Promiscuous Things

Perspectives on Cultural Property Through Photographs in the Purari Delta of Papua New Guinea

Bibliographic Data

ID4283301
AuthorsJoshua A Bell (0000-0001-6892-8786)
Year2008
Volume15
Issue2
Pages123-139
Publication date2008-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Cultural Property (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0940-7391 • E-ISSN: 1465-7317
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0940739108080107
OpenAlexW2124836007
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited38

Within this article I discuss the productive potentials of looking at historic photographs of the Purari Delta with indigenous communities today. A particular type of artifact, the meanings of photographs are promiscuous. Thinking about the shape of cultural property relations that are manifest photographs, I show how engagements with indigenous communities unsettles European preconceptions about what photographs are as well as how doing so raises issues about what cultural property is, and perhaps can be. Instead of being a discreet entity, cultural property for the I'ai emerges as a network of relationships that envelopes people, environment, and ancestors. This expansive notion of cultural property can help us rethink how we treat and handle objects within museums and archives

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Artifact (error · Cultural artifact · Cultural heritage · Cultural property · Epistemology · Ethnology · Expansive · Indigenous · New guinea · Property (philosophy · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Computer Science · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Philosophy · Artificial Intelligence · Ecology

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