Accession No
2005.266
Description
Bilum or string bag "A large bilum made from coloured plastic twine [as with 2005.262], but with complicated pattern generally recognised as a 'modern design'." [From notes by Prof. Marilyn Strathern, 18/8/2003]
Place
Oceania; Melanesia; Papua New Guinea; New Guinea; Mount Hagen
Period
late twentieth century
Source
Strathern, Marilyn [collector and donor]
Department
Anth
Reference Numbers
2005.266
Cultural Affliation
Material
Plastic
Local Term
Bilum
Measurements
500mm x 370mm
Events
Exhibition (Maudslay Gallery)
EXH.2018.4 | Pacific Currents
Event Date
Author: Remke Velden
Context (CMS Context)
Exhibited: On display as part of the bilum tree installation in Assembling Bodies: Art, Science & Imagination, Andrews Gallery 10 March 2009 - 6 November 2010.
Event Date 12/10/2015
Author: Rachel Hand
Context (CMS Context)
Professor Dame Marilyn Stathern, William Wyseman Professor of Anthropology, 1993- 2008, Cambridge University, conducted fieldwork in the New Guinea Highlands and in Port Moresby from the 1960s onward.
Given to the donor in the field, (1995), or sent by hand (Ru's 1999 visit) or by post.
[See Maureen MacKenzie, 1991, Androgynous objects: String bags and gender in Central New Guinea, Chur: Harwood Academic Publishers Ltd.]
"Good bilums are expensive (20- 50 Kina in 1995 before inflation i.e., £10- £25 sterling). All these were paid for in some manner or other, even when 'given' (i.e., through return gifts): these are not the kind of things one receives without making recompense. They are regarded as quintessentially 'Papua New Guinean'." [From notes by Prof. Marilyn Strathern, 18/8/2003]
Event Date 12/10/2015
Author: maa
Description (CMS Description)
"A large bilum made from coloured plastic twine [as with 2005.262], but with complicated pattern generally recognised as a 'modern design'." [From notes by Prof. Marilyn Strathern, 18/8/2003]
Event Date 12/10/2015
Author: maa
FM:268719
Images (Click to view full size):