LEARNING TO SEE IN MELANESIA Lectures given in the Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University, 1993–2008 Marilyn Strathern
H AU M ASTERCLASS S ERIES Volume 2
HAU Masterclass Series Editorial Team Editor-in-Chief
Giovanni da Col (Cambridge)
M anaging Editor
StĂŠphane Gros (CEH - CNRS)
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Sean Dowdy (Chicago)
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Holly High (Sydney) Philip Swift (UCL)
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David Graeber (LSE) Michelle Beckett (Chicago) Bree Blakeman (ANU) Davide Casciano (Rome) Teodora Hasegan (Binghamton-SUNY) Rodolfo Maggio (Manchester) Zachary Sheldon (Chicago) Marguerite DeLoney (Stanford) Juliette Hopkins (Sydney) Gina Krone (Sydney) Randolph Mamo (Malta)
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C O NTENTS EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION Strathern bottle: On topology, ethnographic theory, and the method of wonder
vii
Giovanni DA COL, Universities of Bergen and Cambridge
THE MASTERCLASS Lecturer’s introduction: Learning to see in Melanesia Introduction Preliminary comments to the present lectures Notes for the reader Original outline and readings for the course Additional bibliography
1 1 2 5 10 14
Lecturer’s acknowledgments
15
Acknowledgments to publishers and authors
17
1. Feathers and shells: Learning to see Preamble The photographer’s gallery The anthropologist’s context Interpretation: Learning to see
21 22 26 40 44
2. Axes and canoes: Traveling objects Exchange and travel in Hagen Travel and exchange in the Massim Are there some elements of a visual theory here?
55 58 81 93
3. Netbags and masks: Containers Backtracking Male and female: Mt. Ok netbags Center and periphery: Sepik (and other) masks On visual theory again
95 98 101 110 121
4. Wig / shell / tree: Hiding forms A diversion on the interpretative exercise Two wigs from Huli Two shells form Wiru The Barok mortuary tree Why a visual theory? Learning to see in Melanesia: A summary
125 126 128 134 140 145 152
Postscript to the lectures
155
Appendix I: Artifacts of history: Events and the interpretation of images
157
Appendix II: Social relations and the idea of externality
179
Appendix III: Environments within: An ethnographic commentary on scale
207