Hiller - The Myth of Primitivism. Perspectives on Art - Esoteric Online

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Ethnography and the formation <strong>of</strong> national and cultural identities 161 successfully fostered a feeling <strong>of</strong> geographical proximity, while the sense <strong>of</strong> ‘spectacle’ was calculated to preserve the cultural divide. 11 <strong>The</strong> possibility <strong>of</strong> possession as well as a sense <strong>of</strong> being an active participant at an ‘event’ rather than simply a passive observer were other aspects <strong>of</strong> the exhibition that were lacking in the museum experience. <strong>The</strong> vicarious tourism on <strong>of</strong>fer was available to all who passed the turnstile at the entrance to the exhibition site, providing they had the sixpenny fee that allowed them access to the so-called ‘villages’. <strong>The</strong> ensuing competition for the same broad public necessitated the implementation <strong>of</strong> certain policies in order for the ethnographic curators, in their capacity as museum administrators, to distinguish their appeal from that <strong>of</strong> the exhibition. Such strategies served not only to differentiate the two institutions but, more importantly, to legitimize the museum as the domain <strong>of</strong> the ‘authentic’ educational experience in the face <strong>of</strong> the 1902 initiative. <strong>The</strong> debates around the use <strong>of</strong> ‘curio’ and ‘curiosity’ as generic terms for ethnographic material is a case in point. Throughout the first decade <strong>of</strong> the twentieth century these terms were a bone <strong>of</strong> contention among museum <strong>of</strong>ficials and early acknowledged by them as one <strong>of</strong> the major hindrances to any effective educational use <strong>of</strong> ethnographic material. As evidence <strong>of</strong> the severity <strong>of</strong> the problem, the journal <strong>of</strong> the Museums Association published the following comments by an early visitor to the Liverpool County Museum’s ethnographic rooms. 12 <strong>The</strong> visitor contended that one <strong>of</strong> the main troubles lay in the unfortunate fact that the public ‘regard it as a storehouse <strong>of</strong> curiosities arranged to please and amuse. Certainly there are curiosities in every museum…though the fact may be insisted that their original and foremost purpose is to educate.’ 13 <strong>The</strong> solution advised by the influential body <strong>of</strong> the League <strong>of</strong> Empire in 1904 was the ‘orderly arrangement and the transformation <strong>of</strong> mere curios into objects <strong>of</strong> scientific interest by appropriate classification’. 14 An early guide from the Horniman Museum in London provides a colourful illustration <strong>of</strong> the eclectic display policy that the association was up against. Prior to the museum’s transference into the hands <strong>of</strong> the London County Council in 1901, descriptions <strong>of</strong> the Ethnographic Gallery focused on the slave trade or social groups like the Dahomeyans or the Zulu, both <strong>of</strong> whom were identified in the popular consciousness as aggressive African fighters with a penchant for human sacrifice and gratuitous violence. 15 Prior to entering the ‘African and Japanese Room’ the visitor would have passed through the Annexe where a collection <strong>of</strong> ‘deities’ from China, India, Scandinavia, and Peru were on <strong>of</strong>fer, together with a Buddhist shrine and ‘a Chinese banner fixed on the wall, as also a “skeleton in the cupboard”, the bones and ligatures all shown and named; it is labelled:—“the framework on which beauty is founded”’. 16 Glass table cases in one room contained Swiss, African, Eskimaux (sic) Indian, Japanese, and Chinese ivory carvings and a collection <strong>of</strong> Meerschaum pipes, while on top <strong>of</strong> such cases, ‘are ranged glass Jars, containing Snakes, Lizards, Chameleons and a strange looking spiny lizard from Australia, together with a chicken with four legs and four wings but only one head, hatched at Surrey Mount’ (the museum’s earlier name). 17 <strong>The</strong> visit culminated with a walk through the ‘Zoological Saloon’ and a meeting with the muchpublicized Russian bears, Jumbo and Alice, and the Sal monkey, Nellie!
<strong>The</strong> myth <strong>of</strong> primitivism 162 II <strong>The</strong> debates in the Museums Association over the classification <strong>of</strong> ethnographic material were considerably more complex and comprehensive than the resultant displays. <strong>The</strong> proposals revolved around the choice between a geographical or a typological organization and the relevance <strong>of</strong> either for different types <strong>of</strong> anthropological museum. <strong>The</strong> general consensus delegated the former as the responsibility <strong>of</strong> the national collections and the latter as that <strong>of</strong> the local museums. <strong>The</strong> material at hand was broadly recognized as falling into the two categories <strong>of</strong> a biological unit and a cultural unit. Ideally, since ‘Man’s physical evolution and anatomical structure related directly with all his activities’, race and culture were assumed to be ‘intimately connected’. <strong>The</strong> objective for the curator was to demonstrate the relationship between the two. 18 Subdivisions according to tribe and nation, however, provoked discussion that provides us with a particular insight into the function <strong>of</strong> ethnographic collections in Britain. In this case, colonies as a category acquired the status <strong>of</strong> a homogeneous ‘nation’, as part <strong>of</strong> the British Empire. Evidently, by this definition ‘nation’ was too large a grouping to be practically implemented in a museum! Nevertheless, the fact that a territorial possession <strong>of</strong> the British Empire had no recognized status as a nation outside the empire as a whole, had particular ramifications for any colony represented in the displays. Clearly, examples <strong>of</strong> material culture from these countries functioned primarily as signifiers <strong>of</strong> British sovereignty. 9.3 Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford: General view <strong>of</strong> the Collection c. 1895.
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The MYTH o
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PART I Contents List of</st
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Illustrations Display case, Berlin
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10.2 A blend of sa
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Display case, Berlin Ethnographical
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little pictures inserted me neatly
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10 Christian Metz (Fall 1985) ‘Ph
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assumptions of the
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PART I
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Outsiders or insiders 19 Th
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‘Remember, you are the stranger.
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Editor’s introduction The
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5 Emil Nolde’s ‘ethnographic’
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Unofficial version
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Page 200 and 201: 10 Art and meaning SIGNE HOWELL In
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Page 206 and 207: Art and meaning 185 woven into syst
Page 208 and 209: Art and meaning 187 anthropologists
Page 210 and 211: Art and meaning 189 and visited Mus
Page 212 and 213: Art and meaning 191 ultimate ‘oth
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PART IV
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14 Unsettled accounts of</s
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15 Locality fails IMANTS TILLERS Al
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16 Aboriginal representation and ki
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17 Born from sharp rocks Edgar Heap
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Notes on contributors 294 P.S.122.
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Index aboriginality, as Australian
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Brecht, Bertholdt 53, 56 Breton, An
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Index 300 Eurocentrism 14-15, 21, 8
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Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig 99, 144, 240
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School Museum Committee 204 mutilat
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Index 306 ‘soft
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Tower monument 126 technology, and
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Hiller - The Myth of Primitivism. Perspectives on Art - Esoteric Online

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