Abstract

The Burke Museum exhibit, Mountain Patterns: The Survival of Nuosu Culture in China displayed several pieces of ethnic art originally designed by the Nuosu, an indigenous group in Liangshan, China. Through an analysis of the reflective narratives published by the exhibit curators, the artifacts used to represent the Nuosu, and visitor responses to the exhibit, this essay suggests that doing representational work in comparative rhetoric often entails borrowing from the methodologies and practices of social scientists to attend to the ethics of speaking for and about the other.