Leather Trousers and Leopard Skin Waistcoats: Absent Objects and Endangered Material Knowledge in the Kalahari

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This PhD focuses on the processing of leather and furs in the Kalahari region ofsouthern Africa, and the ways in which this has been transformed over the past two centuries. Contemporary methods of craft production will be used to elucidate the making and use of historic objects in the British Museum's (BM) collections, in connection with the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme. The project will also involve archival research to document objects that were made in the past, but are absent from museum collections, such as leather trousers and leopard skin waistcoats.The project will contribute to an understanding of the lives of objects, by attempting to understand their making, their exchange and reception, and the ways in which this led to some objects entering museum collections and others not. It will use leather objects to understand the social, cultural, religious, creative, economic and political transformations that unfolded in the Kalahari over the past two centuries. A better understanding of the techniques involved in the production of these leather items contributes to their care and preservation. Finally, this research will create new knowledge around objects that will enable them to be more effectively presented and exhibited in a range of media.The primary and initial focus of the project involves working with the relevanthistoric collections at the BM to enable a familiarisation. The BM's collection will be revisited throughout the process as research makes it possible to update and improve current catalogue descriptions. Barbara Wills, a BM conservator and leather specialist has agreed to act as an advisor, committing up to 20 hours to provide a greater understanding of the technologies used, to enable indepth examination, and to help in making contacts with other specialists. Contact has also been made with an existing BM CDP student working on Egyptian and Nubian leather. After familiarisation with other relevant collections, I will undertake fieldwork in Botswana, working in collaboration with Gantsi Craft to document contemporary methods used in the production of skins and leather, but also to engage in photo elicitation with contemporary leather workers using images of objects in the BM collection, as well as other images from historic sources.The time period and geographical focus of this project enable it to engage: Changing Things, Changing People; Objects in the Modern World; and Connections, Movement and Globalisations. In addressing the absence of certain objects from the collection, it also engages the fourth research challenge, Collecting the Museum, to understand the ways in which acquisitions of ethnographic material have historically privileged the 'traditional' and 'authentic'. Finally, through documenting contemporary practices and using these as lens on historic collections, it strongly relates to Making and Using. A focus on contemporary practices, and the collecting of fast disappearing material knowledge systems around leather working in the Kalahari, means that the proposed research aligns strongly with the goals of the British Museums 'Endangered Material Knowledge Programme' (EMKP), led by Dr. Ceri Ashley and Dr. Lissant Bolton.