The pot that should not exist Item RV-362-67 and Sylvia Wynter's 'demonic ground'

Item RV-362-87 is described in the online-catalogue of the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen as a ‘Quechan pottery canteen ca. 1880’, which was purchased by the Dutch anthropologist, Herman ten Kate, in April 1883 at Fort Yuma in Arizona (one year prior to the establishment of the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation). In this object analysis Niall Martin describes some of the features of this pottery canteen and considers how, in the light of those features the pot might act as an invitation, or a provocation, to think more generally about the stories that can be told about practices of care both within and beyond the institution of the ethnographic museum.