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

本博士课程的重点是非洲南部喀拉哈里地区的皮革和毛皮加工，以及过去两个世纪以来这种加工方式的转变。与濒危材料知识计划有关，当代工艺生产方法将用于阐明大英博物馆（BM）藏品中历史物品的制作和使用。该项目还将涉及档案研究，以记录过去制作的物品，但博物馆收藏中没有，例如皮裤和豹皮马甲。该项目将有助于理解物品的生命，通过尝试理解它们的制作、交换和接收，以及这导致一些物品进入博物馆收藏而另一些没有的方式。它将使用皮革物品来了解过去两个世纪在喀拉哈里沙漠展开的社会、文化、宗教、创意、经济和政治变革。更好地了解生产这些皮革物品的技术有助于它们的护理和保存。最后，这项研究将创造关于物体的新知识，使它们能够更有效地在各种媒体中呈现和展示。该项目的主要和最初的重点是与大英博物馆的相关历史收藏品合作，以使其熟悉。大英博物馆的藏品将在整个过程中被重新审视，因为研究使得更新和改进当前的目录描述成为可能。大英博物馆的保管员和皮革专家芭芭拉·威尔斯（Barbara Wills）已经同意担任顾问，她承诺提供20个小时的时间，以更好地了解所使用的技术，进行深入的检查，并帮助与其他专家建立联系。还与BM CDP现有的一名从事埃及和努比亚皮革工作的学生取得了联系。在熟悉了其他相关藏品之后，我将在博茨瓦纳进行实地考察，与Gantsi Craft合作，记录当代皮革和皮革生产的方法，同时也与当代皮革工人一起使用大英博物馆藏品中的物品图像以及其他历史来源的图像进行照片提取。该项目的时间周期和地理重点使其能够参与：改变事物，改变人；现代世界中的物品；联系、运动和全球化。在解决藏品中某些物品的缺失问题时，它也参与了第四个研究挑战，即收集博物馆，以了解民族志材料的收购在历史上赋予“传统”和“真实”特权的方式。最后，通过记录当代实践并将其作为历史收藏品的镜头，它与制作和使用密切相关。对当代实践的关注，以及对卡拉哈里沙漠皮革工作中快速消失的材料知识系统的收集，意味着拟议的研究与由Ceri Ashley博士和Lissant Bolton博士领导的大英博物馆“濒危材料知识计划”（EMKP）的目标高度一致。

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.