Research Catalog

Tikopia collected : Raymond Firth and the creation of Solomon Islands cultural heritage

Title
Tikopia collected : Raymond Firth and the creation of Solomon Islands cultural heritage / Elizabeth Bonshek.
Author
Bonshek, Elizabeth
Publication
  • Canon Pyon : Sean Kingston Publishing, 2017.
  • ©2017

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TextUse in library JFD 18-2408Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description
vi, 222 pages : illustrations (some color), color maps; 23 cm
Summary
The ethnographic collection made by Sir Raymond Firth in Tikopia, Solomon Islands, in 1928 and 1929 is used as a case study for the examination of the different meanings and interpretations attributed to museum collections. This collection is now housed at the Australian Museum in Sydney. In the 1970s the collection was subject to a repatriation request by the National Museum of the Solomon Islands, but the collection was not returned. In examining the progress of this request the history of the collection is traced, including acquisition in the field and subsequent re-locations between university, state and national bodies in Australia. The author suggests that the reasons for the failure of the National Museum of the Solomon Islands to successfully negotiate the return of this collection lie in the nature of the repatriation request as an expression of political difference at a national level rather than cultural difference at the local level, and in the specific social relationships, past and present, surrounding the collection. However, the contemporary attitudes to the collection identified in this study should not be assumed to remain constant, as future generations of Tikopia may well reassess the cultural value of this collection. The author concludes that museums are sites which mediate specific social relationships, at specific times in history.
Subjects
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 194-210) and index.
Contents
Collecting Tikopia -- Firth's scientific anthropology -- Interaction between Tikopia and Europeans, 1606 to 1928 --Objects as sacred : Mediating the spirits in Tikopia -- The idea of a 'treasure place' -- Creating cultural heritage -- Appendix 1: Firth's 'Specimen list' -- appendix 2: The Firth Collection at the Australian Museum -- Appendix 3: Names of individuals who gave objects to Firth -- Appendix 4: Tikopia objects held in public collections collected prior to 1928.
Call Number
JFD 18-2408
ISBN
  • 1907774394
  • 9781907774393
OCLC
973806514
Author
Bonshek, Elizabeth, author.
Title
Tikopia collected : Raymond Firth and the creation of Solomon Islands cultural heritage / Elizabeth Bonshek.
Publisher
Canon Pyon : Sean Kingston Publishing, 2017.
Copyright Date
©2017
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 194-210) and index.
Research Call Number
JFD 18-2408
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