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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
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 do 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?