Detailansicht
Collecting in the South Sea
Pacific Presences 3
ISBN/EAN: 9789088905742
Umbreit-Nr.: 6058182
Sprache:
Englisch
Umfang: 382 S., 99 farbige Illustr.
Format in cm: 2.5 x 25.7 x 18.2
Einband:
kartoniertes Buch
Erschienen am 03.12.2018
Auflage: 1/2018
- Zusatztext
- This book is a study of 'collecting' undertaken by Joseph Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux and his shipmates in Tasmania, the western Pacific Islands, and Indonesia. In 1791-1794 Bruni d'Entrecasteaux led a French naval expedition in search of the lost vessels of La Pérouse which had last been seen by Europeans at Botany Bay in March 1788. After Bruni d'Entrecasteaux died near the end of the voyage and the expedition collapsed in political disarray in Java, its collections and records were subsequently scattered or lost. The book's core is a richly illustrated examination, analysis, and catalogue of a large array of ethnographic objects collected during the voyage, later dispersed, and recently identified in museums in France, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. The focus on artefacts is informed by a broad conception of collecting as grounded in encounters or exchanges with Indigenous protagonists and also as materialized in other genres-written accounts, vocabularies, and visual representations (drawings, engravings, and maps). Historically, the book outlines the antecedents, occurrences, and aftermath of the voyage, including its location within the classic era of European scientific voyaging (1766-1840) and within contemporary colonial networks. Particular chapters trace the ambiguous histories of the extant collections. Ethnographically, contributors are alert to local settings, relationships, practices, and values; to Indigenous uses and significance of objects; to the reciprocal, dialogic nature of collecting; to local agency or innovation in exchanges; and to present implications of objects and their histories, especially for modern scholars and artists, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Contents Abbreviations Preface and Acknowledgements PART I: PROLOGUE PART II: ARTEFACT COLLECTIONS PART III: OTHER COLLECTIONS PART IV: REINTERPRETATIONS AND TRANSFORMATIONS PART V: EPILOGUE PART VI: CATALOGUE Contributors Figures References Index
- Autorenportrait
- Bronwen Douglas is honorary professor at the Australian National University in Canberra where she was fellow and senior fellow from 1997-2012. She was previously lecturer and senior lecturer at La Trobe University (Melbourne, Australia) from 1971-1996. A historian of science focussing on Oceania, her main research field is the interplay of global ideas of human difference, race, and geography in European encounters with particular Oceanian people, places, and agency. Her conceptual interests include materiality and use of visual materials, maps, and objects as ethnohistorical texts.