Growing Artefacts, Displaying Relationships

Ludovic Coupaye is a Lecturer in Material Culture Studies at the Department of Anthropology of University College London, a member of the Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l’Oceanie (CREDO, Marseille), and teaches anthropology of Pacific Arts at the École du Louvre in Paris. He has been a teaching fellow at the Sainsbury Research Unit (UEA) and assistant curator at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris.

Prolegomenon



Chapter 1. Getting there, Meeting the Things



Encounters

Towards the First Encounter

Encounters in Display



The General Setting



The Structure of the Book



Chapter 2 – Of Yams and Ethnography



Yams as Artefacts

General Description of the Plant: A Bi-polar Artefact

General Description of the Tuber



Shapes, sizes, and colour as criteria

The skin: sëpë

The root system: mëgi

General Description of the Vine

The stem and its end: paatë and kutë

Leaves (gaaga) and flowers (maawë)

Local Classifications

Ka classification

Waapi classification

Yam Behaviour and Reproduction

General description of reproduction and behaviour

Sett selection and the value given to the different parts

Ka and waapi behaviours

The aliveness of yams



Yams in Books

The Historical and Cultural Depth of a Botanical Artefact

Yams and Gardening in island Melanesia

Yams in the Sepik



From Divides to “Semi-Objects”, from Sociality to Technology



Chapter 3. Objects, Technology and Art



“How do we make powerful things?” or the Question of Technical Origins of Objects

Technology as an Anthropological Problem

The Problem of Definition

The Problem of Anthropological Discomfort

The Problem of Materialistic Determinism

The (Incomplete?) Return of Things: Globalisation and Consumption

“Black Boxes”, “Blind Spots” and Other “Elephants in the Corner”: The Haunting Presence of Technology

Technology as an Anthropological Approach to Techniques: Francophone vs. Anglophone angles?



Art and Technology

Gell’s Premises and the Halo of Technical Difficulty of Artworks

Power, Beauty and the Question of Technical Origin

The Humility of Things and the Humility of Techniques (again)



Chapter 4. Jëbaa (“work”): Processes of materialisation



Technology and Operational Sequences

The Basic Operational Sequence

Risky formalisation? Operational Sequences and “Scientists” Anxieties

On Description of Technology: Temporality, Scales, and Components of Operational Sequences

Components, descriptors, criteria, elements

The Selective Heterogeneity of Sequences as Biographies



The Long Yam Technical System: An overview

Sequences as a biography of long yams

Growing Long Yams: A Note on Reasons and Causes

Some principles of yam cultivation

Three Accounts of the Gardening Year

Alex Jalëmba’s account

The succession of gardens

Operations and duration

Kulang’s account

Two Nëmadus’ accounts

New Elements in the Technical System

Adjusting Phases



Phases of waapi gardening

Planting the waapi

Selecting the position of the kutapmë

Digging the waagu

Placing the tawurëm sëwaa

Filling up the waagu

Preparing the tëkët

Building up the tëkët and the kutapmë

Planting the waapi sett

Building the horizontal trellis jaabë

Staking the vines on the jaabë.106

Checking the sett and removing any secondary tubers

Planting the “second line” of waapi

Weeding: gwaalë waara

Building the taawu

‘Sleeping with the yams’ (waapi rasëgë kwasëgë)

Maintaining a fire in the waapi yaawi

Eating inside the waapi yaawi

Talking to, and about the yams: the mouth power of spells, blowing and discourses

The song-spells manëgup

The blowing: jaabu, yamabi, or yapëjurë

Specific operations and behaviours.

Prepare ‘fertilizer’



Phases of Ka gardening

Preparing the planting session

Building the shelter

Gathering supplies

Preparing the setts

The work session: planting the ka

General organisation and time

Digging the hole

Bringing the setts

Planting the sett

Aftermath



Conclusion: Transecting Nyamikum’s life



Chapter 5. Collectives as Components



Sëpëkwapa: The Body

On Gestures

On Bodies and Substances

Jëwaai: Blood, Power and Scent



Kamëk: the land as domain

Yaabu: “Roads” that Connect

Këm (“clans” and “villages/hamlets”) and gay (place)

Këm as hamlets

Këpma and the role of land

Subterranean Agents

Waalë, Water-Hole Entities

Gu, water



Vëmëk, the One-Who Looks

Nyaa, the Sun

Baapmu, the Moon

Maasë, the Rain

Non-Human “Agents”: Gwaal and Gwaldu



Kudi and Bulu (“Speeches”)



Maatu: the Stone and its Warden(s)

Elements for the Description of a Shrine

The Kajatudu Stone Warden and his Role



Transect of Collectives



Chapter 6. Waapi Saaki: Aligning Relationships



A Waapi Saaki (Kaagu) at Kumim ame (June 16th, 2003)

Preparing for the Ceremony

The materials of decoration (cf. fig. 5.02)

Hiding the waapi

Last days of preparation

The Waapi Saaki day

The arrival of the waapi

Evaluation of the tubers

Food and nyëgwës-maasa (Tobacco and betel-nut)

Public speeches

The night dance: Kaagu

Distribution of Pig Meat

The Course of the Night

Aftermath



A Cut in the Meshwork

The series of long yam ceremonies

Short yam ceremonies

Moving eastward: a mythical geography?

The web of the spider, the network of stones



The Making of Efficacy

Efficacy as a Point of Contention: Two Debates

Efficacy or Innovation? Lemonnier and Latour against determinisms

Warnier’s efficacy: targets and subjects

Efficacy for what and according to whom: Some Preliminary Ideas

Efficacy for artefact: How to encapsulate

Efficacy for agents: Encapsulating efficacy and determinisms



Chapter 7. Of Properties of Artefact: (Food, Valuables and Images)



Yams as food: nourishing substances



Yams as valuables: appropriate connections



Yams as images: Visual and material connections

“Abelam Art”: Iconicity and Forge’s Questions on Style and Meaning

Indexes of Agency: Pragmatics and Enchantment of Technology

Involution and “technologies”

The Aesthetics of Yams.

Creating the Aesthetical Conduct: Contrasts and Metaphors

Contrasts as necessary contradictions

Metaphors that open



Displaying-While-Concealing Relationhips

“Style” as the Meaning of Life



Conclusion



Chapter 8. Conclusions: Displays and Sprouts



A sort of Waapi Saaki: A Lining up of Arguments

Ethnography of Things, Ethnography through Things

A Technology of Yams

Yams a Social Forms, Waapi Saaki as Sociology



Sproutings

Of Masses, Volumes and Dimensions: Density and Fractality of Things

Agency, Involution and Bundling

Properties, Processes and Technology

“La Technologie, Science Humaine”



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