Δ “The Ethnographic Museum as a Dream Machine”

In her lecture, artist Peggy Buth, questions the function of representation and the significance of semiotics within the context of an ethnographic museum.

Peggy Buth lives and works as an artist in Berlin and Leipzig. She studied Liberal Arts at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig and at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. Buth’s recent work was based on long-term research carried out at the ethnographic museum in Tervuren and shown in the exhibition “Peggy Buth. Desire in Representation”,Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (2009-2010).

In German.

€3 / reduced €1.50 incl. refreshments.
Weltkulturen Labor, Schaumainkai 37

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Δ “Packed Ice – The Story of the African-American Polar Explorer Matthew Henson“

A reading and discussion with graphic novelist Simon Schwartz.

History has it that Matthew Henson participated in the 1909 expedition to reach the North Pole.He became known in Inuit mythology as the man who vanquished the devil. Yet Henson was denied the fame he deserved because he was African-American.

“Packed Ice” can be read as a cultural study, which also reflects the scientific debate about the oral history in indigenous cultures.
Simon Schwartz got for his second graphic novel “nach Drüben“, the Max-und-Moritz-Preis 2012 for the best German comic.

Introduction: Dr. Mona Suhrbier, Curator of America, WorldCultures Museum
Host: Jacob Hoffmann

In collaboration with Text&Beat.

In German.
€3 / reduced €1.50 incl. refreshments.
Weltkulturen Labor, Schaumainkai 37

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Δ “Morphologie der Schamanentrommel” (Morphology of the Shaman’s Drum)

 

Book Launch with Michael Oppitz

Recently published by Edition Voldemeer Zurich, 2013, Springer Wien / New York, 2013 this book deals - over more than 1,200 pages and 1227 illustrations - with a single item: a frame drum of the kind used by the mountain peoples of the Himalaya during shamanistic rituals. Although all drums played by shamans belong to a single basic type, no one resembles another in all its details. Each drum used in this kind of religious practice is unique. Together with related instruments from Northern Asia, the physical shape of the shaman drums of the Himalaya region display a transcontinental structure of modifications and transformations.

In this remarkable book, leading German anthropologist Michael Oppitz pays particular attention to these changes, from item to item, village to village, region to region, and ethnic group to ethnic group. He asks: how could an instrument so apparently homogenous in its outward appearance give rise to such morphological diversity? Do the transformations of this drum from owner to owner and place to place correspond to material contingencies that are unavoidable with a handmade ritual object produced out of various materials? Or are these transformations the subject of unknown rules, even intentions, the discovery of which might enable one to predict patterns in the allocation of each newly discovered item beyond the same basic features?

In order to get closer to the secrets behind the transformation of the shaman’s drum, the author focuses on myths and narratives that accompany the production of this instrument and elucidates the different functions it fulfils among numerous regional and oral cultures.

Michael Oppitz (* 1942 Silesia) studied anthropology, sociology and sinology in Berkeley, Bonn, and Cologne. In 1974 he received his PhD on the history of structural anthropology at Cologne University under René König. He habilitated in Berlin with a monograph on the kinship structures of the Northern Magar. Oppitz was Visiting Professor in New York, Texas, and Paris. From 1991 to 2008 he was Professor of Anthropology at Zurich University and Director of the Zurich Museum of Ethnography. Since 1965 he has conducted field research in Nepal (Sherpa and Magar), as well as Naxi and Qiang (Yunnan and Sichuan). He has published several books and films on Himalayan ethnography, visual anthropology, and the history of anthropological theory.

In German.
€3 / reduced €1.50 incl. refreshments.
Weltkulturen Labor, Schaumainkai 37

€3 / reduced €1.50 incl. refreshments.
Weltkulturen Labor, Schaumainkai 37

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Δ “Dressing-Gown”

Sewing Workshop with dressmaker Hanna Willer

Sew your own dressing-gown! Bring your own cloth or if you don’t have any, then phone us in advance. No prior sewing experience necessary.

In German.

€18 / reducedb €9.
Registration necessary.
Weltkulturen Education, Schaumainkai 29

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