Ceremony men : making ethnography and the return of the Strehlow collection / Jason M. Gibson.

Author
Gibson, Jason [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Albany : State University of New York Press, [2020]
Description
xvi, 300 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Details

Subject(s)
Series
  • Tribal worlds : critical studies in American Indian nation building [More in this series]
  • Suny series, tribal worlds : critical studies in American Indian nation building
Summary note
"Ceremony Men is an account of one scholar's attempt to return an anthropological collection to Aboriginal communities in remote central Australia. In revealing his process, Jason M. Gibson highlights the importance of personal rapport and collaborations in ethnographic exchange, both past and present, and demonstrates the ongoing importance of sociality, relationship, and orality when Indigenous peoples encounter museum collections today. Combining forensic historical analysis with contemporary ethnographic research, this book challenges the notion that anthropological archives will necessarily become authoritative or dominant statements on a people's cultural identity. Instead, Indigenous peoples will often interrogate and re-contextualise this material with great dexterity as they work to re-integrate the documented into their present-day social lives. By analyzing one of the world's greatest collections of Indigenous song, myth and ceremony-the collections of linguist/anthropologist T.G.H. Strehlow-Ceremony Men demonstrates how inextricably intertwined ethnographic collections can become in complex historical and social relations. By theorizing the nature of the documenter-documented relationships this book makes an important contribution to the at times simplistic post-colonial generalizations that dominate analyses of colonial interaction. A story of local agency is uncovered that enriches our understanding of the human engagements that took (and continue to take) place within varying colonial relations of Australia"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
  • Archive and field
  • Early Alhernter encounters
  • Strehlow's scope
  • A balancing act
  • Urrempel man
  • Declarations of relatedness
  • The intermingling of intimate narratives
  • "Your'e my Kwertengerl"
  • Conclusion.
ISBN
  • 9781438478548 (paperback)
  • 1438478542 (paperback)
  • 9781438478555 (hardcover)
  • 1438478550 (hardcover)
LCCN
2019036180
OCLC
1129100083
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...
Other views
Staff view

Supplementary Information