Displaying items by tag: misrepresentation

The purpose here is to describe, and call to attention the creation of a product line of pseudo-Maasai artifacts designed to promote some of mythologies about African culture while making money for its inventors. The three perpetrators concocted a story about mysterious objects by the Laibons (medico-religious practitioners). They hired craftspeople to make the objects from contraband animal parts and promoted stories of their great age and importance. They recruited various foreigners and Maasai to help promotion and convinced a number of museum professionals, art dealers and collectors to accept them. In 1992 they published a book (Turle, 1992) which was damned in a review (Pido, 1994). In 1997, following joint raids and arrests by the Kenya Wildlife Service and the American Fish and Wildlife Service, it was assumed that the perpetrators had been shut down. But the production and trade has continued since 1997, as many Maasai have taken them up as a lucrative art form. This has contributed the near extinction of the Maasai giraffe and several other species. The author recounts the history of these fakes and comments on their position in the art world and the economy. The methodology used was extensive archival and field study of Maasai art over several decades supplemented by participant observation; the methodology generated information that invites questions and debates on fakery and fakes in the world of art and culture.