Books by Vibeke Maria Viestad
Hva er et Menneske? Den utrolige historien om hvordan vi ble oss og hvorfor de andre menneskeartene forsvant, 2021
Dødeboka. Livet med døden.
Dødeboka. Livet med døden., 2021
Wits University Press, 2018
To dress is a uniquely human experience, but practices and meanings of dress vary greatly among p... more To dress is a uniquely human experience, but practices and meanings of dress vary greatly among people. In a Western cultural tradition, the practice of dressing 'properly' has for centuries distinguished 'civilised' people from 'savages'. Through travel literature and historical ethnographic descriptions of the Bushmen of southern Africa, such perceptions and prejudices have made their mark also on the modern research tradition. Because Bushmen were widely considered to be 'nearly naked' the study of dress has played a limited part in academic writings on Bushman culture. In Dress as Social Relations Vibeke Maria Viestad challenges this myth of the nearly naked Bushman and provides an interdisciplinary study of Bushman dress, as it is represented in the archives and material culture of historical Bushman communities. Maintaining a critical perspective, Viestad provides an interpretation of the signifi cance of dress for historical Bushman people. Dress, she argues, formed an embodied practice of social relations between humans, animals and other powerful beings of the Bushman world; moreover, this complex and meaningful practice was intimately related to subsistence strategies and social identity. The historical collections under scrutiny present a wide variety of research material representing different aspects of the bodily practice of dress. Whereas the Bleek & Lloyd archive of oral myths and narratives has become renowned for its great research potential, the artefact collections of Dorothea Bleek and Louis Fourie are much less known and have not earlier been published in a richly illustrated and comprehensive way. Dress as Social Relations is aimed at scholars and students of archaeology, anthropology, material culture studies, dress studies, ethnographic studies, museology, culture historical studies and African studies, but will also be of interest to people of descendant communities.
Papers by Vibeke Maria Viestad
Journal of Material Culture, 2025
"This little thing of ours"-beautifully ornamented tortoise shell containers filled with fragrant... more "This little thing of ours"-beautifully ornamented tortoise shell containers filled with fragrant powdered herbs and plants-comprises an important part of Ju|'hoansi cultural practice in contemporary Omaheke, Namibia. Used for various purposes associated with potency and protection, the !'hurasi can be found back in time and throughout space, in the Kalahari ethnographies, ethnographic artifact collections, myths, narratives, and rock art, but it has seldom received any scholarly attention. In this article, we aim to document how aspects of a distinct San material culture are still made, used, and engaged with in the western Kalahari today, in ways that would, despite the popular belief in a general loss of traditions and ancestral knowledge in the area, be recognizable and meaningful for members of the ancestral communities a hundred years ago. Both ethnographic sources and present-day documentation strongly suggest, we argue, that the !'hurasi represents a continuation in practice, linking the Omaheke Ju|'hoansi with important San ontological concepts, and that they have played an important role in the preservation, resilience, and development of modern Ju|'hoan culture. In a first-of-its-kind study of San tortoise shell containers, the research data that form the empirical ground of our argument is gathered from ethnographic field work among Ju|'hoansi communities in Omaheke in 2022, as well as through archival studies in the ethnographic artifact collection of the Museum Africa in Johannesburg.
Body Modifications among San Hunter-Gatherers: A Relational Practice
The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Body Modification, 2024
Curation by the Living Dead: Exploring the Legacy of Norwegian Museums' Colonial Collections
Critical Arts, 2021
While the history of Norwegian museum acquisitions and collection formation has long been a topic... more While the history of Norwegian museum acquisitions and collection formation has long been a topic of research, the extent to which colonial structures are still embedded in various Norwegian collecting institutions is seldom addressed. In this paper, we discuss the legacy of colonial collections in Norway through two case studies; Inge Heiberg’s collection of Congo ethnographica in various exhibitions at the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History from the early 1900s to the present; and the Norwegian Kon-Tiki Museum’s initiative to repatriate human remains and other material excavated by Thor Heyerdahl on Rapa Nui in the 1950s. Presenting two cases that have been promoted as attempts at decolonisation – apparent “best practice” scenarios – we ask how the collections of Heiberg and Heyerdahl are used in current research and representations, and discuss whether the exhibiting and repatriation of the collections represent a continuation of, rather than break from colonial museum practice. We argue that attempts to revise current exhibition practices and research agendas prove consistently difficult. We conclude that in their very different ways, the cases illustrate that museums are effectively trapped in their collections. Heyerdahl and Heiberg still have the privilege of being curators of their collections.
Seen, Heard and Valued. WAM celebrates 40 Years of the Standard Bank African Art Collection, 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,... more All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
ARR idéhistorisk tidsskrift, 2020
«Så tok hun av frukten og spiste. Hun ga også til mannen sin, som var sammen med henne, og han sp... more «Så tok hun av frukten og spiste. Hun ga også til mannen sin, som var sammen med henne, og han spiste. Da ble øynene deres åpnet, og de skjønte at de var nakne. De flettet sammen fikenblader og bandt dem om livet.» i Alle mennesker over hele verden, til alle tider, har kledt kroppen. Det å kle seg er en fellesmenneskelig erfaring-selv om nesten alle mennesker kler seg forskjellig. Nettopp derfor kan praksis rundt klaer og kroppsuttrykk fortelle mye om oss mennesker. Ikke bare
From ‘true specimens’ to ‘naked Brown people’ – A century of representing ‘Bushmen’ in Cape Town, South Africa
Fortid. Studentenes historietidsskrift, 2019
Conference Proceedings of the 13th Congress of the PanAfrican Archaeological Association for Prehistory and Related Studies PAA and the 20th Meeting of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists Safa. Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal. , 2015
PhD thesis by Vibeke Maria Viestad
Dress as Social Relations - An Interpretation of “Bushman Dress” as represented in the Bleek & Lloyd, Dorothea Bleek and Louis Fourie collections in South Africa
Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, 2015
Book Reviews by Vibeke Maria Viestad
Primitive Tider, 2024
Utstillingsanmeldelse av ARV på Historisk museum
Podcast by Vibeke Maria Viestad
Dødepoodden. Livet med døden.
Lei av sykdom og pandemi? Hva med litt død og begravelse? Dr. Vibeke Viestad og Herr Andreas Vies... more Lei av sykdom og pandemi? Hva med litt død og begravelse? Dr. Vibeke Viestad og Herr Andreas Viestad bor på en gravlund og er mer enn gjennomsnittet opptatt av hvordan vi som mennesker behandler våre døde, hvordan vi brenner, pynter, fester og iscenesetter. Det handler ikke om sorg eller religion, men om den nærmest uendelige variasjonen av makabre, vakre og ofte morsomme måter å forholde seg til dødens uunngåelighet.
Dødepodden – en pod om livet med døden.
https://open.spotify.com/show/6FxLBMfWF3x0pTc2r40dfp
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Books by Vibeke Maria Viestad
Papers by Vibeke Maria Viestad
PhD thesis by Vibeke Maria Viestad
Book Reviews by Vibeke Maria Viestad
Podcast by Vibeke Maria Viestad
Dødepodden – en pod om livet med døden.
https://open.spotify.com/show/6FxLBMfWF3x0pTc2r40dfp