Journal of Material Culture recent issues

Postconflict Heritage

De Jong, F., Rowlands, M. — 2008-06-20

Civilization, Violence and Heritage Healing in Liberia

Rowlands, M. — 2008-06-20

The restoration of public spaces and monuments in post-conflict situations is often associated with negotiation of trauma and reconciliation. The focus of this article is on the restoration of the national museum as a focus for the restoration of pre-civil war order in Liberia. By concentrating on the restoration of commemorative and public ceremonial spaces `as they were', `forgetting' allows the re-emergence of a visual culture that sustains the continuity of an idea of `civilization'.

Heritage as Therapy: Set Pieces from the New South Africa

Meskell, L., Scheermeyer, C. — 2008-06-20

Since the democratic dispensation in South Africa, heritage as a category has been necessarily framed by the specter of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, its place in wider society, the general underpinnings of amnesty, forgiveness and the desire to move forward as a nation. Human rights activism, truth commissions, and juridical proceedings are powerful mechanisms for dealing with historical trauma. More materially, South African cultural productions, including objects, memorials, museums, heritage sites and public spaces of commemoration provide another therapeutic arena. After 13 years of democracy, the material spaces of daily life provide a vantage point to examine how practices of remembering and forgetting pervade the public sphere and the world of things, and how traumatic embrace is configured to include (and exclude) certain constituencies as our case studies demonstrate. Spectacles of trauma and memory in the new South Africa are similarly shot through with other interventions including the pressures of state politics, development tactics and international tourism. Perhaps like never before, this `state in search of a nation', has been under an international spotlight and has been held up as a beacon for other oppressive contexts and post-conflict states.

From `General Field Marshal' To `Miss Genocide': The Reworking of Traumatic Experiences among Herero-Speaking Namibians

Forster, L. — 2008-06-20

The colonial war of 1904—8 in Namibia still features prominently in contemporary Namibian memory culture. Above all, Herero-speaking Namibians have created various practices by which the war is commemorated annually. Seminal are commemorative rituals held in different areas of Namibia and organized by a ritual and social network established in the aftermath of the war. These commemorations provide a stage for the continuous reworking of the memory of defeat and flight, of dispersal, displacement and genocide, but also of survival and reorganization. The employment of uniforms in the commemorative practices of Herero-speaking Namibians is but one example for the way such memory work is also embodied in material culture. Historic as well as more recent developments of Herero memory culture are scrutinized in an appraisal of different images and representations of the past.

Recycling Recognition: The Monument as Objet Trouve of the Postcolony

De Jong, F. — 2008-06-20

This article examines the recycling of a colonial memorial to African veterans in Dakar, Senegal. This act of appropriation by the Senegalese government radically transformed the significance of the memorial and reconfigured the city's memoryscape. Whilst the Senegalese government thus reclaimed colonial history as constitutive for the postcolony, it simultaneously underwrote a postcolonial claim for recognition. The article examines this case as indicative for a wider trend to claims for recognition for which recyclia seem to lend themselves par excellence. As objects of mimetic appropriation, colonial memorials can be seen as the objets trouvés of the postcolony.

Arrested Heritage: The Politics of Inscription into the UNESCO World Heritage List: The Case of Agadez in Niger

Scholze, M. — 2008-06-20

The process of nominating a certain site or tradition as a world heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) can be seen as a dialectic of the local and the global. A localized monument, building, town, landscape or cultural tradition becomes globalized through the inclusion into the list of world heritage. Thus, it acquires a new status as being of `outstanding universal value'. The aim of this global cultural policy as formulated by UNESCO is to enhance the pride of the local population in their own culture, foster efforts to its preservation as well as to enrich the whole of humanity in creating a cultural memory on a worldwide scale.

Confronting the Past?: Negotiating a Heritage of Conflict in Sierra Leone

Basu, P. — 2008-06-20

Cultural heritage is not a priority in Sierra Leone. As one of the poorest countries in the world and one only gradually recovering from civil war, there are more immediate concerns. Despite long-term neglect, this article considers whether there is, however, a role for Sierra Leone's cultural heritage in post-conflict recovery. It examines two arenas for the production of Sierra Leone's national past: its list of proclaimed national monuments notionally protected by a Monuments and Relics Commission, and the report of its Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Whilst the rhetoric of the TRC calls Sierra Leoneans to confront their past, history is rewritten in its report and a mythic past of `peaceful co-existence' posited. To confront Sierra Leone's `indigenous' cultural heritage is, however, to confront a long history of conflict. The article asks whether it is not better to acknowledge this difficult past rather than deny it.

Dream Kitsch -- Folk Art, Indigenous Media and `9/11': The Work of Pat in the Era of Electronic Transmission

Mukhopadhyay, B. — 2008-03-12

This article explores the process of transmission of the image(s) of 9/11 through an ethnographic/art-historical examination of Bengali (Indian) pat (traditional scroll painting) made by a community of rural Indian artisans with little or no exposure to mass-media. It transpires that while the impact of mass-media — often held responsible for the extinction of `authentic' folk art — has been somewhat exaggerated, the argument put forward here is that the putative anteriority of a time before representation, is largely an illusion.

An Ethnography of Iconoclash: An Investigation into the Production, Consumption and Destruction of Street-art in London

Schacter, R. — 2008-03-12

In the following study, I will be investigating the distinct Iconoclash made manifest on our city streets, exploring the various discourses and themes raised through the clash over graffiti. Conducting an analytic account of this conflict, it will be suggested that the images possess both a potent and multifaceted form of agency and are physically embodied by their patients; it will equally be implied that their efficacy is advanced through the explicitly performative nature of the graffiti act, the images' evident ephemerality and the specific character of their medium. Subsequently, through an investigation into the discourses of dirt and deceptiveness, the various rationales assumed for the images reviled nature will be discussed, and finally, utilising notions of appropriation and dètournement, the particular nature of the graffiti-artists engagement with their environment will be examined.

In concluding, the evident similarities between both graffiti-artists and graffiti-removers will be analyzed, and a personal account of the interaction with the images encountered will be attempted.

Managing, Learning and Sending: The Material Lives and Journeys of Polish Women in Britain

Burrell, K. — 2008-03-12

This article investigates the material lives and journeys of eight women who migrated to Britain from Poland during the time of the socialist regime. Although the state created obstructions to emigration, it was viable for women with family overseas to travel to the West as visitors, sometimes turning temporary stays into permanent settlements through marriage. For others, westward travel was made possible by professional employment opportunities. These journeys of migration not only crossed political divides, but also forced a fundamental shift in the material lives of the migrants, transporting them from a shortage economy supported by black market activities to a relatively affluent consumer society. Based on in-depth interviews, this article considers three aspects of the telling of this change in these women's material lives: how they related their material experiences of socialist Poland; how they framed their encounters with their new consumer environment; and how they reconfigured their material relationships with those left behind.

When Speaking Is a Risky Business: Understanding Silence and Interpreting the Power of the Past in Wanigela, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea

Bonshek, E. — 2008-03-12

The increased importance placed upon interaction between `source communities' and museums which hold cultural heritage collections has been described by Peers and Brown (Museums and Source Communities. A Routledge Reader , 2003, p. 1) as `one of the most important developments in the history of museums'. This interaction entails the relinquishment of the museum's authoritative voice and the empowerment of the indigenous voice. This development assumes that source communities would have something to say about museum collections. My experience in a rural community in Papua New Guinea revealed complex dynamics surrounding museum objects. In Wanigela, questions about objects in museum collections were often met with hesitancy and silence. It was only when these objects became relevant within the context of local issues, embedded within social relationships between people that silences were eventually broken and the diverse significances surrounding silences emerged. An approach driven by academic or museological concerns over collections proved to be problematic in identifying the contemporary significance of the collections for Wanigelans.

A Hard Rain: Children's Shrapnel Collections in the Second World War

Moshenska, G. — 2008-03-12

Anti-aircraft shells exploding at high altitudes scattered shards of red-hot steel across the towns and cities of Britain during the Second World War. For many schoolchildren, collecting and trading this shrapnel became a popular social activity, often recalled today in oral history interviews. Drawing on testimonies collected as part of the People's War project, this article examines these curious and neglected processes of accumulation, exchange and disposal, looking at the aesthetic qualities that gave shrapnel fragments their value and attractiveness. In doing so, it attempts to locate children's shrapnel collections within their social worlds, as well as within broader discussions of material culture and modern conflict. It highlights the significant differences from other more typical forms of collecting, and some of the more subversive uses that children found for their shrapnel. The article also raises the possibility that collecting these violent objects may have been a way for children to cope with the upheaval and brutality of total war.

Social Networks and the Creation of the Pitt Rivers Museum

Larson, F., Petch, A., Zeitlyn, D. — 2007-10-16

We consider how far different `networks of connection' have structured the relationships between curators, collectors and objects at the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University. Museum collections are generated through complicated, fluctuating circulations of people and things that are literally endless and, when there is a high standard of computerized documentation, network analysis can be a stimulating and revealing methodological tool. Network analysis can reveal patterns in sets of social relationships that are too large to process or analyse mentally, and it can be a spur to more in-depth, nuanced research. An introduction to network theory and a consideration of `network' as a metaphor for social and material interactions more broadly is followed by a discussion of our research into the history of the Pitt Rivers Museum and an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of network analysis as a research tool in the museum context.

Memory, Commemoration and the Meaning of a Suburban War Memorial

Stephens, J. — 2007-10-16

War memorials are a significant feature of the Australian landscape. Thousands were erected after the First World War in towns and suburbs across the nation as a community focus for memory, grief, and pride of their soldiers lost in the war. The Victoria Park memorial in Perth, Western Australia, originally constructed in 1917, before the war ended, and replaced in 1957, was a small suburban memorial that was born in the enthusiasm of Empire and the growing concept of Anzac. The biography of this memorial reveals a chequered and contested history typical of many local memorials in Western Australia. Concentrating on the Victoria Park memorial this article seeks to explore the relationships between its physical aspects and setting, its meaning to the community and the linkages between objects and memory.

An Anthropology of Luminosity: The Agency of Light

Bille, M., Sorensen, T. F. — 2007-10-16

This article addresses the relationship between light, material culture and social experiences. It argues that understanding light as a powerful social agent, in its relationship with people, things, colours, shininess and places, may facilitate an appreciation of the active social role of luminosity in the practice of day-to-day activities. The article surveys an array of past conceptions of light within philosophy, natural science and more recent approaches to light in the fields of anthropology and material culture studies. A number of implications are discussed, and by way of three case studies it is argued that light may be used as a tool for exercising social intimacy and inclusion, of shaping moral spaces and hospitality, and orchestrating movement, while working as a metaphor as well as a material agent in these social negotiations. The social comprehension of light is a means of understanding social positions in ways that may be real or imagined, but are bound up on the social and cultural associations of certain lightscapes.

Avtomat Kalashnikova

Graves-Brown, P. — 2007-10-16

This article examines the history of the ubiquitous Russian Avtomat Kalashnikova assault rifle (AK). Does it possess systemic characteristics that predispose its subversion from its intended purpose? The invention lineage of automatic weapons is considered in parallel with developments in the social organization of warfare. The AK is then evaluated in this context. In both technical and social terms, the use of the weapon by insurgents or in developing countries is not as remote from its intended function as would initially appear to be the case. Moreover, it is argued, the success of the AK is largely a result of the fact that it is a counter example to the prevailing episteme of technological progress.

The Materiality of Domestic Waste: The Recycled Cosmology of the Dogon of Mali

Douny, L. — 2007-10-16

This article explores some of the multiple forms and uses of Dogon domestic waste, considering daily shared experiences of the matter. It examines the implicit meanings objectified in the materiality of, and the daily praxis associated with, rubbish that the Dogon select and allocate to particular places in and out of their `home container'. These are framed within a recycled cosmology that encompasses a plurality of entangled world-views that inform us about the life cycles of people, environment and society.

Hans Haacke's eArth Samplings for the Bundestag: Materials as Signs of Political Unity

Wagner, M. — 2007-07-10

An art work consisting of deposits of earth from each of the constituencies represented in the German Bundestag has been conceived by the New York based artist Hans Haacke for the courtyard of the former Reichstag building in Berlin. Growing plants from seeds of each region symbolizes the unity of Germany after its reunification. Assembling natural materials from different regions of a country or an empire belongs to an enduring tradition of political symbolism. Though often more precious and durable material have been deployed, there are political rituals which focus on lowly earth which represents the country's population. Haacke's art work for the Bundestag seems to actualize the material's political iconography.

Hijab in London: Metamorphosis, Resonance and Effects

Tarlo, E. — 2007-07-10

This article is about the significance of dress as a visible indicator of difference in multicultural London. It focuses in particular on the hijab (Muslim woman's headscarf), suggesting that its adoption by middle-class Muslim women is often a product, not so much of their cultural backgrounds as of the trans-cultural encounters they experience in a cosmopolitan urban environment. The article explores the transformative potential of hijab, demonstrating how its adoption not only acts as a moment of metamorphosis in the lives of wearers, but also has significant effects on the perceptions and actions of others. These themes of metamorphosis, visibility and agency are explored in relation to the complex conflicting resonance of hijab in the West, and how that resonance is constantly being reshaped both through contemporary political events and their media coverage as well as through the actions and campaigns of hijab wearers.

Remembering the House: Memory and Materiality in Northern Botswana

Morton, C. — 2007-07-10

Although both anthropology and archaeology have long been interested in the relationship between the built environment and social forms, relatively little attention has been paid to the way in which the material home is implicated in processes of memory. Drawing on case studies from fieldwork in northern Botswana, this article argues that memory, or more especially processes of remembering, is importantly related to the spatial and temporal fluidity of the Tswana home and its inherent divisibility. The article argues that understandings of the house as a container for memory or biography have not sufficiently understood the way in which the materiality of the house, as well as its spatial configurations over time, are involved with the way in which such memories are formed and articulated. It also suggests that, in its connectedness to memory and community, building activity is an important material basis for cultural understandings of relatedness.

Mobility and Modernity in Arnhem Land: The Social Universe of Kuninjku Trucks

Altman, J., Hinkson, M. — 2007-07-10

This article explores the central role played by vehicles in a contradictory set of social processes that have unfolded in western Arnhem Land, north Australia, over the last five decades. Motor vehicles have mediated much of humanity's experience of the world over the past century. Kuninjku people's interaction with motor vehicles, we argue, provides one revealing lens through which to explore a distinctive and ambiguous experience of modernity. This article explores the role vehicles play in mediating Kuninjku interaction across diverse arenas — their customary lands, an expanding regional social universe occupied by kin, the Australian nation-state, and finally an increasingly globalized world. Briefly exploring the process by which vehicles were introduced into Kuninjku country, we then track key transformations in Kuninjku life through a series of historical phases. The distinctive Kuninjku values that govern use of vehicles are explored. In conclusion the article reflects on the paradoxical nature of Kuninjku experience of late modernity and the fragility of their apparent success in realizing their aspirations.