#pitt rivers

[shuttergremlin]

[bluebellravenbooks]

An Oxford tour with His Dark Materials: part 2

As an overly enthusiastic Oxford resident, I was delighted by the latest HDM episode. Here are my thoughts and comments on the city as shown in the series. Today I'll fangirl about the city museums; you can find part 1 with the introduction to Oxford here.

After wandering the streets of Oxford with Will, unsuccessfully trying to find her Jordan College (and actually visiting the prototype of Jordan in the books, which is Exeter), Lyra notices a poster for an Arctic exposition and heads to the museum. This beautiful building houses the Natural History Museum, which has, along with many other things, the last remains of soft tissue of dodo (this made dodo a sort of a local Oxford symbol and a subject of humorous folklore).

(Pro tip for when the pandemic ends: there is a cafe on the balcony with a magnificent view of the room. From up there you can see that every column is topped with a different leaf pattern - the level of detail in this building is just beyond comprehensible.)

Lyra has to cross this room to get to her destination - the Pitt Rivers Museum of anthropology.

Now, this is easily one of my favourite places in the world, and the show actually gives a pretty true-to-life idea of how it feels - except you can't see that all the drawers are stuffed with objects as well, and there are two more levels on the balconies above the main floor.

Lyra stops near a display of traditional waterproof coats made from animal intestines - interestingly, in the first book she wore one of those during her trip to the North, while in the TV series it was obviously changed to something pretty that wouldn't keep her alive in the real North for a day. (Booo to that costume choice from someone who has seen real winter, and who thinks that the traditional costumes are actually cool.)

Having consulted the alethiometer (there are some objects in Pitt Rivers that look very similar to it, by the way), Lyra walks past this display of creepy wooden statues. Yes I can affirm that they are just as creepy in real life, but also actually very, very cool. This thing is a donation box - called "Antropologists' Fundraising Ritual" - and it has little statutes of some of the original collectors who contributed to the museum, made by the artist from sustainable and discarded materials. There's an amazing level of detail in these statues - one of the anthropologists even has a tiny cat that she used to take on her trips, using the cat as a cultural ice-breaker. When you walk past, these statues move and jingle menacingly and their eyes light up, and if you drop a coin into the slot they bow (while jingling just as menacingly).

I love this thing with all my heart. If I ever manage to do something with my research, please let me be commemorated like this.

The displays are organised in a unique way in Pitt Rivers - not by counry or century, but solely by topic. For example, you can see the Writing display behind Boreal, and there are others such as Animal Forms, Human Forms, Music and so on. While this looks like a museum curator's worst nightmare, this also makes for an amazing viewing experience, allowing you to compare and see patterns in a way that's just not feasible if objects are distributed across three floors.

Lyra and Boreal contemplate some skulls. This is a good point to add that, of course, being a British anthropology museum, Pitt Rivers is miles away from unproblematic. While some of the objects have well-traced and ethical history of acquisition, many others belong to the cultures that have lost a lot, and there's a strong argument that they need their cultural objects more than a museum does. From what I know, Pitt Rivers looks at returning objects on a case-by-case base, but they always return human remains if they have been requested. Which is a start, of course, but there are still tons of colonialst baggage here.

One of the most popular displays in the museum had the famous "shrunken heads" - I think that's the very case that Lyra is looking at; very recently a decision was made to remove them from the public view. Pitt Rivers is trying to deal with the colonial heritage issues, and I respect that a lot; however in this particular case I felt that their messaging came across wrong. Surely studying the objects and presenting them in a more thoughtful way, providing context and information, promoting the discussion of past mistakes, is better than just hiding them away? However I'm very aware that I'm not an expert in this field, and that culture/colonialism/museums discussion is a complicated one, so I won't say more on this - for the interested among you, this has been covered quite extensively in local news.

To finish on a lighter note, I'll add some of my own pictures of these museums, so that you can appreciate their (somewhat ethically controversial but still extremely interesting) beauty:

Next up: the last part of the episode, some stunning aerial views of Oxford and the disappointingly fake Botanic Garden :)

[cryptidwarlocke]

EVERYONE LOOK AT THIS SCREENSHOT OF THE TOY SOLDIER AT PITT RIVERS!!

Thank you and good night

[theoddcollection]

All packed up.

PittRivers20.jpg by Morbid Anatomy

[bonniebird]

This is the Oxford museum of natural history/ the Pitt Rivers museum and was the first gallery that we visited and I decided to dub it the fake Hogwarts. 

[afloatingworldblog-blog]

Noh Masks, Pitt Rivers Museum

The Pitt River’s Museum is a treasure trove of objects from all over the world frozen in a fascinating Victorian time warp. From the original collection the museum acquired 54 Noh masks, ranging from the 17th century to the 19th century, barely changing in terms of style and craftsmanship. The majority of them were also probably crafted by Buddhist monks who would have made these masks in their spare time.

Noh is a theatrical art form which involves acting melodramas or farces through mime and dance. It originated from the 13th Century and was originally seen as being entrenched in religion, over the centuries however it changed into a lengthily performance which were extremely codified and marked by their elaborate costume, use of slow expressive movements, and of course the highly stylised masks which added character to actors particular if they were playing demons. In general masks were required to have neutral expressions and it was up to the actor to add personality to their character through their emotive performances. Like with other styles of theatre in Edo Japan, Noh actors found celebrity amongst the growing middle classes, many admires would even give them gifts, such as expensive costumes, to convey their admiration.

[shuttergremlin]

[shuttergremlin]