Paper short abstract:

Drawing upon the story of an elderly Burmese lady and her 'ethnic' paraphernalia, this paper explores how it is that objects can be brought out of one ontological reality, and into another. How can Anthropological perspectives make such an occurrence visible, and analytically productive?

Paper long abstract:

Anthropological interlocutors play with ontologies in both paradoxical and ordinary ways. Regarding objects, things become other things, mundane items suddenly become otherwise, and objects are forced to rescind their own origin so as to have import in another. How is it that objects can be brought out of one ontological reality and in to another?

Exploring this question, this paper brings together the story of Marjorie (an elderly Burmese lady), her 'ethnic' paraphernalia, World War Two, a museum collection, and the ramifications of not having met ones curatorial responsibilities. Weaving together strands of ethnicity, identity, place and significance, I contemplate how Anthropological perspectives on individual agency and cosmopolitics can make object-ontologies in transition analytically visible. Attending to these transitions reveals acts of value-making, and can help us come to terms with the ontological plasticity of objects we surround ourselves with.