Unpacking Culture: Art and Commodity in Colonial and Postcolonial Worlds

by Ruth B. Phillips, Christopher B. Steiner (Editor)

Tourist art production is a global phenomenon and is increasingly recognized as an important and authentic expression of indigenous visual traditions. These thoughtful, engaging essays provide a comparative perspective on the history, character, and impact of tourist art in colonized societies in three areas of the Africa, Oceania, and North America. Ranging broadly historically and geographically, Unpacking Culture is the first collection to bring together substantial case studies on this topic from around the world.

Genres: Material Culture, Nonfiction

440 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1998

Reviews

[Frederic · Rating 4 out of 5]

My (2011) review from Amazon: Although originally published in 1999, this volume remains one of the best collections on commodified ethnic arts - that is to say, ethnic arts that have been commodified through tourism and collecting. The pieces were all produced for this volume (some initially for a conference, those supplemented by others solicited to broaden the scope of the published volume), and the selection, editing and production are excellent. After two introductory essays, the contents are divided into six sections: Constructing the Other: Production as Negotiation; Authenticity: The Problem of Mechanical Reproduction; Artistic Innovation and the Discourses of Identity; (Re)Fashioning Gender and Stereotype in Touristic Production; Collecting Culture and Cultures of Collecting; and Staging Tourist Art: Contexts for Cultural Conservation. Most chapters are illustrated, with B&W photographs that are well reproduced. The volume would be of interest for courses or individual reading in tourism and tourist arts, ethnic art, and the commodification of traditional cultures.

While North America is most strongly represented (Inuit, Karuk, Lakota, Pueblo, NWC, Huron), other areas include Sepik art of PNG, printed images from India, batak textiles of Indonesia, Samburu and Mangbetu arts from Africa, Chinese textiles, and Marquesan carvings and tapa cloth. While questions of authenticity and commodification are (unsurprisingly) central to most of the discussions, they do not overwhelm nor do they seem completely dated. One of my favorite pieces, "My Father's Business" by Frank Ettawageshik, provides a rarely available Native perspective on the trade.