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Book Cover
E-book
Author Roque, Ricardo

Title Headhunting and colonialism : anthropology and the circulation of human skulls in the Portuguese empire, 1870-1930 / Ricardo Roque
Published Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 342 pages) : illustrations, maps
Series Cambridge imperial and post-colonial studies series
Cambridge imperial and post-colonial studies series.
Contents Cover; Contents; Illustrations and Maps; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Glossary; Introduction; Part I: Encounters with Parasites; Part II: Skulls and Histories; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Summary Headhunting and Colonialism is an account of colonial violence, Indigenous headhunting and the circulation of human skulls to anthropological museums in the heyday of late European imperialism. Using the example of the Portuguese colony of East Timor, it embeds the history of a museum collection of human skulls within the larger context of the Portuguese imperial expansion, emergence of scientific anthropology in Europe, Christian beliefs about the dead body, and Indigenous cultures. The book examines how human skulls were critical to imperial power and Indigenous communities, and traces how they could be collected, exchanged, circulated, studied, and interpreted in colonial, scientific, and metropolitan contexts. By combining imperial history with historical anthropology and the history of science, it brings out a fresh reappraisal of colonial interactions as mutually parasitic, and a novel framework for understanding the social life of collections as attachments between things and histories
"Explores headhunting in the colonial wars and the collection of heads for European museums, 1870s-1930s. By looking at Portuguese colonialism in East Timor, it shows how Indigenous peoples and colonial powers interacted in a mutually dependent way, and how collected remains became objects of political, symbolic, and scientific significance"--Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-322) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Craniology -- Portugal -- History
Headhunters -- Timor-Leste -- History
Rites and ceremonies -- Timor-Leste
Skull -- Social aspects -- Timor-Leste
Skull -- Social aspects -- Collectors and collecting -- Portugal
Ethnology -- Timor-Leste.
Museum exhibits -- Portugal
Human remains (Archaeology) -- Portugal
Exhibitions.
Skull.
Craniology -- history
Colonialism -- history
Exhibitions as Topic
History, 19th Century
History, 20th Century
Skull
exhibitions (events)
skulls (skeleton components)
Social & cultural anthropology -- c 1800 to c 1900 -- c 1900 -- c 1914 -- First World War, 1914-1918 -- Inter-war period, 1918-1939 -- East Timor.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Physical.
Society.
Skull
Exhibitions
Colonization
Craniology
Ethnology
Headhunters
Human remains (Archaeology)
Museum exhibits
Portuguese colonies
Rites and ceremonies
SUBJECT Timor-Leste -- Colonization
Portugal -- Colonies -- Asia. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2007004970
Portugal
Timor-Leste
Subject Asia
Portugal
Timor-Leste
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780230251335
0230251331