max Weber, Bourdieu Morcover, the sort of ethnography that Bourdiew took for granted
ingly writes as if traditions were only called into question in fact, hardly adequate for his project. For example, it worked
development ofa rationality arriving from elsewhere: in thi Ng an old division of labor between ethnology and Orientalism,
modern, capitalist one imposed by colonial domination. Th cording to this disciplinary order, ethnologists of Kabylia learned
tion and habitus, in this scheme, leave little room for study of used the oral vernacular for their inquiries, while Orientalists
of reason in social practices anterior to colonization—an ass lized in the written language. In this case, ethnologists learned
which is surely debatable, Similarly, they not only marginalize speak Berber with their informants, while Orientalists learned
contradictions but also the relative freedom that men and we sical Arabic. This dichotomy occulted the fact that Kabyles, like
their action exercise with regard to normative systems. R hy other peoples, spoke and/or wrote about themselves, others,
‘once more to Max Weber, it is well known that charismati \ about the world not only in Berber, but in other languages as
ments frequently challenge traditions and create new ones example, in colloquial Arabic, classical Arabic, and French
been frequently the case also in the Maghreb. Finally, itis viously, not all of them did, But a number of them did so—still
possible to conform to a tradition for some rational motive, «and from a multiplicity of spaces and cultural sertings: Kabylia,
‘These considerations spur us to reflect on the question of era, other places in the Maghreb and France (among others).
raphy, on the research practices and human interactions wl The problems multiply when one considers, from this complex
beneath Bourdiew’s theory of practice. Pierre Bourdieu left Ispective, the notions of field, strategy, and temporality, all of which
of the concrete circumstances surrounding his research acti lerelated to habitus, and crucial regarding Bourdieu’s objections to
Kabyle villages between 1958 and r96r, during the height structuralism of Lévi-Strauss; for one can no longer say for sure
Algerian wary neither did he wrice much on his own ethno} jac is a matter of a habitus of strategies and what would be bet-
accounted for by pragmatics more or less consciously deployed.
practice or on the implications of his own presence in Kabylli
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