Bronze drums at the Museum of Civilizations in Rome and their cultural value

Abstract

In 1889, on his return from a study journey to Burma, the Italian naturalist and explorer Leonardo Fea presented the Royal Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome, directed by Professor Luigi Pigorini, with numerous objects of ethnographic interest, including some bronze drums: traditional instruments, which he had had the opportunity of observing in actual use, becoming aware of the social prestige with them associated, during a stay in the remote Karen region. A recent analysis about these items, kept at the Museum of Civilizations of Rome, has made it possible to expand the investigations previously carried out in the light of new data acquired in recent decades by international researchers. The research path adopted follows a multidisciplinary approach, making use of sources relating to human geography, ethnography, cultural anthropology and archaeology. With the aim of illustrating the powerful cultural and symbolic values embodied by these characteristic musical instruments; objects that relate to a wide geographical and human territory conjectured in South-East Asia, the “Zomia”. A fluid space which, according to the American anthropologist James C. Scott, transcends the official borders of states and in the course of history has stubbornly eluded their administrative claims and impositions.