Sherds of Paradise

Domestic Archaeology and Ceramic Artefacts from a Protestant Mission in the South Pacific

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7175386
AutoresJ L Flexner (0000-0002-2577-5991, Australian National University, autor de correspondencia), Andrew C Ball (Australian National University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen19
Número4
Páginas728-754
Fecha de publicación2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEuropean Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1461-9571 • E-ISSN: 1741-2722
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1080/14619571.2016.1147319
OpenAlexW2327031286
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas61

Postmedieval protestant missionaries working in exotic locations used objects both as a marker of their own ‘civilisation’ in contrast to that of the local populations and as a means of engaging these communities with Christianity. European things were displayed and conspicuously used to encourage a consumer mindset and interest in capitalism, thought to be crucial steps on the path to full conversion. Excavations at a Presbyterian mission house on Tanna Island, Vanuatu, recovered a remarkable assemblage of nineteenth-century British-made transfer-printed ceramics for such a remote location. These objects reflect multiple, complex meanings including performance of a ‘civilised’ British identity, romanticized ideals of pastoral landscapes, and conceptions of death and rebirth in the afterlife. These meanings were complicated by the context of cross-cultural interactions that were necessary to the missionary project

Aesthetics · Afterlife · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Civilization · Context (archaeology · Ethnology · Identity (music · Literature · Mindset · Paradise · Protestantism · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Philosophy · Religious studies