The William Sage Collection

The Sage Collection was donated to the school by William Sage in four parts over a range of years, with the first part arriving in 1988 and the collection reaching completion in 2000.

Sage is an alumnus of ASU, graduating in 1968 with a degree in political science. He began working on an educational development project in Laos in 1969 with the International Voluntary Services and the Agency of International Development. In 1975, after the royalist government was overthrown, Sage worked with resettled Lao refugees in California for three years. At the time of the first donation, Sage continued to work with refugees and immigrants through Church World Services.

Along with basketry, musical instruments, jewelry, betel nut paraphernalia, weapons, pipes and forms of money, Sage collected 18 complete ‘costumes’ from 11 different Lao ethnic groups. Sage’s collecting was based around an attempt to represent the ethnic diversity of the country. Nearly all the objects in the collection are identified in his notes as related to a particular ethnic group.

Collections put together by individual collectors are often idiosyncratic, reflecting their particular aesthetic and intellectual interests, but in general, the intention of most ethnographic collections—like the Sage Collection—is to document as completely as possible daily life, culture and tradition in a particular geographic location.

One of the first exhibits of the collection at the ASU Museum of Anthropology explicitly set out to provide “an informative, stimulating look at the people, places and mores of one of the most ethnically diverse nations in all of Southeast Asia” (taken from Evelyn Cooper’s review of the exhibit, Under the White Parasol; Cultural Diversity in Laos).

The Sage Collection continues to be a popular choice for museum students when they are given the opportunity to do collections-based research and projects. Sage remains connected to the collection, visiting every couple of years and welcoming questions from students interested in working with it.

Dolma Roder
School of Human Evolution and Social Change