Kigango statues, carved and praised by the Mijikenda people of Kenya, hold much significance to it's people. They are carved to honor deceased relatives and loved ones. In this one specific case, an elderly man named Katana carved two Viango (plural for Kiango) statues representing his two recently deceased brothers. These statues were held at the Gohu Society, which was a fraternal club that the brothers partaked in together. In 1985, Monica Udvardy, a cultural anthropologist went to visit Katana to learn about the Gohu Society and saw Katana with his newly carved statues. But shortly after her visit, the statues went missing.Udvardy heard of this horrible crime and made it her duty to find the viango and return them to Katana. it took her 15 years, but eventually she found them both. One of them belonging to the Illinois State University Museum, and the other in the Hampton University Museum in Virginia.It is not uncommon for art dealers to perceive these artifacts as art, but really they are part of the Mijikenda people's culture and are part of their rituals. If they are stolen, the spirits would inflict harm on their living family members. These viango were not to be taken as a joke or just a beauty, but they are part of lifestyle.
This is an example of a looting case that is not from a natural historic site, but from someone's own personal property. This also shows that looting really can harm many people. I think that Looters need to learn their boundaries. Although it is wrong to loot anywhere at all, it gets very personal when you are taking something from a specific person and treating it as a cultural artifact and selling it on the markets. I want to hear from all of you, does it make it any different for artifacts to be stolen from one specific person, does it even make it robbing rather than looting? Write your responses bellow!
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/kenya/cultural-property-global-commodities-case-mijikenda-m
Posted by Rachel Armus
What did the statue look like?
ReplyDeleteI think of this more as robbing because someone took his personal belongings. I think of looting as stealing from a country, not just an individual. Looting to me is more like going to an excavation site and digging for artifacts rather than going into someone's yard and taking their stuff. Regardless, both are still very wrong.
I would like to say that this blog really convinced me to do it! Thanks, very good post. katana
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