Biocultural knowledge, power and poetics in South American featherwork.

南美羽毛制品中的生物文化知识、力量和诗意。

• 批准号: 2488014
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Birkbeck, University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2488014
• 关键词: Biocultural; knowledge; power; poetics; South

The focus of this doctoral project is on South American objects made by Indigenous peoples out of feathers, or with feathers attached, in the Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) collections. Feathered ornaments result from specific combinations of symbolic meanings associated with feathers' particular colours, sizes and shapes, the different degrees that birds are esteemed by particular cultures, the occasions on which they are used (religious, shamanic or civil), the place they are worn, etc. (Escobar 2007). 'A striking feature of the Indian cultures of South America' - said the anthropologist Métraux (1944) - 'is the extensive use of feathers both for body ornaments and for decorations of bodies and other artifacts'. And he continued: 'Nowhere have feathers been worked more lavishly or with greater skill than there.'Yet while visitors gazing at the featherwork displays in the PRM might marvel at the sheer variety of objects' forms and colours, the multitude of links between particular artefacts, peoples and places remain hidden; visitors are unable to discern and trace specific object histories, meanings and geographies (Gosden and Larson 2007). Exploring South American featherwork in the PRM collections, this interdisciplinary, practice-based doctoral project will seek to develop ways of telling histories of specific objects that shed light not only on the historical processes of collection in the field and the 'lives' of the objects in the museum, but also on contemporary debates on Indigenous cultural identity, sovereignty and heritage rights (Françozo 2012), as well as the dynamic relationships among Indigenous peoples, birds, and environments. The project aims to provide understanding of these feathered objects as historical biocultural objects, which afford ways of telling the histories in which biodiversity emerges. As Tsing (2012) argues, 'plants and animals are part of a human disturbance regime; they have a contaminated history.'This project is timely. The loss of biocultural diversity in South America has accelerated significantly in recent years, with satellite images showing fierce fires engulfing the heart of the continent's forests and savanna. Although fires are customary in the region, 'the unusually severe scale of fires corresponded to direct government encouragement', specifically in Brazil and Bolivia (Laurence 2019), who favour agribusiness, mining, and hydroelectric megaprojects in detriment of the globally significant richness of biodiversity, Indigenous cultural heritage and territorial rights. In current Indigenous resistance movements, feathered artefacts, alongside face paint and music, are being used as tools for empowerment. Showing agency grounded in Indigenous identity, this self-representation places objects held in museum stores central to present day Indigenous resistance movements.Investigating the PRM's feathered objects, associated archives and photographic collections (such as Moser and Tayler's in Colombia, Rivière's in Surinam and Posey's in Brazil), the project will develop, in collaboration with Indigenous peoples, a selected case study as the basis of curatorial interventions inthe PRM, aiming at empowering Indigenous groups, showcasing their ways of defending the natural world and securing a sustainable way of lifegiving. Posey's work is of particular relevance here, given his research on the bioethics of ethnobiology and support for Indigenous intellectual property rights. Also important is the object collection of Audrey Butt Colson, for her support of the Indigenous peoples' fight for land rights.

这个博士项目的重点是在皮特河博物馆（PRM）的收藏中，由土著人民用羽毛制作或附有羽毛的南美物品。羽毛饰品是由与羽毛的特定颜色、大小和形状相关的象征意义、特定文化对鸟类的不同程度的尊重、使用它们的场合（宗教、萨满或民事）、佩戴它们的地方等的特定组合而成的（Escobar 2007）。“南美洲印第安文化的一个显著特征是，”人类学家msamutraux（1944）说，“大量使用羽毛作为身体装饰，以及身体和其他人工制品的装饰。”他接着说：“没有任何地方的羽毛制作比这里更慷慨，更有技巧。“然而，当游客们凝视着PRM中羽毛制品的展示时，他们可能会惊叹于各种各样的物体的形状和颜色，而特定的人工制品、人物和地点之间的众多联系却被隐藏了起来；参观者无法辨别和追踪特定对象的历史，意义和地理（Gosden和Larson 2007）。探索PRM收藏中的南美羽毛制品，这个跨学科的，基于实践的博士项目将寻求发展讲述特定物品历史的方法，不仅揭示了该领域收藏的历史过程和博物馆中物品的“生活”，而且还揭示了当代关于土著文化认同，主权和遗产权利的辩论（franozo 2012），以及土著人民，鸟类，动物和动物之间的动态关系。和环境。该项目旨在提供对这些有羽毛的物体作为历史生物文化物体的理解，它提供了讲述生物多样性出现的历史的方法。正如Tsing（2012）所言，“植物和动物是人类干扰机制的一部分；他们有一段被污染的历史。“这个项目很及时。近年来，南美洲生物文化多样性的丧失速度明显加快，卫星图像显示，凶猛的大火吞没了该大陆森林和稀树草原的中心。尽管火灾在该地区司空见惯，但“异常严重的火灾规模与政府的直接鼓励相对应”，特别是在巴西和玻利维亚（Laurence 2019），他们支持农业综合企业、采矿和水力发电大型项目，损害了全球重要的生物多样性丰富性、土著文化遗产和领土权利。在当前的土著抵抗运动中，带有羽毛的手工艺品，与面部彩绘和音乐一起，被用作赋予权力的工具。基于土著身份的代理，这种自我表现使博物馆商店里的物品成为当今土著抵抗运动的中心。该项目调查了PRM的羽毛物品、相关档案和摄影收藏（如哥伦比亚的Moser和Tayler，苏里南的rivi<e:1>和巴西的波西），将与土著人民合作，选定一个案例研究作为PRM策展干预的基础，旨在赋予土著群体权力，展示他们保护自然世界的方式，并确保可持续的生命方式。鉴于波西对民族生物学生物伦理的研究和对土著知识产权的支持，他的工作在这里尤为重要。奥黛丽·巴特·科尔森（Audrey Butt Colson）的藏品也很重要，因为她支持土著人民争取土地权利的斗争。