JCA/"The Fake": Tales from the Field

Inspired by a conversation with Doran Ross (1947–2020), a leading African art scholar and curator who revolutionized the field of African art, this article discusses the adventures of fieldwork – in particular, its unpredictable nature. More specifically, it presents my experiences conducting an archaeological ethnography of nineteenth-century Islamic talismans in Asante (Ghana), and the matter of the “fake”. Islamic talismans comprise inscriptions written directly onto paper, folded, encased in a string binding, and sewn into small leather or silver pouches, to be worn, hung, and/or buried. Engaging artifacts, texts, and their stories passed down through the generations, I studied Islamic talismans together with their owners and/or custodians, most of whom were unaware of their contents until we examined them together. In this article, I reveal how on one occasion, we examined a talisman that was different. Ostensibly the “genuine” article, this simulated object emulated talismans’ outwardly material features, but instead contained a small piece of wood rather than paper inscriptions.