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All's Well with the Pitt Rivers Collection

Author(s): J. B.Source: RAIN, No. 60 (Feb., 1984), p. 5Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3033405

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and on behalf of social work clients, oradvocacy to prevent some of the activitiesof multinational companies in developingcountries. Penny van Esterik of CornellUniversity, who had acted as advocate inthe infant formula controversy (debatingin opposition to Nestle) and who had alsostudied infant feeding practices inThailand, Indonesia, Kenya andColombia, was a vehement advocate foranthropologists' special skills and,therefore, special obligations in relation tothe people they studied - advocacy as away of giving back something more thanthe occasional reference in a thesis orarticle.The most constructive sessions wereundoubtedly those in which anthropolo-gists described the practicalities of theirinvolvement as anthropologist-advocatesand the measure of, and reasons for, theirsuccess or failure. One of the highlights ofseeing what was involved was the dramaenacted by Gordon Inglis and BasilSampson, of the anthropologists cross-questioned in court about AustralianAboriginal culture. In Canada, the UnitedStates and Australia, anthropologists havebeen involved much more frequently indisputes over, for instance, land rights,than in Britain. When the debate hadmoved from the level of 'What is anthro-pology?' to 'How can I be effective?' theworkshop had become distinctlyworthwhile.Paine asked Triloki Pandey what theZuni thought of anthropologists and whatthey would think of this workshop.Pandey contains within himself aresolution of some of the conflicts thatbeset anthropology: coming from a post-colonial society he can more than hold hisown in the academic centres of the West,but he can also talk to the people of the'Fourth World', the minorities withinindustrialized societies, and has talkedsuccessfully for them in the Zuni disputewith the American government over landrights. He acknowledged what we feared,that the Zuni had little time for anthropo-logists, who had - as they saw it -plundered their secrets and written funnystories. He felt, nevertheless, that theywould think well of anthropologists who,through advocacy, were trying to deal withreal problems. The workshop was thusabsolved of some of the guilt which weighsheavily in the anthropological breast; we,at least, were not cats-cradling withconcepts or resented by the people westudied; we were useful.Some of us were, all the same, jobless,or not looking forward with any certaintyto long-term security. The promotion ofapplied anthropology as a means offinding employment for anthropologygraduates has tended to emphasize the ideaof the anthropologist working for those inpower, but this is not the only way inwhich we can apply ourselves to people'sreal problems. Advocacy means listeningto the other, less powerful voice when itdespairs of being heard; taking it,explaining it and defending it in the centreand processes of power: it is not a safe andpopular role and it does not make one avery saleable product. What can one say?

-Beware or be brave!Jacqueline Sarsby

ALL'S WELL WITH THEPITT RIVERS COLLECTIONIn the early seventies there wasconsiderable disquiet about the possibilitythat the archaeological collection amassedby General A.L.F. Pitt Rivers (1827-1900)at Farnham in Dorset might be dispersedon the orders of the owner Mrs. Stella PittRivers. What might have been amuseological tragedy has had a happyending which was enacted at the SalisburyMuseum on 21 November with animpressivegathering of nobles andnotables, who heard an elegant speech byPitt Rivers's great grandson, Julian, thesocial anthropologist (no relation of thelast owner), which might have concludedin rhymed couplets as in a highElizabethan comedy that reaffirms athreatened familial and cosmic order.What is now the Salisbury collection wasput together by the General after themainly ethnographic collection which is tobe found in the Pitt Rivers Museum inOxford; and it consists largely but notexclusively of British archaeologicalmaterial. His contribution to the foundingof modern scientific archaeology isgenerally regarded as very great. Thecollection was passed to the SalisburyMuseum by H.M. Treasuryin lieu ofdeath duties, and is now housed in a newgallery designed for the purpose by RobinWade Design Associates in conjunctionwith the Museum's own staff.Professor Julian Pitt-Rivers regrettedinhis speech that the Benin bronze collectionand the treasures from other parts of theworld had not passed passed fromFarnham to Salisbury, but rejoiced thatthe true gems of the collection had escapeddispersal. These are the fifty-seven scalemodels, depicting the General's excavatedsites, which are of the highest importanceto historians of archaeology and museumdisplay.The worthy conservation of this collec-tion will be greatly appreciated by genera-tions to come in Wiltshire and in Britain asa whole. Congratulations are due to the

11*41~~~~~~~~~~

Professor Julian Pitt-Rivers opening thenew gallery in an adjoining room. Photocourtesy Salisbury Times & Journal.curator Mr. P.R. Saunders (who has setout the story in Museums Journal 75.4,March 1976), the Dowager Lady Radnor,Lord Congleton and all the other indivi-duals and groups whose unsparing effortshave made it possible for Salisbury to dojustice to H.M. Treasury's imaginativegesture.Your correspondent did not notice anyof the North American and Oceanianskulls which Mrs Stella Pitt Rivers had upfor sale at Sotheby's in 1979 until theauction was cancelled after protests fromCanadian Indian groups (see RAIN 35,December 1979, p.16).J.B.

THE EXPERIENCEOF SHAME IN MELANESIAAN ESSAY IN THE ANTHROPOLOGYOF AFFECTby A.L.Epstein

Royal Anthropological Institute Occasional Paper no. 40?4 post paid from the RAI Distribution Centre, Blackhorse Road, Letchworth, HertsSG6 IHN, U.K. Fellows of the Institute are entitled to a reduction of 25%. NorthAmerican customers other than Fellows should order from: Humanities Press,Atlantic Highlands, N.J. 07716.An emphasis on shame has frequently been remarked as characteristic of manycultures of the kind that anthropologists have conventionally studied. How far in factdoes the experience of this complex and sometimes powerful emotion vary asbetween different human groups? How far indeed is one justified in applying theEnglish term cross-culturally? Making detailed use of ethnographic data from a smallnumber of Melanesian societies, this paper serves, on the one hand, to ask what liesat the heart of shame and, on the other, to observe and explore its variabilityevenwithin a region of such relative cultural homogeneity as Papua New Guinea. Thediscussion serves in this way to rehearse some of the issues raised in seeking to bringaffect within the scope of anthropological analysis. It will be of interest to socialanthropologists, social and cross-cultural psychologists.A.L. Epstein is Professor of Social Anthropology at the Universityof Sussex, and iswell-known for his work on Africa and Papua New Guinea.iv. 58 pp. ISSN 0080-4150.

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