Unstable Images and Second Skins: Artefacts, Exegesis and Assessments in the New Guinea Highlands

O’Hanlon, Michael

doi:10.2307/2803930

Cited by 49 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In their use of malign magic, these dances bear some similarity to warfare, for not only is the language used replete with military metaphor but the magic itself was previously used in warfare. Dances provide an arena for the proclamation of identity and power and for challenges between individuals exhibiting their extraordinary powers (see also Feeley-Harnik 1988;Hardin 1993: 141;O'Hanlon 1983O'Hanlon , 1992. Through their use of numerous forms of the dark and malign forces of sorcery and other magic, the practitioners aim to reveal their ability to withstand powerful and dangerous forces, both of a human and 'supernatural' kind (see Nachman 1981b).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Material Culture and the Magical Power of Dance Objects

Eves

2009

Oceania

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This paper takes up the call by scholars such as Alfred Gell to consider objects of material culture as objects, by examining them in the context of production, circulation and reception. Because they are unadorned and without visual interest, langarol, the hand‐held artefacts used in some New Ireland dance performances, do not lend themselves to modes of analysis that see cultural objects as surrogate texts, the hidden meanings of which can be ‘read’. This very ‘lack’ enables us more readily to discern their significance, which lies in their magical potency and in the performance of their creator, the shaman, in attracting, wielding and revealing his awesome power. The power sought is less power over others and more power to — the ability to realise projects that can elicit effects. If consciousness and body are one, such achievements are to be understood as embodiments of intentionality and agency. It is through the production and wielding of such objects that people make themselves.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Material Culture and the Magical Power of Dance Objects

Eves

2009

Oceania

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“…In dialogue with this work, Melanesian ethnographers have elaborated on the ways artefacts and persons create one another by focusing on such diverse things as stone axes, string bags, wigs and slit‐gong drums ( cf. Battaglia 1990; MacKenzie 1991; O’Hanlon 1992; Leach 2002).…”

Section: Materialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Materialising Oceania: New ethnographies of things in Melanesia and Polynesia

Bell

Geismar

2009

Australian J of Anthropology

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Oceania occupies an intriguing place within anthropology's genealogy. In the introduction to this collection of essays, we examine the role of the ethnography of Oceania in the development of our anthropological perspectives on materialisation, the dynamic process by which persons and things are inter-related. Building upon the recent resurgence of theoretical interests in things we use the term materialisation (rather than material culture or materiality) to capture the vitality of the lived processes by which ideas of objectivity and subjectivity, persons and things, minds and bodies are entangled. Taking a processual view, we advocate for an Oceanic anthropology that continues to engage with things on the ground; that asks what strategies communities use to materialise their social relations, desires and values; and that recognises how these processes remain important tools for understanding historical and contemporary Oceanic societies. Examining these locally articulated processes and forms contributes to a material (re)turn for anthropology that clarifies how we, as scholars, think about things more widely. How can we make any progress in the understanding of cultures, ancient or modern, if we persist in dividing what the people join and in joining what they keep apart?( Hocart 1952: 23)

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“…Skin metaphors can be found in two main kinds of literature on these themes. The first is an older literature on body arts, in which tattooing, painting, wig-making and other decorative activities are interpreted as overlaying a person's body-skin with a 'second' or 'social' skin (Turner, 1980;O'Hanlon, 1992;Gell, 1993). This literature tends to use skin metaphors to make various arguments about the link between appearance and identity, as when the skin and its decorations are thought by various societies to reveal the 'truth' about a person (or group) and their social relations (Strathern, 1979).…”

Section: Cloth and Skinmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Secret Life of Sarongs

Allerton

2007

Journal of Material Culture

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Studies of Indonesian textiles have predominantly focused on their symbolic and religious aspects, ignoring their everyday use as clothing. This article reveals the sensual, intimate life of Manggarai sarongs as everyday garments, a life that has remained a 'secret' in the academic literature. Sarongs, with their capacities to wrap, protect and hide, accentuate the properties of skin and can therefore be considered 'super-skins'. As artefactual extensions of their wearer's body they absorb substances and intentions, offer comfort at times of upset or illness, and transmit social and emotional messages. As burial objects, sarongs index the close kinship performed in everyday acts of feeding, comforting and protecting. However, there is no single 'social life' or 'career' of a sarong. Instead, sarongs as super-skins have a range of possibilities of becoming, in connection with the varied fates and projects of human lives. Key Words * sarongs * clothing * skin * the senses * personhood * Eastern Indonesia It is a cool morning in southern Manggarai (Flores, eastern Indonesia) and I am at the women's bathing place (waé), enveloping my body in a long, tubular sarong as I stand under a stream of cold water directed by a bamboo chute. Sita, a middle-aged woman with three children, arrives at the waé with her youngest daughter and a heavy bucket

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Unstable Images and Second Skins: Artefacts, Exegesis and Assessments in the New Guinea Highlands

Cited by 49 publications

References 19 publications

Material Culture and the Magical Power of Dance Objects

Material Culture and the Magical Power of Dance Objects

Materialising Oceania: New ethnographies of things in Melanesia and Polynesia

The Secret Life of Sarongs

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