Vu du Piémont

Les images du Sepik comme réceptacles

Bibliographic Data

ID5809452
AuthorsLudovic Coupaye (University College London, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume146
Issue1
Pages227-238
Publication date2018-07-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal de la Société des océanistes (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0300-953X • E-ISSN: 1760-7256
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/jso.8024
OpenAlexW2885000587
LanguageFR
Citations received1
References cited32

This paper examines a range of Sepik valley human figures, building on the non-verbal dimensions of images identified by A. Forge, D. Tuzin and G. Bateson, and developed by researchers such as A. Gell, C. Kaufmann and C. Severi. I suggest that one of the non-verbal devices that these figures rely on, betrays an underlying idea of images-as-potential-receptacle, itself based on a reference to the human body as container. Sepik artists can thus use motifs (as visual, material and spatial arrangements) which trigger inferential (indexical, iconic, and/or mnemonic) processes that evoke container-like capacities by reference to the human figure. Based on this hypothesis, I explore the ways in which the surfaces of artefacts are treated in order to both reveal and conceal an interior, as a possible container of ancestral capacities

Mnemonic · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Categorization, perception, and language · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation

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