Paper short abstract:

Ni-Vanuatu sandroing is an ephemeral iconographic tradition but, in spite of that, many scholars recognized it as a traditional mnemonic device. Based on data I collected on the field, I will try to deal with this apparent paradox and to explore this unique, fascinating system to produce memory.

Paper long abstract:

In this intervention I propose a new approach to the study of the Ni-Vanuatu iconographic tradition known as sandroing. This ephemeral practice, once spread in the Central and Northern island of the Vanuatu Republic (Island Melanesia), consists in tracing in the soil, with the index finger of the right hand, an ephemeral, usually complex, geometrical image, whose achievement is complemented or followed by an oral commentary. Despite their material transience, sandroings have been recently recognized as "important mnemonic devices for recalling oral information about local histories, indigenous cosmologies, kinship systems, and scientific knowledge" (Zagala 2004). Relying on data collected during recent fieldwork in the island of Ambrym, I will try to deal with the apparent paradox embedded in this art, which involves the production of ephemeral images and, at the same time, ensures their remembrance. My analysis will focus on how local sandroings are created, memorized, bodily preserved and recalled and on how sandroing structure may be linked to broader Melanesian features, such as the social importance attributed to knowledge, the key role played by secrecy, and the potential of transient artifacts. This may enable us to get a better understanding of this body technique, and to begin to consider the opportunity of a comparative exercise involving other Melanesian arts of memory.