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Colonialism has shaped the world we live in today and has often
been studied at a global level, but there is less understanding of
how colonial relations operated locally. This book takes
twentieth-century Papua New Guinea as its focus, and charts the
changes in colonial relationships as they were expressed through
the flow of material culture. Exploring the links between
colonialism and material culture in general, the authors focus on
the particular insights that museum collections can provide into
social relations.
Collections made by anthropologists in New Britain in the first
half of the century are compared with recent fieldwork in the area
to provide a particularly in-depth picture of historical change.
Museum collections can reveal how people dealt with changes in the
nature of community, gender relations and notions of power through
the shifting use of objects in ritual and exchange. Objects,
photographs and archives bring to life both the individual
characters of colonial New Britain and the longer-term patterns of
history. Drawing on the related disciplines of archaeology,
linguistics, history and anthropology, the authors provide fresh
insights into the complexities of colonial life. In particular,
they show how social relationships among Melanesians, whites and
other communities helped to erode distinctions between colonizers
and locals, distinctions that have been maintained by scholars of
colonialism in the past.
This book successfully combines a specific geographical focus with
an interest in the broader questions that surround colonial
relations, historical change and the history of anthropology.
Colonialism has shaped the world we live in today and has often
been studied at a global level, but there is less understanding of
how colonial relations operated locally. This book takes
twentieth-century Papua New Guinea as its focus, and charts the
changes in colonial relationships as they were expressed through
the flow of material culture. Exploring the links between
colonialism and material culture in general, the authors focus on
the particular insights that museum collections can provide into
social relations.
Collections made by anthropologists in New Britain in the first
half of the century are compared with recent fieldwork in the area
to provide a particularly in-depth picture of historical change.
Museum collections can reveal how people dealt with changes in the
nature of community, gender relations and notions of power through
the shifting use of objects in ritual and exchange. Objects,
photographs and archives bring to life both the individual
characters of colonial New Britain and the longer-term patterns of
history. Drawing on the related disciplines of archaeology,
linguistics, history and anthropology, the authors provide fresh
insights into the complexities of colonial life. In particular,
they show how social relationships among Melanesians, whites and
other communities helped to erode distinctions between colonizers
and locals, distinctions that have been maintained by scholars of
colonialism in the past.
This book successfully combines a specific geographical focus with
an interest in the broader questions that surround colonial
relations, historical change and the history of anthropology.
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