ABSTRACT
In many societies, custodians were appointed for objects important to the group. For example, in the Cross River region of West Africa, certain masks were assigned an elder or other respected person to take responsibility for them. The fifteenthcentury Scottish crosier shrine (bishop’s staff) of St Fillan was taken to Canada by its hereditary keeper in 1818; today it is back in Scotland, in the Royal Museum of Scotland. In Imperial China, collections of precious paintings were as important to members of the ruling class as they are in the West today.
