This pioneering study charts the one-way traffic of cultural and historical objects during five centuries of European colonialism. Former colonies consider this as a historical injustice that has not been undone.
The treatment of cultural colonial objects is one of the most debated questions of our time. Calls for a new international cultural order go back to decolonization. However, for decades, the issue has been treated as a matter of comity or been reduced to a Shakespearean dilemma: to return or not to return. Confronting Colonial Objects seeks to go beyond these classic dichotomies and argues that contemporary practices are at a tipping point. The book shows that cultural takings were material to the colonial project throughout different periods and went far beyond looting. It presents micro histories and object biographies to trace recurring justifications and contestations of takings and returns while outlining the complicity of anthropology, racial science, and professional networks that enabled colonial collecting. The book demonstrates the dual role of law and cultural heritage regulation in facilitating colonial injustices and mobilizing resistance thereto. Drawing on the interplay between justice, ethics, and human rights, Stahn develops principles of relational cultural justice. He challenges the argument that takings were acceptable according to the standards of the time and outlines how future engagement requires a re-invention of knowledge systems and relations towards objects, including new forms of consent, provenance research, and partnership, and a re-thinking of the role of museums themselves. Following the life story and transformation of cultural objects, this book provides a fresh perspective on international law and colonial history that appeals to audiences across a variety of disciplines. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.
Displacing and Displaying the Objects of Others is a thought-provoking collection that brings together a diverse range of contributions inspired by research from the "Hamburg's (post-)colonial legacy" research center. The authors explore new perspectives in provenance research by situating it within the broader contexts of global history, colonial history, and postcolonial studies. This volume goes beyond simply tracing the origins of objects, considering the significant impact on the societies from which these objects originate. It also critically examines how these objects were used in collections and museums and how the process of musealization shaped collecting practices. With its multiperspective approach, Displacing and Displaying the Objects of Others encourages readers to reflect on the deep connections between past and present and to consider responsible ways of engaging with colonial collections.
Gegründet im Jahr 2000 widmet sich das Jahrbuch der Europäischen Geschichte von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zur jüngeren Zeitgeschichte. Die große zeitliche Breite, thematische Vielfalt und methodische Offenheit zeichnen das Jahrbuch von Beginn an aus und machen es zu einem zentralen Ort wissenschaftlicher Debatten. Das bleibt künftig so. Mit dem Jahrgang 2014 verändert sich das Jahrbuch aber in mehrfacher Hinsicht: Das Jahrbuch erscheint mit der Ausgabe 2014 im Open Access. Jeder Band setzt einen thematischen Schwerpunkt. Das Forum bietet Platz für geschichtswissenschaftliche Reflexionen und Debatten. Jeder Beitrag des Jahrbuchs durchläuft ein strenges Peer-Review-Verfahren. Das Jahrbuch erweitert seinen Namen zum "Jahrbuch für Europäische Geschichte. European History Yearbook". und druckt künftig deutsch- und englischsprachige Beiträge, seit 2015 ausschließlich englischsprachige.
Conflict over cultural heritage has increasingly become a standard part of war. Today, systematic exploitation, manipulation, attacks, and destruction of cultural heritage by state and non-state actors form part of most violent conflicts across the world. Such acts are often intentional and based on well-planned strategies for inflicting harm on groups of people and communities. With this increasing awareness of the role cultural heritage plays in war, scholars and practitioners have progressed from seeing conflict-related destruction of cultural heritage as a cultural tragedy to understanding it as a vital national security issue. There is also a shift from the desire to protect cultural property for its own sake to viewing its protection as connected to broader agendas of peace and security. Concerns about cultural heritage have thus migrated beyond the cultural sphere to worries about the protection of civilians, the financing of terrorism, societal resilience, post-conflict reconciliation, hybrid warfare, and the geopolitics of territorial conflicts. This volume seeks to deepen public understanding of the evolving nexus between cultural heritage and security in the twenty-first century. Drawing on a variety of disciplines and perspectives, the chapters in this volume examine a complex set of relationships between the deliberate destruction and misuse of cultural heritage in times of conflict, on the one hand, and basic societal values, legal principles, and national security, on the other.
The Routledge Handbook of Heritage and the Law sheds light on the relationship between the two fields and analyses how the law shapes heritage and heritage practice in both expected and unexpected ways. Including contributions from 41 authors working across a range of jurisdictions, the volume analyses the law as a transnational phenomenon and uses international and comparative legal methodologies to distil lessons for broad application. Demonstrating that the law is fundamentally a language of power and contestation, the Handbook shows how this impacts our views of heritage. It also shows that, to understand the ways in which the law impacts key aspects of heritage practice, it is important to tap into the possibilities of heritage as points of convergence of identity, struggles over resources, and the distribution of power. Framing heritage as a driver for legal engagement rather than a passive regulatory object, the book first reviews the legal fields or mechanisms that can shape action in the heritage field, then questions how these enable authority and give power to those who seize heritage, and finally envisions how the discussion between heritage and the law can lay new grounds in both those fields. Lifting the mists that often render the law opaque in heritage studies, the Handbook showcases the law as a medium through which the culture and the power of heritage are expressed and might be shared. The Routledge Handbook of Heritage and the Law presents a view of the law that is aimed at those who wish to reflect on how law has changed, or could change, what heritage is and how it can support social, cultural, local, or other development. It will be of interest to scholars, students, policymakers, and practitioners working in the areas of museum studies, heritage studies, and urban studies, as well as in cultural intervention and planning. Chapter 8 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license. Chapter 34 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons (CC-BY) 4.0 license. The Routledge Handbook of Heritage and the Law | Lucas Lixinski, Lucie (taylorfrancis.com)