museum anthropology

william louis abbott in ethnographic and biological collections from Central : and Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia, until his Revisiting Archival and Museum return to the United States in 1910. In fact, during Resources of a Smithsonian Naturalist this early period of collecting in Madagascar, he from the 1890s developed an interest in similarities to the material culture of the “Malays,” which he later continued Paul Michael Taylor exploring during his much longer period of collecting smithsonian institution in the ethnological region then commonly called “Malaysia” (peninsular Malaya and island Southeast 3 abstract Asia). Abbott’s ethnographic collections from Madagas- This article introduces an important group of ethnographic, car form a little-known resource whose potential use- biological, and unpublished archival materials deriving from two expeditions to Madagascar by American natural- fulness is much greater when considered in light of ist William Louis Abbott (1860–1936). The first was from related archival material and biological collections. February to September 1890; the second from January to Those who may have examined his ethnographic or July 1895 when Abbott rushed back to Madagascar not only even archival material from Madagascar probably did to collect for the Smithsonian but also to join the Merina in not realize that many important keys to its interpreta- their unsuccessful war of independence against the tion can be found in Abbott’s recollections about encroaching French government. Beyond summarizing Madagascar written much later in his correspondence localities he visited and the current organization and use- from or Southeast Asia and that other rele- fulness of his collections for research, the article attempts vant information can be found within records of bio- to interpret archival records to assess Abbott’s collecting logical specimens from the same Madagascar focus, biases, and purposes; his perspectives on contem- expeditions. Consequently, after first introducing Ab- poraneous events in Madagascar; and also the role that bott himself and examining his role as a “naturalist “naturalist” collectors such as Abbott played within the collector” and his relationship to museum anthropol- history of anthropology and of museums. Ethnographic ogy, this article attempts to present a broader view of information is embedded not only within the ethnographic the resources available from these expeditions, then collections but also within associated biological collections finally to present examples of how his ethnographic and archives. [Madagascar, William Louis Abbott, natural- collections can be used and reinterpreted today. At a ist, ethnographic collections, Smithsonian Institution] time when many lament the under-use of museum collections (e.g., Museums Association 2005), this article will hopefully provide one good example of This article introduces an important group of ethno- how our legacy of material culture collections in graphic, biological, and unpublished archival materi- museums may very profitably be reinterpreted using als deriving from two collecting expeditions to associated archival information and other data. Madagascar by American naturalist William Louis Abbott (1860–1936) (Figure 1).1 The first took place Naturalist Collector William Louis Abbott between February and September 1890. The second Abbott was by far the Smithsonian’s most prolific took place from January to July 1895, during France’s collector of Indonesian and Malaysian artifacts war with the Merina (or “Hova”), whom the antico- (Taylor 1995, 2002; Taylor and Hamilton 1993; also lonialist Abbott tried to join in their unsuccessful see examples in Taylor and Aragon 1991) and a major struggle for independence prior to France’s capture of collector of ethnographic and biological specimens the Merina kingdom’s capital at Antananarivo in Sep- (mostly mammals and birds) from every region in tember 1895 (and formal annexation of Madagascar which he traveled. Although the Asian Civilisations in 1896).2 Aware that he might be prosecuted for aid- Museum (2009) has recently published information ing the enemy, Abbott never returned to Madagascar on Malaysian and Indonesian collections Abbott but rather went on to assemble major Smithsonian donated to museums in , and Taylor

Museum Anthropology, Vol. 38, Iss. 1, pp. 28–45 Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Museum Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American Anthropological Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. DOI: 10.1111/muan.12071 william louis abbott in madagascar

Adornment,” “Architectural Objects and Furniture,” “Culinary Utensils,” et cetera. Thirteen objects were illustrated by line drawings within the catalogue.4 Abbott never prepared such a catalogue for any of his biological collections nor for his ethnographic collec- tions from Madagascar or any other place. By the time of his death in 1936, Abbott had become the largest single donor of collections to what is now the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. An eccentric millionaire, this Philadelphia native, who received an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (1884) but never profes- sionally practiced , was as allergic to publicity as he was to “civilization.” This article draws from archival research on Abbott’s widely scattered field notes and correspondence (Taylor in press), primarily with his family and with Smithsonian officials, regard- ing his lifelong series of expeditions that began in and continued in Madagascar and other Indian Ocean islands and then Central Asia before he first arrived in Southeast Asia and began his longest period of there. Abbott’s collecting was entirely Figure 1. William Louis Abbott (1860–1936). (National Anthropological self-financed because at the age of 26 he received a Archives, Smithsonian Institution.) large inheritance upon the death of his father in 1886. (2014a) recently described his expeditions to south- His papers are now found in the Smithsonian’s ern Thailand in the 1890s, Abbott’s earlier African National Anthropological Archives, and in the sepa- and Madagascar ethnographic interests and rate Smithsonian Archives, as well as in field records collections are much less well known, though as noted stored in the Smithsonian’s Mammals Library and its below, Mary Jo Arnoldi (2002) examined textiles he Botany Library; all four of these repositories contain collected in Madagascar (now at the Smithsonian), material relating to his Madagascar period. which is also referenced within the survey by Simon Information about Abbott’s collecting mission Peers (2004:148–149). Laurence Dorr’s (1997:3) com- and purposes must be inferred almost entirely from pilation of plant collectors in Madagascar and the his archival correspondence and his field notes Comoro Islands briefly notes that Abbott collected (which, in Madagascar, consisted only of object labels plants from other Indian Ocean islands and that he without any field journal), alongside the collections collected birds, mammals, and ethnographic material he assembled. Abbott himself seems to have consid- from Madagascar, but he states that he found no evi- ered that the role of the “naturalist” (collector or dence that Abbott collected any plants on his trips to expert in “natural history,” which in the United States Madagascar. Because Abbott’s zoological collections subsumes anthropology as well as geology and biol- received far greater attention and were extensively ogy) could be separate from that of the curator and published, he is best known as a zoological collector. scientist. Just as he expected biologists to “write up” Yet, the only publication Abbott himself authored the descriptions of species of birds and mammals he about his lifelong series of collecting expeditions is an sent back to the museum, he seems to have consid- article on his ethnographic collections from East ered it the task of ethnologists (not necessarily him- Africa (1887–89) within the Smithsonian’s annual self) to describe and study the ethnographic report for 1892. That publication (Abbott 1892) materials. In a 1911 essay “The American Hunter- included a catalogue of 247 objects collected, which Naturalist,” published in the popular magazine The were grouped into categories such as “Dress and Outlook, President Theodore Roosevelt praised the

29 william louis abbott in madagascar typical unpaid volunteer spirit of America’s explorers proposed that Abbott author this multipart narrative and naturalists. Yet, he compared Abbott unfavorably of his collections: with naturalist and author Charles Sheldon, upbraid- It occurred to me that possibly you might have ing Abbott for recording but not publishing his notes. an idea of producing such a narrative yourself, It is exasperating to think of certain of our natu- in which case you might not wish us to duplicate ralists and hunter-naturalists the value of whose it. As I understand Dr. Goode’s idea, it was to really extraordinary achievements will wholly or have a non technical account of your work. ... in part die with them unless they realize the Each separate expedition would be taken up in need of putting them on paper in the proper turn, and the scientific results in every connec- form. ... tion dwelt on at sufficient length to bring out their importance. When we came to the zoologi- Dr. Abbott’s feats as a naturalist and explorer in cal parts, we would put in lists of species ...and Africa and in Asia have been extraordinary, but dwell on the new forms discovered by you. they have not been of more than the smallest Assistant Secretary Goode must also have written fraction of the value that they should have been, to him directly on this (original letter not located); simply because they have not been recorded. Abbott responded to him on July 15, 1896, There are very few men alive whose experiences would be of more value than his, if they were I must thank you very much for your kind letter written out. [Roosevelt 1911:855] of last January, in which you spoke of publishing some of my work in book form. I sent you from Efforts by Abbott’s Smithsonian correspondents a month ago, the notes of my Turkestan encouraging him to publish formal accounts of his trip, they are the only notes of any of my trips that expeditions were to no avail, though Abbott contin- Ihadwithme&havemislaidtheothers. ued an extensive personal, handwritten correspon- dence. On March 2, 1896, for example, mammalogist In fact, that handwritten journal from the Turke- F. W. True sent Abbott a letter following up on sug- stan trip is the only one that seems to have survived, gestions from Smithsonian Assistant Secretary George and with that Turkestan exception, after leaving East Brown Goode about preparing “some account of the Africa in 1887, there are no longer any references in results of your explorations in Africa and Asia pub- his correspondence to keeping such a journal. It is lished in the Report of the Museum.”5 True offered very likely that by the time he left East Africa and Abbott an outline of such a narrative. Perhaps because began traveling in Madagascar and the islands of the True knew that Abbott’s main reason for the 1895 Indian Ocean, his writing long letters home took the Madagascar expedition was to fight for Madagascar’s place of writing in a journal, superseding his practice independence rather than to collect, he was unsure in East Africa of keeping a journal then extracting how to handle it within the publication plan. from it to write letters home. We find later, self-reflective documents within Ab- The Madagascar material I have left out of bott’s archival papers giving further reasons for not account, as I do not know whether you would publishing. In March 1904, Abbott wrote to Mason, consider that you had made explorations there “I am afraid I can’t write much myself for various rea- as you have elsewhere. A chapter on that subject sons. I am a very bad observer, particularly of men. It can of course be included if it seems best. Pro- is the new comer to the East who sees things. I have fessor Mason mentions a very valuable series of been out too long, and it is the West which seems mats from Madagascar. strange to me.” Yet, his well-written correspondence True was referring to Head Curator of Anthropol- has no shortage of insightful observations, and Ab- ogy Otis Mason, whose use of basketry weaving tech- bott was both at home and out of place in every place, niques within his studies of the evolution of human East or West. societies encouraged Abbott to assemble collections In Madagascar, Abbott began his lifelong of basketry and plaiting wherever he traveled. True avocation as a true field collector, no longer a

30 william louis abbott in madagascar manager of large expeditions like his first collecting If anyone thinks travelling in Africa is easy, he is trips to East Africa from 1887–89. Abbott therefore very much mistaken, unless one had a headman stands as a counterexample to the generalizations who would be fit to take every thing off one’s Henrika Kuklick (1997) presents about the 19th-cen- hands, which would be an impossible thing to tury origins of fieldwork within anthropology and find. I have to turn out about 4.15 [sic] wake up related disciplines. She writes of the naturalist collec- all hands, keep an eye on men while marching. tors, “Aristocratically conceived natural history was Stir up cooks & stewards so that I can get some- predicated on the assumption that scientific labor thing to eat. Treat the sick & foot sore, separate should be divided along class lines” (1997:53). The the men who get into fights, occasionally ham- intellectual elite analyzed data collected by others; mer refractory individuals. Write journal, fieldwork was physical, dirty, distasteful work. “In arrange presents with chiefs, are some few sum,” she concludes, “fieldwork was not gentlemanly duties. activity.” Kuklick (1997:54) then cites mostly Euro- pean and British sources indicating that better science In fact, however, as Abbott’s quotation above indi- was thought to result from a strict division (along cates, the effort at managing a large expedition these class lines) between fieldworkers and scientists. severely detracted from his ability to obtain good sci- Fieldworkers (from lower levels of society) might be entific results. In an earlier letter home from January tempted to collect only what was consistent with the- 15, 1888, he had summarized his basic method of tra- ory if they understood theory; theorizing scientists vel, which would only grow more cumbersome as his might be tempted to give their own field data undue later expeditions to Kilimanjaro became more popu- preference if they collected it themselves. Yet, none of lous and difficult. these generalizations apply in Abbott’s case. His sta- The marches were generally made between 5 in tus among the upper class of Philadelphia and the the morning & 12. & were about 10–18 miles, United States more generally was unquestioned even the walking did not bother me a bit, though as his lifelong contributions from field collecting were many Europeans suffer much on the marches in recognized and respected. He corresponded from the Africa. ... The caravan on march travelled in field (about data and theory) with scientists at the following order, single file of course. ... First highest levels throughout his life. He did author an the guide carrying the American flag, then the article on the ethnography of the Kilimanjaro region head of the expedition, then the steward & gun- and was repeatedly (albeit unsuccessfully) encour- bearers. Then the cook & his aids [sic], followed aged to author or contribute as coauthor to museum by the rank & file of porters carrying the boxes publications. Furthermore, Roosevelt’s 1911 essay & bales, & finally the caravan headman bringing extolling the unpaid volunteer spirit of America’s up rear & keeping stragglers up. ... I used to explorers and naturalists indicates that Abbott may wonder why travellers took so many but one not have been alone as an independently wealthy cant do with less. I lost several men by desertion, fieldworker within America’s “hunter-naturalist” tra- one always does, & replaced them by natives. dition. Abbott’s journey to Africa had begun by ship Abbott’s Path to Madagascar: Collecting in through the Mediterranean then through the Suez East Africa, 1887–89 Canal, with stops along the coast, including at Lamu Abbott’s initial East African trips (1887–89) may be (now in ), where another American boarded characterized as huge big-game hunting and explor- the ship. This was Edward D. Ropes of Salem, Massa- ing expeditions of a kind long pioneered by other chusetts, of the firm Ropes, Emmerton & Co., based wealthy travelers, sometimes involving hundreds of in Salem with extensive trading operations in East porters. On February 10, 1888, from his encampment Africa. Ropes hosted Abbott at his home in , at Mazinde (now in Tanzania), he describes his daily and Zanzibar served as Abbott’s first base for sending routine in a letter to his mother: and receiving mail. The connection with Ropes and

31 william louis abbott in madagascar his firm served Abbott well; years later he arrived in mother on February 10. He goes on to explain his Madagascar with letters of introduction to the plans to explore and collect for about a month Tamatave offices of Ropes, Emmerton & Co., which each on the smaller Indian Ocean islands before helped facilitate his travels and collecting. Madagas- returning to Madagascar for about six months. He car had established a commercial convention with the seems to relish the chance to sail and hike on his United States in 1867, diplomatic relations in 1874, own, making scientific collections with just a small and concluded a treaty of peace, friendship, and com- number of porters assisting him rather than hunt- merce in 1881, so an extensive American commercial ing big game on well-trodden paths. “As to Mada- network existed, which Abbott could use for making gascar...,” he continued in the same letter, “vast collections and for sending them to Washington, tracts are totally unexplored.” D.C. The first half of the 1890s, the period of Abbott’s travels in Madagascar, was a time of significant exter- Madagascar: 1890 and 1895 nal pressure on Madagascar’s population and inten- These quotations describing the first phase of Ab- sive competition for access to and control of bott’s collecting trips immediately prior to his deci- Madagascar’s resources, particularly between France sion to leave East Africa for islands of the Indian and Britain. These were the final years of the Merina Ocean indicate the decisive change in mode of col- Kingdom’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to main- lecting and traveling that Abbott decided to make by tain independence from colonial rule. Trade generally February 1890, when he left Zanzibar for his first trip increased as Madagascar’s resources continued to to Madagascar. Abbott’s letters had expressed enter global commercial markets. It was a period of increasing frustrations at having to manage large continuing Westernization, partly because Madagas- expeditions rather than do the hunting and collecting car’s Merina rulers had, through much of the 19th he preferred. Also, he recounts meeting other Europe- century, used the help of missionary groups and the ans or Americans who describe pleasant lives there British government to consolidate their own power in among “decent” Natives with whom he contrasts his continuing conflicts with other Malagasy groups expedition porters. For example, from Taveta, Kenya, (Brown 1995; Campbell 2005; Larson 2000; Rakot- he writes his mother on May 21, 1889, asking that she oarisoa 2002:28–30). First-person observations on all purchase and send supplies to Zanzibar for him, add- these phenomena occur within Abbott’s letters to his ing that he plans to go to Madagascar and to the family and to Smithsonian scientists. Comoro Islands where an American sugar planter For example, Abbott’s 1890 visit to Madagascar says “the natives are decent.” began with a stop at Nosy Be (also written Nossi By the time he arrived in Madagascar, he had Be), an island off Madagascar’s coast that had lost his enthusiasm for hunting large numbers of become a French possession in the 1840s (Figure 2), elephant or other big game in areas well hunted by where he “saw the European looking warehouses others and solidified his preference for reaching filled with hides & rubber, the leading productions new locations where no one had collected before of Madagascar,” then continued with a stop at then finding new species to document for science Diego Suarez (renamed Antsiranana in 1975), —sometimes large but most often small birds and which he notes in the same February 10 letter home mammals that big-game hunters (unlike true natu- was “a splendid bay at the Northern extremity of ralist collectors) generally ignored. Leaving Zanzi- Madagascar, ceded to the French by the treaty of bar for Madagascar in February 1890, with his 1887 at the close of the war with the Hovas” (refer- letters of introduction to the agents of Ropes, ring to the first Hova war of 1883). By June, he Emmerton & Co. at Tamatave, Abbott soon begins began his trek from Tamatave, walking southward writing letters that provide a marked contrast in to Andovoranto then taking a “lakana” or dugout his views of Madagascan inhabitants compared to canoe four hours up the “Iharoka” (now called Ria- the East Africans he had employed for his earlier nila) River before beginning the land march to the expeditions. “Everywhere I find the people very capital at Antananarivo, arriving on June 17 and kind & obliging, & hospitable,” he writes to his staying at the home of the local agent of Ropes,

32 william louis abbott in madagascar

sent to Boston. The vast majority of the trade of Madagascar is with the U.S. Abbott’s experiences in Africa deepened the anticolonial feelings he was already expressing in his letters as he first passed through the Suez Canal with Europeans headed for their colonies. Even after mov- ing on to collect in Southeast Asia after 1895, his anti- colonial invective continues. From his collecting station at Tyching, Siam, where he received interna- tional news sent by his family, he wrote on May 6, 1896, to his mother (using an unacceptably deroga- tory slang word “Dagos” meaning “Spaniards or Ital- ians”): Was immensely pleased with the news of the defeat of the Dagos in Abyssinia. I wish every white man in the continent of Africa was butch- ered the same way–none of them have any busi- ness there–only to rob, plunder & steal–& what is more nearly every one who has been in Africa admits the truth of it when he is cornered up– unless it be some lying hypocrite like Stanley.

From his base at Antananarivo, the exact locations of his 1890 collecting treks into other highland areas

Figure 2. Abbott’s first Madagascar expedition, 1890. Collecting trips of Madagascar have not been determined, but they from Antananarivo to other highland areas (June–August) are not shown included trips to the Betsileo region at Ambositra and (except one trip to Ambositra) because routes taken cannot be determined elsewhere as a series of short collecting trips from the from his correspondence. (Map by Marcia Bakry.) capital to which he soon returned. He often describes Emmerton & Co., where he recorded his observa- in his letters his own perception that local people are tions in a letter to his mother dated June 19, 1890: confounded by his purpose there. Thus, writing home, for example, on July 16: There have been several other Europeans who have walked up from Tamatave, but none The Hovas are greatly bothered what to make of have ever gone nearly so quickly as myself. me. No traveller has ever come here before with Had a very pleasant trip & found the country the simple object of seeing the country, & that to be far more beautiful & interesting than I combined with my walking, instead of being had any idea of. There is no comparison carried in a filanza [sic, filanzana or “palan- between the fertility of Madagascar & that of quin”] by bearers, as all other Europeans, & Africa, at least of those parts that I have been indeed all natives who can afford it, is totally in. For natural advantages of soil etc. Mada- beyond their comprehension. No Malagash or gascar is far superior. ... One meets daily Hova ever dreams of taking unnecessary exer- hundreds of porters carrying American cot- cise, & [Ropes, Emmerton & Co. agent] Duder tons & petroleum, & European products of & every European here is continually harassed every description up to the capital, & meets by inquiries from the officials of every grade, as hundreds of others conveying hides & other to what I want. Their first idea was that I walked native products (including ducks, geese, tur- because of poverty, but this evidently was not keys, pigs) to Tamatave. Most of the hides are true because I had plenty of porters who only

33 william louis abbott in madagascar

had very light loads. ... Much gold has been during the last few year[s]. Most of the male pop- discovered of late, & a great deal more believed ulation having been fananepoaned [sic](corvee) to exist. ... Especially when I go in bathing, a for the Gold diggings or else have fled to escape thing which a Malagash never does, I am care- it. Many of the fugitives have become robbers. fully watched lest I surreptitiously wash for This corvee is the most iniquitous act on the part gold.6 of the Hova government. Men are compelled to go & work without pay for 3 months at a time & Abbott was well aware of the limits of Merina con- must feed themselves. Many persons here have trol over other areas of Madagascar, though his letters been put to death in cold blood, for refusing to indicate his personal opinion that this would change. obey these outrageous orders. Referring to the monarch Queen Ranavalona III (reigned 1883–97), Abbott wrote to his mother on Arriving in Zanzibar in September, he turned over June 19, 1890, “Although the Hova Queen is recog- his collections for shipment to Washington, D.C. nized as ruler over all Madagascar, in reality there are Abbott’s second trip to Madagascar was occa- vast tracts as yet unconquered. But it is only a matter sioned by the news of the breakout of the war between of time before they absorb the whole island.” Leaving the Hova and the French in 1894. When news of the Antananarivo in August to depart Madagascar, Ab- confrontation reached Abbott during a collecting bott chose to trek to the frontier Hova forts where he expedition in Kashmir in October, he rushed to Cal- was provided with a large canoe by the governor to cutta to purchase surgical and medical supplies to embark with his collections down the Ikopa River take to Madagascar where he knew they would be until he reached Majunga on the western coast. Ab- “greatly needed,” as he wrote to his mother (Novem- bott wrote home on August 14, ber 4, 1894): The river banks are inhabited by Sakalava, who Am looking forwards to my voyage with great & are reputed to occasionally “gobble” the canoes pleasant anticipations, have been on land nearly & their loads. But I have a suspicion that their 20 months—& as for the prospective row in [sic] is generally a “div[v]y” between the boats Madagascar, I never looked forwards to any- crew & the robbers. A European is of course thing with such joy. ... [T]here seems to be no never molested. doubt whatever that the party at present in power [in France] have determined to make a Though Abbott insisted he preferred indigenous grab for the island. inhabitants should govern themselves, his passage through the Sakalava regions, as well as his later cri- Arriving from Calcutta via Mauritius, Abbott tique of Hova management of their armed forces landed first at Fort Dauphin where about fifty French whom he was trying to help when he returned in inhabitants were seeking passage to Tamatave (which 1895, show that, in addition to opposing colonial had already been occupied by the French though government, he roundly critiqued “iniquitous” ports further south were still under Hova control), actions of the Merina Kingdom as well, as indicated fearing Hova vengeance. Abbott immediately began in his description of the effect of the Merina’s corvee becoming disillusioned with the Hova government labor system (Malagasy, fanompoana), which he wit- and military, including the 400 undisciplined Hova nessed at Majunga on the coast and described in that soldiers at Fort Dauphin, though still delighted by same August 14 letter: Madagascar’s potential for collections to be sent to the Smithsonian, as he makes clear in his letter home The town of Mojunga [Majunga] ... contains dated January 14, 1895: about 6 or 7,000 inhabitants. It is the principal port upon the West coast of Madagascar, con- Unless the Hovas offer more attractions than I tains a Hova governor & about 400 soldiers. In expect, I shall not bother about the War at all, old times it was much more important & was the but return down here & make collections. From principal depot for the slave trade in Madagascar. all accounts the Hovas are totally unprepared, & ... Trade & population have greatly fallen off even now doing but little to resist the French

34 william louis abbott in madagascar

invasion. ...Their government is really an awful became increasingly disillusioned. In that February abomination & a parody upon a civilized one; 15 letter, he already writes: but in any case it is far preferable to that of la There is by no means even the pick of Madagas- Republique. car in the Hova army. Every man of any account As indicated on the map (Figure 3), Abbott did & of any means, buys exemption, so that the continue to the capital Antananarivo, where on ranks are filled with the scrapings of the February 15 he wrote to his mother, community—often mere boys taken out of the schools. ... The young Hova doctors educated I have joined the Hovas as surgeon, but I ask no at the Medical school here, would do very well, pay & supplied my own surgical supplies to a but they are totally destitute of everything, great extent, there was no great condescension instruments, surgical supplies & dressings, med- in their receiving me. Shall probably be icines–All are wanting—& we will soon have employed in some very different service to the many thousands of wounded to look after. ... medical—indeed the latter is only a secondary The information that the French will shoot all matter with me. Europeans taken with the Hovas, whether they But in subsequent days, Abbott and the few British are doctors or not, will rather stimulate volun- adventurers who, like him, had tried to join the fight teers than otherwise. By March 18, he wrote her instead saying that he and all foreigners who had offered to join the Hova had resigned.

You will doubtless be very glad to hear that I have no longer any connection with the Male- gasy [sic]. About a week ago Col. Shervinton, the senior of the European officers in the service resigned, & the next day all the rest of us fol- lowed suit. Several who had newly arrived & had not been taken on, withdrew their applications for service. There was absolutely nothing else to be done, the Malegasy are so swelled up with their own abilities of defeating the French, that they are & have been going dead against the advice of all the Europeans, & it seems as if they did not want any Vaza[ha] (Foreigners) in their service any how.

Abbott was thus suddenly free to carry out two long collecting expeditions from Antananarivo— first through Betsimisaraka territory to the coast at Ma- hanoro and back, then from the capital to Vatoman- ry, returning to send his collections to Washington, D.C., and then to make a brief stop at Mananjary in July.

Figure 3. Abbott’s second Madagascar expedition. Arriving from Mauri- From the brief summaries of Abbott’s expeditions tius in January, Abbott landed first at Fort Dauphin on January 10, then con- above, it should already be clear that Abbott, the anti- tinued by steamer to Vatomanry, then to the capital Antananarivo, then to colonialist American “naturalist” collector, can only the coast at Mahanoro and back, then to Vatomanry, returning to Bombay very partially and imperfectly fit within the growing after a brief stop at Mananjary in June. (Map by Marcia Bakry.)

35 william louis abbott in madagascar current literature on “colonial” collections or on dence and documents is that very often information colonial discourses in 19th-century anthropology there supplements or corrects information directly (Thomas 1994:33–65) or on 19th-century and later associated with the collection such as original object efforts to collect and display African art (Berzock and labels. Substantially more context to these collections Clarke 2011; Geary and Xatart 2007; Schildkrout and is provided by considering the entirety of Abbott’s Keim 1998). Though he sometimes expresses archival documents, including those written long aesthetic judgments (as in his description of the after he left Madagascar. These can indicate collecting lamba textiles), Abbott’s ethnographic collections biases and reasons for the selection of items he col- were not intended to be understood or used as art- lected and provide Abbott’s comments about collec- works. They were primarily intended to supply tions sent to Smithsonian scientists who were Mason and other scientists with the data that would working on them sometimes many years after they help identify the evolutionary path of societies world- were received. For example, in a September 3, 1895, wide, from savagery toward civilization, just as his letter to anthropologist Otis Mason sent from Bom- biological collections helped specialists determine the bay (Figure 4), Abbott writes of his Madagascar col- evolutionary paths that animals or plant species had lections, “Every sort of mat is included that I taken and the range of life forms that have resulted. observed among the East Coast tribes. It is remarkable Clearly, therefore, his collecting philosophy was what a lot of mats etc. a Malagasy uses about his (or informed with the narratives of hierarchy and domi- her) house. They have names for every vanity, + every nation that were also associated with colonial collect- slight variation of pattern” (see also Figures 7a and ing, though he saw no contradiction between that 7b, 8a and 8b, 9a and 9b). The difficult-to-read hand- and his anticolonial politics and insistence that indig- writing in this sample letter will also indicate the enous governments were preferable to colonial ones time-consuming but important role of properly tran- for peoples of Africa and Asia. Enid Schildkrout and Curtis Keim (1998:21–25) note the importance of sci- entific and the competitive “scramble” for collections within colonial Africa. “Accurate descriptions of the landscape and people were seen as prerequisites to an array of colonial programs includ- ing the extraction of resources, the spread of civiliza- tion and political control, and the salvation of souls,” they note (Schildkrout and Keim 1998:21–22), point- ing also to the development of new museums or exhi- bitions of African art in Europe or America, which spread positive images of the colonial projects. For example, the “purpose of the 1897 Brussels-Tervuren Exposition was to justify and publicize Leopold’s activities in the Congo. The official guide noted that a good government protects its citizens’ art” (Schildk- rout and Keim 1998:24). By contrast, Abbott’s corre- spondence shows no indication that he expects his ethnographic collections to be put on display, any more than his biological ones that (he expected) would serve only as scientific study specimens.

The Current Organization of Archival Documents and Ethnographic Collections

One reason for beginning any study of these collec- Figure 4. Letter from W. L. Abbott to Smithsonian anthropologist Otis T. tions with a study of Abbott’s archival correspon- Mason, September 3, 1895. (Smithsonian Institution Archives.)

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numerous entries include two or more “specimens.” For example, a single object labeled “Blow-gun and 14 darts” contains a specimen count of 15, while other entries that are made up of more than one part are not listed as having more than one specimen (e.g., model canoe and paddle set counted as “one”). The collections include nine baskets (in addition to eight “boxes,” essentially baskets with lids), 14 hats or “caps,” 21 mats, as well as a variety of weapons, musi- cal instruments, and other objects.7 Only about half the objects (72 of 133) currently have any catalogue listing within the category for “culture” or ethnic group within Madagascar (see Figure 5. Abbott’s sketch of an uncollected Malagasy “primitive still,” Grimes et al. 2005:139–140, 690; LeBar 1972:2–3; September 3, 1895. (Smithsonian Institution Archives.) Rakotoarisoa 2002:26, 30), using for this catalogue the terms deriving from Abbott’s handwritten labels scribing such documents as part of the study of this that recognizably relate to ethnic group names. Three collection. objects are listed as “Malagasy,” although that term Along with that letter from Bombay, he sends one refers to all ethnic subgroups on Madagascar; 13 are of his many sketches of uncollected ethnographic listed as “Antaimoro”; five as “Antambahoaka”; 17 as objects that he observed (Figure 5), this one from the “Antanala”; one as “Bara”; four as “Betsileo”; 20 as east coast of Madagascar. “Betsimisaraka”; three as “Hova” [Merina]; one as “Mahafaly/Betsileo”; and five as “Tanala.” Also listed I enclose a sketch of the most primitive still that are 17 textiles, including one “woman’s dress,” one can be imagined. I hope you can understand the “woman’s shirt,” four “men’s shirts,” four “raffia drawing[.] I am a bad artist. The still although so cloth,” one “lamba of silk and cotton,” one “fragment primitive was very effective & kept the popula- of brocaded cloth,” five “shrouds,” and two “bro- tion of the village in a state of semi-intoxication. caded and fringed shrouds.” Other objects that may Handwritten labels, including many in Abbott’s be counted among the textiles include the “lamba” original handwriting, can still be found tied to the that is part of the “loom with lamba” (E175421) and ethnographic and biological specimens themselves. one plant-fiber “pack bag” that has a textile skirt. While some standardized information from those Overall, we can say that the existing ethnology object labels has been recorded within the Smithso- catalogue is like a bad index in a good book —useful nian’s current digital database of ethnographic collec- as a starting point but not to be relied upon. Related tions, other nonstandard information, including databases for other departments list 55 Madagascar local folk names for objects, animals, or plants, has mammal specimens collected by Abbott and 235 not been recorded and can only be found by seeking birds, including three named type specimens. out the objects in collection storage. The move of ethnographic collections from the The Collector and His Museum Museum of Natural History building in Washington, Mason, the museum anthropologist, and Abbott, the D.C., to a research and storage facility (“Museum field collector, encouraged each other. Mason, an Support Center”) in Suitland, , involved elderly museum scholar in poor health, was very conservation work and rehousing of the collections attracted to Abbott’s adventurous travels. Their during a period in which the use of paper catalogue mutually satisfying relationship carried out through cards was superseded by digital databases. The digital regular correspondence undoubtedly influenced Ab- database records information about 133 Abbott eth- bott’s collecting, as it did Mason’s abandonment of nographic “objects” or catalogued entries from Mad- American Indian for Southeast Asian studies after agascar. This number can cause confusion as about 1903. In 1907, Mason told a colleague that his

37 william louis abbott in madagascar heart was “now in Malaysia, with my proto-Ameri- Hough) seems to have misunderstood the changing cans” (Hinsley 1981:114). research priorities within contemporary anthropol- It is clear Abbott considered that even the ogy, especially the strong movement away from simplest technology could be either poorly made studying material culture that had begun by the turn or well made; he preferred to collect the latter. It of the century (as measured, for example, by the often seems that his goal of “completeness” in col- proportional decline in practicing museum anthro- lecting manufactured objects simply requires one pologists and the rapid decline after 1900 of the per- of each kind. Finally, Abbott seems to have been centage of American published papers on ethnology interested in the conceptual importance that concerned with material culture; see Sturtevant Mason gave to people’s ingenuity in inventing 1969:623–627). objects to satisfy human wants and Mason’s inter- Thus, Abbott’s Madagascar ethnographic collec- est in cases where similar needs produce similar tions, like many others but quite unlike the biologi- inventions, without diffusion or borrowing. On cal ones from this period, have remained largely May 3, 1902, he wrote to Mason from Singapore: unstudied and unknown to this day. One notable I got some Jakun traps for catching squirrels, exception is that in a chapter primarily about two etc., but unfortunately they are too dry and textiles presented in 1886 by Queen Ranavalona III broken to show anything. They were quite inge- to President Grover Cleveland, Arnoldi (2002) also nious and very similar to some I observed discusses what may be termed the life histories of amongst the Antanala in Madagascar. A case of some other textiles from Madagascar that are now a similar want producing a similar result. Still, in the same Smithsonian collections, including their blowpipes were also similar. I expect to go those by Abbott. She noted the differing interpreta- among the Jakuns again this next trip and will tions and assumptions inherent in the classificatory get some better specimens. terms applied to these textiles by collectors and later by museum cataloguers, as well as the importance Such examples of convergent evolution were for Abbott of Mason’s collecting philosophy of important to evolutionary theories espoused by Mason. They indicated that humankind passed assembling textiles and other ethnographic collec- through stages of evolution everywhere and that the tions as representatives of types of invention or laws governing evolution could be sought apart from material culture development. She also notes that the particular historical circumstances of each people. while Abbott assembled only a very partial selection Though such ideas can be recognized in passages such of textiles available in Madagascar at the time, his as the one quoted above, they are never developed in examples affirm that local weavers were then appro- Abbott’s correspondence into any theoretical system. priating European designs. Yet, they clearly provided one theoretical underpin- Abbott tries carefully in his letters to imagine the ning for his collecting. likely most “original” ethnographic object beneath The fact that evolution could be studied through the layers of introduced, nonindigenous components material culture reflects a basic presumption of of the textiles or other artifacts he collected, some- Mason (and contemporary Smithsonian anthropolo- times positing what the product would have been like gists): material culture and ideational culture evolved without its non-indigenous component. These pas- together as one passed from savagery to barbarism to sages seem to reflect a broader presumption that there civilization. Both could be studied through the estab- was an underlying original or indigenous, presumably lishment of typologies and the study of the cultural– Malaysian-like or Austronesian form, onto which historical sequences in which those types developed introduced components from Africa or Europe had throughout the world. Information about material visibly been added in the recent past. This common culture could predict ideational culture, and vice 19th-century view contrasts with more recent inter- versa. pretations of Madagascar as a crossroads of historic Yet, Abbott himself (like his Smithsonian Indian Ocean trade networks with heavy European correspondents, Mason and his successor Walter contact since the 1600s, whose cultural products have

38 william louis abbott in madagascar long incorporated diverse influences. For example, Abbott did not eschew collecting examples of Abbott wrote admiringly about Madagascar’s textiles material culture with modern influences even as he to his mother (July 16, 1890): also posited or sought out those that were most likely indigenous. He also recognized that, just as similar, Considerable silk is grown here of a stronger closely related animals sometimes survived as “living kind than that of Europe; & the manufacturers fossils” in distant parts of the world, types of primi- of it into lace, cloth, lambas (cloths used as tive industrial technology could point to common cloaks), are of really high grade. I am bringing stages of societal evolution in distant places. Among back specimens that I am sure no one will the examples Abbott noted to illustrate this were believe came from savage Madagascar. Some of blowpipes, including those from Madagascar. Writ- the silk lambas are really splendid, if the Mala- ing about them about four years after leaving Mada- gasy would only stick to their original designs, gascar, on May 18, 1899, upon arriving at Singapore instead of copying European patterns. to send a collection assembled among forest peoples For instance the finest lamba that I have been of the , Abbott writes home: “The able to find, has been copied from a damask blowpipes of Malaysia & Madagascar are totally dif- table cloth. Still you can form an idea of what a ferent from anything used in Africa. Though the white table cloth entirely hand woven of white tribes of the Upper Amazon use a similar weapon.” silk must be. Of course everything is woven There were important differences between his upon hand looms of native invention. methods of documenting specimens of material cul- ture compared to biological specimens, even at this Peers (2004:148) also cites the last three time when both types of scientific collection were sentences of the archival document quoted above, assembled primarily for evolutionary studies. The illustrating it with a comparable textile collected by “types” or examples of material culture Mason’s theo- Ralph Linton 36 years later, now in Chicago’s Field retical system needed were simply examples of the Museum. He considers the mimicking of damask “typical” kinds of technologies used, so that “typolo- on a white lamba a “perfect example of the trans- gies” could be built up and evolutionary sequences in formations taking place in Malagasy, and particu- the development of technologies (and therefore socie- larly Merina, society in the nineteenth century” ties) could be posited. This did not require collecting (Peers 2004:148), drawing upon a diverse range of a broad range of variants of the same kind of manu- external influences around the Indian Ocean and facture; in addition, the exact date or locality of col- from Europe. For Abbott, however, Madagascar’s lection was not so important as the name of the seeming juxtaposition of primitive and advanced culture that produced the object (not the artist, not components of societies posed a challenge to the the individual, but the culture). Local names could evolutionary stages that Mason hoped to posit also be useful, including for etymological or philolog- from technology. After leaving Madagascar, Abbott ical study. wrote to Mason on this topic several times, for The “type” of a biological specimen is quite differ- example, writing to him about “the loom from ent, not one of several examples within a typology of Imerina Madagascar” on September 3, 1895, from artifacts but rather the specimen designated (even if it Bombay: happens to be unusual or “atypical” in many respects) as the example for which a taxonomic category is You will observe how primitive it is. But the half determined and named. Recognizing any taxon (of woven silk lamba upon it will show that the bird, for example) might require documenting varia- result can be compared favorably with that pro- tions in plumage of male and female or, for example, duced by much more elaborate Machinery. A at different seasons. Hova woman will maybe spend 6 months or a Biologists therefore hoped to obtain a wide variety year over a silk lamba not of course working all of examples of each taxon. Abbott felt that his 1895 the time, but off & on at odd times as she has lei- biological collections (unlike those of 1890) were sure from her housework. unsatisfactory in this respect. We know this partly

39 william louis abbott in madagascar because, years after leaving Madagascar, Abbott wrote In an observation about evolution and geography apologetically on January 20, 1897, to Smithsonian reminiscent of his comment about blowpipes, Ab- ornithologist Charles Richmond (who had begun bott adds, “They are only found in Madagascar, studying his Madagascar bird collection): but they have two near relations, which strangely enough dwell in far off Hayti [] & .” In About sending so few of a kind–In Madagascar I fact, that letter ends abruptly because he notes was horribly short of ammunition & could not “some native has just brought me a tenrec, so I get any for love or money owing to the war. & have to stop writing to skin it.” His locality on had not gone there prepared for collecting, but that date is clear from the mammal label. In gen- with a different object in view. eral, if Abbott’s location on a particular date is Of course Richmond already knew that Abbott’s unknown, his cultural observations on that date “different object in view” had been to assist the Meri- can be associated with a location by reference to na. Another difference is that exact collection dates his biological (not ethnographic) collections. In and localities are important in biological collecting to this respect, it may be possible to compile a gazet- explain variations (e.g., seasonal changes in plumage, teer of his collecting dates and localities using all understanding habits of migratory species, et cetera). his biological collections, like that done for some Abbott took care to document his collection accord- other areas and collectors by the Smithsonian’s ing to the needs of specialists at the time, conse- African Mammal Project (1961–72; see Schmidt quently exact date and locality information got et al. 2008), establishing a collecting itinerary that recorded for biological but not ethnographic speci- would be quite helpful in understanding Abbott’s mens. ethnographic collections as well.8 An example is the specimen of endemic Mada- Thus, Mason’s meaning was very different from gascar mammals known as the tenrec (Tenrec that of a biologist when he wrote that “the Abbott col- ecaudatus) (Figures 6a and 6b), which Abbott lections are of greatest scientific value as types, describes to his mother (April 21, 1895) as “curi- because after studying the wants of the Museum he ous hedgehog-like creatures, covered with spines.” labeled each specimen carefully according to the latest requirements” (Mason 1908:1). Hinsley writes that A the basketry and other artifacts sent back by Abbott, alongside later material flowing into the museum after 1898 from America’s new Philippine colonies, “seemed to fill gaping holes in Mason’s culture his- tory”(1981:115). The “Malaysian” (including Indo- nesian) artifacts represented for Mason a stage of industrial development midway between North American Indians and early civilizations of the West. Mason prepared a well-illustrated monograph, Vocabulary of Malaysian Basketwork: A Study in the W. L. Abbott Collections “with the view of having a

B lucid nomenclature in describing the Abbott speci- mens more at length in a larger work” (Mason 1908:1). Issued, however, on the day of Mason’s fun- eral, this publication’s promised larger work never appeared. Perhaps the “valuable series” of patterned Figure 6. (A) Female Tenrec ecaudatus, USNM mammals catalogue num- ber 63,317, collected April 21, 1895. (Photo by Robert Pontsioen.) (B) Label, mats and other basketry items from Madagascar, catalogue number 63,317. Unlike ethnographic collections, biological which Mason had so admired (Figures 7a and 7b, 8a collections required documenting the date of collection and exact locality. and 8b, 9a and 9b), would have been included within (Photo by Robert Pontsioen.) that larger work.

40 william louis abbott in madagascar

A A

B B

Figure 7. (A) Patterned mat (37 X 38 cm), later given the catalogue number E175401-0. Abbott’s original handwritten label is at top right. (Photo by Robert Pontsioen.) (B) Abbott’s handwritten note attached to mat shown in Figure 7a (catalogue number E175401-0): “Mats used as Plates. Betsimisaraka Tribe. Mahanoro – East Coast Madagascar. Native Figure 8. (A) Patterned mat collected by Abbott in Madagascar, 1895. name ‘Fandabana.’” (Photo by Robert Pontsioen.) Catalogue number E175404-0 (41.5 X 42.5 cm). The information on Abbott’s handwritten notes attached directly to the objects (Figure 8b in this exam- The Usefulness of Abbott’s Information and ple) is not currently included within the meager information provided on Collections for Research Today catalogue cards or in digital collection records. (Photo by Robert Pontsioen.) (B) Abbott’s handwritten label for this mat (catalogue number E175404-0) With regard to Abbott’s Smithsonian collections reads: “Made of Lakatra a sort of palm leaf - The square pattern on the dark from Madagascar, a very productive mode of recent mat is called ‘Tsitarataratra’ literally ‘not a looking glass’ Mats used as scholarship, placing objects in historical and Plates Betsimisaraka tribe. Mahanoro E. coast Madagascar. Native name ethnographic context, consists of taking images and ‘Fandabana.’” Ethnic group name and “native name” were recorded, but Abbott generally did not record the date and often did not record locality of information about legacy collections back to the collection for ethnographic objects. (Photo by Robert Pontsioen.) descendants of those who produced them, engaging descendants of the peoples who created museum objects with their interpretation and presentation reassessment and reinterpretation alongside recent (e.g., Ames 1980, 1990, 1999; Rosoff 1998; Smith ethnographic fieldwork (see especially Fee 2002, et al. 2010). “Revisiting” historic expeditions now 2004; Walker et al. 2004; and other articles in Kre- (cf. Taylor 2006a, 2006b) provides opportunities to amer and Fee 2002 and Kusimba et al. 2004) present- ask the descendants of peoples Abbott visited to help ing textiles as they participate within the formation interpret objects, photographs, and archival narra- and expression of social relationships and within a tives, a technique successfully used in many of the wide range of current symbolic and sociocultural recent studies listed above. Historic textile collections contexts, explaining also how some practices con- from Madagascar, particularly those of Ralph Linton tinue and transform in new contexts while others (1933; cf. Mosca 1994, 2004), have benefitted from have not survived.

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Acknowledgments A The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Smithsonian Scholarly Studies Program and of the Seidell Endowment and the Walcott Endowment for the study of Abbott’s archival and ethnographic collections. In addi- tion, the author thanks the anonymous peer reviewers of an earlier version of this article. B

References Cited Abbott, William Louis 1892 Descriptive Catalogue of the Abbott Collec- tion of Ethnological Objects from Kilima- Njaro, East Africa; Collected and Presented to the United States National Museum. In Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Showing the Operations, Expenditures, and Condition of Figure 9. (A) Catalogue number E175371. (Shown folded lengthwise, the Institution for the Year Ending June 30, length 185 cm; width, if unfolded, would be approximately 160 cm.) Richly 1891. Report of the U.S. National Museum. patterned Antanala “sleeping mat” collected by Abbott in Madagascar, Pp. 381–428. Washington, DC: Government 1895. Now long dried in a folded position, this mat would require consider- Printing Office. able conservation work to open, making the full pattern visible for display. Ames, Michael (Photo by Robert Pontsioen.) (B) Labels, catalogue number E175371. Unfor- 1980 Museums, the Public, and Anthropology. Van- tunately Abbott’s original handwritten label (left) is incomplete. (Photo by couver: University of British Columbia Press; Robert Pontsioen.) New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. 1990 Cultural Empowerment and Museums: Open- ing Up Anthropology through Collaboration. It is, of course, highly unlikely that any modern In New Research in Museum Studies, vol. 1. study of material culture would revive Mason’s Objects of Knowledge. Susan Pearce, ed. Pp. – typological methods or have as its goal the establish- 158 173. London: Athlone. 1999 How to Decorate a House: The Renegotiation ment of culture–historical sequences like those of Cultural Representations at the University of Mason posited, but many studies have illustrated the British Columbia Museum of Anthropology. importance of relating historically documented Museum Anthropology 22(3):41–51. museum specimens to locally obtained ethnographic Arnoldi, Mary Jo information. Bringing together museum artifacts and 2002 Gifts from the Queen: Two Malagasy Lamba the “missing” ethnographic information about them Akotofhana at the Smithsonian Institution. In serves partly as a means of improving documentation Objects as Envoys: Cloth, Imagery, and of museum artifacts and partly to add information Diplomacy in Madagascar. Christine Mullen about indigenous systems of beliefs and symbols, Kreamer and Sarah Fee, eds. Pp. 95–120. Wash- about the history of indigenous technologies, and ington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. about intercultural contacts. For all these reasons, we Asian Civilisations Museum In can reconsider the material Abbott collected for his 2009 William Louis Abbott. Hunters & Collectors: own purposes in light of new information within the The Origins of the Southeast Asian Collection at the Asian Civilisations Museum. Pp. 25–37. continually changing purposes of museum collect- Singapore: Asian Civilisations Museum. ions and displays (Taylor 1995). Hopefully, Berzock, Kathleen Bickford, and Christa Clarke contemporary ethnographers of Madagascar, and the 2011 Representing Africa in American Art Muse- descendants of the people Abbott visited and studied, ums: A Century of Collecting and Display. may use this information there. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

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Brown, Mervyn Kuklick, Henrika 1995 A History of Madagascar. Cambridge: Damien 1997 After Ishmael: The Fieldwork Tradition and Tunnacliffe. Its Future. In Anthropological Locations: Campbell, Gwyn Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science. 2005 An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson, eds. Pp. 1750–1895: The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire. 47–62. Berkeley: University of California Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Press. Dorr, Laurence J. Kusimba, Chapurukha M., J. Claire Odland, and Bennet 1997 Plant Collectors in Madagascar and the Com- Bronson, eds. oro Islands: A Biographical and Bibliographical 2004 Unwrapping the Textile Traditions of Madagas- Guide to Individuals and Groups Who Have car. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Collected Herbarium Material of Algae, Bryo- Cultural History. phytes, Fungi, Lichens, and Vascular Plants in Larson, Pier M. Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. London: 2000 History and Memory in the Age of Enslave- Royal Botanic Gardens. ment: Becoming Merina in Highland Madagas- Fee, Sarah car, 1770–1822. Portsmouth: Heinemann. 2002 Cloth in Motion: Madagascar’s Textiles LeBar, Frank, and George Appell through History. In Objects as Envoys: Cloth, 1972 Ethnic Groups of Insular Southeast Asia, vol. 1. Imagery, and Diplomacy in Madagascar. Chris- New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press. tine Mullen Kreamer and Sarah Fee, eds. Pp. Linton, Ralph 33–94. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institu- 1933 The Tanala: A Hill Tribe of Madagascar. Field tion Press. Museum of Natural History Publication 317, 2004 Textile Traditions of Southwestern Madagas- Anthropological Series vol. 22. Chicago: Field car. In Unwrapping the Textile Traditions of Museum of Natural History. Madagascar. Chapurukha M. Kusimba, J. Claire Mason, Otis Odland, and Bennet Bronson, eds. Pp. 93–112. 1908 Vocabulary of Malaysian Basketwork: A Study Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural in the W. L. Abbott Collections. Proceedings of History. the U.S. National Museum 35(1631):1–51, pl. Garson, John George, and Charles Hercules Read 1–17. 1892 Notes and Queries on Anthropology. 2nd edi- Mosca, Liliana tion. London: Anthropological Institute of 1994 Ralph Linton nel Madagascar (1925–27): Una Great Britain and Ireland. fonte per la conoscenza della grande isola del- Geary, Christaud M., and Stephanie Xatart l’oceano indiano. [Ralph Linton in Madagascar 2007 Material Journeys: Collecting African and (1925–27): A Resource for Understanding the Oceanic Art, 1945–2000: Selections from Great Island of the Indian Ocean.] Napoli: the Genevieve McMillan Collection. Boston: Luciano. Museum of Fine Arts (MFA Publications). 2004 Ralph Linton in Madagascar, 1926–27. In Grimes, Barbara, with Joseph Grimes and Raymond Unwrapping the Textile Traditions of Madagas- Gordon car. Chapurukha M. Kusimba, J. Claire Odland, 2005 Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas: and Bennet Bronson, eds. Pp. 39–58. Los Ange- SIL International. les: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. Hinsley, Curtis Museums Association 1981 Savages and Scientists: The Smithsonian 2005 Collections for the Future: Report of a Institution and the Development of American Museums Association Inquiry. London: Anthropology 1846–1910. Washington, DC: Museums Association. http://www.museums- Smithsonian Institution Press. association.org/download?id=11121, accessed Kreamer, Christine Mullen, and Sarah Fee, eds. November 9, 2014. 2002 Objects as Envoys: Cloth, Imagery, and Diplo- Peers, Simon macy in Madagascar. Washington, DC: Smith- 2004 History and Change in the Weaving of High- sonian Institution Press. land Madagascar. In Unwrapping the Textile

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