Introduction: miniaturization

Foxhall, Lin

doi:10.1080/00438243.2015.997557

Cited by 50 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Along these lines are miniatures-small imitations or models of material culture-with their significance linked to the meaning of the original object (Foxhall 2015). These objects give children the opportunity to mimic and practice adult social roles and physical tasks in the context of their peer groups (Sutton-Smith 1986.…”

Section: Portable and Parietal Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is It Ritual? Or Is It Children? Distinguishing Consequences of Play from Ritual Actions in the Prehistoric Archaeological Record

Langley¹,

Litster²

2018

Current Anthropology

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This paper identifies a significant interpretive issue for prehistoric archaeology: distinguishing adult ritual actions from the activities of children in the archaeological record. Through examining ethnographic accounts of recent huntergatherer children and reconsidering archaeological patterns and assemblages in light of these data, we explore how the results of children's play can be-and likely have been-misinterpreted by archaeologists as evidence for adult ritual behavior in prehistoric contexts. Given that children were a significant component of past hunter-gatherer (and other) societies, the fact that the material components of their activities overlap tremendously with items used in adult rituals must be routinely considered by archaeologists if we are to reconstruct robust understandings of past peoples all over the globe.

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Section: Portable and Parietal Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is It Ritual? Or Is It Children? Distinguishing Consequences of Play from Ritual Actions in the Prehistoric Archaeological Record

Langley¹,

Litster²

2018

Current Anthropology

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“…There are a number of recent studies which have considered theoretical approaches to the cognitive and mechanical processes by which miniature objects have been created (e.g. Phillips 1998;Mack 2007;Evans 2012;Knappett 2012;Foxhall 2014). These indicate a growing acceptance in material culture studies that miniature objects are a distinct and troublesome object typology, not always easy for scholars to describe or seriate.…”

Section: Miniaturisation and Museum Seriationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Miniature dissonance and the museum space: reconsidering communication through miniaturisation

Davy

2018

International Journal of Heritage Studies

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There are millions of decontextualized objects from diverse societies in classically designed museums, spaces largely developed and structured along Enlightenment academic principles. These institutions, as a core function, seriate the material culture of the peoples of the world and represent it in consumable packages to a broad audience. As institutions, they were often deliberately conceived as venues of "scientific" propaganda by which European dominion over other peoples of the world could be justified and promulgated (e.g. Errington, 1998; Davies 2000; Brown 2009). Efforts to decolonise museums, to recognise their harmful histories and develop a more ethical approach to curation are ongoing; they operate in conjunction with social movements which recognise that imposed legal and political systems are often weighted against colonised peoples and seek to redress this balance by acknowledging that the systems in place are fundamentally flawed, based on historical mutual misapprehensions of custom, law, economy and tradition (e.g. Pearce 1992; Sola 1997; Clerici 2002; Geismar 2013). One of the most significant theoretical constructs to have contributed to this movement is the concept of the contact zone. First posited by Mary Louise Pratt, a contact zone occurs when there is a clash or collaboration between distinct cultures struggling with 'asymmetrical relations of power' (1991, 34). The term was adapted explicitly for the museum space by James Clifford, and has led to a paradigmatic shift in the ways in which museums collaborate with indigenous viewpoints (Boast 2011). Clifford's examples were with Native American communities from the Northwest Coast, and he found that for community members visiting the museum space 'the collected objects are not primarily "art"', but rather 'aide-mémoires, occasions for the telling of stories and the singing of songs' (Clifford, 1999 [1997], 435-437). This has at times been considered a 'site of conflict' (Brown 2009, 145), in which indigenous priorities confront curatorial preoccupations in which 'collections. .. are for research or they are surely for nothing' (Keene 2005, 45), conditions in which noncurators can often feel overwhelmed; Haida artist Robert Davidson once recalled that 'When I first came to Vancouver, I met an incredible barrage of anthropologists. I regarded them as people who held the knowledge, and so I was afraid to say anything in front of them for fear of saying the wrong thing. I was intimidated' (Harris, 1992 [1966],

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“…While these portable, miniature figurines have attracted scholarly attention from researchers for decades (e.g. Bailey 2005;Foxhall 2015;Langley & Litster 2018), miniature rock art motifs are comparatively less well known. Although the specific size dimensions used to classify a motif as 'miniature' vary, and in some cases are unspecified, miniature rock art motifs are widespread, and previous studies of them address questions of regional rock art chronologies, social interaction, cultural change and motivation for their production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A rare miniature and small-scale stencil assemblage from the Gulf of Carpentaria: replication and meaning in Australian rock art

et al. 2020

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Introduction: miniaturization

Cited by 50 publications

References 7 publications

Is It Ritual? Or Is It Children? Distinguishing Consequences of Play from Ritual Actions in the Prehistoric Archaeological Record

Is It Ritual? Or Is It Children? Distinguishing Consequences of Play from Ritual Actions in the Prehistoric Archaeological Record

Miniature dissonance and the museum space: reconsidering communication through miniaturisation

A rare miniature and small-scale stencil assemblage from the Gulf of Carpentaria: replication and meaning in Australian rock art

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