Читать книгу Art in Theory - Группа авторов - Страница 114

Hans Sloane was the greatest collector of his age. He amassed an enormous quantity of artefacts, both natural and of human manufacture, in a period before the now conventional distinction between the natural and the human sciences had coalesced. In later life Sloane rose to become President of the Royal Society, and after his death, his collection formed the nucleus of the British Museum. Sloane is hard to represent in the present anthology, though, despite the fact that his activities were a foundation stone of the anthropological museum, an institution which has had incalculable influence on the way people experience art and material culture in the modern world. He wrote little in the way of extended discussion of his collection. However, in his early career he had travelled to Jamaica, and during his fifteen‐month stay made notes on the island’s flora and fauna which subsequently became the basis of his extensive book. Only towards the end of his introduction does Sloane devote a few words to the culture and conditions of Jamaica’s inhabitants. They are, nonetheless, revealing of two things. First, an untroubled acceptance of slavery co‐existing with a scrupulously scientific attitude to documenting natural phenomena. Second, the sheer resilience of slave culture in conditions of ‘bare life’ that defy modern comprehension. Given the subsequent role of music in African‐American – and hence in world – culture, Sloane’s brief description of musical instruments and dancing lays another (this time presumably unwitting) foundation stone for a very different cultural edifice: black popular music (cf. the account of music and dancing at Tahiti IIb4(iv)). The extracts are from A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica, with the Natural History … of the last of those Islands, London, 1707, vol. 1 (2 vols) pp. xlvi–xlix.

The Inhabitants of Jamaica are for the most part Europeans, some Creolians, born and bred in the Island Barbados, the Windward Islands, or Surinam, who are the Masters, and Indians, Negros, Mulatos, Alcatrazes, Mestises, Quarterons &c. who are the Slaves. […]

The Houses of considerable Planters are usually removed from their Sugar, or other Works, that they may be free from the noise and smells of them, which are very offensive.

The Negroes Houses are likewise at a distance from their Masters, and are small, oblong, thatch’d Huts, in which they have all their Moveables or Goods, which are generally a Mat to lie on, a Pot of earth to boil their Victuals in, either Yams, Plantains, or Potatoes, with a little salt Mackarel, and a Calabash or two for Cups and Spoons. […]

The Negroes from some Countries think they return to their own Country when they die in Jamaica, and therefore regard death but little, imagining they shall change their condition by that means from servile to free, and so for this reason often cut their own Throats. Whether they die thus, or naturally, their Country people make great lamentations, mournings and howlings about them expiring, and at their Funeral throw in Rum and Victuals into their Graves, to serve them in the other world. […]

The Negros are much given to Venery, and although hard wrought, will at nights or on Feast days Dance and Sing; their Songs are all bawdy, and leading that way. They have several sorts of Instruments in imitation of Lutes, made of small Gourds fitted with Necks strung with Horse hairs, or the peeled stalks of climbing plants or Withs. These Instruments are sometimes made of hollow’d Timber covered with Parchment or other Skin wetted, having a Bow for its Neck, the strings ty’d longer or shorter, as they would alter their sounds … The have likewise in their Dances rattles ty’d to their Legs and Wrists, and in their Hands, with which they make a noise, keeping time with one who makes a sound answering it on the mouth of an empty Gourd or Jar with his Hand. Their Dances consist in great activity and strength of Body, and keeping time, if it can be. They very often tie Cows Tails to their Rumps, and add such other odd things to their Bodies in several places, as gives them a very extraordinary appearance.