27
5pm
This talk focuses on the past, present, and future of the vigango. Vigango are tall, wooden statues, erected by the Mijikenda peoples of Kenya and believed to incarnate the spirits of the deceased. They commemorate men who, during their lives, were members of a particular secret society. In this talk, Monica Udvardy recounts the serendipitous discovery of two vigango, stolen from one of her Mijikenda interlocutors while she was in the field, in two U.S. museums fifteen years later. Since then, she and her collaborators have engaged in activist and public anthropology to track, raise public awareness about, and promote the return of the more than 400 vigango they have located in more than 20 U.S. museums. 65 of these are held in two of Indiana University’s museum collections. She discusses the changing meaning of vigango for each party involved in their global travels and relates the obstacles and successes we have encountered in our ongoing activist research.
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5:00pm - 6:30pm