Photographs from De long en large Ladakh by Jean Mansion - Édition Findakly. Copyright Lise Mansion
Click to enlargeEvening of Toit du Monde - October 2019On the occasion of the publication of the new Letter from the Roof of the World n°30 on the archer bracelets of Nepalese shamans,
Adrien Viel will speak accompanied by François Pannier of Patrick Grimaud,
on October 31, 2019 at 6 pm at the gallery le Toit du Monde.
We hope to see many of you at this event.
Cliquer pour agrandirHISTORICAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE NOMADIC ARTSNathalie Gauthard, ethnoscenologist, university professor in performing arts and member of the ARCH honorary committee will speak at the following ethnoscenology seminar:
École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)
54 bd. Raspail 75006 Paris
Lundi 18 nov. 2019 de 14:00 à 17:00,
salle A07_37
FIRST SITTING
Nathalie GAUTHARD (Pr., Université d'Artois, MSHPN, SOFETH). Mémoire, transmission et migration: les arts scéniques tibétains à l'épreuve de la création
Jean-Marie PRADIER (Pr., MSHPN, SOFETH). Arts nomades: la question des disciplines (ethnoscénologie, anthropologie réflexive, anthropologie morale, histoire connectée...)
For more information on this subject, SOFETH: http://www.sofeth.com/
Click to enlargeExposition KalashIf you wish to participate it is necessary to book on
or on http://www.editionsfindakly.fr/
Click to enlarge
Santiago de Chile, Chile
Theme : Relations, connections, cosmologies : shamanism and spirit possession under the ethnographic lens
Venue : Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Date : November 27-30, 2019
Conference Program on http://www.isars.org/conferences/santiago2019/
Click to enlargeKATIA BUFFETRILLEFrench anthropologist and tibetologist, specialist in Tibetan culture.
Will present its new publication "L'âge d'or du Tibet" at Éditions Belles Lettres
Thursday, September 26, 2019 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
at the Harmattan Bookstore.
Click to enlargeTHE NEPALESE MILK BUCKET AND THE ACEPHALOUS LIZARDSeveral years ago, a theory was advanced concerning the nature of the iconography on the handles of Nepalese buckets. It prorposed that the handle is a rendering of an acephalous lizard and that the graphic representation of the reptile on the bucket would serve to scare away flies and mosquitoes, which would cause the milk to turn when they fell into it. There appears to us to be little documentation to support this idea, and we believe it to be erroneous. Anyone who finds themselves under assault from mosquitoes and flies knows perfectly well that moving one’s head around and beating one’s arms does not do much to deter the insects. I had also contacted the national association of milk producers at the time to ask what effect they thought mosquitoes and flies in milk might have on its turning. Amused, my interlocutor replied ironically that a mixture of half milk and half flies and mosquitoes macerating together for eight days would very likely result in bad milk.
On a more serious note though, when one looks at the buckets, like those illustrated on pages 122 and 123 of the Ghurras de la ferme au musée - Nepal (Ghurras from the Farm to the Museum – Nepal) catalog, one sees very clearly that they were manufactured with wickerwork handles so that they could be easily held in hand, and that the wickerwork designs on them were reproduced in sculpture. The lateral windings are moreover obviously representations of cordage and not lizards’ feet. Anyone with a doubt about this would do well to consult the Encyclopædia Universalis.
The problem with this type of absurd assertion is that one sees it repeated regularly, and especially in auction catalogs.
As Saint Ignatius of Loyola said: “A grave error propagated by many soon becomes a truth that all share”.
