ABSTRACT

Drawing together an international group of scholars from a variety of disciplinary and cultural backgrounds, Colonialism and the Object explores the impact of colonial contact with other cultures on the material culture of both the colonized and the imperial nation.

The book includes intensive case-studies of objects from India, Pakistan, New Zealand, China and Africa, all of which were collected by, or exhibited in, the institutions of the British Empire, and key chapters address issues of radical identity across cultural barriers, and the hybird styles of objects which can emerge when cultures meet.

Colonialism and the Object is essential reading for all those interested in post-colonial theory, museum studies, material culture and design history.

chapter 1|8 pages

Introduction

part 1|117 pages

Institution, object, imperialism

chapter 4|11 pages

China in Britain

The imperial collections 1

chapter 5|16 pages

Colonial architecture, international exhibitions and official patronage of the Indian artisan

The case of a gateway from Gwalior in the Victoria and Albert Museum

chapter 6|14 pages

Stylistic hybridity and colonial art and design education

A wooden carved screen by Ram Singh

chapter 7|13 pages

Race, authenticity and colonialism

A ‘mustice' silversmith in Philadelphia and St Croix, 1783—1850

chapter 8|16 pages

Domesticating Uzbeks

Central Asians in Soviet decorative art of the twenties and thirties

chapter 9|15 pages

Keys to the magic kingdom

The new transcultural collections of Bradford Art Galleries and Museums

part 2|78 pages

Ethnography and colonial objects

chapter 10|15 pages

Perspectives on Hinemihi

A Maori meeting house

chapter 12|14 pages

Gathering souls and objects

Missionary collections

chapter 13|21 pages

Photography at the heart of darkness

Herbert Lang's Congo photographs (1909—15)

chapter 14|17 pages

Taming the tusk

The revival of chryselephantine sculpture in Belgium during the 1890s