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Collecting In The South Sea : The Voyage Of Bruni D'entrecasteaux 1791-1794
Paperback Edition: 1
This book is a study of collecting undertaken by Joseph Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux and his shipmates in Tasmania, the western Pacific Islands, and Indonesia. In 1791-794 Bruni d'Entrecasteaux led a French naval expedition in search of the lost vessels of La Prouse which had last been seen by Europeans at Botany Bay in March 1788. After Bruni d'Entrecasteaux died near the end of the voyage and the expedition collapsed in political disarray in Java, its collections and records were subsequently scattered or lost.
The books core is a richly illustrated examination, analysis, and catalogue of a large array of ethnographic objects collected during the voyage, later dispersed, and recently identified in museums in France, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States.
The focus on artefacts is informed by a broad conception of collecting as grounded in encounters or exchanges with Indigenous protagonists and also as materialized in other genreswritten accounts, vocabularies, and visual representations (drawings, engravings, and maps).
Historically, the book outlines the antecedents, occurrences, and aftermath of the voyage, including its location within the classic era of European scientific voyaging (1766-840) and within contemporary colonial networks. Particular chapters trace the ambiguous histories of the extant collections. Ethnographically, contributors are alert to local settings, relationships, practices, and values; to Indigenous uses and significance of objects; to the reciprocal, dialogic nature of collecting; to local agency or innovation in exchanges; and to present implications of objects and their histories, especially for modern scholars and artists, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
Featured in the 3 December 2018 Pasifika newsletter.
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Pages : 382
Publisher : Sidestone Press
Publication date : 2018-12-03
Subjects: Non-fiction, Humanities, Anthropology/archaeology, Social & Cultural Anthropology, Ethnography