Pub Date : 2020-09-25DOI: 10.1177/1359183520959387
M. Hitchcock
The formation of archives has been a key facet of the archaeological discipline since its inception, critical in the production of knowledge from the destructive excavation that occurs in the field. The ongoing ‘archival shift’ within the humanities from archives as mere sources of secondary information to primary topics of research has presented new potential for the study of historic archaeological archives. This article explores the personal archives of two great scholars of Iron Age Celtic art, Paul Jacobsthal and EM Jope, held at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. Shedding new light on their engagement and interaction with the objects that they studied, the author explores the archive’s power to illuminate the ways in which the scholars’ methods, experiences and encounters shaped the knowledge that they produced about the past. Through presenting the archives as both primary sources of historical information and vibrant material entities, worthy of ‘excavation’ in their own right, the article advocates an assemblage-based archaeological approach to archival engagement.
{"title":"Reflections in shadow: Excavating the personal archives of Paul Jacobsthal and EM Jope","authors":"M. Hitchcock","doi":"10.1177/1359183520959387","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183520959387","url":null,"abstract":"The formation of archives has been a key facet of the archaeological discipline since its inception, critical in the production of knowledge from the destructive excavation that occurs in the field. The ongoing ‘archival shift’ within the humanities from archives as mere sources of secondary information to primary topics of research has presented new potential for the study of historic archaeological archives. This article explores the personal archives of two great scholars of Iron Age Celtic art, Paul Jacobsthal and EM Jope, held at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. Shedding new light on their engagement and interaction with the objects that they studied, the author explores the archive’s power to illuminate the ways in which the scholars’ methods, experiences and encounters shaped the knowledge that they produced about the past. Through presenting the archives as both primary sources of historical information and vibrant material entities, worthy of ‘excavation’ in their own right, the article advocates an assemblage-based archaeological approach to archival engagement.","PeriodicalId":46892,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Material Culture","volume":"26 1","pages":"25 - 42"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1359183520959387","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41940553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-08-29DOI: 10.1177/1359183520954514
Z. Dziuban, E. Stańczyk
Mass violence leaves behind a trail of destruction. Similar to people, things also fall victim to displacement and armed conflict. Possessions swap hands, get voluntarily or forcefully relinquished, exchanged for food and shelter, hidden away, entrusted to friends and neighbours for safekeeping, or brought along into forced exile. Objects find their way to mass graves too, in the pockets and bodily orifices of the killed, on the fingers and wrists of the dead. In times of war, things are also made in response to economic scarcity and deprivation. Produced from waste and debris, such objects come to serve as mementoes, reflecting prison or frontline experiences and attesting to the hardships of the time. In the aftermath of war and conflict, things are often rescued by survivors or the families of victims, inherited, retrieved by forensic experts, or looted from war graves. The surviving thing is mobilized in art practices and storytelling, displayed in museums, or called forth to testify in judicial proceedings. Whether as trophies, souvenir, or evidence, things remain imbued with affect, permeated with memories (both actual and constructed), and burdened with conflicting narratives of the past.1 This special issue investigates the role of objects in European histories and legacies of war, genocide and forced migration. Combining expertise in anthropology, forensic archaeology, cultural geography, history, and cultural and memory studies, the articles explore how rescued, looted, misappropriated, abandoned, found and recovered things live on in the aftermath of mass violence. Based on a broad range of cases and geographical contexts, from Spain to France, Italy to Poland, this issue looks at material, symbolic and political practices around surviving things and traces their trajectories in post-conflict settings. The authors show that personal objects are endowed with various qualities
{"title":"Introduction: The Surviving Thing: Personal Objects in the Aftermath of Violence","authors":"Z. Dziuban, E. Stańczyk","doi":"10.1177/1359183520954514","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183520954514","url":null,"abstract":"Mass violence leaves behind a trail of destruction. Similar to people, things also fall victim to displacement and armed conflict. Possessions swap hands, get voluntarily or forcefully relinquished, exchanged for food and shelter, hidden away, entrusted to friends and neighbours for safekeeping, or brought along into forced exile. Objects find their way to mass graves too, in the pockets and bodily orifices of the killed, on the fingers and wrists of the dead. In times of war, things are also made in response to economic scarcity and deprivation. Produced from waste and debris, such objects come to serve as mementoes, reflecting prison or frontline experiences and attesting to the hardships of the time. In the aftermath of war and conflict, things are often rescued by survivors or the families of victims, inherited, retrieved by forensic experts, or looted from war graves. The surviving thing is mobilized in art practices and storytelling, displayed in museums, or called forth to testify in judicial proceedings. Whether as trophies, souvenir, or evidence, things remain imbued with affect, permeated with memories (both actual and constructed), and burdened with conflicting narratives of the past.1 This special issue investigates the role of objects in European histories and legacies of war, genocide and forced migration. Combining expertise in anthropology, forensic archaeology, cultural geography, history, and cultural and memory studies, the articles explore how rescued, looted, misappropriated, abandoned, found and recovered things live on in the aftermath of mass violence. Based on a broad range of cases and geographical contexts, from Spain to France, Italy to Poland, this issue looks at material, symbolic and political practices around surviving things and traces their trajectories in post-conflict settings. The authors show that personal objects are endowed with various qualities","PeriodicalId":46892,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Material Culture","volume":"25 1","pages":"381 - 390"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1359183520954514","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48102447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-12DOI: 10.1177/1359183520931900
Kate Binnie, Coreen Mcguire, H. Carel
In this article, the authors consider breathless adults with advanced non-malignant lung disease and their relationship with health objects. This issue is especially relevant now during the Covid-19 pandemic, where the experiences of breathlessness and dependence on related medical objects have sudden and global relevance. These objects include ambulatory oxygen, oxygen concentrators and inhalers, and non-pharmacological objects such as self-monitoring devices and self-management technologies. The authors consider this relationship between things and people using an interdisciplinary approach employing psychoanalytic theory (in particular Winnicott’s theory of object relations and object use), Science and Technology Studies (STS) and phenomenology. This collaborative approach allows them to relate patient use of health objects to ways of thinking about the body, dependency, autonomy, safety and sense-making within the context of palliative care. The authors illustrate the theoretical discussion with three reflective vignettes from therapeutic practice and conclude by suggesting further interdisciplinary research to develop the conceptual and practice-based links between psychoanalytic theory, STS and phenomenology to better understand individual embodied experiences of breathlessness. They call for palliative care-infused, psychoanalytically informed interventions that acknowledge breathless patients’ dependence on things and people, concomitant with the need for autonomy in being-towards-dying.
{"title":"Objects of safety and imprisonment: Breathless patients’ use of medical objects in a palliative setting","authors":"Kate Binnie, Coreen Mcguire, H. Carel","doi":"10.1177/1359183520931900","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183520931900","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, the authors consider breathless adults with advanced non-malignant lung disease and their relationship with health objects. This issue is especially relevant now during the Covid-19 pandemic, where the experiences of breathlessness and dependence on related medical objects have sudden and global relevance. These objects include ambulatory oxygen, oxygen concentrators and inhalers, and non-pharmacological objects such as self-monitoring devices and self-management technologies. The authors consider this relationship between things and people using an interdisciplinary approach employing psychoanalytic theory (in particular Winnicott’s theory of object relations and object use), Science and Technology Studies (STS) and phenomenology. This collaborative approach allows them to relate patient use of health objects to ways of thinking about the body, dependency, autonomy, safety and sense-making within the context of palliative care. The authors illustrate the theoretical discussion with three reflective vignettes from therapeutic practice and conclude by suggesting further interdisciplinary research to develop the conceptual and practice-based links between psychoanalytic theory, STS and phenomenology to better understand individual embodied experiences of breathlessness. They call for palliative care-infused, psychoanalytically informed interventions that acknowledge breathless patients’ dependence on things and people, concomitant with the need for autonomy in being-towards-dying.","PeriodicalId":46892,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Material Culture","volume":"26 1","pages":"122 - 141"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1359183520931900","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43964203","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-01DOI: 10.1177/1359183519858375
Piers Kelly
Message sticks are tools of graphic communication, once used across the Australian continent. While their styles vary, a typical message stick is a flattened or cylindrical length of wood with motifs engraved on all sides. Carried by special messengers over long distances, their motifs were intended to complement a verbally produced communication such as an invitation, a declaration of war, or news of a death. It was only in the late 1880s that message sticks first became a subject of formal anthropological enquiry at a time when the practice was already in steep transition; very little original research has been published in the 20th century and beyond. In this article, the author reviews colonial efforts to understand these objects, as recorded in documentary and museum archives, and describes transformations of message stick communication in contemporary settings. He summarizes the state-of-the-art in message stick research and identifies the still unanswered questions concerning their origins, adaptations and significance.
{"title":"Australian message sticks: Old questions, new directions","authors":"Piers Kelly","doi":"10.1177/1359183519858375","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183519858375","url":null,"abstract":"Message sticks are tools of graphic communication, once used across the Australian continent. While their styles vary, a typical message stick is a flattened or cylindrical length of wood with motifs engraved on all sides. Carried by special messengers over long distances, their motifs were intended to complement a verbally produced communication such as an invitation, a declaration of war, or news of a death. It was only in the late 1880s that message sticks first became a subject of formal anthropological enquiry at a time when the practice was already in steep transition; very little original research has been published in the 20th century and beyond. In this article, the author reviews colonial efforts to understand these objects, as recorded in documentary and museum archives, and describes transformations of message stick communication in contemporary settings. He summarizes the state-of-the-art in message stick research and identifies the still unanswered questions concerning their origins, adaptations and significance.","PeriodicalId":46892,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Material Culture","volume":"25 1","pages":"133 - 152"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1359183519858375","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46802936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-01DOI: 10.1177/1359183519862585
G. Kaur
This article describes the process of transforming a symbolic code into weave actions of weavers in Kashmiri carpet weaving and how a trade-specific language features crucially in this transformation. The designs in Kashmiri carpet weaving are encoded in a symbolic code, called talim, which the weavers decode while weaving the design. This transformation from code-to-weave is achieved by subjecting the code to various interpretative frameworks, that is, modality and linguistic, and weaving actions are aligned in accordance with them. The transformation remains similar in single and multi-weaver settings, with an exception that, in the latter, the code is read aloud in practice-specific trade language among the team of weavers.
{"title":"Linguistic mediation and code-to-weave transformation in Kashmiri carpet weaving","authors":"G. Kaur","doi":"10.1177/1359183519862585","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183519862585","url":null,"abstract":"This article describes the process of transforming a symbolic code into weave actions of weavers in Kashmiri carpet weaving and how a trade-specific language features crucially in this transformation. The designs in Kashmiri carpet weaving are encoded in a symbolic code, called talim, which the weavers decode while weaving the design. This transformation from code-to-weave is achieved by subjecting the code to various interpretative frameworks, that is, modality and linguistic, and weaving actions are aligned in accordance with them. The transformation remains similar in single and multi-weaver settings, with an exception that, in the latter, the code is read aloud in practice-specific trade language among the team of weavers.","PeriodicalId":46892,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Material Culture","volume":"25 1","pages":"220 - 239"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1359183519862585","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49064613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-01DOI: 10.1177/1359183519860881
A. Bolin
The Rwandan government has undertaken ambitious development projects resulting in major changes to the country’s built environment, including the materiality of genocide heritage. This article focuses on the genocide memorials of Nyamata and Ntarama, arguing that these sites demonstrate how globally-circulating discourses of development and preservation are vernacularized, instantiated, and transformed in their encounter with the national imaginary. The forces that affect the material choices of heritage management here include Rwanda’s state-led imperative toward a particular physical ideal of development, UNESCO World Heritage-driven concepts of authenticity, and the Rwandan government’s need for evidence of genocide. Differently affecting each site, these factors result in multiple modes of material intervention. The article argues that the physical form of heritage sites is shaped by engagements between global and local discourses and ideals of heritage and development; these engagements direct the processes of preservation and intervention that ultimately determine how heritage is materialized.
{"title":"Imagining genocide heritage: Material modes of development and preservation in Rwanda","authors":"A. Bolin","doi":"10.1177/1359183519860881","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183519860881","url":null,"abstract":"The Rwandan government has undertaken ambitious development projects resulting in major changes to the country’s built environment, including the materiality of genocide heritage. This article focuses on the genocide memorials of Nyamata and Ntarama, arguing that these sites demonstrate how globally-circulating discourses of development and preservation are vernacularized, instantiated, and transformed in their encounter with the national imaginary. The forces that affect the material choices of heritage management here include Rwanda’s state-led imperative toward a particular physical ideal of development, UNESCO World Heritage-driven concepts of authenticity, and the Rwandan government’s need for evidence of genocide. Differently affecting each site, these factors result in multiple modes of material intervention. The article argues that the physical form of heritage sites is shaped by engagements between global and local discourses and ideals of heritage and development; these engagements direct the processes of preservation and intervention that ultimately determine how heritage is materialized.","PeriodicalId":46892,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Material Culture","volume":"25 1","pages":"196 - 219"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1359183519860881","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47846084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-01DOI: 10.1177/1359183519857042
Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko
The ritual vases or bumba that are involved in a secretive Buddhist ceremony in Mongolia highlight the theoretical potential of centralizing material objects which instantiate doubt in anthropological theory. The uncertainties around the contents of these ritual vases, depending on their origins, demonstrate how doubt reflects broader uncertainties and can be generative of religious practices and imaginaries. Bumbas are thought to instantiate great power if they are treated correctly and contain the right materials. If, however, the material contents are suspected of being inert or repellent, the owner risks being rendered foolish, and the ritual will have no efficacy. Materials instantiating unknown elements and causations can, through their presence, be a source of obfuscation, rather than clarification. This article highlights how the conjunction between uncertainty and material forms can reveal the interplay of certainty and doubt, which, rather than creating internal intelligibility, can constitute open cultural and ritual fields.
{"title":"Tenuous blessings: The materiality of doubt in a Mongolian buddhist wealth calling ceremony","authors":"Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko","doi":"10.1177/1359183519857042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183519857042","url":null,"abstract":"The ritual vases or bumba that are involved in a secretive Buddhist ceremony in Mongolia highlight the theoretical potential of centralizing material objects which instantiate doubt in anthropological theory. The uncertainties around the contents of these ritual vases, depending on their origins, demonstrate how doubt reflects broader uncertainties and can be generative of religious practices and imaginaries. Bumbas are thought to instantiate great power if they are treated correctly and contain the right materials. If, however, the material contents are suspected of being inert or repellent, the owner risks being rendered foolish, and the ritual will have no efficacy. Materials instantiating unknown elements and causations can, through their presence, be a source of obfuscation, rather than clarification. This article highlights how the conjunction between uncertainty and material forms can reveal the interplay of certainty and doubt, which, rather than creating internal intelligibility, can constitute open cultural and ritual fields.","PeriodicalId":46892,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Material Culture","volume":"25 1","pages":"153 - 166"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1359183519857042","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48112508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-01DOI: 10.1177/1359183519858378
Aurora Donzelli
This article examines the intersections between ritual speech, woodcarving, and painted sacred cloths among the Toraja of upland Sulawesi, Indonesia. The author argues that the longstanding division between studies of speechmaking and material culture has obfuscated significant overlaps between what in fact are related systems of semiotic expressions in Indonesia and beyond. By bringing within a single analytic field the forms of ritual speech, textiles, and woodcarving she documented during long-term intermittent fieldwork in Sulawesi (2002–2018), the author highlights fundamental commonalities in how these different semiotic codes operate and in the local conceptions of authorship and craftsmanship. She shows how key aspects of Toraja vernacular semiotics, aesthetics, and hermeneutics are embedded in a materialist ideology of language and suggests that a joint approach to meaning-making practice across different modalities, channels, and media may further our understanding of Indonesian figurative languages and help delineate the larger cultural poetics underlying Austronesian artistic productions.
{"title":"Material words: The aesthetic grammar of Toraja textiles, carvings, and ritual language","authors":"Aurora Donzelli","doi":"10.1177/1359183519858378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183519858378","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the intersections between ritual speech, woodcarving, and painted sacred cloths among the Toraja of upland Sulawesi, Indonesia. The author argues that the longstanding division between studies of speechmaking and material culture has obfuscated significant overlaps between what in fact are related systems of semiotic expressions in Indonesia and beyond. By bringing within a single analytic field the forms of ritual speech, textiles, and woodcarving she documented during long-term intermittent fieldwork in Sulawesi (2002–2018), the author highlights fundamental commonalities in how these different semiotic codes operate and in the local conceptions of authorship and craftsmanship. She shows how key aspects of Toraja vernacular semiotics, aesthetics, and hermeneutics are embedded in a materialist ideology of language and suggests that a joint approach to meaning-making practice across different modalities, channels, and media may further our understanding of Indonesian figurative languages and help delineate the larger cultural poetics underlying Austronesian artistic productions.","PeriodicalId":46892,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Material Culture","volume":"25 1","pages":"167 - 195"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1359183519858378","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48976074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-18DOI: 10.1177/1359183520907929
Thomas Pelmoine, A. Mayor
Architecture is an important component of cultural identity, but knowledge regarding construction techniques using local materials is gradually disappearing, and this subject has rarely been studied in sub-Saharan Africa. This ethno-archaeological study of current vernacular architecture and its evolution during the past three centuries in eastern Senegal therefore brings innovative results that are interesting on different levels. In relation to West Africa, the authors aim to provide new knowledge useful for archaeologists lacking references for interpreting past remains, as well as an archive for historical and heritage studies. More widely, the study constitutes a reference for the description of various mud-building techniques and an attempt to understand the mechanisms explaining their transformations, which should concern all scientists interested in vernacular architecture, in Africa and beyond. More precisely, this article accounts for the variability of techniques used for constructing walls and roofs of dwellings in the Faleme valley among different ethno-linguistic groups, while considering the environmental, cultural and socio-economic factors at play. The authors’ methodology is based on a description of the chaînes opératoires of construction, interviews, mapping and statistical analysis. The patterns observed facilitate a discussion on the evolution of techniques, environmental adaptations, the transfer of knowledge and the role of history in material culture dynamics.
{"title":"Vernacular architecture in eastern Senegal: Chaînes opératoires and technical choices","authors":"Thomas Pelmoine, A. Mayor","doi":"10.1177/1359183520907929","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183520907929","url":null,"abstract":"Architecture is an important component of cultural identity, but knowledge regarding construction techniques using local materials is gradually disappearing, and this subject has rarely been studied in sub-Saharan Africa. This ethno-archaeological study of current vernacular architecture and its evolution during the past three centuries in eastern Senegal therefore brings innovative results that are interesting on different levels. In relation to West Africa, the authors aim to provide new knowledge useful for archaeologists lacking references for interpreting past remains, as well as an archive for historical and heritage studies. More widely, the study constitutes a reference for the description of various mud-building techniques and an attempt to understand the mechanisms explaining their transformations, which should concern all scientists interested in vernacular architecture, in Africa and beyond. More precisely, this article accounts for the variability of techniques used for constructing walls and roofs of dwellings in the Faleme valley among different ethno-linguistic groups, while considering the environmental, cultural and socio-economic factors at play. The authors’ methodology is based on a description of the chaînes opératoires of construction, interviews, mapping and statistical analysis. The patterns observed facilitate a discussion on the evolution of techniques, environmental adaptations, the transfer of knowledge and the role of history in material culture dynamics.","PeriodicalId":46892,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Material Culture","volume":"25 1","pages":"348 - 378"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1359183520907929","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41467938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-03-07DOI: 10.1177/1359183520907947
Cath Davies
Interviewed in 2004, designer duo Viktor and Rolf outlined their ambivalence towards fashion exhibitions suggesting that ‘somehow life is taken out of the subject’ (2008, cited in Teunissen, ‘Understanding Fashion through the Museum in Melchior, MR, 2014). Garments seeking spectator attention within the museum space are often perceived as static entities devoid of their original function as embodied artefacts. There is no denying an inert aura pervades listless materials that have supposedly lost their agency, now confined to the vaults of the museum-as-mausoleum. In their re-purposed role of performing as reminders of a life now departed, this article considers curatorial strategies that seek to revive a living presence in garment display with specific reference to the remodelling of Frida Kahlo in the V&A exhibition ‘Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up (2018).’ Addressing Dudley’s suggestion in Museum Objects: Experiencing the Properties of Things (2012: 19) that an artefact’s ‘fundamental material characteristics’ should be at the heart of contextual interpretation, the role that an object’s material properties can play in the re-materializing of embodiment is evaluated. In the V&A exhibition, a narrative emerges on clothing as an agent that conceals vulnerable corporeality. Sartorial practices armoured Kahlo’s body and the role material entities can play in containing and preserving the illusion of corporeal substance will be investigated. Given this premise, it seems wholly appropriate to focus on the contribution that the mannequin can make to this conceptual framework. After all, it is an artefact with a central occupation of establishing bodily integrity in the display of clothing. Reiterating Clark’s suggestion in The Textile Reader (2012) that the mannequin contributes to the vocabulary of a curatorial brief, this article proposes that this artefact can interrogate the tensions that exist between Kahlo’s sartorial practices and her abject body. Substantiating Appadurai’s premise of material objects’ agency in The Social Life of Things (2001[1986]), the exhibition arguably employs the once humble tailor’s dummy in a significant role, thereby reconstructing its dominant function of embodying fabric in the museum.
在2004年的采访中，设计师二人组Viktor和Rolf概述了他们对时装展览的矛盾心理，暗示“不知何故，生活被从主题中抽离了”（2008年，Teunissen引用，“通过MR梅尔基奥尔博物馆了解时尚，2014年）。在博物馆空间内寻求观众关注的服装通常被视为静态实体，缺乏其作为具体艺术品的原始功能。不可否认，无精打采的材料中弥漫着一种惰性的气氛，这些材料据称已经失去了它们的代理权，现在被限制在博物馆的地下室里作为陵墓。在他们重新设定的表演角色中，作为对逝去生活的提醒，本文考虑了策展策略，这些策略旨在重振服装展览中的活力，并特别参考了V&a展览“Frida Kahlo:Make Her Self Up（2018）”中对弗里达·卡罗的重塑针对达德利在《博物馆物品：体验事物的特性》（2012:19）中提出的文物的“基本材料特性”应处于上下文解释的核心的建议，评估了物品的材料特性在体现的再物化中可以发挥的作用。在V&A展览中，一种叙事出现在服装上，作为隐藏脆弱肉体的代理人。解剖实践为卡罗的身体提供了盔甲，物质实体在包含和保存物质幻觉方面所能发挥的作用将被调查。考虑到这个前提，关注人体模型对这个概念框架的贡献似乎是完全合适的。毕竟，它是一件以在服装展示中建立身体完整性为核心职业的艺术品。这篇文章重申了克拉克在《纺织品读者》（2012）中的建议，即人体模型有助于策展简报的词汇，并提出这件艺术品可以质疑卡罗的服装实践和她可怜的身体之间存在的紧张关系。在《事物的社会生活》（2001[1986]）中，该展览证明了Appadurai的实物代理前提，可以说，该展览利用了曾经谦逊的裁缝假人发挥了重要作用，从而重建了其在博物馆中体现织物的主导功能。
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