Beyond the history of ethnographic collections

A complex approach to the Cora objects gathered by Konrad Theodor Preuss in view of a restitution process

Abstract

Nowadays, anthropology museums debate between keeping or restituting objects. Through the study of the Cora ethnographic collection obtained by Konrad Theodor Preuss in Mexico (1906), today preserved in the Ethnologisches Museum of Berlin, I will show that analyzing how ethnographic objects get to a museum is not enough to take a justified stand on this issue. The socio-cultural dynamics and the contemporary history of ethnographic objects must also be considered to get a better perspective on the future of these collections.