Yates wrote a piece for SSRC “Where Heritage Meets Violence” series

03 Mar 2022

Dr Donna Yates wrote a piece titled “Violence as a Value Enhancer in the Art Market” for the Social Science Research Council’s “Where Heritage Meets Violence” series. In this piece, Dr Yates look at the market for Pacific cultural heritage:

The sale of heritage from the Pacific is entangled with colonial narratives that sensationalize cultures of the region—especially through narratives of cannibalism and violence. As Yates shows, stories of conflict, from “native savagery” to heroizing tales of “white men in boats” (whose destruction of Indigenous cultures directly leads to the rarity of the marketed items), actually increase the value of artifacts in a market that is still deeply colonial.

To read the full piece, visit: https://items.ssrc.org/where-heritage-meets-violence/violence-as-a-value-enhancer-in-the-art-market/

To read other essays in “Where Heritage Meets Violence” series, visit: https://items.ssrc.org/category/where-heritage-meets-violence/