Classifying the Material

Food, Textiles and Status in North Vanuatu

Bibliographic Data

ID2390801
AuthorsL Bolton (0009-0008-3912-3776, British Museum, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume6
Issue3
Pages251-268
Publication date2001-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/135918350100600301
OpenAlexW2114442453
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited12

The analytical category 'material culture', and in particular the ways in which different kinds of material culture are classified museologically, need critical examination in the light of specific ethnographic data. In this article, the categories 'food' and 'textiles' are considered in the context of status-alteration systems in east Ambae, Vanuatu. An analysis of the women's status-alteration system huhuru, reveals a categorical association between certain textiles and ritual food, which undercuts the distinction between these two object types as essentially different

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Categorical variable · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Ethnography · Linguistics · Object (grammar · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Computer Science · Culinary Culture and Tourism · History · Philosophy · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies