In class on Thursday, we had a discussion about cultural authenticity in the context of two Kayapo villages, Kapot and Gorotire. What was interesting to me is that we began this discussion with a working definition of authenticity that was from the point of view of a “Westerner”. This definition held that authenticity meant the Kayapo staying true to themselves, a past version of themselves. I think many other students recognized that this definition was subpar because it did not allow for any change in Kayapo culture, that is behaviour, ways of dressing, adoption of technology, social and physical structures. I would like to make a connection to Timothy Mitchell’s writing on the Orient. Early on in the passage, Mitchell establishes that the concept of the Orient creates a dichotomy between the Orient and the West. Orientalism portrays the Orient as “passive”, “static”, and “emotional” and the West as “active”, “mobile”, and “rational” (p. 289). If my reading of Mitchell is right, the first definition that we discussed is complicit in Orientalist ideas, as it holds that Kayapo culture must remain “static” in order to remain authentic. 

Later, another definition of authenticity was introduced, which held that the Kayapo would define what was authentic for their own culture. I think it is important that we continue to work with this definition of authenticity as it avoids the othering and infantilizing that Orientalism implies. Regarding the idea of Kayapo determining their own cultural authenticity, we also discussed how the interaction with Terence Turner and the Kayapo Video project made the Kayapo conscious of their culture. This idea of media technology increasing self consciousness and self awareness is fascinating to me and brings to mind an example from a similar project, the Video in the Villages Project. During this project Brazilian activist and anthropologist Vincent Carelli works with the Nambiquara who sometimes use their videos to critique and discuss making changes to rituals. This has prompted me to wonder about how media in our own society can make us increasingly self conscious and self aware. In recent years, social media and other forms of media have been used as evidence when confronting public figures about past problematic behaviour, and arguably sparked broader societal awareness on the related issues. I think that is just scratching the surface on the concept of media/social media raising or producing self consciousness, it would be interesting to consider the ripple effect of these instances, examples that are not related to cancel culture, and examples of non-public figures.