The scientific potential of anthropological collections current approaches and future perspectives
Date/Termin: 27./28.03.2025
Location/Ort: PETRI-Berlin, Kleine Gertraudenstraße 8, 10178 Berlin
The colonial heritage of European nations plays a major role in current discourse. The collection history of the BGAEU is largely linked to the colonial history of the German state, which is why the question arises on an ethical-historical level as to how it should be dealt with scientifically today and in the future. The first step is to clarify what cognitive value these collection items still have today. The starting point for an approach to this topic could be the research that has been carried out on these objects in recent years. What future research questions could emerge from this? At the planned scientific meeting, we should first clarify the fundamental positions in dealing with human remains today and their position within the larger topic of a critical examination of the colonial legacy. To this end, we should endeavour to bring together the most important voices in the post-colonial discourse and representatives of collections with comparable objects. It would then be important to ask all those colleagues who have worked scientifically with human remains from more recent historical contexts in recent years to comment on this issue. This includes all anthropological university institutes and departments, as well as the various laboratories that deal with human DNA. The discussion should be open-ended, also in the knowledge that a negative answer to the question of the usefulness of such a collection in today's world will inevitably confront us with the problem of how to deal with it in the future.
To register for this conference, please send an e-mail to: vorsitz@bgaeu.de