Goldweight [Bird's Head] 19th-20th century

Editor: Here we have an Akan goldweight in the shape of a bird's head, crafted sometime in the 19th or 20th century from brass. It’s quite small, but the intricate spiral patterns really draw the eye. What can you tell me about it? Curator: The materiality of this goldweight is central to its understanding. Brass, not gold, was the means through which abstract value was made concrete. The bird form is interesting. Do you know how these weights were made? Editor: I assume lost-wax casting? The detail is incredible. It also implies labor, doesn't it? More labor perhaps than the gold it weighed? Curator: Exactly! Think of the social context of its production: labor organized around resource extraction and artistic skill. We are far removed from ideas of inherent preciousness, aren't we? These were functional objects but demonstrate enormous human skill, artistic intent. Did everyone use weights of this type? Editor: It was for the Akan people in particular, as part of their trade? Curator: Indeed, reflecting both internal exchange and, critically, external engagement with European traders. Each transaction implicated material exchanges across vastly different cultural frameworks. These weights offer insight into a nuanced history of production, skill, and unequal exchange. They almost ask the viewer to reconsider assumptions about value itself. What do you make of that? Editor: So, it makes you think about what is valuable and why… Not just the gold being weighed, but all that went into producing the scales too. Fascinating. Curator: Precisely, focusing our attention on the full system of material production. It decenters the supposed 'preciousness' of gold in favor of a richer social analysis of economic relations.