School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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The Painting is Broken: Understanding issues of authenticity and art attribution in contemporary Indonesia

O'Donnell, Eliza ( 2023-07)

The circulation of counterfeit paintings in the Indonesian art centres is a sensitive issue that threatens the cultural record and intellectual property of artists and their legacy. Since the beginning of Indonesia’s first art market boom in the late 1980s, paintings falsely attributed to prominent modern and contemporary Indonesian artists have slid into the secondary art market, changing hands through auction houses, galleries, art dealers and private transactions. While the unauthorised use of intellectual property that infringes on the copyright of the artist is a pervasive and longstanding issue in Indonesia, as it is globally, the study of painting attribution from a conservation perspective is limited. This thesis employs an interdisciplinary methodology grounded in cross-cultural engagement, technical art history, archival research, and interviews with art world practitioners, to investigate the relationship between the booming art market and the circulation of counterfeit paintings falsely attributed to Indonesian artists. Reviewing current approaches for art attribution in Indonesia, this thesis asks, how is painting authenticity understood in the Indonesian context? This question is examined across six themed chapters focusing on: 1) terminology, 2) the Indonesian copyright framework, 3) the art market, 4) art market processes, 5) art archives and 6) technical art history. An interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach to this study enabled a nuanced exploration of knowledge representation, verification, and the societal implications of painting forgery in the Javanese arts communities of Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Bandung where this research is located. Key findings drawn from artist interviews, archival sources and technical art history highlight the extent to which contemporary living artists, in addition to the twentieth-century modern masters, have been victims of art fraud, from the early 1990s until today. These findings demonstrate the tangible impact of forgery on the individuals who are affected when counterfeit works are produced and traded. This study seeks to elucidate the strategies that contemporary Indonesian artists have adopted to protect themselves from intellectual property theft in the absence of a robust copyright framework, and examines integrated approaches to building secure artist records and archives for future studies of attribution. Overall, this thesis underscores the pressing need for interdisciplinary collaboration and ongoing discourse to address the particular challenges posed by painting forgery in the Indonesian art market. Inauthentic cultural material is harmful to Indonesian artists, communities, and the cultural record, and finding effective and empowering ways to manage this issue is of great interest to artists, curators, art historians, conservators and others. Painting forgery in Indonesia, and in the global art world, is an active and ongoing issue, and current understanding is continually evolving as new evidence is brought to light. This thesis is a scholarly contribution to advancing existing knowledge on art attribution and authenticity in Indonesia, deepening collective knowledge of the complexities inherent in the Indonesian art world and its broader implications for the global art community.
Dress in Australia: The materiality of a colonial society in the making

Jocic, Laura Elizabeth ( 2023-08)

The study of surviving items of dress offers a vital material source for historians that is commonly ignored. Dress sits at the intersections between necessity and self-representation, the assertion of social standing and cultural, economic and technological aspects of society. Yet writings on dress in the Australian colonial context have largely overlooked the extant items, focusing instead on images and text. “Dress in Australia: the materiality of a colonial society in the making” takes a material culture approach to the history of colonial era dress from the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 to the late-nineteenth century. It pays particular attention to the early years of colonisation and development of colonial society in the years up to the early-1870s. The research methodology, which uses the study of a selection of garments in public and private collections which are known to have been either made or worn in Australia, places surviving items of dress and their materiality to the fore in discussions of European colonisation and Australian settler culture. The close examination of surviving items of dress, coupled with contextual interpretation of objects based on archival research using letters, journals and correspondence, as well as visual material, demonstrates how such an approach enables historical interpretations that would not have been possible from a narrower methodological base. Through the detailed analysis and contextual interpretation of objects, this thesis shows how their materiality prompts new directions and expanded ways of thinking about the significance of dress within a rapidly changing settler society.
Learning History with the Founding Foremothers of the Redfern Black Movement

Muldoon, Elizabeth Margaret ( 2023-06)

This thesis offers a history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in the Redfern Black Movement from 1968 to 1973. Recognising the central place of women within the Movement, it crafts a platform for their voices to be properly heard within historical scholarship for the first time. The PhD candidate, Elizabeth (Beth) Muldoon worked with eight founding foremothers of the Movement as co-researchers to develop a historical analysis of its origins, philosophy and praxis based on their oral histories. The anti-colonial methodology of the collective research underpinning this thesis enabled joint control of every component, from its guiding questions to its budget. This methodology responds to the longstanding demand of Aboriginal activists and scholars, including Black Movement activists in the 1970s, for Aboriginal communities to be in control of research about them. The historical analysis of this thesis is informed by the theorisation of Aboriginal sovereignty as lived, embodied and inalienable by Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Crystal McKinnon and other Aboriginal scholars who articulate an Aboriginal ontology that co-researchers share. When viewed through this theoretical lens, the Redfern Black Movement can be understood as an assertion of Aboriginal sovereignty that displayed significant continuities with prior assertions. The oral histories of co-researchers reveal that such assertions did not only take the form of organised and spontaneous confrontations with colonial power, but also the daily acts of care, protection, education and cultivation of kinship that have always sustained Aboriginal communities. Attentive to the diverse ways through which Aboriginal sovereignty is asserted, this thesis traces the origins of the Movement through co-researchers’ personal and community histories in rural New South Wales, Townsville, Cairns and Darwin. It then demonstrates that their connection to a long legacy of Aboriginal community defence and nurturing on Gadigal Country (where Redfern is located) was vital to the emergence of the Movement. Additionally, this thesis maps the philosophy and praxis of the Movement, showing how four key strategies – “direct action”, “sharing and caring”, “unity” and “solidarity” – grew from the ancestral knowledge of co-researchers and other the Movement activists in response to new circumstances, relationships and ideas. The oral histories of co-researchers reveal that each of these strategies contributed to the strength of the Movement yet carried significant challenges, which opponents of the Movement have, over the past fifty years, exploited to undermine the Movement’s pursuit of “self-determination”, understood by coresearchers as entailing “land rights” and “community control”. The political objectives of Movement women and the strategies that they developed to attain them were grounded in their theorisation of their unique position of subjugation within settler-colonial society as Black women, yet the indivisibility of their struggle for liberation with that of Black men. By contextualising women’s participation in the Movement within a long tradition of Aboriginal women’s political leadership and Women’s Business in south-eastern Australia, this thesis demonstrates that we cannot understand the Movement without grasping the perspectives of Movement women.
A Critique of Differentiated Citizenship

Raina, Ajay Kumar ( 2023-01)

This thesis is a critique of ‘liberal’ theories of culturally differentiated citizenship, with primary focus on Will Kymlicka’s philosophy. The main proposition of differentiated citizenship is that, for reasons of (distributive) justice, liberal states ought to give special rights to cultural minorities in addition to the universal, culture-blind, rights that all citizens have. The special cultural rights are essential for the members of ethnonational minority cultures to be able to exercise autonomy, for those communities to viably flourish, and for polyethnic, immigrant minorities to smoothly integrate into the liberal-democratic social contract. The classic liberal system of culture-blind universal rights and citizenship denies them these possibilities because the basic institutional structure of such a liberal society is, in reality, culturally majoritarian and minority exclusive; it cannot address substantive interests and needs of cultural minorities. In this thesis, these claims of autonomy, wellbeing and integration are each posited as hypothesis and empirically tested—for the first time against large-N, longitudinal data—in the real liberal world where such special rights have been granted. The evidence suggests that none of these claims can be undisputedly upheld. Deeper analysis points to faulty assumptions in the theories being the likely cause of the empirical failures. For example, while the argument for the autonomy rests on the assumption that ‘societal culture’ is the source of all the meaningful ‘options’ of the good life, it overlooks the role that ‘preferences,’ the agent’s dispositions to options, play in the actual making of choice and the culture’s role, if any, in the shaping of those dispositions. Similarly, the wellbeing of the Native ethnocultural minorities is assumed to automatically follow from the ‘external protections’—from ‘outbid’ (on resources) and ‘outvote’ (on policies) disadvantages which the classically liberal economic and political institutions supposedly cause them—that the special cultural right to self-government provide them, with little thought given to the structure and diversity of institutions which, economic theory tells us, are factors more critical to the achievement of robust wellbeing than bare ownership of resources and policy. Similarly, the assumption that multicultural rights, simplicter, enable shared civic identity of ‘mutual concern, accommodation, or sacrifice’ is problematic because it conflates independent dimensions of political life. Rights establish/adjudicate the moral status of members in a moral community, while ‘mutual concern, accommodation, or sacrifice’ represent actions subject to moral responsibility adjudication by, or within, the moral community; neither dimension, straightforwardly, entails the other. On the positive side, this thesis proposes and defends a principle, the baseline principle (BP), of effective distributive justice: a liberal state ought to ensure equal probability of securing the acceptable baseline of wellbeing for all citizens. The baseline principle can be (prescriptively) fleshed out as the equal capabilities principle (ECC): all citizens should have equal sum of basic capabilities needed to satisfy the BP in a market economy. (The ECC should also, hopefully, reduce the autonomy deficit in the culture group). The ECC does require some state paternalism, but, arguably, only of a degree that would be acceptable to all rational and reasonable persons. And, shared civic identity in the multicultural context, this thesis argues, has better chance of emerging, inductively, from ‘identity of political experience’ rather than deductively from dissimilarity of political rights.
Genesis and Development of the Concept of Rights in Iran before the Constitutional Revolution (1815-1906)

Zerehdaran, Behzad ( 2023-04)

In this dissertation, I have studied the history of subjective rights in Iran during the Qajar era. I have shown that the concept of subjective right (right as to have a right) emerged during this period as opposed to objective right (right as to be right). The genesis and development of subjective rights can be observed in the political and legal literature of Iran since the reign of Fath Ali Shah. I have presented a meta-theory for analyzing the concept of rights by providing a concise history of its semantical development and explaining the transition from objective to subjective rights. I have also examined theories on the foundations and justifications of rights and used the Hohfeldian framework to analyze various conceptions of rights in travel literature, enlightenment literature, and dream literature of the Qajar era. To explore the manifestations of the concept of rights in travel literature, I have examined the travelogues of Abu al-Hasan Khan Ilchi, Mirza Salih Shirazi, Rizza Quli Mirza, Mirza Fattah Garmarudi, Haj Sayyah Mahallati, and Mirza Muhammad Husayn Farahani. These travelogues were written by Iranian statesmen, students, and tourists who visited the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, and Europe during the early and mid-Qajar era. I have used the meta-theoretical framework of rights to analyze the representations of the concept of rights in their travel accounts. To study the contributions of the Qajar intellectuals in the development of the concept of rights, I have consulted the complete oeuvre of Mirza Malkum Khan, Mirza Yusuf Khan Mustashar al-Duwlih, Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzadih, Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, Abbas Afandi, Abdulrahim Talibuf, and Ziyn al-Abidin Maraghih-i. Lastly, I have considered the question of rights in dream narratives of the Qajar era by examining The Book from Invisible (1860), One Word (1874), Sleep and Awakening (1884), The Travel Diary of Ebrahim Beg Vol. 1 (1897), The Paths of Virtuous (1905), The Celestial Consultative Assembly (1906), and The Travel Diary of Ebrahim Beg Vol. 3 (1909).
Economic growth, liberalism, and the good: A contemporary eudaimonistic evaluation

Bastien, Pascale ( 2023-06)

The majority of states worldwide pursue economic growth as a policy objective, and this tends to be justified in liberal and welfarist terms. However, the legitimacy of this pursuit is rarely debated and appears to be largely taken for granted. This thesis thus seeks to evaluate the legitimacy of the pursuit of economic growth as a policy objective in affluent countries, with a particular focus on well-being. Part 1 establishes the grounds for a normative evaluation of the pursuit of economic growth in affluent countries. Chapter 1 focuses on methodology. It argues that the economy is a proper target for a normative evaluation, and that the methodologies of social critique and political economy are appropriate to this evaluation. Chapter 2 explores the historical roots and the ideological features of the commitment to economic growth. This understanding of the commitment to economic growth in ideological terms contributes an explanation for the fact that it is rarely questioned. Chapter 3 investigates the relationship between economic growth and consumerism, and shows that individuals in consumerist societies are structurally constrained to engage in the consumerist lifestyle of working and spending, which challenges the association between economic growth and freedom, and raises questions regarding welfare. Part 2 elaborates and defends a contemporary theory of welfare eudaimonism which will form the basis for an evaluation of the pursuit of economic growth. Chapter 4 draws on a psychological theory called self-determination theory, and sketches a theory of welfare eudaimonism called self-determination eudaimonism. Central to this theory is the idea that human beings flourish when they engage in activities which fulfil their basic psychological needs. Chapter 5 defends the plausibility of a deflationary teleological explanation of prudential well-being in terms of self-fulfilment. Chapter 6 elaborates on self-determination eudaimonism and shows how it can be understood in terms of normative motivation. Chapter 7 discusses the development of normative motivation and its relationship with practical rationality. Finally, Part 3 evaluates the pursuit of economic growth as a policy objective in affluent countries in light of the framework developed in Part 2. Chapter 8 argues that the consumerist lifestyle entailed by the pursuit of economic growth undermines well-being, such that the pursuit of economic growth is illegitimate as a welfarist policy. In addition, since individuals in consumerist societies are structurally constrained to engage in this lifestyle, the underlying structure can be deemed unjust. Lastly, the pursuit of economic growth as a policy objective seriously limits the freedom to live as one sees fit and amounts to the imposition of a particular conception of the good, which is inconsistent with liberal principles. Part 3 ends with a brief discussion of what the good life may look like in the post-growth society.
The Language of Archaeological Investigations

Carnovale, Martin ( 2022-08)

The thesis explores whether methods based upon analogical reasoning can be used to interpret culture if there are difficulties of translating other culture’s beliefs. The kind of cultural interpretation that I will discuss is that which pertains to social, artistic and religious activities. The thesis also explores the differences between quantitative and qualitative forms of reasoning, as well as inductive an deductive approaches, and how these are used in certain forms of archaeological interpretation. It is shown that scientific analyses of culture can make errors of translation, and it is also shown that humanistic and qualitative analyses of culture make many errors of reasoning that may be usually put forth against scientistic analyses of culture. How much biology and culture influence statistical trends is also discussed, and it is argued that trends may give support to certain forms of analogical reasoning that an archaeologist might use for the interpretation of culture. I also critique the idea of biological universals as being meaningful for cultural analysis. It is also argued that cognitive and biological factors exist below the level of cultural and religious activities; hence, a biological basis for statistical trends might not give much content to certain forms of comparative cross-cultural analysis. Thus, one might defend a qualitative approach to interpretation, but I argue that qualitative approaches make errors that can be paradoxically regarded as scientistic. The relevance of philosophical and linguistic theories by Kant, Kripke and Carnap is defended for archaeological research to explore interpretative errors in both quantitative and qualitative reasoning. The thesis argues against the dualism between the qualitative and quantitative, and attempts to argue for a pluralist methodology where positivism and relativism may be unified.
Ritual Architecture, Material Culture and Practice of the Philistines

Harris-Schober, Madaline ( 2023-03)

This thesis focuses on the recognition of cult and ritual in the Late Bronze Age to Iron Age (1175-586 BCE) Levant. It is concerned with the identification and elucidation of ritual architecture, material culture and practices based on the existing archaeological record and series of indicators that allow for reasonable inference that a site had ritual capacities. The aim of this study is to employ the synthesis and interpretation of data and apply comparative analysis to create an encompassing study that better represents the archaeological phenomenon of the Philistines. The ritual architecture, material culture and practice of the Philistines and their surrounding world are complex and multilayered. The following is a comprehensive catalogue of ritual-related architecture, material culture and (where appropriate) practices of sites in the Southern Levant, interpreted in the social and cultural framework of the LBA to Iron Age. The analyses of ritual-related architecture, material culture, practice and ideology require a detailed study of societal intricacies, architectural components and a defined typological framework. Ritual structures offer an alternate means of understanding the built environment and provide an insight into human-place-object interaction. Whilst the Philistines have been studied by archaeologists over the past four decades, there is a distinct gap in publication and knowledge when it comes to Philistine ritual and religious architecture, material culture and practice. This task can be especially difficult in regions of continuous settlement and destruction, particularly when large ritual and/or cultic centres stand out in the archaeological record in comparison to smaller, more nuanced, areas of ritual importance. Many debates which revolve around the Philistines concern aspects such as migration, the location of their cultural homeland, chronology and religious beliefs. A portion of excavation data coming from wider Philistia has not been re-assessed in the light of new theoretical approaches and the general developments in the field of archaeology and anthropology. It is my goal to reconstruct such data where possible and apply these new viewpoints, namely interpretive archaeology, to present an alternative to positivism in the field. The primary goal is to ‘even out’ the over-saturation of single-site publication through the collation and interpretation of all excavated sites in one corpus. Whilst writing my honours thesis, I noted the abundance of handpicked comparative studies and an overall lack of overarching studies pertaining to Philistine architecture and material culture. Consequently, there is no far-reaching study that discusses Philistine ritual architecture, material culture and its systematic characterisation in a way that presents all known data, relevant research and theoretical approaches. It is evident that a certain amount of scholarship on this topic suffers from the lack of wider comparative approaches and a failure of identification of ritual architecture and artefacts; a downfall that many facets of the discipline of archaeology experience. Therefore, this thesis will attempt to construct a comprehensive and summative history of ritual and cult in the Southern Levant with a focus on the Philistines and their world, moving away from the previously restrictive frameworks to produce a far-reaching piece of research which has not yet been generated within the field. A study such as this is not particularly new in the field of Bronze and Iron Age archaeology. Webb’s published PhD thesis entitled Ritual Architecture, Iconography and Practice in the Late Cypriot Bronze Age addresses the topic of specific ritual phenomena in a precise and succinct manner, creating an indispensable handbook to all who study the archaeology of ritual. Furthermore, the theses of Nakhai (Archaeology and religions of Canaan and Israel), Gilmour (The Archaeology of Cult in the Southern Levant in the Early Iron Age) and Elkowicz (Tempel und Kultplatze der Philister und der Volker des Ostjordanlandes. Eine Untersuchung zur Bau- und zur Kultgeschichte wahrend der Eisenzeit I-II) presented studies of similar design which helped bring this current study to fruition. Whilst this thesis heavily critiques previous interpretations and studies put forward by excavators, this research was only possible due to their unbroken hard work and dedication to the field of archaeology. This thesis owes great debt to the excellent predecessors who laid the framework for this study. It is my hope that the following analysis only highlights their success and commitment. Chapter 1 is a review of literary and archaeological sources that consists of an overview and summary of previous literature in the field with analysis and reference of biblical, historical and academic sources, including chronological issues and a review of excavation. Chapter 2 explores and defines the archaeology of ritual and cult within the framework of the LBA and Iron Ages, drawing on important previous studies which paved the way for new approaches. This chapter also considers cult identifiers and the difference between public, domestic and private ritual architecture and material finds. This section will also deal with specific definitions in relation to the cultic and ritual architecture of the geographical region. Chapter 3, 4 and 5 provide a compendium of Philistine ritual architecture and finds from the Early Iron through to the Iron II. Sites and buildings have been categorised into Reliably Identified Sites, Less Reliably Identified and Misidentified sites. These are accompanied by top plans, block plans, reconstructions and three-dimensional models (where available) in-text and in the body of the thesis. Sites are divided into architecture, material finds and discussion sections. Chapter 6 discusses Philistine religion, deities and epigraphic evidence, providing a summary of previous studies and new developments and understanding of Philistine ritual with an in-depth analysis and up-to-date table of Philistine altars and their comparisons with the wider Mediterranean. These discussions employ comparative analysis along with interpretive analysis to further understand what may have taken place within these cult and ritual-related areas. The study concludes with an overview of the findings and the future of Philistine archaeology of ritual and cult through the suggestion of a new cultic and ritual research agenda.
Same-sex marriage in Australia and the transformation of an institution, c. 1930-2017

Denton, Maxwell William ( 2023-05)

This thesis explores the history of same-sex marriage in Australia between 1930 and the introduction of marriage equality in 2017. It examines the performance of religious and non-religious same-sex commitment ceremonies and weddings, and advocacy for relationship recognition. This thesis draws on a diverse range of archival sources to argue that there was a prominent and sustained interest in same-sex marriage in Australia and internationally since the emergence of modern lesbian and gay politics in the 1970s. It can be traced even earlier, with same-sex weddings forming an important part of pre-liberation Australian camp cultures. This interest in same-sex marriage was dispersed and haphazard, forwarded by same-sex couples, lesbian and gay Christians and other figures in public sexual politics. Yet it forms an important part of the history of sexual and social change in the twentieth century. The history of relationship recognition reform and activism in Australia was unique but was also shaped by global trends and flows of people and information. Ritual and ceremony played an important role in the development of new sexual identities and the conceptualisation of same-sex relationships, furthering the social acceptance of homosexuality in Australia. This thesis represents one of the first considerations of same-sex marriage as a historical phenomenon in Australia and historicises recent debates over marriage equality. The complicated and contested history of same-sex marriage prior to legalisation reveals much about how sexual politics has evolved in Australia, and how the institution of marriage itself has transformed over the twentieth century.
Preserving plastics in paper-based collections

Chu, Cancy King-Cyn ( 2022-10)

Plastics, referring to semi- or fully-synthetic mouldable polymeric materials, are now found in a wide range of cultural heritage materials. Ongoing research focused on plastics in museum collections show that the chemical stability of certain plastics are short-lived. These unstable plastics may additionally produce acidic products during deterioration, causing damage to neighbouring collections. Existing case studies of the rapid degradation of plastic materials associated with book and paper collections suggest the need for conservation attention to manage deterioration in libraries and archives. However, the types and condition of plastics in paper-based collections are not documented. Additionally, there are currently no targeted preservation strategies available. This dissertation aims to gain an understanding of plastics in paper-based collections in order to make informed preservation recommendations. Interdisciplinary methods were employed in a four-stage progressive investigation: 1. Firstly, a literature review of relevant preservation practices situates the research within the plastics conservation field. A classification of plastics in paper-based collections is proposed. Existing preservation methods addressing each material subtype are summarised, revealing a gap in the literature on plastics associated with paper materials: bindings, organisers and protectors. 2. Next, an industry survey of professionals working in Australian archives was used to assess the need for preservation strategies. Results show that plastics are pervasive in Australian archives, found in at least 90% of responding institutions. Furthermore, plastics associated with paper in archives are reported in poor condition by more than half of respondents. Respondents rated highly the need for storage strategies and standardised guidelines, supporting a need for preservation solutions. 3. To understand plastics in paper-based collections, the object types, condition, and preservation strategies were determined though collection surveys of post-1950s paper-based collections at the South Australian Museum Archive in Adelaide, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, and the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation in Melbourne. Using ATR-FTIR, 11 common polymers were identified, and ten binding structures were described. Observed deterioration was classified under four contributing causes. Based on observations, preservation recommendations were proposed addressing each of the four deterioration categories. 4. Lastly, a proposed storage strategy for plasticised poly(vinyl chloride) book covers was tested using artificial ageing. Three common sheet materials used in paper conservation were compared as possible interleaving materials. Although interleaving was observed to benefit the reduction of ink offset, other types of damage were accelerated by all three materials. This stage demonstrates the specific testing needs of a composite material combination. Findings contribute to a deeper understanding of effective preservation approaches for plastics in paper-based collections. Overall, results show the need for storage guidelines, specific testing of composite materials, and interdisciplinary collaboration to improve preservation approaches. This thesis is centred on practical industry outcomes and is amongst the first to specifically consider the overlap between plastics conservation and paper-based collections. Knowledge gaps addressed include material types, deterioration patterns, and suitable preservation methods. Although the thesis is focused on Australian collections, resulting recommendations are broadly relevant to paper-based collections, benefiting the preservation of information and culture for present and future generations.

School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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