The imperial inventory

Musée du quai Branly is dedicated to the cultures of la Oceania, la Afrique and las Amériques and is just east of the Tour Eiffel. It’s not dissimilar to the Met or any robber’s lair of exotic goods, but it’s appallingly ill-lit and lacks detailed information about any of the cultures, art or clothing represented. There are the usual stolen pieces from ancient graveyards (tombs, skulls, jewelry) and a piece of a temple from Teotihuacán. There is also a small section dedicated to the “Esquimaux,” including a display of couteaux (knives). Unfortunately they are all grouped together: knives for hunting, skinning, cutting…and story telling.

I couldn’t help wanting Empire to better organize, and document, its spoils.

And here I am, in Paris, happily perusing the mostly organized archive of an anti-imperialist Guatemalan-sometimes Mayan-nobel laureate author and wondering why he left it all—most of his manuscripts, correspondence and, most importantly, his notebooks—to the national library of the French Republic.