The Inbetweenness of Things
Materializing Mediation and Movement between Worlds
Published on 23. March 2017
Book
Hardback
296 pages
978-1-4742-6477-8 (ISBN)
Description
We habitually categorize the world in binary logics of 'animate' and 'inanimate', 'natural' and 'supernatural', 'self' and 'other', 'authentic' and 'inauthentic'. The Inbetweenness of Things rejects such Western classificatory traditions - which tend to categorize objects using bounded notions of period, place and purpose - and argues instead for a paradigm where objects are not one thing or another but a multiplicity of things at once.
Adopting an 'object-centred' approach, with contributions from material culture specialists across various disciplines, the book showcases a series of objects that defy neat classification. In the process, it explores how 'things' mediate and travel between conceptual worlds in diverse cultural, geographic and temporal contexts, and how they embody this mediation and movement in their form. With an impressive range of international authors, each essay grounds explorations of cutting-edge theory in concrete case studies.
An innovative, thought-provoking read for students and researchers in anthropology, archaeology, museum studies and art history which will transform the way readers think about objects.
Adopting an 'object-centred' approach, with contributions from material culture specialists across various disciplines, the book showcases a series of objects that defy neat classification. In the process, it explores how 'things' mediate and travel between conceptual worlds in diverse cultural, geographic and temporal contexts, and how they embody this mediation and movement in their form. With an impressive range of international authors, each essay grounds explorations of cutting-edge theory in concrete case studies.
An innovative, thought-provoking read for students and researchers in anthropology, archaeology, museum studies and art history which will transform the way readers think about objects.
Reviews / Votes
Provocative and absorbing, The Inbetweenness of Thingsprovides a diverse set of case studies of past and present things of our world. Taking movement or "inbetweenness" as its core analytic, Paul Basu and this volume's contributors demonstrate how productive research on materiality can be. This volume is a vibrant addition to the interdisciplinary study of objects, and should be widely read. * Joshua A. Bell, National Museum of Natural History, USA * Paul Basu makes a unique and compelling contribution to the fields of anthropology, material culture and museology. Pioneering in cutting-edge scholarship, Basu opens up the fascinating world of "inbetween" objects to a broader audience, with an analysis of a gamut of anthropological tropes from the fetish to the exotica of the European Wunderkammer. * Alison J. Clarke, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
43 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
611 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4742-6477-8 (9781474264778)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2017
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€39.99
Available for download
Person
Paul Basu is Professor of Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
Content
List of Figures
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
1. The Inbetweenness of Things
Paul Basu, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
Museums as Sites of Inbetweenness
2. The Inbetweenness of the Vitrine: Three Parerga of a Feather Headdress
Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, Independent Artist/Curator, UK
3. The Buzz of Displacement: Liminality amongst Burmese Court Objects in Oxford, London and Yangon
Sandra H. Dudley, University of Leicester, UK
4. Object and Spirit Agency: The G'psgolox Poles as Mediators within and between Colonized and Colonizer Cultures
Stacey R. Jessiman, Stanford University, USA
Masquerades and Mediation
5. At the Centre of Everything? A Nigerian Mask and Its Histories
John Picton, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
6. Amodu and the Material Manifestation of Eegun
Will Rea, University of Leeds, UK
Syncretism, Intercession and Iconoclash
7. Desire, Imitation and Ambiguity in Asmat Sculpture
Nick Stanley, British Museum, UK
8. Animating Relationships: Inca Conopa and Modern Illa as Meditating Objects
Bill Sillar, University College London, UK
9. Visual Diplomacy: Art Circulation and Iconoclashes in the Kingdom of Bamum
Silvia Forni, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada
Hybridity in Form and Function
10. Mediating between Mayas and the Art Market: The Traditional-yet-Contemporary Carved Gourd Vessel
Mary Katherine Scott, University of Wyoming, USA
11. Queen Victoria's Samoan Bonnet
Catherine Cummings, University of Exeter, USA
12. The Indigenization of the Transcultural Teacup in Colonial Canada
Madeline Rose Knickerbocker, Simon Fraser University, Canada and Lisa Truong, Carleton University, Canada
Between Image, Text and Object
13. 'Curious Statues so Cunningly Contrived': Plato's Silenus, Inwardness and Inbetweenness
Lucy Razzall, Queen Mary, University of London, UK
14, Coinage between Cultures: Mediating Power in Roman Macedonia
Clare Rowan, University of Warwick, UK
Index
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
1. The Inbetweenness of Things
Paul Basu, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
Museums as Sites of Inbetweenness
2. The Inbetweenness of the Vitrine: Three Parerga of a Feather Headdress
Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, Independent Artist/Curator, UK
3. The Buzz of Displacement: Liminality amongst Burmese Court Objects in Oxford, London and Yangon
Sandra H. Dudley, University of Leicester, UK
4. Object and Spirit Agency: The G'psgolox Poles as Mediators within and between Colonized and Colonizer Cultures
Stacey R. Jessiman, Stanford University, USA
Masquerades and Mediation
5. At the Centre of Everything? A Nigerian Mask and Its Histories
John Picton, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
6. Amodu and the Material Manifestation of Eegun
Will Rea, University of Leeds, UK
Syncretism, Intercession and Iconoclash
7. Desire, Imitation and Ambiguity in Asmat Sculpture
Nick Stanley, British Museum, UK
8. Animating Relationships: Inca Conopa and Modern Illa as Meditating Objects
Bill Sillar, University College London, UK
9. Visual Diplomacy: Art Circulation and Iconoclashes in the Kingdom of Bamum
Silvia Forni, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada
Hybridity in Form and Function
10. Mediating between Mayas and the Art Market: The Traditional-yet-Contemporary Carved Gourd Vessel
Mary Katherine Scott, University of Wyoming, USA
11. Queen Victoria's Samoan Bonnet
Catherine Cummings, University of Exeter, USA
12. The Indigenization of the Transcultural Teacup in Colonial Canada
Madeline Rose Knickerbocker, Simon Fraser University, Canada and Lisa Truong, Carleton University, Canada
Between Image, Text and Object
13. 'Curious Statues so Cunningly Contrived': Plato's Silenus, Inwardness and Inbetweenness
Lucy Razzall, Queen Mary, University of London, UK
14, Coinage between Cultures: Mediating Power in Roman Macedonia
Clare Rowan, University of Warwick, UK
Index