Zeitschrift für Ethnologie/Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Content/Inhalt

150-2 — 2026-06-10

Content/Inhalt

Introduction to the Special Issue

Gabriele Alex — 2026-06-10

Ethnographic and non-European art collections currently form a field that is particularly prominent in the public eye, since the methods of curating, exhibiting and working with cultural belongings have undergone significant changes over the past twenty years. These changes are rooted in postcolonial and decolonial approaches, especially since the institutions housing these collections are confronted with ongoing debates about their entanglement with histories of colonialism and unequal power relations. Consequently, new approaches were and still are needed to establish and sustain fair relationships between museums and the communities of the collections’ places of origin.

The Collaborative Museum?

Anna Szöke — 2026-06-10

This article examines the complexities and structural challenges of collaboration in ethnographic museum work through a case study of the Collaborative Museum (CoMuse) project at the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst in Berlin. In response to the growing demands for decolonization, inclusivity and epistemic justice, CoMuse aims to operationalize collaborative practice not merely as an ethical ideal but also as a structural intervention. Drawing on ethnographic observations and institutional analysis, the article situates collaboration within broader institutional entanglements such as contract law, labour regulation, digital infrastructure and administrative procedures, showing how these shape and often constrain relational forms of knowledge production. The paper argues that if collaboration is to be more than symbolic, it requires sustained engagement with the material and procedural infrastructures of museum work. The paper also highlights the tensions between bureaucratic regimes and relational accountability and explores how new roles, workflows and digital strategies can enable more equitable institutional transformation. Rather than presenting a model, CoMuse is offered as a situated attempt to rethink authority, co-authorship and institutional responsibility under the pressures of historical accountability and global entanglement.

Going Against the Grain: A Podcast on Projects within the CoMuse Cosmos

Katharina Erben — 2026-06-10

Within the ‘Collaborative Museum’, the podcast ‘Going Against the Grain’ (German: Gegen die Gewohnheit) tells its audiences about the collaborative projects of the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst. Reflecting on both their guiding principles and their journey so far, the two podcast hosts share their insights and experiences.

Restitution: Between Containment and Cooperation

Julia von Sigsfeld — 2026-06-10

Museum practice has been shaped decisively in recent years by a ‘collaborative turn’. Celebrated with optimism and critiqued with wariness alike, collaboration has become central to how anthropological museums approach their work. Beyond individual collaborative projects, museums are now facing the deeper challenge of structural change. When it comes to restitution, collaboration can open up meaningful pathways. At the same time, however, restitution constitutes and in many ways exposes the limits of collaboration. This article explores the potentials and boundaries of collaboration in the context of restitution. While many structural challenges remain unresolved, the paper argues that there are possibilities to reshape restitution in more ethical terms, and that museums have the agency to do so.

Situating the Digital Strategy of the Collaborative Museum

Cristina Navarro — 2026-06-10

This article aims to formulate and frame the digital strategy of the Collaborative Museum conceptually and to outline the main lines of its immediate implementation plan from a reflexive perspective. The digital strategy is presented as a practice, ‘a doing’, of situated knowledge with specific intentions and urgencies. The article will highlight the fundamental principles of designing access and circulation as core areas of action in the structuring and conception of specific digital projects. By concentrating on the foundational aspects of the digital strategy and offering specific examples of use, I hope to share some of the possibilities and limitations of using digital technologies in decolonial museum work in a way that resonates with readers who access this article.

Shiva Linga kosh: Visual Research on the Provenance and Meaning of a Sacred Artefact from Nepal

Deepak Tolange — 2026-06-10

‘Shiva Linga kosh: Visual Research on the Provenance and Meaning of a Sacred Artefact from Nepal’ explores the origin, provenance and cultural significance of a copper-gilt, four-faced chaturmukha Shiva Linga kosh (cover) housed at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin. The researchers are engaged in collection-based, multi-sited, multi-layered visual research developed through mutual collaboration combining archival-related and qualitative methodologies employing filming, observation and interviews in Nepal and Berlin. This article aims to outline the challenges and possibilities of a cooperative research approach, illustrated through selected moments from the shared research process culminating in the documentary film Shiva Linga: A Visual Quest.

Material Culture, Loss and Resilience: Findings in the Uyghur Diaspora

Melanie Krebs — 2026-06-10

Based on the Uyghur collection from the late 19^th century that is housed within the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, the project asks what objects, both those held at the museum and contemporary objects, mean for Uyghurs living in the diaspora today. The research focused on Uyghur traders, makers and consumers of Uyghur objects in Istanbul and Kazakhstan. It revealed different ways of coping with biographical ruptures and the loss and (re-)forming of Uyghur identity in the diaspora. For this purpose, the concepts of nostalgia and resilience are discussed, especially in the context of working with museum collections and exhibitions.

Shifting Focus: Collaborative Approaches in the Kribi Archives Project

Elsa M’bala — 2026-06-10

The Kribi Archives project is a collaborative project aimed at revitalizing a neglected local archive in Kribi, Cameroon, and transforming it into a sustainable, community-driven space for historical engagement, research and artistic exchange. Rather than presenting a theoretical framework, this article offers a reflection on the project’s early stages and its collaborative approach. We try to unwrap the multiple layers which connect the coastal town of Kribi and the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, and we question how these entanglements shape our work. We approach the archive not merely as a repository of knowledge or a tool for preservation, but also as a catalyst for dialogue, creativity and inclusive knowledge production.

The Global Culture Assembly. Experimenting with New Forms of Governance in Museums (2022–2024)

Anna Sara Dias Portugal Guimarães — 2026-06-10

The Global Culture Assembly (GCA) is a collaborative initiative that seeks to redefine museum governance through inclusive, horizontal and cross-cultural participation. Emerging from the 2022 Humboldt Forum’s opening symposium, the GCA has evolved through workshops and ongoing dialogue between international partners, museum professionals and community representatives. Its central aim is to establish permanent structures, such as an embassy, that enable shared decision-making over cultural heritage. Despite internal tensions, representational challenges and inequalities of power between the Humboldt Forum complex and the GCA, the latter offers a promising path toward decolonial transformation in museum practices. By prioritizing fair collaboration, transparency and long-term engagement, it represents an exceptional experiment in 21st-century museology. This article reviews the unfolding of the GCA over the past three years. We shed light on how external partners are willing (and allowed) to collaborate and participate in museums’ decision-making processes, as well as addressing the challenges that arise when experimenting with new forms of governance. Finally, we briefly engage with decolonial perspectives and describe how the GCA can offer hope in the context of 21st-century museums.

The Mapuche Collections in the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin: (Re)Interpretations of the Collections in the Present

Lena Steffens — 2026-06-10

The Ethnologisches Museum houses collections from the Indigenous Mapuche people, acquired since the mid-nineteenth century, primarily from what is now Chile. In a collaborative project with representatives of the Mapuche, we aim to analyze the significance of the collections at the present day and the stories, knowledge and practices associated with the cultural artefacts. This article describes the sensitive historical and cultural contexts of the collection and the resulting cooperation project. The significance and relevance of these artefacts for the Mapuche today, and their integration into cultural and social processes in relation to historical events and provenances, have a particularly important place. The planning, process, objectives and initial reflections on the project are also outlined.

Reveal and Conceal: Poetic and Sensory Dimensions in Collaborative Knowledge Production in the Project ‘Talking Mats: Interwoven Histories – Connecting Peoples’ (2023–2025)

Sophia Bokop — 2026-06-10

A collection of late 19^th-century mats originating from the Lamu Archipelago in northern Kenya – globally unique, as they bear interwoven poems – is today kept in the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin. The project ‘Talking Mats: Interwoven Histories – Connecting Peoples’ is a joint research project and cooperation between the Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin, and the National Museums of Kenya, in particular the Lamu Museums and World Heritage Site. This article reflects on the ongoing process of knowledge and exhibition co-production. As a specific kind of collaboration, co-production is often considered an innovative approach in that it integrates multiple perspectives in museum practices. Seven members of the ‘Talking Mats’ team reflect from the artistic, practical and scientific perspectives on their activities, roles and the outcomes of their joint endeavour in co-producing a multi-media and multi-sited exhibition project across boundaries of language, nation states and resources. The aim is to highlight the experiences, challenges and opportunities of a joint project in relation to postcolonial working methods in ethnological collections and museums, as well as in international museum cooperation.

Protective Beings: The Superpowers of Nature. An Artistic Research Laboratory

Valerie von Stillfried — 2026-06-10

This article describes a collaborative educational and artistic project developed by the Instituto Colombiano de Anthropología e Historia (ICANH) and the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin. Protective stone figures from the Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín, some of which are also in the collections in Berlin, were the starting point and inspiration for the resulting workshop ‘Protective Beings. The Superpowers of Nature’. This workshop promotes ecological awareness among children in Berlin and San Agustín Colombia. A central focus of this foundational artistic research is to develop methods to empower children not to feel powerless in the face of climate change and species extinction, but to build and strengthen their self-efficacy. Through the encounter with the stone guardians, the children are enabled to reflect on both the relationships between different species and their own position in the world.

Slice(s) of Life: Collaboration in Visual Anthropology between Bena and Berlin

Gina Knapp — 2026-06-10

This reflective report provides insights into a long-term collaborative research project in the field of visual anthropology. It deals with questions of collaboration in visual anthropological research, ethnographic film-making, and the archiving and usage of ethnographic footage in and outside museal contexts.

Working with Flutes and Whistling Bottles from pre-Hispanic Peru

Maurice Mengel — 2026-06-10

This article examines a four-year collaboration between Peruvian music archaeologist Gonzalo Rodríguez and German ethnomusicologist Maurice Mengel at the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin, exploring how European museums can foster collaborative research into Peruvian musical heritage. We argue that recent decolonial perspectives in music archaeology challenge Eurocentric assumptions about musicking and necessitate experimental approaches using replicas of archaeological instruments to explore Andean musical aesthetics. These aesthetics include distinctive timbral qualities, interlocking performance practices and integrated physical movement, features that cannot be adequately studied through the observation of museum artefacts alone. Through Rodríguez’s hands-on research, we demonstrate that existing museum documentation—including published catalogues and online portals—lacks sufficient detail for rigorous archaeomusicological study. His investigations have revealed approximately 260 previously unidentified whistling bottles in the Berlin collection and produced faithful replicas requiring detailed measurements, materials research, and technical expertise in instrument construction. We contend that, while online resources remain inadequate, intensive in-person study of collections is essential. Museums holding Peruvian archaeological instruments must facilitate access for South American scholars, publish more comprehensive digital documentation, including sound and video examples, and support experimental research methodologies. Such initiatives contribute to decolonization while advancing understanding of pre-Columbian musical practices and challenging longstanding assumptions.

Collaborating on the Berlin Mazatec Collection

Gabriela García — 2026-06-10

In 2024, the Mazatec writer and librarian Gabriela García came to Berlin to study the Mazatec collection in the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Acquired by the museum from Wilhelm Bauer in 1903 and 1908, this ethnographic collection is a testimony to the past life of the Mazatec people, which has changed profoundly since then. In a joint project between the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, and the Biblioteca de Investigación Juan de Córdova, Fundación Alfredo Harp Helú Oaxaca, Mexico, a travelling photographic exhibition has made this account of the past accessible to Mazatec communities. In addition, the collector’s historical photos and language recordings are also subject to the ongoing collaboration. This article provides an overview of the projects’ work in process and closes with an interview with Gabriela García, in which she describes her experiences with the collaboration.

Macucu: Experiences in Long-term Collaboration between a Museum and an Indigenous Community

Andrea Scholz — 2026-06-10

This article describes a long-term, process-oriented collaboration between the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin and the Kotiria community of Macucu in Colombia. This cooperation has evolved into a deep relational engagement in which cultural objects are seen as living entities and mediators between the Museum and the community. Through joint activities, such as the construction of a traditional longhouse and the creation of a botanical garden, cultural practices were revitalized and intergenerational learning was fostered. However, the article also addresses the tensions, power asymmetries and challenges that can arise in transcultural collaborations of this kind.

The Museo del Niwan Nha in Yalambojoch, Guatemala

Ulrich Wölfel — 2026-06-10

A community museum is currently being established at the Niwan Nha Cultural Centre in the Guatemalan village of Yalambojoch. Through a collaboration with the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, copies of stone sculptures collected for the museum by Eduard Seler in the 19th century at neighbouring archaeological sites are helping residents to connect with a local past that has been locally lost to collecting and looting activities.

Do We Care? Reflections on the Multi-Layered Challenges and Opportunities Posed by a Decolonial Approach to Collection-Based Museum Practices

Nadia Kabalan — 2026-06-10

Collections play a crucial role as a meeting point between community stakeholders, guest researchers, international fellows and museum staff, while also carrying the traces of a violent (colonial) past. Conceived as a cross-disciplinary open conversation between the fields of museology, design and fellowship coordination, this article raises questions within the framework of the decolonial ambition of the Collaborative Museum, highlighting notions of care, critiques of racism and a hierarchy-critical understanding of interdisciplinary collaboration.

Intertwined Memories

Patrick Helber — 2026-06-10

What traces of colonial and Nazi violence can be found in the Humboldt Forum exhibitions? How relevant is this heritage for democracy today? In the collaborative project ‘Intertwined Memories,’ people from Berlin’s diverse urban society, international partners from Namibia, Rwanda, Jamaica and Israel, and employees of the Ethnologisches Museum and the Stiftung Humboldt Forum are working together to develop educational formats for schoolchildren and adults.

The combination of the architecture and history of the Humboldt Forum with the exhibition of anthropological collections from colonial contexts has created a tension that has been articulated in numerous debates since the museum opened. Dialogue-based educational programs create the opportunity to negotiate controversial topics with different visitor groups. We see criticism of anti-Semitism and racism as two important building blocks of our educational formats.

On the Road to ‘5 Questions on the Collections’: The Zurich Ethnographic Museum Collaborative Workspace Series Exhibitions 2022-2024

Mareile Flitsch — 2026-06-10

Collaborative research on museum collections is standard today in ethnographic museums, where the power of interpretation, questions of expertise and ownership rights are critically discussed as necessary steps towards decolonizing western museums and knowledge. After a range of collaborative projects, between 2022 and 2024 the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich ran the Workspace Series as a format for making knowledge production in an ethnographic museum transparent and for sharing collections, museum work and collaborative research with originator and migrant communities, as well as the general public. Five key questions were formulated to show how mutual understanding depends on negotiating basic information and ascertaining insights into different perspectives. The aim was to demonstrate how important this mutual trust is for collaborative research that is relevant not only to western audiences, but particularly also to originator communities of collections preserved in our museums.