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- Convenors:
-
Diego Ballestero
(Universität Bonn)
Erik Petschelies (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro)
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- Formats:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Material Culture and Museums
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 23 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Helsinki
Short Abstract:
This panel examines how the participation of source communities in researches or curation at ethnographic museums is capable of rewriting histories of Anthropology, transgressing established western epistemological and ontological borders and displacing power relations in and around institutions.
Long Abstract:
In recent decades, the interest of anthropologists in material culture and museums has been renewed. Driven by the Chilean roundtable in 1972, which reinforced the integration of museums and societies, the New Museology revised the social function of museums, allying itself with the decolonial processes that aroused criticism of museum environments by exposing their histories linked to colonial projects. Concomitantly with the demands for repatriation of ethnographic objects by native populations and the reevaluations of the collecting contexts undertook by museums, scholars began to engage in museological practices with native knowledge about objects that their societies produced. Thus, ethnographic museums have become places of symbolic and political dispute, being simultaneously objects and subjects of decolonial criticism. The potential of museological institutions to impact social environments, as well as to foster processes of cultural valorization, became fundamental to collaborative relations between museums and indigenous populations in Latin America and elsewhere. Collaborative curation carried out by academic and indigenous specialists is not only capable of rethinking musealization processes, but also of creating knowledge through intercultural dialogues. Therefore, the panel welcomes theoretical approaches and case studies that address, but are not limited to, the following questions: How the participation of source communities in curation or in researches at ethnographic museums is capable of transgressing hegemonic narratives of the history of anthropology? What are the consequences for traditional historiographies? What intercultural epistemologies and social changes result from collaborative curation? Were there any impacts in power relations established in or around museums?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 23 June, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
This presentation aims to discuss the relation between ethnographic collections with three fields: histories of anthropology, indigenous peoples and museums.
Paper long abstract:
Inside an imaginary Venn diagram which shows the intersection between three sets, namely those of histories of anthropology, indigenous peoples and museums, ethnographic collections would be the central element. This means that it is not only possible to approach every single field startig by the analysis of collections, but also that those very field leads to the ethnographic collections. By taking in account that ethnographic collections manage to put in relation those three sets, meaningful insight about them are also capable of transforming the sets the collections are related to. Thus, by comparing the experiences of a collaborative curation held by colleagues at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at the University of São Paulo (MAE-USP) with data collected by myself at the Museum Archive, this paper aims to discuss the relation of these three sets, by focusing the central role of ethnographic collections.
Paper short abstract:
We discuss questions on the possibilities and limits of cooperation with stakeholders from creator communities of the museumized objects based on the example of the exhibition "Francis La Flesche" in the Humboldt Forum in Berlin.
Paper long abstract:
Collaboration with so-called creator communities has become a new paradigm for ethnological museums. In this presentation, we discuss questions on the possibilities and limits of cooperation with stakeholders from creator communities of the museumized objects based on the example of the exhibition "Francis La Flesche" in the Humboldt Forum in Berlin.
Today, Francis La Flesche is considered to be the first indigenous ethnologist in North America. In 1894, the Royal Ethnological Museum Berlin commissioned Francis La Flesche to assemble a collection of his own culture, the Umoⁿhoⁿ.
“We don’t want another white guy to tell our story!” reacted Wynema Morris, professor at the Nebraska Indian Community College, when we told her about our plans to do an exhibition on Francis La Flesche together with the college.
Today, the collection of Francis La Flesche is the starting point of a research and exhibition project that the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin is realizing together with the Humboldt Forum Foundation and the Nebraska Indian Community College.
The experiences of racism, violence and loss of land still influence the living conditions of the Umóⁿhoⁿ community today. In this context, the Berlin collection is of particular importance, because it bears witness to the resistance against colonization. It offers people the opportunity to reconnect with their ancestors present their own history with pride. The joint work on the collection shows how deeply colonial contexts are inscribed in the collections of ethnological museums.
Paper short abstract:
The paper will present an evaluation and analysis of a survey on collaborative exhibition curation sent to museum professionals. It will shed light on their institution’s self-conception and strategies towards the realization of a more inclusive and socially meaningful paradigm.
Paper long abstract:
The paper will present the results of a quantitative and qualitative study undertaken by a team of museum professionals and researchers based at Mucem in Marseille. The survey followed the aim to investigate the contemporary curation practices of European museums by posing the question of the way in which collaboration is part of their scientific projects, as well as curation and collective practices. Also, the aspect of remuneration of external partners and experts was investigated. On the basis of participation in the survey a number of individual interview partners were selected inquiring specific examples of collaborative or co-creative exhibitions with vulnerable communities that break with the norm of habitual power structures and dominant heritage production. The analysis draws from the responses of 118 French and international participants in their capacities as independent curators, representatives and professionals from European museums, and patrimonial associations. While the degrees of collaboration and ranges of implementation in professional practices may vary, for many survey participants collaboration is framed as engaging in relations with the public in order to retrieve information for a specific museal objective. Systematic collaboration with organized minority groups or community representatives in exhibition curation is less wide-spread (even lesser so in the French context), while the institution-wide integration of minority advisors and co-curators remains an exception.