Caroline van Santen
Research Student
Education
2000: MA Museum Studies, University of Leicester, Leicester
1995: MA Cultural Anthropology, Radboud University (Netherlands)
Research Interests
Polynesian history and cultures, contact history, ethnohistory, material culture studies, museum ethnography, object histories, present-day artisans and artists
PhD Thesis
Dutch visitors on Nuku Hiva, 1825: a contact history and material culture study
This doctoral thesis consists of two related but distinct parts. The first is the ethnohistorical analysis of a travelogue and archival sources on a Dutch naval encounter on the Marquesan Island of Nuku Hiva in 1825. The second part of my project is a material culture study of Marquesan objects in primarily European (museum) collections, of which a fraction was acquired during the aforementioned visit. In this I will focus on the influence of European and American visits on the objects traditionally made by Marquesans. In this research study I will also consider the relevance of the historical objects for present-day Marquesan artisans and artists.
Caroline van Santen, Mangaia Airport, Cook Islands 2010
Taiohaw Bay, Marquesas Islands, 2011