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drawing of an old Hopi Kachina obtained from the Nechta family. |
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(click to enlarge) |
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Which takes us back to the ornament. It is small, fitting easily into one's palm, made from a single piece of soft copper wire, multi-color glass beads, and sinew. The wire is bent double, and stretched along the length of the turn is a narrow strip of beading. The wire ends are left bare, and overall, the thing looks like a decorated bobby pin such as one would find in a Western drugstore. When examined closely you can see that the tiny beads are strung and woven into a mesh with sinew strands. Some of the strands are broken at a stress point at the bend, but because of the mesh structure, the beads are all still attached. There is also a tiny amount of greenish corrosion evident where the sinew and metal are reacting to each other, perhaps compromising the ornamentís structural integrity. Under magnification, it can be seen that not only is there corrosion, but the mesh is covered with a sticky, granular residue. Dirt (not unusual to find something like that in this collection)and the natural grease of the sinew is what makes it sticky. The physical condition of the ornament dictates special handling and storage considerations, information which is forwarded to the Collections Manager, and then noted in the computer record along with measurements, material with which the item is constructed, and the colors of the beads (red/white/yellow/blue) used. As yet, the catalog record does not show the ornament's origin and use or how it was acquired, but, because of the nature of the bequest, we know that the physical information we can record is not all that is available. The research scope widens to include the part of Luella Buros' bequest that makes the rest of it worthwhile . . . the records and slide collection that accompanied it.
With a collection of this magnitude, these records demonstrate why our research efforts concentrate on something like this tiny ornament, which by its outer appearance, would seem to be nothing special. But it is items like this, with fairly complete notes of origin and use, that are the most valuable for an Africanist interested in material culture. Just as field collections require good record-keeping to enhance their research value, it is the documentation that accompanies an ethnographic donation that determines its worth as an acquisition for the Museum. Why does it happen that the small items in the Buros collection are the best for research? Because, in this particular case, we know the Buros traveled mostly the bumpy, muddy roads of Africa either by car, Land Rover or Volkswagen van, which meant keeping their local finds small. Most important, however, is the knowledge that Luella Buros was a dedicated and detailed diarist, an artist, and a fine photographer. Therefore, the small items in the collection are more likely to be "field collected," and there may be a diary entry, a drawing or perhaps a slide, and a notebook record with information about the item.
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