The Restitution of Knowledge: artefacts as archives in the (post)colonial museum, 1850-1939

《知识的归还》是欧洲人类学藏品和(后)殖民遗产的历史和策展方法之间的新的跨国合作。它识别、研究、记录和重新思考民族学收藏品中“掠夺”的历史和正在进行的当代意义。通过这样做，它将人类学博物馆的储藏室重新设想为一个独特的档案馆，讲述殖民蹂躏的无数历史，从而为(后)殖民纪念和归还的新形式的发展做出重大贡献。该项目创建了一个新的比较资源，通过一种创新的协作方法记录殖民蹂躏行为，以便将以博物馆文物形式保存的历史知识与各种历史和当代观点重新联系起来。该项目对(后)殖民起源研究的新兴领域进行了重大的新干预，满足了博物馆专业人员、历史研究人员和土著来源社区的迫切需要，需要系统地清点在“惩罚性探险”中带走物品的事件--这是目前完全缺乏的一种清查。来自德国和英国的学术和专业实践的观点被汇集在殖民历史、起源研究和世界艺术的策展中，为来源地社区和国家，包括来自非洲和全球南部的土著群体，开辟了一种新的资源，了解物品和历史的意义，供未来探索。通过这项工作，该项目为当前欧洲、非洲和全球关于文化恢复的辩论增添了一个新的层面，为知识交流和发展制定了一种新的对等和比较的方法。除了对帝国历史做出主要贡献外，该项目还重新评估了人类学博物馆的地位，因为那里不仅充满了物品，而且还拥有关于冲突、暴力和损失的历史知识。因此，该项目将欧洲人类学博物馆重新定位为文化记忆的场所，在那里，归还文物不仅可以涉及文化财产的实物归还，而且还可以涉及记忆和知识分享。

‘The Restitution of Knowledge’ is a new transnational collaboration between historical and curatorial approaches to European anthropological collections and (post)colonial legacies. It identifies, researches, documents and rethinks the history and ongoing contemporary significance of ‘plunder’ in ethnological collections. In doing so, it reimagines the anthropological museum storeroom as a unique archive for telling untold histories of colonial spoliation, thus making a major contribution to the development of new forms of (post)colonial remembrance and restitution. The project creates a new comparative resource that documents acts of colonial spoliation through an innovative collaborative methodology for reconnecting the historical knowledge held in the form of museum artefacts with a wide diversity of historical and contemporary perspectives. Making a major new intervention in the emerging field of (post)colonial provenance research, the project addresses an urgent need among museum professionals, historical researchers and Indigenous source communities alike for a systematic inventory of incidents where objects were taken in ‘punitive expeditions’ – an inventory that is at present entirely lacking. Perspectives from German and British scholarship and professional practice are brought together across colonial history, provenance studies, and the curation of world art, opening up a new resource for the significance of objects and histories for source communities and nations, including Indigenous groups from Africa and across the global south, to be explored in the future. Through this work the project adds a new dimension to current European, African and global debates about cultural restitution, developing a new reciprocal and comparative method for knowledge exchange and development. As well as making a primary contribution to the history of empire, the project revaluates the status of anthropological museums as places filled not just with objects but also with historical knowledge of conflict, violence and loss. The project thus reframes the European anthropological museum as places of cultural memory, at which restitution that can involve not just the physical repatriation of cultural property but also remembrance and the sharing of knowledge.