Viewing cross-cultural interactions through assemblage analysis of the late nineteenth century Official collection from British New Guinea

Abstract

In the absence of indigenous voices in historical documents relating to British New Guinea, the Official collection made between 1888 and 1898 provides an invaluable record of how local communities in this new colony actively negotiated their relationships with representatives of the British government. Conceiving the Official collection as an archaeological assemblage creates the opportunity for making inferences about the kinds of social relationships embodied within the collection and the ways these entwined local communities in British New Guinea with William MacGregor, the most senior British government officer at that time. To attract and encourage interaction with the British government party largely for the purpose of obtaining access to trade goods, objects were made explicitly for trade with westerners and/or were carefully selected from artefacts in use. In addition, some items stored for traditional exchange and special occasions were repurposed to facilitate gifting and exchange with MacGregor. This first of four chapters that have adopted an archaeological approach to assemblage analysis focuses on how indigenous groups actively structured their engagements with MacGregor and his agents. Subsequent chapters consider the impacts of contact history on choices made by Papuans and describe components in the Official collection derived from punitive action.