Equatoria

Richard Price and Sally Price

ISBN 10: 0415906105 / ISBN 13: 9780415906104

Published by Routledge, 1992

About this Item

Inscribed by co-author Sally Price (and signed by both authors) to cultural anthropologist Evon Z. Vogt, Jr., and his wife Catherine C. Vogt, "3-X-92, For Vogtie and Nan -- a taste of the tropics. Love, Rich [and] Sally." Slightly impinging on the inscription's date is a stamp indicating that this volume was not accessioned by a Harvard University library; bottom fore-edge corner of back cover and corresponding area of the back panel of the dust jacket have some wear; volume has other minor wear; tight, text clean. 295 p., illustrated. [b 206 ud rdg grl & doll].

Seller Inventory # 406694

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Equatoria
• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415906105
• ISBN 13: 9780415906104
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

A postmodern romp through the rain forest, Equatoria is both travelogue and cultural critique. On the right-hand pages the Prices chronicle their 1990 artifact-collecting expedition up the rivers of French Guiana, and on the left, stage an accompanying sideshow that enlists the help of Jonathan Swift, Joseph Conrad, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alex Haley, James Clifford, Eric Hobsbawm, Germaine Greer, and even the noted anthropologist James Goodfellow (who asks for more sex). Also included are quotes from the nurses, doctors, tourists, convicts and countless others who live in this French penal colony turned space center in tropical South America.
Charged with acquiring objects for a new museum, the Prices kept a log of their day-to-day adventures and misadventures, constantly confronting their ambivalence about the act of collecting, the very possibility of exhibiting cultures, and the future of anthropology. By the time their expedition arrived in the villages of the Aluku Maroons, these African-American descendants of rebel slaves had become as comfortable in blue jeans and frilly mail-order dresses flown in from Paris as in breechcloths and trade cotton wrapskirts. What would they think of exporting material chunks of their artistic heritage to a glossy modern building in a suburb of Cayenne?
Probing the nature of museums, collecting, and power relations between "us" and "them," the authors raise many troubling questions. Anyone concerned about cultural preservation, museums, "primitive" art, anthropology, indigenous rights, and the legacies of colonialism will be challenged by this playful, but eminently serious work.

From the Back Cover

Equatoria, a playful but eminently serious book, is both travelogue and cultural critique. On the right-hand pages, the Prices chronicle their 1990 artifact-collecting expedition into the rain forest of French Guiana, and on the left, stage an accompanying sideshow that enlists the help of Jonathan Swift, Joseph Conrad, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alex Haley, James Clifford, Eric Hobsbawm, and Germaine Greer, as well as nurses, doctors, tourists, convicts, and countless others who live in the French penal colony turned space center in tropical South America.