Thank you for the book recommendations, Ben. I shall endeavor to acquire them.
I have a friend who lives in Kathmandu. He is very close with some of the Naga. He goes on regular pilgrimages to visit. He rides a motorcycle into the back areas and sits with shamen around a campfire, and discusses "old ways."
He is sad that the Christianization of the Naga has resulted, as it usually does, in a loss of heritage, a loss of their pre-contact culture. But if you go deep enough into the outback, there are powerful vestiges of this once great culture.
He is married to a Nepalese Hill tribe woman whose aunt is a practicing shaman. I have some of her artifacts as well.
I think that you are right in saying that many of the good Naga artifacts are in private collections, outside of Nagaland.
But, the bottom line in any collecting is that you can never really be sure that you have an authentic artifact. Even great museums have been fooled. There are countless examples, as well as other experts.
Usually I buy from private collectors, international art dealers and relatives of missionaries who brought pieces back.
Since I collect in many arenas, I can not possibly be expert in all of these venues. So when I just find something I like, run it by various of experts in my acquaintance, and if they have a good feel about it, I buy it -- sometimes I buy even if they don't like it.
It is ultimately my choice, as one of my mentors once said, "It is you who have to live with it."
But I rarely buy ethnographic pieces as "investments." My investments are in commercial real estate, and there, perhaps only there, I am the expert.
This gives me the time and funding to indulge in my hobby -- my passion -- for art as I see it.
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