If I say ’money’, I’ll wager that there is a pretty good chance that you’ll conjure up an image of coins and bank notes. But what exactly is money? What it basically boils down to, is some sort of artefact that we have all agreed […]
All posts filed under: Oceania
Lookin’ good: the New Guinean bone belt
Fashion is a varied and subjective thing. What looked good 30 years ago is not necessarily considered beautiful today (though often trends come back to haunt us – I am looking at you, 1990s…). But today I am not looking at the fashion trends of […]
Pain and expression: Solomon Island tattoo kit
I find tattoos immensely fascinating. From the earliest definitive example of tattoos (Ötzi the 5.000 year old Iceman), to Julius Cesar’s accounts of the painted Gauls, and Ahmad ibn Fadlan’s descriptions of the Scandinavian Rus and their intricately decorated bodies. All right, these last two […]
A moment of pure happiness: Solomon Island swimming goggles
After last week’s somewhat depressing post, I promised to find a more cheerful subject for this week. I have mined my memories for the most pure moments of happiness that I can recall, and one of them prompted me to select these swimming goggles for […]
Meeting your ancestors: Two young men, one hundred years apart
Do you know that strange realisation you have, when you see old pictures of your grandparents, or even great grandparents? And you realise that they too were young once; that they had this whole life that you know very little about? And that their world […]
The importance of representation: Ghanaian doll
When I was a girl, I wasn’t much into dolls. I was the kind of kid who fell asleep with my box of books next to me in my bed (along with about a 75 stuffed animals). When I, at the age of two, had […]
The colours of autumn: An ethnographic selection
What does a weaved bag and a skirt from Dutch New Guinea, a Burmese man’s hat, a mask from Australian New Guinea, an ancestor skull from New Guinea, a rice sieve from Malaysia, a pair of Indonesian sandals, a Qatari gold earring, and a Latin […]
Why Moesgaard Museum is my Tardis (one for the Doctor Who nerds)
Do any of you watch Doctor Who? The brilliant British TV series about an alien called a Time Lord, who travels in time and space in his time machine (shaped like a blue Police Box), usually accompanied by a human sidekick or two. It is […]
WINTER IS COMING – but Moesgaard is ready…
(Just to be on the safe side: a mild SPOILER ALERT for Game of Thrones series 1-6) Today, the penultimate series of Game of Thrones begins. The thrillingly enjoyable bloodbath is slowly coming to an end, as the White Walkers, with their ever expanding army […]
Talking to the dead: The ’Bridge Phone’
Imagine being able to talk to your dead loved ones. No, this is not a rhetorical question; try to imagine actually being able to answer your mobile phone and talking to your dead husband, mother, wife, or child at the other end of the line. […]
Size matters: Yams mask from Papua New Guinea
Size matters… at least when it comes to yams, the edible tubers grown by the Abelam people in Paupa New Guinea, where they can grow to be several meters long. Among the Abelam, the cultivating and displaying of yams is of great importance to a […]
Garamut Slit-Drum – Baluan Island
Reite people on the Rai Coast of Papua New Guinea describe a large ceremonial drum (a garamut) as a man. In its construction, a garamut is the focus of a process which brings forth a form of social relations, as well as the object […]
