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Tikopia Collected: Raymond Firth and the Creation of Solomon Islands Cultural Heritage 2017 (Hardcover)
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Tikopia Collected: Raymond Firth and the Creation of Solomon Islands Cultural Heritage 2017 (Hardcover)
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During 1928-9 the renowned anthropologist Raymond Firth visited
Tikopia, a small island in the east of Solomon Islands, for the
first time. This book takes the collection he made as its subject,
and explores how through its acquisition, Firth ceased to be a
stranger and became a respected figure incorporated into Tikopia
society. The objects were originally viewed by Firth as data in a
scientific record of a culture, and evidence challenging the belief
that complex economic transactions could only take place in a
recognizable market economy. Elizabeth Bonshek, however, revisits
the collection's documentation and the ethnography of Tikopia with
a different intent in mind: to highlight the social relations the
collecting process illuminates and to acknowledge Tikopia voices,
past and present. She argues that Firth downplayed the impact of
contact with outsiders - whalers, traders and missionaries calling
for the abandonment of the Work of the Gods - yet this context is
vital for understanding why local people actively contributed to
his collecting and research. She follows the life of the collection
after leaving the island in institutions that attributed different
meanings to its significance, in a failed repatriation request and
in a new role in the transmission of 'cultural heritage' along with
Firth's writings. She concludes that Firth's exchanges of objects
with other high-ranking men were culturally appropriate to the
social values dominant in that time and place. Indeed, she suggests
that while Firth was acquiring Tikopia artefacts, the Tikopia were
perhaps acquiring him. On what ethical and economic terms does an
anthropologist acquire other people's things? Collecting Tikopia
deftly applies the insights of contemporary material culture
studies to a historically important case. Bonshek coaxes
ethnographic documents and museum artefacts to reveal how objects
both materialize cultural identities over time and mediate social
relations across worlds of difference. Professor Robert Foster,
University of Rochester, President of the Society for Cultural
Anthropology. Richly supported by documentation this skilful and
insightful analysis reveals the complexity of cross-cultural
interactions and highlights important concerns for the
interpretation and management of cultural heritage in museum
'treasure places' worldwide. Dr Robin Torrence, Senior Principal
Research Scientist, Anthropology Research, Australian Museum.
General
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