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- Convenors:
-
Renato Athias
(NEPE at Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil))
Nuno Porto (University of British Columbia)
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- Chair:
-
Renato Athias
(NEPE at Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil))
- Discussants:
-
Renato Athias
(NEPE at Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil))
Claudia Augustat (Weltmuseum Wien)
- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Peter Froggatt Centre (PFC), 01/020
- Sessions:
- Thursday 28 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel intends to bring experiences of anthropologists from different countries who have been engaging in a direct and continuous dialogue with indigenous people and museums to debate and rethink the way that museums represent and create narratives around them.
Long Abstract:
Currently, indigenous peoples are looking to create their own museum institutions in their indigenous lands. The notion of memory is a central issue for mobilization and constitution of their own ethnographic collections that allows them to represent themselves in the actuality, and avoid the translations that come with the museum as an institution.
In this context, it is perceived that the ethnic dynamics involved in expressing a "cosmopolitical of memory" occur through the construction of new narratives of interethnic contact. These are expressed in the way in which the indigenous peoples themselves construct an updated semantics for the meanings of their relations with national societies. In this process, at present, indigenous peoples are fighting for their own existence where each and every narrative needs to be permeated with their own memories. This clearly shows that these collectives do not need a museum to create their memory policies.
This panel therefore intends to provide an opportunity to share these experiences and the methodological strategies of collaborative projects with the indigenous people who have played an central role in the transformation of museums' narratives about them. They have done so not only in alerting, but also in creating spaces for discussion about the transformation of museums' narratives. These narratives of indigenous peoples often indicate a point of view of the colonizer, and the museums as being representatives of a national society that does not embrace the discourse of cultural diversity and of ethnic specificities.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 28 July, 2022, -Anna Bottesi (University of Bologna)
Paper short abstract:
The collection of Munduruku objects preserved at the Weltmuseum of Vienna is one of the best preserved in Europe. This paper aims at showing the first results of an ongoing research in which contact with some Munduruku representatives was made and a dialogue on the objects was established.
Paper long abstract:
The collection of Munduruku objects preserved at the Weltmuseum of Vienna is one of the more interesting and well preserved in Europe. Mostly assembled at the beginning of the 19th century by Johann Natterer it reunites artworks that, except for a few ones, Munduruku people do not produce anymore. After studying the collection in October 2020, in December 2021 and February 2022, I had the chance to meet some representative of Munduruku people, show them some pictures of the “Austrian” objects and start a dialogue on their meanings and their importance in the past and in/for the present. With this paper I aim at showing the first results of this ongoing research, joining the debate about the process of rethinking and decolonization of museum institutions. Besides reflecting on the best ways to treat Munduruku objects in such a way to respect cultural ownership and reveal histories and narratives usually silenced by Western hegemonic perspective, I will focus on the methodological issue of museological collaborative approach, its limits and responsibilities. This last point is, in general, still quite problematic but very important because involving native representatives is a basic prerequisite for the production of alternative narratives which, once disseminated both inside and outside the space of the museum, might have positive consequences in the “re-education” of society and of the State in terms of civil and political inclusiveness.
Renato Athias (NEPE at Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil))
Paper short abstract:
This paper aims to demonstrate, from the ethnographic objects that indigenous knowledge, linked to the objects, disappear in the whole musealization and patrimonialization process. The text debates also the central elements in the museological documentation in the museums.
Paper long abstract:
This paper seeks to discuss questions relating to ethnographic objects, the indigenous knowledge, the things of the "enchanted" who are non-human beings with whom shamans communicate, to the artifacts of the ancestors. The reflection focuses on objects from the upper Rio Negro region that have always been a source of interest for researchers in the field of ethnology, but also museology and for specialists in the material and immaterial cultures of indigenous peoples.
In general, all these ethnographic objects are to be taken as elements of a much broader understanding of the world linked to the social and political organization as well as to very specific knowledge, common to all peoples, even to all clans. of this vast region of northwestern Amazonia. This is particularly the case for objects of a ritual nature, it being understood that the different dimensions of a shamanic object can only be perceived within the corresponding cosmological model. In the regional social and political context.
The creation of the indigenous museum by Amerindians reflects, in a combined way, the challenges of theoretical training combined with applied training, at the interface between anthropology and museology. The study of ethnographic objects and collections, as well as that of Indigenous museums increasingly require an interdisciplinary dialogue. Culture takes on a central dimension in the understanding of the different languages developed by individuals and social groups. In particular, it requires a deeper understanding of the ethnographic materials exhibited in museum collections and of the new forms of collecting developed with indigenous populations.