The Fire and the Tale

In his uneven, albeit interesting book "The Fire and the Tale (2017)," Italian political theorist Giorgio Agamben provides an anecdote from the history of Judaism that struck an chord for me in terms of debates over Chamoru authenticity in culture, the issue of contemporary Chamoru cultural dance, and our relationship to our past. Here is the anecdote, which is the source of the title for this book on aesthetics. 

“When Baal Schem, the founder of Hasidism, had a difficult task before him, he would go to a certain place in the woods, light a fire and meditate in prayer; and what he had set out to perform was done.

When a generation later, the Maggid of Meseritz was faced with the same task, he would go to the same place in the woods, and say: “We can no longer light a fire, but we can pray.” And everything happened according to his will.

When another generation had passed, Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov was faced with the same task, and he would to the same place in the woods and say, “We can longer light a fire, nor do we know the secret meditations belonging to the prayers, but we know the place in the woods, and that can be sufficient.” And sufficient it was.

But when another generation had passed Rabbi Israel of Rishin was called upon to perform the task, he sat down in his golden chair, in his castle and said, “We cannot light the fire, we cannot speak the prayers, we do not know the place, but we can tell the story of all this.” And, once again, that was sufficient.”

I don't bring this up to draw any deep connection between Judaism and Chamoru history or culture (I'd definitely quote Slavoj Zizek's "Looking Awry" here if this was a paper). But I find the role of "the story" to be very relevant. All cultures changes, all cultures forget, even those that haven't been as colonized as the Chamoru people, and the emphasis on the story or stories of the people is what gives a sense of identity and continuity. But what we saw from Chamorus in the 20th century was a clear sense of peoplehood, they saw themselves as a distinct group, but they lacked that story element. They did not articulate themselves as tied to their ancient ancestors, even if they still had certain strong spiritual connections). I see this as highly relevant to the issue of Chamoru dance, since it is not that any of the chants or dances that we do today are meant to be accurate representations of those from ancient times. But they represent Chamorus today assuming the responsibility for telling that story. 

Our elders for much of their time, would have said, "We cannot sail the seas, we do not make lattes, we don't know the dances, and our culture has changed" implying there can no longer be any connection to the past. Chamorus today can say the same things, lamenting our lack of “authentic” connect to the past, but by taking up their role in telling that Chamoru story, it means that we can acknowledge loss or acknowledge things being forgotten, but it also means that we can continue to dance if we want, make latte and sail the seas again.