`THE MAGICAL VIRTUE OF THESE SHARP THINGS': Colonialism, Mimesis and Knapped Bottle Glass Artefacts in Australia.
In: Journal of Material Culture, Jg. 8 (2003-11-01), Heft 3, S. 311-336
Online
academicJournal
Items of transformed material culture, in particular knapped bottle glass artefacts, have formed a focus for the archaeology of Aboriginal-settler contact in Australia. This article considers the idea of glass artefacts as skeuomorphs through the lens of Gell's and Thussig's writings regarding mimesis and the construction of 'Other'-ness in colonial relations. As in the case of Benjamin's discussion of the photographic reproduction of artworks as a phase in the struggle between photography and painting associated with modernity, so in colonial contexts did the oscillations of mimesis and alterity begin to merge, so that the `West' began to alter itself as viewed through the eyes of its `Others', and Aboriginal people to mimic themselves as alters of the `West'. It is in this strange oscillation of mimesis and alterity, within Thussig's 'nervous system' itself, that the meaning of knapped bottle glass artefacts can be found to lie. The continued manufacture of formal `traditional' stone artefact types and the re-emergence of `archaic' forms in glass represents on one level a humorous gesture which provides insights into the ways in which Aboriginal people understood colonialism in radically different terms to the colonial `West'. On another level, it can be seen as a political and practical decision with implications for how we understand the agency of Aboriginal people in Australian colonial encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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`THE MAGICAL VIRTUE OF THESE SHARP THINGS': Colonialism, Mimesis and Knapped Bottle Glass Artefacts in Australia.
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | Harrison, Rodney |
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Zeitschrift: | Journal of Material Culture, Jg. 8 (2003-11-01), Heft 3, S. 311-336 |
Veröffentlichung: | 2003 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
ISSN: | 1359-1835 (print) |
DOI: | 10.1177/13591835030083007 |
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