Prefigured Features: A view from the New Guinea Highlands
Stimulated by a conference on Portraiture and the Problematics of Representation, which aimed to address portraiture as a set of cultural practices under the rubric of ‘any body-representation that stands for an individual’, in this paper I ask some questions raised by materials from Papua New Guine...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
1997
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| In: |
The Australian journal of anthropology
Year: 1997, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 89-103 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Stimulated by a conference on Portraiture and the Problematics of Representation, which aimed to address portraiture as a set of cultural practices under the rubric of ‘any body-representation that stands for an individual’, in this paper I ask some questions raised by materials from Papua New Guinea. I begin with an investigation of the notion of individuation in relation to the heads which are taken in Asmat and Marind-Anim headhunting. I argue that if anyone's individuality is represented by a captured head it is that of the new owner, not his deceased victim. I then turn to Hagen feather plaques and suggest that they are best understood as assemblages of material resulting from mobilising relations, and hence not as portraits embodying notions of likeness. |
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| ISSN: | 1757-6547 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Australian journal of anthropology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/j.1835-9310.1997.tb00179.x |
