The "Social Lives" of Tuareg Bracelets and Tent Posts in the Collection of the Spencer Museum of Art

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the "social lives" of Tuareg bracelets and tent posts in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art. My goal is to examine each phase in the "social lives" of these objects from their production and use within Tuareg society to their collection and subsequent exhibition in the museum. Because the objects were collected during the colonial era, emphasis will be given to a late 19th and early 20th century perspective. Part 1 is devoted to an examination of the social position of the Inaden and an analysis of the production of the bracelets and tent posts within Tuareg society. I pay particular attention to the gendered production of the objects and the meanings they held in the production phase of their "social lives." In this part I also explore their gendered uses and the meanings they held for the Tuareg peoples who owned them. Part 2 of the thesis examines the "diversion" of the bracelets and tent posts from their "paths." In this section I focus on how meanings were made by cultural brokers and colonial era collectors. Again, gender and materiality had an impact on how the objects were collected and interpreted. I also concentrate on the meanings and representations of the Tuareg objects in the museum context. In this phase of the "social lives" of the bracelets and tent posts, gender and materiality influenced how museums represented the objects.