Contribution short abstract:

This contribution discusses examples of the digitalization of ethnographic works from the early twentieth century and highlights the possibilities for commoning such century-old knowledge as well as associated (ethical) risks.

Contribution long abstract:

This contribution aims to discuss opportunities for knowledge-sharing and ethical dimensions in the digitalization of ethnographic books from the early twentieth century. An increasing number of these publications is digitalized and therewith made available and sometimes even searchable online. The digitalization either takes place in the context of large commercial projects (such as the publication of books for which the copyright expired through Google Books) or in dedicated scholarly projects that aim to make this specific knowledge commonly available. These publications are at the same time early representatives of our discipline and products of the (colonial) times in which they were written. In the present-day, their content can be experienced as both valuable and disturbing, especially the books written by early ethnologists who were also implicated in colonial governance and ideologies. The publication of these books can provide opportunities for contemporary communities to learn more about their past, as a supplement to oral history and archives with written material, and can provide anthropologists with an opportunity to work through the history of the discipline. At the same time, a simple digitalization of these books without the involvement of the (descendant) communities it concerns and without providing context runs the risks of reproducing colonial patterns and narratives in the present-day.

By focusing on several concrete recent examples of the digital publication of ethnographic works from the early twentieth century, this contribution aims to discuss foreseen and unforeseen effects of these attempts to common century-old knowledge.