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- Convenors:
-
Eriko Yamasaki
(University of Marburg)
Simon Hirzel (University of Bonn)
Beatrix Hoffmann-Ihde (Universität Bonn)
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- Chairs:
-
Ingo Rohrer
(Ludwig-Maximilians Universität)
Antje Gunsenheimer (University of Bonn, Department Anthropology of the Americas)
- Format:
- Workshop
- Regional groups:
- Mesoamerica South America
- Transfers:
- Closed for transfers
Short Abstract:
Uncommoning of cultural heritage as common good has been omnipresent throughout history. This workshop deals with struggles for (re)commoning heritage in Latin America, discussing how different and contrasting ideas of “commons” become negotiated in these processes.
Long Abstract:
Cultural heritage including territories, sites, artifacts, practices and knowledge are common goods that are critical to people’s understanding of their past, present and future. However, uncommoning of such commons has been omnipresent throughout history in Latin America. Through colonialist and/or capitalist practices of dispossession, looting and appropriation but also through neglect and forgetting, many indigenous societies and local groups don’t have culturally appropriate access to their heritage. Exclusion of indigenous people from their sacred sites, illegitimately acquired artifacts in European museums and misappropriation of autochthonous design in the fashion industry are drastic examples of such processes. Today, various stakeholders are increasingly organizing initiatives to (re)common culturally significant valuables for specific groups or humanity in general. Community-based tourism for autonomous management of sites, claims for restitution of cultural artifacts by indigenous communities and decolonizing endeavors in museums can be named as examples. Struggles for (re)commoning heritage are guided by different and contrasting ideas of “commons”, approaches and strategies that often have to be negotiated even within a same project. This workshop puts a focus on these processes and invites to discuss the political dimensions of cultural heritage in Latin America by engaging with the following questions:
- What different conceptions of heritage as common good exist? (To whom does it belong? Who should have access?)
- What ideas exist about sharing and modes of open access/common use to cultural heritage or are currently developed?
- How are these ideas negotiated and put into practice by a variety of protagonists?
Accepted contributions:
Session 1Contribution short abstract:
This talk is based on my ongoing work of creating a Huni Kuin song archive. I analyse the complexities that arise between demands for commoning and claims of spiritual authority. By contrasting the interests of the stakeholders involved, I reflect on the ethical pitfalls of commoning.
Contribution long abstract:
My PhD research is a collaborative endeavour with several Huni Kuin communities to create an archive for Pakarin, a powerful song genre performed by ritual experts. Working on knowledge deemed at the same time sacred and an essential part of indigenous heritage brings with it several delicate questions. Consequentially, the demands of several stakeholders have to be weighed: The demands of ritual experts and their descendants who view their knowledge as pertaining to their family, the demands of their communities who expect reciprocity from the researcher, the demands of their neighbours to an inclusive approach towards heritage, and finally, the objectives of indigenous organizations tasked with representing their people and transforming sacred heritage into a common resource. How can collaborations unfolding during a movement of cultural revitalization keep true to the goal of creating commons while respecting ethics of care, secrecy and personal learning relationships between ritual experts and their students? Where are the lines between the sacred secret and shared heritage? And how to navigate the parallel striving for limiting access to sacred knowledge in order to uphold indigenous values on the one hand and the politics of performing and sharing this knowledge for intercultural partnerships, educational purposes and political activism on the other? This talk takes a specific view on the Huni Kuin case of powerful songs, situates my research in South American indigenous politics of heritagization and explores the inevitable challenges of commoning.
Contribution short abstract:
Wie kann ein kooperatives und transkulturelles Projekt zu Museumssammlungen so gestaltet werden, dass es regional integrierend wirkt? Wie kann vermieden werden, dass Zusammenarbeit mit bestimmten Akteuren zu Konflikten um die Deutungshoheit und die Frage des Eigentums in der Herkunftsregion führt?
Contribution long abstract:
Zwischen dem Ethnologischen Museum Berlin und dem Gemeindemuseum von Coixtlahauca, Oaxaca, Mexiko gibt es seit 2023 ein Kooperationsprojekt in Bezug auf den Lienzo von Coixtlahuaca II / Lienzo Seler II. Beim Lienzo handelt es sich um ein aus mehreren gewebten Bahnen zusammengesetztes, ca. vier mal vier Meter großes mit Bildern und indigener Bilderschrift farbig bemaltes Baumwolltuch. Es zeigt die genealogische bzw. politisch-territoriale Geschichte des einst wirtschaftlich bedeutenden Tals von Coixtlahuaca aus der Sicht der herrschenden indigenen Eliten des 16. Jahrhunderts. Heute ist der Lienzo ein Schlüsseldokument für die Identitätskonstruktion indigener Gemeinden im Tal von Coixtlahuaca, deren Einwohner sich vielfach als Angehörige der chocholtekischen Nation identifizieren.
Der Vortrag stellt das Projekt vor und beschäftigt sich mit den folgenden Fragen: Wer sind geeignete Ansprechpartner*innen? Wie kann ein kooperatives und transkulturelles Projekt, das die Komplexität der historischen und aktuellen sozio-politischen Kontexte des Lienzo berücksichtigt, so gestaltet werden, dass es regional integrierend wirkt? Wie kann etwa vermieden werden, dass die Zusammenarbeit mit bestimmten Akteur*innen zu Konflikten um die Deutungshoheit und die Frage des Eigentums in der Herkunftsregion führt? Schließlich möchte das Projekt auch dazu beitragen, die Diskussion zwischen den Gemeinden über kulturelle und historische Fragen zu fördern und ihren Austausch über Fragen der Konservierung wichtiger Kulturgüter im Tal von Coixtlahuaca unterstützen.
Contribution short abstract:
In 2023, Colombia returned two Kogui masks from Berlin to Tugeka, part of the Kogui-Malayo-Arhuaco resguardo. While symbolic of indigenous recognition, this act overlooked land conflicts in Tugeka, highlighting how reclaiming cultural heritage can paradoxically unsettle land and territorial rights.
Contribution long abstract:
In 2023, the Colombian government returned two Kogui masks to the indigenous community. These masks had been housed at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin since 1914, when Konrad Theodor Preuss acquired them during his research in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The repatriation ceremony took place in Tugeka, a territory that, since 2022, has been part of the expanded resguardo Kogui-Malayo-Arhuaco. This area includes many sacred sites belonging to the “Línea Negra,” a network of locations integral to the ancestral knowledge systems of the four indigenous groups of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the “Línea Negra” embodies the spiritual and cultural heritage of these communities. However, in 2005, a significant portion of Tugeka was designated by a governmental entity for land restitution to farmers displaced by the country’s internal armed conflict. In subsequent years, parts of these lands were sold to colonos and foreigners, complicating the area’s ownership and usage dynamics. The return of the Kogui masks in Tugeka was a symbolic gesture of recognition and acknowledgment of the indigenous communities of the Sierra, who have long been marginalized and historically oppressed by the State. Nevertheless, this act overlooked the complex interplay of actors and competing interests surrounding land and territory in the region. This presentation argues that while the (re)commoning of cultural heritage can serve as a means of fostering national consensus, it paradoxically leads to the uncommoning of land, territory, and cultural heritage as common goods.
Contribution short abstract:
In Chile, Mapuche Indigenous communities challenge the national classification of their cultural heritage as National Monuments, advocating for depatrimonialization. This tension reveals a conflict between nationalist policies and more-than-human politics guided by spirits and ancestors.
Contribution long abstract:
In Chile, the legal framework links the concept of national cultural heritage to the category of National Monuments. These are considered to belong to the Chilean people but are public property controlled by state bodies. In response to the call from spirits and ancestors, a collective of Mapuche Indigenous communities has begun advocating for the depatrimonialization of elements that compose the Mapuche world and that National legislation classifies as objects of ethnographic and archaeological origin.
This impetus challenges the categories that allow for the inscription of such things/beings as Chilean national heritage and questions the supposed common good that guides the nationalization of collections, places, and monuments. Faced with the nationalist claim that the common would override the specificity of specific cultural communities, uncommoning becomes a powerful tool to vary the certainties that one knows what one is dealing with regarding cultural heritage. The Mapuche communities' actions highlight fundamental differences in memory, care practices, and the relationship with the materiality of so-called “cultural goods,” calling into question a supposed multicultural national identity. The incompatibility between Chilean nationalist politics and the more-than-human politics of spirits, ancestors, and the land itself becomes apparent. The tension created by this encounter allows for the possibility for what the State designates as National Monuments—and thus national cultural heritage—to emerge as subjects seeking liberation from the policies and legislation that confine them as the heritage of a nation that they do not recognize and reject, asserting a different temporality.
Contribution short abstract:
Folkloric dance presents unique challenges to concepts of property and the common good, as it depends on individuals to continuously reproduce the heritage to be democratized. This paper examines the complexities in commoning folkloric dance as the intangible heritage of plurinational Bolivia.
Contribution long abstract:
Bolivian folkloric dance is a complex and multi-layered expression of heritage and cultural identity. Traditionally performed in the context of Catholic patron saint festivals, it weaves together representations of colonial history and indigenous culture with displays of religious propriety, personal prosperity, and nationalist pride. As a major driver of tourism and economic activity, the larger festivals are controlled by powerful associations that organize the folkloric pageants and pursue their registration as cultural heritage, such as in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage program. At the same time, folkloric dance serves as a contested arena in defining the plurinational as an inclusive political framework for Bolivia’s postcolonial, pluriethnic society. It presents opportunities for some to advertise their ethnic particularity, for others to appropriate diversity into a nationalist narrative of mestizaje, and for the state to act as an arbiter among competing social projects.
As intangible heritage, folkloric dance poses peculiar challenges to concepts of property and the common good. After all, it relies on individuals who dedicate time and scarce resources to reproduce anew with each performance the good that is to be protected and democratized. At the same time, folkloric dance plays a crucial role in the symbolic construction of an inclusive society. This paper examines the complex challenges of commoning folkloric dance as intangible heritage of the plurinational state. It interrogates how claims of ownership intersect with cultural, ethnic, and religious identity, complicating alternative efforts to define these dances as collective property.
Contribution short abstract:
The (re)commoning processes around the heritage site Cerro Rico are characterized by two different perceptions: as historical cultural heritage and active industrial heritage. Indigenous miners are trying to counteract Western appropriation, whereby a special form of tourism plays an important role.
Contribution long abstract:
Since colonial times, the Cerro Rico near Potosí in Bolivia, with its 500-year mining history and its significant influence on the development of global capitalism, has been subject to various uncommoning and recommoning processes.
While it was considered a sacred site (huaca) before the Spanish conquest, from the 16th century onwards, silver was mined in private mines mostly owned by Europeans, and Cerro Rico was reinterpreted as a site of capitalist exploitation. Attempts at indigenous recommoning had already been made during the colonial period.
After a brief historical overview of these processes, however, my presentation will focus on the current debate surrounding Cerro Rico as a heritage site, which has been ongoing especially since its designation as a “World Heritage Site in Danger” by the UNESCO in 2014. Cerro Rico is at high risk of collapse, which is why politicians and tourism companies are calling for an end to mining to preserve it. Many of the 12,000 miners organized in cooperatives reject this demand and argue that the Cerro Rico is only considered a heritage site because of the mining in past and present.
So while some speak of cultural heritage, many of those who speak of industrial heritage feel that they are being subjected to yet another process of uncommoning. I take a special look at tourist tours to active mines initiated and organized by miners themselves, which can be understood as a form of heritage sharing, as well as a recommoning of the discourse on mining in Potosí.
Contribution short abstract:
Self-managed community museums have been established in Bolivia to ensure that archaeological heritage remains in the custody of the neighboring communities. Using ethnographic data, this talk explores the negotiation of relationships between living people and Andean human remains in museums.
Contribution long abstract:
In the early 2000s, several small museums (museos de sitio) preserving mummified human remains were established in indigenous communities of the southeastern Lake Titicaca region as part of archaeological projects. In Bolivia, instead of being transferred to state archaeological museums or university research museums in the nearest cities, material finds are to remain in the custody of the autonomous governments of the respective sites (Ley 530 de Patrimonio, 2014). Community museums have been created as both repositories and tourist attractions, but like state and university museums, they can also function as places of encounter with human remains.
The cultural sensitivity of human remains as museum objects lies not only in the possible contexts of injustice of their collection, rooted in colonial power relations, but also in their ontological ambivalence as objectified subjects. In the Andean region of Bolivia, skulls and mummies are ascribed a benevolent yet potentially threatening agency, while at the same time benefiting from the ritual care of the living. As objects of collection, looting, and research, they have been recontextualized, with implications for the practices and relationships that surround them.
In this talk, I use ethnographic data to critically examine the potential of community museums as sites for the development of decolonial museum practice and collaborative knowledge production, using the example of human remains and the influence of different institutional forms of museums on the relationships in which they are embedded.