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9 Who Owns the Past? ConstructinganArtHistory ofaMalianMasquerade mARY Jo ARnoldI Since the 1980s anthropologists have paid increasingly more attention to issues of ethnographic authority, fieldwork reciprocity, and the way that collaboration through interviews profoundly shapes the production of scholarly narratives.1 This chapter focuses on the critical role that interviews have played in my field research and in the writing of an art history of youth association masquerades in Mali.2 My analysis considers the ways that interviews are both collaborative and cumulative processes. I examine my interviews with various individuals and groups and look at the ways that my casual conversations, as well as more formal taped interviews with men and women performers and with male blacksmith-carvers, have been instrumental in the production of an art history of this art form. These collaborations represent different but intersecting domains of knowledge and experience that have each contributed in critical ways to shaping, reshaping, and extending the scholarly narrative about these masquerades. Every performance is played against the backdrop of several sets of cumulative histories. In each community these include not only last season’s performances, but those from generations past. Understanding any contemporary performance requires an awareness of these cumulative histories. Thus a troupe’s masks and puppets, its songs and drum rhythms, and its current performance practices provide access to multiple references and to various moments in each masquerade’s history. My field research and my interviews have also been cumulative in a second sense, since I have worked in this research site for nearly three decades and have enjoyed continuing relationships with former and current sculptors and performers, who have generously taught me about these masquerades. Decoding the masquerade history in Segou has involved documenting contemporary performances and using the insights drawn from these current performances as touchstones during 132 Mary Jo arnoldi conversations with people about their masquerade’s origins and its development and circulation within the region over the past century. Today, the Bamana, Boso, Maraka, and Sòmonò, the four ethnic groups that now perform the youth association masquerades in the Segou region, all speak the Bamana language. These groups have lived in close proximity to one another for well over a century, and they share many cultural values and practices. They all hold a similar definition of “ownership,” which is encoded in the Bamana concept of tigi. Ownership implies a differential access and rights to knowledge about the past that are based on one’s group identity, or on an individual’s age, gender, and status within the community.3 Despite the close relationships among these ethnic groups, each of them maintains different oral traditions about the youth association masquerade. Any regional art history, then, must take seriously the production of multiple historical narratives that are based on these groups’ claims to different pasts. Researchers must be cognizant of the ways that people structure these histories and the constraints on this process. We must also be attentive to silences and be aware of the relations of power among groups and within communities that shape these narratives.4 The Making of Collaborations This project has involved ongoing collaborations with professional colleagues , several research assistants and translators, and, most significantly, local cultural guides.5 In late September 1978 I arrived in Mali to begin a study of youth association masquerades. Accompanying me was my colleague Lynn Forsdale, a photographer and ethnographic filmmaker.6 The first weeks involved consultations with Cheik Oumar Mara, a researcher in the Division of Cultural Heritage, who had conducted preliminary research on Segou’s youth association masquerades in 1975.7 Mara suggested that I consider Kirango as my primary research site because this village was well known within the region for its robust tradition of masquerade festivals. Kirango also had three active youth associations, each with their own masquerade festival. The three village youth associations mirrored the organization of the village’s residential quarters, which included one Bamana quarter, two Sòmonò quarters, and a Boso quarter. Basing my research in Kirango, we reasoned, would give me the opportunity to study and compare masquerade performances across three different ethnic groups. In November Cheik Oumar traveled with us to Kirango, where he introduced us to Bakary Traore, who lived in Kirango and worked as a mechanical engineer in the Office du Niger in neighboring Markala. Bakary agreed to be our jatigi, our host, and he has served as an important cultural guide throughout my research. Bakary was responsible for introducing us into...

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