Ought de-colonized museum research, collecting and curatorial practices be dismissed as "moves to... more Ought de-colonized museum research, collecting and curatorial practices be dismissed as "moves to innocence"? Or, can they be seen as credible and authentic gestures toward a redefinition of moral relations with indigenous peoples and cultures from whom ethnographic collections were originally made? This article analyzes a case study of "de-colonized" museum collecting and research practices by way of thinking about this issue. It focuses on the Australian Museum's "Sepik Documentation Project" (1988). I argue that this project enacted a de-colonized mode of collection that emphasized status inclusivity and acknowledged the legitimacy of indigenous trade relationships and knowledge.
DAVID UPSET University of Minnesota Except for the peculiar presence of the Bugis of Eastern Sule... more DAVID UPSET University of Minnesota Except for the peculiar presence of the Bugis of Eastern Sulewesi, this collection of nine ethno-graphic essays concerns current and remembered seafaring practices of eight insular Pacific peoples. It is a topically rather than a theoretically driven ...
This essay contrasts early and later colonial collecting by anthropologists and museum scientists... more This essay contrasts early and later colonial collecting by anthropologists and museum scientists in Melanesia with the postcolonial collecting in which I participated in the 1980s under the auspices of the Australian Museum (1987). My contention is that museum collections made during early colonialism took place in a relatively hierarchical and androcentric context of moral difference. In subsequent phases of the colonial era, as well as in the ongoing postcolonial period, anthropological collecting sought, and continues to seek, egalitarian and gender inclusive dialogue with vendors; in part by drawing from local metaphors and idioms to express status inclusivity.
Preliminary ethnographic data about the evaluation and use of mobile phones by low-income, peri-u... more Preliminary ethnographic data about the evaluation and use of mobile phones by low-income, peri-urban Papua New Guineans are analysed. These data do not affirm a modernist narrative that privileges discontinuity, dislocation and progress. They do not show a reduction of collective forms of sociality and agency in favor of ego-centric networks that disembed space and time from localities, alleviate poverty, and so on. Mobile phones neither dissolve the old nor constitute the moral world anew. Instead, their use in and effects on Papua New Guinea appear to be more complicated. By enabling voices to communicate over increased space and time, they make the person both more and less part of society. That is to say, they are used to fulfill collectivist values in ways that separate self from other. One significant purpose for which they are used thus exemplifies pre-existing meanings of kinship in everyday life. They also elicit a new self-reflexive voice, as well as an ongoing critique of postcolonial society.
My earlier interpretation of the relationship between Gregory Bateson's life and thought... more My earlier interpretation of the relationship between Gregory Bateson's life and thought was guided by an implicit kind of psychodynamic suggestion. That is, I viewed the text as informed by identity-shaping experiences that had taken place amid relationships in the family of ...
Page 1. THE PROBLEM OF MUTE METAPHOR: GENDER AND KINSHIP IN SEABOARD MELANESIA A-*. L J\ David M.... more Page 1. THE PROBLEM OF MUTE METAPHOR: GENDER AND KINSHIP IN SEABOARD MELANESIA A-*. L J\ David M. Lipset ?1%1J Y^r~AR t~ ~University of Minnesota 2 ^-4i1 . .~./I. *~ ..i..i Jolene Marie Stritecky _ I /.; ,/ University of Iowa ...
Ought de-colonized museum research, collecting and curatorial practices be dismissed as "moves to... more Ought de-colonized museum research, collecting and curatorial practices be dismissed as "moves to innocence"? Or, can they be seen as credible and authentic gestures toward a redefinition of moral relations with indigenous peoples and cultures from whom ethnographic collections were originally made? This article analyzes a case study of "de-colonized" museum collecting and research practices by way of thinking about this issue. It focuses on the Australian Museum's "Sepik Documentation Project" (1988). I argue that this project enacted a de-colonized mode of collection that emphasized status inclusivity and acknowledged the legitimacy of indigenous trade relationships and knowledge.
DAVID UPSET University of Minnesota Except for the peculiar presence of the Bugis of Eastern Sule... more DAVID UPSET University of Minnesota Except for the peculiar presence of the Bugis of Eastern Sulewesi, this collection of nine ethno-graphic essays concerns current and remembered seafaring practices of eight insular Pacific peoples. It is a topically rather than a theoretically driven ...
This essay contrasts early and later colonial collecting by anthropologists and museum scientists... more This essay contrasts early and later colonial collecting by anthropologists and museum scientists in Melanesia with the postcolonial collecting in which I participated in the 1980s under the auspices of the Australian Museum (1987). My contention is that museum collections made during early colonialism took place in a relatively hierarchical and androcentric context of moral difference. In subsequent phases of the colonial era, as well as in the ongoing postcolonial period, anthropological collecting sought, and continues to seek, egalitarian and gender inclusive dialogue with vendors; in part by drawing from local metaphors and idioms to express status inclusivity.
Preliminary ethnographic data about the evaluation and use of mobile phones by low-income, peri-u... more Preliminary ethnographic data about the evaluation and use of mobile phones by low-income, peri-urban Papua New Guineans are analysed. These data do not affirm a modernist narrative that privileges discontinuity, dislocation and progress. They do not show a reduction of collective forms of sociality and agency in favor of ego-centric networks that disembed space and time from localities, alleviate poverty, and so on. Mobile phones neither dissolve the old nor constitute the moral world anew. Instead, their use in and effects on Papua New Guinea appear to be more complicated. By enabling voices to communicate over increased space and time, they make the person both more and less part of society. That is to say, they are used to fulfill collectivist values in ways that separate self from other. One significant purpose for which they are used thus exemplifies pre-existing meanings of kinship in everyday life. They also elicit a new self-reflexive voice, as well as an ongoing critique of postcolonial society.
My earlier interpretation of the relationship between Gregory Bateson's life and thought... more My earlier interpretation of the relationship between Gregory Bateson's life and thought was guided by an implicit kind of psychodynamic suggestion. That is, I viewed the text as informed by identity-shaping experiences that had taken place amid relationships in the family of ...
Page 1. THE PROBLEM OF MUTE METAPHOR: GENDER AND KINSHIP IN SEABOARD MELANESIA A-*. L J\ David M.... more Page 1. THE PROBLEM OF MUTE METAPHOR: GENDER AND KINSHIP IN SEABOARD MELANESIA A-*. L J\ David M. Lipset ?1%1J Y^r~AR t~ ~University of Minnesota 2 ^-4i1 . .~./I. *~ ..i..i Jolene Marie Stritecky _ I /.; ,/ University of Iowa ...
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