Ethnology collections as supplements and records: what museums contribute to historical archaeology of the New Hebrides (Vanuatu)

• Published in: World archaeology 2016-06, Vol.48 (2), p.196-209
• Main Author: Flexner, James L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 19th century; Archaeology; Colonialism; Ethnology collections; exchange; missions; Museums; Vanuatu
• ISSN: 0043-8243; 1470-1375
• DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2016.1195769

Nineteenth-century ethnological collections can supplement what is found in archaeological assemblages because they include objects unlikely to appear on archaeological sites, which either don't normally preserve, are extremely rare or were intentionally destroyed in the past. However, collections are not neutral samples of what existed in past societies. They are biased by what collectors chose to take, and what was offered by the makers of ethnological objects. Collections, then, also represent an important record of agency in colonial exchanges. An archaeological survey of nineteenth-century Presbyterian missions and the surrounding landscapes in the southern New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) included analysis of museum collections from the same era. These objects provide evidence of the active, mutually constitutive role of things and interpersonal relationships in shaping cross-cultural exchanges.