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Can developing women produce primitive art?

And other questions of value, meaning and identity in the circulation of Janakpur art

Bucknell University, USA

In this article, I examine the values and meanings that adhere to objects made by Maithil women at a development project in Janakpur, Nepal — objects collectors have called `Janakpur Art'. I seek to explain how and why changes in pictorial content in Janakpur Art — shifts that took place over a period of five or six years in the 1990s — occurred, and what such a change might indicate about the link between Maithil women's lives, development, and tourism. As I will demonstrate, part of the appeal for consumers of Janakpur Art has been that it is produced at a `women's development project' seeking to empower its participants. And yet, the project's very successes threaten to displace the producers (and what they produce) from their perceived qualities/identities as `traditional' and `primitive,' thereby bringing into question the authenticity of the `art' they produce. The conundrum begs this question: can developing women produce primitive art?

Key Words: authenticity • development • feminism • Maithil • material culture • Nepal • primitive art • South Asia • tourist art • women

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