Negotiations around Heritage: the return and circulation of Polynesian artefacts from the United Kingdom and France to French Polynesia

我的论文将分析法属波利尼西亚在三个英国和法国博物馆中进行物质遗产归还的政策：剑桥大学考古与人类学博物馆(MAA)、大英博物馆(BM)和布朗利-雅克·希拉克博物馆(MQB-JC)。不同寻常的是，在当前的气候下，法属波利尼西亚当地政府和马纳哈博物馆(Musée de Tahiti et des Iles-Te Fare Manaha，MTI)并没有强调归还稀有的历史珍宝，而是提出了一个物品流通的模式，因为他们认为这些物品是代表波利尼西亚在世界各地的交通工具。借用新喀里多尼亚--也是法国领土--的卡纳克人的说法，法属波利尼西亚政府和MTI将这些旅行对象称为“大使”(Ambassadeur)。因此，MAA、BM和MQB-JC正在规划将法属波利尼西亚文物临时和永久归还给MTI的方案。它们是合作组织的，影响着英国和法国博物馆与波利尼西亚文物的关系。从这个法属波利尼西亚人的角度来看，博物馆的非殖民化不仅涉及藏品的归还，还包括对他们殖民历史的批判性阅读，允许听到多种声音。此外，根据法属波利尼西亚文化部长Heremoana Maamaatuaiahuapu和MTI的说法，将文物送回自己的领土将使他们能够为自己的法力充电，这是来自神和祖先的精神力量。博物馆文物的振兴将影响与它们互动的人和博物馆本身，影响它们的运营和彼此之间的关系。鉴于这些情况，我建议重新研究法力的问题，这是人类学文献中的一个经典概念。法力具有在人与物之间建立联系的功效。在这一概念中突出的权威概念呼应了法属波利尼西亚试图通过要求暂时/永久归还文物来维护的政治和文化合法性。我的论文主要使用人种学方法，并将田野调查与人类学和博物馆学文献并列在一起，将对收藏品的归还和所有权的学术做出更广泛的贡献。我将研究这些史无前例的波利尼西亚文物运动以及与之相关的南北博物馆实践中的重大变化。探索法属波利尼西亚政府和MTI对法力概念的使用，可能会更好地理解他们所奉行的物品流通政策，以及博物馆做法正在发生变化的方式。

My thesis will analyse the French Polynesian policy of conducting the return of its material heritage held in three British and French museums: the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of Cambridge University (MAA), the British Museum (BM) and the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac (mqB-JC). Unusually in the current climate, the local French Polynesian government and the Musée de Tahiti et des iles - Te Fare Manaha (MTI) do not emphasise restitution of rare historic treasures, but propose a model of circulation of objects, as they consider them to be vehicles that represent Polynesia around the world. Borrowing the term from Kanak people of New-Caledonia - also a French Territory - the French Polynesian government and the MTI call these travelling objects "ambassadors" (ambassadeurs). Thus, MAA, BM and mqB-JC are planning programmes of temporary as well as permanent returns of French Polynesian objects to MTI. They are collaboratively organised and affect British and French museums' relationships to Polynesian objects. From this French Polynesian perspective, decolonising the museum not only involves the return of collections but a critical reading of their colonial histories, allowing a multiplicity of voices to be heard. Besides, according to French Polynesia's Minister of Culture, Heremoana Maamaatuaiahutapu, and MTI, returning the artefacts to their home territory will allow them to "recharge their mana", a spiritual force from the gods and ancestors. This revitalisation of museum objects will affect people who interact with them and the museums themselves, in their operation and relationships to each other. I suggest re-investigating the question of mana, a classic concept in anthropological literature, in light of these circumstances. Mana has the efficacy to create links between people and things. The notion of authority, prominent in this concept, echoes the political and cultural legitimacy that French Polynesia seeks to assert by requesting the temporary/permanent return of artifacts.Using mainly an ethnographic methodology and juxtaposing fieldwork with anthropological and museological literature, my thesis will contribute more broadly to scholarship on restitution and ownership of collections. I will examine these unprecedented movements of Polynesian objects and associated significant shifts in north/south museum practice. Exploring the use of the concept of mana by the French Polynesian government and MTI will likely provide a better understanding of the policy of circulation of objects that they pursue and the way in which museum practices are changing.