Mar 17
Heli [Dong Administrative] Village, Liangkou Township, Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County, Liuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
Visited July 18, 2018.
This is the fourth post in the series: Villages and Towns of the Southeast Asian Massif.
Approximately: 25° 44′ 27.432″ N, 109° 28′ 48.12″ E
[Basket Market,] Micheng Town, Midu County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China.
Visited June 1, 2023.
This is the third post in the series: Villages and Towns of the Southeast Asian Massif.
Approximately: 25° 20′ 37.788″ N, 100° 28′ 39.612″ E
Basha [Miao] Village, Bingmei Town, Congjiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou, China.
Visited December 9, 2014.
This is the second post in the series: Villages and Towns of the Southeast Asian Massif.
Approximately: 25° 43′ 12.216″ E, 108° 51′ 58.8594″N.
Wengji [Bulang Ancient] Village, Jingmai Administrative Village, Huimin Hani Ethnic Town, Lancang Lahu Autonomous County, Pu’er City, Yunnan, China.
Visited December 27, 2023.
This is the first post in the series: Villages and Towns of the Southeast Asian Massif.
Approximately: 22° 10′ 25.65″ N, 99° 59′ 55.908″ E
Check out this call for papers for an promising meeting to be held at the Estonian National Museum in Tartu.
Conference call for papers
Sustainability in Practice: DIY Repair, Reuse and Innovation
30 October – 2 November 2024
Estonian National Museum, Tartu, Estonia
This conference addresses ecological sustainability through do it yourself (DIY) practices, and through consumer behaviour. The focus on DIY repair, reuse and vernacular innovation seeks to examine sustainability in the context of everyday life and domestic and community settings. By bringing together ethnological, anthropological, sociological and craft studies perspectives, the conference aims to show and discuss contemporary, traditional and vernacular sustainable practices.
Repair, reuse and repurpose of diverse commodities and materials, and vernacular innovation, are today increasingly perceived as part of sustainable consumption culture. However, the role and meaning of these practices have changed over time, depending on social, economic and political environments. Facing the global climate crisis, we are looking for lessons from the past and present for more sustainable and resilient ways of life.
We invite presentations, workshops and documentaries that explore various forms of DIY practice, solution, innovation and material culture related to sustainability in a variety of settings and regions. Apart from academics, experts from memory institutions and craft scholars, this conference also invites activists, craftsmen and designers to share their experience and knowledge.
See the conference call for papers.
The conference is being organised by the Estonian National Museum in collaboration with the Washing Machine Made of Beetroot joint exhibition project, curated by the Estonian Road Museum, the Estonian Agricultural Museum, and the Tartu City Museum. The conference and the exhibition are part of and supported by the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 programme.
Conference webpage and info: http://enmconferences.ee/sustainability-2024
Pictured here (Figure 1) is a seed pot-style (i.e. globe shaped with a small opening) basket by Joan Shoemaker (b. 1937) (Cherokee Nation) (then) of Locust Grove, Oklahoma. It is of honeysuckle and has dyed elements in three colors produced with walnut hulls, polk berries, and blood root (natural) dyes. The basket comes with a signed artist card attached. It shows the date 1999, which is soon before I received it as a gift (in 2000). (The card also notes the material and dyes.)
As seen from the shot of the bottom (Figure 2), the upper section has suffered light damage over the past two decades.
As noted by Karen Cody Cooper in Oklahoma Cherokee Baskets (2016, 99), two Joan Shoemaker baskets are in the collections of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. These are: E/2003/1/001 (a round, flat tray of honeysuckle) and E/2000/1/002 (a round open-mouth basket of honeysuckle).
While the Gilcrease Museum holds paintings by Mrs. Shoemaker’s husband Ben Adair Shoemaker, it does (to my knowledge) not yet curate any of her baskets (Jackson 2000). There are not baskets by Mrs. Shoemaker in the collections of the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. There were no baskets by her in the collections of the former Mathers Museum of World Cultures, at Indiana University*
At the time of this writing, two Joan Shoemaker basketry trays could be seen online at this commercial site: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/set-cherokee-indian-baskets-joan-1848909520
Note
*I served as a curator at the Gilcrease Museum between 1995 and 2000. This basket was a gift on the occasion of my departure to the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, where I worked between 2000 and 2004. I have been a research associate of the Sam Noble Museum since 2004. From 2014 to the present, I have also served as a research associate of the National Museum of Natural History. Between 2013 and 2019, I served as the Director of the Mathers Museum of World Cultures.
References Cited
Cooper, Karen Cody. 2016. Oklahoma Cherokee Baskets. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2016.
Jackson, Jason Baird. 2000. “Southeastern Indian Basketry in the Gilcrease Museum Collection.” American Indian Art Magazine. 25 (4):46-55.
This is a first in a series of posts writing up baskets in my family’s modest (mostly-gifts) collection.
More good news in terms of publication work. I am pleased to share that my article “Kultuuriline omastamine kultuurimuutusena” is now published in Estonian in the wonderful journal Studia Vernacula (see volume 14). This is a translation (minus the case studies) of my earlier paper “On Cultural Appropriation,” which appeared in English in the Journal of Folklore Research (volume 51, number 1 in 2021). Special thanks go to Elo-Hanna Seljamma for work translating the paper, to Kristi Jõeste for inviting me to contribute the paper, and to Madis Arukask for discussing my contribution in an editorial appearing in the new issue. Studia Vernacula is a wonderful open access journal beautifully produced in digital and print form. Even if you do not read Estonian, I urge you check it out with the help of Google Translate or a similar service. So much wonderful material culture studies work appears therein year after year.
I am very happy to note a new co-authored article titled “A Survey of Contemporary Bai Craft Practices in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China.” It was jointly written with Wuerxiya (first author), C. Kurt Dewhurst (third author) and Cuixia Zhang (fourth author) and it appears in Museum Anthropology Review volume 16, numbers 1-2. This is the special double issue published in honor of Daniel C. Swan, as noted in an earlier post on Shreds and Patches. The article is based on work undertaken by a much larger bi-national team within the “Collaborative Work in Museum Folklore and Heritage Studies” sub-project of the broader “China-US Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage Project,” a collaboration (2007-present) of the American Folklore Society and the China Folklore Society. In particular, it describes work undertaken through the auspices of, and in partnership with, The Institute of National Culture Research at Dali University. Special thanks go to the Institute and its leadership.
Find the article online at Museum Anthropology Review: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/mar/article/view/34101
I am very happy to note the publication of “Basketry among Two Peoples of Northern Guangxi, China” in the latest double issue of Asian Ethnology. This article is one that I co-wrote with my friends and collaborators Lijun Zhang (first author), C. Kurt Dewhurst (third author), and Jon Kay (fourth author) and it is based on work undertaken by a much larger bi-national team within the “Collaborative Work in Museum Folklore and Heritage Studies” sub-project of the broader “China-US Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage Project,” a collaboration (2007-present) of the American Folklore Society and the China Folklore Society.
I am a huge fan of Asian Ethnology, a wonderful open access journal now in its 81st year. Check out the huge volume that our paper is a part of, Find Asian Ethnology online here: https://asianethnology.org/ and also in JSTOR
Find our article here: https://asianethnology.org/articles/2386
Find Jon Kay’s companion article here: https://asianethnology.org/articles/2387
His project is distinct from ours, but find William Nitzky’s article (also) on the Baiku Yao people today here: https://asianethnology.org/articles/2384
Social media is changing again and it seems like a good time to give Shreds and Patches more love and attention.
My collaborator and special issue co-editor Michael Paul Jordan and I are very pleased to announce the publication of a new double-issue of Museum Anthropology Review titled Studies in Museum Ethnography in Honor of Daniel C. Swan
Find the new collection in honor of Dan in Museum Anthropology Review online here: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/mar/issue/view/2153 Thanks to all of the authors, production staff, publishers, peer-reviewers, and helpers who made this collection possible.
Shreds and Patches 