Representation, Aesthetics, Politics

Abstract

Professor of Anthropology at the University of Adelaide (Adelaide, S.A. 5005, Australia [jweiner@arts.ade‐laide.edu.au]). He received his Ph.D. from Australian National University in 1984 and has conducted research among the Foi of Papua New Guinea since 1979. His publications include The Heart of the Pearl Shell: The Mythological Dimension of Foi Sociality (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), The Empty Place: Poetry, Space, and Being among the Foi of Papua New Guinea (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), and The Lost Drum: The Myth of Sexuality in Papua New Guinea and Beyond (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995). The present paper was submitted 12 II 96 and accepted 4 III 96; the final version reached the Editor's office 6 III 96. The appropriation of Western visual media technology by indigenous peoples around the world, particularly in Australia, North America, and the Amazon Basin, has drawn the attention of anthropologists impressed with how such people have utilized vi...