National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 ot Canada du Canada Canadian Theses Service Service des thèses canadiennes OnaUJ3. Canada K1A ON. NOTICE AVIS The quality of this microform is heavily dependent upon the La qualité de cette microforme dépend grandement de la quality of the original thesis submitted for microfilming. qualité de la thèse soumise au microfilmage. Nous avons Every effort has been made to ensure the highest quality of tout fait pour assurer une qualité supérieure de repreduc, reproduction possible. tion. Il pages are missing, contact the university which granted S'il manque des pages, veuillez communiquer avec the degree. l'université qui a conféré le grade. Some pages may have indistinct print especially if the La qualité d'impression de certaines pages peut laisser il original pages were typed with a poor typewriter ribbon or désirer, surtout si les pages originales ont été dactylogra if the univers~y sent us an inferior photocopy. phiées il l'aide d'un ruban usé ou si l'université nous a lait parvenir une photocopie de qualité i.lférieure. Reproduction in full or in part of this microform is governed La reproduction, méme partielle, de cette microforme est by the Canadian Copyright Act, R,S.C. 1970, c. C-30, and soumise à la Loi canadienne sur le droit d'auteur, SRC subsequent amendments. 1970, c. C-30, et ses amendements subséquents. '~L·JJ9 (r_ B8J04) C Canada Collected Ethnographie Objects as Cultural Representations: Rev. Robertson's Collection from the New Hebrides [Vanuatu] by Barbara Lawson Anthropology Department McGill University, Montreal November 1990 A thesis submined to the Faculty ofGraduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree ofMaster ofAns (c) Barbara Lawson 1990 National Lilxary Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Ca~adian Theses Secvice Service des thèses canadiennes Ottawa. Canada K1AON-4 The author has granted an irrevocable non­ L'auteur a accordé une licence irrévocable et exclusive licence aJlowing the National übrary non exclusive permettant à la BibflOthèque of Canada to'reproduce.loan. olSbibute orsell nationale du Canada de reproduire, prêter, copies of hislher thesis by any means and in distribuer ou vendre des copies de sa thèse any form or format, making this thesis available de Quelque manière et sous Quelque forme to interested persons. Que ce soit pour mettre des exemplaires de cette thèse à la disposition des personnes intéressées, The author retains ownership of the copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur in his/her thesis. Neither the thesis nor Qui protége sa thése. Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantial extracts from it may be printed or substantiels de celle-ci ne doivent être otherwise reproduced without his/her per­ imprimés ou autrement reproduits sans son mission. autorisation, ISBN e-315-67778-3 Canada 11 Abstract AUTHOR: Barbara Lawson DTLE: Collected Ethnographic Objects as Cultural Representations: Rev. Robertson's Collection from the New Hebrides [Vanuatu] DEPARTMENT: Anthropology Department, McGiIl University DEGREE: Master ofArts This study compares a collection ofdecontextualized objects in McGill's Redpa:h Museum with contemporary historical accounts to see what congruencies can be established between them. It focuses on 125 artifacts gathered in the New Hebrides by a Nova Scotian missionary living on Erromanga between 1872 and 1913. These objects have never been smdied before. Collected ethnographic objects are usually studied as they are found in the museum or as they might have been in the field- the movement from one place to the other is not considered significant. Critical consideration of the collecting process imparts information about the manufacture and use of objects, offers insights regarding the relation between local and introduced material culture, and reveals the historically contingent, intercultural relations that made collecting possible. It also exposes the foreign, local, cultural, and individual influences at work when certain items were selected, while others were left behind. 1I\ Résumé AVŒUR: Barbara Lawson TITRE: Une collection d'objets ethnographiques en tant que représentations culturelles: La collection du Révérend Robertson provenant des Nouvelles-Hébrides [Vanuatu] DÉPARTEMENT: Anthropologie, Université McGill PROGRAMME: Maîtrise ès arts La présente étude compare une collection d'objets décontextualisés, conservés "li Musée Redpath (Université McGill), avec des récits historiques contemporains afin d'établir lellr congruence. Cette collection, jamais étudiée auparavant, comprend 125 artefacts rassemblés dans les Nouvelles-Hébrides par un missionnaire de Nouvelle-Écosse, vivant à Erromanga entre 1872 et 1913. Les objets de collection ethnographique sont généralement étudiés tels que trouvés dans un musée ou tels qu'ils se présentent sur le terrain -leur déplacement n'est pas jugé significatif. Une approche critique face à la cueillette de ces matériaux fournit de l'information sur leur fahrication ct leur utilisation, offre des aperçus sur la relation entre culture locale et apport extérieur et révèle les relations interculturelles historiquement contingentes qui ont permis la cueillette. Elle présente aussi les facteurs extérieurs, locaux, culturels, et individuels qui ont influencé le choix des articles sélectionnés. iv Contents PRE F ACE page v NOTE ON THE USE OF TERMS xi 1. Artifact Collecting and Anthropology ••.•••••••••••.••••••.•••••••••..••••..••. 1 II. The Redpath Museum and Robertson's Collection •••••••••••••••••.•••.••.•• 21 III. European Activiiies in the Southern New Hebrides (1774.1883) 54 IV. Missionary Interactions with Erromangan Material Culture 87 V. Robertson's Collection as a Cultural Representation 122 ApPENDIXES: A. ROBERTSON'S DONATION TO THE REDPATH MUSEUM 153 B. ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE OF ROBERTSON'S COLLECTION 154 C. MAP OF NEW HEBRIDES [VANUATU] SHOWING COOK'S 1774 VISIT 198 D. MAP OF ERROMANGA [ERROMANGO] 199 E. PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARIES STATIONED IN THE SOUTHERN NEW HEBRIDES 200 (1848-83) F. MAP OF MISSION SCHOOL-HOUSES ON ERROMANGA [ERROMANGO] c.1884 201 G. CHRISTIAN VS. "HEATHEN" DRESS [PHOTO] 202 BIBLIOGRAPHY •••••••••••••••••.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 203 v Preface The ideological assumptions implicit in the display of eùmologieal attifaets in museums have been discussed by several writers. 1 During the past deeade. seholars have devoted particular attention to messages conveyed in speci5e exhibits.2 While museum exhibits provide fettile ground for the analysis ofethnographic representations, other situations involving the selection and manipulation of objects and their meanings have been vittually ignored,3 Several works questioning assumptions of seientific objectivity in ethnographie writing suggest possibilities for a dynamic understanding of attifactual representations.4 1 believe that an approach consiâering the discursive and subjective nature of ethnographie investigation may be l:sed for analyzing collected objects in museums. Ali artifactual interpretations are influenced to sorne degree by the actual process whereby cultural objeets are removed l'rom their original context and re-situated in museums. This study will foeus specifically on the relation between ethnogmphic collecting and cultural representation. Before the emergence of popular photography, objects provided an important means ofrepresenting exotic places and peoples visited by explorers, traders, missionaries, and a variety oftravellers. The situation of "drawing room anthropology" is aptly deseribed by Miller: ... objects were a convenient symbol for actual peoples whose presence was neither required nor desired, The selection of abjects is signifi.cant: ... insignia of power, emblems of status, and fetishes of supernatural power [were] taken l'rom colonial realms , ... [and] used to objectify the notion of the romantic innocent or the barbarie savage depending upon the argument being engaged upon (Miller,1983:5). 1 Including, Avé (1980), Boas (1887,1907), Borhegyi (1964,1969), Cannizzo (1989" Canniz>.o ct al. (1982,1987), Clifford (1988:189·214), Digby (1959), Dorsey (1907), Hainard (1984,1985), Halpin (1983), Harris (1987), Jamin (1985), McFeat (1976), Mcleod (1985), Morphy (1986), Pearce (1986c), Priee (1989). 2 Such as, Alexander (1985:134-6), Altick (1978:268·301), Cannizzo (1987), Chapman (1985), Cnombcs (1985), "agin (1984), Faris (1988), Fischer (1989), Jacknis (1985), Keuren (1984), Leone (1981,1983), Leone ct al. (1987), McEvilley (1984,1985a,1985b), O'Reilly (1959), Stanley (1989), Thomas (1989). 3 For a recent contribution in this area, sec Thomas (1989). 4 Sec, for example, discussions of auLhority and aumenticüy in: Clifford (1983.1988), Clifford and M?.fcUS (1986), Fabian (1983), Marous and Cushman (1982), Marcus and Fischer (1986), Rabinow (1986), Stocking ~1983), and Wagner (1975), VI These idiosyncratically assembled souvenirs of indigenous production were not suited 10 the developing museum anthropology, with its emphasis on well-documented, systematic collections (Cole,1985:48-51; Stocking,1985:7-8). The artifacts required for research during anthropology's "Museum Period", with its focus on classification, typologies, and geographical distribution, were those methodically gathered during fieldwork (Sturtevant, 1969:622-3).5 However, even meticulously documented field collections came to play a diminishing role in most research institutions by the tum ofthe century, as the discipline's theoretical