Unknowing a southern life: writing around the abyss

Book section : Chapter

In the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford are two objects that were made and used in different parts of the Southern Hemisphere. One is a stick chart, a navigational aid from Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands, made from thin strips of wood and seashells (see Figure 5.1). The other is a water carrier from the Northern Cape Province in South Africa, an ostrich egg engraved with shapes and schematic figures such as antelopes and ostriches, into which has been cut a lateral hole (see Figure 5.2). The stick chart was obtained by Georg Irmer in 1896, brought to the UK and donated to the museum the following year; the egg was collected by Edward John Dunn in 1872 and donated in 1936. A more recent companion to these objects is the museum catalogue, which contains information about where they originated, their local names (in these two cases, unknown), the materials from which they were made and processes through which they were created. The catalogue also includes information about their collectors, donors, and a history detailing their listing and illustration in various academic publications.

Authors: Collins, K

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Host title: Life writing and the Southern Hemisphere: texts, spaces, resonances
• Pages: 67-80
• Chapter number: 5
• Series: New Directions in Life Narrative
• Place of publication: London
• Publication date: 2024-10-28
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.5040/9781350360792.ch-5
• EISBN: 9781350360792
• ISBN-10: 1350360805
• ISBN-13: 9781350360754
• Language: English
• Subtype: Chapter