Imagination behind Shape
The Invisible Content of Asmat Artefacts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2144657 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Astrid De Hontheim (Russian State Agrarian Correspondence University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 235-249 |
| Publication date | 2010-11-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropological Forum (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00664677.2010.515292 |
| OpenAlex | W1983894805 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 10 |
For the Asmat people in West Papua, artefacts and body decoration are created for both aesthetic and spiritual purposes. Craftspeople add sacred components to comply with their ancestors' expectations, which are perceptible to their descendants. Body decoration acts on the self, affecting mood and health. My Asmat informants expressed their surprise when they saw some ‘tribal’1 art collectors avidly gathering ‘pieces’,2 as if they hoped to capture the aura of the pre-contact Asmat. The most sought-after objects bear an ancestor's name and were involved in head-hunting or cannibalism. This article concerns some of the imagined contents of Asmat artefacts and how their status changes from the time they are made until their integration into Western collections, particularly those of Dutch and German collectors I interviewed in 2003 and 2004
Aesthetics · Ancestor · Archaeology · Art · Cannibalism · Content (measure theory · Ethnology · German · Sociology · Surprise · Visual arts · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Communication · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Ecology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History
| Citations per year | 0.17 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2014 - 2018 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |