Classifying the Material

Abstract

The analytical category ‘material culture’, and in particular the ways in which different kinds of material culture are classified museologically, need critical examination in the light of specific ethnographic data. In this article, the categories ‘food’ and ‘textiles’ are considered in the context of status-alteration systems in east Ambae, Vanuatu. An analysis of the women’s status-alteration system huhuru, reveals a categorical association between certain textiles and ritual food, which undercuts the distinction between these two object types as essentially different.