Lissant Bolton | |
---|---|
Born | 1954 |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Manchester |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Anthropology |
Institutions | Australian Museum,Australian National University,British Museum |
Notable works | Unfolding the Moon:Enacting Women's Kastom in Vanuatu,Art in Oceania:A New History,Melanesia:Art and Encounter |
Lissant Mary Bolton AM (born 1954) is an Australian anthropologist and the Keeper of the Department of Africa,Oceania and the Americas at the British Museum. She is particularly known for her work on Vanuatu,textiles,and museums and indigenous communities. [1]
Bolton began her museum career in the Anthropology division of the Australian Museum [2] firstly for the pilot survey of the Australian Pacific collections in 1979. From 1985 where she was the collection manager,and then senior collection manager,for the Pacific collection. [3] During this time Bolton took leave to complete her PhD in social anthropology from the University of Manchester which she completed in 1994. [4] [5] Bolton left the Australian Museum in 1996 to work as an Australian Research Council Post-doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Cross Cultural Research at the Australian National University. From 1999 Bolton was a curator in the Department of Ethnography (later Department of Africa,Oceania and the Americas) at the British Museum and from January 2012 became Keeper (head of department) of Africa,Oceania and the Americas. [6]
Bolton works in Vanuatu annually with the Vanuatu Cultural Centre (Vanuatu Kaljoral Senta) developing programmes to document and preserve women's knowledge and practice. Bolton chairs the Women's Culture Project,developing ni-Vanuatu women fieldworkers who document and preserve traditional knowledge and culture. [5] [7] [8] [9]
Bolton has worked on a series of major research projects focusing on Pacific anthropology. Most recently she has worked on Melanesian art:objects,narratives and indigenous owners (2005-2010) with Nicholas Thomas (University of Cambridge) and Engaging Objects:Indigenous Communities,museum collections and the representation of indigenous histories (2011-2014) with the Australian National University and the National Museum of Australia. [1]
Among Bolton's curatorial work for the British Museum she was the lead curator in 2003 for the permanent gallery Living and Dying (The Wellcome Trust Gallery),and curated a number of temporary exhibitions including Power and Taboo:Sacred Objects from the Pacific (2006),Dazzling the Enemy:shields from the Pacific (2009),and Baskets and Belonging:Indigenous Australian Histories (2011). [6]
Bolton was the lead curator on the Living and Dying Gallery (Wellcome Trust Gallery) at the British Museum which won the Museums and Heritage Award for best Permanent Exhibition 2004. [6] [10]
Bolton delivered the Keynote Address to the Australian Anthropological Society Conference 2012 at the University of Queensland on Materialised moments:objects,museum and Melanesia. [11]
Bolton was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for "significant service to the museums sector,and to anthropology" in the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours. [12]
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east,and includes the Arafura Sea.
Bronisław Kasper Malinowski was a Polish-British anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography,social theory,and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthropology.
Pacific Islanders,Pasifika,Pasefika,Pacificans or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term,it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oceania.
The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their distinct material culture,who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. They are believed to have originated from the northern Philippines,either directly,via the Mariana Islands,or both. They were notable for their distinctive geometric designs on dentate-stamped pottery,which closely resemble the pottery recovered from the Nagsabaran archaeological site in northern Luzon. The Lapita intermarried with the Papuan populations to various degrees,and are the direct ancestors of the Austronesian peoples of Polynesia,eastern Micronesia,and Island Melanesia.
Tanna is an island in southern Vanuatu.
The culture of the Solomon Islands reflects the extent of the differentiation and diversity among the groups living within the Solomon Islands archipelago,which lies within Melanesia in the Pacific Ocean,with the peoples distinguished by island,language,topography,and geography. The cultural area includes the nation state of Solomon Islands and the Bougainville Island,which is a part of Papua New Guinea.
Malakula Island,also spelled Malekula,is the second-largest island in the nation of Vanuatu,formerly the New Hebrides,in Melanesia,a region of the Pacific Ocean.
Ni-Vanuatu is a large group of closely related Melanesian ethnic groups native to the island country of Vanuatu. As such,Ni-Vanuatu are a mixed ethnolinguistic group with a shared ethnogenesis that speak a multitude of languages.
Kastom is a pidgin word used to refer to traditional culture,including religion,economics,art and magic in Melanesia.
Christianity is the largest religion in Vanuatu. Vanuatu is an archipelago made up of 13 larger islands,and approximately 70 smaller surrounding islands,each home to multitudes of diverse cultural and religious communities.
This article presents an overview of the culture of Vanuatu.
The National Museum of Vanuatu is located in the Vanuatu Cultural Centre (VCC) in Port Vila,Vanuatu. It specializes in exhibits relating to the culture and history of this group of islands in the South Pacific. It is unique amongst Pacific national cultural institutions for rejecting many aspects of European museology,and creating new ways of working which value kastom practices.
Nicolai Michoutouchkine,a Russian from Vanuatu,was a painter,artist,designer,and collector of Pacific artifacts.
Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe,where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In the United States,social anthropology is commonly subsumed within cultural anthropology or sociocultural anthropology.
The University of Queensland Anthropology Museum is located in Brisbane,Australia. It houses the largest university collection of ethnographic material culture in Australia.
Anne (Annie) Clarke is an Australian archaeologist and heritage specialist. She is a professor of archaeology and heritage at the University of Sydney. Clarke is a leading scholar in Australian archaeology,both historical and Aboriginal,as well as critical heritage studies. She has specialisms in archaeobotany,contact archaeology and rock art.
The Solomon Islands National Museum is the national museum of the Solomon Islands and is located in Honiara. It is a department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Nadia Kanegai is a social entrepreneur,politician and historian from Vanuatu. She made the first study of women's traditional tattooing on Ambae. She has stood as a candidate in three elections in Vanuatu and was a prominent community activist during the 2017 and 2018 eruptions of Manaro Voui.
Michelle Nayahamui Rooney has dual Papua New Guinean and Australian nationality. She is a research fellow at the Development Policy Centre of the Australian National University and publishes extensively on matters relating to Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Pacific islands.
Erich Kolig is an Austrian–New Zealand cultural and social anthropologist whose research has focussed on Muslim and Islamic social and religious issues,and Australian Aboriginal culture. He has written and edited 13 books,as well as publishing many scientific papers and book chapters.