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Paper short abstract

It is a presentation that aims to discuss the issues and problems about the restitution and repatriation of photographs and indigenous objects that are heritage in museums in Europe and the United States.

Paper long abstract

Since the 19th century, many objects and photographs of the indigenous peoples of the Upper Rio Negro (Brazil) have been taken abroad by missionaries or travelers. Hundreds of these objects and photographs are now in the museums archives, in Europe and the USA, many others in private museums of religious congregations also in Europe. Some exposed to the public and most of them kept in reserves. From an investigation in these museums, I can see some important issues related to the cosmological understandings of the indigenous peoples in question and their relationship with such objects today. this presentation aims to discuss the issues, ethical and ethnological problems regarding the restitution and repatriation of photographs and indigenous objects that belong to the ritualistic and shamanic world of the indigenous peoples of that particular region.