What do Abelam images want from us?: Plato's Cave and Kwatbil's belly.(Anthro/Aesthetics: The Cultural Construction of Aesthetic Objects)

• Published in: The Australian journal of anthropology 1997-04, Vol.8 (1), p.35-49
• Main Author: Losche, Diane
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abelam; Aesthetics; Anthropology; Creation myths; Field work; Iconography; Idols and images; Images (Religious objects); Myth; Mythology; Papua New Guinea; Social aspects
• ISSN: 1035-8811; 1757-6547

In this paper I compare two origin myths, one from the Abelam speaking area of the Sepik region, Papua New Guinea, the other, the allegory of Plato's Cave found in The Republic. I explore the effects which each of these different conceptions of iconography and aesthetics has on the other when they intersect. I argue that fieldwork itself can be looked at as a hybrid form in the sense that it brings into juxtaposition different systems of thought and contrasting cultural tropes. At the moment of intersection a new cultural form, a hybrid, is produced in that someone may ask a question which has never been asked before and respondents may think about something they have never consciously thought about before. I attempt to imaginatively reconstruct one such moment when Anthony Forge questioned Abelam painters in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea about their iconographic system. By comparing the two origin myths we can better comprehend why Forge received particular and, from his viewpoint, problematic answers to questions about the meaning of particular painting designs. The comparison reveals that the myths are inversions of one another and imply radically differing conceptions of space and iconography. The paper ends by demonstrating that Abelam painters in their turn have questions about systems of representation different from their own. This can be seen in their interrogation of the author about the labels on perfume bottles and their response to an art gallery in Sydney, Australia, which they visited with the author.