Exhibition catalogue, Galleria Lorenzelli, Bergamo.
Year: 1992
Texts: Grata Somaré, Leonardo Vigorelli
Contributions: A. Ao, B.B. Goswami, A. Veca, G. Zaccarelli
Photos: F. Zaina
Format: 21 × 26 cm
Pages: 206, 163 colour images
Language: English
Signs, not words
“What they said with the utmost intensity and clarity, they did not express through words, but through signs. They did not say, they showed.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Essai sur l’Origine des Langues
It is not easy today to reconstruct the image we once had of the Nagas, when we first encountered them through the powerful forms of their objects. For decades, the hills along the Indian–Burmese border remained closed to foreigners. The few objects circulating in Europe appeared without context, isolated from the cultural systems that had produced them. This absence of information contributed to a fascination for a world both remote and difficult to grasp.
These works were once part of a coherent system of values, where form, function and meaning were inseparable. Over time, however, this system began to fragment. Objects lost their original context and became autonomous artefacts, often reduced to aesthetic or commercial value. Only a few entered collections capable of preserving their meaning. Many others were absorbed into anonymous categories of “curiosities”.
Before direct access to Nagaland was possible, the encounter with Naga culture took place through texts by Hutton, Mills, von Fürer-Haimendorf and Elwin. These readings inspired the idea of presenting a Naga collection in Italy, not only as an exhibition, but as a reflection on the dignity and complexity of a cultural system.
No collection can fully reconstruct a culture. Objects remain traces of relationships, beliefs and symbolic systems. Yet by studying their technological, social and symbolic dimensions, it becomes possible to move beyond reductive categories such as “Primitive Art” and approach them as expressions of a coherent worldview.
When access to Nagaland finally became possible, reality appeared transformed. Traditional systems had already begun to adapt to the pressures of modernity. Villages, objects and social structures were evolving within a broader historical process shaped by economic and cultural change. Despite these changes, elements of continuity remained visible: in gestures, in objects, in attitudes. More than forms, it was the human qualities of the Nagas, dignity, loyalty, pride and openness to the future, that revealed the persistence of a cultural identity.
Anthropological research exists within a paradox: it develops the tools to understand cultures while simultaneously witnessing their transformation and disappearance. This tension places the observer in a fragile position, suspended between the desire to preserve and the necessity to accept change.
The encounter with the Nagas occurred at a unique moment, when tradition was still present, yet already engaged in transformation. This allowed for a deeper understanding, not only of cultural difference, but of a shared human condition.
The catalogue stands as both a document and a reflection: an attempt to approach a complex culture through its material expressions and to recognise its dignity beyond historical distance. It is dedicated to the Nagas, with the hope that they may find a balance between tradition and modernity, a challenge that concerns all cultures.
