Of jars and gongs

Raymond Corbey

Of Jars and Gongs' deals with the traditional art of Ot Danum Dayak. Much of their art depicts the journey of the soul of the deceased through a richly variegated spirit world. The present publication offers a comparative analysis of various Ot Danum ritual objects. It draws on a long tradition of ethnographic writing on the area stretching back to the mid-19th century, mainly by German and Swiss Protestant missionaries and Dutch colonials. Raymond Corbey is an anthropologist attached to Leiden University, the Netherlands. His research includes the history of dealings with non-Western ritual art by, among others, missionaries, art dealers and museums.