Article ID: CBB133286047

Heads and ‘cultures:’ A. C. Haddon, colonial exploration and the ‘Strickland River’ inscription (2022)

unapi

This essay examines how anthropogeographical conceptions become materialized in place names inscribed on human remains. With respect to a type of headhunting artefact designated in museum anthropology as ‘stuffed human heads’, I consider processes of inscription and theorizing accompanying the circulation of stuffed heads between New Guinea and Cambridge. I trace the micro-history of one inscription – ‘Strickland R’ – across interrelated labels, articles, texts, notes, and the head itself, in order to reveal intellectual constructs simultaneously abbreviated and materialized in the human remains. In Papua, stuffed heads were understood as evidence of the geography of headhunting and cannibal customs. In Cambridge, they were framed within anthropologist A. C. Haddon's studies on the anthropogeography of New Guinea. By abbreviating colonial and scientific constructs, the words ‘Strickland R.’ enabled the material ‘stuffed head’ into which they fused to become inextricably linked to the theory and display of ‘culture areas’ in the museum.

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Authors & Contributors
Blanckaert, Claude
Rice, Carla
Manning, Dolleen Tisawii'ashii
Stonefish, Mona
Angela Stienne
R. Foster
Concepts
Anthropology
Science and culture
Colonialism
Human sciences
Museums
Collectors and collecting
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
21st century
20th century, early
18th century
Places
Great Britain
North America
France
Australia
Indonesia
United States
Institutions
Colonial Social Science Research Council
Science Museum, London
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