Material Culture , Context and Meaning

) Material culture, context and meaning A critkal investigation of museum practice, with particular reference to the South African Museum By Patricia Davison Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in theUniversity Department of Archaeology, of Cape University ofTown Cape Town March 1991 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusiveUniversity license ofgranted Cape to UCT Town by the author. ABSTRACT The broad theoretical concern of the thesis is to elucidate the relationship between material culture and social relations, and to counter the analytical separation of cultural form and social practice, which is a pervasive problem in archaeology and material culture studies in general. This problem is addressed with reference to museum practice. focusing in particular on the social role of artefacts in two contextual domains - that of everyday life, as interpreted in ethnographic fieldwork, and that of a museum, which is in itself a complex cultural artefact. These two contexts are linked by the concept of recontextualization, which I suggest is a pivotal process in both museum practice and archaeology. The theory of 'structuration', as formulated by Anthony Giddens, is drawn on to overcome the problematic separation of cultural objects from social subjects. This leads to the conceptualization of meaning in material culture as being socially constituted and context-related, and the relationship of material culture to social relations as being one of mediation rather than objective reflection. Emphasis is thereby given to material culture as a resource that is actively implicated in the construction of social relations and identity. This theoretical approach is applied in two field studies and two museum studies. The former, undertaken in Transkei and the Transvaal Lowveld, investigate material culture in the social matrix of everyday use; the latter, undertaken with reference to the Ethnography section of the South African Museum, illustrate the process of recontextualization, which I regard as operating at both physical and cognitive levels. It is argued that processes of recontextualization, inherent in museum practice, inevitably change both context and the object-subject relationship, and therefore alter the range of meanings that objects evoke once located in a museum. Despite the apparent authenticity of exhibited artefacts, I argue that museum representations are composite artefacts of museum practice, rather than objective reflections of reality. I suggest that reflexive awareness of professional practice as social practice should be built into both archaeological texts and museum representations, through which knowledge of the social past is conveyed to the general public. This is consistent with the argument throughout the dissertation for an integration of object and subject, and a recognition of human agency, past and present. In conclusion, I argue for a more sensitive, reflexive approach to museum practice that would encourage an awareness of social context, and invite a more active participation by viewers in the gen~ration of meaning. The dissertation is a contribution to this end. CONTENTS Page List of figures List of tables Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Artefacts, Others and Anthropology: a historical review Artefacts and Others 7 Artefacts and the discipline of anthropology 11 Artefacts decentred 16 Material culture studies in South Africa 18 Chapter 2 Theoretical orientation: material culture and social life Introduction 25 Material culture and social practice 30 Artefacts as mediators of social action 33 The 'habitus' as a structuring principle 36 Structuration: the structuring of structure 38 Chapter 3 Field case 1: The social use of material culture and domestic space in Pondoland Introduction 43 Spatial organization, subsistence and social strategies 46 Settlement in Pondoland in historical perspective 47 A homestead in Pondoland in the 1980s 48 The homestead over the past fifty years 50 Centrality of the cattle·byre 53 Spatial arrangement within the great house 56 Social experience of domestic space 58 Implications for archaeology and museum practice 60 Chapter 4 Field case 2: The material setting of Modjadji's court Introduction 63 Historical outline 65 The material setting of the village 70 Social and cultural context of the court 72 The palisade of the kgoro 76 Poles and practice: an interpretation 81 Chapter 5 An ethnography of museum practice Introduction 87 Museums as cultural artefacts 88 The context of production 91 The spatial authority of museums 91 The rhetoric of authenticity 95 The context of reception 99 Popular responses to museums 99 'Reading' exhibitions 102 Classifying other cultures at the South African Museum 104 Chapter 6 Museum case 1: Representing 'The Lobedu' in the South African Museum Introduction 111 The shaping of the Krige Collection 113 The Krige Collection at the South African Museum 121 Chapter 7 Museum case 2: Representing 'The Bushmen' in the South African Museum Introduction 139 Objectivizing the Other: the casting project, 1906·1924 140 Displaying the Other: the Cape Bushmen 152 The Bushman Diorama, 1960·1987 158 Recontextualizing the diorama, 1988-1990 163 Chapter 8 Received meanings: Museum displays subjectively re-interpreted Introduction 169 Contexts of reception: possibilities and limitations 171 Visitor responses to the Ethnography Gallery at the South African Museum 179 Conclusions and implications for future practice 193 Chapter 9 Material culture, context and meaning 197 From field case to display case 198 Towards_an integration of theory and practice 205 Bibliography 207 Unpublished sources Appendices 1·3 LIST OF FIGURES Facing page Fig. 1. Museum in the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cape 20 Town, c. 1940. (Photograph: Cape Times) Fig.2. Map showing the Libode district, Transkeian Territories, after 1910. (After 44 Beinart 1982.) Fig.3. Layout of homestead, showing positions of houses, stores, livestock 52 enclosures, hearths and grinding-stones in July 1984. Fig. 4. A. Layout of homestead from aerial photographs, 1938, 1948, 1955, 1969, 53 1974, 1982. (Department of Surveys and Mapping, Cape Town) B. Spatial orientation in Nguni homesteads. (After Kuper 1982.) C. Spatial arrangement within great house (indlu 4 in Fig. 3). Fig.S. Entrance to cattle-byre, 1986, showing horns of cattle that had been offered 54 to the ancestral spirits. (Photograph: P. Davison, South African Museum) Fig.6. Daughter-in-law grinding maize on left side of great-house, 1984. 54 (Photograph: P. Davison, South African Museum) Fig. 7. Men drinking beer in the great house, 1984. They are seated on a ledge on 58 the right side of the entrance. (Photograph: P. Davison, South African Museum) Fig. 8. Man grinding medicines near livestock enclosure, 1986. (Photograph: 58 L Hooper, South African Museum) Fig. 9. Original Modjadji Location demarcated in 1892 and the BoLobedu district, 64 Transvaal Lowveld, 1979. Fig. 10. A. View of Modjadji's capital, 1973. (Photograph: P. Davison, South African 66 Museum) B. Diagram of layout of capital, from an aerial photograph, 1956. (After M6nnig 1963.) Fig. 11. Pole figures from Modjadji's kg6r6. A. SAM-9751, Krige collection, 1,6 m 78 but originally longer. B-E. Collection J. Witt; heights: 1,7 m, 1,4 m, 2,0 m, 1,9 m (not drawn to scale). Fig. 12. Poles at one of the entrances to the kgoro, c. 1960. (Photograph: H. 0. 80 Monnig) Fig.13. Palisade with pole representing a spear, Modjadji's precinct, 1987. 82 (Photograph: P. Davison, South African Museum) Fig. 14. Poles representing crocodiles, heights 1,5 m and 1,8 m. Collection: J. Witt. 84 (Photograph: P. Davison, South African Museum) Fig. 15. South African Library and Museum. c. 1882. (Cape Archives, AG 3897) 94 Fig. 16. Interior of Museum gallery, c. 1882. (Cape Archives, AG 1875) 94 Fig. 17. South African Museum, c. 1900. (Cape Archives, E 8145) 96 Fig. 18. Cover of publicity leaflet, South African Cultural History Museum, 1989. 98 Fig. 19. A. Ground·floor plan of South African Museum. 1978. Key: 1, Ethnology; 128 2, Archaeology; 3, Special exhibitions; 4, Entomology; 5, Lecture hall; 6, Palaeontology. B. Layout of display cases, Ethnology Gallery, 1942. Key: 1, Typological diplays; 2, Life-casts of Bushmen. C. Layout of display cases, Ethnology Gallery, 1978. Key: 1, Bushman diorama; 2, Peer's Cave diorama; 3, The Bushmen; 4, The Hottentots; 5, The Southern Nguni; 6, The Northern Nguni; 7, The Tswana; 8, The Lobedu; 9, Great Zimbabwe. Fig. 20. Displays in Ethnology Gallery, South African Museum, 1940s. (South 130 African Museum Photographic Collection) Fig. 21. 'The Lobedu' display, South African Museum, 1978. 132 A. Situational display, interior of cooking house. (Photograph: A. Byron, South African Museum) B. Courtyard scene and thematic display of musical instruments.. (Photograph: J. Hosford, South African Museum) Fig.22. Photographic studies of an anonymous Khoisan woman, Caledon, c. 1912. 148 (Photograph: South African Museum Photographic Collection) A. Modestly attired. B. Anthropological study. Fig. 23. Group of /Xam 'Bushmen', Prieska, 1911. (Photograph: D. Bleek, South 152 African Museum Photographic Collection) Fig. 24. Casts on display in the South African

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