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‘Definitely stolen?’: Why there is no alternative to provenance research in archaeological museums
| Content Provider | Scilit |
|---|---|
| Copyright Year | 2016 |
| Description | Book Name: Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage |
| Abstract | Provenance research in repositories of archaeological cultural property is directly relevant to all these topics or academic challenges. Thus it also represents a response to the increased societal and cultural interest in objects and their ‘itineraries’, ‘biographies’ or ‘history’. Such research can further contribute to the clarification of concepts and terminology that are relevant to this context, yet which are frequently misused or confused in the public sphere and by the media. From a cultural-theoretical viewpoint, an academic review of the history of acquisition of archaeological collections, as well as the diachronic itineraries of their objects, appears urgently advisable for two reasons, which are interconnected. The strands of theory generally subsumed under the term ‘postcolonial theory’ have not only exposed the one-sidedness of specifically European narratives of development and modernity, and essentialist cultural concepts used as discursive instruments to reinforce colonial power structures. In addition, the same theoretical work has drawn attention to the fact that the creation of collections in Europe of non-Europeanarchaeological or ethnological cultural property mostly occurred within the framework of power-political and economical asymmetries; and that such collecting also served the propagation of colonially determined and mostly derogatory perceptions of ‘other’ cultures and the particularities attributed to them – and precisely through museums’ activities of gathering representations of ‘otherness’ in their collections. These asymmetries and their consequences still have various effects to the present day, not only in the ‘orientalisms’ of many current narratives in Ancient Studies and in the cultural sciences, but also precisely in the worldwide systematic plundering of archaeological sites and museums in formerly colonized states for the illegal trade of cultural property in rich market states with good infrastructure. An up-to-date cultural science of, with and as a result of archaeological objects in historically assembled collections is therefore urgently dependent on academically obtaining the provenance of objects, if such scientific work wishes to avoid accusations of acting carelessly from the point of view of cultural theory, and in disregard of the postcolonial perspective on these objects. A second argument from cultural theory for provenance research in repositories of archaeological cultural property derives from the observation that the epistemic and scientific status of objects in the humanities and social sciences has changed considerably in recent times. While objects are understood by these disciplines not only as very effective vehicles for social practices, the premise is also now accepted that things can never, for any person, be more than objects of one’s interpretative perception. In terms of methodology and research strategy, this premise is of fundamental significance, because it affirms that practices of, with and as a result of things never refer to the ‘thing in itself ’; only to constructed objects whose identities are multiple and variable, depending on subjective reception. The central research strategy of object-oriented research in the humanities and social sciences must therefore, abstractly speaking, consist of continually documenting the different social and practical contextualizations of an object, without distinguishing between ‘original’ or ‘primary’, and ‘hybrid’ or ‘secondary’, ‘participation’ in social practices, and thereby advancing an academic evaluation and hierarchical ordering of these various social-practical ‘scenarios’ for objects studied. The theoretical and practical advantage of this framework lies in the fact that it does not judge any of the various social contextualizations of an object, and therefore diversifies object-oriented research in terms of theory, method and content. The cumulative ‘recontextualizations’ of an object – precisely in the framework of contemporary scientific, museum and even digital practices – can thus also become the subject of object-oriented research, as can the production of such an object and its wrongful, but academically mostly privileged, ‘first participations’ in social practices. As an academic reconstruction of such ‘object biographies’ or ‘object itineraries’, the analysis of provenance in archaeological museums is thus also a must, when seen from this cultural-theoretical perspective. Yet there are, of course, also good reasons beyond cultural theory for the investigation of the provenance of archaeological objects. Even in terms of relations of cultural and foreign policy between states of origin on the one hand and owner orpossessor states on the other, the accountability of the latter with regard to the creation of collections of cultural property plays an increasingly important part. Meanwhile such accountability has often become even a prerequisite for bilateral cooperation in the field of museums or academia. What is at issue for the states of origin here is decidedly not simply the raising or verification of claims for restitution. Rather, they expect from a partnership on equal terms of cultural and foreign policy a responsible, transparent handling by modern states of their – as the case may be – colonial or imperial history; this naturally also entails the reviewing and publication of the provenance of archaeological cultural property in public collections. These archaeological collections, after all, were often assembled during a time when the political relationship between states of origin and owner or possessor states was decidedly not on equal terms, but rather was characterized by the asymmetry... |
| Related Links | https://api.taylorfrancis.com/content/chapters/edit/download?identifierName=doi&identifierValue=10.4324/9781315560151-31&type=chapterpdf |
| Ending Page | 239 |
| Page Count | 8 |
| Starting Page | 232 |
| DOI | 10.4324/9781315560151-31 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited |
| Publisher Date | 2016-07-07 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Book Name: Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage Cultural Studies Cultural Theoretical Archaeological Museums Provenance Biographies Creation of Collections Academic Object Itineraries |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Chapter |
