Provenance research: Entangled histories of objects from Asia and Oceania in the missionary museum “Forum der Völker”

In the missionary museum “Forum der Völker”, founded by the Franciscan religious order, ethnographic objects – in particular ritual implements or religious art – were transferred to a Christian context by reinterpreting them as counter-images for the missionary task. Missionaries commodified devices...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Publicado no:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/iss,
Autor principal: Tjoa-Bonatz, Mai Lin
Formato: Article ou chapitre numérique
Idioma:Anglais
Publicado em: ICOFOM Study Series 2024
Assuntos:
Acesso em linha:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Descrição
Resumo:In the missionary museum “Forum der Völker”, founded by the Franciscan religious order, ethnographic objects – in particular ritual implements or religious art – were transferred to a Christian context by reinterpreting them as counter-images for the missionary task. Missionaries commodified devices of local worship and showed an ambivalence towards human remains and weapons. The museum’s collection was extended in the past thirty years by private collections, including objects obtained by the military from the colonial period or of antiquities theft by art lovers. The initial provenance research in the museum used archive material, gathered information by studying the objects and conducted interviews with relevant actors. The implication of the findings revealed unclear changes of ownership and various potentially sensitive acquisition contexts that offers an orientation in how to deal with objects of problematic provenance in a missionary context.