The Inbetweenness of Things: Materializing Mediation and Movement between Worlds

297 Pages·2017·25.179 MB·English

by  Paul Basu

ii
The Inbetweenness

of Things
ii
iiiiii
The Inbetweenness

of Things
Materializing Mediation and

Movement between Worlds
Edited by

PAUL BASU

Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
LONDON • OXFORD • NEW YORK • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY
iv iv
Bloomsbury Academic
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BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2017
© Selection and Editorial Material: Paul Basu, 2017
© Individual Chapters: Their Authors, 2017
Paul Basu has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be
identified as Editor of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system,
without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on
or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be
accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978- 1- 4742- 6477- 8
ePDF : 978- 1- 4742- 6480- 8
ePub : 978- 1- 4742- 6478- 5
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Cover design by ClareTurner.co.uk
Cover image © The Trustees of the British Museum.
All rights reserved.
Typeset by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
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Contents

List of figures vii
List of contributors xi
Acknowledgements xv
1 The inbetweenness of things 1
Paul Basu

Museums as sites of inbetweenness
21
2 The inbetweenness of the vitrine: Three parerga of a feather

headdress 23
Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll

3 The buzz of displacement: Liminality among Burmese court

objects in Oxford, London and Yangon 39
Sandra H. Dudley

4 Object and spirit agency: The G’psgolox poles as mediators

within and between colonized and colonizer cultures 59
Stacey R. Jessiman

Masquerades and mediation
79
5 At the centre of everything? A Nigerian mask and

its histories 81
John Picton

6 Amòdu and the material manifestation of Eégún 101
Will Rea
vi
vi ContentS
Syncretism, intercession and iconoclash
121
7 Desire, imitation and ambiguity in Asmat sculpture 123
Nick Stanley

8 Animating relationships: Inca conopa and modern illa as

mediating objects 131
Bill Sillar

9 Visual diplomacy: Art circulation and iconoclashes in the

Kingdom of Bamum 149
Silvia Forni

Hybridity in form and function
169
10 Mediating between Mayas and the art market: The traditional-

yet- contemporary carved gourd vessel 171
Mary Katherine Scott

11 Queen Victoria’s Samoan bonnet 191
Catherine Cummings

12 The indigenization of the transcultural teacup in colonial

Canada 211
Madeline Rose Knickerbocker and Lisa Truong

Between image, text and object
231
13 ‘Curious statues so cunningly contrived’: Plato’s Silenus,

inwardness and inbetweenness 233
Lucy Razzall

14 Coinage between cultures: Mediating power in Roman

Macedonia 251
Clare Rowan

Index 269
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Figures

1.1 Detail of frontispiece from Museum Wormianum
(1655) xvi
1.2 British Museum accession record for ‘Bundoo devil’s
mask’, 1886 6
1.3 A fresh rhizome of Cimicifuga racemose 10
1.4 The ‘double- headed arrow’ of between intersecting
with the ‘midstream’ of in-b etween 13
1.5 Visible light spectrum experiment using a prism 16
2.1 Feather headdress in its vitrine as displayed at the
Penacho: Pract & Passion exhibition, Museum für
Völkerkunde, Vienna, 2012 22
2.2 The vertical display of the Penacho copy in its case
in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City,
invites visitors to photograph themselves as if
wearing the crown 32
2.3 Protestors campaigning for the return of the feather
headdress in Vienna, 2007 33
3.1 Gilded wooden bee, on display in the Pitt Rivers
Museum 38
3.2 Christmas Day, 1885 43
3.3 The Glass Palace in the middle of the Nandaw (Royal
Palace) at Mandalay, 1903– 1907 46
viii
viii FigUreS
4.1 The original and replica G’psgolox poles at the
Swedish Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm, 2000 58
4.2 The original G’psgolox pole at Misk’usa,
photographed by Olof Hanson in 1928 62
4.3 The replica G’psgolox pole outside the Swedish
Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm, 2011 74
5.1 Onogidi and one of his flute players, June 1966 80
5.2 Onogidi’s genealogy showing the inheritance pattern
through four generations 88
5.3 Onogidi fully dressed and ready to turn on his
followers, June 1966 94
5.4 Outside Ohubi’s house, July 1982 95
6.1 Amòdu cloth worn by Chief Odoba, Ìkòlé Ekìtì, 2006 100
6.2 The senior Aborogi masquerade of Chief Odoba, Ìkòlé
Ekìtì, 1991 103
7.1 Anaklitus Yiwirjak’s crucifix figure, Church of Kristus
Amor, Sawa, Asmat, West Papua, 2010 122
7.2 Herman Omordó, Christ figure on mat, Church of
Kristus Amor, Sawa, Asmat, West Papua, 2010 125
7.3 Holy Week liturgy, Church of Kristus Amor, Sawa,
Asmat, West Papua, 2010 126
8.1 Conopa. Emilo Montez collections, Field Museum of
Natural History, Chicago 130
8.2 A ritual bundle with the illa positioned to watch
over the preparation of the offering, Raqchi, Cuzco
Department, Peru 134
8.3 A number of highly polished black stone Inca conopa.
Museo Inka, Universidad San Antonio Abad del
Cuzco, Peru 139
ix
FigUreS ix
9.1 Mangbetu- style pot in Idrissou Koutou’s workshop.
Foumban, Cameroon, July 2012 148
9.2 Mosé Yéyab with some of his collection in front of his
museum 153
9.3 Selection of artworks for sale in one of the galleries
of the Artisanat du Centre. Foumban, Cameroon, July
2013 158
10.1 Large gourd with Maya profile carved by Luís Ayuso of
Muna, Yucatán, Mexico, 2011 170
10.2 Gourd with carved imagery from Maya ceramic
vessel ‘Kerr 5164’ made by Rusel Xool of Muna,
Yucatán, Mexico, 2014 178
10.3 Examples of carved gourds with animal and insect
imagery sold by Pedro Ayuso of Muna, Yucatán,
Mexico, 2011 179
11.1 Bonnet, hat made of turtleshell, cotton cloth and
vegetable fibre thread. Navigator’s Island (Samoa) 190
11.2 Postcard: Queen Victoria’s wedding bonnet worn for
her marriage on 10 February 1840 194
11.3 ‘Sunday Bonnets at the Navigator’s Islands’ [Samoa],
Apia Bay, 14 September 1849 197
12.1 Nl’akapamux basketry cup and saucer, c. 1900–1 941 210
12.2 Stone teacup by Josephee Kakee, 2013 212
12.3 ‘Tsimshian Tea Party,’ c. 1890, Fort Simpson 222
13.1 Woodcut illustration from Francesco Marcolini, Le
Ingeniose Sorti: Giardino di Pensieri 232
13.2 A medieval ‘vierge ouvrante’, open and closed, made
in the Rhine valley c. 1300 240
14.1 Bronze coin of Macedonia, 168– 166 BC 250