International Symposium
Collecting the 19th Century: museological and archaeological perspectives from Europe and Latin America
- Date
- Monday 17 October 2016
- Time
- Location
-
Van Steenis
Einsteinweg 2
2333 CC Leiden - Room
- F1.04

Collecting practices in the nineteenth century not only reflect the development of archaeological and anthropological sciences, but are a mirror of the political and diplomatic relationships between Latin America and Europe. At a time of the consolidation of the nation-states, indigenous material culture held a particularly relevant place in the construction of representations of identity and ideas about ‘otherness’ on both sides of the Atlantic.
This symposium brings together scholars working on archival and object records to reconstruct the dialogic processes that helped to shape academic practices as well as museum collections as we known them today. We intend to foster a discussion that starts from the history of particular collections and challenges the one-sided notion that materials were collected in Latin America and knowledge was only produced in Europe. Instead, we want to ask: What are the hitherto unseen agencies of Latin American collectors and collections in the making of archaeological and anthropological sciences in museum settings? How is current research changing the grand narratives about the history of collecting?
American collectors and collections in the making of archaeological and anthropological sciences in museum settings? How is current research changing the grand narratives about the history of collecting?
Programme:
Mariana Françozo (Leiden University) |
|
Introduction |
Malena Bedoya (PUC Ecuador) |
|
The Nation and the Objects: Exhibitions, intellectuals, and practices of collecting Pre-Columbian traces. Connected histories from the Andes (1890-1920) |
Maria Patricia Ordoñez (Leiden University) |
|
The Gift of Mummies: Diplomatic relationships between the Andes and national museums in Europe |
Wayne Modest (National Museum of World Cultures, Leiden) |
|
Agents of Power, Agency under Power: Collecting in the Caribbean and the formation of ethnographic knowledge |
Erik Petschelies (Unicamp, Brazil) |
|
Koch-Grünberg's collection at the Emílio Goeldi Museum: a case study |
Pieter ter Keurs (RMO, Leiden) |
|
Final Comments |
This symposium was organized thanks to the support of:
- Consulado del Ecuador en el Reino de los Paises Bajos
- SENESCYT- Ecuador
- NEXUS1492 research project, which has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement n° 319209.