The impossible aesthetic: The Abelam, the Moa bird and me

Journal/Book: Oceania. 1996; 66: Univ Sydney, Sydney 2006, Australia. Oceania Publications. 305-310.

Abstract: This paper explores the ramifications of encounters which two Abelam men and the author had in the Australian Museum and Taronga Zoo in Sydney, 1982. Rather than place a ready-made analytic framework on the men's experiences and rather than removing myself from the frame, as is usual in much anthropological analysis, I have chosen to explore the effects of these experiences on my own imagination. In the latter part of the paper I explore the way in which the imaginative entanglement of the Zoo and Museum experiences with my own memories has acted as a path of clues. This path has led to the development of the notion of sign which includes the idea of efficaciousness and transformation.

Note: Article D Losche, Univ New S Wales, Kensington, NSW 2033, Australia

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